PRESENTED BY THE INJURED LIST PODCAST AND FANTASY SPORTS CORPORATION
BY: BRIAN SCOTT AND ANDREW LEDUC
WELCOME TO THE MEDICAL TENT
Welcome back for the second 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.
Derek Carr - QB (NO)
Andrew Leduc - What was the specific injury to Carr and what timeline can we expect?
Brian Scott - Derek Carr sprained the AC joint in his right shoulder this past weekend and has been listed as week to week. The problem is that this is his throwing shoulder and we could see him miss at least two weeks. Keep an eye on how quickly he returns to the practice field and throws a ball. That will be the first indication that he is moving in the right direction. I can foresee this being a week or two before he can comfortably get enough on the ball to throw it downfield with any velocity. If it is a moderate sprain, which we have reason to believe. Then two weeks is a very generous estimate.
Andrew Leduc - It looks like we could have the triumphant return of Jameis Winston to this offense. Winston did not look bad in his time in New Orleans, but he is far from a reliable option for fantasy teams. Given some other injuries and poor QB play this season though, I could see a scenario where Winston is serviceable for a Super Flex spot or QB2 role though. I would not expect too much outside of big play boom or bust stuff from Michael Thomas and Chris Olave though.
Mike Williams - WR (LAC)
Andrew Leduc - We know Williams is done for the season, but with the timing of the injury, does it threaten the start of next season too?
Brian Scott - He went down for the season with a noncontact ACL injury. You could see it happen as he planted to make a move right before getting gang-tackled. He is 28 years old and starting his 6th year in the league. Being a skilled position player, this will cause him to lose a step and will pose a big challenge for him to get rehabbed and back on the field by the start of next season. Assuming there were no other structural injuries, it is reasonable to think that he can make it back by next year's training camp.
Andrew Leduc - Queue the breakout of Quentin Johnston that all of his supporters have been waiting for. Johnston has the skill set to jump right into a similar role in this offense for the Chargers. Keenan Allen is having a great start to the year, so I still expect the offense to continue to flow through him. Johnston should be able to maintain a backend WR2 or high-end WR3 role. This offense is pretty comfortable in wanting to throw the ball, so I expect that to continue.
Joe Burrow - QB (CIN)
Andrew Leduc - Cam we expect Burrow to continue to play through this injury?
Brian Scott - As I had predicted he did play in the team's MNF matchup against the Rams. He was able to help them pull out a victory, but as was evident, that calf is not quite right. He played out of the shotgun for the vast majority of the game and did not have many big drops back to pass. He also did not seem to have as much velocity or accuracy on his passes downfield as he normally would because it is his back leg that he is pushing off of. Despite this, he was effective and I believe we will see him battle through this up until their week 7 bye, if he can make it until then. Look for him to be limited in practices and on the injured list moving forward.
Andrew Leduc - It was nice to see Ja’Marr Chase emerge finally and have an efficient game for fantasy owners. What is unfortunate about Burrow’s injury is that it is clear to me that as long as he is hindered, this offense will only be able to support one solid WR performance per game. I fear because Burrow is uncomfortable with his body he is being quicker with his decisions out of fear of getting hit. This is going to lead to more forced throws and less progression through his receivers. Chase’s ceiling will still be capped because of this injury to Burrow, but unfortunately, the floor is closer to the basement for the first-round pick.
Austin Ekeler - RB (LAC)
Andrew Leduc - Do we see Ekeler return before the Charger’s BYE week?
Brian Scott - There have been some reports circulating that he is gearing up to be ready for this week 4 matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. However, the Chargers have a Week 5 BYE and this could put a kink in his plans to return before that. So, that would mean trying to bring back Ekeler for one week, after having missed two with very limited practice time, and then sit out a bye week. Does not make much sense to me from a health standpoint. I think we see him ramp up his participation in practice and maybe test it out before the weekend, but I am more inclined to say that he will just rest through week 4 and the bye week, so he can be 100% in week 6 return.
Andrew Leduc - The answer to who I like in this backfield while Ekeler is out continues to be no one. Kelley has proven time and time again he cannot be serviceable in fantasy when given the opportunity, yet the Chargers continue to give him the chance. That makes it way too risky to attempt to play one of their other options in Ronnie Rivers and Zach Evans. The fact of the matter is, from a football standpoint, Kelley does just enough for them to allow them to throw the ball all over the field. They are going to continue to do that and leave the backfield to be useless to us fantasy owners until Ekeler is back.
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-rankings
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