NFL Player News

Brown missed Wednesday's practice with a hamstring injury, but he's on track to play this Sunday against the Giants, according to Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

A return to practice Thursday would support the notion that Brown's hamstring injury is minor. There was no sign of trouble in Sunday's win at Minnesota, with Brown catching four passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns while playing 92 percent of snaps and handling a 100 percent route share.

Jones (ribs) was a limited participant in Wednesday's practice, Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic reports.

Jones was cleared of a rib injury to play in the Bengals' Week 7 win over the Steelers, when he played two snaps on special teams and recorded a fair catch on a punt. He's still nursing the injury, but a full practice Thursday or Friday would put him on track toward being available for Sunday's game against the Jets.

Brown missed Wednesday's practice due to a hamstring injury.

It's the first time this season he's missed practice due to an injury. There was no sign of trouble in Sunday's win at Minnesota, with Brown catching four passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns while playing 92 percent of offensive snaps and handling a 100 percent route share.

The Buccaneers placed Evans (collarbone) on injured reserve Wednesday.

A report from NFL Network's Ian Rapoport earlier Wednesday suggested that Evans suffered a "clean break" of his collarbone and could be back in eight weeks or fewer. That's optimistic relative to past cases of NFL players returning from collarbone fractures, but it's at least clear that the Bucs have hope to get Evans back later this season. For now, he's officially ruled out for the next four games on injured reserve, with surgery scheduled this week.

Watson (knee) was limited in practice Wednesday, Matt Schneidman of The Athletic reports.

For the third week in a row, Watson continues to operate with a cap on his practice reps as he puts the finishing touches on his recovery from the torn ACL in his right knee that he suffered Week 18 of last season. The Packers are particularly cautious with returns from serious injuries, but on Wednesday the wide receiver said, "My goal and my plan is to play this week," per Schneidman. The first step in Watson's return will be the Packers listing him as something other than 'Out' on Friday's practice report, after which the team will need to activate him from the reserve/PUP list Saturday afternoon for him to have a chance to be active at Sunday's 8:20 p.m. ET kickoff.

Oliver (knee) did not participate in Wednesday's practice.

Oliver has missed the Titans' last five games due to a knee injury. He'll have two more chances to return to practice this week and give himself a chance to be available for Sunday's road game against the Colts. Chimere Dike will continue to serve as the Titans' primary returner on kickoffs in Oliver's absence.

Diggs (chest) was limited at practice Wednesday.

Diggs, who approached Week 7 action with a 'questionable' designation, ended up being on the field for 54 percent of the Patriots' snaps on offense in the team's 31-13 win over the Titans this past Sunday, a game in which the veteran wideout hauled in all seven of his targets for 69 yards. With no reported setbacks in that contest, chances are Diggs' listed limitations Wednesday were maintenance-related.

Austin (shoulder) was a full participant in practice Wednesday.

Full participation in his first practice since Week 4 puts Austin on track to return this Sunday against the Packers. Pittsburgh's backup wideouts haven't done much in Austin's absence, with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith instead relying on his tight ends even more than he usually does. Austin was a pleasant surprise for Pittsburgh early in the season with 126 yards and two TDs on 15 targets over his first three games.

Olave missed Wednesday's practice with an ankle injury, Luke Johnson of The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

There was no sign of trouble in a 26-14 loss to the Bears on Sunday, with Olave scoring his second and third TDs of the season while playing 84 percent of snaps on offense. He was listed with a hip injury last week but returned to full participation Thursday after being limited just once. It's unclear at this point if Olave is in serious danger of missing Sunday's game against the Buccaneers or if he's being held out to avoid aggravating a minor issue. A return to practice Thursday would hint at the latter.

Egbuka missed Wednesday's walkthrough due to a hamstring injury, Brianna Dix of the Buccaneers' official site reports.

Egbuka managed just one limited session last week due to the same health concern before suiting up Monday in Detroit, a contest in which Chris Godwin (fibula) was inactive and Mike Evans (concussion) suffered a collarbone injury that's expected to sideline him for most of the rest of the season. Assuming Egbuka continues to be able to suit up on game days, he'll serve as the top pass catcher for QB Baker Mayfield (knee), but the results have been modest the last two contests (a combined 6-82-0 on 16 targets) after a blistering start to his NFL career (25-445-5 on 38 targets in his first five appearances).