Fantasy Football Daily - Week 13 Injury Roundup Podcast

Episode Date: December 3, 2022

Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) and Dr. Edwin Porras (@FBInjuryDoc) discuss recent injury updates, possible GTDs, return to play timelines, and more ahead of Week 13. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. The Fancy Points Podcast, I'm Graham Barfield. I'm one of the co-owners here at the greatest fantasy site in the universe. FantasyPoints.com, and I'm joined back with my buddy, Evan Porras, this week for a little injury round. up. We're going to do a little news round up. We've actually got a lot of hot news this week to talk through a couple of running back injuries. But everyone feels good to be back in the pod after

missing last week. I know you were traveling a little bit. I was busy with Thanksgiving and everything, with work. And couldn't make it happen. But I'm glad to be back with you this week. And how's it going? I'm glad to be back. I'm always glad to be back with you, Graham. And I'm excited. Looking forward to a little trip we're taking. We're going to be able to meet up in about a week and you get all the hot takes, the in-person hot takes, and I'm excited for it, man. But right now we're going to, this is a crucial week. I mean, so many gray injury situations to talk about. And the week 13 and 14 buys don't help. So we'll try to get into that. Yeah. On another note, I can't wait to bring like a 36 pack of Cori's Diesel and just shove it

down your throat. Absolutely not. But you can have all of those. Those are terrible. I literally, I don't need to eat. I just had Thanksgiving, Graham. I don't need. to have another Thanksgiving meal in a can. Really? Carves-wise, bro. It really is. No, I admitted to you through text. I haven't had a course diesel in like six months. And it's been good for the help. It's been good for the help. But what has not been good for the help is all the injury news this week. And you're right. There's a lot of like tricky situations to kind of parse through.

So let's get to it. First one we'll get to is some good news. One of the few good news spots we have here this week is Travis E.T.N. He's good to go. It seemed like Edwin, they were just playing a lot. really safe with his foot injury last week. It sounded like he could have came back to the game, but all in all, he's good to go this week and what play. Yeah. So I want to be careful with this specific situation, Graham, because a lot of injury analysis is definitely data-driven. It's definitely precedent in history. You know, what are the numbers show? But there's a lot of external contextual factors that matter too. When Etienne went out and they declared him, you know,

whatever probable to return and he didn't actually return. That could be an indication that the Jaguards are just like are super conservative. Like he could have went back in and they decided not to. So I mean, we saw it with Justin Fields last week, like a young player, you know, in the franchise's plans for the future playing in a meaningless game and they sat Justin Fields. And so given this is a foot injury, whether it's the same foot or not for Travis Hattien, I think there is there should be some level of I don't want to call it concern, but you should be alert and aware that I mean even if he practices in

full Doug Peterson has done weirder things like he could be like a ghost a ghost inactive the way Alvin Camara was that week that one week I think it was like week six or seven whatever that was I'm not saying that's going to happen but if they choose to be ultra conservative with Travis Satian and his foot like that's something that I think that we should just generally be aware of yeah yeah You know, it could be one of those things where they really are just playing it safe with him. I think the Jacks have been one of the few teams, man, that have been, like, clean all year injury-wise. Like, they've had really no big injuries.

Maybe that speaks to their medical stuff. But moreover, I mean, this week, man, I think you've got to play E. There's definitely a lot more risk. But this game total, Lions Jags, 51 and a half. I'm not getting away from E.T. I know I've got them in a few crucial spots. And I think you just have to go right. back to him. Oh, no, for sure, for sure. I'm saying if he's, if he's active, you absolutely start him.

What I'm saying is, this is like, this is kind of a sketchy enough scenario to just be, be aware that that a surprise and active is not out of the realm of possibilities, not necessarily the most likely, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities, but absolutely, if he's active, you're out of start him. Yeah, I mean, I'm dinging him down, like his normal projection would probably be close to like 95 and a half, 98 and a half yards of scrimmage. I'd probably, I'd have it like 87 and a half, 86 and a half. It's definitely a little bit of a concern for sure. Najee Harris is going to play this week, man. This is one thing that was really surprising.

I saw it early this morning that Najee said he's good to go, playing through this abdomen injury. Jalen Warren is expected to get back after pulling a hammy. He missed a few games. But Edwin, what in the hell are the students thinking? Nojee for his second injury. They made him play through a really bad foot injury. He finally looked healthy.

Like, not healthy, but close. close to what he was, you know, you know, last year and in Alabama. And then he picks up this groin abdomen injury. I'll let you talk a little bit more about it. But like what in the world of the Steelers thinking here? You know, I don't know. I can't say whether they aren't healthy or they are healthy, obviously. I'm not examining them.

But it seems awfully interesting to me that Nadjee Harris has been a non-participant in practice. And then, you know, he says that he's going to play. Like, I haven't seen anything on his practice status today. But yeah, so this abdomen injury, right? It could be anything from an oblique strain to an actual adductor, like a groin strain. You know, a core muscle injury would fall under that big umbrella. And those typically result in at least a game lost. And so I am surprised to hear that he's going to give it a go.

We can't actually know the specific severity. But if he's giving it a go, it's obviously not as severe as we anticipated it would be. But it was still enough to knock him out of the game. It's a soft tissue. strain and it's something that you definitely have to be aware of. So the other thing with Jalen Warren, he might be a little more close to ready than Nodge than I believe Nogie Harris would be at this point. He has had a couple of leagues Jailen Warren has.

And so I think the takeaway, Graham, is we always have these running backs in the fantasy playoffs sort of come out of nowhere that can help you sort of boost you to a title. Like these soft tissue injuries to the Pittsburgh Steelers running backs has me pretty concerned. and like as a high upside handcuff, I mean, if you can get a hold of Warren, if he's still out there, or even, even Benny Snell or McFarland, I don't know who would get the biggest snapshot.

Like in a worst case near a world, Najee, re-injers, Jalen Warren, re-injures, and then it's probably just a committee at that point. But I mean, this is, this is a sketchy situation. I don't want to use any of these Steelers backs in like, you know, tournament plays. I don't even think I want to use them in,

or I'm sorry, Cash. I don't even think I want to use them. in tournaments. Yeah. I mean, for what it's worth, I mean, I'm with you. I think Warren is probably ahead of nausea at this point. It's going to be hard not to project Naji for like 14 carries and 50 yards. But man, I think he's a really, really shaky RV2. And if you can get away from him this weekend and season long for sure, I would try to do that. I mean, this is the same Steelers team at one that said, Naji got freaking stepped on when in fact he had like a really bad midfoot screen. Yeah, right. Exactly.

I mean, this is this, we just don't, we don't know. This is also the same team that rushed T.J. Watt back from an additional knee surgery for a dead season. And Watts's been playing fine, but like, I just think everything points to the Steelers not being very sharp when it comes to the injuries this year. But we'll keep it moving. For what it's worth, guys, I mean, I think you can't, last bit on Naji, I did want to mention. If you've got, you know, a top 25, top 30 receiver, and you can play them in your flex over Naji, you're doing that. every single time this week. I'm trying to stay away from nausea wherever I can. We'll keep it moving here to another murky injury situation.

Evan, we'll just talk through both of these quarterback injuries and this Bears Packers game. On the first side, we'll talk through Justin Fields here, and I am crossing my fingers, crossing my eyelids, if that's even possible, that Justin Fields plays this weekend, man, because this is an amazing spy for him against this Packers. defense. He was full practice yesterday, which is fantastic news. I just don't know if the bears are going to try and play him for a meaningless game. And there's a second note here. You know, bears are also playing for a draft pick here. I mean, you know, I know their offense has been good and we love them for fantasy, but like this team's obviously dead for the playoffs. They're trying to

build around fields they want as early of a pick as they can get. They're three and nine. They're right in the thick of things for the first overall pick. I went. So what are your thoughts on Justin Fields this weekend. Do you think he plays? Yeah, I mean, we mentioned it just a second ago. He obviously, the Bears are playing the long game with Fields and he was a full participant yesterday and maybe he is ready to come back. And the thing, the thing about Fields is he probably could have played through it last week. From a health perspective and like a logical perspective, it does seem like he'll go tomorrow. But again, we don't know what the Bears are doing. Are they going to try to, you know, tank like you said, for a better pitch.

you know, what exactly they're doing, even if Justin Fields is healthy. Now that they've sort of shown their hand a little bit, I am concerned that those rushing attempts, they're going to back off those rushing attempts for Justin Fields, even if he is active. So a little more of a volatile play, I think, if he is active. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think the floor is much, much lower. I think they would cut back on the rushing for sure, too.

But, man, quarterback's really tough this week. I think there's, there's like, once you get to like QB6, QB7 in projections, you get to like Tua and DAC. And honestly, I think Fields would be right in that mix. There's risk with Tua this weekend between, you know, and missing both his tackles potentially. There's risk with Dak only having to throw it like 25 times. So, you know, I think Fields is still right there in like the back end QB1 discussion. So if you've, if you've been rolling with Fields and he plays, I think you go with Fields again. One guy you're definitely not playing this weekend is Aaron Rogers, but Edwin.

when he's dealing with a thumb injury, he's got this, like, rib injury. It seems like he's going to play just because he doesn't want to see Jordan Love on the field, like just out of spite. Aaron definitely seems like one of those kind of guys. Packers are 4 and 8. I think ultimately, if, you know, he's not right, they're not going to plan. But, again, what are your thoughts here on Rogers? And, you know, obviously this thumb and rib injury is probably something he's going to be dealing with

for the rest of this year as long as he planned. No, yeah. I mean, he's going to be dealing with this rib issue that, you know, just, the same way that the same way that Justin Herbert did earlier in the season and that's not going to just go away, right? I mean, they say he was limited in practice yesterday.

I don't really know what that means. He didn't practice on Wednesday. He's one hit away from getting knocked out completely of the game. I'm just no confidence in Aaron Rogers to play well because he's playing through pain or to even stay in the game. Yeah. Yeah, you can't use him this weekend for fantasy. And it also kind of hurts the receivers.

everyone real quick, Romeo Dobbs seems like he's on the right track to return. You're obviously not playing him. I did want to mention while we were talking about this Packers game, but it seems like Dobbs, sorry, Dobbs. I always say Dubbs because I read it as OU. Romeo Dobbs, poor guy. Can't get his name stead, right? He should be back this weekend kind of muddying up a little bit this Packers receiver rotation.

They got Randall Cobb back too. So, you know, it'll be a four-man rotation this weekend. I think we see Rogers for what it's worth. I think he wants to play the Bears and continue to play out the rest of the season, but probably way less than 100%. Evan, we'll keep it moving. A couple more running backs to talk through. Josh Jacobs is dealing with a calf injury.

He played through it last weekend and put the Raiders and fancy teams on his MF and Baton. He came through with like 250 yards. I'm still kicking myself for being out on Josh Jacobs this year. I feel like such a donkey because I loved him for so long. his yards created standout, love them in college, loved him this first couple years, and I bailed like a donkey this year. But that being said, Jacobs is shoving. He's in another great spot this week in bottom lines.

You're playing him if he goes this weekend against the chargers. But Edwin, this calf issue, do we know the severity? And do you have any other like additional context here of like, you know, what the reoccurrence rate might be for him this weekend? Yeah. So it's definitely non-zero for a reoccurrence with that calf injury. Just to clarify, there have been some reports that. it was ankle. I've seen ankle out there, like some big news sites have reported it as an ankle.

He's not been on the injury report with an ankle issue. This is definitely a calf issue, which matters in the sense that it's a soft tissue thing. So he was apparently not even really close to playing, but he gutted it out and totaled like 300 yards of total offense. Absolutely insane. The power, man, the power of like motivation, right? It's like, that's insane. The way that he's been playing is just like, I would not want to get in his way if I was playing against him. He just, he's just running. So, and then he's, I don't know what it is, Graham. Maybe you can provide some context. He just looks more sudden this year. Like his movements are more sudden. Am I wrong there? He's played through a number of

injuries throughout his career. He played through a really bad shoulder injury last year. And as you know, I mean, as a running back, when you have to like wince every time you take a hit, it definitely kills some of your confidence. I think he took not getting that fifth year, that fifth year option personal man. Like he has been obviously a big part of what they've done on offense for all three, four years of his career. And I think he took that shit personally. And he's like, you know what? I'm going to shove it, man.

And he is. I mean, he's leading the NFL in rushing at him. That's absolutely insane. Did not see that coming. I got riders offensive line. Stunk. And it still does. It's the one thing McDaniels has gotten right is the run game.

But it's really Josh Jacobs just playing an extremely high level. The takeaway, I think, with the Jacobs injury is the chances of re-injury are non-zero. Yeah. He, there's a good chance that, well, let me back up and say that. I don't want to say there's a good chance, but re-injury is 100% on the table. He re-agravated it playing in week 12. And so playing in week 13, he's not any, you know, he's not any safer. And so, again, as a high upside move, I think you're grabbing, is it, is it

Zmir White that'd get a chunk of the, I'm sure it'd be a committee. Yeah, it'd be a committee. I think it'd be an Abdullah, it'd be Zemir White. Yeah, I don't know if anybody those guys, I don't, I don't think anybody those guys would be, would be usable, unfortunately. Well, if you're the Jacobs, if you're the Jacobs manager, would you grab either of those guys? Nah, probably not. I don't think they're worth a stash.

You're probably toast. Probably toast if Jacobs get hurts anyway. But that's the point. It's like he definitely could, he definitely could reagravate this. So just prepare yourself whatever that means for you. Yep. Yeah. I mean, I don't think Zemir White, I didn't think Zemir White was very good coming out.

And Amir Abdul has just been like a passing down only back. I just see that being a gross committee. Edwin, Kersh McCaffrey has this weird knee injury. He says he's fine. I don't believe him. I don't know what's going on here, man. That's why we have you on the show and I can pick your brain. Real quick, before we get there,

Elijah Mitchell has another knee injury. He's gone on IR. We probably won't see him again this season. This is his second major knee injury. But Kersh McCaffrey has a knee injury of his own. And it seems like a tricky one. I haven't seen any good reporting about it. And I'm just going to let you kind of dump here.

what your thoughts are on CMC. Yeah, so the little brace that he was wearing on his left knee when he was on the sideline in week 12 was a patella tendonitis brace. Some people will say that helps reduce some pain. So patellar tendinitis essentially what it is. You have your big quad muscles on the front of your thigh. They extend down and they become a tendon and they attach from your kneecap to the bone that is connecting to your shin essentially.

And so that quad is connected to the. tendon obviously because it becomes the tendon. And so if you remember last, or not last, I'm sorry, it was week four. He had, he was on, everybody was freaking out. He was on the injury report as a DMP with the thigh issue on a Wednesday. Everybody lost their minds. He was injury prone again. Um, so if you remember that, there's a very good chance that specific injury and strain is following him from back in 2020. So in 2020, he, when he was rehabbing his high ankle, he actually strained his quad. And that was a last, that was, that's how 2020, end of frame is a strangest quad. There's a very good chance that this is just a recurrence from that

and tightness. And when you have tightness and a recurring tightness that you don't resolve fully, then you can potentially get that tendonitis at the front of his knee. So moral story, this is a very similar injury, a different mechanism, but similar injury to what D.K. Metcalf actually had. And we saw D.K. Metcalfe come back and play just fine. I think McCaffrey is more fine than not, but this does, this does place him sort of at a bit of a higher risk, like a, like a men to moderate type of volatility. But I do think that this is closer to being nothing as opposed to being something, you know, that makes you nervous. Okay. Good. You just call them my fears. I, uh, yeah, I mean, I think I can speak for everybody that a healthy CMC is obviously fantastic. I mean,

the efficiency is not in there, though. That's the thing. It's like, that's what makes me think. Maybe there is a little something here. Maybe he's just not feeling it as well. But regardless, this weekend, man, uh, no Elijah Mitchell. I don't think they're going to play Turing Davis Price or Jordan Mason all that much, we might legitimately see Kevin Coleman, who they just brought back, be like the, you know, second guy behind CMC. I think we'll see McCaffrey in a full-time role because they have to put him in there. But definitely helps hearing you calm me a little bit with McCaffrey. And we'll keep it moving, man. Leonard Fournett, he has a hit pointer.

I don't even know even if he were healthy, if he would be the starter anymore, just because Rashad White's playing so much better than them. I think you've got to get away from Fournet at all costs this weekend. But what should we be looking at in terms of return for Fournet just on this injury? Yeah. So he's coming back. He was a full participant yesterday. This is essentially a pain tolerance thing.

He could very easily get banged again in the leg and the hip and be down again. If he's not 100% there, we know that these practice reports aren't always the most accurate, are always the most honest. We'll put it that way. But so that's what a hit pointer is. You just get basically slammed in a certain part of your hip. And it can cause a deep bruise at times. And that might have been what happened to Lenny.

And so the contact stuff is what you're worried about with him in this first week back. But yeah, man, like he, if he can, if he's participating fully in practice, we know that he's probably at least doing individual drills at full speed. It's just the ability to take contact that we're not entirely certain of. So that's something to keep an eye on. But yeah, my, my Roshad White stonks are, are very much watching, waiting, seeing what's going to happen here. Yeah, your stonks are looking good, man. Very, very good. Fournette was full practice yesterday.

I just pulled it up. But like I said, man, I think, you know, he's playing well enough to, you know, kind of ether for a not here. I mean, Fournette's just not been, he's just not been very good this season. No, no doubt about it. A couple other injury notes will kind of crush through here. Michael Carter has an ankle injury. He's not going to play this weekend.

So it'll be the Zonovan Knight show for the Jets. I think we'll see some Ty Johnson too as well there. Edwin, right before we got on, maybe about an hour before, David Njoku got rolled out for this week. He's got a knee injury. A tough season for him between high ankle and knee injuries, especially with Deshaun Watson returning. Brown's passing offense is looking very good here.

Moving forward, Jerry Judy, real quick, Edwin, got back to practice today, a little bit of a surprise. So this is his first practice participation since having that ankle injury a couple weeks ago. We'll see if it was full or limited, but I saw a tweet about 10 minutes ago as we've been talking that Judy's back. So something to keep an eye on this weekend. Definitely affects Cortland Sutton. Cortland Sutton, his massive splits with Judy this season. He's been like basically unusable when Judy's been healthy.

So certainly something to keep an eye on. I'm really the only last question I have is Jameson Williams. I want to see some James and Williams this season, man. I want to see some smoke. Yeah, man. Where are we at? Is there a chance he played this weekend? So there's a chance that he played.

Yes. You're telling you there. Here's where I'm at with like the whole ACL thing. And I learned a lot. Like there were a lot of ACLs in the preseason this year. And the one thing that I learned is that you can't. beat biology. And guys like Michael Gallup tried to beat biology, Chris Godwin tried to beat biology. You just can't beat biology. And the bottom line is when you wait at least 10 months for an isolated

ACL, you're setting yourself up for much more success than if you come back at seven months, at eight months like the other guys did. Like James for all intents and purposes should be ready. and if he was going like in order for him to perform at all in 2022, this was the exact formula that the Lions should like would have followed and should have followed in order to set him up for success if he's going to have any success in 2020 at all. So not to say that the knee steel can't get in the way and there won't be complications, but in theory he's waited so long and has been rehabbing this for so long and training around this and through this for so long, like physically, he should be pretty close to ready.

So if we're going to see James and Williams, like it's going to be James and Williams season pretty quickly. Yeah. I mean, I just love the lines from slow playing it, man. Yeah, I mean, I think they have the exact right mindset. And, you know, I've talked about this just, you know, through text and stuff. But, like, I do kind of get it why guys rush back because the NFL is just such a short-term league. And, like, you really don't want to lose out on playing time or potentially lose your roster spot. I get all of that.

But the timelines are just different with basketball. Like, Jamal Murray is the perfect case of like, okay, you should probably allow everybody that tears the ACL or has a really bad knee injury to rehab for like 12, 14 months like they did with Murray out here in Denver. But like, we just don't have the benefit of that time in the NFL. That's the flip side. But they've definitely played it right with James and Williams. And, man, I really hope it plays this weekend.

Edwin, real quick, before we get out of here, man, Justin Fields is going to start. I just saw a tweet that he's off the injury report and R.A. Mirov said that he's on track to play. So LFG. I can see it happening. LFG. Let's go, I guess. Trevor Simeon's out too.

So yeah, I think Fields should play. Again, I think he'll be obviously a little more limited running-wise, which hurts us for fantasy, but still a good enough spot, but to play him as a back in QV-1. Would you play Justin Fields over Tua? This is me selfishly asking in a league that I have both. No, I play Tua. I like that.

I still like Tua. I still like Tua a lot this week, actually. I think Niners, they're not frauds defensively, but they faced a really easy schedule. For sure. All right, Edwin, this has been great, man. Look at us. Getting out of here in 25 minutes. Guys, thanks for listening, as always.

We'll be back next week going down the injury report as it is getting close. closer to the fantasy playoffs. For Edwin, I'm Graham. We'll be back next week. See you. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoints.com.