Welcome back! For those who are newly joining, I’m Deepak Chona, M.D. – Stanford. I’m also a Harvard-trained sports surgeon and the founder of SportsMedAnalytics. I’m so excited to team up once again with the amazing squad at FantasyPros.
SportsMedAnalytics specializes in advanced injury analysis – predicting return timelines, performance impacts, and re-injury risks – by combining big data and machine learning with clinical experience.
If you like to win, you’ll want to keep an eye out for our weekly injury articles here and frequent updates at sportsmedanalytics.com, where you can streamline your prep with customized feeds of the players and teams you’re most interested in.
And as always, if you don’t see what you’re looking for hit us up on X/Twitter @FantasyPros and @SportMDAnalysis so we can get you the answers you need.
Here are the 10 biggest injuries questions of the fantasy football draft season. Below I highlight a few notable players.
NFL Injuries to Know (2023 Fantasy Football)
Joe Burrow (QB – CIN)
We’ve heard a ton about Burrow, but the most objective indicators are relatively favorable. It took Burrow less than one week after straining his calf to ditch the walking boot. That strongly suggests a grade 1 (low grade) injury. When players rush back – which they can do in dire situations – they do so with a higher re-injury risk, and re-injuries are almost always more severe than the original. That’s why it’s not surprising to see the Bengals take this slowly. All signs point to a smooth recovery so far, and we therefore expect Burrow to play Week 1 without major impact. Re-injury risk for a QB given this much time to rest is relatively low, so we haven’t dropped Burrow in any rankings so far.
Cooper Kupp (WR – LAR)
Similar to Burrow, we expected Cooper Kupp to progress slowly because hamstring strains carry a similar profile of high re-injury risk when rushed back. But Kupp’s timeline also essentially confirms a low grade injury, and it’s therefore not likely to hinder him by Week 1. Expect 100% of the producer we’re used to seeing. Although these hamstring injuries do have about a 15% recurrence rate over the course of the season for wide receivers with Kupp’s athletic profile. But that risk decreases as the season continues.
Terry McLaurin (WR – WSH)
Video of the injury suggested a turf toe, and all reports out of Washington indicated that there was no significant damage on the MRI. That bodes well for McLaurin’s chances for Week 1, and we’d lean towards him playing. Our algorithm projects a 10% explosiveness dip for Weeks 1 and 2, but a return to full strength by Week 3 or Week 4.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR – SEA)
Most wrist fractures take six weeks to heal, but data tells us that return timelines can often be pushed up to four-to-five weeks. That puts JSN at ~Week 3 for his return. It’s possible to accelerate that even further, but wrist surgery for a WR does affect grip strength in the early phase. Therefore, if he’s out there before Week 3, we would anticipate a performance hit.
And that’s a wrap. For now. Hit us with your remaining injury questions on Twitter/X @SportMDAnalysis and @FantasyPros and stay ahead of your league-mates with injury updates here and at sportsmedanalytics.com!
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