Inside The Medical Tent Week 5
- Brian Scott
- Oct 4, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 19, 2023
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.
Kenny Pickett - QB (PIT)
Andrew Leduc - Will Kenny Pickett miss time with his injury this week?
Brian Scott - He was injured on a 4th down play in a loss to Tennessee this past weekend when he twisted awkwardly when being tackled. Reports are stating that he has some sort of bone bruise in his knee and muscle strain. That is good news because, with a combined twisting type mechanism, it could have very quickly been a season-ending ligament tear. As luck would have it, he will likely be sidelined for at least a week or two, which works out perfectly given their week 6 bye. With adequate rest, if the bone bruise is not too bad, we should see him ready by week 7 for a return.
Andrew Leduc - It looks like we will see the return of Mitch Trubisky. I don’t mind this for the Steelers’ offense, but this should still be a turnover-prone team. With a division matchup against Baltimore on tap, I do not see this going well for Pittsburgh whether Pickett or Trubisky starts. I am avoiding everyone in this offense. Luckily, for any of you “Pickett Truthers” out there, this should be a brief absence that will allow him to return pretty close to full health.
Javonte Williams - RB (DEN)
Andrew Leduc - How serious of an injury is a hip flexor for a running back?
Brian Scott - He apparently suffered a hip flexor injury, which is usually in reference to a muscle strain of one of the muscle groups that flex the hip. These are usually not very severe and in my experience, I have not seen too many Football players miss much if any time with this injury. This would be a different story if he was a hockey player. Judging by how that young running back McLaughlin stepped in, I think Williams will make sure he is ready to go next week, if not then definitely week 6 against the Chiefs.
Andrew Leduc - I am still grabbing Jaleel McLaughlin wherever I can. With the inconsistency at the running back position outside of the top 2 or 3 guys, I will take my shots where I can. McLaughlin looked electric and versatile. You can chalk some of that up to the adrenaline of the moment, but his play style is not too far off from Williams and Perine anyway. Because of this, I do not think his success was because of a lack of readiness from the Bears' defense. With a matchup on tap with the Jets this week who just gave up 204 yards to the Chiefs, I like his odds of being a flex play this week. At best, Williams will be active but limited. I think we still see a shared backfield with McLaughlin cutting into Perine’s touches if all 3 backs are playing.
Mike Evans - WR (TB)
Andrew Leduc - Will the BYE week provide enough time for Mike Evans to recover from another hamstring injury?
Brian Scott - Reportedly he injured his hamstring in the second quarter this past weekend and did not return. Since 2019 he has been on injury reports with hamstring issues, so he is no stranger to this injury. Despite this, over 9 seasons he has been able to put up over 1,000 yards each year. He is a veteran and has been through this before. He will not chance it if he knows he is not ready. The good news is that they have a week 5 bye, so that will allow him a whole additional week of rest. MRI apparently showed it was mild. In the NFL, the use of MRI is very liberal, but as we have stated before, hamstrings can easily be aggravated, so the treatment and progression through his therapy is of utmost importance coming out of the bye week to see if he will be ready to go week 6 without this lingering well into the season.
Andrew Leduc - If Evans was going to get injured this year, this was the best possible time. With the team on BYE this week it feels like Evans could be good to go for week 6. As always, I do caution against this as hamstrings are always unpredictable. Given that, Chris Godwin gets a boost which gives him some time to get even more connected with Baker Mayfield. Evans has definitely been the main target for Mayfield, leaving Godwin to be a little underwhelming so far. We saw how quickly that changed though once Evans was off the field. I think the time Godwin had this past week as the main target built up some trust between the two and I see him being more involved going forward, with or without Evans on the field. Meanwhile, if Evans does miss multiple weeks, the Buccaneers are not very deep at the wide receiver position. I would expect either a practice squad promotion or a signing to add some options for the offense.
Deebo Samuel - WR (SF)
Andrew Leduc - Are you more concerned about one of Samuel’s injuries over the other?
Brian Scott - Hip and Knee. He played this past Sunday and was not much of a factor in their win. Perhaps that was because of the lopsided score. Or perhaps that knee is more of an issue than the ribs as was reported by Coach Shannahan today. He said Deebo is day-to-day. However, he said that just about everyone on the injured list was day-to-day, so not sure how helpful that is. I do not see this being a long-term thing given that he played through it already. However, if he develops any swelling in that knee or any suspicious symptoms that could set off alarms, then he might be rested because their bye week is not until week 9.
Andrew Leduc - This is going to be a tough situation to follow. If Samuel plays through the injury, I think it is fair to expect his production to dip a bit. Luckily for the 49ers, they have Brandon Aiyuk who is absolutely killing it. With 17 catches on the season, all of Aiyuk's catches have been for either a first down or a touchdown. That checks all the boxes we are looking for in a receiver. Just that stat alone tells us he has good air yards, YAC, targets, red zone targets, etc. Aiyuk was an off-season favorite of mine and a lot of others. I expect him to rise even more with a hobbled Samuel on the field.
Justin Herbert - QB (LAC)
Andrew Leduc - How could this fracture affect Herbert, even though it is his non-throwing hand?
Brian Scott - He fractured one of his fingers on his non-throwing hand when it got caught up in an opponent's face mask after throwing an interception. It was wrapped and splinted as he came back on the field and did not miss any snaps. Like any bone fracture, it will take about 6 weeks to fully fuse, but by week 2, most of the healing has started and with splinting and therapy he could play through it since it is not on his throwing hand. It will however affect his ability to take snaps from under center. The good thing is that he has a Week 5 bye, so that will give him at least a solid two weeks of rest.
Andrew Leduc - The good news is Herbert shouldn’t miss any time with this injury, which is great news for Keenan Allen owners. The potential to struggle taking snaps under center does worry me a bit though. I would assume this means we will see more shotgun and pistol formations out of the Chargers. I will be curious to see how defenses are able to defend now against the pass with more limited formation options to prepare for. I expect the Chargers to get creative with their use of Austin Ekeler and their other weapons from these formations to keep the defense guessing, but this is definitely something I am monitoring as far as the high ceilings we have seen out of Keenan Allen. We might just be in for a stretch of more pedestrian WR2 numbers for a little while. This is still fine considering he has mostly overproduced for our squads to this point anyway. Long term, I believe Allen will keep this up and help your team continue on to the playoffs.
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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