NFL Player News

Mattison ran for 52 yards on seven carries during Sunday's 28-10 win over the Giants.

Mattison made his presence felt early, rumbling through the Giants defense relatively untouched for a 19-yard gain late in the first quarter, setting up a Vikings touchdown. Playing behind a do-it-all back in Dalvin Cook, Mattison is averaging just seven touches per game, but he's yielding quality results with an average of 5.6 yards per carry. Despite playing second fiddle to Cook, the rookie maintains value on a run-first team. Minnesota will be tested this week against Philadelphia's top-ranked run defense, which has surrendered just 63 yards per game thus far this season.

The Giants listed Barkley (ankle) as a limited participant in Tuesday's practice, Dan Salomone of the Giants' official site reports.

The limited activity matched Barkley's participation level for the Giants' most recent official practice last Friday. While Barkley looked to be moving around well in the portion of the session available to the media and is seemingly ahead of schedule in his recovery from right high-ankle sprain, Jordan Ranaan of ESPN.com relayed earlier Tuesday that the star running back isn't expected to be available for Thursday's game against Patriots. Coach Pat Shurmur declined to offer a definitive ruling on that front, however, merely saying, "we'll see," when asked about Barkley's potential availability in Week 6, per Ralph Vacchiano of SportsNet New York.

Snell will step in as the Steelers' No. 2 running back for Sunday's game against the Chargers with Jaylen Samuels (knee) sidelined for at least a month following arthroscopic surgery, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

The fourth-round pick out of Kentucky has seen a minimal role to date despite being active for all five of the Steelers' contests, logging only 12 offensive snaps and six touches in total. Samuels' absence creates an opening for Snell to see an expanded role, but the rookie's expected bump in playing time probably won't be substantial enough for him to make a major imprint on the box score. The Steelers are instead likely to lean more heavily on lead back James Conner, who projects to fill the majority of the passing-down responsibilities that Samuels had held.

Barkley (ankle) was spotted at Tuesday's practice taking part in individual drills, Dan Duggan of The Athletic reports.

Barkley will likely go down as a non-participant or limited participant when the Giants release their official report after practice concludes, which would represent a preservation of the status quo with regards to his recovery from the high-ankle sprain. Though reports heading into the weekend suggested Barkley could make a return from a two-game absence to play Thursday against the Patriots, Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com reported earlier Tuesday that it's now looking unlikely that the star tailback suits up Week 6. If that's the case, the Giants would likely be down to their third-string option at the position -- undrafted rookie Jon Hilliman -- as Barkley's top replacement, Wayne Gallman (concussion), is also trending toward sitting out versus New England.

Barkley (ankle) is now considered unlikely to play in Thursday's game against the Patriots, sources tell Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com.

Barkley sat out a second straight game over the weekend while managing the high-ankle sprain, but his ability to practice on a limited basis last Friday seemingly put him on track to return in Week 6. Even though reports have indicated that Barkley is making tremendous progress in his recovery, he's still only 16 days removed from an injury that initially called for a 4-to-8-week timeline for a return. With that in mind, the Giants look to be leaning toward holding him out on a short week, but he should have a good chance at receiving full medical clearance ahead of the Oct. 20 matchup with the Cardinals. If Barkley and top replacement Wayne Gallman (concussion) are both ruled out for Week 6, Jon Hilliman would be the next man up in the Giants backfield.

Mostert ran the ball seven times for 34 yards in Monday's 31-3 win over the Browns.

Tevin Coleman (ankle) returned from injury and reclaimed his co-starter role alongside Matt Breida, pushing Mostert back to third on the depth chart. The carries reflected that shift, as the 27-year-old received a season-low seven carries in a game where the 49ers ran the ball a whopping 40 times. Mostert made the most of the limited touches, averaging a hair under five yards per carry (5.8 YPC this season). Unless another injury opens up a featured role, the speedy back is best left out of starting lineups for Sunday's matchup against the Rams.

Breida rushed 11 times for 114 yards and a touchdown in Monday night's 31-3 win over the Browns. He also caught all three of his targets for 15 yards and another score.

Breida started the game with a bang, ripping off a career-long, 83-yard touchdown run on San Francisco's first offensive play of the night. The jet-heeled tailback then followed that with a five-yard touchdown catch two drives later. Overall, those contributions fueled Breida's impressive performance, which came while fellow tailback Tevin Coleman returned to the fold following an ankle injury. In his first action since Week 1, Coleman actually led the Niners with 16 carries, gaining 97 yards and scoring once himself. Going forward, it'll be interesting to see how Breida and Coleman split snaps in the backfield, but considering they play in arguably the league's best running scheme -- albeit now potentially without fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who left injured Monday -- there could be enough production to go around for both of them to retain formidable fantasy value.

Chubb rushed 16 times for 87 yards and caught his lone target for 12 yards in Monday night's 31-3 loss to the 49ers.

Chubb was highly productive when handed the ball, but the fact the Browns trailed significantly for most of Monday's game worked against him. Still, with help from a long run of 37 yards, Chubb again tallied at least 85 scrimmage yards, as he's done in all five games so far this season. A model of consistency on a Cleveland team lacking just that thus far, Chubb will look to make another strong impact Week 6 versus the Seahawks, but their sixth-ranked run defense makes his matchup less than ideal on paper.

Thomas tried out for the Packers on Monday, freelance NFL writer Howard Balzer reports.

It was the first tryout for Thomas following his reinstatement after serving a three-game suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. The 24-year-old suited up in just five games for the Vikings last season, rushing for 30 yards on eight attempts and hauling in two of four targets.

Wilson (coach's decision) is inactive for Monday's game against the Browns.

Wilson will yield his spot on the game-day roster to Tevin Coleman, who is playing for the first time since Week 1 after completing his recovery from a high ankle sprain. This may be Wilson's reality moving forward unless one of Coleman, Matt Breida or Raheem Mostert suffer an injury.