Who Should I Start? Israel Abanikanda or Brady Russell

Monday, September 9, 7:44 PM

New York Jets running back Israel Abanikanda is a healthy scratch for the team's Week 1 regular-season opener at Levi's Stadium on Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers. Abanikanda enters the 2024 season as the team's RB4 behind starter and bell-cow Breece Hall and rookies Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis. As such, the 21-year-old is obviously off the fantasy radar in most single-year leagues for the time being unless injuries push him into a relevant game-day role. The former fifth-round pick out of Pittsburgh last year was also buried on the depth chart in his rookie season and finished with 22 carries for 70 yards while catching seven passes for 43 yards in only six games. Abanikanda has breakaway speed but is once again buried on the depth chart and will have to wait for his opportunity beyond Week 1.

Thursday, April 10, 12:19 AM

Exclusive-rights free-agent tight end Brady Russell officially signed his tender on Wednesday to return to the Seattle Seahawks for the 2025 season, according to Seahawks.com's John Boyle. Russell will return for his third year with the team after not catching any passes as a tight end in his first two years with the team. Instead, the 26-year-old has appeared exclusively on special teams and has recorded 17 tackles (11 solo) in 26 games played (zero starts) since debuting in 2023. Russell originally went undrafted out of the University of Colorado before latching on with the Seahawks. He will continue to serve as more of a special-teams asset for Seattle heading into training camp this summer. Russel is nowhere near the fantasy radar.