NFL Player News

Watson is on track to play in Thursday's preseason game against the Chiefs, though Texans coach Bill O'Brien acknowledges he hasn't made a final decision, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reports.

O'Brien likely will reveal his decision once he's done formulating the gameplan for Thursday. Regardless of his status for the preseason opener, Watson doesn't seem to be in any danger of missing Week 1 of the regular season. He's been a full participant in practice since the outset of training camp, with no report of any limitations or setbacks with his knee so far.

Mahomes is expected to play the first quarter of Thursday's preseason opener against the Texans, Brooke Pryor of The Kansas City Star reports.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid wants to split the workload evenly between his four quarterbacks, ensuring Mahomes gets plenty of reps heading into his first season atop the depth chart. The 2017 first-round pick struggled with interceptions during the first week of training camp, but he now seems to be finding his comfort zone, completing 24 of 25 pass attempts (with one drop) during Tuesday's practice.

Rodgers is unlikely to play in Thursday's preseason opener against the Titans, ESPN.com's Rob Demovsky reports.

Rodgers hasn't played in the first week of the preseason since 2015, and the Packers probably won't break the trend while both starting tackles are recovering from injuries. The team hopes to have LT David Bakhtiari (ankle) and RT Bryan Bulaga (knee) ready for Week 1 against Chicago, but it would be unwise to expose Rodgers to hits in the meantime. While the 34-year-old quarterback still figures to take some snaps during the preseason, he'll probably be limited to a mix of handoffs and quick throws.

Cousins will remain on the field for as long as the starting offensive line does during Saturday's preseason game in Denver, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic Minnesota reports.

Of course, the Vikings are dealing with a number of injuries among their offensive front, namely interior starters Nick Easton (neck/back), Pat Elflein (ankle, PUP) and Mike Remmers (ankle), so coach Mike Zimmer may have a quick trigger finger with his new starting quarterback. No matter, Cousins' appearance Saturday will mark his first since inking a fully-guaranteed three-year, $84 million contract in Minnesota back in March. Of interest will be his developing rapport with weapons such as Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, Kyle Rudolph and Dalvin Cook (knee).

Coach Hue Jackson said Mayfield "will play quite a bit" in Thursday's preseason game against the Giants, Mary Kay Cabot of The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

The statement uttered by Jackson is a bit ambiguous, but it's safe to say Mayfield is in line for significant work in his first potential game action as a pro due to the investment made in him in April. Selected first overall on draft day, Mayfield has worked behind Tyrod Taylor during both the offseason program and training camp. That said, No. 2 quarterbacks oftentimes play far more than the man in front of them, so Mayfield could earn the bulk of the snaps given to Browns signal-callers Thursday.

Goff could be held out of Thursday's preseason opener against the Ravens, Rich Hammond of the Orange County Register reports.

Rams coach Sean McVay may elect to keep Goff sidelined during the team's first preseason contest in order to avoid any injuries to his starting quarterback, which would remove him from consideration in DFS formats Thursday. If this is the case, the trio of Sean Mannion, Brandon Allen and Luis Perez figure to split reps at the helm as they compete for the primary backup spot at QB. From the sounds of it, a number of the Rams' top players could be sidelined as a precautionary move Thursday.

Trubisky will take the field for Thursday's preseason game at Cincinnati, Adam Hoge of WGN Radio 720 AM Chicago reports.

Trubisky was among a cadre of Bears that were held out of the Hall of Fame Game, but coach Matt Nagy will allow the quarterback to see his first exhibition action of 2018 this week. While Trubisky's reps are to be determined, it wouldn't surprise if he's limited to one or two series before giving way to Chase Daniel and Tyler Bray under center.

Darnold "has a very fair shot" of emerging as the Jets' starting quarterback for the regular-season opener Sept. 10 against the Lions, a source familiar with the situation informed Adam Schefter of ESPN.

After the Jets tabbed Darnold with the No. 3 overall pick in April, it was fully expected that he would start at some point in 2018. With the Jets re-signing Josh McCown and bringing in Teddy Bridgewater in free agency, however, the odds of Darnold contributing right away in the NFL seemed low heading into training camp. The 21-year-old rookie has apparently impressed even more than anticipated in his initial practices with the Jets and now apparently has a realistic opportunity to challenge the two veterans for the No. 1 gig during the preseason. Darnold's performance during the exhibition slate will ultimately dictate whether he opens his NFL career under center or on the sideline, but the organization's early optimism about the rookie during camp bodes well for his chances of getting a look early in the season, if not in Week 1.

Colts owner Jim Irsay said the team would need a sizable offer to trade Brissett. "All of a sudden, we have the best backup quarterback in football," Irsay told the Indianapolis Star. "I don't think we'd accept a (first-round pick in a trade) for him, we think he's that good."

With Andrew Luck looking set to begin the season as the starter in his return from a shoulder injury, Brissett may not see many snaps this season. He's a candidate to be traded as a result, but the Colts may not be so confident in Luck's health that they would trade Brissett for a non-significant return.

After working behind AJ McCarron for practices Wednesday and Thursday, Peterman was back with the first unit again Friday, Mitchell Courtney of the Bills' official site reports. "It was part of the plan from the beginning," said coach Sean McDermott. "Because we went red zone, we wanted to make sure that Nate [Peterman] and AJ [McCarron] had time in the red zone. If we stuck with the normal rotation, Nate [Peterman] would have gone again."

Thursday was the first time this summer that one of the two quarterbacks saw the bulk of the first-team work on consecutive days, but McDermott is now saying that was all by design. That still can't change the fact most observers say McCarron has looked better through the early part of training camp, so we'll continue to consider Peterman the No. 2 in this race, with No. 7 overall pick Josh Allen remaining the long-term answer no matter what happens.