Fantasy Football Daily - Week 15 Injury Roundup Podcast

Episode Date: December 17, 2022

Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) and Dr. Edwin Porras (@FBInjuryDoc) discuss recent injury updates, possible GTDs, return to play timelines, and more ahead of Week 15. --- 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. Welcome back to the Fantasy Points podcast. It is week 15. It's time to cash some checks this weekend. Hopefully you guys are all in your quarterfinals. making it through heavily favored.

And I'm here to talk to where my good friends. Edwin Porras is we go through the late news injury report. This is basically like the late news injury roundup. And everyone, it's a big one this week with so much on the line. We're trying to cash some checks here this weekend. How are you doing, my friend? About to see you in less than 24 hours. It's going to be a good time.

Yeah, man. I'm excited. I'm excited to see you. Got the snipples. As Hollywood referred to as the man cold. I'm doing fine. I think I'll survive it. So I'm excited to see you and your lovely wife, and we're going to hang out.

Have a good time. But first, we're going to get after these injuries. We're going to get after some of the most commonly asked questions as we head in the fantasy playoffs. I just want to, before we start, Graham, it doesn't let you know. I won five games in a row in the league that you forced me to come into there at the end of the 11th hour of drafts. I've won five in a row. unfortunately we have a corrupt commissioner, so we weren't aware there were only 14 in playoffs, otherwise I might have had a shot at the playoffs. And so, you know, it's a whole thing,

but I just wanted to let it be known. I've won five in a row in that league where I started 0 and 9. Oh, this corrupt commissioner also has vetoing powers. And I'm pretty sure when, you know, invites get extended next year, yours might get lost somewhere. I'm not really sure. Now that I'm thinking about this. I think anybody wants in that league after starting 0 and 9.9. I mean, that's pretty much consensus at this point. I mean, you honestly might end up being me. My team's six and eight, and it's just falling apart here, utter trash. No one cares about our fantasy team.

So let's help the folks win some fantasy leagues this weekend. And Edwin, we'll start here. I think this is by far the biggest kind of thing to watch this weekend is this Patriots backfield situation. So, Romanderer Stevenson has an ankle injury. He got hurt in the Monday night game this past weekend, tried to come back, play the a couple snaps and then was put on ice. It's a high ankle injury, but you were talking on your podcast this week about how it's

not that severe of an injury, and he actually might have a chance to play this week. He hasn't practiced this week, so we'll get there. But we also have to see what's going on with Damien Harris. He hasn't played in the last couple weeks here with a thigh injury. He's still dinged up. He's still not practicing in full. We'll start with Stevenson. I mean, you know, any high ankle injury is usually a multi-week thing.

But what makes this injury a little less severe than your typical high-ingledger? Yeah. So, and again, this is really hard to do from afar. So we just sort of have to extrapolate what we assume. And when he had his foot stepped on, that's exactly what it looked like. It was called the open chain position. In other words, it wasn't planted. And so it's a little bit of a better case scenario because you don't have as much

compromise to the tissue. The tissue isn't as compromised. I'll put it that way. And so, and he was able to come back in and play a little bit. And that doesn't mean that he necessarily is going to play this week since he hasn't practiced. But I don't think this is going to be a necessarily extended absence for him, hopefully. It does kind of remind me of the David Montgomery high ankle knee thing that he went through in week four. He missed it was just one week and then came back.

Of course, this is all projection because you can't diagnose on video. But if we sort of, like I said, extrapolate what we hope, it doesn't seem like it's going to be a super severe injury for him. And as it relates to Damien Harris, we assume again that Damon Harris is going to play at this point because he has been limited. The injury itself really just needed time. It needs about three to four weeks for this specific injury. He's going to be on week three or four-ish somewhere in between. And so it'll be really close for Damien Harris. He probably won't be 100% if he's active.

But if I had to make a guess today, I would assume Remandre doesn't play this week, has a good shot next week. week. And I'd say that Damon Harris is about a coin flip this week, which leads me to ask you, my friend, does that mean that it is Pierre Strong Sisson? I don't know. Really, I really don't know. I mean, Stevenson, like you said, hasn't practiced all week. I saw a beat report. I can't remember who, but basically you're saying Damon Harris hasn't looked really close at all to 100%. He's dealing with the really bad fibers, I would assume. I think it'll be some sort of split, to be honest with you, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see Harris. I was kind of getting excited for some Dame Harris this weekend,

but especially since he's not practicing in full, and especially a couple of beats that's been saying he's not 100%. Yeah, we'll see some sort of rotation between Kevin Harris and Pierre Strong. I could certainly see one of them kind of breaking away. I just have no idea which one it will be. It's quarterfinals week, man. I don't know if I could put Kevin Harris or Pierre Strong in a lineup unless you're just absolutely desperate.

That's the thing, though, man. These, you know, Patriots' backs have been super productive every, you know, every single week. I just, I really don't know right now who would be my preferred guy between those two. Hopefully we get some sort of news. That's a late game. I realize this slate is really chopped up this week, guys, between the three Saturday games.

There's also four, four-clock games in the afternoon window. So it's a good slate. There's a lot of football all weekends, which is awesome. but it's an interesting one. So we're going to have to wait on the Patriots backs, and we know how unforthcoming, we'll say, because I can't think of a better word that the Patriots are with their injury news. So we'll have to wait and see.

Hopefully we'll get something on Saturday. Evan, we'll keep them moving forward here. T. Higgins has this hamstring injury that the Bengals beatwriters just like kind of forgot about on Sunday morning. Apparently he tweaked it or something in pregame warmups, snuck onto the field or something and played one snap and then didn't play again. would have been nice, guys, to get a reporter on Matt on Sunday morning. But who cares?

At this point, we know T. Higgins has a hamstring injury. He practiced in full this morning. Again, it's the Bengals. I have no idea how much, you know, at what confidence level I feel about T. Higgins' hamstring. So I'll let you get to it and give us your thoughts for Higgins and his outlook this weekend. Yeah, man. This is really tough one because T. Higgins has essentially been dealing with this hamstring strength for two weeks now. I don't necessarily know if the reports from Ben Baby indicate that he had a setback or if the Bengals never really intended to use him in the first place last week.

And if it's the latter, then that's actually a good thing. He didn't have an actual setback. We, of course, are dealing with an injury that is anywhere between one and three weeks, typically. But if he's going to try to give it a go this week, then we assume he's at least halfway there. This is a tough one. It's fantasy playoffs. And I understand that saying you can bench T. Higgins or you should bench T. Higgins is a risk. But I think you just have to accept the risk this week and start him anyway.

I think in other, like in an alternate universe where you have better options, which is possible, like I think it's possible to be all over T. Higgins and have Chris Lave on a roster, right? Like I think it's possible you had T. Higgins and Tyler Lockett, right? and you played Tyler Lockett last night. Like, I think it's possible to have other replacements, but if you are looking across the roster and forget projections in the math that those apps do, like, if you're looking at the team and the team is just literally objectively better than yours and you need a ceiling, like, I think you ignore the hamstring thing and you go ahead and move

forward. Luckily for me, in the injury prone 2.0 league, I have T. Higgins and I, I'm glad, like, I am on a buy, and that's not a flex. That's to say, like, I really don't know what I would have ended up doing if I needed to play T. Higgins this week because I understand that it's a crucial week. So I think that would be my advice there is if you need a ceiling, you just got to go to T. Higgins and you got to hold your breath, cross your fingers, don't watch the game. Yeah. That game, you know, I wrote it up a couple hours ago and I was basically saying, like, I want to go all in here, but the Bucks' offense

has just been so bad as of late. I want to buy into that game being a shootout. It's certainly a good spot for Higgins, too. The Bucks just lost their top corner, Jamel Dean. They're also going to be without Vita Vaya. They're going to be without Carl Nassad, too. So their defense is coming really banged up into this game. I just, I'm kind of with you. I have no idea what to do with T. Higgins. And I realize that we're trying to give out advice here.

But truthfully, guys, we really don't know. I mean, right now, T. Higgins, we're going to project for like mid-range wide receiver two. But really, the range of outcomes is crazy. Personally, I think unless you're just like a massive dog, I would probably stay away from Higgins, this is a pretty good receiver slate, and you would, you know, you've gotten to this point with probably pretty good receiver depth. There are 45 wide receivers this weekend by my count that I feel pretty strongly about. Higgins.

That's fair. That's fair in DFS for sure, right? That's what you mean? Yeah, no, well, and for season long, too, man. I mean, I think you can get away with playing guys like Darius Slaten and Donovan of People's Jones this weekend. You know, those guys are kind of boom or bust wide receiver four types, but, I mean, T. Higgins is too. there's 40 to 45 of those guys this weekend. So, you do bring up a good point too. Sorry, I was going to add here. The fact that the thing that you worry about with T. Higgins and hamstrings in particular,

it's not like can they perform well? Like, yeah, that definitely plays into it. It's just a matter will they, you know, and I've said this stat over and over again, will they play their full allotment of snaps and run the full allotment of routes or will they not? Right. And or will they have a reaggravation? to get shut down. So you really are looking at a boom or bust situation with T. Higgins. And so I think that you actually worded that perfectly. That's how I view it as an injury guy.

Like I look at it as if I'm going to use T. Higgins anywhere, I am anticipating a zero and hoping for even like 15, 20 points if I need to use them. Yeah. Yeah, I was just looking through projections here. Slayton, DPJ, I would go over Higgins. I don't think I'd go game. Dave Davis or any of the Houston guys. Nico Collins is probably not going to play this weekend. Yeah, I think that's about right. I mean, I would certainly play guys like Garrett Wilson, Zay Jones, even Mike Evans.

Like, I know Mike Evans has been such a factory of sadness as of late, but I'd still go Evans over Higgins. Yeah, there's a lot of guys that play over Higgins now that I'm looking at this. Okay, we'll keep it going here. switching back over to another running back situation. We've got to keep an eye on these dolphins running back tandem here is just basically died for fantasy the last couple weeks. Dolphins have just really struggled to run the ball in general.

But we might get just Rahim Mosterrett in this backfield alone this week with Jeff Wilson hurting his hip. He came into the game last week, everyone with a hip injury, obviously aggravated it in game. He practiced yesterday. They called it a limited practice. Again, with these limited practices, we really don't know. I'm thinking we're going to see Mostair as like the clear lead back this weekend. We'll see if the dolphins elevate anybody from their practice squad.

What they've typically been doing is just bringing up Miles Gaskin. So hopefully we'll get some news on this either late today or tomorrow, but I'm fully expecting Rahimosaire to be the guy in this backfield this weekend. Yeah, no, I'm with you. You never like when a report about a guy, and it was for Jeff Wilson, you never like when they say, oh, he avoided worst case scenario. I was like, oh, well, okay, that's not great to hear. It's not what I, it's a very low war, right? That's like saying, you know, I didn't wreck the car.

I didn't total the car. Well, there are a lot of other in-between, in-between options that happened. So, yeah, I would expect some sort of split, like maybe even a bigger split than we're used to in that backfield. And I don't know, man, that offense has been scaring me. Like, I've been riding to him for a while. I mean, you know, that little short period, that mid-season period where he was going off. And now I'm like, I don't really have a lot of other options on the waiver wire. So I'm hoping that they can do something in that Buffalo snow.

By the way, if you're a Buffalo fan, we love you, you're great, you're fantastic. But if you don't watch the Dan Lebitard show and you're really upset about their take that Buffalo shouldn't be a weather. It shouldn't be an NFL city. Then you, they got you. They got you. Okay. Don't be mad online. It's okay.

It's going to be okay. We love you otherwise. I don't know if you saw that gram or not. See that? I didn't. I didn't. But I mean, I'm not a genius. I'm actually quite dumb.

But I don't think building a stadium on top of one of the great lakes where what Lake affects snow happens like 65 times a year is the most brilliant idea of all time. But it's going to, dude, it's going to dump on Saturday night. They've already revised the forecast. I know it's lake effects snow. It's really hard to predict all that. Yeah. Build a dome guy.

build a dome build a dome you know like come on i get it's a i get it's a part of you know it's been a part of the team and stuff but you've now lost one home game um you're kind of see a probably pretty ugly football game on on saturday night too i was excited for that game by the way that total the total in that game was 42 42 and a half on tuesday it got bumped up to 44 i think 42 and a half was a little too low even if it does just blow snow. So it's a little interesting to see the markets kind of repriced the game into the mid-40. Still, a 44 total is basically an average total these days. That's basically what we've seen in terms of average totals as of late.

So, you know, still two good offenses. You obviously can't get away from Tyreek and Diggs and Allen. Two is a little closer, but you go through projections, man. And it's like you get like QB7, QB8, QB9. And it's like, I don't know how much lower you can go with Tua. You certainly can't rank, you know, rank Brady or Tyler Huntley or Kirk Cousins out of him. I guess you'd go Cousins. I'm actually playing Cousins out of Tijuana.

Fields or Tijuana this week. I feel like I ask that every week. I feel like ever since week's like nine or so, we've been asking Justin Fields or Tua. Fields this week, for sure. For sure, Fields. Yeah, I mean, that game could be really, really solid. Eagles, Eagles, Bears. fields is also you know obviously bears are coming out of their by he's had another week to get

the shoulder right i think he should be like pretty much 100% by now um yeah pretty much yeah any fields or questions guys like unless you have hurts or allen or mahomes like it's fields or burrow i'd play burrow over fields i think but that's about it uh all right keep it going damien pierce here unfortunately looks like he's going to miss the rest of the fantasy season with a high ankle spring. The team basically came out right after the game and said, yeah, he's going to miss at least two weeks. He didn't practice at all. The team cut Enno and Benjamin, so everybody's been trying to figure out who to play between Rex Burkhead and Dario Ogun-Bowale. And my answer, I've won, is just no. None of them. But what are your thoughts here on Damien Pierce? And is there any chance we see

on this season? I think you're right. The answer is no. But I think there's a chance. the average amount of games lost for running backs after high ankle sprained since 2016 is about two and a half right so right about that two game mark it's possible for him to come back week 17 or so I wouldn't necessarily bank on it and he definitely won't be 100 but it's possible that's possible okay I know I want to play him personally but it's definitely possible it's back that whole situation just really I know we talked about it last week he's just awful yeah that's the other thing it's like you know he hasn't been great for fantasy at all ends up late

So, yeah. Fortunately, season's going to end with a whimper for our boy, Dame Pierce. Two more or three more guys, I want to ask you about Edwin. And this is an interesting one with this game being the Monday nighter. I was kind of saying this is a chopped up slate. It's kind of a weird slate to make start sit calls because it is a chopped up slate. Aaron Jones is going to play. I don't think there's a doubt that he's going to play, but he's been dealing with his calf.

And now the team's calling an ankle injury. What is he dealing with exactly? Yeah, so I think this is a very similar injury or the same injury that he was dealing with. I don't even know what week it was anymore. It was the first time he was on the injury report with an ankle. It was November 6th. So a little over a month ago, it looks like at the time the defender made contact with Aaron Jones and his ankle sort of did go into that high ankle mechanism. That would make sense if it's still lingering and won't go away.

So, again, this is like kind of at this point, excuse me, kind of at this point, like a DeAndre Swift light situation where it's not, we're not really sure how much, how much, you know, work they're going to end up giving Aaron Jones, just because it can hand the ball off to Aaron Dillon. So, or to A.J. Dillon. So, yeah, this is another where, again, you're probably starting Aaron Jones, right? Like at the running back spot, you're probably throwing him out there, but he's not like a solid, safe option by any means. that's the thing with his scoring profile too man is like he's he's always kind of been like a six point or 27 point kind of guy there's always going to be that spread but the spot is amazing i mean

obviously packers are coming out of their buy so hopefully jones gets back to a full practice either today or tomorrow uh rams have been really good on run defense uh all season but you know jones obviously has such a good role in the passing game and hackers are big favorites here at home um that's where erin jones usually does his best work in these kind of like high leverage games So, yeah, man, I don't think you can bench him. And, you know, there's certainly, this week, running back drops off a cliff at, like, 20 for as far as I'm concerned. You know, I think you get past, like, you know, the really strong RB2s, like Brian Robinson and David, David Montgomery. Once you get past those guys, it gets dicey.

I'm certainly not playing Aaron Jones. And to your point about AJ Dillon, yeah, I think it boosts him up as a decent flex play this weekend for sure. he's been running better. I think part of what they've wanted to do with Dylan is kind of get him going in these colder weather games, you know, whether that's a dumb narrative or not. It's just the way the Packers have wanted to play. And I kind of, I kind of believe him. So, yeah, I think Dylan could certainly be in line here for 12, 15 touches.

Again, strong spot. Rams are kind of dying. So we'll see. Two more guys here, Edwin. Amar Cooper has a hip injury. He heard it. I think you said on the first play of the game, he re-insured it this past week. You can welcome back to the game.

You immediately mess up the injury. You've been trying to nurse all week. Amari Cooper's never been a guy. I've wanted to play at all when he's even a remotely on the injury report. I feel the same way this weekend. Look, guys, he got seven targets last week, but only caught two of them. Deshawn Watson hasn't been great. I think, you know, we were talking through some of the receiver plays just a moment ago.

Cooper's kind of been that bucket for me, too, man. He's, like, right there with T. Higgins. Like, you're staring at a zero, but you know the first. 15 or 20s is certainly possible too. So what are your thoughts on Cooper here? Cooper is like, he's got that, he's got like a little bit of Julio Jones in him to where Julio Jones, I think holds the record for like, when I'm being facetious here, I don't actually know.

But he holds a record for like the most game time decision and or limited and do not practice. And then literally goes out and sets a record, right? Like that's Julio. Like I would say Mark Cooper's like that. He's like Julio Jones light throughout his career. Every time he's on the injury reporter has like a preseason injury scare. he ends up totally like it doesn't matter.

And so he's always been boom or bust. Like if you talk, I know if you talk to Matt Harmon a little bit, he'll tell you that he really is more of like a downfield guy beater as opposed to like a really skilled technician, which is why I think his profile already lends itself to being boom bust. So yeah, man, you're looking at, you're looking at a Sean Watson, you know, third game back.

And you're looking at an injured Amari Cooper. And maybe if he's your flex, like in season long, you can get away with it. But otherwise, like, especially in DFS, any, really any format DFS, like you said, there are so many other better plays. I'm just, I'd rather sit it out on Amari Cooper this week if I can help it. Yeah. I think we're the only site in the industry that has DPJ projected ahead of Amarie Cooper.

Really, really good spot. That's the thing, though. It's like Ravens have been so bad against receivers all year. Boundary or slot guys. So, you know, the spot is great. great. Browns are out home in favor, too, in this game, too. Obviously, no Lamar.

So it's a tough one because, you know, Cooper's probably missing out on a ceiling game here of just being banged up. But, yeah, we like TPJ over Cooper. Edwin, final kind of situation I want to talk to you about is Pat Friermuth has a foot injury. Two weeks ago, I noticed that the Steelers cut Friamuth's routes. They started playing Zach Gentry more. I don't know why.

I think Friar Amuth heard his foot two weeks ago, if you want my honest opinion, and we just now heard about it after Monday. The Steelers, you and I've been all over this. I mean, they've been the worst team. I'll just call it. They've been the worst team a week for injuries this season. I mean, it's tracking down what's actually happening with the Steelers is impossible, and their beats are the worst.

Tomlin said he's got a foot thing. Thanks. Classically, Tomlin. I have two foot things as well. So that's helpful. Listen, I have no idea what's going on in Faramuth. I do know his routes have been cut for two straight weeks. Edmund, he was a 56% route share.

Two weeks ago, he was at 57% this past week. He's going to be limited. Do you have any other insight? Did he get home last week? I don't even remember. Say that. Say it again? Did he get home last week?

Yeah, yeah. He had three catches in a touchdown. Okay. I mean, three catches, though, right? That's like, e. Well, I mean, you and I say this every week, too. there's 16 guys every week that you can project for matches and 30 yards. It's just that's true. That's true. That's true. Yeah, here's the thing. Here's what I'll say about Pat Farn. He's not at the point where the, he's not at the point where the material risk is enough to like to make a sweeping decision. But I'll say like in a massive study that I did from 2018 to 2021 this year on foot injuries, tight ends are most likely to re-injure their foot compared to wide receivers.

And so if you saw this two weeks ago, and I missed it, if you saw him get, you think he got injured two weeks ago, now he's back on the injury report. He hasn't practiced all week. Well, first of all, he might not even play, right? Second, if he does play, he's really, really volatile. So I guess honestly, even right now in real time, I'm kind of talking myself out of using any Pat Firemoot, like, especially in cash games. And if you have, like, if you were able to pick up, like, Firemuth and Goddard, and now you get Goddard, I'd probably play Goddard. Like, if you had Firemuth and Waller even, like at that. that point that would be a coin flip and i'd probably one percent lean towards waller like i don't

trust this foot situation with the big dude like like pat firemouth as it is as a stance today yeah man um going through projections here i like col comette a lot more uh actually a lot more i really like colquemette this weekend eagles have been really good against tight ends but i think the field's is going to chuck um probably not on dulcitch if russ wilson doesn't play definitely in joseph Joku, definitely ingram, and then that's kind of like that range. Yeah, I'm probably with you, man. You'll probably have other options besides Friarmouth. The thing is this week is, it's just, you know, like it is every week with Tidon,

just falls off a cliff. There's really no one to kind of go out and be like, target and pick him up over Friarmouth. Well, I recommend Travis Kelsey. Kansas students might end. That'd be helpful for a while. See if he's out with a waiver wire. If he's out there, yeah, make sure you take a look for him. George Kittle would have been another one, but he obviously already played.

He'd be good. Who else grew up? You're getting to Mark Andrews in there right now. Bro, I made some nice kiddle bucks last night. Yeah? Yeah, I had over receptions, over three and a half, and I played a ladder on his yards. He went nuts. Yeah, he did go nuts.

I'm playing Broly in our subscribers. you know our subscriber league yeah and well i feel so bad for tom because he's just demoralized he lost kailer he lost a bunch of other guys and he's somehow still snuck in and uh you know he he would have had a chance but then kittle and i have kittal and mcalfrey and they just absolutely went nuclear last day so this yeah oh well congrats on advancing there that's been a really fun league man our subscribers are just like even bigger degenerates than we are it's great The top two seeds. The top two seeds in that particular league are both subscribers, which is, which is right.

But yeah, me, you and Tom were the fantasy point staff that made the playoffs. Yeah, for sure. Guys, I think that's going to do it. You know, it's one of these weeks where there's a lot of our injury news already in. And then pretty much everybody that we talked about today, we're just kind of have to wait here. and get final news. Yeah, certainly T. Higgins and Amarro Cooper are a lot more volatile plays. I feel better about Aaron Jones for talking to Edwin and, yeah, Dolphins backfield, man.

Good luck. It's been a good luck situation for the last couple weeks. Guys, that's going to do it. Everyone and I will be back next week as we walk through the fantasy semi-finals. Hopefully you guys have all of your teams get there and you guys are in good position. Until then, for Edwin, I'm Graham. Good luck this week, guys. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points Podcast.

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