NFL Player News

Kirk (collarbone) figures to spend a lot of time in the slot after Houston drafted 6-foot-4 wideout Jayden Higgins at No. 34 overall, The Athletic reports.

Kirk might've taken most of his snaps in the slot anyway, so it's hard to spin the NFL Draft as a win for his fantasy value, especially after the Texans doubled down on Iowa State receivers and took Jaylin Noel in the third round. There's suddenly a lot of target competition behind No. 1 receiver Nico Collins, who averaged 83.8 yards and 8.3 targets per game in 2024 despite playing less than half the available snaps in three of his 12 regular-season games. The upside scenario for Kirk's volume entails Collins continuing to struggle with soft-issue injuries while the rookies fail to develop as expected. The downside scenario features Kirk becoming somewhat of an afterthought and perhaps even losing slot snaps to Noel eventually. Kirk has one year left on his contract and should be healthy for training camp, after a broken collarbone ended his final season with the Jaguars (who subsequently traded him to Houston for a seventh-round pick). The Texans already restructured Kirk's contract to convert his non-guaranteed salary into a guaranteed bonus, which rules out any chance of him being released before Week 1.

Njoku (knee) will be joined in Cleveland's TE room by No. 67 overall pick Harold Fannin.

Fannin is a unique prospect, lacking ideal size (6-foot-3, 241 pounds) and speed (4.71 40) but still attracting plenty of NFL interest thanks to his FBS-leading 117 receptions at Bowling Green last season. Njoku is bigger, faster, stronger and a better blocker, but Fannin may ultimately push for some passing-down snaps in single-TE formations if he runs crisp routes and is quick to learn the offense. It's a comparable situation to the one in Baltimore with Isaiah Likely, who also put up huge numbers at a mediocre college program and notably didn't have much impact on Mark Andrews' role until their third season playing together. Of course, Njoku isn't held in the same regard as Andrews, and the Browns may take more of an interest in developing young players during a likely rebuilding year than the Ravens did while trying to win a Super Bowl. Meanwhile, there hasn't been any update on the knee injury that held Njoku out for the final two games of last season. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it might just mean he avoided surgery and completed his recovery without incident.

The Rams spent a second-round pick on TE Terrance Ferguson, who some scouts have compared to Higbee, per Tyler Greenawalt of Rams Wire.

The comparison makes sense if talking about Higbee as a draft prospect back in 2016, at which point he was carrying 249 pounds on a 6-foot-6 frame and mostly valued for pass-catching potential. It doesn't fit as well when discussing the current version of Higbee, listed at 255 pounds and valued for versatility. He's proven capable of taking on significant receiving workloads when needed, including during last season's playoffs, but it's never been something that coach Sean McVay prefers to do. With Ferguson competing for TE snaps and Davante Adams a probable upgrade on Cooper Kupp at wide receiver, Higbee appears unlikely to draw more than four or five targets per game, if that, in 2025. Higbee's bet shot at fantasy value would entail Adams or Puka Nacua missing time while Ferguson fails to earn a role.

The Giants drafted RB Cam Skattebo at No. 105 overall to compete with Tracy and Devin Singletary, per NFL.com's Kevin Patra.

Taken 166th overall a year earlier, Tracy never looked back after Singletary's groin injury opened up a starting job Week 5. Tracy started 12 of 13 games from that point forward and averaged 4.4 YPC for the season, despite being stuck in a brutal offense, with the main negatives being five fumbles and five drops. He's the favorite to start Week 1, but it may be an open competition this summer, considering Singletary has a respectable track record as an NFL starter and Skattebo exploded for 2,316 yards from scrimmage at Arizona State last year. Speed is the obvious advantage for Tracy, a former college wideout who ran a 4.48 40 at 5-foot-11, 209 pounds. Singletary ran a 4.66 before he was drafted six years ago, and Skattebo was timed around 4.6 or 4.65 at his pro day this spring.

Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said the dynamic between Warren and third-round pick Kaleb Johnson will be different than that between Warren and former teammate Najee Harris.

The 224-pound rookie, drafted 83rd overall, profiles cleanly as a replacement for Harris, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be a one-for-one thing with Johnson immediately taking 250-plus carries. Harris topped that number in each of his four seasons in Pittsburgh, despite averaging 4.1 YPC or less every year, in part because he never missed a game and was decent enough at blocking and receiving to stay on the field for some passing downs. Johnson may well prove to be Harris' equal or superior as a runner, but Warren could nonetheless take on a larger role than he had the past few seasons if the Steelers aren't confident in other aspects of Johnson's game. Warren signed a second-round restricted free agent tender a few days before the draft, keeping him under contract for 2025 at $5.35 million -- about the same as what Harris is getting from the Chargers, coincidentally.

Simon has signed with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent, Terrin Waack of the team's official site reports.

Simon joins the Falcons as a UDFA out of South Carolina. The 6-foot-4, 239-pound tight end had 519 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in 2024. He'll compete for a depth role in camp behind Kyle Pitts.

Carter has signed with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent, Terrin Waack of the team's official site reports.

Carter went undrafted out of Michigan State but didn't take long to find a landing spot as a UDFA. He'll compete for a depth role in training camp in a Falcons backfield that has Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier entrenched in the top two spots on the depth chart. Carter had 499 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns for the Spartans in 2024 while adding 173 yards and two scores on 18 catches.

Doubs (concussion) has new competition for snaps and targets after the Packers drafted WR Matthew Golden in the first round and WR Savion Williams in the third round.

Doubs is in the final year of his rookie contract, coming off a 2024 campaign in which he suffered two concussions and was suspended a week for skipping practice. He finished the year with career highs for catch rate (63.9 percent) and yards per target (8.3) while averaging a team-high 5.5 targets per game, but it probably wasn't enough to change the general evaluation on him. Doubs is good enough to start in the NFL, but not good enough that you necessarily want him in the starting lineup, which means he may have to compete for his job this summer. With Jayden Reed (shoulder) seemingly locked in for slot work, the Packers have Doubs, Golden, Williams and Dontayvion Wicks ready to compete for perimeter snaps -- plus, Christian Watson (ACL) may eventually make his own case later in the season. There hasn't been any update on Doubs' health since his second concussion of the season knocked him out of a playoff loss to Philadelphia.

The Steelers are releasing Adams on Monday, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.

Adams appeared in 11 regular-season games for Pittsburgh in 2024, posting 1.0 sacks among his 14 tackles. The 29-year-old defensive tackle has 96 games of NFL experience under his belt, split between the Packers, Saints and Steelers. Rookie fifth-round pick Yahya Black out of Iowa projects to take Adams' spot as the backup to Keeanu Benton.

Mostert will be joined by No. 6 overall pick Ashton Jeanty in a new-look Raiders backfield.

The Raiders never figured to settle for the 33-year-old Mostert as their lead back, unchallenged, but there was at least some chance he'd compete to be 1A in a committee. He instead figures to be purely a backup, behind one of the best RB prospects in recent memory. The good news for Mostert is weak competition for backup roles, with the Raiders otherwise rostering Zamir White (quadriceps), Sincere McCormick (ankle), Dylan Laube and Chris Collier.