Team news: Las Vegas Raiders | Page 18

The Philadelphia Eagles have claimed quarterback Ian Book, according to Field Yates of ESPN. Book was a New Orleans Saints fourth-round draft pick out of Notre Dame in 2021. He appeared in one game in 2021 as a rookie, a 20-3 loss to the Miami Dolphins in which he completed 12 of 20 pass attempts for 135 yards, with 2 INTs.

Related players: Jalen Hurts, Gardner Minshew

The Eagles recently released Reid Sinnett and Carson Strong, so Book will slide in as the team's third QB behind Hurts and Minshew.

After two seasons in Jacksonville, Laviska Shenault has been shipped over to the Panthers. Exact trade details have not been released yet.

Related Players: Zay Jones, Jamal Agnew, Travis Etienne, Robbie Anderson, Terrace Marshall

The 2021 season would prove to be more productive than Shenault's rookie season, but most of his usage came close to the line of scrimmage, as his 5.5 average depth of target will attest to. He may be more of a threat to Christian McCaffrey's pass game usage than a significant threat to any of the wide receivers. If anything, this provides another weapon for Baker Mayfield, who is currently ranked as 4for4's QB24.

Denzel Mims played with Matt Rhule at Baylor, including a pair of 1,000-yard seasons.

Related Players: Garrett Wilson, Terrace Marshall, Rashard Higgins

This comes on the tail of Mims requesting a trade yesterday, finding him buried on the Jets depth chart. The former second-round pick could use a change of scenery after accruing 68 targets over his first two seasons in New York. It will be interesting if we see a sort of career revival with his former college coach.

The Raiders plan to release veteran RB Kenyan Drake, per source.

Related players: Josh Jacobs, Zamir White, Ameer Abdullah, Brandon Bolden

Raiders beat writer Maurice Morton added to Pelissero's tweet that he's "not surprised about this." He said Abdullah hasn’t played the last 2 preseason games and he clearly surpassed Drake on the Raiders RB depth chart. In his eyes, the depth chart goes: Jacobs, White, Abdullah and Bolden. Drake could catch on somewhere else but his role may not be as significant as it once was.

HC Matt Rhule seems to be getting frustrated with Terrace Marshall, a second-round pick in 2021 whose injury issues at LSU have followed him to the NFL. Marshall, who had just 17 catches for 138 yards in 13 games as a rookie, has been battling a hamstring injury that kept him out of both preseason games.

Marshall left Tuesday’s practice with New England after aggravating his hamstring on a deep post. He sat out Wednesday’s session as well as the exhibition.

As Marshall has missed time, other receivers have filled the void, most notably Shi Smith and former Browns wideout Rashard Higgins. But with Brandon Zylstra also battling a hamstring issue, Rhule emphasized that Marshall is needed in the receivers rotation.

The story said Smith has really stepped up with Marshall out and his stock is on the rise. So far, Marshall's career has been a disappointment for fantasy owners. The story said Rhule was hoping Marshall could play in the Week 2 preseason game and stressed the team needs him back practicing. The team is looking for someone to step into the WR3 behind Robbie Anderson and D.J. Moore, and Marshall seems to be missing his opportunity.

At pretty much every step along the way, Tyquan Thornton’s stock has continued to rise. That trend continued on Tuesday.

Related players: Jakobi Meyers, DeVante Parker, Kendrick Bourne, Nelson Agholor

The story said this week is a big chance for Thornton to prove he can reach the next stage in his development. It went on to say Thornton started practice off with a bang. He won both one-on-one reps, with the second ending with a diving catch in the end zone. In team drills, Thornton continued to pop. He repeatedly got open for Mac Jones, including one rep where he beat 2020 first-round pick C.J. Henderson. Thornton seems buried down the depth chart, though. There have been rumors the team will move Agholor which could bump up Thornton, but for now he should be considered a deeper league stash and a player to keep an eye on.

Josh McDaniels reiterated today that he is not exploring a trade to ship Jacobs out of Las Vegas.

Related Players: Kenyan Drake, Zamir White, Brandon Bolden

This is probably worse in fantasy land than if they simply found him a new home. It certainly raised some eyebrows when veteran Jacobs got some run in the Hall of Fame Game last week, a contest typically reserved for backups and players fighting for a spot on the roster, not RB1s. The Raiders already had Kenyan Drake in Jacobs' RB room before the team added Ameer Abdullah, Brandon Bolden, and fourth-round pick Zamir White. Jacobs is getting squeezed in every direction, but most discouraging, in the receiving game, where he doubled his career reception total in 2021 en route to his RB16 finish.

Jakobi Meyers, the team's leading receiver in each of the past two seasons, caught three of Mac Jones' first seven passes in team drills and "impressed during opening 1-on-1s".

Related Players: DeVante Parker, Kendrick Bourne

The New England skill position group remains one of, if not the most, frustrating corps to pin down, but one would think that one of their receivers will have to ascend if Mac Jones is going to continue to grow as a quarterback. Meyers seems like a safe bet to handle the majority of the underneath work for fantasy managers looking to accrue a weekly floor for their WR room in the double-digit rounds.

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.

Rookie running back Zamir White has impressed after missing the first two days of camp with an undisclosed injury.

“He’s tough, has good contact balance, and you can see the growth in a new system,” running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu said.

Related players: Josh Jacobs

Jacobs finished RB16 last season with the 19th-highest per game production. He was RB9/RB13 the previous year. He was 13th in touches per game in 2021, so the workload was there despite so-so efficiency. He’s the RB22 off the board in early drafts, which makes some sense given the arrival of new HC Josh McDaniels, who ran an offense in New England that regularly featured multiple backs in various roles.