It’s always a challenge to navigate through injuries in fantasy football. The WR position has several players dealing with issues. The time to set Week 11 lineups is near. What is the latest injury information on Keenan Allen, Mike Evans, and Justin Jefferson?
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Keenan Allen, WR, Los Angeles Chargers
In the midst of his league-leading 175-yard, two-touchdown receiving day, Keenan Allen landed awkwardly on his left shoulder. The injury forced him from the game for a few plays. He quickly returned but then went back to the locker room for further evaluation.
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Allen certainly appeared done for the game at that point. Fortunately, he was able to return and did not seem hampered by the injury at all.
On Wednesday, Allen did not practice. That doesn’t come as much of a surprise, though. Allen is 31 years old. He’s been with the Chargers his entire career. If there is anything bothering him at all, he doesn’t need to risk further injury at practice.
At this point, there’s no reason to sound any alarms about Allen’s status. In all likelihood, this was a maintenance day for a banged-up veteran. My guess is he returns to a limited session on Thursday. But even if he doesn’t, Allen is the type of player who can go DNP-DNP-LP and still play on Sunday.
Given that Allen was able to finish last week’s game, it would be a bit of a surprise if he was unable to go this week. According to Daniel Popper, head coach Brandon Staley is hopeful Allen will be able to go.
Losing Allen would be brutal for his fantasy managers but also for Justin Herbert, who is already without Mike Williams and Josh Palmer. The notion of Herbert throwing to a WR corps of Jalen Guyton, Quentin Johnston, and Derius Davis is terrifying. Hopefully, Allen is fine.
Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Mike Evans is no stranger to injury reports. Despite being relatively healthy throughout his 10-year career, Evans has appeared on countless injury reports with minor injuries that limit him at practice but don’t keep him out of games. It appears as though we have another one of those situations this week.
Evans was limited at Wednesday’s practice with a quad issue. For a veteran like Evans, he doesn’t need to practice at all on Wednesdays. If this issue were anything even remotely serious, he wouldn’t have even been out there.
Fantasy managers should have zero concerns about Evans’ playing status for this week’s game in San Francisco. Expect the Bucs’ WR1 to be out there as usual against a pass-funnel defense that should have Baker Mayfield throwing much of the game.
Justin Jefferson, WR, Minnesota Vikings
We are now in the second week of Justin Jefferson’s return from IR. As a reminder, the Vikings have three weeks to activate a player designated to return, or he’s done for the season.
Jefferson was able to get in three limited practices last week, but the team felt he was not quite ready to play. He was once again limited to start this week.
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It would be a major surprise if Jefferson was activated prior to being able to get in a full practice. For him to have any shot at playing this week, we will need to see that Thursday or Friday. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t count on it.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell has been very transparent about injuries. According to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, “Jefferson is continuing his ramp-up but would need to make a lot of quick progress to play Sunday night.” He added this from O’Connell: “We’ll determine if it’s possible at all to have him for this weekend.” That is not exactly a tone of optimism.
The Vikings have been extremely cautious with injuries all season. Just last week, they held out K.J. Osborn after he cleared the concussion protocol out of an abundance of caution. There’s no way they are going to be reckless with their star receiver.
Barring a setback, Jefferson is going to return. Just don’t expect to see it happen this week.
Assuming Jefferson doesn’t play, Jordan Addison would remain in the WR1 role. Given that Osborn is fully expected to return, he will resume his WR2 role, with Brandon Powell playing in three-receiver sets. Only Addison is a must-start player for fantasy managers, with Osborn as a desperation Flex.
With the Vikings having a Week 13 bye, there’s a chance we don’t see Jefferson again until Week 14. But if he is fully recovered and ready to go, I see no reason not to bring him back for Week 12. However, that remains next week’s problem. For this week, prepare to be without Jefferson once again.
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