Award-Winning Fantasy Football Advice

Pro Football Network reports that the NFLPA has "concern" that the league wants to suspend Browns QB Deshaun Watson for the whole 2022 season, "if not indefinitely." We'll see what finally happens, but we sure seem to be trending toward a decision before the regular season. And anything short of a year seems likely to get the NFL vilified. If you're drafting best-ball rosters right now, it's probably best to just pass on Watson. Of course, his stock is falling everywhere. Watson's currently QB24 in Underdog drafts. So there's obviously fantasy upside to taking a shot if you so choose and he plays at all.

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Matt Schneidman of The Athletic writes that Packers TE Robert Tonyan “may not be ready to play Week 1.” Schneidman adds that he’d be surprised if Tonyan isn’t ready to play by Week 6. The veteran tore his ACL at the end of October, so he’ll be ~10.5 months removed from the injury come Week 1. Tonyan’s not a particularly desirable TE2, even if he’s ready for the opener.

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The Athletic's Greg Auman confirms that Bucs WR Chris Godwin is a candidate to open the season on the PUP list. That's not a surprise considering Godwin is working his way back from a mid-December ACL tear. "There have been encouraging reports on Godwin’s progress, but the Bucs have made a big investment in him long-term, so the priority will be getting him back to his old self rather than getting him back right away," Auman writes. Note that new NFL rules require a player placed on the PUP list to miss a minimum of 4 games, rather than the previous 6-game minimum. We're tentatively projecting Godwin to make his 2022 debut sometime in October.

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The Athletic's Joe Person doesn't expect the Panthers to scale back RB Christian McCaffrey's volume this season, despite the injuries he's dealt with the last 2 years. Instead, "The Panthers plan to change their practice approach with McCaffrey, taking a lot of the reps off him during the week in the hope that the lightened workload will help him get through the season." Sign us up for that! McCaffrey didn't miss a single game across his first 3 NFL seasons and turned just 26 earlier this month. He's the odds-on favorite to lead RBs in fantasy points per game this year.

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Rams CB Jalen Ramsey had surgery Tuesday on his left shoulder. NFL Network's Ian Rapport reports that Ramsey played through tears in both shoulders last season. The team expects Ramsey to be ready for the regular season, but we'll see how long he's out of action. This seems odd timing for the operation, just a little more than a month away from the start of training camp.

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Falcons HC Arthur Smith has been impressed by QB Desmond Ridder's football IQ. “He’s very intelligent,” Smith said of Ridder. “There are a lot of things that go into playing quarterback that we ask him to do. Behind the scenes, the things that he has done that have really impressed me are from the neck up. You’re betting on the physical things that you have seen at times to catch up, but he’s light years ahead of most young quarterbacks I have been with from the neck up. I will give him that compliment publicly.” QB Marcus Mariota will head to training camp as Atlanta's starter, but it sounds like Ridder is in position to push him for the Week 1 nod.

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20 of the 24 sexual assault lawsuits against Browns QB Deshaun Watson have been settled, attorney Tony Buzbee said Tuesday. The NFL's investigation remains ongoing. The lawsuits being settled "has no impact on the collectively bargained disciplinary process," league spokesman Brian McCarthy said. The Washington Post's Mark Maske reported last week that the league wants this situation settled before the start of training camp.

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TE Rob Gronkowski tells NFL insider Jordan Schultz that he's retiring. It's only June, of course, so there's plenty of time for Gronk to change his mind. In fact, he "retired" back in 2019 before eventually returning with QB Tom Brady and the Bucs in 2020. So we're not completely ruling out another season from Gronkowski. But he'd be tough to draft as more than a last-pick flier right now. Losing Gronk would be a big blow to a Bucs offense that lost WR Antonio Brown and has WR Chris Godwin iffy for the start of the season after tearing his ACL in December. TEs Cameron Brate and rookie Cade Otton are next up on Tampa's depth chart.

Update: Gronkowski confirmed his retirement on his Instagram. But his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, isn't totally buying it. “It would not surprise me if Tom Brady calls him during the season to come back and Rob answers the call," Rosenhaus told ESPN's Adam Schefter. "This is just my opinion but I wouldn’t be surprised if Rob comes back during the season or next season.”

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Cardinals DE Zach Allen revealed recently that he needed post-season ankle surgery after shredding the ligaments in a December game. "I literally had no ligaments in my ankle," he said last week, according to the Arizona Republic. "My tibia was basically floating. So, the tape was the only thing kind of holding it together." Allen said doctors put "some hardware" into the ankle, which has kept him from participating in spring practices. The 4th-year lineman says he expects to be 100% for the start of training camp and that he feels better than he did entering last year's camp. Allen doesn't appear to have high-end sack potential but can be a quality contributor for us on the tackle and pressure fronts -- especially at low draft cost.

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Per beat writer Jourdan Rodrigue, Rams RB Cam Akers said he feels “100%” healthy at minicamp. Recall that Akers suffered a torn Achilles last July, then shockingly made 5 appearances late in the year (1 in the regular season; 4 in the postseason). Rodrigue writes that Akers should be “worked into the passing game at an even higher volume than he was previously.” Currently, Akers’ ADP has settled into the late 3rd/early 4th round.

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