Daily Fantasy Football Headlines: Aaron Rodgers, JK Dobbins, and Diontae Johnson Suffer Injuries
This week was headlined by a handful of major injuries. We will break down what these injuries were, the severity, and what impact they will have on your fantasy teams.
Headlines
Aaron Rodgers's Likely Ruptures His Achilles
It appears that Rodgers's season has ended before it even got started. He went down with an injury on the first drive of the game that looked like an Achilles injury. After plenty of speculation, Jets' head coach Robert Saleh confirmed that's what they believed the injury was. An MRI has just now confirmed that Rodgers did in fact rupture his Achilles and his season is officially over. He finishes his inaugural season with the Jets 0-1 with one sack, and a 2.6 QBR. Not ideal.
From a football perspective, this is a disaster for the New York Jets. They went all in this season so they are now not good enough to compete for anything of any significance, but they aren't bad enough to tank and draft an elite quarterback. Not only is Rodgers's season over there is a chance that his career is over. Murphy's Law strikes in New York yet again, what can go wrong will go wrong for the Jets it seems.
Fantasy Impact
Hopefully, Rodgers wasn't your QB1 this year. Had you listened to us, we had him ranked as about the QB17. An old quarterback on the downslope of his career behind a terrible offensive line was never going to work out. Zach Wilson is not an option to replace him so don't even entertain that idea. If you are in a two-QB league and need a replacement you are going to have to turn to a guy like Baker Mayfield, Sam Howell, or Ryan Tannehill. There is a chance the Jets sign a guy like Nick Foles or Carson Wentz. A QB addition could have some value if that happens.
This is horrific news for the entire Jets' offense. Every player should be downgraded, although, Breece Hall did look incredible. Hall should be upgraded from what you expected going into the game but downgraded from what he could have potentially been which is the RB1 overall. Let's stop beating around the bush though. We know you want to know about Garrett Wilson.
Wilson is still going to be very good there is no doubt. He's a special player and is going to be great for a long time. However, his ceiling is now capped with Zach Wilson quarterbacking the team. They just aren't going to score many points. We saw on Monday Night Football, on the off chance they scored it was because of the defense or special teams. You can only rely on that so much. The Jets could not sustain a drive on offense due to poor offensive line play and worse quarterback play. Garrett Wilson has gone from a WR1 with the upside to be a top-three wideout overall to a very good WR2.
JK Dobbins Ruptures His Achilles
Prior to Monday Night Football, Dobbins was the biggest injury news of the week. The Baltimore Ravens lost their ultra-talented young back for the season in their first game of the year. Not only is his season over, but his career as a productive starting NFL running back is likely over. We have a lot of data on Achilles tears and the Achilles is undefeated. If you own Dobbins and want to know how things might go for him in the future, watch how the careers of Cam Akers and James Robinson go over the next 11 months. For reference, in Week 1 Akers rushed 22 times for 29 yards which averages out to 1.3 yards per carry and Robinson isn't on an NFL roster.
Fantasy Impact
If you own Dobbins in a dynasty league and can get anything for him, do it. Sell him for pennies on the dollar while still can because that's the only hope of salvaging this situation. Running backs don't bounce back from this injury. For this year, if you are looking at the Ravens' running backs they are going to roll with Gus Edwards, Justice Hill, and Melvin Gordon. Edwards is the best back on the roster, however, he is 28 years old coming off an ACL tear. In Week 1, we saw Edwards and Hill both get eight carries with Hill getting the red zone touches and scoring two TDs. Melvin Gordon was a healthy inactive who is expected to be active next week.
Ultimately, if we have the choice we are going to roll with the upside of Hill here. He looked more explosive, and will likely be the passing down back, and we saw him get the touches near the goal line. Edwards may see more volume between the 20s, nevertheless, Hill should get the more valuable touches. Either way, none of these guys is more than a low-ceiling flex option for now.
Diontae Johnson Injures Hamstring
A disastrous Week 1 got worse for the Pittsburgh Steelers when their WR1 went down with a hamstring injury. The injury is believed to be severe and Johnson is expected to be out for weeks with injured reserve still being a possibility. Hamstrings take a long time to heal and are a high re-injury risk. Even once he is cleared to return this could linger. The team should be prepared without him for at least two weeks.
Fantasy Impact
If you own Johnson you should assume you won't have him for four weeks and take it from there. In his first week back, you should leave him on your bench if you have a better option. He will be back, but all you can do is wait. When it comes to the rest of the offensive players there is some good and some bad. The last thing Kenny Pickett needed was to lose his safety outlet after how lost he looked this week. Pickett is unstartable until he starts to look more like an NFL quarterback. George Pickens, Pat Freiermuth, and Calvin Austin should all be upgraded. The biggest beneficiary is Freiermuth who will now likely be that safety blanket for Pickett and see an uptick in targets. Pickens also becomes a much safer start and Austin now deserves flex consideration. Austin could also be a sleeper to become that safety blanket for Pickett.
