Team news: Las Vegas Raiders | Page 12

The Vikings are waiving rookie seventh-round pick RB DeWayne McBride, per source.

Related players: Alexander Mattison, Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu

Those taking McBride in dynasty leagues this spring were probably hoping for a role in the Vikings backfield after the team released Dalvin Cook. McBride actually had a good summer and scored two preseason TDs, according to the post. But the Vikes are poised to give the RB1 job to Mattison with Chandler emerging as the team's RB2.

From the outset, Kevin O’Connell and the Minnesota Vikings staff are very committed to Alexander Mattison being the guy.

Related players: Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu, DeWayne McBride

Silva's post quoted Connor Allen. Allen's post from a podcast went on to say that Mattison has also been active as a receiver. Mattison doesn't have much behind him on the depth chart either, and he's shaping up to be a make or break fantasy target at the RB spot. Our John Paulsen went on to break down Mattison's potential for 2023: With Dalvin Cook out of the way, Mattison has a great chance to finish as a fantasy RB1. In the 14 games that Mattison has seen at least 10 carries, he has averaged 18.1 touches for 88 yards and 0.57 touchdowns. The resulting 13.0 half-PPR points per game are about what Jamaal Williams and Aaron Jones averaged as low-end RB1s in 2022. Even better–in his seven starts from 2020-21, he averaged 23.3 touches for 118 yards and 0.72 touchdowns per game. That production would have beaten out Saquon Barkley and Nick Chubb last season.

Is there enough practice time available to get Josh Jacobs ready for the season opener in less than two weeks at the Denver Broncos on Sept. 10?

“It’s going to be hard for me to say that until I have an opportunity to see him,” Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said after his team's preseason finale at the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday. “Obviously, his conditioning and just the way his body feels will play a role in that, too. The goal will be to get him in and get going and we’ll do the right thing -- whatever the right thing is.

“If there needs to be a [set] number of plays early in the season, then that’s it. If there’s not, then there’s not. I don’t think any of us will know the answer to that yet.”

Related players: Zamir White, Damien Williams, Ameer Abdullah, Brandon Bolden

In Jacobs' absence, second-year back White got the bulk of the first-team reps and carries, finishing the preseason with 86 yards and a touchdown while averaging 3.3 yards per carry. The Raiders also added Williams in training camp, and the eight-year veteran responded with 54 rushing yards on six carries with a 24-yard TD in the exhibition finale at Dallas, perhaps giving the Raiders staff something else to think about as cutdown day looms, the story said. The RB room that also includes vets Abdullah and Bolden as well as youngsters Sincere McCormick, Brittain Brown and Darwin Thompson. It remains to be seen, but White could be in store for a few extra touches at least early on in the season.

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.

While the Colts let Jonathan Taylor seek a trade, league sources say the Raiders have shown no interest in trading their star RB Josh Jacobs. Jacobs hasn’t signed his tender, and no deal is imminent to get him into camp. The NFL rushing champ’s status for Week 1 remains to be determined.

Related Players: Zamir White, Ameer Abdullah, Damien Williams

The Raiders have been pretty mum on the subject, even though the season opener is right around the corner. The team did sign Damien Williams recently, but he doesn't project to have any impact on the team's decision with their RB1. Jacobs has now slipped out of the top-10 running backs in 4for4's rankings due to his uncertainty for Week 1.

It's not much of a surprise, but the Indianapolis Colts have made it official, naming rookie Anthony Richardson their starting quarterback for Week 1 of the 2023 regular season.

Related players: Gardner Minshew

According to our own John Paulsen: Richardson throws a nice deep ball, but according to the experts he misses too many “layups” on shorter throws given his scattershot accuracy. His rookie quarterback model projects 29.3 rushing yards per game, though it should be noted that the model underpredicted Jalen Hurts by about 17%, projecting 43.3 rushing yards to his actual 52.3 rushing yards per game in his first season as the Eagles’ starter. That’s relevant because Richardson will play for Shane Steichen, who was previously the offensive coordinator for the Eagles. If Steichen runs Richardson over projection by the same amount, he could be looking at roughly 34 yards per game. That number could rise further if Steichen elects to run Richardson as much as he did with Hurts–10.1 attempts per game from 2021-22.

Richardson comes in as our QB12 making him a low-end QB1 this fantasy season.

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.

Raiders are signing former Chiefs’ RB Damien Williams, per his agent/

Related Players: Zamir White, Ameer Abdullah, Brandon Bolden

It's a good move by Las Vegas as the depth behind Josh Jacobs —who is still away from the team— was looking pretty thin. This is probably not very closely tied to Jacobs' holdout, so there's not much to take away here. Zamir White remains the "best" arbitrage pick for those looking to get a piece of this backfield.

While the Colts RB situation is in flux, rookie QB Anthony Richardson took all the first-team reps yesterday.

Related Players: Gardner Minshew

After flipping first-team reps with the veteran QB Minshew, Richardson has been seeing more rotation as the "starting" QB. This is still no guarantee that the rookie starts in Week 1, but it's at least a good sign that they feel the need to get him comfortable in that role. With so many question marks around Indianapolis, Richardson still isn't a leading option in typical 1QB leagues.

Bills WR Gabe Davis said he felt like he “lost a step” when he suffered a high ankle sprain early in the 2022 season, and that impacted his whole year. Said it messes with your head. He added he feels fully back to normal and healthy now.

Related Players: Trent Sherfield, Justin Shorter, Khalil Shakir

Davis certainly had some off-weeks last season, much to the chagrin of those of us who were certain he would produce opposite Stefon Diggs. In 10 of his 16 games last year, he had three-or-fewer receptions and only bested 100 yards once (a monster 3-171-2 game in Week 5). Davis was more of a focal point in the Bills two playoff games (8-147-1 on 13 targets) and is back in the mix as a WR3 for fantasy purposes.

Gabe Davis projects as a very reasonable 2023 post-hype sleeper.