Chris Towers breaks down the latest Fantasy risers, fallers and waiver-wire options worth monitoring

Any form of entertainment is more fun when there's a bad guy

[BBC][Getty Images]After a discombobulating week of anxiety over club sale speculation and frustration at the lack of midfield reinforcements, it was a relief to experience competitive football again.That frustration eased when Nathaniel Chalobah signed a one-year deal with the Addicks. Now with the further midfield loan signing of Timothy Ouma from Slavia Prague, it gives supporters even more reason to feel optimistic about the club's options in that area.Chalobah made an immediate impression in Charlton's Carabao Cup first-round tie at Cheltenham Town.Charlton looked resplendent in their fetching purple third kit and, on paper, possessed too much quality for the League Two side. Apart from spells at the beginning of each half, that proved to be the case as three fine goals secured a deserved victory.The Addicks showed real class in turning defence into attack, combining pace, power and control. Chalobah provided the composure and experience expected of him, while Sonny Carey contributed a goal and an assist.Midfield was widely regarded as one of our weaker areas last season, so seeing Chalobah, Carey and indeed Conor Coventry influence the game so quickly was particularly encouraging.With Ouma now added to the squad, competition and depth in the centre of the pitch appears considerably healthier now.Forward play has also been a concern, but goals for Tyreece Campbell and Matty Godden should provide both players with a valuable confidence boost as the new campaign begins.I was delighted with the result, especially after the disappointment of last season's early cup exit at Cambridge United, when Charlton were beaten by lower-league opposition with a weakened side.Some may argue that this match did not matter, but given the disjointed pre-season and the continued rumblings around the club's ownership, this victory was the perfect tonic before Saturday's league opener against Derby County at The Valley.And of course, we have been rewarded with a plum EFL Cup tie at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in the second round.Charlton put the game against Cheltenham beyond doubt with a three-goal burst in just 16 minutes, helped by winning the ball back and attacking quickly in transition.The one negative was Will Mannion's poor goalkeeping for Cheltenham's goal.Goalkeeping coach Stephen Henderson has work to do to restore confidence in Mannion and Thomas Kaminski, with consistency between the posts essential this season.So with manager Nathan Jones revealing he still wants to bring in someone to challenge Rob Apter on the right side and still the possibility we will see departures, we nevertheless feel we are in a better place now to take on the rigours of a second Championship season.The Valley should be rocking on Saturday.Buckle in and get ready for the ride.Don't forget to tap the 'follow' button at the top of this page to stay up to date with your club's latest news.

Whos the freakiest player on the UCLA Bruins football team? According to The Athletics Bruce Feldman and his College Football Freaks List, its James Madison transfer Sahir West. Feldman ranks the players based on their freakish athleticism, with South Carolina wideout Nyck Harbor topping his 2026 list.West has yet to play a snap as a UCLA Bruin but expectations are very high after West won the Freshman of the Year award for the Sun Belt Conference. West was a key contributor for a Dukes team that reached the College Football Playoffs, as he put up seven sacks and 14 tackles for losses in 14 games.Feldman has West as the No. 34 freak in the country, and theres plenty of reasons to believe that his best football is still ahead of him. After appearing in two games in 2024 during his redshirt season, West broke out in a major way under Bob Chesney at JMU.Argubly the most talented of the JMU transfers Bob Chesney brought with him to Westwood, the junior (whom Chesney had originally recruited to Holy Cross when he was head coach there) had a dominant season in 2025, earning Sun Belt Freshman of the Year honors, Feldman wrote. The 6-3 281-pound West ran a hand-timed 4.78 40 this offseason and also squatted 600 pounds.The combination of size, speed and strength is what lands West on Feldmans list. UCLA has been under-manned in the trenches over their first two seasons in the Big Ten Conference, the addition of West will help the Bruins in that department.West was one of two Bruins to make Feldmans freak list, being joined by his quarterback, with Nico Iamaleava coming in at No. 67.This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: New UCLA pass rusher makes The Athletic's Bruce Feldman's 'freaks list'

Lorenzo Pellegrini nears return to group trainingRoma restarts from Trigoria, and Gian Piero Gasperini is back with one of his key players. Lorenzo Pellegrini has returned to the Fulvio Bernardini Training Center after his long-awaited contract renewal, marking a step forward in the process that will gradually bring him back into the teams fold. The Giallorossi midfielder, however, is not yet ready to train with his teammates. After recurring from a muscle injury to the rectus femoris in his right thigh, the player is completing the final stage of the recovery program developed by Romas medical and athletic staff.The club remains cautious. Pellegrini will continue with personalized training for a few days, avoiding overstretching his muscles that could jeopardize his final return. In the afternoon, after lunch, which will reunite the group following their return from the British experience, the team will return to training, but the former captain will not take part in the group session. He will continue an individual program with the goal of reaching the best possible condition. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the plan calls for a possible gradual reintegration with the rest of the squad after mid-August. The final green light could arrive around that time, allowing Pellegrini to return to regular training under Gasperini and be ready for his debut on August 24th against Fiorentina.

Most new NFL head coaches arrive at their jobs with muted expectations: Win a few more games than last year. Maybe make the playoffs. Stop embarrassing us as a franchise and a city.For Joe Brady, new head coach of the Buffalo Bills, the expectations are more straightforward: Win a Super Bowl. Or else.That's what happens when you take over a team that won 12 games last season, a team quarterbacked by an MVP in the absolute prime of his career, a team that's spent the last seven years beating its fists bloody on the heavy iron door of the playoffs. Forget honeymoons; Brady's seat may as well be warm already. And he's just fine with that.Play Yahoo's new College Fantasy Football game: Create or join a league now!"I didn't take this job to shy away from expectations. I sure as hell did not do that," Brady said days after taking the job. "I'm embracing it. I'm understanding it. And I'm meeting it full-on. I know what I signed up for and I'm going to embrace it because no one rises to low expectations. I want what this city wants."Brady, 36, is the youngest current NFL head coach, but in the era of Sean McVay, age ain't nothing but a number. Here's another number: 29.6, the number of points Buffalo has averaged in the past two seasons with Brady as offensive coordinator. That mark is second in the league only to Detroit. In the two seasons Brady has been the full-time OC, Buffalo has ranked in the top 10 in average yards per game, rushing yards per game, passing yards per game and red zone efficiency.(Davis Long/Yahoo Sports)Those are impressive numbers, pacing the kind of seasons that shouldn't end up short of the Super Bowl or so Buffalo's leadership decided last season. The Bills have played their way into the postseason in each of the last seven years, winning five division titles, but only twice has Buffalo reached the conference finals.Nobody in Buffalo wants to relive the four-Super Bowls, zero-rings era, but at least the Bills were in the big game back then. Now? Tom Brady and his dynastic run with the Patriots is long over, but the Bills have slammed hard into Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs so many times that the rest of the AFC had time to arm up around them.Sean McDermott led the Bills through all those postseasons, and it's impossible to deny his big-picture success. Buffalo fans enjoyed a luxury few other teams did, knowing that they were almost certain to make the postseason every year. The Bills' postseason window was open wide enough to just stroll through it, year after year. Yet somehow, they failed, year after year.What convinced Buffalo owner Terry Pegula to move on from McDermott? A crying Josh Allen, apparently.Josh Allen and head coach Joe Brady talk during training camp at St. John Fisher University on July 29, 2026 in Rochester, New York. (Photo by Joe Hrycych/Getty Images)Joe Hrycych via Getty ImagesAfter Buffalo's crushing overtime loss to Denver in the divisional round earlier this year, Pegula had seen enough. He showed McDermott the door, and told a descriptive tale of why he made that call."My decision to bring in a new coach was based on the results of our game in Denver," Pegula said after announcing that McDermott had been fired. "I want to take you in the locker room after that game. I looked around, the first thing I noticed was our quarterback with his head down, crying. He sat there sobbing; he was listless. He had given everything he had to try to win that game. And looking around, so did all the other players on the team. I saw the pain in Josh's face at his presser, and I felt his pain. I know we can do better, and I know we will get better."Buffalo conducted interviews with nine candidates, including Brian Daboll and Philip Rivers. After several days of intensive scrutiny, including multiple rounds with Joe Brady even though he already had an office in the building, the Bills arrived at a decision: the offensive coordinator would get a promotion."We wanted a highly intelligent, aggressive, and excellent communicator," Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane said in announcing Brady's new job. "We wanted alignment. Joe Brady is all of that and more."Brady began his career at William & Mary, jumping straight from the field to the sideline as a linebackers coach. He quickly coached his way onto Sean Payton's staff in New Orleans, then did a year as offensive coordinator at LSU, where he masterminded what might be the greatest offense in college football history, the Joe Burrow-led national champion behemoth that also featured Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson. From LSU, he joined the Panthers for two seasons before arriving in Buffalo for the 2022 season as quarterbacks coach. He took over offensive play-calling duties midway through the 2023 season after a 5-5 start, and Buffalo has gone 31-10 in the regular season since then.No rookie head coach in history has arrived at his job with quite the pressure Brady has, but then few rookie head coaches arrive with Buffalo's level of talent already in-house. If you're the kind of person who's daunted by a results-oriented environment, well, the job of NFL head coach probably isn't for you."I like to think there's not a head coach in the league that buys into a grace period," Brady said on the first day of Bills training camp last month. "I know I can't speak for everybody, but that's not how my brain is wired. I understand what comes with this job, but that's what I wanted. I want the guys to understand what comes with that. I have no pressure. I don't feel any pressure, and that's not in a negative way, but I wake up, I work, I try to do the best job I can do and get my guys in the best position to have success, and they go from there."Josh Allen walks off the field after the Denver Broncos' 33-30 overtime win in last year's playoffs, ending the Bills' season.AAron Ontiveroz via Getty ImagesSo is Brady up to the task of running the whole team? We're about to find out. Players have praised him throughout the offseason, but then you'd expect that."The vibe with Coach Brady is young and fresh," tackle Alec Anderson said recently. "It's kind of like having your uncle come over, and he's a little younger than the older brother, and you just know you're going to have a good time." Old-school Bills fans might raise an eyebrow at that We're not here to have a 'good time,' dammit, we're here to win football games! but for Brady, attitude is only one piece of a much larger puzzle he's attempting to assemble in Buffalo."Be you with us" is Brady's mantra. "I want our guys to be the best version of themselves. I want them to be to their personality," he said earlier this year. "If you're loud, be loud." A player comfortable in their own skin is a better teammate, the rationalization goes; that's quite the tonal shift from old-school, hard-nosed, team-above-all mentality that governed Buffalo under McDermott.Still, there are some very real non-culture challenges facing Brady. Defense is a significant question mark, particularly along the line. Buffalo ranked 28th in rushing defense last season, an unacceptably low number given the conference's parity and the narrow margins of victory in the playoffs. New defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, a former Bill who came to Buffalo from the same Denver team that knocked the Bills out of the playoffs last season, will have the task of getting much more out of that side of the ball.Offensively, Brady is already holding a winning hand. He'll start the season with the NFL's reigning rushing yardage leader in James Cook, along with Allen, who's good for multiple wins, and multiple best-of-the-weekend highlights, all by himself. Brady will be calling the plays for Allen, meaning the 2024 MVP will be comfortable and in his element which is exactly what Brady wants to see."I've said this 100 times, and you're gonna hear me another 100 times saying it," Brady said in March. "I want Josh Allen to get everything he deserves in this life, in this career. He puts so much into this game, and that all I want is for him to be holding what he deserves."Keep Josh Allen from crying, then, and Brady's job will be safe. And there's one straightforward not easy, but straightforward way to guarantee Allen won't end the season in tears of sorrow. If Brady can manage that, he'll be more than a hero to Buffalo, he'll be a legend. Simple enough, right?

Oct 4, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers linebacker Cameron Lindsey (24 left) tackles Boston College Eagles running back Bo MacCormack III (24 right) during the fourth quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters ConnectFollowing a bye week, next up for the Eagles is a home game against Pitt. Pitt enters 2026 as one of the ACCs real dark horses. They have the pieces in place to contend for 8+ wins,but facing some turnover, and a defensive-staff reset. The Panthers were projected ninth in the ACC media poll, but have about the fifth best odds to win the conference outright. After winning 8 games last season largely with a promising true freshman quarterback, they are primed to continue their ascent with an exceedingly manageable schedule.Game NotesWho:Boston College vs. PittHead Coaches:Bill OBrien, Boston College; Pat Narduzzi, PittsburghWhen:Saturday, Oct. 17 TBDWhere:Chestnut Hill, MASeries HistoryThe two teams have only faced off six times in the past 20 years with both teams winning three, each at their respective homes. Pitt dominated last years matchup 48-7, but BC was on top the year prior. Pitt Panthers 2025 RecapPitt found their quarterback of the future in Mason Heintschel about a month into the season against none other than BC. That game was the beginning of a five-game win streak, but they did finishing losing 3-4 albeit against the likes of Notre Dame, Miami, and then East Carolina in their bowl game. The Panthers finished 8-5 and 6-2 in conference. Offense: Mason Year 2Heintschel enters the offseason as the clear number one guy. He completed nearly 64% of his passes and threw for 2,354 yards and 16 touchdowns to eight interceptions. The young quarterback finished 9th in the preseason Player of the Year poll as its clear the team he can carry this team far with his big arm. And he gets all the benefits of a veteran offensive line too. Offensive tackle Ryan Baer checks in on Bruce Feldmans annual Freaks List as a 6-7, 330-pounder with a motor. The 35-game starter received All-ACC Honorable mention last season as did guard BJ Williams. They add some transfer depth here to, but the consistency should help turn around the high sack allowance.Another freshman, JaKyrian Turner, led the team in rushing last season. He returns bringing his home-run ability hitting 200 yards against Georgia Tech, and gets some transfer depth to support. At receiver, Cataurus Hicks is the lone returning starter and he was only the teams third leading receiver with 422 yards and four touchdowns. Theyll need to have guys really step up and replace production. A true freshman in Bryce Yates could be a home-run threat, and they bring in Malik Knight from Western Carolina. Oklahoma tight end Carson Kent adds to the pass catching group.The 2025 offense put up points, but struggled on third down. With a full offseason of preparation, you have to imagine they make strides here and keep the good times rolling.Replacing Defensive ProductionThe biggest roster question is whether Pitt can replace the production and leadership of departed second-team All-ACC linebackers Kyle Louis and Rasheem Biles. Biles transferred to Texas after leading the 2025 team in tackles, tackles for loss, and defensive touchdowns, while Louis goes to the NFL after racking up 81 tackles, 8.5 TFL and three sacks. Senior Braylan Lovelace is the returning centerpiece for the linebacking corps. Hes a preseason All-ACC player, and is joined by a pair of transfers to retool, namely Alex Sanford from Purdue to play in the Biles role outside.Up front, Narduzzis team should continue to be steadfast despite losing their stud defensive tackle to Notre Dame. Jimmy Scott and Isaiah Neal combined for eight sacks and they still have a stout interior of veterans and bring in some transfer depth. They fielded one of the better run defenses, and should continue to be aggressive up front.Theyll have to improve in the secondary, but they do bring in a corner Raion Strader from Auburn. Strader returns home after a few stops. Longtime secondary coach Cory Sanders was promoted to defensive coordinator for this season and will have a few new assistants in the mix. Matchup PreviewThis is the crossroads of the BC season. They should certainly keep things more competitive than last years drubbing. With a bye week to prepare and with Pitt having to take a trip to Miami next week, this game sets up nicely. Theres only a couple winnable games in the back half of the season, so it feels like a kitchen sink sort of effort.

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