Seth Vigdor
A key to Fantasy Football is not having a team that’s plagued with injuries. Generally, every team gets hit with the injury bug during the season, but the degree of devastation to teams can vary. Sometimes there’s a few minor nicks and bruises to your players, but if you’re like me, my players drop like flies to severe injuries. Preseason football hasn’t even concluded yet and we’ve already seen some big names drop to various injuries. Let’s take a look at some of the bigger named players that have injuries and who I like on their teams that will benefit the most from their injuries.
#1 – Jordy Nelson (GB – WR)
The biggest star to fall victim to the injury bug to date is by far Packers WR, Jordy Nelson. Nelson tore his ACL on a non-contact play. He will miss the entire 2015 season and it’s a potentially devastating blow to Green Bay before the season even started. The Packers do however have a nice variety of talent that can try to fill the void that will be left by Nelson’s injuries. There are three guys that I think will benefit the most from this injury, so let’s take a look at them.
Packers RB, Eddie Lacy was already set to see a nice workload for the Packers this season, but now even more so, it makes sense for the Packers to incorporate their big, brute of a back into more of their offense. Lacy can also be used in the pass game to catch balls out of the backfield. He remains one of the toughest players to bring down when he has the ball. Lacy is 230 pounds of meat that knows how to lower his shoulder and keep his feet moving to keep plowing down defenders. Expect his usage rate to increase early on in the season.
Next up is Randall Cobb. When Nelson went down, I immediately thought that Cobb was the jackpot winner for Fantasy owners. However, Cobb just suffered a shoulder injury in the Packer’s third preseason game. The injury is considered to be a relatively mild AC joint sprain, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on. Provided Cobb is healthy, he’s clearly the WR that Aaron Rodgers will look to the most in Nelson’s absence. Rodgers and Cobb have great chemistry as they’ve played together for years and let’s face it, the Packers love to throw the ball. Who better to throw the ball to than a speedy WR, that can line up anywhere on the field and burn you either with slant routes or the deep ball. Consider Cobb questionable for week 1, but he should be locked in and loaded to your lineups if healthy. There’s a chance for big numbers here this year from Cobb.
The third player to benefit the most from the Nelson injury will be every Fantasy player’s little darling, Davante Adams. Adams has seen his ADP skyrocket over the last couple of weeks with all of the Packers injuries. He was already being considered for a huge breakout season by many in the Fantasy community. At 6’1”, 215 lbs, Adams is entering his second season in the NFL. When players go down on a team, the next man must step up and in this case, Adams is going to show major growth this year. Perhaps head coach Mike McCarthy wasn’t planning on using Adams as much this year, but with Nelson down and Cobb banged up, Adams needs to step up to the plate. Last season, Adams had 38 receptions for 446 yards and 3 touchdowns. Look for those numbers to all double this year. It may not take long to find out that Adams is the real deal.
#2 – Kelvin Benjamin (CAR – WR)
Like Jordy Nelson, Kelvin Benjamin’s season is over due to a torn ACL. It’s terrible news for Benjamin, the Panthers and Cam Newton altogether. Newton just can never seem to have a legit receiving core on his team. I thought he was headed in the right direction with Benjamin and rookie WR, Devin Funchess from Michigan. However, now with this Benjamin injury and some nicks to Funchess, Newton is screwed. His body took a beating last year and it could be in store for another beating this year. Unlike Newton, here are a couple of players on the Panthers that will benefit from the Benjamin injury.
Tight End Greg Olsen has always been a reliable weapon for Newton. Olsen essentially will be Cam’s number one target going forward, unless the Panthers bring another WR onto the team. Olsen is a warrior, as he’s played in all 16 games in each of his eight seasons in the league, except for one season. You have to be concerned that his body may begin to wear down, but the Panthers can’t afford to worry about that now. Olsen had 84 receptions for 1,008 yards and 6 touchdowns last season. I can’t see him having many more receptions than that this year, unless they’re going to try to kill him. Olsen is in the top 4 of Fantasy TE’s, so if you haven’t drafted yet, go ahead and make a play for him.
If you’ve read some of my preview articles for this season here on PhillyInfluencer.com, you’ll know that one of the players that I loathe this year is Jonathan Stewart. However, by default, the Kelvin Benjamin injury should be good news for Stewart’s Fantasy value. Stewart will have to be relied on more to take some of the pressure off of Cam Newton. Though I think Stewart is average at best, you have to love the amount of carries that he’s going to see this year. If a number of those carries are on the goal line, Stewart may be better off this year than I expect. He’s the Panthers starting RB and he doesn’t have to split carries with DeAngelo Williams anymore, so the opportunity is here for him. Let’s see what he can do with it.
#3 – Kevin White (CHI – WR)
The Chicago Bears offseason saw them trade their number one WR, Brandon Marshall to the Jets. With that trade, a huge hole was left in the Bears receiving core. The Bears thought that they had a replacement for Marshall when they drafted Kevin White from West Virginia. However, White went down with a stress fracture and will at least miss the first six games of the year as he was placed on the reserve/PUP list. The more likely scenario is that he misses his whole rookie season. This will open up the door for a couple players that I believe will benefit big time from this injury.
The Bears TE, Martellus Bennett had a great season last year. He had a career high in receptions with 90, for 916 yards and 6 touchdowns. He was a Fantasy monster in the first half the season. Jay Cutler looked very comfortable throwing to Bennett. With Alshon Jeffery clearly the number one WR in Chicago now, it will open up some opportunity for Bennett to take advantage of the times that Jeffery is double teamed. Bennett knows how to get open, so while I’m not sure that he can duplicate his reception numbers from last year, I see no reason that he can’t produce big time this year. Bennett also remains a red zone threat, so I think that his TD numbers will increase this year.
The WR that benefits the most from the White injury, besides the obvious, Alshon Jeffery will be Eddie Royal. Royal played last season with the Chargers, where he had 62 receptions for 778 yards and 7 touchdowns. Those numbers aren’t bad at all for someone that wasn’t supposed to play a key role on that Chargers team. His numbers played even better in PPR formats. Royal has been dealing with an injury of his own lately (hip), but it appears to be a minor injury. Royal is a sneaky play here to do some damage in Fantasy and he should come relatively cheap in the later rounds, especially if there’s anyone concerned about the hip injury. I’ll take a chance on Royal in any league that I have an opportunity to do so.
#4 – Julius Thomas (Jac – TE)
Next up on the injury train is Jacksonville Jaguar TE, Julius Thomas. Thomas will be out of action for 4-5 weeks after having finger surgery. Thomas has gone from having veteran Peyton Manning as his QB to having the second year youngster, Blake Bortles as his QB. His Fantasy stock was already heading down the tube and now with this news, it goes even further downhill. Thomas should return to the field most likely in late September/early October. In the meantime, the Jags will need some players to step up and I think the opportunity is ripe for these two players.
Wide receiver Allen Robinson is entering his second year in the NFL. He’s going to be asked to play a large role in the offense with Thomas out for the first month or so of the season. In his rookie year, Robinson had 48 receptions for 548 yards and 2 touchdowns in only 10 games played. His QB, Blake Bortles is also entering his second season, so there of course will be a learning curve for the two and for the Jags offense as a whole. If Bortles can improve on his end, the potential to have a dynamic combo with Robinson is there. The Jags offense was one of the worst offenses in the league last year, but there should be some improvements made this year from them. Robinson will be a focal point of the offense and should provide you with decent Fantasy value, especially in PPR formats.
Another player from the Jags that should benefit from the Thomas injury is rookie RB, T.J. Yeldon. Yeldon shows lots of promise and he being drafted to a young team will help him grow with this team. He was a monster while playing in College for Alabama and the Jags are hoping that his college game can translate into the pros. He’s a big back at 6’1’, 226 pounds, so he should be able to handle the physical demands of the NFL and with no other solid RB on the Jags, he should get thrown to the wolves early on in the season. I’m uncertain of what the end game will be in regards to Fantasy relevance this year, but he’s going to get his share of the touches on the team.
#5 Arian Foster (HOU – RB)
Pinch yourself if you’ve heard this before. Arian Foster is injured. He suffered a groin injury a couple weeks ago and then went ahead and had groin surgery. The initial time table given was that he’d miss the first eight weeks of the regular season. There are now reports that he’s healing well and that he could be back by late September. If I had to take a guess, I say that he’s back somewhere between the 4-8 weeks given, which would bring him back somewhere in October. While Foster is out, there is really only one guy that I see benefitting from his absence and that’s DeAndre Hopkins.
While first instinct might be to say that Alfred Blue would benefit the most, I’m not convinced that Blue will get the 100% share of the ball in the backfield. The Texans also have former Eagle Chris Polk, who I like a lot. I think the coaches will choose to split carries between Polk and Blue until Foster comes back. Therefore, the true player to benefit will be the best player on the offense, which is DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins is in store for a big year in his third year in the NFL. Last year Hopkins had 76 receptions for 1,210 yards and 6 touchdowns. I think that he can come close to 90 receptions this year and will see the end zone at least 5 more times. This could be his breakout season and this Foster injury will only boost his production even more.
Below are other notable players in the league with injuries already. Next to them are the names of the players that I think will benefit the most, should their injuries turn out to be more severe.
Roddy White (ATL – WR) – Beneficiary: Devin Hester (WR)
LeSean McCoy (BUF – RB) – Beneficiaries: Bryce Brown (RB), Sammy Watkins (WR)
Devin Funchess (CAR – WR) – Beneficiaries: Jarrett Boykin (WR), Jericho Crotchery (WR)
T.Y. Hilton (IND – WR) – Beneficiary: Andre Johnson (WR)
Travis Kelce (KC – TE) – Beneficiary: Jeremy Maclin (WR)
DeVante Parker (MIA – WR) – Beneficiaries: Jarvis Landry (WR), Kenny Stills (WR)
Brandon LaFell (NE – WR) – Beneficiaries: Julian Edelman (WR), Reggie Wayne (WR)
C.J. Spiller (N.O. – RB) – Beneficiaries: Mark Ingram (RB), Brandin Cooks (WR)
Victor Cruz (N.Y. Giants – WR) – Beneficiaries: James Jones (WR), Larry Donnell (TE)
Zach Ertz (PHI – TE) – Beneficiaries: Brent Celek (TE), Nelson Agholor (WR)
Tre Mason (STL – RB) – Beneficiary: Benny Cunningham (RB)
Mike Evans (TB – WR) – Beneficiaries: Vincent Jackson (WR), Austin Seferian-Jenkins (TE)
The game of Fantasy comes down to staying healthy. Some teams are more fortunate than others. For the sake of the actual player’s health and for the sake of your Fantasy team, I hope that you all have injury-free seasons.
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