Who Should I Start? Ihmir Smith-Marsette or Avery Williams

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.

Friday, March 14, 9:56 PM

Former Atlanta Falcons running back/return man Avery Williams signed an undisclosed deal with the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday, according to his agency, the Aura Sports Group. Williams, who was drafted by the Falcons in the fifth round (183rd overall) in 2021 out of Boise State, has not put up any numbers as an offensive threat since the 2022 campaign. However, the 26-year-old special-teamer did have 408 kickoff-return yards and 185 punt-return yards in 2024 over 17 games. He will now be an option to return both kickoffs and punts for the reigning Super Bowl champions in 2025 while also providing backfield depth behind Saquon Barkley, AJ Dillon and Will Shipley. Williams will be well off the fantasy radar in all formats this fall.