analyst
Ja'Kobi Lane Continues to Generate Hype
Ravens rookie WR Ja'Kobi Lane impresses in training camp, drawing praise from Lamar Jackson and Declan Doyle
Michael Thomas
WR · FA · 31 yrs · exp 8 · Ohio State
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News
Stories linked to this player — newest first.
general
Fleur-de-links, August 20: Saints lose yet another offensive playmaker
The Saints have lost another key player, this time an offensive playmaker
general
Former Saints WR Michael Thomas shares heartfelt message to Saints fans
The New Orleans legend took to social media to share a message for Saints fans
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Fleur-de-links, August 10: Another Saints player set to miss the entire season
Here are today's Saints news links
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Ravens OC Declan Doyle: Ja'Kobi Lane a friendly guy to throw to, has hands like Michael Thomas
Zay Flowers landed a big new contract in Baltimore this week, but he’s not the only wideout that the Ravens are excited about for the 2026 season. Third-round pick Ja’Kobi Lane is off to a strong start at training camp and his playing style reminds offensive coordinator Declan Doyle of someone he worked with earlier in his career. Doyle was a Saints offensive assistant from 2019-2022 and Michael Thomas was in New Orleans at that time. On Wednesday, Doyle invoked Thomas’s name while discussing Lane’s play this summer. “He’s got this huge catch radius . He’s got great hands. He’s very sticky,” Doyle said, via the team’s website. “Mike Thomas had these strong hands where he could pull it down, in a way, if you threw it in the vicinity, you felt like he was going to go get it. He’s a very friendly guy to throw to.” Thomas kicked off his career with a 92-catch season for the Saints in 2016. With Flowers, Rashod Bateman and others on hand in Baltimore, Lane may not approach that kind of volume but continuing to look like Thomas into the regular season should serve him well as he kicks off his NFL career
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Stefon Diggs signing with Commanders as four-time Pro Bowl WR offers Jayden Daniels another weapon, per report
Stefon Diggs is reportedly signing a one-year deal with the Washington Commanders, adding a veteran Pro Bowl wide receiver to complement Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin. Diggs, released by the Patriots due to contract cap hits, brings a strong catch rate and a history of high-volume receiving to Washington
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Fleur-de-links, July 31: Another injury hits the Saints
The Saints suffered another injury, but the extent of the damage is unknown
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Saints 53-man roster prediction: Pre-training camp
Caleb Yaccarino's thoughts on the 2026 Saints roster
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Fantasy Football NFC South Snapshot: 1 key nugget from each team going into 2026
Scott Pianowski shares one thing that stands out for fantasy football for each NFC South team going into 2026
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Everyone is asking the wrong question about Brandon Aiyuk
Let's start with the obvious question: Will Brandon Aiyuk ever be the same player again? By the time he plays another meaningful NFL snap -- and, for now, the Washington Commanders seem like the favorites to land him -- he'll be 28 and nearly two years removed from the torn ACL and MCL that ended his 2024 season. That's enough to make you wonder if Washington would get the player San Francisco once viewed as its No. 1 receiver. Or would it be the latest iteration of a game-changing talent whose career was altered by a devastating injury? But we might be focusing on the wrong thing: the biggest issue working against Brandon Aiyuk isn't his age; it's the time away from football played at the highest level. If Aiyuk stayed healthy, he'd likely be smack-dab in the middle of his physical peak. Instead, he is attempting to jumpstart a career after a 20-month competitive drought. This is incredibly uncommon in today's NFL. To map out what his road back looks like, we have to separate the biological clock from the injury clock. We tend to lump every ACL recovery into the same bucket. A player tears a knee, rehabs for a year, and comes back. Aiyuk's situation is different; between the injury, rehabilitation and everything surrounding his future, he'll likely go almost two full calendar years without meaningful football. That's an absurdly long time for a skill-position player whose game depends on timing, rhythm and repetition. But to understand the true cost of that missed time, we first have to answer a more basic question: What normally happens to good receivers at 28? I looked at a group of established veterans* whose games have been built as much on route running, separation and technical refinement as pure athleticism. *Historical averages for an established cohort of NFL wide receivers included: Jordy Nelson , Keenan Allen , Robert Woods , Davante Adams , Odell Beckham Jr. , Allen Robinson II, Amari Cooper , Stefon Diggs , Tyler Lockett , Michael Thomas , Cooper Kupp , Chris Godwin , Calvin Ridley , Terry McLaurin . Age Yards per Route Run PFF Route Grade Phase of Career 26 2.11 82.0 Prime years 27 1.92 80.2 Prime years 28 2.05 80.7 ... Still firmly in prime The takeaway: turning 28 does not trigger a sudden athletic-decline tax. Efficiency and grading remain remarkably stable. If Aiyuk fails to return to form, you can't blame the birth certificate; you have to blame the rust. Finding historical precedents for Aiyuk is incredibly difficult because healthy, in-their-prime receivers rarely sit out this long. In fact, after digging through more than 5,500 NFL receiver seasons, I found exactly four modern examples that even came close to Aiyuk's combination of both established production and roughly 20 months away from football. The four presented a mixed bag of warning signs and hope. Jordy Nelson returned from a torn ACL and immediately looked like himself again. Calvin Ridley was away from football for 23 months and topped 1,000 receiving yards, but his layoff stemmed from a mental health leave and an NFL suspension – not a major injury – which complicates comparisons to Aiyuk's situation. Odell Beckham Jr. returned after a 19-month absence following his ACL tear and reinvented himself as an efficient complementary receiver. Michael Thomas came back after nearly 20 months away, only to have another injury cut short what had been an encouraging start to his return. Player Age at Return Time Away Why He Missed Time First Season After Return The takeaway for Aiyuk Jordy Nelson 31 13 months Torn ACL (2015 preseason) 97 rec., 1,257 yds., 14 TD Best-case scenario: returned almost immediately to All-Pro form after a conventional ACL timeline but also missed just 13 months. Calvin Ridley 28 23 months Mental health leave and NFL suspension (not injury) 76 rec., 1,016 yds., 8 TD Best calendar comparison , but without the challenge of returning to form after serious injury. Odell Beckham Jr. 31 [... truncated ...]
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Fleur-de-links, July 14: 2026 could be an exciting year for the Saints WR room
Here are today's Saints news links
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Agent's Take: How Rams can protect themselves when making a huge financial commitment to Puka Nacua
The most enlightened NFL teams will attempt to sign Pro Bowl and All-Pro players on rookie deals to contract extensions at the earliest possible instance. That's what the Seattle Seahawks did in March with 2025 NFL Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba , who was a 2023 first-round pick. Smith-Njigba became the league's highest-paid wide receiver on a four-year, $168.6 million extension, averaging $42.15 million per year, with a wide receiver-record $120,067,996 in overall guarantees. The deal is front-loaded. Smith-Njigba gets 25.2% of his new money before playing any of his new contract years, which start in 2028. Smith-Njigba has 37.1% of his new money through his first new contract year in 2028. Under ordinary circumstances, wide receiver Puka Nacua would be a prime candidate to get a new deal before the Los Angeles Rams report to training camp on July 25 based on his production. The 2023 fifth-round pick led the NFL with 129 receptions for 1,715 yards and 10 touchdowns, all career highs, last season. Nacua's 107.2 receiving yards per game topped the NFL. He also carried the ball 10 times for 105 yards with a touchdown. Nacua is off to one of the most productive starts to an NFL career for a wide receiver. He has 313 receptions for 4,191 yards and 19 receiving touchdowns in the 44 games he has played during his first three NFL seasons. Nacua's 313 receptions are fourth-most ever in this span behind Justin Jefferson (324), Michael Thomas (321) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (315). Only Jefferson (4,825) has more receiving yards through three seasons than Nacua. His 95.3 receiving yards per game are the most in NFL history. The Rams would have a hard time justifying to Nacua that he shouldn't top the wide receiver pay scale after making Trent McDuffie the NFL's highest-paid cornerback in connection with his March trade from the Kansas City Chiefs . McDuffie's deal has a cornerback-record $100 million in overall guarantees. Quite frankly, Nacua is a better wide receiver than McDuffie is a cornerback. Nacua would be in line to reset the wide receiver market with a four-year extension, averaging upward to $45 million per year, where there is as much as $125 million in overall guarantees, including in the neighborhood of $95 million fully guaranteed at signing. Both guarantee marks would be new standards for wide receivers. The deal would likely be front-loaded similar to Smith-Njigba's. Off-the-field issues are jeopardizing Nacua's early payday. Nacua tried to sneak live streamers into the Rams practice facility against head coach Sean McVay's wishes late last season. During the livestream, Nacua performed a suggested touchdown dance with a gesture considered antisemitic, for which he apologized. A lawsuit was filed against Nacua in March alleging he bit a woman while intoxicated and made antisemitic statements on New Year's Eve. Nacua spent time earlier this offseason in a holistic care facility to focus on personal growth and overall behavioral improvement. There have been instances where off-the-field problems didn't deter a team from giving a highly productive player in the final year of a rookie contract a new deal. It may be worth it for the Rams to explore a new deal for the Rams with an extremely team-friendly structure. That's what the Chiefs did with wide receiver Tyreek Hill in 2019. There were bigger concerns with Hill than Nacua. Hill was a fifth-round pick in 2016 primarily because of a domestic violence incident in college. The Chiefs banned Hill from offseason team activities in 2019 due to child abuse allegations relating to his toddler son until the NFL announced shortly before the start of training camp in July that he wouldn't be suspended because it couldn't conclude he violated the league's personal conduct policy based on available information. The Chiefs signed Hill to a three-year, $54 million extension right before the 2019 regular season started making him the NFL's third-highest-paid wide re [... truncated ...]
general
Stefon Diggs landing spots: Commanders, Ravens among fits after NFL closes investigation
Veteran wide receiver Stefon Diggs has been cleared by the NFL after an investigation into off-field conduct. Diggs, who was found not guilty of assaulting his private chef and has insufficient evidence for a league suspension, can now sign with any team. He led the Patriots in receiving last season and previously excelled with the Buffalo Bills. Potential landing spots include the Washington Commanders and Baltimore Ravens
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NFL to increase international games, end home game protections
By the end of the 2026 season, after the Dallas Cowboys play in Mexico City, the Green Bay Packers will have played the fewest games internationally of any NFL club. That could be changing in the near future. On Tuesday, the NFL’s owners approved the league to schedule 10 international games moving forward, up from the 8 that are on the books for the 2026 season. Maybe more importantly, though, owners also passed a rule that takes away teams’ ability to block specific home games from playing overseas. Currently, teams have the right to protect two home opponents from being played at an international site. This is significant because it’s been made known that the Detroit Lions wanted to keep their matchup against the Packers in Detroit, eliminating Green Bay from having to travel to Germany this year. On top of that, it’s also been rumored that the New Orleans Saints protected their game against the Packers, which kept Green Bay from a Paris matchup. Under these new rules, it’s possible the green and gold would have been playing overseas in 2026. Due to a lot of different factors, the Packers have only played two games outside of the United States so far. Moving forward, though, it’s going to be harder and harder to keep Green Bay stateside for an entire regular-season slate
analyst
2026 Free Agency Winners and Losers: Running Backs & Wide Receivers
The 2025 season ended a little over a month ago, but the 2026 season is already officially underway. And with that comes one of the best parts of the offseason: free agency. While much has remained the same for the elite players, we’ve already seen a shake-up across the fantasy landscape, mainly among the RB2/3s and WR2/3s tiers. This is the time of the year when dynasty values can change in a hurry based on where some players sign — or who the teams bring in to compete with others. That’s what makes this stretch of the offseason so fun. We’re reacting to the news and contract figures while trying to figure out what actually matters for fantasy football. Who’s set to take a leap next season? Which players took a hit because of a trade or a rough landing spot? We’re starting with the running backs and wide receivers in this article; here are the biggest winners and losers from free agency so far. Be sure to check back for the quarterback and tight end winners and losers tomorrow! PlayerProfiler is home to award-winning dynasty rankings and tools. Our Dynasty Deluxe package includes complete Dynasty Rankings, Rookie Rankings, Trade Analyzer, Draft Planner, Mock Drafts, and more. Check it out . Let’s get the obvious one out of the way, shall we? What a landing spot for the reigning Super Bowl MVP. Kenneth Walker cashes in after a brilliant playoff run, getting a three-year deal worth up to $43.05 million and $28.7 million guaranteed. With that kind of moola, Walker should get all the touches he can handle. The Chiefs will likely lean on him early in the season as Patrick Mahomes works his way back from a torn ACL. Kenneth Walker ‘s 2025 EPX Over the final six weeks of 2025, including the playoffs, the 25-year-old former Michigan State Spartan played like a man possessed. He racked up 771 total yards, caught 18 passes, and scored five touchdowns. Now, he’s finally free of Zach Charbonnet and gets to operate as the lead back in Andy Reid’s offense. As long as the workload matches the contract, Walker will be an RB1 for fantasy purposes. The veteran back decided to leave his long-time teammate, Trevor Lawrence — whom he’s played with since 2018 at Clemson — and return to his home state of Louisiana. Already 27 years old, I assumed Travis Etienne would get a modest two- or three-year deal. Instead, the Saints forked over a four-year, $52 million contract. Quite the commitment, one that will boost his dynasty stock in the short-term. Last year, Etienne totaled 1,399 yards and scored a career-best 13 times, good for 14.9 fantasy points per game (RB13). Now he steps in as the main back in Kellen Moore ‘s fast-paced offense, gets to play his home games indoors, and faces NFC South defenses six times a year. Big come-up for Etienne, who will be a high-end RB2 with potential for more in fantasy going forward. With Etienne leaving town, Bhayshul Tuten just became the most important guy in Jacksonville’s RB room…for now. While the Jaguars avoided the bigger names in free agency, they did sign Chris Rodriguez Jr. to a two-year contract. Rodriguez is a bigger back, who played for Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen at Kentucky — he should be involved to a degree. How much? We’ll find out. Regardless, the arrow is pointing up for Tuten, who averaged 0.91 fantasy points per opportunity (RB16) and scored seven touchdowns as a rookie. If he gets the majority of the work in Coen’s run game next year, he could pay major dividends. Right now, Tuten’s current average draft position (ADP) is RB30 on FFPC and RB36 on Underdog. Each is an appealing price if his role holds for 2026. It took all of about 90 seconds after free agency started for Adam Schefter to report that Alec Pierce was getting the largest free-agent WR contract in NFL history and returning to the Colts. Sounds like Pierce and his team got a lot of “legal tampering” done during that time, and it paid off. Alec Pierce ‘s Advanced Metrics All kidding aside, not only did Pierce [... truncated ...]
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