Fantasy Football Daily - Week 5 Injury Roundup Podcast

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) and Dr. Edwin Porras (@FBInjuryDoc) look at practice reports, injury designations, return to play timelines, and more ahead of Week 5. --- 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 FantasyPoints.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. Yo, welcome back to the Fantasy Points podcast. I am Graham Barfield. I am one of the co-owners here at the best fantasy football site in the universe and the galaxies, Edwin. And I'm here to talk to you. We're going to talk through some injuries.

It's week five. Happy Friday, everybody, from wherever you're at, wherever you're listening to, tuning in in the car, tuning in where you work out. We appreciate you listening. Edwin, how's it going, man? You're back home. You're back home in Fort Myers.

We are back. And, yeah, man, all is not well for Broncos country, though. I mean, last night. That was another national disaster, wasn't it? Good Lord. That was. No, man, I don't know what to make of that offense of either of those offenses. I mean, week one, we thought Kyle, or I'm sorry, not Kyle Fitzcheeze.

Kyle Pitts, I'm going to be a revelation. Hasn't so much been the case now. You know, Russell Wilson is getting paid a lot of money to do something. I'm not sure. I honestly stopped watching that game. I didn't have a lot going last night. I didn't have a ton. So I wasn't really that interested in the first place.

So it was a brutal watch from what I hear. I don't know what you thought or what your thoughts were on that. Yeah. I had a Wilson over 225-and-a-half passing yard prop that one. And I was thinking, you know, hey, it's going to be tough for them to run the ball. Colts, run defense is really good. And that was all true until like the final drive of that game. But Wilson was just apocalyptic bad.

Just missing wide open receivers like all game long. It's not just a hack-it thing at this point. Like, you know, both things can be true. Nathaniel Hackett was awful. He's still awful at play calling. Their reds on offense is still a piece of shit. But, I mean, he was awful in weeks one, two, and three in terms of, like, game and clock management. But Russ is, man, it's bad.

It's really bad. I hope my courtland Sutton teams hang on, Edwin. That's what we're hoping for at this point. That, you know, Russ is good enough to keep Sutton and Judy up a little. It just seems like every year, I think a lot of the, what we. get wrong as an industry is always things that we just we just got wrong right there's no way for us to either predict it one way or the other like who would have thought looking up that the seahawks would look the way they do and the broncos would look the way they do right it wouldn't have made any

sense to me if you told me six weeks ago that the broncos offense was going to look like absolute trash so it just it doesn't none of this makes sense right that's what makes this fun a lot of times we just can't predict things that are going to happen and um i mean there's still some time to turn it around i guess broncos country that's right i don't know there's always time that yeah this game is constantly humbling man you know playing fantasy betting whatever you're doing um you're you're constantly getting humbled and reminded how little you actually know uh and that that's the exactly right i mean that's the that's the fun point of all of this but edwin let's talk through some of these big injury situations here segueing into

what was a brutal injury week in the NFL last weekend a number of significant injuries and other a number of kind of minor injuries that have kind of seeped here into week five. And, you know, last night Colts played. They won without Jonathan Taylor on the road on a short week in Denver. Sorry. I just, I mean, it's just, anyway, it's just hilarious. Broncos, the whole Broncos fan base is already sick of Wilson. They've already turned on them.

It took five weeks. But they did it without JT last night. Jonathan Taylor is doing an ankle sprained. Edwin, we got word that this. wasn't a high ankle issue. You know, it was a short week. It was always going to be tough for JT to play. That being said, what are we looking at?

So if we assume that this is a lateral ankle sprain that isn't as severe as, for example, Saquan Barkley from last year, then we think Jonathan Taylor should be back in week six. The thing is that that turnaround, even for lateral ankle sprains, it's always really quick. You know, that's a three or four day period where you're asking the body to do some things that just isn't humanly possible at this point. We know that 82% of lateral ankle sprains take at least four days to recover. You know, that's, so that was asking a lot of Jonathan Taylor. That's to say like 20% of them are healed after just three days, four days.

So that probably was never on the table for Jonathan Taylor. You hope that we get to the practice reports next week and he's back, at least in the limited capacity. I do think that he'll be back on the field in week six. Like I said, so long as this isn't a super. severe one and all tests being negative, whatever that means. And it's a very broad statement. But that is good news. So we do hope to see Johnson Taylor back on the field. And of course, Naim Hines in the concussion protocol now. And we're just going to have to see, watch that play out. Right. Yeah. You know, obviously you hope that, you know, JT gets the, you know, a couple extra

days to get right. He's always been a physical freak to Edwin. Like he, this is like the first time he's missed a game or practice. I seriously think since high school, I don't think he missed. practice at all at Wisconsin. So we're kind of an unprecedented territory, but the hope, obviously, is that he should be good to go. Moving forward here, a couple of issues with the dolphins this week. They've been playing it really safe with the receivers guys with Jalen Wattle, Tire Kill. They've both been limited to practice all week. They've been just playing a safe with Waddle, basically, all season. Both should be fine. But obviously, the big concern here is Tua. Edwin, I'll let you kind of get into the nitty gritty of what the situation is and just kind of what your whole take on whether or not

concussion protocol was was followed and the like. But the bottom line is Tua is not going to play this week. And it would be, I think, a surprise to see him in week six at this point. So where are we at on Tua? And how do we, you know, how do we kind of forecast this? Yeah, man. So this is obviously a really complicated, layered situation. There are a lot of stakeholders that are at play. There are a lot of different interests, vested interests that are at play. And if we assume in terms of the concussion protocol that everybody is just in it for themselves and everybody is just wanting to, you know, make a quick dollar as quickly as possible regardless of player safety, I think that's a little disingenuous. I do think there's, you know, there's some suspicious activity that occurs.

in the concussion protocol. But what we saw with Tua was, you know, essentially the Swiss cheese effect, right? So this system, this protocol, it's always created. But we have to keep in mind that a screen for a brain injury is never perfect. So on one hand, you look at that and you know that, for example, you can not have any symptoms a day that you might have, you know, gotten a concussion. And then three days later, you get symptoms. So it's imperfect in that way. Like we don't have a perfect way of screening for these concussions.

So you juxtapose that to like, well, the dude was literally, you know, whatever, whatever week four that was, Tua got hammered and then was, you know, looking like he just wasn't upright, wasn't able to stand upright. So that should have been something obvious. I don't know, man. Like, this is a really layered nuanced conversation. There is probably some, you know, I don't want to call it foul play or anything, but there are probably some entities that want this concussion protocol to go a certain way. And you also have,

you know, ground level boots on the floor, practitioners, clinicians that are just trying to do the job that they were hired to do. So it's a really complicated, nuanced topic. But the bottom line now, luckily, Tua is safe. Luckily, he, you know, CT scans, MRIs came back clean. So we never want to label a concussion mild, moderate, severe. A concussion is a concussion. A brain injury is a brain injury. When we see guys carted off, obviously, that's, that's really scary. And, you know, the last time we saw a guy carted off was that Chargers game last year in December. And that was a relatively lengthy absence. I want to say it was a three or four game absence for that. But obviously for two, it's probably going to look a little bit different. We're just going to hope that he gets

through the concussion protocol from an optics perspective. You also have to wonder what the dolphins are going to do because they're trying to save a little bit of face at this point. I think that week seven is, is plausible, but week eight is probably the safest, just because we do know that he is at least on the injury report, and we know that he's at least progressing to a certain degree. So we hope to see Tua back out there in the near future. Right. Yeah. I mean, you know, the flip side to all this is this is still kind of an ongoing conversation. I think the NFL is going to have to attack full on. you know, one of the doctors who evaluated to a back in week four has already been fired. So, you know, we've already seen that kind of, that kind of drop.

But, yeah, bottom line is, I mean, you know, something that's got to change here. You know, we all kind of thought they were doing a little bit better, Edwin, but it doesn't seem to be the case at this point. And like you said, you know, there's a lot of things at play, including Tua, you know, players want to play. You and I talk about this all the time. Players always advocate to play. They're always willing to put themselves on the line above all else. So, I mean, that's the other flip side to all of this is I'm sure to a thought and wanted to play because he's a competitor. And that's the type of guy.

These guys are. That being said, you know, dolphins need to protect their guy. And you bring up a good point too because the other, I'm sorry, one more thing, Graham. The thing about it, too, is like from an ethical perspective, if you are, if you're the unaffiliated neurotrama doc or you're the athletic trainer, you're the physician on the silent, whatever, if you're doing. screens and your screens are coming back negative and you're talking your athlete and your athlete says I'm fine. I feel fine. Like there to an, like at what point does you draw, do you draw that ethical line is a question that goes on and for these practitioners that are in the moment. So yeah, I mean, that's just the point that I'm trying to make is like it's, it's a lot more nuanced than I think

Twitter wants to make it out to be. But again, Twitter wouldn't be Twitter without that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, dude. Twitter these days is like, like 99% ship posting and like 1% serious tweets. So yeah, nuance is not a coveted thing on Twitter these days. And that's okay. That's why we have these podcasts at them. That's why I get to talk to you.

But we'll keep it moving forward here. We'll talk through David Montgomery. He's obviously dealing with the after effects of kind of like a knee ankle injury. Somewhat surprisingly, everyone got back to a limited practice this week. But honestly, I would be really surprised if he plays. this week we should see another full allotment of snaps and carries.

Yeah, this is kind of an interesting situation, right? So we got back to practice. What that could indicate for us is that it isn't as severe or it was a more simple eversion injury as opposed to like a true high ankle. I tweeted this out yesterday, but there are some guys since 2019, their practice patterns, right? So you look at Alexander Madison, Alvin Camerra, Sequin Barclay, Adrian Peterson, Tevin Coleman, Josh Jacobs, Kenyon, Drake, Mark Ingram, Camakers.

they all suffered some form of like a high ankle or aversion uh eversion sprain and only three of those let's see one two three four five six seven eight nine only three of those nine who had at least one limited practice didn't didn't end up playing so i think there's a decent chance we see david montgomery now to what extent and to what you know level of performance i don't know for a fact but it always is tougher for guys to come back from that initial injury if david montgomery is Now, the unfortunate part is you, some people might have been out there and started Neheme Hines in place of David Montgomery. But if, you know, results over process or I mean, process over results, not the other way

around. That totally happens. But I do think there's a chance. I do think there's a chance we see David Montgomery. Okay. Yeah, interesting. I will know, bears have a short week coming up. They play on Thursday night against the Washington commanders that one.

I know you're going to be having a, you're going to have that game DBR and probably Cooper on mute. On Thursday night. I'm going to extra mute. Yeah, right. Double mute that baby. Muted on the TV and on the box. But yeah, no, they have a short week coming up on Thursday.

I don't really know what that would mean for Montgomery. Maybe they play it safe and he can, you know, take the weekend and recover some more and get back for Thursday. Maybe they want to give them an extra week. I'm not really entirely sure. So we'll see on Montgomery, but I would plan on just not. playing him, even if he does suit up, which to your point out, a little bit surprising he could suit up this week if he does, but I'm just not going to play him.

We'll keep him moving forward here. Big injury notes on the Lions. Amon Ross, St. Brown and D'Andre Swift, both dealing with injuries. Swift won't play this week, so we really don't need to spend too much time there. He's going to be back after the buy. The Lions have a buy this week after they play the Patriots. So we'll see Swift again in week seven at 100%. That being said, Amon Rae St. Brown, Edwin has a chance to play this week.

Yeah, so St. Brown, TBD to play, according to Dan Campbell. He will practice today. So this is essentially from like a rehab perspective. Today they're talking to him. They're saying, hey, you said you feel like you're ready to go. Maybe let's start with some individual drills. Maybe you can run some routes. Let's see how it feels.

And then we'll reevaluate how you feel the next day on Saturday. That's, you know, a very logical, plausible way that they're going to handle Amonra. St. Brown since he hasn't practiced since today. Here's another flip side where we talked last week about my trustometer with Dan Campbell and him actually being pretty high on the list of guys that I trust and coaches that I trust. I think that given the Lions week six by, that they might actually just let him continue to run the course of rehab and wait to bring him back. They have shown that they're relatively sharp when it comes to managing their injuries. I think that would be the sharp move, unless Amon and Ross St. Brown is just totally cleared and totally, totally back to normal,

which I would highly doubt that he's 100% back to normal. If he's active, Graham, the way he's been playing, it's really, really hard to sit him, especially in season long. But if we do see him play, I think that he's a selective guy in like tournament plays. I wouldn't take him in cash by any means. There's a very good chance that they use this as like a rehab game type thing for him, where he maybe plays limited snaps. But again, there's a chance that he just doesn't play this week.

He's a volatile to play if he is active. Right. The flip side to Aldous, man, is the lines are really beat up. Like, they might not have BJ Chark this weekend. He has an ankle injury. He's been limited to practice all week. Quintas Sevis, who they brought up to play a little bit more last week with St. Brown out.

He's hurt too. He hasn't practiced all week. So they do have a little bit of incentive to maybe push St. Brown more than they usually would because I'm with you. I love how the Lions approach their injuries. They're usually generally very conservative, but I think that's the right approach. You take a long-term outlook, you try to get your eyes back to 100% so they can be 100% effective when they're healthy again. That being said, though, lines, you know, short, you know, they've got the buy coming up and they might be short on receivers this coming week. So, you know, if St.

ground plays. I'm playing them. I'm with you on not playing in cash games for DFS. I'll talk to Scott and John Proctor a little bit later today. On our Caching Points podcast, we'll talk through this whole situation because Lions have been one of the most fun teams for fantasy, not just this season, but even going back to late last year. Edwin, we'll keep it going here and we'll talk through some Saints. Jamis Winston is seemingly not going to play again this week. We'll see another Andy Dalton game. Fantastic beard, by the way. Andy Dalton, like, went to the Lost Island, I guess, this summer and grew a fantastic beard and mustache. I mean, good Lord, he looks like a freaking monopoly character on the sidelines there in London. But we're going to get Andy Dalton this week

under center. Michael Thomas is dealing with the toe injury. Edwin, that's who I really want to talk about here. Anytime we see Thomas with a lower extremity issue, it's concerning. Here, he has a toe injury and I'll let you talk more about the specifics of the injury, but it's not looking good for Thomas. No, not looking good for Thomas. He hasn't practiced two days in a row. And I do want to add a clarification point. I'm going to, I'm running with the fact that this is a toe injury. And I have it on the injury insides page as foot slash toe because Rappaport initially did report this was not a foot issue. Or I'm sorry, he reported this was a toe issue. Then you zoom out. And of course, the saints put him on the injury report with a foot issue. It's also important to note that this is not the. the same foot that he had that surgery on, like that big issue on. So zooming out to toe injuries specifically, I was just combing through the data yesterday for 2020 and 2021. And there were essentially nine guys, that nine skill players who missed time due to a toe injury.

And it was something like five out of the nine only missed, you know, two games. And four of the nine missed more than two games. At this point, we hope that Thomas's injury is going to be short-lived. If not, the median is we're looking at something. something like another guy that we're talking about later, Traylin Berks. The median return for these NFL players after a turf toe issue is roughly 28 days. That's the median. So we hope he does obviously come back before then. But in terms of his performance, unless he comes back too soon, this shouldn't hinder his performance too much. I actually thought I said it last week. This would be

more of like a Chase Claypole toe injury from last year. Obviously might be a little more than that at this point. But if Michael Thomas comes back next week, I do think that we'll see a pretty close to 100% Michael Thomas. Yeah, that's good to hear, man. You know, Saints, right now, it's all Chris Alabe at this point. Alabe is off to an unbelievable start to his rookie season. And, you know, I think if you've got them, you're going to fire him up again this week here. Saints in a great spot against the Seahawks, extremely beatable defense. I'm playing a Wobbe as a two. Edwin, his receiving prop is crazy.

It's like 63 and a half, 64 and a half. I mean, he's getting like the same level of treatment as, you know, DK. Metcab, Tyler Lockett, C.D. Land this week. So markets are in love with Olaube for a lot of good reasons. And frankly, I don't think there's that big of a drop off between. Don't say it. You said it. You think there's not that big of a drop off.

Well, I mean, listen, Dalton is kind of like, he's ironically. he's almost kind of like a Gino type guy. Like he just gets the ball of the open man. He's not great, but he can facilitate. I mean, Winston obviously has way more. He's got more yolo in him is, I think, what it is with Chris Elaverey, right? That's what you like about James. Yeah, and that, I mean, ideally, that's what we want.

That's always always always, always loved about James. He's got that yellow in him. You don't get that dog in him. He's got that yolo in him. All right, we'll keep it going here. Rashad Baton has picked up. foot injury. Did not play in the entire fourth quarter of their last game in week four. Hasn't practiced all weekend when he is not going to play. I'll go ahead and call it. Baltimore is going

to basically have to go with like some sort of gross three-man rotation on Sunday night between Devin DuVernay and DeMarcus Robinson, you know, all the spells, you know, more Mark Andrews. But it's also worth noting sort of as a side note that I think we're going to see Gus Edwards again. He was activated in practicing. I haven't, I can't confirm that yet, but it seems like that that's the direction we're trending. But yeah, man, Bateman, uh, D&P two days in a row at this point. It doesn't seem like he's going to play. So we look at this and we're going to assume again, we're making some assumptions. This is a midfoot issue. And what we see with these midfoot issues is that there's a small NFL study showing that

there's approximately a 36 day window of miss time that happens with these foot injuries. Now, if we get lucky, we can see something closer to like a cat. Calvin Ridley that we saw in 2020. I remember that name. Remember Calvin Ridley? So he was down for about 24 days, but because of the way that they had that sort of by week and then they had the Thursday night game, it ended up being that he only missed one game.

But he was down for 24 days. So I think this midfoot issue at worst will end up being something along those lines, something like a three week, two to three week time period before we see Bateman back. But yeah, man, I just, I don't know what his usage has been like necessarily. I don't remember if it was you that I was talking to where we basically don't love his usage in the first place. But I just sort of wanted to get your take because I'm actually curious whether this is a buy the dip opportunity on Bateman or not. Yeah, I don't know if it is, man, because before, you know, he got hurt, you know, he was out there 70 to 75% route share.

I mean, that's like, you know, 65th, 70th among receivers. He was not a full-time player just yet. obviously was getting deep targets and you know anytime we want uh anytime lamar is kind of on this like hot streak he's on we want his receivers um and baden was obviously a big part of that had a bunch of big plays but yeah he was never a full-time player never getting a big uh target per route run either uh when he was out there so um yeah definitely definitely concerning that he's going to miss the next couple weeks and man he's one of those guys that like you know he's got to have his explosiveness to He's not a contested catch guy.

He's an explosive playmaker. So, you know, hopefully the hope is that he gets back healthy. And hopefully it's not the two to three week variety that you're talking about. But that's, that was my fear as well. All right, we'll keep it going here. Talk through a couple of more injuries that happened last weekend. Cordarell Patterson was put on IR, a little bit surprisingly, Monday or Tuesday morning. Can't remember which one.

But CPAT is going to be missing the next four weeks. with a knee injury. Arthur Smith said it was a minor knee procedure, but, you know, I think any knee procedure for a 31-year-old is not minor, especially ones that put them on IR. So thanks for that, Arthur. Appreciate you, bud. But no, CPET will be on IR here for the next four weeks. We're going to have some sort of rotation this weekend between Tyler Alger and Caleb Huntley. I do want to note, Damien Williams is also on IR, but he can come back next weekend with off the ribs injury. He was actually playing well ahead of Alger in Huntley in week one. So I wrote up Williams as like a super, super deep stash and why we can advantage column that one.

But I'll let you talk through CPAT and what we're looking at here. And do you know any of the I don't know anything in particular that was bothering him the most. But if they went in and did a quote, you know, basic procedure, a quote small procedure, it probably was what you tend to see what you call like a cleanup. You'll see that. You'll see that phrase floated, a cleanup procedure of some of the cartilage that is in the knee itself. It could be obviously a handful of different things, but if I had to guess that's what it is. Those typically take anywhere from two to four weeks.

Michael Gallup, I believe it was his rookie year 2019. He had a very similar procedure. It's one of those scopes. You go in, clean it out, and then you just slowly build back up over the next few weeks. They went ahead and shut down the 31-year-old, which would make sense. He's going to take the full four weeks to recover,

get back on his feet. No pun intended there. And, yeah, I mean, I really thought this was going to be Tyler Aljier season. you know what is the most tilting thing is like in this really deep league where I need as much help as I could possibly get. I dropped Algier like right before this news hit right before all this happened. And so I was definitely tilting my face off the planet. I'm tilting my face off the planet in the league in our sort of staff league that we have going on at our Yahoo League where I am currently owned for.

And I don't know what to do. I'm flailing Graham. I definitely look to see if Aljier was on the waiver wire there. Alas, in these deep, sharp leagues, nobody is ever on the waiver wire. It's the most tilting thing on this planet. I sort of went on a sidebar there, but I really am tilted about this entire, you know, Falcon's offense and about their tight end in particular. Wait, so you're telling me all the Twitter threads that I saw this week telling me to pick up

Tyler Alger and Rashad White and all these dudes who have been owned in leagues for four weeks. Didn't help me whatsoever. I'm shocked by this. Didn't help me whatsoever. Yeah, I'm looking at this. I'm looking at this hack who in August told me to pick up Rashad White. And I can't quite spell as. name G-R-A. I'm just kidding. Yeah, no, I have, I have, I have, I have, I have, I had El Jir in a lot of these,

a lot of these leagues, man. And it's just, oh, it's the most toasting thing in the world. I hear you, dude, that happens all the time where you, like, hold on to a running back. You stash him for, like, the entire season. And then you're like, fuck, I finally need a quarterback. I have, I have to drop this guy. And then the next week, that's when the guy in front of him gets hurt and this is a game or two. That's, as well, Edwin, that is exactly, that is a law of fantasy football. It's Murphy. You know what's funny too is on my own podcast and in my newsletter and on Twitter. I've all offseason. I've been pounding. I did some research that saw, you know, not to say that all of the injuries happened in the four to six week time block of the season,

the first four to six weeks, but there is some data to show like a big chunk of injuries happen in that first four to six week mark before it peaks again at the end of the year. And so I was saying like, hey, you have to hold these guys for four to six weeks. Like this is going to be don't drop them. Don't give up on them four to six weeks. And what do I do right before right after week four I dropped the one dude that I'm thinking of but yeah man it's tilting well you'll see Caleb Huntley is going to go out and get 16 carries this weekend uh so you'll you'll save there promise you it'll happen um all right keep it moving we'll talk through a couple rookie receivers john dotson has been fantastic sorry he scored four touchdowns this year uh he's

going to miss week uh week five here with a hamstring injury edwin this is probably going to be yeah so ronovara said that he's going to miss I think he said that he's going to miss I think he said, you know, a couple of games or whatever it is. But at this point, because of the Thursday night game, the showdown that you mentioned, there might be a chance that we don't see Dawson until week seven. I think that's the soonest that we see him. And by the way, I don't know if you said it or not, Graham, but unless we buried the lead, Kyle Pitts is, of course, out in week five confirmed.

Yep. What an absolute nightmare. Just stone nightmare for Pitts this season. You know, obviously fantastic player, but not only is he battling upstream with Marcus Mariotto being Marcus Mariotta. He's dealing with Arthur Smith, not knowing how to use his best players, and now he's hurt. So, fantastic. Yeah, I was going to mention him at the end just as a guy, you know, obviously that's going to miss this week.

You know, you never want to see this, too. I mean, the dude was never close to planning, like, did not practice at all week. So we're going to be talking about pits. Edwin next week as well. So we'll save the discussion for that. last big note I really want to talk to you. Well, actually there's two more big notes I want to talk to about. First one being Traylon Burks.

He's got a toe injury, foot injury. You can talk more about the specifics of the injury. This is going to be a multi-week thing for him. And it sucks because Berks was finally getting ramped up, finally becoming a full-time player. I wanted him so badly to like just dunk on everybody that was hating on Twitter during the preseason. He did look bad during the preseason for it's worth. But I was hoping he would come out and dunk.

on everybody. Not going to happen. Berks is hurt here. What are we looking at for with his timeline? Yeah, man, this is tough for trailing Berks. Obviously, they came out. Pelliserro and Rappaport both said this is going to be a multi-week issue for Burke. So this is at least a grade two, we can assume, from that. And I think the best comp that I've mentioned for, again, for this toe issue is Devante Adams from 2019. He missed roughly four games in five weeks. And the median we know is 28 days. So at this point, we can, and we know that he's not going to have surgery too, which is what the report said. So you can plan on not having Berks for the next three to five weeks, I think is safe. I think you can start, you know, making, making plans to buy low potentially around that four week three, three or four week mark.

And we can have him back hopefully by week five. I don't know what this is going to do to his production. Obviously as a rookie, he was just now coming on. His peripherals were looking a lot better. So if your team that's flailing or maybe at that point, you're still, you know, 500 trying to make a playoff push. I think Burks is a guy that you can, that you can target. And that goes to the bigger point, too, that I'd say to, and maybe I can hold on to it till the end is, if you're flailing right now, your fantasy teams, it's time to start to, geez, I can't.

Words are hard, Graham. It's time to start taking on some risk with these injured guys. But we'll talk about one in particular that we both agree on later. I'm really excited about. I'm not sure. I asked you about it before we hear of it. But yeah. Still not remember because I have a terrible number.

We'll get, we'll start. circle back. We'll circle back then. But a final thing I wanted to get out, really the big, final big injury note this week. Edwin is this whole bill's receiver situation. So Gabe Davis is practicing in full this week. Love to see that coming off the ankle injury. But the problem now is their depth is like gone. Jake Cumerow is an ankle injury. He's not going to play this week. Jameson Crowder broke his ankle injury last week. He's going to be out probably until the end of November. And Isaiah McKenzie, or slot guy, is in concussion protocol.

He is still in concussion protocol as of Friday morning, not looking likely for him to play. So Edwin, I mean, you know, I think you were one of the first people, maybe the first person, as you take a bow here, proverbial bow and Gabe Davis. You mentioned to me a couple weeks ago, he's always been a guy who's not played well through injuries, specifically with ankle injuries. And now we have a four-game sample size that shows exactly that. I mean, Davis has been a non-factor. He's a full participant this week.

They have no depth. Edwin, I'm really just talking myself into a big game day this week, but I really do think this is a fantastic spot. Steelers have been absolutely bludgeoned by receivers to start this year. So where are you at on Gabe? Where are you at moving forward with him? And, you know, we'll talk through McKenzie.

Oh, dude, I am. I'm stoked to try to get Gabe Davis. Like right now, pause this podcast, in my opinion and go get some Gabe Davis, especially if you're like one in three, oh and four. And you need some Gabe Davis, this chronic ankle issue that he's had for a long time. He, you know, finally was able to fight through it. He was a full practice participant all week. I want to give you some stats, right? Usually you're the stat guy. You're the stat pack guy, right? But I got some stats for you today. Okay. And I want you to tell me if this is smoke or if there's some legit fire to this. So let's look at Gabe Davis's yards per route run. Uh, and. And, In 2021, it was two, right? 2.03 or so. His yards per route run in week one, 2.32. Okay, let's look at his yards per route run in weeks three and four when he was battling that ankle injury. 0.42. Okay, so if that's not enough for you, you know, he's fighting through the ankle, that's still not enough. Let's look at his a dot.

His a dot in 2021, 15.3 in week one of 2022, it was 16. His a dot, I want you to guess, Graham. I'm going to set the line for you. Was his A dot above or below 10 yards in a week three and four this year? It's definitely below. I watched all of his targets. I mean, he only had a few. It was 9.6.

Yep. 9.6. Yeah. And so all of that is to say, Gabe Davis, I think, to the moon, you should go send Gabe Davis trade offers now. He's on a lot of, you know, at least in some of the leagues I'm in, he's on the bench for a lot of guys. I think he's about to go nuclear and. remind everybody exactly who the bills and Gay Davis are, especially considering all the things

that you just mentioned about their passcourt. Yeah, that's the thing, man. It's like they just, they don't have their guys this weekend. So yeah, I'm, I'm heavy on Gabe Davis and season long. You know, everybody that's been listening for a long time to Fantasy Points knows we're big, big Davis guys. I think this is the spot here. Edwin, as we're talking, I'm betting Gabe Davis over 49 and a half. It opened at like 46 and a half. This should probably, probably go well into the 50s. So, Gabe Davis country. That's perfect. That's perfect.

I wish I could end the show on that. But Edwin, who's this guy? Who's this guy? It's Gabe. It's always been Gabe. It's Gabe. It's Gabe. The answer is Gabe Davis. It's always Gabe Davis. You know what? Let's leave it. Let's leave with that. The answer is always Gabe Davis. Edwin, you're fantastic, friend. Thank you again for your time. If you have it already, please go check out Edwin's podcast. It's the injury prone podcast. He dives way deeper into a lot of these situations than we do. A lot of this is just, you know, kind of quick hitting.

Just notes. We should be tracking throughout the weekend. Edwin does a big deep dive on his podcast on a lot of these players. He also writes up injury insights on fantasy points.com, which you can always check out for free, free 99 on fantasy points.com. Edwin, again, thank you for time. Guys, thanks for listening. Once again, we will catch you same time around mid-afternoon next Friday for the week six injury roundup show. We'll catch you down. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform.

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