Team news: Washington Commanders | Page 31

Washington activated TE Logan Thomas from the Active/Physically Unable to Perform List.

Related players: John Bates

Now it will be a race to get ready for Week 1. Thomas had a nice year in 2020 before getting hurt in 2021. He caught 72 balls for 670 yards and six TDs. A lot of that production came over the final five weeks, including catches of 9, 6, 13 and 7 from Weeks 12-15. He also collected 44 of his 110 targets during that four-week span. Obviously he was poised for a huge year in 2021 before tearing his ACL. The potential is still there for 2022, assuming he can get back up to speed. He'll have some late-round value as a TE2 with TE1 potential if things go right. If he's not ready, Bates would be next up.

Standig remarks that Carson Wentz has displayed more chemistry with Jahan Dotson than any other wide receiver in camp.

Related Players: Terry McLaurin, Curtis Samuel, Dyami Brown

This isn't to say that Terry McLaurin isn't the unquestioned number one on this team, but it's a good sign that the 16th-overall pick would seem to be the for sure second option in the Washington passing game. Dotson also seems to be the favorite to be the primary punt returner, if you're looking for a tiebreaker and another option late in drafts.

Joshua Kelley started Saturday’s preseason game against the Rams and had a really efficient game, totaling 44 yards from scrimmage on six touches. In Tuesday’s practice, Kelley continued to get the most first-team work of the three running backs vying for the second running back spot behind Austin Ekeler — Larry Rountree III, rookie Isaiah Spiller and Kelley.

Seems like a bit of an upset fi Kelley comes away with the job, especially with the rookie Spiller garnering a lot of post-NFL Draft hype. Ekeler is ranked fourth on our RB list so he'll get a bulk of the work out of the backfield, especially in the passing game. But the team will have a need for a between-the-tackles-type runner. For Ekeler owners, this is a battle to keep an eye on throughout camp. For the record, the story said the team is happy with Spiller's development to this point.

Unsurprisingly after Sam Darnold's lackluster 2021 and the trade for Mayfield, it looks like the latter is in the driver seat as the team's QB1.

Related Players: D.J. Moore, Robbie Anderson

Per the article, “He’s definitely improving,” Panthers coach Matt Rhule said of Mayfield. “He gets more and more of a feel of what he can do at the line of scrimmage. What he’s done in 10 days is pretty impressive — or 10, 11 practices. He’s making really good jumps.” Mayfield would add stability to the skill position group like Darnold would not. This is good news for the WR group.

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Treylon Burks has impressed in camp.

Burks has had an impressive camp thus far, though it has not been without some rookie mistakes. He is currently splitting time with the first, second, and third team offenses. This strategy should allow him to learn the different wide receiver positions and build chemistry with potential QB-of-the-future in Malik Willis and incumbent Ryan Tannehill. Fellow rookie Kyle Phillips has generated more buzz this offseason for his near-immediate ascension into three-wide sets, but that does not mean Burks has not been impressive in his own right. Outside of an outright disastrous preseason, Burks should supplant Nick Westbrook-Ikhine in two wide sets by Week 1. Burks is currently our 49th-ranked receiver.

49ers passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik noted that Lance’s rapport with receiver Brandon Aiyuk, with whom he trained this offseason, is better now than it is with other 49ers’ targets like Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, per The Athletic article.

Related Players: Deebo Samuel, George Kittle

An unrelated note from Rohan Chakravarthi (@RohanChakrav) said that Trey Lance is mainly operating less than 10 yards down the field, so maybe a dink-and-dunk, run-centric offense is going to benefit Brandon Aiyuk. At this time last year, Aiyuk was coming off of fantasy draft boards much before Deebo Samuel, possibly a year too early.

Austin Ekeler, Larry Rountree and Joshua Kelley all got work at running back with the first-team offense. Isaiah Spiller continues to play primarily with the second and third teams.

Related players: Austin Ekeler, Joshua Kelley, Larry Rountree

The story added Spiller is starting to show the physical play. We have Spiller second on the team's depth chart behind Ekeler, and it's the physical, between the tackles runs that should get him to the point where he's a possible one-two punch with Ekeler.

Deebo Samuel said his “wide back” role was not a factor in offseason discontent.

Related players: Elijah Mitchell

Samuel said at his presser that he's willing to do whatever it takes, and that his use as a running back wasn't an issue. If that's the case, Samuel could see continued use a running back in the team's offense this season. As we pointed out, Samuel started to see a bigger rushing role in Week 10. From Week 1 to Week 9, he averaged 6.1 catches for 110 yards and 0.50 touchdowns (for 17.6 half-PPR PPG) on 10.0 targets per game. Starting in Week 10, he averaged 3.5 catches for 65 yards and 0.25 touchdowns on 5.0 targets per game. However, he averaged 19.9 half-PPR PPG behind 43 yards rushing and 0.88 rushing touchdowns per game. He averaged 6.6 rushes per game in that span compared to just 0.8 rushes per game from Week 1 to Week 9. He finished as the overall WR3, and would once again be ranked inside the top five if we knew for certain that he was going to see a similar rushing role in 2022, though HC Kyle Shanahan did indicate in February that that would be the case.

The Cowboys will be without WR James Washington for 6-10 weeks because of a fractured right foot suffered Monday, according to multiple sources. He is scheduled to undergo surgery on Tuesday in Dallas.

Related players: Michael Gallup, Jalen Tolbert, Noah Brown, CeeDee Lamb

With Gallup recovering from an ACL injury, it looks like the rookie Tolbert and Brown are next up on the suddenly thin depth chart, behind Lamb.

Much-needed positive reports for first-year wide receiver Treylon Burks after he missed minicamp because of asthma and conditioning issues.

Related Players: Ryan Tannehill, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Robert Woods

Any news is good news after Burks was unable to see the field during rookie minicamp, partially due to issues with inhaler-timing. It seems he now has that under control and will have a chance to carve out a role in an offense in desperate need to fill some target share holes. Currently ranked as our WR49, so he has plenty of room to make up.