5 things you need to know for Friday

Good morning football fans! Here are the five things you need to know coming out of Thursday to get your morning started right:

1. Christian McCaffrey and Curtis Samuel give the Panthers one of the most versatile groups of offensive weapons in the NFL, and could allow them to have one of the toughest offenses to match up with of any team. Sam Monson dives in to the versatility this brings the team, and why it could buy Cam Newton a much better season in 2017.
2. Mike Glennon may be on borrowed time already in Chicago, but he should be set up to look better than he did in Tampa Bay thanks to Chicago’s superior pass protection on the offensive line. Glennon benefits more than most quarterbacks from being kept clean in the pocket, and the Bears had the league’s sixth-best pass-blocking grade as a team in 2016. If Glennon is to be in the shop window this season, he may be in a good position to earn himself another shot elsewhere.
3. Cleveland Browns WR Josh Gordon’s petition for reinstatement to the NFL was denied. He can reapply come November, but Gordon has now been on the shelf since the 2014 season, and at the minimum will miss most of the 2017 season. Gordon is a supreme talent, but his career edges ever closer to being tossed away over a drug suspension.
4. Another player that had been on the shelf for multiple years, Daryl Washington, has now been released by the Arizona Cardinals after his reinstatement by the league. The team had a meeting with Washington and decided that he wasn’t part of their long-term plans, and are giving him the chance to catch on elsewhere before preseason gets into full swing. Washington was an impact linebacker in his prime, but that is four years ago now.
5. For fantasy players, Dan Schneier took a look at the Day 3 running backs selected in the draft to see who might be relevant right away, who might take some time to pop, and who might not be worth it at all.