This article is part of our Training Camp Notes series.
Here are some of the top fantasy football headlines from Wednesday.
-The Buccaneers seemingly escalated their praise for Ronald Jones on Wednesday, with Bruce Arians hyping him as a three-down feature back in the morning. By night, Leonard Fournette had been signed to a one-year deal. Fournette's presence doesn't mean Jones will be a bust now for those who already selected him, but it does introduce a mammoth weight of uncertainty to the minds of Jones investors. It also conclusively shuts down any immediate lines of hope for Ke'Shawn Vaughn or LeSean McCoy. A last-second, unexpected pickup like Fournette probably doesn't indicate an intention of strategy on the part of the Buccaneers – we probably shouldn't assume they'll run the ball more than they would have without Fournette – but Fournette probably compels more usage than McCoy or Vaughn would have.
-New England cut Mohamed Sanu on Wednesday, making even more confusing what looked like a dubious trade all along. The Patriots traded a second-round pick for Sanu last year, even though he's a slow slot receiver and they already had Julian Edelman non-negotiably locked into their workhorse slot role. That second-round pick turned into Hayden Hurst, then the Ravens turned the pick into J.K. Dobbins. To trade a player like Dobbins for eight games of Sanu (26 catches for 201 yards and one touchdown) is memorably bad.
-The contract situation between Alvin Kamara and the Saints remains unresolved, but the tensions between the team have seemingly fallen off since Tuesday night. Kamara was present for Wednesday's practice, and the two sides are still working on contract negotiations. As has been the case all camp, Latavius Murray and Ty Montgomery are the backups.
-Misfortune will presumably find the Jets again in due time, but Wednesday held a few encouraging developments. After leaving Tuesday's practice with injuries, Jamison Crowder (leg) and Chris Herndon (chest) both returned to practice Wednesday. Not only that, but rookie second-round pick Denzel Mims made his training camp debut after missing time with a hamstring injury to this point. Breshad Perriman (knee) remained out, however.
-The Chargers confirmed that Tyrod Taylor will start Week 1, and Washington confirmed Dwayne Haskins would start for them. Both decisions were expected for all of the offseason, but now there's no need to speculate further.
-Brian Hill appears poised to win the backup running back role in Atlanta behind Todd Gurley. The Falcons have praised Hill publicly for improving in all aspects of his game, but it's still not clearly whether he improved enough in passing situations to hold off Ito Smith from a third-down back sort of role. Qadree Ollison also lurks as a short-yardage and goal-line specialist.
-The Athletic's Packers beat writer, Matt Schneidman, suspects that Green Bay will open its season with Robert Tonyan as the lead tight end over 2019 third-round pick Jace Sternberger. It's possible that Sternberger's stint on the COVID list set him back in training camp, allowing Tonyan to establish a lead. If that's the case, then Sternberger could have a chance to catch up to and overtake Tonyan over the course of the season. The Green Bay tight end position doesn't look especially valuable either way, unfortunately, and the two could end up in a frustrating rotation of some sort.
