CeeDee Lamb High Ankle Sprain | Timeline and Fantasy Impact

Cowboys star CeeDee Lamb suffered a high-ankle sprain, an injury that stresses the ligaments between the tibia and fibula. This can impact push-off power, cutting, and separation, crucial for a receiver. Below, I break down what this means for Lamb’s return timeline and his fantasy football outlook.

CeeDee Lamb High Ankle Sprain

Lambs’ injury was extremely easy to identify that it was a high ankle sprain. In his situation, the defender lands on the outside portion of his leg, catching his foot/ankle from the outside as Lamb’s body was going the other direction, creating an eversion and external rotation force on the ankle. This creates a gapping of the tibia and fibula bones and stresses the interosseous membrane and associated ligaments that hold them together.

When a high ankle sprain occurs, the stability of the ankle is impacted. The degree of stability lost is related to the grade of the sprain, with grade I sprains leading to essentially no loss of stability, grade II and III injuries quite a bit of lost stability. It is essential to rehab properly to regain stability to allow an athlete to quickly and aggressively plant their foot to change directions. Inability to regain stability will result in impaired speed (particularly cutting) and increased risk for future injury.

The fortunate thing for Lamb is that his foot was not completely trapped (it continued to slide), and it was the defender’s legs, not his body, that fell on him, reducing the total amount of force through the ankle. Lamb is expected to miss 3-4 weeks, indicating this is likely a grade II sprain.

High Ankle Sprain Timeline

The textbook will say 4-8 weeks; however, time lost is dependent on the grade of injury as well as the situation. In the NFL, players are expected to return to play as soon as possible. Wide receivers average missing 2.8 weeks, with plenty missing zero, and plenty missing multiple games. We know that Lamb will miss week four, and he is currently expected to miss 3-4 games.

High Ankle Sprain Fantasy Impact

When a player returns before regaining proper ankle stability, they run the risk of severe performance decline and re-injury. Surprisingly, in the NFL, receivers, who average nearly three weeks to rehab, average no drop-off in fantasy points in the first game after a high ankle sprain. They do average a 16% dip in snap rate, but a sample size of 41 going back to 2017 shows no hit on fantasy points.

Lamb is a target monster with a terrific rapport with his quarterback. If Dallas allows him enough time to rehab and regain adequate stability in his ankle, he should be able to play very well when he returns and continue to provide for Dallas and his fantasy managers.