Transcription
I am not making the same mistake I did last year. I am not going to be drafting these injured players as if they're going to be good to go Week 1. I'm diving deep into every current injured player that we have, every player that's coming off significant injury, looking at what is the realistic timetable, and are they cheap enough in drafts for us to actually buy the discount or do we need to be avoiding them all together?
Now, our first name with Rasheed Rice, I'm gonna be honest, I was very concerned initially because with Rice, not only did he go under the knife to have a knee procedure cleanup that was supposed to hold him out about a month to 6 weeks with good rehab, but then right afterwards, he got sent to jail, county jail, right? We were in the live stream looking up pictures of this facility going, you know what, this does not look good. We had no clarity on what the rehab process was going to be like for Rasheed Rice and what treatment he was going to be able to get at the facility.
However, about 2 weeks into his month-long booking, we did get clarity on two things. One, he was actually held to his cell by himself. He got special permission there. And two, he got special permission for somebody to come into the facility and give him treatment with his knee. And now the latest updates that we've had with Rice are Indie Reed coming through and saying that he is going to be ready for training camp. The exact quote is, "I think he will be. He gets out of here in parenthesis jail somewhere this next week. So we should see where it goes. He'll be back up here and working."
So if we look at the exact timeline, went to jail May 19th. Um, and now we should expect him out later this week, and hopefully we get to see him on Twitter with videos running around at camp. And looking at the updated cost of Rasheed Rice, I'm actually fine buying the dip now that we have seen him fall from a mid-round two pick where he used to have an ADP at 20, and now his ADP has fallen to 30. So at this cost, I do think that the risk is priced in. I'm fine drafting Rice.
Now looking at Bo Nix, the jersey we are rocking for this video, cuz we have to talk about RG Harvey's secret surgery. The reports are that he is going to be full go at training camp. If we look at this timeline, January 17th, he fractured his right ankle. January 19th, he had surgery, so it wasn't a massive difference between the timeline. And then late April, he did have a second procedure to clean up some bone fragments in his ankle, which all of this together should be anywhere from a 3 to six month recovery timetable.
But if you look at the exact dates, again, he had surgery January 19th. So, if we go on the optimistic end, he's good to go. By April, he's already 100%. Now, again, that's the optimistic end. If we go with the pessimistic end, that six-month timetable, he's still going to be good in July. He's still going to be full go at training camp. So, I wouldn't need a discount at all drafting Bo Nix. Like, right now, Bo Nix is off the board at pick 106 as QB15, and he's actually fallen in ADP seven spots since contest opened. So, I'm fine buying the dip on Bo Nix.
Now, the player that has fallen in ADP the most due to injury stuff is Malik Neighbors. Malik Neighbors used to have an ADP in the middle of the second round at pick 17. Now, I was recently able to draft Malik Neighbors in the fourth round of a $500 draft that I am in. And let's go through and let's try to establish the timeline and everything that we have with Neighbors.
I found this account on Twitter, Fantasy Footy PT. I thought they did a great job of laying everything out here. So, let's run through it. Let's establish the baseline. Neighbors underwent an ACL reconstruction and a lateral meniscus repair. This is crucial. An ACL plus meniscus repair is not a standard isolated ACL timeline. The meniscus requires early weightbearing restrictions, delaying initial strengths milestones. Data on professional athletes shows the return-to-play timeline for an ACL plus meniscus repair ranges anywhere from 10 to 12 months. We'll carry that over to the timeline that we have later.
Religmentization, believe it or not, I'm an idiot, takes up to two years, meaning clearance for return relies on criterion-based testing. In the clinic, I'll typically test single leg plyometrics and approve a return to sport if the impacted leg single test are at least 90% compared to the unaffected leg. Example: single leg jump for height, for distance, for triple hop. Obviously, the professional teams have um, better facilities though than a random PT.
And then came out the news of his quote unquote cleanup procedure. Reports indicated this was specifically for a Cyclops lesion excision due to a lack of knee extension. This means the joint itself isn't stiff. It is physically obstructed by a nodule of scar tissue blocking full strengthening. This extension deficit likely created a bottleneck preventing him from hitting specific rehab milestones or normalizing his gait mechanics. It's not that the cleanup procedure itself causes a massive delay. Rather, the lesion had already paused his forward progression.
What does the timeline look like post excision? Research shows it takes one to two weeks just for the functional range of motion to improve post-op. Even if cleared intraoperatively, you have to battle surgical inflammation, soft tissue adaption, and quad inhibition. Typically, an athlete can return to a specific training phase two to four weeks after excision. Literature shows this adds about one full month of total recovery time compared to an uncomplicated ACL rehab path.
The good news: long-term functional outcomes are not compromised. The bad news: the calendar doesn't lie. Factor in the meniscus delay plus the one-month Cyclops bottleneck, and a realistic timeline pushes to 11 to 12 months. Optimistic organization timelines are common, but a worst-case 12 and a half month timeline lands right around Week 8 of the season. For an elite athlete, worst case is not what I would expect, but a more realistic guess would be 11 months post-op, about Week 4. But who knows? There are always exceptions/research to the norm.
So, if we look at this timeline, he destroyed his knee September 28th. He did not get surgery until October 28th, and he had his cleanup procedure April 26th. This puts the timeline of Malik Neighbors coming back anywhere from Weeks 4 to 8. So you should be drafting Malik Neighbors under the assumption that he is not going to be available at the beginning of the season for you.
So, for me, if I were to be drafting him in a redraft league right now, I would need a discount, especially if I didn't have an IR slot and I was gonna have to be throwing him on our bench and limiting the waiver wire moves that we're going to be able to make at the beginning of the season. Now, if you're drafting in like an Underdog Best Ball draft where all the money is up for grabs in Weeks 15, 16, 17, I may be a little bit more aggressive to take him there because, of course, I do think once we get to Weeks 15, 16, 17, Malik Neighbors could very easily be the wide receiver one overall in football, which is why I'm willing to take him when he falls to Round 4 of my $500 drafts. And honestly, even when he falls to the very end of Round 3, I'll snag him there as well until we get additional information. But every piece of info we've gotten this offseason has been bad.
But we can stay in New York and look at actually a good update with Cam Scataboo. Cam Scataboo is already out there running through drills 8 months after fracturing his ankle. So if we look at the timeline here, he destroyed that ankle October 26th. He had surgery that same day. It was an emergency surgery, had to happen. And the recovery timeline really is anywhere from 4 to 6 months for an injury like this. So, it's already been cleared that he is good for training camp, not really going to have many limitations, and he is 100% going to be good for Week 1 this season. So, I think you can draft Scataboo with maybe the tiniest discount based on his injury, but definitely don't need anything like the Malik Neighbors discount.
Now, if you're maybe not really understanding how to bake all this injury stuff in to exactly how you should be drafting this year, don't worry. I keep my rankings up to date every single day with all this news on flockfantasy.com. And if you don't already have access to the site, we still have the $34 flockfantasy.com season pass available for y'all where you're going to get draft assistance to Sleeper, ESPN, Yahoo, all your redraft platforms. And when you use code flock, you're also going to be getting free questions that you can ask me in the live streams during the season and also access to all of your other favorite creators, draft guides and cheats that they also post on flockfantasy.com.
Now, let's move over to Bucky Irving, a player that actually has fallen down boards quite a bit. About a month ago, Bucky Irving was a mid-4th round pick with an ADP of pick 43, where now Bucky Irving is going at pick 53 in the middle of Round 5. Now, of course, there's a reason for this dip, and it was that we had a report and a quote coming out from the head coach in Tampa that Bucky Irving would be available sometime this summer or sometime during the fall, which obviously just hearing that vague reporting is extremely scary as typically these injured guys in the offseason, the injuries last longer than we've expected, at least over the past few years.
However, we did just recently get some good news with Bucky Irving. We can see him at OTAs running around participating in drills. It's not like he's a full contact. It's not like he is without limitations, but just the fact that he's out there running around is great. And if we look at the timeline, he had the left shoulder dislocation subluxation. I don't think that's how you say that. In October 2025, in February 26, he had the reconstructive labral surgery.
And if we just do a little bit of research about this type of surgery, it is the timeline of months one to three, protect and passive motion. Bucky Irving spent the late winter months immobilized in a specialized shoulder brace to let the labrum anchor back to the bone. Passive physical therapy slowly introduced range of motion. Then by late May 2026, head coach Todd BS noted that Bucky Irving was coming along fine but remained limited. On June 11th, 2026, Irving hit a major milestone by returning to the practice field during OTAs, participating in light non-contact work and catching passes.
Month six plus: this is where we're going to go into training camp and full contact. Per ESPN's Adam Sheffy, Irving will not be cleared for full contact during mandatory mini camp. However, he is fully expected to graduate to full contact and be cleared at some point during training camp in late July or August. Coach BS clarified that his ultimate target for game availability remains late summer or early fall. So I think that the Round 5 price tag that we've gotten with the dip is appropriate. However, I would not push him back up to Round 4 just because we're seeing him at OTAs.
Now, Mai Lemon did pop up on the injury report. We're going to keep this brief. He has a hamstring injury. He can miss mini camp. This happened late May. Like worst case scenario, it's a four to six week window. This was reported June 2nd. So, he's going to be back early July, mid-July. Not concerned about Mai Lemon.
Jonathan Brooks is steaming up draft boards right now. Every single night I go live, I see Jonathan Brooks go higher and higher and higher in these drafts. If I look at his most recent ADP in comparison to where it was a month ago, right now he has an ADP of 106, and a month ago he had an ADP of 129. If we give you the timeline for Jonathan Brooks, November 11th, 2023, this is while he was at the University of Texas, Hookham Horns, he had an ACL tear. December 8th, 2024, he tears it again after nine total rushing attempts between those two tears.
Now, September 13th, 2026 is the first game for the Carolina Panthers, and this is almost two full years after his most recent ACL tear. So, he should be fully good to go. And with this as well, Jonathan Brooks is still a pretty young running back. He's like much younger than some of the rookies from last year's class like RJ Harvey as well as Jaori Crosky Merritt. So, I know a ton of people are super optimistic and very excited. I am rooting for him. I want him to find success. I want him to do well. But for me, it is very difficult to spend significant capital into a player whose last meaningful NFL or collegiate game was really like early November, late October 2023. Like, I of course am no professional athlete, but I don't know how you're going to hit the ground running and be the player that you were before when you effectively have to be forced to take three years off of football.
Now moving over to George KD. This is a very interesting setup. My gut reaction was, "Oh, torn Achilles for George KD in January. Rest in peace. We's not going to see him for a while." But the more that we look into this, the more it seems that honestly the torn Achilles isn't as big of as a deal as it used to be, especially this specific torn Achilles. It was torn closer to the calf rather than the foot, which apparently there's more blood flow in that area, and that's going to allow a faster recovery for KD with the procedure they were able to have. And also, we actually recently heard from Kyle use check, I don't know if this is a reliable source, but regardless, that George KD is already running at 16 m per hour.
Now, if we look at the actual um, setup for him to come back this season though, it is interesting to note that he tore this Achilles January 11th. Three days later, he had surgery. So, if he's going to make it back by September, he only has 8 months to recover. Now, the early reports are saying it's a 15-hour flight for that Week 1 game in Australia for the NerS. So, possibly George KD sits out that Week 1 game. He doesn't go through that travel, and instead he waits until the NerS are back at home in Week 2, and then he makes his appearance. But it is extremely difficult to know, and the reality of the situation is I don't think we have that much information about KD, but seems like most people are being significantly more optimistic about George KD than they are with some of those other late season injuries like Zack Charbanet.
Now going over to Jaka Cross. Cory Cross popped up on the injury report with a hamstring injury, and this was reported June 11th. He's right now he's slow playing his return, but he should be 100% healthy by training camp. So, I'm not super concerned about JCM.
Now, Chris Rodriguez on the other hand, um, this is maybe a little bit more interesting because according to a team source, Jacksonville Jaguars running back Chris Rodriguez had a procedure on his left foot following an injury earlier in the offseason program, but is expected to be ready for the start of training camp in late July. But the timeline of this is if he had foot surgery late April/early May, it's tough. I mean, he didn't participate at all in mandatory mini camp for the Jags. He spent this time isolated doing rehab at the team's training facility. But Liam Cohen is coming through and saying that he's progressing nicely and supposed to be a full go when Jags open up training camp. I will say though, we have seen Chris Rodriguez slide down draft boards a bit as of late, and honestly it's probably for good reason.
Now, a player that I've been drafting is Kenyan Sadi. The reality of the situation is in your ESPN and your Yahoo League, Kenyan Sadi's not really going to matter this next year. He only matters in your Underdog drafts where you have to go pretty damn deep. He underwent a hernia procedure, but Aaron Glenn already says that he expects him to be ready for training camp. Well, um, it sucks that he missed rookie mini camp, but I'm not going to be too, too concerned about it.
Now, looking at Patrick Mahomes, Patrick Mahomes is out there running around at camp with the Kansas City Chiefs, right? Which is a little surprising because Patrick Mahomes didn't just tear his ACL on December 14th. Patrick Mahomes had a torn ACL and LCL. So, if we go through and look at the timeline for this, the typical median timeline for a dual ligament tear is roughly 9 to 10 months. Both Mahomes and the team are firmly tracking a Week 1 return against the Denver Edinburgh Broncos on September 14th, which marks exactly 9 months from the date to the initial injury. But again, that would be the optimistic side of things on the 9 to 10 month median outcome. So there is an outside chance that Patrick Mahomes is slow rolled at the beginning of the season. Maybe he is running the ball less. Hell, maybe they actually do throw out Justin Fields for the early weeks. But it is a very good sign just to see Mahomes at camp running around.
Of course, now Tucker Craft tore his ACL November 2nd, but he is anticipating to start camp on the pup, but Matt Laflur left the door open for Craft to be on the field to start training camp. He did have surgery 2 weeks after he tore his ACL on November 2nd. If we're looking at his current status, the last rehab progress update we got was on June 10th where Craft revealed that his rehab has catapulted beyond initial expectations. He noted that his swelling is non-existent and that he recently hit 21 and a half miles per hour during straight line treadmill running workouts. The training camp plan is to place Craft on the physically unable to perform list while training camp opens. This is a standard precautionary measure, and he expects to be activated to the active practice field sometime in early August. Craft explicitly stated that he has no intention of being on a pitch count or snap limitation when the Packers open the regular season against the Minnesota Vikings. So, sounds all systems go for Tucker Craft, especially in an offense in which you do lose a couple pass catchers this offseason with Romeo Dobs and Dantavian Wixs. Sounds like he's great.
Now, moving over to Travis Hunter. Um, Travis Hunter actually suffered a non-cont torn LCL, not ACL. That's something I've misspoken about in the past, and his right knee during a Thursday practice leading up to the Jags Week 9 matchup. He underwent full LCL surgical repair shortly after the incident in November 2025 to stabilize the outer side of the knee joint. He was limited to side field conditioning drills during OTAs and mini camp. However, his speed is fully returned. Head coach Liam Cohen revealed that Travis Hunter clocked running 22 and a half miles per hour during early June training sessions. And general manager James Gladstone stated that the ultimate goal is for Travis Hunter to be a full participant when training camp opens. So it sounds like if you do have concerns for Travis Hunter and his playing time on the offensive side of the ball, but where you don't have concerns is his injury availability, he will be good to go.
Now, Zack Sherman was at mandatory mini camp day one, but it's not like super great, right? It's less than four months after surgery. Sharpet shocks reporters by participating in limited on-field rehab work during the team's mandatory mini camp workouts. On June 11th, 2026, head coach Mike McDaniel refused to rule him out for the regular season kickoff against the New England Patriots on September 9th, stating that everything is possible returning his availability. But if we just go through and do a simple check where the standard ACL timeline ranges from 8 to 12 months, it projects him to be returning mid-October, maybe even into early November. So similar here, I wouldn't expect that you have Zack Charbanet at the beginning of the season. So full systems go for Jerian Price.
Now, Tyreek Hill we actually saw with a wrist brace, as not only his knee brace recently with a post. And if we look at the details of this, Hill suffered a gruesome non-cont injury in the third quarter of a Week 4 Monday Night Football game. He completely dislocated his left knee, tore multiple ligaments, including his ACL and LCL. The surgery day was September 30th. Because a knee dislocation can cause limb-threatening arterial damage, he was rushed to Miami Hospital. Once blood vessel damage was ruled out, his agent Drew Rosenhouse confirmed that Hill underwent a successful comprehensive multi-leg reconstruction surgery the very next morning.
So, if we're looking at his progress, as of mid-June 2026, Hill's been spotted training in a heavy knee brace alongside a minor wrist cast. His agent recently stated that Hill is working hard through his rigorous rehab program. There is currently no exact timetable for him to be cleared for full football activities. Um, while his camp initially targeted a return by the start of the 2026 regular season, medical insiders suggested a mid-October/November return is more realistic for Tyreek Hill. So, kind of best case scenario here for Tyreek. Not the most likely outcome, but best case scenario is he signs to like the Kansas City Chiefs halfway through the season.
Now, Tank Dell. Tank Dell is a year and a half out from his reconstructed knee, and he's at camp. He's running around. He's participating fully. Seems like he's fully good to go. This is only really relevant for those Underdog Best Ball drafts. You'd never draft him in ESPN or redraft leagues.
Now, Quinshan Judkins is at camp. He's running around. So, if you look at the timeline here, um, I was actually surprised to be reminded that Quinshon Judkins didn't get injured until Week 16 this past season. I thought it was way earlier in the year, but that's December 21st. So, maybe it'd be a little more concerning than like Cam Scataboo. We're also with Cam Scataboo had a similar injury, but it happened much earlier. However, the timeline here is 4 to 6 months to return to football activities, and we already see him going like full speed. So, I mean, seems like Quinshon Judkins, you don't really need to be too concerned about the injury. You mainly just need to be concerned about the Browns.
Now, Roma Dunce. We got a very nasty quote about his new normal being he has to deal with a bum foot. I, I think it was taken out of context. During June OTA workouts, Rome sparked heavy media discussion by stating that the way the bone fractured created calluses that permanently altered his foot structure. He described managing the shifting bone structure as his new normal, but clarified it does not cause him constant pain. Despite the modified foot structure, head coach Ben Johnson shut down any lingering injury concerns on June 11th, 2026, confirming that Rome looks like the same old self on the field. He faces no physical limitations and is entering late July training camp at 100% capacity.
Now, Alec Pierce is a name that's been falling, I think, for good reason. This is one of those injuries that I'm going to be monitoring, and I am concerned with. He has fallen from being a late sixth-round pick to now a mid-seventh-round pick. And I think we could see him fall to the eighth because the most recent video that we got was him walking with a brace on his left ankle. He's kind of limping around gingerly. And he had surgery in March, and the timetable that he was given was four to six months. So if we look at the optimistic side, that means maybe he is good to go for training camp and he's back by July. But the pessimistic side is if that goes six, maybe even seven months, he misses camp and he is back right at the start of the season, which obviously we're not excited about somebody missing camp.
Now, the last injury that we have to talk about is going to be RJ Harvey. RJ Harvey, I did not know this until literally yesterday, underwent surgery this offseason to repair a torn labum suffered in the AFC Championship game. Now, of course, I am scrging the internet trying to find all the information that I can on this cuz I'm no doctor. I'm an idiot. I did go back to that same account, Fantasy Footy PT, says, "Good news on RJRV. Research suggests a strong return to prior level. Timeline is 4 to 6 months recovery, which would put RJRV anywhere from May to July. The data is 94% return to sport at prior level after repair. outlook. I don't expect this to impact his performance negatively moving forward by the dip if you liked him before the injury."
So, this was something that I was honestly very concerned about, but the more I read about it, honestly, the less of a concern it really is. But, I think that's all I got for you. I really appreciate you. I really hope I was able to help you out in some way with this. I'm going to be live every single night on this channel drafting fantasy football teams. I would love for you to come out, hang out with us.
And also, if you need help in your ESPN, Yahoo, Sleeper, fantasy football drafts this year, by far and away, the best thing that you can do is get the Flockfantasy.com season pass. 34 bucks sets you up for the entire season. Not only all of my stuff, all of my draft sheets, all my draft assistants, but also you get set up with everything for pretty much all your favorite creators you watch on YouTube. Links in the description, it's in the comment section. Code Flock will also get you set up with free questions that you can ask me during the live streams. But much love. I really appreciate you and hope I get to see you out in the live stream later.