#player updates

The tidal wave of NFL news and transactions continues to plow unrelentingly forward. Let's do our best to sort through the chaos, shall we?

Jeremy Maclin (PHI - WR) left training camp to return to St. Louis for more testing regarding his mysterious illness. (via - @Jeff_McLane) ----- This isn't good. The Eagles had been holding steady to the company line of "He will be ready for Week 1". Maybe they will continue to hold that line, but there's enough worry here to cause Maclin to start falling in fantasy drafts. Don't go too crazy, but if I'm drafting Maclin as my WR2, I'd make sure to have a rock solid WR3 and WR4.

Johnny Knox was demoted to the Bears #4 WR and might be on his way out of town. (via Chicago Tribune) ----- Wow. Knox was by far the Bears best WR last season. Normally you would write this off as the coaching staff trying to motivate a young player. How many times has Dwayne Bowe been demoted? But Mike Martz (Bears offensive coordinator) buried Devin Aromashodu last season. Going into the season, Aromashodu was widely regarded as the Bears most talented WR. This is like deja vu with Johnny Know. So bump up Roy Williams in your rankings. Sigh. It might be worth taking a flyer on Knox as your WR5 in hopes that he somehow ends up in Baltimore. Hell, maybe he just ends up on the Eagles at this point if Maclin's really out for a while.

Danny Amendola is having a good training camp. (via STL Today) ----- This shouldn't come as a shock. Amendola is the Rams best WR and he's a low-end WR3 in PPR leagues. He's probably not going to be much of an asset in non-PPR leagues. But he's going to lead the Rams in targets again. Not to mention he was one of the most target WR's in the red zone last season. He actually can improve on his production from last season. Amendola is a steal in the mid-to-late rounds of PPR leagues.

Steven Jackson feels good. (via STL Today) ----- And he should. S-Jax is one of the veteran players most helped by the lockout. His body really needed an extended break. He will still probably end up with some nagging injuries, it's just who he is at this point of this career. But he's still a RB1 in PPR leagues and on of the best RB2's in most standard leagues.

Steve Smith 2.0 signed with the Eagles and may NOT begin the regular season on the PUP list. (via @AdamSchefter) ----- A whole bunch of things are going to have to happen for Smith to have real fantasy value this season. His injury was pretty bad, and it's not a given that Maclin won't be ready to start the season. If Maclin is healthy, Smith won't have fantasy value as the Eagles #4 WR. Not to mention it's doubtful that Smith will be much more that 75% of his former self this season. Maybe he starts to come on late in the season. But he's going to be drafted as a WR4 based on his name and his team. Don't be that guy. Be the guy who picks Smith up off of waivers in Week 6 because the team who drafted him needs to pickup a TE on a bye week. That's the value you should pay for Smith this season, not a draft pick. There's just not much upside here.

Marques Colston is having knee problems. Again. (via NOLA.com) ----- This shouldn't surprise you. Don't panic, the Saints are going to handle Colston like fine china during the pre-season. This should just confirm to you that Colston is just a WR2 at this point and he's probably never going to be the WR1 we all thought he was going to become. If you can get him in the 5th round as your WR2 that's not bad. Just make sure that you get a solid WR3 a bit earlier than you normally would. There's real injury risk here. No matter how tough Colston is, he can't play effectively through every injury.

Now this is obviously not everything that happened in the NFL. But I'm trying to only hit what I consider to ultimately be fantasy relevant. I'm not going to bother with covering rookies who won't make a fantasy impact barring massive injuries. I'm not going to cover defensive players who aren't IDP studs. And I'm going to try to filter out some of the coach-speak and media hype. For instance I didn't bother to point out training camp reports about rookie WR's Jonathan Baldwin (KC) and Leonard Hankerson (WAS) struggling. Why? Because neither will be more than the 4th WR on their teams. Both could be inactive on game day if they aren't active on special teams. So right now, they're not worth a mention. If Dwayne Bowe or Santana Moss were to get injured? Then maybe we have a conversation. But right now, you shouldn't be drafting these players in all but the deepest of redraft leagues.