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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that the club is close to completing a deal for Olivier Giroud. The Gunners are reportedly willing to shell out a transfer fee in the region of £13million for the French striker. The 25-year-old striker, who is currently on international duty for France in the Euros, attracted attention from some of the biggest clubs in Europe after scoring 25 goals and assisting 9 others in 43 appearances for Montpellier last season....

It is possible to buck that trend — see last year’s Panthers. But it’s still a hole nobody wants to dig. Let’s get down to seeing who’s bound to do some heavy shoveling soon. Game of Midweek Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens (8:25 p.m. ET Thursday, CBS). Fresh off facing the other two AFC North foes in a pair of doozies, the division’s premier physical primetime rivalry revs up in a short week for the debut of Thursday Night Football on CBS....

Main event: Michigan State at Oregon Extreme contrast equals entertainment. That’s the case when Michigan State travels to Oregon on Sept. 6. It’s the ultimate nonconference strength-on-strength matchup of 2014. Oregon’s Mark Helfrich went 11-2 in his first season and returns Heisman Trophy candidate Marcus Mariota. Michigan State is a legit national championship contender under Mark Dantonio and looking to build on last year’s Rose Bowl win against Stanford with Connor Cook....

Some other surprise target-getters were Christian Kirk (12), KeeSean Johnson (10), Donte Moncrief (10), and Cody Latimer (8). Washington’s Terry McLaurin and Paul Richardson both had seven, while projected PPR ace Trey Quinn had six. One thing all those players have in common is their respective teams were trailing by two scores for much of the last quarter-plus, and in the case of the two Arizona receivers, both received an extra 10 minutes in which to pad their stats....

In essence, if you have two quarterbacks and play in a superflex league, you’re going to be starting two QBs every week. There’s almost no way your third running back or fourth wide receiver or second tight end is going to outscore your second quarterback, on average. Simply put, both floors and ceilings are higher for QBs. WEEK 3 STANDARD RANKINGS:Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker...

Samuels’ placement here has to do with whether James Conner plays, as you obviously shouldn’t view him as a bust if Conner is out. But it’s unlikely Pittsburgh is able to execute the same gimmicky gameplan that worked against the Bengals and gave Samuels a strong statline. We’re also just not sure whether Golden Tate can return from his suspension to immediately thrive against a tough Vikings defense. WEEK 5 NON-PPR RANKINGS:Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker...

The most favorable streaming options (unsurprisingly) come from the Falcons-Steelers game. In a contest that features two of the weaker defenses in the league, Vance McDonald and Austin Hooper could turn into solid streamers for Week 5. They may end up seeing more volume than usual, as both defenses aren’t great against TEs. Elsewhere, Ricky Seals-Jones may start to see more targets with Josh Rosen at the helm, so he’s a guy who could outperform expectations....

Jones was replaced on the field in three-wide sets by Jarrett Boykin, but it's much more likely that his targets will simply be redistributed among the Packers' top receivers. His absence should help boost the production of Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Jermichael Finley, while Aaron Rodgers shouldn't see any negative effects. (UPDATE: NFL.com's Ian Rapoport thinks Jones "dodged a bullet" with his injury and is reporting that the receiver is telling people he's "OK....

They aren’t alone, and there are even bigger names on this list than them. Early-round picks Joe Mixon, Odell Beckham Jr., and Zach Ertz all have bust potential this week, too. The same is true of Calvin Ridley, who SN’s Matt Lutovsky lists as a bust despite being maybe the highest on him across the industry in the preseason. Carson Wentz makes our bust list, too, as another highly picked QB who may need to recalibrate things a bit....

Of course, when that many key backs are out or “questionable”, that means there are opportunities for backups, some of whom are available on the waiver wire. Whether it’s Raheem Mostert, Ronald Jones II, Kenjon Barner, Chris Ivory, or higher-risk PPR specialists like Jacquizz Rodgers, Jalen Richard, and Kapri Bibbs, there will be players to help you fill out your lineups – whether you like them or not. Week 8 Standard Rankings:Quarterback | Running Back | Wide Receiver | Tight End | D/ST | Kicker...

— CFB regular season, Louisville-Clemson. Prediction: 4.7; final rating: 5.5. — CFB regular season, Wisconsin-Michigan. Prediction: 3.8; final rating: 4.3. — CFB regular season, Stanford-Washington. Prediction: 2.0; final rating: 2.0. — NFL “Sunday Night Football”: Chiefs-Steelers. Prediction: 11.0; final rating: 10.3. — NFL national window: Mostly Cowboys-49ers. Prediction: 14.3; final rating: 13.1. — NFL International Series: Colts-Jaguars. Prediction: 5.0; final rating: 4.8. — Ryder Cup. Predictions: 1.8 (Saturday) and 2....

— AFC championship game: Steelers-Patriots. Prediction: 27.7; final rating: 24.4. — NFC championship game: Packers-Falcons. Prediction: 25.3; final rating: 25.0. — NBA regular season: Spurs-Cavaliers. Prediction: 2.2; final rating: 2.2. — College basketball: Miami-Duke. Prediction: 1.1; final rating: 0.9. — U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Ladies’ Free Skate. Prediction: 2.2; final rating: 1.8. This week’s predictions (all times Eastern): NFL Pro Bowl (8 p.m. Sunday, ESPN). There was a brief stretch earlier in the decade when the Pro Bowl was thriving in the ratings, but times have changed....

Below are the stories for this week’s Round-Up: - Techland’s first-person zombie action game, Dying Light, continues to do well among gamers, with over 4.5 million unique players. That success has unsurprisingly led the team at Techland to start thinking about a sequel. In fact, Techland’s CEO, Pawel Marchewka, recently commented on the developer’s plans for Dying Light 2: Based on that quote, it sounds like a Dying Light sequel is a ways off, so fans of the first game likely won’t hear anything again for a while....

Those that play Overwatch with the Korean language option have noticed that sometimes when Reinhardt charges, it uses Echo’s voice instead. This has resulted in some confusing instances in matches where players are not quite sure how to react, since they can’t tell if they’re dealing with Reinhardt or Echo. The issue was brought to light by Twitter user Kaiser, who got a response from Blizzard. RELATED: Overwatch Update Adds Echo, Competitive Open Queues...

A Skyrim player encountered one such bug following the death of a bard in-game. While the bard was dead, a glitch led to the musician looking like he was nodding his head to a high-speed tempo. RELATED: Skyrim Glitch Has NPC ‘Swimming’ in Mid-Air The Skyrim clip was shared on Reddit by user Emery_Darkholme, who seems to be quite amused by the encounter. The clip is brief, showing the bard’s head nodding, while the rest of him remains completely still, as one would expect from a dead NPC....

MORE: Week 1 upsets | Week 1 photos How they rank 1. Stanford 2. Oregon 3. Washington 4. UCLA 5. USC 6. Arizona State 7. Arizona 8. Oregon State 9. Utah 10. Colorado 11. California 12. Washington State CONFERENCE RANKINGS: ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC RISING: Washington. For some reason, Steve Sarkisian seemed to escape criticism for the play of Washington over the last two seasons....