NFL Player News

Homer rushed once for 14 yards in Monday's 13-10 loss to the Saints.

Homer played just 12 of the team's 56 offensive snaps, while Alex Collins (22) and Rashaad Penny (20) handily outpaced him for work out of the backfield. Though Homer provided a good chunk of yardage on his lone touch of the time, the backfield has a whole couldn't find much open room against the Saints. Going forward, Homer will likely struggle to see enough playing time to deliver meaningful fantasy value.

Ozigbo lost three yards on one carry and caught his only target for seven yards in Monday's 13-10 win over the Seahawks.

Ozigbo entered the contest as the only healthy running back on the active roster behind Alvin Kamara. Despite New Orleans' lack of depth, the 25-year-old totaled just two touches behind Alvin Kamara, who led the team with 30 total touches. For fantasy purposes, Ozigbo is nothing more than a handcuff to Kamara, and not a strong one at that with Tony Jones (ankle) likely returning from injured reserve in the near future.

Dallas didn't record a touch in Monday's 13-10 loss to the Saints. He recorded 53 yards on the kick return.

Alex Collins and Rashaad Penny handled a bulk of the workload, and Dallas logged just one offensive snap. His main usage is as a kick returner unless either Collins or Penny goes down with an injury again.

Penny (calf) rushed six times for nine yards in Monday's 13-10 loss to the Saints.

Penny handled 20 offensive snaps (36 percent) but couldn't get anything going on the ground. Penny's performance alone doesn't warrant more playing time moving forward, but Alex Collins -- who rushed 16 times for 35 yards -- failed to distinguish himself as well. Collins will likely start as the lead back in Week 8 against the Jaguars, though Penny could have a chance to take over the job if he gets the hot hand.

McKinnon compiled a pair of catches for 17 yards on four targets Sunday versus the Titans.

McKinnon didn't carry the ball once and saw just 20 snaps Sunday despite Clyde Edwards-Helaire being unavailable for the contest. With CEH's return eventually coming, it doesn't seem like McKinnon will possess much fantasy value barring Darrel Williams joining Edwards-Helaire on the sidelines.

Head coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday that he anticipates having McFarland (knee) back from injured reserve for the Steelers' Week 8 game in Cleveland, Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com reports.

According to Pryor, McFarland revealed Oct. 15 that the unspecified issue that has kept him on injured reserve all season is a torn MCL, an injury that occurred in practice and was an aggravation of the one he initially sustained in college at Maryland. McFarland said that he feels good since returning to practice Oct. 6, and Tomlin added Tuesday that the Steelers will see how much work the running back is able to do this week before determining if he'll be active Sunday in Cleveland. Even if he suits up this weekend, McFarland isn't expected to have much of a role behind rookie first-round pick Najee Harris, who has been a three-down workhorse for Pittsburgh throughout the season.

Head coach Sean McVay said Monday that he's "definitely not" ruling Akers (Achilles) out from playing if the Rams should qualify for the playoffs, Cameron DaSilva of USA Today reports. "You don't want to be presumptuous at all. We've got to handle our business but if you said we give ourselves an opportunity to play after the season, would there be a possible Cam sighting playing for the Rams? That's not something I would rule out," McVay said.

When Akers suffered a torn Achilles tendon in late July, the assumption was he would miss the entirety of the 2021 regular season and postseason. While a return during the playoffs is still far from a lock, Akers looks like he'll at least have an outside shot at making in back in mid-to-late January, given how well his rehab process has gone thus far. He has been sharing updates on his rehab through his personal Instagram account, with the running back most recently posting a video last week of himself going through ladder drills. According to Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic, McVay added that Akers is currently running "pretty effortlessly."

Williams had two carries for 10 yards and caught both of his targets for 24 yards Sunday against the Bengals.

Latavius Murray's injury paved the way for Williams to rejoin the active roster Sunday. The run game went out the window in the second half when the Bengals started to build a multiscore lead, so no Baltimore running back saw much work. Williams, along with Le'Veon Bell and Devonta Freeman, each saw more than 20 snaps, but none of them tallied more than five carries. Baltimore is on bye this week, which gives Murray added time to get healthy. That could complicate Williams' status for Week 9 if Murray is indeed active, though neither Bell nor Freeman are outplaying Williams by any significant measure.

With Nick Chubb (calf) returning to practice Monday, as reported by Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal, Johnson may not be the lead back Week 8 against the Steelers.

Last week, Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski was optimistic Chubb could return for the Pittsburgh game, and the coach sounded even more confident Monday. "He's gotten a lot of work done this last couple weeks. He's feeling good. He's continuing to get rehab, and I think he's excited to get back out there. We'll see how it goes over the next couple days and see if he can," Stefanski said. To be clear, Ulrich reported Chubb's return to practice but did not speculate on the impact a potential return would have on Johnson's playing time. Logically though, if Chubb is ready to play, then Johnson's role will be diminished.

Kamara rushed 20 times for 51 yards and caught 10 of 11 targets for 128 yards and a touchdown in Monday's 13-10 win over Seattle.

Kamara became the fastest man in NFL history to reach 3,000 rushing yards and 3,000 receiving yards, doing so in his 66th game. He topped 100 receiving yards in the first half alone, highlighted by a 13-yard touchdown catch in the final minute before halftime. Neither offense got much going on a rainy Seattle evening, but Kamara nonetheless willed the Saints to victory while no teammate eclipsed 40 scrimmage yards. The versatile running back will likely continue to do most of his damage as a pass catcher in Week 8, as running room will be hard to come by against the stout Tampa Bay front.