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Fantasy File Injuries become nagging part of fantasy landscapePosted: Tuesday November 27, 2001 4:16 PM
By James Quintong, CNNSI.com Luckily for fantasy owners, this is the last real short week on the schedule. Short week meaning a regularly scheduled Thursday night game that can wreak havoc on lineup moves depending on your league's rules. Some leagues lock all rosters at the start of the first game. Others lock down only those players relevant to the Thursday game and allow changes after that. The latter is a good solution to get around these problems, but in any case, trying to assemble your weekly fantasy lineup during a short week is always a bigger challenge than you might expect. The biggest problem for fantasy owners is dealing with injuries, and not necessarily those season-ending ACL tears. When Jamal Anderson went down for the year with another torn ACL, you knew he was done, and you went on to pick up Maurice Smith or maybe take a chance on some other running back floating on the waiver wire. Simple enough. It hurts your team, especially if it's an early draft pick, but the pain is like removing a bandage quickly. Slightly more painful are those nagging injuries that bring up those dreaded "game time decisions." In fact, those three words are probably worse for fantasy owners than "torn ACL." While the official NFL injury reports can be very useful in determining the healthy of players, the real information usually comes from practice reports during the week. But even then, you can never be too sure what happens. In just the past few weeks, we've seen a handful of players mysteriously show up or disappear for games because of injuries that either were reported late or apparently weren't as serious as one thought. Mark Brunell owners were probably very ticked a couple of weeks ago when he was deactivated hours before playing the late game against the Steelers. Most fantasy owners had no chance to make a change to their backup quarterback, leaving a big fat zero to those who kept Brunell in the lineup. There will always be players who get deactivated Sunday morning, but for the most part you can see it coming if you've followed the practice reports during the week (and thus make the proper adjustments). In Brunell's case, he was added to that week's injury report on Friday, around the time everyone was about to finish setting lineups for the week. Little time to ponder a decision or pick up the backup. And going back to the short week problem, the late injury reports are a killer the week of a Thursday game. Anthony Thomas owners probably experienced that this week. His hamstring injury was only a minor concern early last week. By Friday, he was downgraded to doubtful and eventually deactivated for the Sunday night game. That didn't help fantasy owners who had him in the lineup Thanksgiving Day, thinking he was just slightly dinged up. Sometimes if you play it too cautious with injuries, you get burned. Tennessee's Frank Wycheck and Denver's Rod Smith both had impressive games this past week despite having leg problems going into the week. Smith was particularly impressive because he missed the end of the Redskins game with his bum ankle and hadn't practiced all week. Finally, the injury situation really gets annoying when you're not sure when players will return. Again, it's easy when a player is done for the year -- he's out, you get someone else in. Fred Taylor owners have been tackling this for weeks. You knew he was going to get hurt. You knew he'd be out about 4-6 weeks at least. It's now at the point when you're not sure if he'll play or not, and the signals always seem crossed (maybe he'll get a few carries, he's a day/month/week/decade away from returning). Couple that with the injury report fiasco, and it will drive you up the wall. Remember that a lot of these injury report shuffles and practice report shenanigans are often done by coaches to confuse their opponents with regards to weekly preparations. It's shrewd to make it seem like the star running back may not be at 100 percent and might not start. So when he busts out a 125-yard, two-TD game, they look all that much smarter. Unfortunately, all of this coaching strategy also outwits even the most astute of fantasy players. But then again, NFL coaches need to win games on the field. What happens with our fantasy teams is just secondary. It can be aggravating for sure, but those are some of the weird pitfalls of the fantasy football world.
Monday's BestMike Alstott, RB, Buccaneers (11 carries, 34 yards, 2 TDs; 5 catches, 31 yards): It was a tough call between him and Warrick Dunn, who had 106 total yards of offense with one score. But touchdowns still count a lot more, so Alstott gets the nod here. Outside of Torry Holt's 139-yard game, there weren't a lot of standout fantasy performances, surprising for a Rams game.
Monday's WorstMarshall Faulk, RB, Rams (12 carries, 55 yards, 1 2-point conversion; 2 catches, 11 yards): The Bucs' defense befuddled the Rams at times, limiting Faulk's touches. Faulk never got into the receiving game, which hurt his numbers. For most other backs, these are average numbers. For a back like Faulk, who scored four TDs against the Bucs last year, this is hardly acceptable.
Bye week watchLast week it was the Jets, now this week the Giants have the bye. Tiki Barber has been playing very well lately, which can't be said for Ron Dayne, Kerry Collins or the Giants receivers.
Injury watchKevan Barlow, RB, 49ers: He dislocated his left shoulder and it looks like he'll miss the next couple of games. It shouldn't matter a whole lot with Garrison Hearst running very well. Jason Brookins, RB, Ravens: It looks like he's done for the year after breaking his foot late in Sunday's win over the Jaguars. Moe Williams and Obafemi Ayanbadejo should share the carries this week, with Terry Allen potentially coming back the week after that. Stephen Davis, RB, Redskins: He left the game for a while on Sunday with an injured back but returned later in the game. He should be ready to go. Anthony Thomas, RB, Bears: After sitting out the Vikings game with a bum hamstring, the rookie feels he will be ready this week. If he is ready to go, he'll be a great play against the Lions. Tyrone Wheatley, RB, Raiders: The team will ease him into the lineup slowly as he recovers from a knee injury. With the committee system firmly in place, don't look for a ton of production from him in the near future. James Quintong is Fantasy Sports producer at CNNSI.com.
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