Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic says that Bills RB James Cook has "separated himself" from Damien Harris and Latavius Murray in training camp, furthering the notion that Cook is headed for the clear lead role. Buscaglia adds that Murray is pushing Harris for the No. 2 job with a good camp, while Harris has also dealt with injury. Buscaglia also throws in that RB Nyheim Hines was a "borderline favorite" to be the Bills' No. 2 before suffering his ACL tear. That's especially interesting because Hines garnered only six total carries and nine targets across nine games with the Bills last year after arriving from the Colts via trade. The Hines bit plus the Murray praise could signal an iffy outlook for Harris, who signed for less than $2 million on a one-year deal in free agency. Harris has already moved down our RB rankings since the start of training camp.
Bears WR Chase Claypool picked up a hamstring injury in Wednesday’s practice. It’s minor by all indications, but we’ll see when the 25-year-old returns to the field.
Bills RB Damien Harris left practice Monday with knee soreness and has yet to return, according to Matt Parrino of NewYorkUpstate.com. Latavius Murray has been filling in. We'll see how long the absence lasts and whether we get an official diagnosis. This doesn't sound like a serious issue, though, and hasn't affected Harris to date in our fantasy football RB rankings.
Bills TE Dalton Kincaid has drawn significant intrigue as a fantasy sleeper darling this offseason. The Athletic's Joe Buscaglia fueled the hype on Monday with a glowing report from camp. Buscaglia wrote that, "Almost every day, Kincaid is making himself available through excellent route running and movement skills for his size," adding that QB Josh Allen "has shown complete trust in Kincaid when on the field together." Rookie TEs immediately walking into high-end fantasy relevance is uncommon. However, the Bills' need for a reliable secondary option to WR Stefon Diggs in the passing game was made evident last season, and GM Brandon Beane said following the NFL Draft that they view the 25th overall pick as more of a WR than a TE. We'll see if this drumbeat stays steady for Kincaid, but it's tough to extract much value at a TE13 price tag in current ADP. He's not that far behind that position in our current TE rankings.
Bills QB Josh Allen hopped aboard the James Cook hype train in a SiriusXM interview on Wednesday. Cook is "going to take a large portion of the carries and in the pass game, he's going to be kind of a dual threat guy for us," Allen said. We've expected Cook to dominate pass-catching work all along. But a big revelation over the last couple of weeks is that Cook is in line to also lead the Bills in carries. A workload similar to what RB Devin Singletary got over the past four years -- 11.0 carries and 3.2 targets per game -- is within reach for Cook this year.
Commanders HC Ron Rivera noted how WR Curtis Samuel’s skill set fits the new offense. Washington is now under the direction of OC Eric Bieniemy. “I think it fits in very well,” Rivera said. “Go back and get an opportunity to look at the stuff that they did in Kansas City and look at how creative and inventive they have been over the years with the receivers that they've had. Everything from running the jet sweeps to going vertical to working underneath, and the coverages against the coverages. You know, it's about getting the ball into the hands as quick as possible in as much space as possible, allowing these guys to make plays.” Highlighting Samuel’s catch-and-run ability makes sense. But we’re likely talking about the No. 3 option for an offense with QB concerns. Samuel, 27, projects as a bench stash to begin the season.
"It's been clear early in training camp that Justin Fields has a strengthened trust in Chase Claypool. Feeding him the football, even in tight coverage, and they're connecting." That tweet comes from Chris Emma, a reporter for 670 The Score in Chicago. There's never been much question about Claypool's talent. It's been preparation and attitude. Fields spoke earlier this offseason, though, about Claypool showing improvement on that front. Of course, the big remaining question for fantasy is passing volume. The Bears ranked way behind the rest of the league in pass share in 2022. But they traded for Claypool and then paid even more for D.J. Moore. They clearly plan to pass more. How much more? We probably won't know until the season starts. Claypool will have a tough time being relevant for weekly redraft lineups. But he's interesting in the very late rounds of best ball drafts. See where all the Bears' wideouts sit in our WR rankings.
The theme of the Bills' first week of training camp has been TE Dalton Kincaid "being fast-tracked into what indisputably feels like a prominent, instant-impact role for a rookie within Buffalo's dynamic offense," CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso writes. Kincaid has reportedly been a fixture with QB Josh Allen and the first-team offense. It's not a big surprise considering Buffalo spent the 25th overall pick of this spring's draft on Kincaid, a 23-year-old who should be more NFL-ready than most rookies. Kincaid undoubtedly landed in an exciting spot with this Bills offense and has TE1 upside this season. The issue is that his ADP is sitting between TE12 and TE14, depending on the source. It'll be tough to squeeze much value out of Kincaid at that price.
Bills OC Ken Dorsey called RB James Cook a “three-down back” at practice on Thursday. The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia believes the Bills have “cleared the deck” for Cook to “take a major leap” in Year 2. Cook has consistently been the first RB up in team drills, ahead of Damien Harris. Don't be surprised if Cook's Underdog Fantasy ADP (RB31) rises quickly.
Bills reporter Mark Gaughan writes that the team “clearly believes” TE Dalton Kincaid “has the ability to pick up schemes quickly.” Gaughan believes the Bills will “force-feed him work this summer.” Kincaid started camp hot with a pair of TDs from Josh Allen in team drills. The rookie is currently coming off the board at TE13 on Underdog Fantasy.
The Bears have removed WR Chase Claypool from the PUP list. That means he can begin practicing with the rest of the team Wednesday. It seems as though we don't need to worry about any physical issue here. Now we'll see if he can find enough targets.
The Bears have placed WR Chase Claypool on the physically unable to perform list for the start of training camp. HC Matt Eberflus said earlier this off-season that Claypool was dealing with a “few things,” according to ProFootballTalk. We’ll keep an eye on his status, but it doesn’t sound serious
Bills beat reporter Sal Capaccio projects RB James Cook to roughly match Devin Singletary’s 2022 workload. The former Bill tallied 177 carries; 38 catches. “He [Cook] is not the biggest guy. He’s 190 pounds…not many running backs are that slight,” Carpaccio said on the Outside the Gridiron podcast. “He can still run between the tackles but you don’t want to do that too much to him. You don’t want him taking a pounding. That’s why the Bills signed Damien Harris.” Per Capaccio, the Bills entered the offseason determined to improve their short-yardage offense – a sentiment confirmed by the signing of Harris. His arrival – and the presence of Josh Allen – brings uncertainty to Cook’s TD outlook. Head to Cook's player page, and you'll see he's projected for only 5 total scores.
Bills RB coach Kelly Skipper gave his assessment of 2nd-year RB James Cook. “Big jump (from first to second year),” Skipper said. “I see it in the classroom. You can see he’s taking control of the playbook. If I ask a question, he’s the first one to answer, where before, he was just really learning. He got that experience, and you saw how much better he got toward the end of the year.” We’ll see how Buffalo breaks down first-team reps at training camp between Cook and Damien Harris. Overall, look for this backfield to see a small uptick in volume. Per beat writer Ryan O’Halloran, the expectation is that the Bills will reduce Josh Allen’s rushing load. (Allen handled nearly 30% of Buffalo’s carries in 2022.) Visit our fantasy football RB rankings to see backfield expectations.
The Bills utilized 2-TE sets on only 38 snaps (3.7%) last season, per TruMedia. That number will rise following the addition of Round 1 TE Dalton Kincaid. As The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia writes, “[the Bills] made Kincaid a key to opening things up and being more unpredictable on offense.” Buscaglia also notes that Buffalo leaned into 2-TE sets a bit more down the stretch last season. Dawson Knox counts ~$6.5 million against Buffalo’s cap, so he’ll retain a role. We’ll watch for training camp clues on how frequently OC Ken Dorsey plans to utilize 12 personnel. (The Bills practice just down the road from Draft Sharks headquarters.) Kincaid’s ADP is currently TE13, with Knox at TE20. Check the TE rankings to see where both guys land.
Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic isn’t confident a full-time WR3 will emerge in Buffalo. WRs Khalil Shakir, Deonte Harty, and Trent Sherfield — plus TE Dalton Kincaid — are competing for snaps. “Don’t be surprised if this battle continues into the regular season and the team uses a hot-hand approach with all of them,” Buscaglia concludes. A Round 1 pick, Kincaid brings the most intrigue. The issue? Fantasy drafters are treating him as a fringe starter with a TE13 ADP (FFPC). Shakir made a few big plays last year, then watched the Bills sink $5.2 million guaranteed into Harty. Even Sherfield generated some buzz in OTAs. We’re ultimately talking about deep league fliers, although training camp could push one name into your best ball strategy.
Bills WR Khalil Shakir has had a strong offseason so far and "is going to push hard for prime snaps in the Bills’ three-receiver set," The Buffalo News' Mark Gaughan writes. Shakir played limited snaps as a rookie last year but flashed with 16.1 yards per catch on his 10 grabs. With Isaiah McKenzie gone, we consider Shakir the favorite for the No. 3 WR job heading into training camp, with Deonte Harty providing the primary competition.
Bears WR Chase Claypool has missed the last "few weeks," according to The Chicago Tribune's Brad Biggs. HC Matt Eberflus only said Tuesday that Claypool is "dealing with a few things," adding that the plan is to have Claypool healthy for training camp. We'll keep an eye on the situation but aren't adjusting Claypool's 2023 projections right now.
Bills beat writer Matt Parrino came away impressed with RB James Cook at OTAs. “Cook looks bigger and quicker in his second OTAs after the Bills took him in the second round back in 2022,” Parrino wrote. “He’s the odds-on favorite to be the team’s starting running back and he looked the part on Tuesday." That last part is particularly interesting (and debatable). Cook brings more big-play ability than Damien Harris, who signed a low-cost one-year deal in March. But Harris projects as a bigger factor near the goal line. And we know about Josh Allen’s rushing in close. (He carried 15 times inside the 10 last year, scoring five times.) Cook’s receiving performance will be key, and there’s at least an opportunity there. New Texans RB Devin Singletary leaves behind 52 targets -- 20 more than Cook saw as a rookie.
Bills GM Brandon Beane confirmed that the team views rookie Dalton Kincaid as a WR as much as a TE. "He is a tight end, but he is a receiving tight end," Beane said. "We think he'll pair well with Dawson [Knox] and give us another target in the middle of the field. So, yeah, when him and Dawson are in the game, you're in '12' [personnel], but it's quasi like '11' anyway. He's not your standard 'Y' tight end. He's going to be flexed out a lot more than necessarily you would do with Dawson.” Kincaid is no stranger to detaching from the line of scrimmage. He lined up out wide or in the slot on 44.8% of his snaps at Utah last year. That, of course, is exactly the type of usage we're looking for from our fantasy TEs. Kincaid has a chance to be a rare rookie TE to make a redraft impact. See exactly where Kincaid sits in the 2023 TE Rankings.
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