Skip to main content

Fantasy Football Injury Analysis: D’Andre Swift, Mac Jones, Dalvin Cook & More

Fantasy Football Injury Analysis: D’Andre Swift, Mac Jones, Dalvin Cook & More

Welcome back. Tons to discuss, so we’re going to dive right in. As always, hit us up on Twitter @SportMDAnalysis and @FantasyPros with your questions and comments!

Check out the rest of our weekly fantasy football advice partner-arrow

Mac Jones (QB – NE)

He had an MRI today and is dealing with a high severity high ankle sprain. The fact that he’s getting a second opinion means it’s borderline for whether he should have surgery or not. These injuries average 4-6 weeks for position players, but QBs can sometimes that push that up to 2-4. Either way, we’re very likely to see a multi-week absence here. If he has surgery, expect him back on the higher half of the range, around 4-5 weeks.

Dalvin Cook (RB – MIN)

He dislocated his shoulder again and this is bad news for his season. He has an unrepaired tear in the shoulder, which makes it slightly greater risk to begin with. When you dislocate, you very likely worsen the existing tear, making the shoulder even more unstable. Usually takes 1-2 weeks to bounce back. Cook may even get back for next week without a huge performance drop-off, but there’s a VERY high chance this pops up again in-season. I’m investing big in Alexander Mattison if I can.

JK Dobbins (RB – BAL)

9 touches is about what we expect from a young RB coming off of this injury. Usually, the ramp-up takes about 4 games, so I’d expect the training wheels to come off ~Week 7. When you factor in the typical performance dip with this surgery, but also Dobbins’s athletic metrics and production, our data points to the second half of this season when we anticipate looking at 85-90% of the old Dobbins. Week 3’s workload suggests he’s very much on that track.

Tua Tagovailoa (QB – MIA)

As it turns out, this probably wasn’t really a concussion concern. Sounds more like back spasms were actually the issue per some reports. Most commonly, a QB can get these under control in-season. There is a recurrence risk, but for a pocket QB missing time is still relatively uncommon. The short week for the Dolphins with an upcoming Thursday night game does work against him, but overall we’d slightly lean towards Tua playing Week 4.

D’Andre Swift (RB – DET)

Swift had been playing through a low severity, low ankle sprain that he just re-aggravated on Sunday. On top of that, he’s dealing with a new sprain to his shoulder (probably AC joint). Low ankle sprains are most commonly played through without missed time by RBs, but moderate severity shoulder sprains generally mean a 2-4 week absence. If Swift misses any time with the Lions having a Week 6 bye, it wouldn’t be surprising for Swift to plan on returning in Week 7. That should give his ankle and shoulder enough time to heal up, so we’d expect a full strength version of himself at that point.

Fantas Football Start-Sit Assistant

Michael Thomas (WR – NO)

Reporting says foot injury, but unclear details so far. The one thing we can say is that he was testing it before going into the locker room, which itself suggests relatively mild severity. Some reports have suggested a toe injury, the most common of which would be turf toe. That averages 0 to 1 game missed for WRs so overall seems likely that Thomas will be out there for Week 4.

Jarvis Landry (WR – NO)

Landry appeared to suffer a foot sprain on a play in which he twisted trying to catch a ball. He was progressively downgraded from probable to questionable to doubtful to return on Sunday, and that progression suggests a borderline severity injury. We’d be surprised if this made him miss any extended amount of time.

David Montgomery (RB – CHI)

Video looked like a mechanism for a high ankle sprain but they’re calling him day to day so probably 0-1 game missed. If I had to bet now, I’d say he misses 1 week because they also implied the knee was involved, but we’ll know a lot more by how he practices Wednesday and Thursday.

Justin Herbert (QB – LAC)

Truly impressive how Herbert hung in there even though you could see how much pain he was in with each hit. The good news for fantasy owners and Chargers fans is that this should improve significantly over the course of the next 3 weeks, with each being noticeably better than the previous. The exception would be if he takes a big hit to the affected rib. As far as we know and can see, that didn’t seem to happen yesterday, so Herbert is likely getting better from here.

Garrett Wilson (WR – NYJ)

Wilson took a big hit to the ribs and, after evaluation, was able to come back into Week 3’s game. These don’t usually turn into lingering problems for WRs, so I’d expect to see a full practice and near full strength performance for Week 4.

And that’s all for today’s injury report. If you like what you see, drop a follow on Twitter @SportMDAnalysis and @FantasyPros, and hit us up with your questions!

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | SoundCloud | iHeartRadio

If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.

More Articles

Thor Nystrom’s 2024 NFL Draft Big Board: Top 500 Rookie Rankings & Comps

Thor Nystrom’s 2024 NFL Draft Big Board: Top 500 Rookie Rankings & Comps

fp-headshot by Thor Nystrom | 10 min read
19 Consensus Early Breakout Candidates (2024 Fantasy Football)

19 Consensus Early Breakout Candidates (2024 Fantasy Football)

fp-headshot by FantasyPros Staff | 8 min read
Thor Nystrom’s 2024 NFL Draft Prospect Rankings: Tight End

Thor Nystrom’s 2024 NFL Draft Prospect Rankings: Tight End

fp-headshot by Thor Nystrom | 1 min read
Dynasty Rookie Mock Draft: Superflex, Four Rounds (2024 Fantasy Football)

Dynasty Rookie Mock Draft: Superflex, Four Rounds (2024 Fantasy Football)

fp-headshot by Pat Fitzmaurice | 7 min read

About Author

Hide

Current Article

3 min read

Thor Nystrom’s 2024 NFL Draft Big Board: Top 500 Rookie Rankings & Comps

Next Up - Thor Nystrom’s 2024 NFL Draft Big Board: Top 500 Rookie Rankings & Comps

Next Article