Team news: Houston Texans | Page 5

Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said C.J. Stroud will start again vs. the Dolphins —another step toward the No. 2 overall pick being Houston's QB1.

Related Players: Davis Mills

At this point, it would be quite a surprise if Stroud did not begin Week 1 as the Texans starter. Stroud completed two-of-four passes for 13 yards and an interception in preseason Week 1.

Bengals running back Joe Mixon was found not guilty of aggravated menacing and will return to practice. There will very likely be no punishment from the NFL.

Related Players: Trayveon Williams, Chase Brown, Chris Evans

It seems the most likely scenario is that no suspension will be handed down from the NFL. The Cincinnati backfield will be Mixon's for a mostly-workhorse role, with former sixth-round pick Trayveon Williams the mostly likely No. 2.

The Patriots are expected to sign former Cowboys star RB Ezekiel Elliott to a 1-year deal worth up to $6M after his successful FA visit earlier in camp.

Related players: Rhamondre Stevenson, Pierre Strong Jr., J.J. Taylor, Kevin Harris

As Rapoport added, New England loves Stevenson, but they’ve been seeking a running back to bang it between the tackles, while adding Elliott's prowess in pass blocking at the same time. The move seemed to be in the works for a while. Elliott is expected to take on a Damien Harris-type role in the Patriots offense, a role that saw Harris collect about 9-10 carries a game last season in 11 games. He ran for 4.36 YPA and added three TDs. Although older than Harris, Elliott could potentially see a similar workload, and he also has some pass-catching ability as well. Still, Elliott will likely be tough to trust even as a flex, at least early in the season until we see his role.

Texans GM Nick Caserior says John Metchie "had a little bit of a setback in Spring" but is cleared for training camp. Metchie missed his rookie season with leukemia but is trending in the right direction.

Related Players: Robert Woods, Xavier Hutchinson, Tank Dell, Noah Brown

The current wide receiver room in Houston leaves a lot to be desired, so it would be nice to see Metchie at training camp for more than one reason. There's no reason to believe that Metchie doesn't have "leading the team in targets" in his range of outcomes but we really haven't seen him on an NFL field yet, so that optimism is best saved for the eye test.

The Bengals and RB Joe Mixon are finalizing a restructured contract that will keep him in Cincinnati for the 2023 season. Mixon was due $10.1 million this season with a $12.791M cap number. The new deal frees up cash and cap for Cincinnati, and Mixon stays as RB1.

Related Players: Trayveon Williams, Chase Brown, Chris Evans

Congratulations to those who stayed the course this offseason and selected Mixon when he dropped consistently into the sixth round in drafts. Mixon should be considered a high-upside RB2 for the 2023 season.

While talking with the Bussin' With the Boys podcast, Bills QB Josh Allen remarked, "The media has blown this so far out of proportion. We are in rookie or minicamp. We're not playing a game for four months. He doesn't show up for one day. He's still there. Coach asked him to go home. They're in talks. They're trying to resolve some things. It wasn't anything major. And (the) media blew it up. They're still talking about it. Let it go. There's no reason to continue talking about it."

In the doldrums of the first week of July, news is slow, and the back-and-forth regarding Diggs continues to sway from positive to negative. The situation is still worth monitoring, regardless of what Allen is saying here. Though we're still a long way away from regular season kickoff, we have seen multiple occasions in recent years in which an unhappy wide receiver pops back into the news throughout the year. Diggs is currently sitting as the WR5 in our WR rankings.

The ramifications of the Stefon Diggs minicamp drama could still be playing out, but a player who benefited from Diggs not taking part in OTAs and parts of minicamp was Sherfield, one of the Bills' acquisitions to add depth to the receiver room.

Related Players: Justin Shorter, Deonte Harty, Khalil Shakir

The article continues by saying, Sherfield got increased opportunities as the Z receiver for quarterback Josh Allen with Diggs not present and made an impression in that time, with Allen saying of Sherfield during OTAs, "I've loved what I've seen from Trent so far; the dude works extremely hard. He's one of the hardest-working guys on the team. Doesn't complain about anything. He's rolling right now."

Trent Sherfield is currently ranked in the stratosphere, all the up at WR148 in 4for4's most recent rankings update, but a steady drumbeat could move him into a more reasonable drafting range.

Bills HC Sean McDermott says wide receiver Stefon Diggs is not in attendance for the mandatory minicamp. McDermott said, "he's very concerned"

Well, this seemingly came out of nowhere. This would be quite the storyline if Diggs were sitting out, and the implications for fantasy would be massive. We'll keep an eye on this story.

Diggs is making $24.415 million in 2023, including a $22.745M signing bonus as part of a March restructure. A mountain of dead cap means his contract isn't really tradeable from Buffalo's end.

“I think he did what he had to do,” Ryans told reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix March 27. “He showed some toughness, he showed some competitive fight in him. I love the way he runs, I love his style, and it’s a style that I really want to continue to feed him. I think that style of running is just — it excites the entire team.”

This is all fine and good, but the team also just signed Devin Singletary whose strengths match up almost 1v1 with Pierce's. The sophomore has RB2 upside on an offense that should be more explosive with a quality rookie quarterback at the helm.

The Texans have reached an agreement to sign former Bills FA RB Devin Singletary, giving them an additional weapon alongside Dameon Pierce. The player called “Motor” has averaged 4.6 yards per rush in each of the last two seasons.

Related Players: Dameon Pierce

A free agent addition to the backfield was a great choice after rookie Dameon Pierce carried almost the full load through chunks of the 2022 season to various degrees of success. Singletary should have some useful games as the second option on an offense that looks to be improving.