What It Means:

Thomas suffered the injury a few days ago in practice and has been diagnosed with a hyper-extended toe (also known as turf toe). Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has implied that he believes Thomas will be ready by Week 1, and Thomas was spotted practicing in a non-contact jersey earlier today, but this will be an injury to monitor through the early parts of the season.

Thomas was stuck behind veteran Greg Olsen in each of the past two seasons, but has been given the starting tight end job following Olsen's departure to the Seattle Seahawks. Thomas will be fighting for targets behind Christian McCaffrey and D.J. Moore, but could find enough volume in former LSU offensive coordinator Joe Brady's system to maintain fantasy value throughout the season. He's our TE20 for the 2020 season.