Team news: Las Vegas Raiders | Page 5

The Cardinals are trading WR Rondale Moore to the Falcons for QB Desmond Ridder.

Related Players: Drake London, Darnell Mooney

Moore should slot in as the WR3, and will likely be used in a gadget-y role every so often. That won't be enough for fantasy relevance, and the team could still add a piece through the NFL Draft for Kirk Cousins.

The Raiders will release WR Hunter Renfrow when the new league year begins later today, as he was to count $13.7M against the cap. Renfrow, along with QB Jimmy Garoppolo, will both be free agents.

Related Players: Jakobi Meyers, Tre Tucker, Kristian Wilkerson

Renfrow's role in the post-Carr Raiders has taken a huge drop, falling to only 37 targets in 2023. Regardless of where he lands, a return to a 100+ target option is unlikely.

The Steelers are sending WR Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers. A new weapon for Bryce Young. Johnson has a $3 million roster bonus due Friday that the Panthers now will pay.

Related Players: George Pickens, Calvin Austin, Dez Fitzpatrick, Adam Thielen, Terrace Marshall, Jonathan Mingo

This is certainly good news for Bryce Young after the team brought him on board with arguably the worst pass-catching unit in the NFL last year. Johnson should instantly become the focal point of this offense, but the team still desperately needs help at WR, TE, and RB before we get too excited about the Panthers in fantasy.

For the Steelers, this also has them trending in the wrong direction on excitement-level, but it makes George Pickens very intriguing. This puts him in the conversation for a fringe WR2/3, not unlike Courtland Sutton with Russell Wilson the last two seasons.

The #Raiders have agreed to terms with QB Gardner Minshew on a 2-year deal. He'll compete with QB Aidan O'Connell.

Minshew performed admirably in steed of Anthony Richardson, but this doesn't do a lot for fantasy purposes. He has proven that he doesn't mind honing in on a #1 option, so should he win the job, Davante Adams should expect plenty of targets.

The Packers are expected to sign Josh Jacobs.

Related Players: Aaron Jones, Zamir White

Jones had restructured his deal with Green Bay, so this will be a two-headed attack with Jones/Jacobs. Both options figure to canibalize each other, but it's a clear talent upgrade for the Packers backfield.

Zamir White is the RB1 in Las Vegas as it stands, with the team expected to target the position in the NFL Draft.

It looks like the Raiders’ bid to end their losing streak against the Chiefs will unfold without the help of running back Josh Jacobs.

Jacobs was listed as questionable for the Christmas game in Kansas City and Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that he will be inactive for the game. Jacobs has a quad injury and an illness.

Related players: Zamir White, Ameer Abdullah, Brandon Bolden

Monday’s game would be the second in a row that Jacobs has missed. It's a tough break for owners who waited with hope that Jacobs would play as all the reports leading up to today seemed positive. It looks like White, Abdullah and Bolden will split up the RB duties today in a tough matchup against the Chiefs.

Vikings are holding a walk-thru today. Didn't see RB Alexander Mattison during the portion open to reporters. Kevin O'Connell didn't rule out Mattison for Sunday's game but spoke more strongly today than he did Monday about the likelihood of Ty Chandler being their primary RB.

A follow-up quote was even more promising for Ty Chandler to continue getting a big load if Mattison misses;

"We're kind of building with the mindset that Ty is going to be a guy we're trying to get the ball to a lot, both in the run and the pass, and if we have Alex that's going to be a huge bonus for the depth and making sure we have our full group available."

Chandler should be an RB1 if he gets anything approaching the 26 (!!) opportunities he earned in Week 15.

Antonio Pierce said if he was a betting man, he would bet that both Raiders RB Josh Jacobs and LT Kolton Miller are back for the Chiefs game on Monday.

Related Players: Zamir White, Ameer Abdullah

Zamir White did a good job of holding down the fort last week, notching 16 half-PPR points on 20 opportunities. He will likely return to clean-up duties with Josh Jacobs returning to his bellcow role, making Jacobs an easy click if he is cleared.

The plan for the Falcons moving forward is to have Taylor Heinicke start the final three games of the season, per Arthur Smith. Desmond Ridder will be his backup.

The Falcons quarterback room continues to be a flip-floppy mess. Heinicke came in as relief during Week 8, only to be re-benched two weeks later, producing minimal fantasy success with his brief time on the field. The Falcons don't have the easiest defensive road the next two weeks, so he is unlikely to come back on the fantasy radar.

According to TheAthletic.com, the Falcons will be starting Taylor Heinicke against the Colts. It would be the second time that Smith and the Falcons have benched Ridder in favor of Heinicke this season.

Related players: Desmond Ridder

Falcons head coach Arthur Smith said on Monday that he was considering a quarterback change after the team fell to 6-8 with a 9-7 loss to the Panthers. Smith said following the bye he wanted to stick with Ridder after previously going back and forth over a span of a few weeks. But the Falcons will again make a switch after Ridder threw a terrible INT on a potential game-winning drive in what was a must-win game against the Panthers.