Team news: Dallas Cowboys | Page 19

Brandon Aiyuk's rise has been more impressive because the leap has been so substantial. He was poised to take a step in Year 3 after a strong finish to 2021, but he’s been pretty easily San Francisco’s best player in camp behind Nick Bosa. The third-year WR is dominating in one-on-one drills and became the favorite target of quarterback Trey Lance in team drills. There’s a tenacity Aiyuk entered camp with that also stands out. He went toe-to-toe with linebacker Fred Warner during the first week pads were on after Warner leveled Aiyuk’s fellow WR Marcus Johnson and sent him to concussion protocol.

This could be notable in the fantasy world as there are certainly other storylines in San Francisco, like Lance, Deebo Samuel or the run game. The story said Aiyuk has carried his aggression into his pass-catching by affecting the defense at every level. He’s consistently either getting wide open or making contested catches down the field and in the red zone. Expectations were high for Aiyuk when the 49ers took him in the first round of the 2020 draft, and this year’s camp indicates he’s ready to perhaps surpass those already lofty projections, the story went on to say.

49ers passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik noted that Lance’s rapport with receiver Brandon Aiyuk, with whom he trained this offseason, is better now than it is with other 49ers’ targets like Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, per The Athletic article.

Related Players: Deebo Samuel, George Kittle

An unrelated note from Rohan Chakravarthi (@RohanChakrav) said that Trey Lance is mainly operating less than 10 yards down the field, so maybe a dink-and-dunk, run-centric offense is going to benefit Brandon Aiyuk. At this time last year, Aiyuk was coming off of fantasy draft boards much before Deebo Samuel, possibly a year too early.

After the team announced starting tight end Irv Smith Jr. would miss the preseason with a thumb injury, starting running back Dalvin Cook left the practice field with what appeared to be a hand injury. He returned for one team snap and then sat out the rest of Tuesday's practice at TCO Performance Center.

Later, his backup, Alexander Mattison, also appeared to injure a finger on a play. He, too, watched the rest of practice from the sideline.

And a third running back, Kene Nwangwu, suffered what coach Kevin O'Connell called a "soft-tissue, lower-leg injury" on Monday. Nwangwu sat out Monday and Tuesday.

There wasn't any other information but hopefully the injuries aren't serious. Cook, of course, is ranked high among running backs in terms of fantasy value, and we have him sixth on our running back list.

The Cowboys will be without WR James Washington for 6-10 weeks because of a fractured right foot suffered Monday, according to multiple sources. He is scheduled to undergo surgery on Tuesday in Dallas.

Related players: Michael Gallup, Jalen Tolbert, Noah Brown, CeeDee Lamb

With Gallup recovering from an ACL injury, it looks like the rookie Tolbert and Brown are next up on the suddenly thin depth chart, behind Lamb.

It's feared that veteran wide receiver James Washington may have suffered a Jones fracture.

Related Players: Jalen Tolbert, Michael Gallup

Immediate reports are ranging from a Jones fracture to a right turf toe. Regardless, if Washington is forced to miss time to begin the year, it will open the door for rookie Jalen Tolbert to operate as the WR3 behind CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup, when the latter returns later this Fall.

The San Francisco 49ers will have Trey Lance as their starting quarterback for this season. Head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed the 49ers will start Lance and try to trade Jimmy Garoppolo in the coming weeks.

"We have moved on to Trey (Lance), Shanahan said as the 49ers reported to camp Tuesday. "We think Jimmy would have been traded if the surgery didn't happen. He needed to do it, there's no ill will there at all. It's good to see that he is healthy, but now it's about seeing how all this will end up."

Shanahan said the team will always think about Garoppolo and they will work together to find the best thing for him. Garoppolo had offseason surgery on his shoulder, damaging any opportunity of the 49ers getting value for their starting quarterback this offseason, the story said. Not many teams are in need for a quarterback as camps opened across the league this week, nor does San Francisco have much leverage in trying to get high compensation for him the story added. We have Lance ranked 12th on our QB list.

Spoke to a coach on the 49ers today, main conversation was surrounded on Trey Lance. I left that conversation thinking Lance will push himself into the top 10 QB ranking fast. He was telling me that last year they felt Lance was more than capable of starting.

The same coach also said during OTAs and mini camp Lance looked even better than his rookie year, when he looked very good. The unnamed coach also added Lance's arm strength was "the strongest arm I’ve ever been around." He said Lance has a great understanding of the playbook, too. Obviously the hype is there for Lance, who is expected to be the team's starter in 2022. We rank Lance 12th among QBs heading into fantasy drafts.

San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan told 49ers reporter Tim Kawakami on his The Athletic podcast that he would "be surprised" if Jimmy Garoppolo is practicing with the 49ers at any point this offseason. He also mentioned that he didn't know if he would even see him anymore after tomorrow's physical day.

Related Players: Trey Lance

This all but confirms that Garoppolo will be out of the building sooner rather than later. This clearly opens the runway for Trey Lance, but also puts doubts on other "fringe" quarterbacks around the league. The Seahawks, Texans, Saints, and Commanders seem like the most likely candidates, in whatever order you would like to put them in.

After recording zero catches his rookie season in Dallas, WR Simi Fehoko has spent the offseason in Dallas. He has spent time with Dak Prescott and feels he offers something that the WR room may lack due to offseason moves and injuries. "Being the bigger, taller and I guess heavier receiver to be able to have that blend of speed I feel like adding that with learning from the route runner from [Noah Brown] or CeeDee, I feel like it's only just going to get better," Fehoko said. "I feel like that is something I bring to the table."

"I ended up staying here and I was able to work with Dak a little bit through the offseason," Fehoko said. "It's been smooth for me just being able to deal with them and be here the whole offseason."

Fehoko has a leg-up on rookies such as Jalen Tolbert by being in the Cowboys system for a season, but if he wants to be irreplaceable he has to top players with higher draft capital (Tolbert) and force out veterans such as James Washington. Fehoko could be an intriguing dynasty player if his time in Dallas bares fruit.

The Dallas Cowboys have traded WR Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns for draft picks.

Related Player: CeeDee Lamb

The Cowboys found a trade partner for Cooper, who becomes the obvious WR1 in Cleveland. Jarvis Landry is expected to play elsewhere in 2022, making Cooper the favorite to lead the Browns in targets.