Another week is in the books, and another week that was full of injuries. The week 9 fantasy football injury report will touch on new and old injuries to help you better understand expected performance upon return to play.
Week 9 fantasy football injury report: RBs
Gus Edwards
In his second game back from an ACL tear, Edwards suffered a hamstring strain and did not return to the game. Harbaugh said that Edwards avoided a significant injury, so he will likely be back at some point, but I would expect him to miss some time. This is very interesting as Godwin, Dobbins, and Edwards have all suffered some sort of re-injury upon returning from their ACL tear.
Assuming Edwards is out for next week, Kenyan Drake should be a good pickup before week 9. Drake saw most of the work with 7 carries and 4 receptions after Edwards was ruled out. Meanwhile, Justice Hill saw only 4 carries.
Jonathan Taylor
JT re-injured his ankle in week 8. This does not bode well for his outlook for week 9. Fantasy managers must be prepared to be without JT this week and possibly next week. He did not practice today. Deon Jackson will be in line for the start against New England if JT is out.
Week 9 fantasy football injury report: WRs
Keenan Allen
Allen returned to the field in week 8 but only played 32% of the snaps and 2 receptions. After the bye week, the team and fantasy managers have been hoping he will return to full strength by week 9. Allen is not off to a great start, as he has not practiced this week. He said he won’t play until he is back to 100%, so this could be another several weeks without Allen. Given it is week 9, if your team is struggling, you have to cut him now for the roster spot.
Rashod Bateman
Bateman has been dealing with a midfoot injury for several weeks now. As discussed in the past, this type of injury usually has a significant recovery time, with our data showing that most receivers end up missing the remainder of the season with this type of injury. Harbaugh said, “It looks like it’s going to be a few weeks.” The first time Bateman hurt his foot, he missed 2 weeks. I would expect him to miss at least another 2 weeks. If they want him to be truly 100%, I expect him to miss closer to ~6-8 weeks with this type of injury. As we have already seen, this type of injury is easily re-aggravated, specifically in receivers. I discussed this in further detail on the Lisfranc injury page.
The above paragraph was written before it was announced that Bateman had been placed on IR and would miss the rest of the season. Obviously, you can now drop him in re-draft leagues. Devin Duvernay has the opportunity of a lifetime to establish himself as Lamar Jackson’s #1 receiver.
Corey Davis
Davis missed week 8 with an MCL sprain. He has not practiced yet this week. He will likely miss week 9 as well, as, on average, receivers miss 2.7 games with this type of injury. Given the Jets also have a bye in week 10, I doubt they will push him to be active this week when they could just give him 2 weeks off.
Week 9 fantasy football injury report: TEs
Mark Andrews
Andrews was dealing with a knee injury heading into week 8. He was on track to have a great game but was quickly ruled out with a shoulder injury. Reports show that he avoided a “serious injury,” and they are hopeful he will be ready for week 9. Based on his mechanism of injury, it seems Andrews is either dealing with an AC joint sprain or a general shoulder sprain. Our data shows that TEs miss an average of 0.3 games with this type of injury, but we only have data on 3 players. With wide receivers, we see these players only missing 1.4 games with an AC joint sprain.
Isaiah Likely had 6 receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown after Andrews was ruled out. The Ravens play on Monday night against the Saints. If you plan to play Andrews, I recommend having a backup. Isaiah likely is a viable option, as well as either Taysom Hi or Juan Jennings.
Darren Waller
Waller has now missed essentially 3 weeks (2 games and a bye) with his hamstring injury. TEs typically only miss, on average, 2.1 games with this type of injury. I would expect Waller to be back for week 9 against Jacksonville. In week 9, the Raiders could not get anything going on offense without Waller and with a limited Davante Adams due to his illness. Waller put in limited practice today and is on track to play on Sunday.