He’ll be ready to take on the Commanders on Thursday night barring a major setback. McCarthy can be penciled in as a mid-range QB2 for the game given the Commanders’ pass-funnel nature.

He had clearly been laboring since the bye week and this will give Willis some time to heal. This is not regarded as a season-ending injury and Willis will be eligible to return in Week 14. In the mean time, it appears we’re all about to see how well the roster cutdown Kyle McCord trade works out for the Dolphins.

It was an obvious fit. Downs will slot in as Kansas City’s No. 2 wideout behind Rashee Rice and his fantasy stock receives a slight upgrade — though we felt like we’ve spent all year saying that and never seeing any actual returns for it — while Xavier Worthy moves back to the undesirable FLEX shadow zone. The Colts had to make this trade as Downs was a free agent at year’s end, but it has left them with a completely indecipherable wideout room. Ashton Dulin is perhaps the No. 1 target Daniel Jones has outside of Tyler Warren and Jonathan Taylor.

Multiple teams, per Pelissero, offered a second-round pick. It sounds like Indianapolis was holding out for a first. Playing out the season in Indy, Taylor will likely retain RB1 value despite a gross situation. It should be noted that Seth McGowan had begun to cut into Taylor’s playing time a bit, but with the Colts now committed to Taylor for the short-term, it’s plausible that he’ll operate at a 70-75 percent of snaps player for the remainder of the season. McGowan retains contingency value in fantasy leagues but will not stumble into a major role barring injury.

Schultz reports the Vikings called on Herbert, but the Chargers had no interest in moving on. It’s hard to understand what Herbert’s market value would have been — this has been one of the most disgusting outlier seasons for a previously good quarterback in recent memory — but the Chargers appear ready to move forward with him as their franchise quarterback.

In other words, Kirk Cousins could immediately slide in as the starting quarterback. As for Murray, he appears safe to drop in most formats. Call of Duty released on October 23. Not sure why that appeared in this post, but we seem to be unable to backspace it.

And where did that bring you? Back to me. Cousins will likely take over as Minnesota’s starting quarterback in the near future, if not immediately. When that happens, Kyler Murray will head back to the bench for a second straight season — he’s droppable in most leagues at this point. Fernando Mendoza will take over as starting quarterback for the Raiders. Mendoza is best approached cautiously at this point in fantasy leagues. Cousins’ value likely remains stagnant — Klint Kubiak was already getting quite a bit out of him — but he provides the Vikings with a better floor at quarterback than what they were getting so it’s obvious after watching Carson Wentz play last night why this is happening.

Just what the 49ers needed: To get older at the skill positions. With Christian Kirk gone, Allen figures to fill a role for the 49ers and could still be fantasy relevant depending on Mike Evans’ health. It does seem unlikely he’ll draw the same sort of targets as he had been handling for the Colts, but the targets should be more effective. The Colts signed Allen off the street in August and flipped him for something as they realized they were going nowhere, so they’ve done well for themselves here. The wideout vacuum in Indianapolis may draw players like Ashton Dulin into fantasy consideration, especially if Josh Downs also moves later today.

Fowler said the Jacksonville front office has told other teams they will not part ways with Thomas before today’s 4:00 eastern trade deadline. Thomas, 24, has been an afterthought in the Jaguars offense for much of the 2026 season after a down 2025 campaign. He’s run a route on 47 percent of the team’s drop backs while accounting for 9 percent of the team’s targets and 16 percent of the team’s air yards. Thomas has seen a target on 17 percent of his pass routes, the sixth highest rate among Jags pass catchers. Stuck in Jacksonville, Thomas will have some deep league value as a big play dependent wideout.

With Josh Jacobs out with a broken finger, Johnson led the Packers with 14 carries for 68 yards and a touchdown in the team’s Week 9 drubbing of the Patriots. Forty-four of those yards came on explosive rushes. Pierre Strong, meanwhile had eight carries on the day. MarShawn Lloyd was sidelined with a knee issue but could be back in the Green Bay lineup soon. Lloyd’s shocking lack of production this season could, according to Schneidman, give Johnson a real chance to seize lead back duties. Head coach Matt LaFleur after the team’s Week 9 win seemed to imply there are some pass protection concerns for Johnson. That would probably mean Chris Brooks, who’s expected to return from an ankle injury in Week 10, gets the third-down role while Jacobs is sidelined. The Packers this week take on an elite Minnesota offense that teams have run on in recent weeks.