Team news: Jacksonville Jaguars | Page 2

TE Brock Bowers is listed as doubtful and WR Jakobi Meyers is questionable for Sunday’s game in Kansas City.

Related Players: Michael Mayer, Tre Tucker, Dont'e Thornton, Jack Bech

Mayer is a good streaming candidate this week, but the other ancillary pieces are a little risky to depend on. Tucker could be an interesting WR4 option without Jakobi, but Geno Smith can be ignored in leagues of all sizes.

Injury sends Jaguars offensive starter TE Brenton Strange to IR.

Related players: Hunter Long, Johnny Mundt

It's a tough loss for the Jags as Strange was having a nice year up to this point. His timeline will be about a month according to reports. He was averaging just shy of five catches and six targets a game.

Through five weeks, one of the league’s most effective rookies has been Commanders running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt — who may be better known by the simple nickname, “Bill.”

A seventh-round pick in this year’s draft, Croskey-Merritt was good enough in the offseason program, training camp, and preseason that Washington felt comfortable trading Brian Robinson to the 49ers in August. But Washington has continued to see his growth and development, giving Croskey-Merritt his first start in Week 5 against the Chargers.

Croskey-Merritt made that decision pay off with 111 yards rushing on 14 carries with two touchdowns. He also caught two passes for 39 yards.

Related players: Chris Rodriguez, Jeremy McNichols

Head coach Dan Quinn told reporters in his Monday press conference that the Commanders elected to lean into aspects of their scheme in which Croskey-Merritt excelled, and the young running back had a strong week of practice, the story said. The story added though he’s had limited carries in the first five weeks, Croskey-Merritt leads the league with 6.6 yards per carry. He’s tallied 283 yards rushing with four touchdowns and caught five passes for 54 yards. "Bill" is probably a familiar names to those in dynasty leagues as our friends at Dynasty League Football suggested to take him later in dynasty drafts this spring. But now he's officially a useful option in redraft leagues as well. Rodriguez had just five carries and McNichols had two touches, so his outlook going forward is strong.

Commanders RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt (knee) returned to practice today as a full participant and is officially questionable for Sunday vs. Atlanta.

Related Players: Chris Rodriguez, Jeremy McNichols

Looks like JCM will be a full-go for Week 4, but Rodriguez is still a good stash, in case Croskey-Merritt experiences a setback in the near future.

No practice again today for Commanders RB Bill Croskey-Merritt and WR Terry McLaurin.

Related Players: Chris Rodriguez, Jeremy McNichols, Deebo Samuel, Luke McCaffrey, Jaylin Lane, Zach Ertz

Still another practice to monitor, but Rodriguez would be a must-add, high-end RB3 if Jacory Croskey-Merritt were sidelined. Rodriguez is surprisingly only 9% rostered in Yahoo leagues, so you should probably go check your waiver wires as soon as you're done reading this, actually.

If McLaurin misses, that would firmly entrench Deebo as a WR2 after he's received 25 opportunities (21 targets, 4 rushes) through three weeks. Even if McLaurin is able to suit up, he's more than likely a stay-away as this is pretty late in the week to be looking into other opinions for his quad.

No practice today for RB Bill Croskey-Merritt nor WR Terry McLaurin.

Related Players: Chris Rodriguez, Jeremy McNichols

Still early in the week, but Rodriguez would be a must-add, high-end RB3 if Jacory Croskey-Merritt were sidelined. Rodriguez is surprisingly only 9% rostered in Yahoo leagues, so you should probably go check your waiver wires as soon as you're done reading this, actually.

In the first two weeks of the season, Jaguars No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter played more offensive snaps than defensive snaps.

That trend flipped in Jacksonville’s Week 3 victory over Houston.

Hunter was on the field for 37 offensive snaps (53 percent) and 43 defensive snaps (68 percent).

Related players: Brian Thomas Jr., Dyami Brown, Parker Washington

He’s now played 59 percent of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps this year and 47 percent of defensive snaps, plus four percent of special teams snaps, the story said. But the more concerning news is his usage. He had one pass for 21 yards on two targets in Week 3. He had eight targets in Week 2. Hunter has 10 receptions for 76 yards, with only two of his catches resulting in first downs this season. He's now a huge question mark for fantasy lineups heading into Week 4.

Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. (wrist) is off the injury report and good to go Sunday.

Meanwhile, Texans WRs Christian Kirk (hamstring) and Braxton Berrios (hamstring) are both off the injury report and set to make their season debuts.

Related Players: Travis Hunter, Dyami Brown, Nico Collins, Xavier Hutchinson, Jayden Higgins

Brian Thomas should continue to be slotted in as a fringe WR1/2 play, with Christian Kirk is much further down the list as a WR4/5 as the ball continues to be spread around behind Collins.

DQ says Chris Rodriguez will "be back into the fold" but that he's good with Bill as a pass blocker: "We feel comfortable...We wouldn't have put him in if not."

Related players: Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Chris Rodriguez, Jeremy McNichols, Donovan Edwards, Chase Edmonds

It seems like Croskey-Merritt will be in line to get a big part of the workload with McNichols also factoring in. McNichols is also known as a good pass protector, so the Commanders seem comfortable with either back playing in passing situations. It remains to see how much Rodriguez is involved after being inactive for Weeks 1 and 2. The team also just signed Edmonds to the practice squad, but it looks like Rodriguez will at least see work as the team's RB3.

Jaguars WR Brian Thomas had an NFL-worst -9.1 receiving EPA yesterday. Next closest player in Week 2 was at -6.8.

Previous career low for BTJ was -5.5. Pretty easily worst game of his career

There have been reports out Monday that BTJ is dealing with a wrist injury as well, although Shipley didn't get into that aspect. The wrist injury also wasn't on the injury report. Shipley did say BTJ's third worst game of his career was in Week 1 of this season against the Panthers, so that's maybe the bigger concern for owners. Shipley added that Thomas Jr. and QB Trevor Lawrence are not only not on the same page, they're not even in the same book, and it dates back to training camp. He feels that issue carried over into Week 1. BTJ's possible wrist injury will be something to monitor this week. It's a potentially tough matchup against the Texans defense in Week 3 for the Jags.