It's Sunday morning and the first game kicks off at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Not a ton of updates, but a few worth noting.
Tetairoa McMillan picked up a hamstring injury in practice this week. My kneejerk reaction at the time was not to count on him, it seems like guys who pick up injuries during the practice week wind up not playing. But Adam Schefter is reporting that Tet is expected to play against the Saints. I think there's a little risk, but Carolina would have no reason to have the guy active if they weren't comfortable he could start and run and so forth. Bigger issue, as discussed on Wednesday, is that Carolina has been emphasizing the run and should be able to again. But McMillan should be playing.
D'Andre Swift (groin, personal) is expected to play for the Bears today. Swift practiced fully on Thursday, so it seems that groin issue is behind him, then missed Friday for personal reasons. As far as we know he's good to go, probably in a timeshare with Kyle Monangai against a Giants defense not playing well.
Weather report; there was, apparently, snow in Chicago this morning. It's either over now or will be well before kickoff, when temperatures are expected to be 36 degrees. Winds up to 25 miles per hour, that's the weather issue with this game. I wouldn't expect to see many deep passes or longer field goals, but I'm comfortable using the quarterbacks and receivers as ranked. If you were agonizing over Caleb Williams or Jaxson Dart versus someone ranked similarly, maybe go with the other guy. But the matchup is fine, Dart's going to run plenty, and cold and windy doesn't mean he won't still be completing a bunch of short passes to his various receivers.
Speaking of weather, the hourly forecast for Green Bay tomorrow night (weather.com) shows temperatures around 30 degrees, a 2 percent chance of precipitation, and 7-8 mph winds. So it's going to be cold, but pretty unlikely it will be snowing.
Cedric Tillman (hamstring) is expected to play for Cleveland. Alas, he's in a terrible passing game that doesn't throw to its wide receivers. Harold Fannin, also with a hamstring injury, is expected to play for Cleveland. Some risk of aggravation presumably, but he'll be active and probably catching some short balls.
Garrett Wilson (knee) is expected to play for the Jets. Burying this update down the list because Wilson actually stated he'd be playing on Thursday, the only uncertainty came from Aaron Glenn's and the Jets throwing mystery into situations which really require no mystery. I still haven't seen New York announce a starting quarterback, but believe it will be Justin Fields. But why should New York let anyone know such minuscule details.
Useless update from Ian Rapoport saying that Cooper Kupp (heel, hamstring) has "a chance" to play against Arizona. Really, Ian, thanks so much. We knew that when he wasn't like, you know, ruled out on Friday. Nobody should be counting on Kupp, if you need to use a second Seattle wide receiver, Rashid Shaheed is probably safer. But we won't know for sure until Seattle releases its inactives.
If I see any more significant updates before the start of the early games, I'll post in the comments below.
--Andy Richardson