Team news: Carolina Panthers | Page 6

Does not appear that Adam Thielen is going to practice today. He was limited yesterday with an ankle injury.

Related Players: Jonathan Mingo, Laviska Shenault, Ihmir Smith-Marsette

D.J. Chark (hamstring) has been severely limited as well. Terrace Marshall has also been limited throughout the week. This could all translate to a much bigger role for rookie Jonathan Mingo, who had already been getting a lot of buzz through training camp. Depending on the statuses leading up to the game, Mingo could be in Flex consideration for deeper leagues.

Another WR injury to monitor for the Panthers: Adam Thielen (ankle) was limited in practice today.

D.J. Chark (hamstring) didn't practice and Terrace Marshall (back) was limited.

Related Players: Jonathan Mingo, Laviska Shenault, Ihmir Smith-Marsette

This could all translate to a much bigger role for rookie Jonathan Mingo, who had already been getting a lot of buzz through training camp. Depending on statuses leading up to the game, Mingo could be in Flex consideration for deeper leagues.

D.J. Chark says hamstring feels good and he’s optimistic about Week 1.

Related players: Jonathan Mingo, Adam Thielen, Terrace Marshall

Chark injured his hamstring last week. He's battling for targets with the rookie Mingo and slot-guy Thielen. Marshall has recently returned to practice as well, but Chark does have a chance to emerge as a valuable target in this offense.

Frank Reich indicates D.J. Chark is injured and declines to expand on his situation "at this point." While Frank Reich wouldn't get into specifics on Chark, the fact he said the Panthers are not planning any "big moves" at WR suggests that it might not be too serious.

Related Players: Adam Thielen, Jonathan Mingo, Terrace Marshall

There are no specifics as of yet, but the fact that they would need to make *any* moves at all might be telling to the timetable they're thinking. Reading between the lines, we may assume that he will miss at least some regular-season playing time, which puts his fantasy prospects in doubt for a while. Chark was already going in the 13th round.

Carolina Panthers running back Miles Sanders said on Tuesday he "absolutely'' will be ready for the Sept. 10 opener against the Atlanta Falcons.

Sanders missed the last few weeks of training camp with a groin injury that sidelined him for the first two preseason games. While you can't always trust what players say about injuries, Sanders practiced in full pads on Monday and Tuesday and showed no signs that the injury will be a problem moving forward, and even broke off a big run on Tuesday.

The Buccaneers have placed receiver Russell Gage on injured reserve, formally ending his 2023 season.

Gage suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee last week during a joint practice with the Jets, an injury that will sideline him for the year.

Related players: Deven Thompkins, Trey Palmer

After signing with the Bucs in the 2022 offseason, Gage caught 51 passes for 426 yards with five touchdowns last year in 13 games. Thompkins and Palmer are next up behind Chris Godwin and Mike Evans.

RB Miles Sanders appears to be back in the mix...

Sanders has been recovering from a groin injury. It's a good sign he should be ready to go for Week 1, but he has missed a lot of camp because of the injury. We rank Sanders 21st on our RB list, but feel Sanders could be in store for 300 touches, perhaps 250 carries and 50 receptions, as the Panthers want to get him more involved in the passing game. He had 50 receptions as a rookie with the Eagles.

Russell Gage is down and surrounded by trainers, in obvious duress. A cart has been brought out to take him off the field.

Related Players: Trey Palmer, David Moore, Deven Thompkins

Very unfortunate news for Gage, who was likely to get quite a lot of run this season, even after the trade rumors surrounding Chris Godwin and Mike Evans came and went. Trey Palmer and Deven Thompkins are both projected as kick returners, so one of them may get extra snaps as a speedy slot option, depending on the severity of Gage's injury.

Terrace Marshall just took a front seat ride on a cart. Not sure what happened there. Didn’t seem like anything super dramatic.

Related players: D.J. Chark, Jonathan Mingo, Adam Thielen, Laviska Shenault

Other reports claimed HC Frank Reich said Marshall tweaked something in his back. Marshall has been a disappointment after getting second round draft capital in 2021. He's battling for a top-three spot on the re-made Panthers offense, but we put him behind Chark, Mingo and Thielen on our fantasy depth chart.

Panthers free-agent acquisition Miles Sanders is back —he hopes— to being a three-down back. Sanders, now 26, is confident that reuniting with running backs coach Duce Staley, who was a Pederson assistant in Philly, will help him re-emerge as a receiving threat out of the backfield.

Related Players: Chuba Hubbard, Raheem Blackshear

Sanders bottomed out as a pass-catcher in 2022, with new career lows in receptions (20), yards (78), and receptions for first downs (two). He's really got nowhere to go but up after finishing the season, ranking 49th/49 qualifying backs with a 0.28 yards per route run mark. Leaving a team that has a quarterback that is prone to taking off with the ball on third downs should help, but his efficiency marks last year were stark. The good news is, he doesn't have a ton of competition for backfield touches with the way the depth chart is set up at the moment. Sanders is currently ranked as a mid-tier RB2.