Fantasy Football Weekly News Roundup: Justin Herbert Injury Update

It’s really starting to feel like football season now. Pads are on at training camps across the league, and hype trains are really starting to get rolling. We even had our first “real” game action of the season with the Hall of Fame game.

Unfortunately, we’ve also seen our first rash of injuries, with multiple big names already hitting the sideline. Let’s take a look at the fantasy football impacts of the biggest news of the last week.

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The Malik Nabers Hype Train is Off the Rails

In what is going to be an injury-filled roundup, let’s start with some good news: Malik Nabers is reportedly awesome. I normally don’t consider camp hype, especially camp hype out of a huge market like New York, to be newsworthy. But the buzz surrounding Nabers has simply been too consistent to ignore.

Every other tweet on my timeline is a new beat reporter gushing about the sixth-overall pick’s separation, speed or hands. Nabers is currently the WR23 in ADP, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he is a top 20 receiver off the board by the end of August.    

Steelers WR Roman Wilson Suffers Ankle Injury

Unfortunately, the news is less good for another rookie receiver, as Wilson was carted off the practice field on Tuesday. Luckily, Mike Tomlin told reporters that the third-rounder has an ankle sprain which “can be characterized as week-to-week at this juncture,” so he may be ready to go by Week 1.

However, missing time during camp is never a good omen, especially for a rookie fighting for playing time. Prior to his injury, Wilson was being drafted as the Steelers’ WR2, although still in the double-digit rounds of drafts. Unless he returns to camp quickly and we have positive news about his role, he probably isn’t worth drafting except in very deep leagues. 

DeAndre Hopkins Set to Miss Time with Strained Knee

Hopkins will reportedly miss four to six weeks with a knee injury, which puts his status for the Titans’ Week 1 matchup with the Bears in jeopardy. Even if he is on track to play in Week 1, Hopkins has to slide down boards slightly with this news — preseason knee injuries are never good, especially for a 32-year-old wide receiver.

On the other side, I’ve seen some debate as to whether this is a positive of negative for fellow Titans receiver Calvin Ridley. Some analysts have argued that Ridley needs to share the field with an alpha to thrive, and Hopkins missing time would actually hurt his fantasy value … I don’t buy it.

Volume is king, and Ridley would almost certainly see more targets with Hopkins sidelined. With that said, Hopkins could still not miss any time, and I wasn’t a huge fan of Ridley’s WR34 ADP to begin with, so don’t go overboard in targeting him as a result of this news. 

Geno Smith Avoids Serious Knee and Hip Injury

The last 24 hours have been a rollercoaster for Seahawks fans and Smith dynasty managers alike. Initial reporting came out on Thursday that Geno had suffered a knee and hip injury and would be out from training camp indefinitely. That’s the kind of wording that often comes before an announcement that a player has had surgery and will miss an entire season.

Instead, we learned Friday morning that testing revealed no significant injuries, and Geno “shouldn’t miss any time.” Assuming he does make it back on the field shortly and seems good to go heading into Week 1, I love Geno as a cheap QB2 target in superflex leagues. 

D'Onta Foreman Briefly Hospitalized with Neck Injury

This was the scariest injury of the week, as Foreman was taken in a helicopter to a hospital following a neck injury suffered during a kickoff drill at Browns’ camp. Thankfully, the journeyman running back has now been released from the hospital and has reportedly escaped serious injury.

It remains to be seen if this injury will affect his availability heading into the season, in which he is projected to split touches with Jerome Ford while Nick Chubb is sidelined.

Justin Herbert Dealing with Foot Injury

The Chargers’ franchise quarterback has been diagnosed with plantar fascia in his left foot. The team reportedly expects him to be ready to go by Week 1, but this injury lingers. Herbert could very well be dealing with pain in his foot for the entire season, which would limit his mobility both in and out of the pocket.

The fantasy potential of Herbert running more under Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh was an exciting prospect, but that seems much less likely if he is not fully healthy.  

Is Chase Brown the Bengals’ RB1?

Of all the types of training camp hype, the most important to pay attention to is workload reports. A beat reporter saying, “This guy looks great,” is a lot less meaningful than that same beat reporter saying, “This guy is going to play a lot of snaps.” And Chase Brown is getting that latter kind of beat report.

Brown’s ability to be an effective lead back is unproven, as his 34.1% success rate as a rookie was dead last among players with at least 40 carries. But situation is king, especially for running backs, and it appears for now that Brown will start the season as the Bengals’ RB1, a very valuable job for fantasy purposes. He should move up a round or two in ADP, or at least in front of fellow Cincinnati RB Zack Moss.