Who Should I Start? Treylon Burks or Ihmir Smith-Marsette

Monday, July 28, 4:34 PM

The Tennessee Titans have waived/injured wide receiver Treylon Burks (collarbone), according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Burks fractured his collarbone over the weekend and appears likely to miss most, if not all, of the 2025 season. A former first-round selection by Tennessee back in 2022, Burks never found his footing with the organization. Injuries limited him to just 27 games in three seasons, and he recorded 92 catches for 699 yards and one touchdown in those appearances. Tennessee has veterans Calvin Ridley and Tyler Lockett atop their wide receiver depth chart, with rookies Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor competing with Van Jefferson for the WR3 job. Burks may have to wait until late this season or even 2026 for a chance to salvage his career, and it seems unlikely that he'll get that opportunity in Tennessee.

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.