It’s always a challenge to navigate through injuries in fantasy football, and the RB position is not immune from players getting hurt. The time to set Week 6 lineups is near. What is the latest injury information on Miles Sanders, Roschon Johnson, and Khalil Herbert?
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Latest News and Injury Updates Impacting Fantasy
Miles Sanders, Carolina Panthers
Analysis last updated at 12:42 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 13.
Editor’s Note: Sanders has been RULED out for Week 6 against the Miami Dolphins.
Miles Sanders has been banged up for a couple of weeks now. Fortunately, he’s yet to miss a game. That may be in jeopardy heading into Week 6.
Head coach Frank Reich said Sanders is dealing with a shoulder issue and won’t practice today.
Reich: Miles Sanders won't practice today. Dealing with a shoulder issue.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) October 11, 2023
After averaging around a 60% snap share over the first three weeks of the season, Sanders has been below 50% in each of his past two games. It has been Chuba Hubbard seeing more time on the field.
If Sanders is going to play, he will need to return to practice at some point in the next two days.
The move from Sanders as the primary back to Hubbard might have been coming anyway. With Sanders’ status now in question for Week 6, fantasy managers should prepare for Hubbard to be the lead back regardless.
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Sanders is shaping up to be a disappointment for fantasy managers who invested a middle-round pick in him. Going forward, Hubbard looks like the superior fantasy option, but neither is particularly appealing on one of the worst offenses in football.
Khalil Herbert, Chicago Bears
Editor’s Note: Herbert has been RULED out for Week 6 against the Minnesota Vikings.
After talks of Roschon Johnson seeing more work, Khalil Herbert reaffirmed his status as the Bears lead running back with a stellar Week 4 performance. He was well on his way to an excellent follow-up outing on Thursday night against the Commanders before this happened.
Here's the play where Khalil Herbert was injured. pic.twitter.com/FcEOjAe8To
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) October 6, 2023
After the game, Herbert said he was fine. Anyone who watched the play, myself included, was simultaneously surprised and skeptical. Sure enough, it later came out that Herbert was dealing with a high ankle sprain.
Herbert did not practice on Wednesday. I am quite confident he is not going to practice at all this week and will not play on Sunday. This is almost certainly going to be a multi-week injury.
Johnson will replace Herbert as the lead back, but he is dealing with an injury of his own.
Roschon Johnson, Chicago Bears
Editor’s Note: Johnson has been RULED out for Week 6 against the Minnesota Vikings.
In the same game in which Herbert suffered his high ankle sprain, Johnson’s violent running style resulted in him taking a big hit and sustaining a concussion. He was quickly ruled out.
Ever since the Tua Tagovailoa situation last season, we have yet to see a single offensive skill position player return from a concussion a week later. The closest we got is Luke Musgrave clearing the protocol in eight days. He avoided missing a game because he sustained his concussion on a Thursday and had 11 days until his team’s next game.
Johnson is in a similar situation, with his injury coming on a Thursday. However, Johnson remains in the concussion protocol.
Typically, we see players returning from concussions get in limited practices before a full practice and final clearance. Johnson not practicing at all suggests he is still in the middle stages of the protocol and not close to clearing it.
Even if Johnson returns to a limited practice on Thursday or Friday, he is fighting an uphill battle to play on Sunday. Fantasy managers should fully expect to be without Johnson this week but should expect him to return in Week 7.
Given that we should expect Herbert to remain out, Johnson could have a nice run as the Bears lead back. PFN Fantasy Analyst Derek Tate is quite bullish about what Johnson can do when he returns.
A potential fantasy football league winner that goes undrafted⁉️ #PFN365's Derek Tate says to go out and get #Bears RB Roschon Johnson right now❕ pic.twitter.com/FusMEvlD4r
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) September 7, 2023
With Herbert and Johnson out, the Bears will turn to D’Onta Foreman, who the team signed this offseason but has made a healthy inactive the past four weeks.
We’ve seen Foreman excel in a lead role in the past. Although he wasn’t good enough to make the active roster, the nature of the running back position is such that Foreman could end up being a viable RB3 in fantasy this week.
Given the lack of tread on Foreman this season — and the fact that he’s just a temporary fill-in — the Bears might have no reservations about giving him a heavy workload in his lone start or two.
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Foreman is not a long-term fantasy asset, but fantasy managers who grabbed him off the Week 6 waiver wire have themselves a startable option ahead of this week’s matchups.