Who Should I Start? Ihmir Smith-Marsette or Tim Jones

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.

Tuesday, March 18, 9:19 PM

The Minnesota Vikings signed free-agent wide receiver Tim Jones to an undisclosed deal on Tuesday, according to Vikings.com's Craig Peters. Jones heads to the NFC North after spending the last four seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he caught just 17 of his 27 targets for 154 yards and no touchdowns in 51 games (three starts) -- he spent all of the 2021 campaign on the practice squad and didn't see any action in the NFL that year. The 26-year-old product of Southern Miss will now join a Vikings receiver room that already includes All-Pro Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor as well as Lucky Jackson, Thayer Thomas and Jeshaun Jones. He will most likely factor in for the Vikings on special teams and won't be guaranteed a spot on the 53-man roster out of training camp this summer.