Week 7 wasn't particularly special as far as injuries go. A big name went down, another name emerges as a big fantasy producer because of an injury above him. The NFL season carries on - at this point, everyone's a little injured. Here are the guys who were banged up this past week and are expected to not only miss time, but create a void on your fantasy team.
Arian Foster tore his Achilles and is, once again, out for the season. Alfred Blue and Chris Polk are going to split the duties, but neither of them are likely to emerge as a dominant fantasy player that is even close to Foster’s production.
Louis Murphy tore his ACL is and out for the season. In the same game, Vincent Jackson left with a knee injury, paving the way for Mike Evans to finally have a good game this season. Murphy was just a WR3 anyways, but it can’t hurt Evans and Jackson’s production going forward.
Josh McCown left the game on Sunday with a shoulder injury and it sounds like he’s currently day-to-day. He has a real tough matchup against Arizona this week, so maybe find a different starter for him for this week while he gets healthy.
Phillip Dorsett fractured his fibula in Sunday’s game and will be out 4-6 weeks. Donte Moncrief is already solidly in the #2 role behind T.Y. Hilton, so there isn’t much shuffling to be done on that team. Coby Fleener could see a few more targets, but isn’t really a TE1 option right now.
Joseph Randle left the game on Sunday with an oblique injury and is expected to miss at least one game. In his absence, Darren McFadden carried the ball 29 times for 152 yards and a TD. McFadden has already been confirmed as the starter this week, and if he continues to play well, could remain in that position for the rest of the year.
We’re on to week 10 of the fantasy football season, and if you want to make the playoffs, you better be winning games! There’s only two weeks left of byes, this week we’re contending with Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Diego and San Francisco taking the week off. Make sure you also check out all of the injuries from week 9, and update yourself on people possibly returning for week 10.
Josh McCown should return to Cleveland’s lineup this week, and he can slight right into your lineup if you have someone on bye, or a big name that has been struggling. The Steelers gave up 301 yards and 4 passing TD’s to Derek Carr last week – McCown has the potential to put up at least 300 yds and 3 TD. Ryan Tannehill’s resurgence may be short lived, and after a bad game last week he now has to face Philadelphia. The Eagles have held all of their opponents except Kirk Cousins and Matt Cassel to under 19 fantasy points. We suggest starting McCown over Tannehill.
LeSean McCoy is reportedly just fine and will start on Thursday night against the Jets. Don’t let the difficult matchup or injury deter you – the Buffalo run game has been outstanding most of the year, and the Jets have had a hard time stopping anyone over the last three weeks. In Denver, you may be tempted to go ahead and start C.J. Anderson after seeing Ronnie Hillman’s 7 carry, 1 yard performance, but stay away! Starting a Denver RB this year gives you a 90% chance of a headache, and unless it’s a pork headache, you don’t want any of that.
James Jones needs to find his way into your lineup this week. His ecr is a lowly 33, but we’ve got him as your #19 WR this week. The Packers passing game seems to finally be back on track, and with a cupcake matchup this week against Detroit, I expect the aerial attack to continue to do well…the ground game is another matter. DeSean Jackson is back in the lineup in Washington, and he’s on the WR3 radar for some people, but we say sit him. He’s a deep threat receiver in an offense that only has short and medium passes, and his floor is just way too low to start him this late in the fantasy season.
Crockett Gillmore could be a decent fill in TE this week, as he was on bye last week and might still be available on your waiver wire. Gillmore could wind up being one of the top pass catchers over the rest of the season in Baltmore, after Steve Smith Sr. was put on IR.
Johnny Manziel has been benched in favor of Josh McCown going forward. Manziel moves into the #3 spot for now, backing up Austin Davis.
After tanking last year as the starter in Tampa Bay, Josh McCown has been performing at a fairly high level in Cleveland, racking up almost 2,000 yards and 11 TDs so far this season. After suffering some injuries throughout the early weeks of the season and struggling, the inimitable Johnny Manziel was named starter for the Browns going forward. The Browns were planning for the future by going with Manziel, and hoping that they would be able to expedite his maturity as both a football player and a human being.
Looks like that is not in the cards though, at least for this season, as it was just announced that Manziel is now being relegated to the #3 QB on the Browns behind both Josh McCown and Austin Davis. It did look like Manziel was traveling a little closer to the straight and narrow path this season, but after an alleged domestic incident involving alcohol earlier this year and now a video that was just released showing Manziel partying over the Cleveland Browns' bye week, management has apparently had enough.
From a fantasy perspective this is good in the short term for the Cleveland Browns, as Josh McCown has a much firmer grasp of the offense and how to behave as a QB on an NFL team. Looks like if Manziel is going to get another chance at making it in the NFL, it's not going to be in 2015.
Source: ClevelandBrowns.com