NFL Player News

Eagles second-year quarterback Matt Barkley has thrown one pass this season and has not taken any first-team snaps in practice, reports Philly.com. But as the No. 2 quarterback behind Mark Sanchez, Barkley is an injury away from playing.

He said he feels ready, should that situation arise.

"I feel like I’ve grown a lot," Barkley told the webiste. "I have. My comfortability with the receivers and our personnel. The knowledge of the offense. I feel light years ahead of last year – that’s for sure."

The Texans appear destined to name Case Keenum as their starting quarterback for the Sunday game against the Giants, per CBSSports.com NFL Insider Jason La Canfora.

Keenum was waived by Houston in late October before re-signing on Monday. He could be considered a better candidate than Thad Lewis due to his participation in offseason and training camp.

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was limited in Wednesday's practice with a thumb injury, but coach Tony Sparano isn't too concerned, reports CSNBayArea.com. Carr has thrown one or zero touchdown passes in four of his past five games entering Sunday's contest against Buffalo.

The Jaguars have placed linebacker Khairi Fortt (hamstring) on injured reserve and promoted quarterback Stephen Morris and safety Matt Daniels from their practice squad.

Fortt played in just three games this season and recorded one tackle.

The Texans made it official Tuesday, placing quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick on injured reserve with a broken leg. Coach Bill O'Brien has said Thad Lewis or newly-signed Case Keenum will start Sunday against the Ravens.

The Redskins put quarterback Colt McCoy on injured reserve Tuesday, two days after he aggravated his neck injury in the loss to the Giants. McCoy played in five games this season, completing 71.1 percent of this throws for 1,057 yards and four touchdowns with three interceptions.

McCoy will be a free agent in 2015.

Washington will start Robert Griffin III on Saturday against the Eagles.

Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has had decent success as a rookie quarterback in 2014. He has a .500 record through his first 10 starts, while completing 63.5 percent of his passes and posting an 82.7 quarterback rating.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer understood the risk of Bridgewater losing confidence had he struggled immensely as a rookie, but luckily that hasn't been the case.

"I know this guy's got a chance to be the guy for a long, long time here, and what I was nervous about at the beginning of the year was I didn't want to get him beat up," Zimmer said, per the Pioneer Press. "I didn't want to get him gun-shy; I didn't want to get him a bunch of bad outings where he didn't have the confidence and that attitude that he was going to do the things that he's doing.

"The one thing I do know about Teddy is he learns from the experiences he's had. I expect him to continue to improve in those ways. I'm really glad that he's playing."

The emergence of Jeremy Hill, who ran for 148 yards and two touchdowns against the Browns in Week 15, as the Bengals' go-to running back probably gives them less incentive to throw the ball going forward. They'll obviously have to when playing from behind, which could be the case Week 16 against Denver, and when they do, quarterback Andy Dalton could put up decent numbers with star wide receiver A.J. Green at his disposal. But when they don't, he's liable to disappear entirely.

Week 15 was amazingly Dalton's third game this season with less than 150 passing yards. Granted, it was the first win, but he's had enough sub-200-yard games in general that you really don't want to be in the business of making predictions with him.

For more major takeaways from Week 15, be sure to check out my latest post to the Fantasy Football Today blog.

While Jets quarterback Geno Smith has been benched because of his poor play during his second season, coach Rex Ryan told reporters Monday he has been pleased with Smith, reports Newsday.

"I've been happy with Geno," Ryan said.

Smith had his best performance of the season Sunday at Tennessee. The game marked the first time this season Smith was able to throw a touchdown pass without throwing an interception in a game. The Jets host the Patriots Sunday.

While the Redskins are still evaluating quarterback Colt McCoy’s injured neck before making a roster decision, sources have indicated the team is leaning toward placing McCoy on injured reserve, reports csnwashington.com.

McCoy was listed as questionable heading into Week 15’s game against the Giants with a neck injury and McCoy aggravated the injury on the team’s opening drive. He was forced to exit the game and did not return.