Denver Broncos Fantasy Football News | Shark Bites

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that the Broncos and Saints are "finalizing compensation" that would allow Sean Payton to become Denver's HC. The big potential winner here, fantasy wise, is QB Russell Wilson. He'll come off easily the worst performance of his career to work with the HC that helped Drew Brees become Drew Brees in New Orleans. Of course, Brees was just 27 in his 1st season with New Orleans, after the Chargers allowed his rookie contract to expire and Brees to hit the open market. Russell Wilson just completed his age-34 season. Plenty of surrounding talent should remain, with WRs Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy still under contract, TE Greg Dulcich entering Year 2, and WR Tim Patrick and RB Javonte returning from knee injuries. Among his 15 years as Saints HC, Payton had 13 consecutive offenses rank among the top 10 in total yards. His teams also finished top-10 in points 12 times.

Update: Schefter reports that Denver is sending its 2023 first-rounder and 2024 second-rounder to the Saints for the rights to Payton and New Orleans' 2024 third-rounder.

Jaguars TE Evan Engram finished Saturday’s Wild Card win with 7 catches, 93 yards and 1 score. In a game that found the Jags down 27-0, Engram led the team in targets with 11. Credit the former Giant for emerging down the stretch — he’s now hit 14+ PPR points in 5 of his past 7 matchups. Next week will likely turn up a matchup with Kansas City. Engram tallied only 14 yards against K.C. back in Week 10.

Raiders QB Jarrett Stidham (right elbow) practiced fully on Wednesday. This is certainly a step in the right direction considering Stidham only managed to log limited participation on Tuesday. We'll keep an eye on this situation in case anything changes. For now, it sounds like Stidham will be under center in Week 18 vs. the Chiefs on Saturday.

Raiders QB Jarrett Stidham (right elbow) was limited in Tuesday's practice. That throwing arm must be a little sore after chucking 34 passes in last week's overtime loss to the 49ers. Stidham should be under center for Saturday's finale vs. the Chiefs, but we'll keep an eye on him over the next few days.

Niners LB Dre Greenlaw left Sunday's win over the Raiders with a back injury. HC Kyle Shanahan said Greenlaw would have a Monday MRI to determine the extent.

Broncos WR Courtland Sutton (hamstring) practiced fully on Friday and doesn't carry an injury tag for Week 17 vs. the Chiefs. WR Jerry Jeudy (ankle) was a limited participant all week and is listed as questionable. An absence from Jeudy would create an interesting opportunity for Sutton to step up in a neutral matchup vs. the Chiefs. However, Jeudy is the wideout we prefer for fantasy purposes. Jeudy has received a whopping 27 targets over the last 3 games and stands to be a high-end WR2 option if he suits up. Sutton did fairly well last week after missing a pair of games with this same hamstring issue. He's a WR3/flex option on Sunday. WR Kendall Hinton (hamstring) is listed as questionable after a limited week of practice.

Raiders HC Josh McDaniels announced on Wednesday that the team will move forward with QB Jarrett Stidham as the starter. This news effectively ends QB Derek Carr's 2022 season. The short-term fantasy outlook of this move certainly lowers expectations for all Raiders players in Week 17 vs. the 49ers. From a broader perspective, Ari Meirov of PFF reports that Carr's contract has $40.4 million which becomes guaranteed if he's unable to pass a physical. The Raiders would save $29.25 million in cap space if they decided to trade or cut Carr from the roster within 3 days of the conclusion of Super Bowl LVII on February 12, 2023. Plainly speaking, we could see the veteran signal-caller suit up for a new team in 2023 and beyond. This will certainly be a massive storyline in the offseason. Stay tuned as the situation evolves in the coming months.

Titans LB Zach Cunningham came off IR to start Saturday's game against the Texans, but he left the game before halftime with more elbow trouble. Don't bet on the veteran being a factor for IDP lineups in Week 17. Monty Rice led Tennessee LBs with 91% playing time against Houston. Undrafted rookie Jack Gibbons also got 72% playing time, in a beat-up corps that previously lost LBs David Long and Dylan Cole.

Broncos WR Courtland Sutton (hamstring) is active for today’s game vs. the Rams. It’ll be his first action since Week 13.

The Titans have activated LB Zach Cunningham (elbow) from IR. He has been practicing since Dec. 14 and appears to be ready to jump back in Saturday vs. the Texans. We've added him to the Week 16 IDP rankings, though he doesn't make for an exciting option. Cunningham has just 3 games all season he didn't leave early. He tallied 7, 5 and 4 total tackles in those contests -- including just 1 solo and 3 assists in the 1st meeting with Houston.

Broncos WR Courtland Sutton (hamstring) enters Week 16 listed as questionable after logging limited practice all week. Teammate WR Kendall Hinton (hamstring) did not practice all week and has been ruled out for Sunday's contest vs. the Rams. Prior to getting hurt in Week 13, Sutton had been a favorite target of QB Russell Wilson. The Rams present a fairly neutral matchup for fantasy purposes. This is a matter of how much fantasy managers should trust Sutton in his first game. We view the wideout as a high-end WR4/deep league flex option in Week 16.

Jaguars TE Evan Engram racked up 113 yards on 7 catches in Thursday night's win over the Jets. His team-leading 8 targets constituted 25.8% of QB Trevor Lawrence's total attempts. Engram also accounted for 35% of the team's receptions and 49.3% of the receiving yards. No other Jaguar reached 30 yards on the night or exceeded 3 receptions. WR Christian Kirk caught 3 of 6 targets for 22 yards. WR Zay Jones managed just 1 reception for 14 yards on 4 targets. Jacksonville closes out the fantasy schedule (for most leagues) with a Week 17 visit to Houston. Although that matchup has favored rushing all season, it's not a scary spot for any members of the Jacksonville pass offense. For Engram's sake, the Texans matchup has also been much friendlier to TE scoring (7th best) than to WRs (28th).

Broncos WR Courtland Sutton (hamstring) practiced in a limited fashion on both Wednesday and Thursday this week. Sutton is seemingly on track to return from his hamstring injury for Sunday's game against the Rams. He led the Broncos with 7.6 targets per game across 7 outings with a healthy QB Russell Wilson and healthy WR Jerry Jeudy earlier this season. But Sutton still ranked just 41st among WRs in fantasy points per game in that span.

Broncos WRs Courtland Sutton (hamstring) and Kendall Hinton (hamstring) are out for Sunday’s game vs. the Cardinals. That leaves some combination of WRs Brandon Johnson, Jalen Virgil, Freddie Swain and Montrell Washington behind WR Jerry Jeudy. Jeudy and TE Greg Dulcich should be the clear top 2 options in the passing game.

Broncos WRs Courtland Sutton and Kendall Hinton remained out on Thursday with their hamstring injuries. They're both looking unlikely to play vs. the Cardinals this weekend, which would leave WR Jerry Jeudy and TE Greg Dulcich as the clear top-2 options in the passing game.

Broncos WRs Courtland Sutton (hamstring) and Kendall Hinton (hamstring) did not practice on Wednesday. We'll see how they progress throughout the week. If they're unable to play vs. the Cardinals on Sunday, WR Jerry Jeudy and TE Greg Dulcich will be the clear top 2 receiving options for Denver.

Cardinals DL Zach Allen left Monday night's game (who didn't?) against the Patriots with a hand injury. We'll keep an eye on his status this week for IDP lineups. Allen delivered a sack and a pass deflection before leaving. It was his 2nd game in a row with 1 of each. Allen has 10 QB hits over his past 5 games. Denver presents an upside Week 15 matchup if Allen is ready.

Cardinals DL Zach Allen (illness) is active for tonight's game against the Patriots. He was added to the injury report over the weekend but appears good to go.

Jaguars TE Evan Engram racked up 11 catches for 162 yards and 2 TDs in Sunday's victory over the Titans. He accounted for 35.7% of Jacksonville targets, 36.7% of receptions and 44% of receiving yards. Engram beat his previous highs for this season by 5 receptions and 93 yards, and he doubled his season TD total. The next 2 weeks present significantly tougher passing matchups in the Cowboys and Jets.

Broncos WR Courtland Sutton (hamstring) did not practice all week and is out for Sunday's game vs. the Chiefs. We'll see if he can make it back for Week 15.