Fantasy football takeaways from NFL's 53-man roster cutdown, injury updates and other trending news

Hayden Winks reveals his top fantasy football takeaways from NFL 53-man rosters being set and other news, with the start of the 2026 season just over a week away, to help you get ready for your remaining drafts.

Vikings, Eagles, Falcons, Steelers kept 4 QBs

This is extremely rare and unlikely to hold. The Vikings are very likely shopping J.J. McCarthy after he seemingly lost the QB2 battle to Carson Wentz as training camp played out. I'd think the Chargers (Jim Harbaugh was his college coach), Buccaneers, Jets, Dolphins and others will be involved. The same is true for Andy Dalton or Tanner McKee, as the Eagles don't need two quality backups to Jalen Hurts. The Falcons are waiting for Michael Penix Jr. to return, but I could see Tua Tagovailoa traded or released after NFL Network's Ian Rapoport said it was "impossible" to start Tagovailoa long term . The Steelers have a bunch of QB2 options and might be the most likely to hold onto all four, but once again, it's rare to keep four quarterbacks.

Packers placed RB Josh Jacobs on the Exempt List

I wrote about this extensively here , but long story short, Jacobs sinks to at least the 70s in overall rankings with the assumption being he'll miss six games or more depending on what is on this video. Lloyd is a no-brainer top-100 pick, even if he's a fill-in starter for the first month or so, but he has a pathway to being the Packers' starter all year long if things continue to turn for the worst. The Packers notably said they expect Jacobs to remain a Packer, however. Most teams take the suspension at face value and place a player back into the lineup after their return.

It's never a good sign when a former coach cites the current staff when calling a player "lazy", but that's what happened last summer when Blue was brought up. He never earned the trust of the coaching staff and was waived on cutdown day, despite some buzz that he could be Javonte Williams' backup. Blue never had that skillset. Malik Davis is the current RB2, and he has the early-down skills to be Williams' insurance. Expect Dallas to add more help here. That could simply be by signing Blue and Phil Mafah to the practice squad again. For now, Davis is a great last pick in deep leagues. Williams' doubters would struggle to make a convincing case against him at the Round 3/4 turn.

Jeanty's mysterious ankle sprain is now officially not that serious. If the Raiders knew he'd be out for the first four games, then he would've ended up on IR, but that did not happen. We should fully expect him back early on. Their season opener is against the lowly Dolphins, and Jeanty was only wearing a sleeve on his ankle when he rolled into the preseason finale in street clothes. I'd expect him to miss 0-2 games. The injury still has setback and efficiency risks. Mike Washington Jr. remains a quality late-round pick in fantasy but shouldn't be drafted inside the top 100 anymore.

Kamara's knee injury had a timeline of about a month, but the Saints expect him to be back before Week 4 at this point, if not earlier. The Saints have Travis Etienne Jr., Kamara, Audric Estime and Kendre Miller on the active roster. One of them will likely be a scratch each week.

Seahawks placed RB Zach Charbonnet on PUP

Not surprising. He had ACL surgery on Feb. 20 of this year. It was shocking to see so many reports suggesting he could be so far ahead of schedule that he would dodge PUP, but GM John Schneider said it wasn't a consideration to take him off PUP. If we follow the typical nine-month timeline, then Charbonnet will be back between Halloween and Thanksgiving. First-round rookie RB Jadarian Price will have plenty of time to establish himself before we see Charbonnet. He'll miss at least the first four games of the season.

Conner hasn't been able to practice with a foot injury. He wasn't going to be heavily involved on the Cardinals most likely, but Conner was oft-cited as a potential fill-in for other teams on cut day. That won't happen now. It'll be Jeremiyah Love, Tyler Allgeier and Bam Knight for Arizona to start the season.

Bucs RB Sean Tucker remains on team, took paycut

There was beat reporter speculation that the Bucs could release Tucker, as his $3.5M salary was non-guaranteed. Instead, Tucker is staying on the team but needed to drop his salary to a fully-guaranteed $2.5M. That's equivalent to low-end RB2 veterans like Brian Robinson Jr., Rachaad White, Isiah Pacheco and Samaje Perine. He won't be the Bucs' RB2 with Kenny Gainwell complementing starter Bucky Irving, but Tucker could have a miniature role as the RB3 in particular situations. Last year, Tucker led the team in inside the five-yard line carries from Week 13 on when Irving was back from injury. He is the biggest back, by far, on the depth chart, and it's unclear if he'll mix in on short-yardage, or if Irving will be an early-down bellcow while Gainwell plays on passing downs. I would've moved Irving up if Tucker had been released.

This was the analysis from long-time Chiefs reporter Pete Sweeney: "Moving on from Emari Demercado speaks to a couple things: the Chiefs see Ken Walker as a three-down back, and they love what Emmett Johnson has showed. Brashard Smith is a wild card Andy Reid can move around on offense, and he's KR2. Best return in a while for KC on Friday night."

I have Walker as a first-round fantasy pick and am fully confident in Johnson being a draftable player in the last rounds of drafts after seeing him in preseason.

Jaguars RB3 LeQuint Allen Jr. is on the 53-man roster. We don't have to pretend Bhayshul Tuten is gaining this pass-down role anymore. It's a minor injury.

Bills RB3 Ty Johnson (calf) is on the 53-man roster.

Dolphins released RB Jarquez Hunter right after trading for him. He's a practice squad candidate as he competes with Jaylen Wright and Ollie Gordon II.

The Lions have more RBs (5) than WRs (4) right now. One could read into this being Isiah Pacheco's injury could end up resulting in a stint on IR.

Ravens rookie RB Adam Randall was placed on IR, allowing Rasheen Ali to be the early-down backup to Derrick Henry, while Justice Hill is the rotational pass catcher.

Commanders rookie RB Kaytron Allen makes the team with Jeremy McNichols (quad) injured. He probably would've made it regardless but it wasn't a guarantee.

Colts RB3 DJ Giddens sneaks onto the roster. He's been behind RB2 Seth McGowan in camp.

The Texans "RB3" is just the fullback. That alone makes Woody Marks an interesting insurance play in fantasy.

Steelers rookie Eli Heidenreich is on the 53-man active roster, listed as a RB/WR. He's as much of a slot receiver as pass-down RB to me, but it's notable the Steelers don't have a "real" RB3. It's Jaylen Warren, Rico Dowdle, Heidenreich and a fullback.

Allen was arrested in downtown Indianapolis early on Sunday and was released later in the day. Typically, DWIs take more than just a few months to clear through the courts, and typically, the NFL doesn't suspend players for DWI until after the case is cleared. I wouldn't expect the Colts to release him for this, so the most likely scenario remains Allen just plays this year without a suspension.

Long-time reporter John McClain tweeted , "he's nowhere near ready to play" last week. This is the unfortunate reality for any professional athlete coming off a knee dislocation. We aren't even talking about a patella dislocation. No, this was his entire knee dislocating. Most players are forced into retirement, and Dell is now 24 months away from his injury and remains out of team contact drills. The Texans' No. 2 receiver job is a battle between downfield threat Kayshon Boutte, possession receiver Xavier Hutchinson and vertical slot Jaylin Noel. I'd draft them: Boutte, Noel, Hutchinson.