Davis not expected to play Week 17

Panthers RB Mike Davis (ankle) isn't expected to play vs. the Saints this weekend, ESPN's David Newton reports. So with Davis and Christian McCaffrey out, Carolina will be down to RBs Rodney Smith and Trenton Cannon. Look for Smith to handle the bulk of the work, but the matchup vs. New Orleans' top-ranked RB defense leaves him as an uninspiring fantasy play. WR Curtis Samuel should also continue to play a significant role in the ground game after carrying 7 times for 52 yards last week.

The Ravens signed RB Mike Davis. The 29-year-old was released by the Falcons last week after averaging just 3.6 yards per carry in his lone season in Atlanta. That offensive line did him no favors, of course, and Davis actually ranked 15th among 50 qualifying RBs in Pro Football Focus' Elusive Rating. He arrives in Baltimore alongside RBs J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill, who are all coming off season-ending injuries. Davis looks like an insurance policy on Dobbins and Edwards, but we'll keep a close eye on this backfield this summer.

The Falcons are releasing RB Mike Davis, according to insider Jordan Schultz. The move saves $2.5 million against the 2022 salary cap. Davis struggled to just 3.6 yards per carry last year and turned 29 in February. His departure leaves Atlanta with RBs Cordarrelle Patterson, Damien Williams, Qadree Ollison and 5th-round rookie Tyler Allgeier. We like Allgeier's chances to win the Davis role alongside Patterson. The rookie is a nice dynasty target and redraft sleeper.

Scott Bair of the Falcons official site believes Mike Davis will see “200 plus carries.” “They'll use several [RBs] in the rushing attack,” Blair says, “though I think Davis ends up the workhorse.” Our current RB projections have Davis down for 205 rush attempts, so it's a reasonable take. We’ll keep an eye on Atlanta adding another RB as teams make cuts to get rosters down to 53 by 4pm Monday. For now, Qadree Ollison looks like the team’s #2 rusher.

Back before his team elected not to draft any RBs, new Falcons HC Arthur Smith said he plans a committee approach in the backfield. “We’re not going to have Derrick Henry here,” Smith told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April. “So, it’s not like I think we’re going to have Derrick Henry. The reality is that we’ll get multiple backs in here, and we’ll have the way we trust our schemes and the way we teach the details of it, and we’ll commit to it." Mike Davis stands as the clear leader in a group who's next most accomplished rusher is Cordarrelle Patterson. But Patterson will factor in. Atlanta signed Javian Hawkins after the draft. We'll see about Qadree Ollison. And the Falcons could still add pieces. Davis makes for a solid target in current best-ball drafting. Just beware of projecting him too many touches simply because we can't see exactly where else they would go yet.

Has any RB's fantasy outlook improved more than that of Mike Davis through draft weekend? As of this writing (late in Round 6), the Falcons have spent all of their NFL Draft picks and drafted 0 RBs. "It just didn't fall our way," GM Terry Fontenot said of their RB considerations throughout the draft, according to ESPN's Michael Rothstein. That leaves 30-year-old Cordarrelle Patterson as the next most accomplished NFL rusher (167 career carries) behind Davis on the roster, and Atlanta does list Patterson at RB. Qadree Ollison and Tony Brooks-James join them. Fontenot and HC Arthur Smith added that they'll look at undrafted free agents and consider trades, free agents and post-June 1 cuts. So we'll see if the Falcons can add someone better than Davis. He has cleared a big hurdle through draft weekend, though.