Fantasy Injury Updates: News on Justin Jefferson and Davante Adams Impacting Waiver Wire

Fantasy football managers with elite pass catchers have had a rough go of it. We have fantasy injury updates for Justin Jefferson and Travis Kelce, not to mention a status update on Davante Adams heading into Monday Night Football.

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Injury Updates for Top Fantasy Football Pass Catchers

Davante Adams, Las Vegas Raiders

The Raiders’ star was a spectator for the vast majority of practices this week, but all signs point to him playing tonight against his former team.

#Raiders WR Davante Adams — listed as questionable because of a shoulder injury — is expected to play tonight against the #Packers, per sources.

Adams has barely practiced since suffering the injury last weekend. But he’ll get a chance to face his old team.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) October 9, 2023

It should go without saying that Adams is a lineup lock for you whenever he takes the field. Despite various injuries to the Raiders’ pass game, Adams is still pacing for 1,687 yards and just under 13 touchdowns on 212 targets. Of course, we would prefer him to be at full health. But he is going to have to play through the bulky shoulder as Las Vegas doesn’t go on bye until Week 13.

If he were to suffer a setback tonight, Hunter Renfrow’s stock would spike a bit and put him fourth in my Week 6 WR waiver wire ranks behind Zay Jones, Quentin Johnston, and Rashid Shaheed. In that scenario, Jakobi Meyers would elevate into the strong flex option with his route tree and target rate likely expanding.

Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings are among the leaders in pass rate above expectation this season and if Jefferson (hamstring) were to miss time, that could regress a bit. The star receiver was a top-12 performer at the position in each of the first four weeks of this season, but came up gimpy in Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs and is now considered a long-shot to play in Week 6.

MORE: Fantasy News Tracker

Even with Jefferson producing at an elite level, a receiver next to him has been a top-35 WR in four of five weeks this season with rookie Jordan Addison accounting for three of those occurrences. With Jefferson landing on IR, Addison is a top-30 play for me this week as we gather information as to how successful he can be as the WR1 in an NFL offense.

K.J. Osborn will also see his role increase and can be had on waiver wires right now in many leagues. Due to Jefferson’s durability, I’m not breaking the bank on a receiver in Osborn who has yet to produce top-30 numbers in a game this season, though him being the clear-cut third option (behind Addison and T.J. Hockenson) in a pass-heavy offense  makes him a viable risk/reward flex option for the next month at a minimum.

Alexander Mattison gains some touch volume with Jefferson on the shelf, as the Vikings would be forced to dial back the aerial aggression without their All-World receiver. The concern in elevating Mattison too far up the ranks would be the step back that this offense would take as a whole. While his touch count and role may get a nice boost, the Vikings likely won’t be in scoring position as often and that hurts his ceiling.

Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs

Kelce turned his ankle in the open field in the win over the Vikings, but he was able to return to action after limping to the locker room and appears to be fine.

Of course, we will await further testing to make sure we are in the clear (listed as a non-participant for Monday, but did practice on Tuesday), though all reports seem to be optimistic that Mr. Swift avoided serious injury.

I asked six Las Vegas oddsmakers to rank the 25 most valuable NFL players to the spread (non-QBs).

Chiefs TE Travis Kelce was No. 1 at 1.83 points ATS, followed by:

2. Tyreek Hill (1.75)
3. Justin Jefferson (1.67)

Full rankings at @ForTheWin:https://t.co/PyJyWKEoCx

— Ben Fawkes (@BFawkes22) October 4, 2023

That said, if you’re nervous, there are a few viable options on the wire this week. Dalton Schultz and Logan Thomas are widely available and have both produced a pair of top-10 finishes at the position through five weeks.

Gerald Everett is also a name to consider, as his Chargers are now past their bye and working on structuring a passing offense sans Mike Williams. I’m generally not on board with rostering two tight ends, but this could be the rare exception if you want to cover all bases when it comes to the Kelce injury.