Team news: Carolina Panthers

The Panthers have made it official with Darren Waller.

Carolina announced on Monday that Waller has signed with the club.

It was reported last week that the veteran tight end had agreed to terms on a one-year deal.

Related players: Ja'Tavion Sanders, Tommy Tremble

Waller, 33, came out of retirement to play for the Dolphins last season. He caught 24 passes for 283 yards with six touchdowns in nine games. The touchdowns put Waller on the fantasy radar despite averaging just over two catches a game. Waller could again be a red zone target in Carolina and could slide in ahead of Sanders, who was a nice prospect but missed four games in 2025 and averaged less than 15 receiving yards per game. Waller is more of a later-round TE2 option to take a chance on.

Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard has a hamstring injury. He’s week to week, per Dave Canales.

Related Players: Jonathon Brooks, Trevor Etienne

This clears more room for Brooks, who has already almost matched his teammate's ADP, to make a case for more early-season looks. We've already seen injuries force Hubbard to cede work to Rico Dowdle, and if Brooks is healthy, he is a far better talent than Dowdle. Draft Hubbard with caution, while Brooks continues to slide up the RB3 rankings.

The Carolina Panthers and free agent tight end Darren Waller reached agreement Wednesday on a one-year deal, his agency announced.

The 33-year-old playmaker spent last season with the Miami Dolphins working with new Panthers associate head coach/offensive specialist Darrell Bevell, who was Miami's passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach.

Related Players: Ja'Tavion Sanders

It would be easy to brush this one off, but that's what we tried to do last year before Waller scored six times in nine games in an oft-injured season. At the least, this lowers the floor for Sanders, who was already down in TE streaming territory. Assuming Waller is healthy heading into the season, it will be difficult to plug either TE into lineups.

TE Ja'Tavion Sanders is playing tonight after an ankle injury. Back-to-back catches to start the game.

Related Players: Tommy Tremble, Mitchell Evans

Sanders seeing immediate involvement is encouraging after last year’s season-ending injury, but Carolina’s pass-catching competition remains open. Sanders is currently TE45 and No. 246 overall in the 4for4 rankings, putting him firmly in deep-league territory.

Panthers rookie WR Chris Brazzell will undergo season-ending surgery on his torn LCL, as @josephperson reported. Brazzell injured his knee during Wednesday’s practice.

Related Players: Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker, Xavier Legette, John Metchie

We posted yesterday that Brazzell could miss "up to" 8 weeks, and, well, that initial report was clearly too optimistic. Legette now has a clear runway to lock down the WR3 role in Carolina, but that shouldn't give us enough confidence to push him into our draft boards. In addition to being obviously terrible news for Brazzell himself, this could also impact McMillan's season-long ability to line up on the inside more often, as the rookie was slated to stress the defense as a vertical X receiver had he won the WR3 job. Now it comes down to a Legette breakout to add some further legitimacy to this passing attack.

Panthers rookie WR Chris Brazzell II suffered a moderate LCL tear in his left knee in practice & he’s expected to miss up to 8 weeks, per league source.

Brazzell will get a second opinion. He’s competing for WR3 role. NFL Week 1 is 6 1/2 weeks away.

Related Players: Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker, Xavier Legette, John Metchie

This might be Legette's last chance to prove he should be suiting up for the Panthers. In addition to being bad news for Brazzell himself, this could also impact McMillan's early-season ability to line up on the inside more often, as the rookie was slated to stress the defense as a vertical X receiver had he won the WR3 job. Brazzel's best ball validity takes a hit.

The veteran quarterback has chosen to retire. The Panthers placed him on the reserve/retired list on Wednesday. The 31-year-old Will Grier was originally a third-round pick of the Panthers in 2019, and signed a one-year deal here before the draft. He has also spent time with the Cowboys, Bengals, Patriots, Chargers, Eagles, and the Cowboys again. He appeared in two regular-season games, both here during his rookie season.

Related Players: Bryce Young, Kenny Pickett

The Panthers will now hold Young, Kenny Pickett, and undrafted rookie Haynes King heading into training camp. Pickett is an interesting hold/waiver target in very deep SuperFlex Dynasty leagues.

Raiders QB Geno Smith (right shoulder/back) fully participated in practice all week and is off the injury report ahead of Sunday's game vs. Houston.

Related Players: Kenny Pickett

This doesn't do a whole lot for fantasy, but we can give a slight boost to both Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty. Geno can be left on waiver wires.

Jets HC Aaron Glenn told reporters that WR Garrett Wilson, who has bad a knee injury, will not play again this season.

Related Players: Adonai Mitchell, John Metchie, Isaiah Williams

We look toward 2026 for basically the entire Jets offense. Mitchell can be considered a low-end WR3 for the remainder of the fantasy playoffs.

Kenny Pickett will, in fact, start against his old team the Eagles, Pete Carroll just confirmed.

Related Players: Geno Smith

This is not a good spot-start situation for Pickett, on a Raiders offense that is one of the hardest to watch in the league. There are better SuperFlex options in Week 15.