Fantasy Football News

Miami RB Alexander Mattison suffered a neck injury that requires season-ending surgery, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.

Raiders RB Ameer Abdullah (foot) did not practice on Wednesday. He's coming off a big Week 17 but exited late in that game with the foot injury. Abdullah's absence in Sunday's finale vs. the Chargers would leave Alexander Mattison as Vegas' lead back.

The Raiders placed RB Sincere McCormick on IR with the ankle injury he suffered in Monday night's loss to the Falcons. That ends his 2024 season. McCormick flashed with 4.7 yards per carry over the last four weeks, which should earn him an opportunity to win a role in this backfield this offseason. He's a low-end dynasty stash. McCormick's absence leaves Vegas' backfield to Alexander Mattison and Ameer Abdullah the rest of the way. Mattison is a volume-based RB3 option.

Raiders RB Alexander Mattison (ankle) put in a full week of practice and is not listed on the final injury report for Monday night's game vs. the Falcons. He'll play for the first time since Week 11 but has lost the starting job to RB Sincere McCormick. Mattison should not be in Week 15 fantasy lineups.

Raiders HC Antonio Pierce said Wednesday that RB Sincere McCormick will remain the team's lead back even when RB Alexander Mattison returns from his quad injury. "He’s deserved it," Pierce said of McCormick. "Last week, he was running his tail off, so keep running it, keep pushing those numbers up, see if we can get him to 100 [yards]." McCormick has given the Raiders their most productive running of the season over the last three weeks, totaling 175 rushing yards on 5.5 yards per carry. His upside is limited with a minimal pass-catching role on a bad offense. But McCormick could be a serviceable RB3 over the next three weeks vs. Atlanta, Jacksonville, and New Orleans.

The Raiders placed RB Zamir White (quad) on IR. That ends his 2024 season with 183 rushing yards on 2.8 yards per carry across eight games. White should have been dumped from redraft rosters weeks ago and is not a must-hold in dynasty. We'll see if RB Alexander Mattison is ready to return from his ankle injury this week, but we're expecting the Raiders to stick with Sincere McCormick as their lead back regardless.

Raiders RB Alexander Mattison (ankle) was listed as a limited participant on Tuesday's injury report. It was just a walkthrough for Vegas but means that Mattison has a chance to return for Friday's game vs. the Chiefs. RB Zamir White (quad) remained out on Tuesday. We'll keep you posted on this backfield over the next few days, but it's a situation to try to avoid with the Raiders 12-point underdogs against Kansas City's top-ranked RB defense.

On Wednesday, ESPN's Kevin Seifert reported that Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell spoke firmly about RB Ty Chandler being the team's primary back. "We're kind of building with the mindset that [Chandler] is going to be a guy we're trying to get the ball to a lot, both in the run and the pass," said O'Connell, adding that the potential availability of RB Alexander Mattison (ankle) will "be a huge bonus for the depth" at the position. It doesn't take much reading of the tea leaves to gather that Mattison has lost a grip on leading this backfield in touches whenever he returns from injury. Managers in season-long formats who picked up Chandler off of the waiver wire should be thrilled about his prospects of yielding a significant workload in Week 16 vs. the Lions, and seemingly beyond. See where Chandler lands in our latest RB rankings.

Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell said Monday that RB Ty Chandler "is absolutely a guy that is going to see a featured, featured role in our offense." Chandler gave the Vikings their best rushing performance of the season in Saturday's loss to the Bengals, ripping off 132 yards and a score on 23 carries. We'll see whether RB Alexander Mattison can make it back from his ankle injury for this weekend's game vs. the Lions, but it sounds like we should expect Chandler to lead the backfield regardless. He, of course, will be a much stronger fantasy play if Mattison remains out.

The Vikings fear a torn Achilles for RB Cam Akers, HC Kevin O'Connell said after Sunday's win over the Falcons. This would be Akers' left Achilles. He tore his right Achilles in July 2021, eventually making it back in January 2022. This latest injury would end Akers' 2023 campaign, leaving Minnesota's backfield to Alexander Mattison and Ty Chandler. We should get confirmation on the injury on Monday.

Update: The Monday MRi confirmed the injury. Unfortunately, this makes Akers droppable across fantasy formats, including dynasty.

Vikings RB Cam Akers suffered an ankle injury in the second half of Sunday's game vs. the Falcons and will not return. That leaves the backfield to Alexander Mattison and Ty Chandler. We'll update Akers' status when we know more.

Vikings QB Kirk Cousins is feared to have torn his Achilles in Sunday's win over the Packers, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. It's typically easy for doctors to diagnose a torn Achilles without any imaging. We should get confirmation tomorrow, but Cousins' 2023 season is very likely over. His absence would leave Minnesota with QBs Jaren Hall and Sean Mannion. QB Nick Mullens is currently on IR with a back injury but is eligible to return. Regardless, Cousins' injury is horrible news for Minnesota's skill-position players.

The Vikings will be placing WR Justin Jefferson on IR for the hamstring injury that knocked him out of Sunday's loss to the Chiefs. That means he'll miss at least the next four games. Jefferson's absence will obviously leave a bunch of targets for his Vikings teammates. Jefferson drew 47 through the first four games, 30% of QB Kirk Cousins' total attempts over that span. That makes rookie WR Jordan Addison a weekly starting candidate over the next month. He drew a season-high 9 targets in the K.C. game, reaching 6 receptions for the second time in three weeks. It also makes WR K.J. Osborn worth picking up in many leagues. But there's also a chance Jefferson's absence shifts the offensive approach. Minnesota leads the league in pass attempts through five weeks, sits tied for the lead in pass rate, and ranks third in pass rate over expected. Losing Jefferson figures to hurt the offense overall and could push a little more work to the running game. We're certainly not upgrading RB Alexander Mattison for this, but we'll be watching the offense's reaction over the next couple of weeks. Cousins clearly loses upside with the absence of arguably the league's best WR. Fortunately for him -- and fantasy managers -- the Vikings visit a bad Bears defense in the first game without Jefferson. That will help everyone's fantasy outlooks. An ominous Monday night date with the 49ers waits on the other side of that, however.

RB Cam Akers carried five times for 40 yards in Sunday's win over the Panthers, his first action with the Vikings. He added 2 receptions for 11 yards on 2 targets, one of just three Minnesota players who caught more than one pass in the game. Akers looks like the handcuff to RB Alexander Mattison but probably won't turn into a standalone fantasy play without a Mattison injury. Mattison rushed 17 times for 95 yards against Carolina and caught his only target for 3 yards.

Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell highlighted RB Ty Chandler as a standout in Thursday night's preseason opener vs. the Seahawks. "I thought Ty Chandler jumped out, because any time he had the ball in his hand, very rarely was he tackled by the first defender," O'Connell said. Chandler finished with 11 carries for 41 yards and caught all four of his targets for 29 yards. He got three-down usage with the starters -- which did not include QB Kirk Cousins, RB Alexander Mattison, WR Justin Jefferson, or TE T.J. Hockenson. RB Kene Nwangu was also held out with an injury, while RB DeWayne McBride only spelled Chandler on occasion in the first half. It was a strong showing from Chandler and has him looking like the favorite to open the season as Minnesota's No. 2 RB behind Mattison.

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer hears that RB Dalvin Cook is now likely to remain with the Vikings for the 2023 season. "The Vikings have told other teams they're cap clean now, so there’s no urgency at this point to offload Cook," Breer writes. It sounds like Cook might still be available if another team was hot for him, but that seems unlikely considering Cook's age (28 in August), injury history, and cap hit ($14.1 million). We'll continue to keep an eye on this situation, but you should be drafting for now as if Cook will be a Viking this season.

Vikings RB Dalvin Cook assumed his usual rushing lead in Sunday's win over the Bears, racking up 18-94-2 on the ground to make fantasy football managers happy. But Alexander Mattison siphoned receiving opportunities for the 2nd straight week. Mattison drew 4 targets to Cook's 2, compared with the 18-9 carry split in Cook's favor. And Mattison actually ran 2 more routes than Cook this time after merely drawing close to Cook in that category in Week 4. This won't be a big issue as long as Minnesota wins but could cut into Cook's fantasy production when the Vikings trail. We'll watch to see if Minnesota alters the plan here as Cook moves further beyond his shoulder injury -- or if there's just a preference to get Mattison more involved with the passing game.