Inside The Medical Tent: Regular Season Week 6

Presented by The Injured List Podcast and That Sports Podcast Network

Written by Brian Scott and Andrew Leduc

Welcome to The Medical Tent

Welcome back for the third year of “Inside The Medical Tent.” Each week I, Andrew Leduc, will be asking Brian Scott, of “The Injured List Podcast,” injury questions that could have a fantasy impact. Brian will be giving his professional analysis of the injury and potential timelines. I will then turn that around into what you should do with that player and who could be a possible replacement. Check back every Wednesday during the season for all the necessary information before hitting your league’s waiver wire.

Aaron Jones - RB (MIN)

Andrew Leduc - Can we expect Jones to miss significant time?

Brian Scott - Aaron Jones injured his hip sometime during the 1st half against the Jets in London this past week. He did not return. The Vikings head coach reported that it does not appear to be a serious injury and that he will be evaluated on a week to week basis. With the team having a week 6 bye, I think we will see him take advantage of some much-needed time off to heal. While it remains unclear as to what the exact injury is, it is hard to imagine that given the latest update, it will be any serious length of time missed.

Andrew Leduc - This is great news for Jones' owners who have been taking advantage of a little resurgence from the veteran running back. I think mostly everyone was a bit skeptical of how productive he would be in this Viking's offense, but the entire offense has exceeded expectations. In his absence, Ty Chandler looked to be everything we thought he would be. Its arguable that Chandler is the more explosive back out of the two, but as long as Jones is healthy he will still demand high volume between the two. At this point, Chander is a premier handcuff and should be rostered in just about every league format.

Derek Carr - QB (NO)

Andrew Leduc - Will Carr miss more than just this week?

Brian Scott - MRI confirmed the injury and he has been listed as day to day. He is already going to miss the team’s week 6 matchup as rookie Spencer Rattler will get the nod to start in his place. With a short turnaround heading into week 7, it seems even more likely that Carr will be out at least two weeks as he recovers. The day to day tag definitely makes me think this is a minor injury, but trying to do too much too soon is certainly a real risk with oblique injuries, so I think that the two weeks out will do him very well in his recovery.

Andrew Leduc - Carr has shocked everyone leading the the Saints to one of the top offenses in the league, so far. I am worried Rattler having to come in for 1 or 2 weeks could throw this team out of rhythm though and we see some regression even once Carr returns. In the meantime though with Rattler, as it always is with rookie quarterbacks making their debut, I am downgrading the receiving options. I doubt we see the big throws down the field from him to get Rasheed Shaheed booming like we have seen so far. I also expect the route trees to tighten up to a simple spread. I think this caps the ceiling for all pass-catching options. Kamara should see a boost though as this offense should lean on him to get big yards when they need it.

Travis Etienne - RB (JAX)

Andrew Leduc - Is the AC joint sprain something he can play through?

Brian Scott - From what I can gather from reports, he likely has an AC joint sprain that is not severe enough to keep him out of action, but is significant enough that he has been limited in practice and did see his workload decrease this past weekend. We might see more of the same as he continues to play through this injury. He might be trying to tough it out until the team’s week 12 bye, but that is a long way away. I expect that this will take a few more weeks to get back to normal, so we could see shared snap counts with Tank Bigsby for the foreseeable future.

Andrew Leduc - Here comes Tank Bigsby. Bigsby has already looked better than Etienne and the snap count and touches should be about 50/50 at this point. If you have not already added Bigsby in your leagues, then I think he is a must-add as we finally saw Lawrence and this Jaguars offense look explosive enough to provide real fantasy numbers out of their stars. Unfortunately for Etienne, the new star in the backfield is Bigsby. I am starting him as a FLEX this weekend even with Etienne playing. If Etienne sits out, fire Bigsby up as a RB2 in a pretty good matchup with Chicago on the road.

Brian Robinson - RB (WAS)

Andrew Leduc - Is this injury something Robinson has been dealing with for awhile and will continue to play through?

Brian Scott - He was a DNP this week at the team’s first practice on Wednesday dealing with the same knee issue he dealt with last week. Despite the injury, he was able to log a successful week 5 outing. While it is unclear as to what the exact injury is, it could be more of an acute on chronic type of injury, which when allowed some rest and activity modification, allows him to suit up and play each week. We will definitely be keeping a close watch on this. Unfortunately for him the team does not have a bye until week 14.

Andrew Leduc - Robinson seems capable of playing through this injury and seems to have no trouble finding the endzone in spite of it. Robinson only saw 7 touches for 18 yards this past week, but he was able to find the endzone twice. With Ekeler also getting 6 touches and looking more explosive we saw a pretty nice one-two punch from the Commanders. With the way the game went Washington did not really need to use either too much as they won in blow-out fashion. I can see a close to 50/50 split between the two this week if they both play and it will really come down to who is more likely to find the endzone. In that scenario, I am still playing Robinson as a RB2 because I trust this offense to get him in to position to punch it in right now.

Joe Mixon - RB (HOU)

Andrew Leduc - Is it clear we are looking at the longer timetable for Mixon to return?

Brian Scott - He is still dealing with this high ankle sprain from a week 2 hip drop tackle. While the penalty did not get called, the league did retroactively fine the defensive player who made the tackle. Fast forward to week 6 and Mixon is still not participating in practice as of Wednesday this week. While some are surprised by this development, I have been stating all along that it would not surprise me if he was out at least 4 weeks and could be as long as 6. While he was not placed on IR, it appears that maybe it would have been a better option at the time for the Texans roster. Regardless, it may be another two weeks before we see him in the backfield again if he cannot go this weekend.

Andrew Leduc - With Mixon most likely missing more time, Pierce is actually looking likely to make a return to the lineup against the Patriots this week. In Mixon's absence it was actually the Dare Ogunbowale show instead of the Cam Akers show. If Pierce can go and mixon sits then I expect Pierce to take the lead with Ogunbowale playing the pass-catching role against a Patriots defense that cannot set the edge. I predict a lot of movement out of the pocket from Stroud to open up areas of the defense and to find Ogunbowale as a check down option when on the field. Pierce would be a RB2 play for me and Ogunbowale would be a high end FLEX play and low-end RB2 play.

David Njoku - TE (CLE)

Andrew Leduc - Which injury is it this time for Njoku?

Brian Scott - After Njoku missed three weeks with a high ankle sprain, he made his return in Week 5, only to sustain a knee injury. An MRI was done earlier this week and revealed no major damage to the knee, which is encouraging. However, the Brown’s Head Coach Kevin Stefansky stated that Njoku is day to day and he was a DNP at practice Wednesday this week which does not bode well for the weekend game coming up. This may truly be day to day situation, and that could mean a true game time decision.

Andrew Leduc - With yet another injured tight-end, we are left with much better options and risks to take than Njoku if he ends up playing. Even if he was healthy, this Cleveland offense is at the bottom of the league with New England in my opinion and Deshaun Watson could be on the verge of being benched. With players like Tucker Kraft, Tyler Conklin, Cade Otton and Isaiah Likely stepping up so far this year, you can plug and play anyone and it would probably be equal to better than Njoku. If you have him stashed on your team, I am fine with dropping him for streaming options instead.

The Discharge

Come back every week for all of the latest injury updates. If you have other questions we didn’t get to in this week’s edition you can follow us on Twitter below and message us directly.

Brian Scott - The Injured List Podcast - (@injuredlistpod)  https://twitter.com/injuredlistpod

Andrew Leduc - (@theRealMrMallard) https://twitter.com/realMrMallard

If you are interested in Andrew’s weekly rankings as well, follow the link below to TSS Fantasy.

Andrew Leduc’s (Mr. Mallard) Rankings - https://tssfantasy.com/andrews-ranking