Who Should I Start? Cedrick Wilson Jr. or Ihmir Smith-Marsette

Wednesday, March 19, 10:40 PM

The New Orleans Saints reworked wide receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr.'s contract on Wednesday, cutting his 2025 base salary from $3.4 million to the minimum of $1.7 million, according to ESPN's Katherine Terrell. Wilson's new salary cap number is $1.67 million after he previously counted $3.4 million against this year's cap, but it still voids in 2026. If the 29-year-old wasn't willing to restructure his deal, Terrell got the sense the Saints were willing to move on after Wilson had only 20 catches on 27 targets for 211 yards and one touchdown in 15 games (four starts) in 2024 in his first year in New Orleans. The poor production even came with Chris Olave (head) and Rashid Shaheed (knee) missing time with injuries last year. The Saints will have a new offensive approach under head coach Kellen Moore, but Wilson is still unlikely to be fantasy relevant as receiver depth in the Big Easy in 2025.

Saturday, August 24, 9:36 PM

Carolina Panthers wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette (ankle) left the team's preseason finale against the Buffalo Bills early on Saturday after landing awkwardly completing a catch in the second quarter. The 24-year-old hauled in 2-of-3 targets for 11 yards while contributing 27 yards on two punt returns and a field-flipping 46 yards on his lone kick return. Smith-Marsette was productive before he picked up the injury and is expected to be the team's returner this upcoming season. Barring the severity of his ankle issue, that could still be the case. It's a bit early to tell how impactful the NFL's new kickoff rules will be come the start of the regular season. However, fantasy managers may want to keep the Iowa product on their radar as a sneaky option, depending on how your league values return yards. His Yahoo! ADP is far down enough that he'd be best suited as a prospective waiver-wire add.