Training camps provide our first look into NFL players and teams as we prepare for the upcoming fantasy football season. Information will now begin to flood our social media timelines, leaving us to determine the subsequent fantasy impact. It’s a matter of knowing which information matters, and which should be ignored.
So each day in this space, we’ll take a trip through the top news and takeaways around the league’s training camps to offer up what fantasy managers need to know as we head through draft season and into the 2024 NFL regular season.
Today, let’s review the major news from Monday into Tuesday.
Nick Chubb Running, But Not Ready
Nick Chubb is running full sprints on the sidelines, but he still has “a little way to go” said Browns general manager Andrew Berry, according to ESPN. Fantasy managers were left with this extremely vague line: “While the team expects Chubb to play in 2024, Berry said they would deal with the return timeline ‘day by day,’” wrote ESPN.
There’s not a whole lot of info to go on here. It’s obviously good news that Chubb is sprinting in full and doing agility workouts, but he really does not sound close to full practices or games. Backup running backs Jerome Ford and D’Onta Foreman might be busy in September and October.
NY Jets Offense Struggles in First Padded Practice
It’s the New York media, so we need to take everything that gets published with the largest grain of salt known to man, but the Jets apparently had a horrible first day of padded practice. Rodgers threw an interception on his first pass (dropped by Allen Lazard — drink!), but that wasn’t the real concern. The bigger news was that center Joe Tippmann continued to struggle snapping the ball to Rodgers.
“On more than a few occasions, Tippmann has delivered Rodgers with high snaps in which the four-time NFL MVP had to jump to get the football. On Monday, Tippmann had half a dozen high snaps to Rodgers,” wrote the NY Daily News. Tippman (or maybe guard John Simpson), also stepped on Rodgers’ foot.
Will Shipley: Pass-Catching RB?
Will Shipley is apparently making the most of his chances with Saquon Barkley not practicing Monday in Philadelphia. The rookie reportedly earned multiple targets and “is looking like a pretty natural pass-catcher,” according to Bleeding Green Nation. He’s reportedly getting more and more first-team reps and may be a player you should circle in the later rounds of fantasy drafts.