Week 13 was arguably the worst injury week of the fantasy football season. A bunch of fantasy-relevant players either got injured themselves or saw their value impacted by injuries to their quarterback. One of those quarterbacks was Lamar Jackson, who left the game in the first half with a knee injury. What do we know about Jackson’s injury and how will his absence impact Tyler Huntley, Mark Andrews, and the rest of the Ravens?
Lamar Jackson Injury Fallout
They say “hate” is a strong word. I try not to use it. But it’s warranted when it comes to injuries. I hate injuries. I especially hate injuries that can derail seasons. Hopefully, that’s not what we have entirely with Jackson.
Knee injuries are always scary. We tend to immediately think the worst. The good news is head coach John Harbaugh already described Jackson’s injury as “not season ending.”
According to Ian Rapoport, Jackson is dealing with a knee sprain. Harbaugh said it’ll be “days or weeks” that Jackson will miss. Unfortunately, we’re almost certainly looking at weeks. With just one week remaining in the fantasy regular season and four weeks total in the season, fantasy managers may be without Jackson for the remainder of their season.
We should get a clearer picture of how long Jackson will be out early in the week, possibly as soon as Monday. However, if you can’t afford to hang onto Jackson, it is what it is at this point in the season. There’s no more planning for the future — the future is here. We’re at the part of the season where every matchup is of the utmost importance.
Lamar Jackson Injury Fantasy Impact on Mark Andrews
Mark Andrews hasn’t exactly been anywhere near the fantasy force Travis Kelce is this season. But he’s still the clear TE2. Tyler Huntley is nowhere near as good as Jackson…obviously. But Huntley actually hasn’t been bad for Andrews. In fact, some might argue he’s been good.
Backup quarterbacks often struggle to progress through reads and just focus on the primary option. In Baltimore, that’s Andrews.
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We’ve seen eight games of Andrews with Huntley. In those eight games, Andrews averages 18.6 PPR fantasy points per game. That’s actually 2.8 ppg more than he’s averaged with Jackson the past two seasons.
Given the state of the tight end position, if you have Andrews, there’s really nothing you can do. You’re starting him regardless. Just know that four weeks of Huntley is not as bad as you may initially think.
Lamar Jackson Injury Fantasy Impact on Tyler Huntley
Huntley is going to be the Ravens’ starter for as long as Jackson is out. We have a five-game sample size of Huntley as a starter. In those games, he averaged 16.82 fantasy points per game. However, 35.9 points came in one game against the Packers. Otherwise, Huntley was a below-average starter.
Fantasy managers in need of a quarterback to replace Jackson can certainly do worse than Huntley, but I would not look to fill the void left by Jackson with his backup.
The Rest of the Ravens
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), there’s minimal impact from a fantasy perspective outside of Andrews and Jackson himself. Gus Edwards will continue to be an uninspiring RB3. Kenyan Drake is a handcuff. The running game will remain largely unaffected.
This is undoubtedly a negative for the non-Andrews pass catchers, but Devin Duvernay and Demarcus Robinson were nothing more than fantasy WR4s anyway. Their values take hits, but if you’re starting either of them, things have probably gone awry already.