Until someone invents a game where you can substitute in a player while the game still is being played, fantasy teams will be felled by injuries. Your running back goes down with a concussion or your wide receiver blows out his knee in the first quarter and you’re left with the loss.
Though you can’t control those circumstances, you have to go for maximum upside across your roster. There is no punt — or punter — in a winning fantasy roster. Rosters must be constructed with depth and lineups must be set with both a ceiling and a floor. It is the only way to avoid that sinking feeling as injuries decimate your team. Now lets look at the big injuries in Week 2:
The Patriots pulled Rob Gronkowski early last week, not even taking him along to Arizona. Gronkowski’s hamstring still is painful, but they will make a decision well before game time. Whether they tell the rest of us remains to be seen.
Gronkowski could have played last week, so my assumption is he will play this week. Even limited, he is a red-zone threat, so a tough call on fantasy lineups. If you have a solid backup, I would go there, but I wouldn’t worry too much about a zero from Gronkowski if he is active.
It has been an up and down week for Demaryius Thomas. He has consulted some of the top doctors in the world about his hip problem, which tells us, even if the Broncos won’t, that he is dealing with a hip labrum tear.
The labrum is a small disk of cartilage that stabilizes the joint. There is a similar one in the shoulder. The small tear can be repaired, and it is not an extensive operation if there is no bone-on-bone contact. NFL players like Percy Harvin have had a harder time coming back well than NHL or MLB players. You might remember Chase Utley or Alex Rodriguez, who had the surgery on both hips. Thomas and the Broncos’ medical staff will try to manage this and minimize the issue, in hopes they can delay the surgery until the offseason.
Form follows function when it comes to injuries. A speed player can’t have bad legs, a power player can’t have a bad back, and a mobile player can’t have a weak base. Russell Wilson is the object lesson here. Everything he does is predicated on mobility, so a high ankle sprain is worse for him than it would be a Tom Brady or Eli Manning. Wilson looked rough at the end of last week, after the injury, but he adjusted well to his braces. Yes braces — he is wearing them on both ankles for balance.
Wilson won’t be as mobile, but look for him to spin out of hard cuts to avoid too much issue. He still should be effective, but his lack of mobility could put more focus on Thomas Rawls, returning from an ankle injury of his own.
Will Carroll writes about injuries at All22.com and lives near Indianapolis.