It’s been four weeks since we last saw Arizona Cardinals RB James Conner on a football field. Fortunately, after being placed on IR ahead of Week 5, Conner only missed the minimum of four games. He is set to return this week alongside Kyler Murray. Can fantasy football managers trust Conner in lineups in his first game back?
Latest Injury News Surrounding James Conner
We last saw James Conner back in Week 5 when he sprained his knee. Conner was quickly placed on IR, guaranteeing at least a four-game absence.
It has now been four games, and earlier this week, the Cardinals designated Conner to return from IR. He was able to practice with the team this week, getting in three limited sessions.
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More often than not, teams don’t designate players to return from IR until they are actually ready to return. Murray was a bit of an exception, given that he was coming off a torn ACL, and with the Cardinals’ season already being over, there was no incentive to rush him back.
Conner was listed as questionable, but the team activated him from IR ahead of Saturday’s 4 p.m. ET deadline. They would not activate him if he weren’t going to play.
Fantasy managers who have been stashing Conner on their IR spots for weeks can now do the same. The question, of course, is whether he can be trusted in fantasy lineups right away.
Should You Start Conner in Week 10?
If you’re still not sure whether to start Conner, head on over to the PFN Start/Sit Optimizer and plug in your lineup questions. Conner is the RB26 in our PFN Consensus Rankings. That puts him just outside the auto-start territory. In my personal Week 10 rankings, I have him at RB23, though.
Prior to going down, Conner was mostly a bell cow. He had seen his snap share decrease in every game, but he was still over 60%.
A big part of the load being taken off of Conner was Emari Demercado mixing in on passing downs. That won’t be the case this week, as Demercado is out with an injury of his own.
Given that the Cardinals only have Keaontay Ingram behind Conner, I’m expecting Conner to step right back into all the work he can handle. The only times I expect to see Conner off the field are when he is tired.
The Cardinals may be going nowhere this season, but they also have no incentive to protect Conner. There is no other back on the roster they have a compelling need to take a look at. Their best course of action, and the one I expect them to take, is to run their offense as if it’s Week 1 and evaluate the personnel they have.
The Falcons have been surprisingly good against running backs this season, allowing the sixth-fewest fantasy points per game to the position. They’ve held running backs to just 3.7 yards per carry.
No one should expect Conner to blow us away with efficiency. This one is about volume. As long as Conner sees 15+ opportunities, and I expect he will, he is well worth starting, even in his first game back.
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