Cardinals RB James Conner "trending in the right direction" for Week 17

Raheem Mostert tells me he’s signing a 1-year, $2.1 million deal with Raiders.

Former Dolphins RB made the Pro Bowl in 2023 rushing for over 1K yards and totaling 21 TDs. Still has good juice left for Vegas squad that wants to run the ball.

Related Players: Sincere McCormick, Zamir White, Dylan Laube

This is unlikely to be the last movement we see in the Raiders backfield before the offseason is over, but Mostert finds himself in a great spot to carve out a role in his age-33 season. Because of the wear on his tires and history with injuries, we should probably take a wait-and-see approach before we declare how useful he can actually be in fantasy.

Reunion: Veteran WR Mike Williams is returning to the Chargers on a one-year deal worth up to $6 million, per source.

Related Players: Ladd McConkey, D.J. Chark, Quentin Johnston

This is a nice low-risk offer to get a pure X receiver back for Justin Herbert. With Williams lining up out wide in the 80% range, even if he comes back as the team's No. 2 option, it shouldn't have much of an impact on McConkey, but it could push Johnston back into more of a complementary role after his high-usage 2024 season.

Williams should stick back in the WR4/5 range for fantasy purposes.

The Panthers have agreed to a 1-year deal with RB Rico Dowdle, per league source.

Related Players: Chuba Hubbard

Carolina recently released Miles Sanders, so Dowdle should operate as an upgrade over the veteran. This is a much bigger hit to Hubbard's fantasy ceiling than Sanders functioned as last season, but it's not the best spot for Dowdle's fantasy aspirations, either.

If there are no more additions to the backfield, we should consider Hubbard a low-end RB2 and Dowdle a fringe RB3/4.