Your Leaguemates Are Clueless About These Injuries

Today we're breaking down 26 fantasy football injuries that you guys need to know about for your dynasty leagues, for your redraft leagues, for your best ball drafts. We're going to go over all of those perspectives. And I'm very excited to be joined by Dr. James Ferretti, who you guys may or may not have heard of. He's actually a member of our audience. He's been following us for a long, long time. And he has a website, injuries suckbook.com, which you guys can find down below in the description. And uh James, I'll let you introduce yourself to everybody, kind of go over your credentials because I'm a fake doctor. You're a real one, so you can actually uh you can actually talk on this stuff.

>> Yeah, thanks a lot, Corey. I'm really happy to be here. I mean, it's uh it's a nice moment for me. I mean, I've been following you guys for a long time. Really big fans of your content. So to be here, it's uh it's really great. So, as you said, I am a doctor. I'm a doctor of medicine, uh osteopathic medicine specifically. So, I went to medical school. Then after medical school, I studied internal medicine and then diagnostic radiology. So when somebody goes and gets an X-ray, a CAT scan, an MRI, an ultrasound, things like that, like most of our favorite players eventually get, unfortunately, they send it to somebody like me. That person reads it, kind of makes the diagnosis, and goes from there. So that's the experience that I'm bringing here in addition to a really long time of playing fantasy football. So, my goal here is to kind of try to combine those two things together and and give everybody um some stuff that's really actionable and helpful. I know the medical stuff can get confusing. There's a lot of jargony stuff and I I try to kind of diminish that and kind of give the people something that's really going to be helpful and useful to them when they're kind of navigating their drafts and their teams and things like that.

>> Awesome. So, uh speaking of MRIs, uh we're going to start off with kind of all the knee stuff because there's a lot of players coming off of knee injuries. The biggest, most expensive asset from a Dynasty redraft lens is Malik Neighbors. Malik Neighbors, wide receiver 11 off the board on underdog right now, ADP of kind of the early third round. And then from a dynasty perspective, we're talking Dynasty wide receiver 5, number 12 overall player off the board. So with each one of these guys, I'm going to kind of give the timeline, the stuff that we know from a fantasy perspective, and then you can kind of shed light on the medical side of things, and then kind of uh we'll we'll wrap it up with how we feel about them in all those formats. So Malik Neighbors suffered his knee injury, ACL tear in week four of last season. He had an ACL reconstruction, full meniscus repair on October 28th. So if we fast forward, the start of camp would be about a 9-month timeline after that surgery. Start of the season being about a 10-month timeline. Now, recently, he went under a cleanup procedure in May to remove scar tissue from that injury. And now we're hearing things like it's not a simple knee injury. It's impossible to predict return timelines from head coach John Harbaugh and the Giants brass.

>> Yeah. So, I mean, the first thing I want to start out with is with ACL repairs. Like, none of these are simple knee injuries. So, you know, we kind of know that already, but let's just start with kind of a general framework of of how ACL repairs go. You know, what's kind of more important, what isn't as important as we kind of go through. Um, so with uh Malik Neighbors, the thing to keep in mind with ACL's is there's kind of three things that run together with ACL. So if you see, you know, some or all of these things, it's not really that big of a deal. So when the ACL gets injured, the mechanism of injury usually can injure the MCL and or the medial meniscus. So if I see an ACL injury and there's also an injury to one or both of those structures, I'm not that concerned. And we'll get into some other things that can get injured where I become more concerned, but he doesn't have any of that. So they did studies and the NFL teams know this and they know that if players come back before 9 months there's a much greater risk for reinjury. So the way that it generally works the framework for ACL's without an LCL involvement which we're going to talk about the baseline I like to use is about 10 months give or take a couple of weeks. For example Bree Hall in 2022-23 he tore his ACL in October. He returned for week one, which was about 10 and a half months later. Played all 17 games, had about 1,600 scrimmage yards. So, that's what I was expecting with Malik Neighbors. Timeline was pretty similar. I was thinking this is looking pretty good for week one and then he has the cleanup procedure in May. Now, when you have an ACL injury, having a cleanup procedure, not really that uncommon. Can happen depending on what studies you look at 5, 10, 15, some studies say up to 30% of the time. that's probably a little too much. But 10 to 15% of cases, they know they're going to have to do a cleanup because scar tissue builds up, player can't move around, they're having pain. They go in, they put a scope in, they take the scar tissue out, and once you take it out, you're pretty much done. The problem is is that it adds about four to six weeks to the timeline. So now that pushes his timeline out to October, and that's assuming everything goes perfect from here on out, which is by no means a guarantee. So now even with no more issues, before I was thinking maybe it was like 70/30 he was going to start week one. Now I'm thinking more it's like 70/30, 80/20 he's going to start on the PUP.

>> Yeah, I think most people have to be drafting Malik Neighbors particularly in best ball. We've seen his price climb down about six to 10 picks or so. Um I think most people are kind of expecting him to start on PUP. But then like you said that's assuming everything goes well with the Bruce Hall example that you gave. Bree Hall wasn't his full workload self until about week four, week five of that season. So, there's probably a ramp-up period beyond week six or week five or whatever he comes back from the PUP list where it's probably more like week 10 or something that he's actually getting his full allotment of routes, full allotment of snaps, getting all the targets that we know Malik Neighbors is capable. The positives for Malik Neighbors are that he is an elite athlete. He's 22 and a half, 23 years old. So, it's not like you have to worry about age and that kind of thing. I always come back to the example of Chris Godwin who came back I think it was about eight and a half months after his ACL tear. Me and Danny were in attendance for the Cowboys and Buccaneers game where he reinjured I think it was his hamstring at the time and he ended up missing some time beyond that. So, that's like the number one risk we're concerned with from my understanding of things with Malik Neighbors is that if he rushes back, he could suffer, god forbid, another ACL tear like Jonathan Brooks did, or he could suffer just a compensatory injury of like his knee or his ankle or his hamstring or whatever he's trying to compensate with.

>> Yep. Exactly right. And we're going to talk about that in in a few players, so we we'll come back to that for sure.

>> Yeah. So I I guess all in all the the advice that people need to understand for Malik Neighbors, if you're in drafting best ball mania teams, ultimately all the money is at the top, right? It's in week 17. It's at the end of the tournament. So if you feel like you can advance Malik Neighbors teams, you probably shouldn't be too too concerned, but understand you're going to be without Malik Neighbors probably at minimum for six to eight games of true Malik Neighbors production. And again, that's assuming everything goes well. We don't hear in training camp that he had a setback or anything like that because you're basically saying it's it's probably what an 80% chance he starts on the PUP at this point.

>> I think it's like 70 to 80%. It's it's just that's what the timeline is telling me. Now 20% is not 0%. So he could start week one but if I you know if I was making bets on it and I am then I would I would bet that way. And the way that I'm doing it with underdog drafts and things like that is I am still taking some Malik Neighbors. He is sliding down the draft board. So, I still think it's worth a shot, but you have to keep in mind, as you said, he's probably going to miss some time, which means you're adding replacement level in there for his spot. And then there's probably going to be a ramp-up period where he's probably 20, 25% less productive than he would be normally, which can still be really good, but it's not the Malik Neighbors that we know and love. So, that's kind of the way that I'm I'm approaching it.

>> Yeah, draft accordingly. You draft Jacobe Myers, Jalen Robinson types to make sure you can fill those weeks early on in the season. Maybe you draft less rookies on teams with Malik Neighbors as well. So that's kind of how I would handle it from a redraft perspective. I think from a Dynasty angle, we think probably not too concerning, especially on like a rebuilding. Like would you be buying him in Dynasty right now on like >> rebuilding? I mean, I've tried I've tried. It's like people are smart. They're not they're not giving him up for for a price that I'm that I'm comfortable paying. But I would definitely if I'm rebuilding, that's a big target for me because I think he's going to be fine long term. It's just, you know, you got to ride you got to ride this wave for four to six weeks and then it's hopefully going to be wheels up.

>> Yeah. And from a rebuilding perspective, that's not concerning. And if anything, it actually helps tank your own draft pick in 2027 to get Jeremiah Smith to pair with him. So, um, let's talk about the other major, you know, third round receiver that's dealing with knee stuff as well. Rasheed Rice. Uh, wide receiver 13, 30 ADP right now. So, going slightly ahead of or slightly behind Malik Neighbors right now. wide receiver 16, 40 overall on Dynasty uh you know platforms. Obviously part of that is the off-the-field stuff but he did receive a cleanup surgery himself, right knee to move uh remove loose debris. There was inflammation and complications with his LCL and hamstring injury that he had two years ago and apparently he's recovering from a jail cell. He's expected to be sidelined for about two months according to what I read. Reportedly he's been granted a court order to do some knee therapy and medical treatment. There's so many factors at play here that I think people just need to understand the medical side of things. So, I'll let you kind of take it away. The expectation apparently is that he's going to be full go by training camp. Is that your expectation?

>> Yeah, I mean I think I could simplify it. I I really don't think this is much of a thing aside from him being in jail, which is very much a thing. But the fact that, you know, as far as this medical procedure is concerned, you know, he's able to get out and get, you know, regular treatment, he doesn't have to undergo the therapy like in jail. Um, so essentially I I don't think this is very this is very likely not going to be a thing. If I had any concerns, they're not really medical. They're they're more having to do with his off-the-field stuff and possible league discipline than anything medical.

>> Right. And I I do believe from the legal side of things, I've read that he was ordered to serve some jail time at some point. It's just that because he violated his probation, he had to do it immediately and he would have probably chosen not to do it right after a cleanup procedure if that was the case. So from your I I think the important thing is here, you know, Rasheed Rice is probably not going to miss any in-season time as a result of this cleanup procedure is what I'm understanding. He could miss time from a legal perspective if you know the league decides to discipline him. But I also actually tend to think that that's probably not going to happen also just because I think he's already served his suspension. It's the same incident. I don't usually you don't usually see the league go, "Oh, because you violated your probation, you're now you're going to get more um discipline." I've seen Drew Davenport, who does great work on the legal side, say that he he's actually kind of buying at his ADP right now. So, and I actually have been too. And I'm like the anti-Rasheed Rice guy and have been for a while. So, he's actually one of my highest drafted receivers on underdog right now because I think that this window that we're in right now that he's serving prison time is the window where he's going to slide in drafts.

>> Yeah. And I think people are spooked about it. So, I think it does kind of present an interesting buying opportunity >> for sure. So, um, staying on the Kansas City Chiefs, we have his quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, whose quarterback 11 off the board, 90.1 overall, ADP, quarterback seven in dynasty, 20 overall, torn ACL and LCL in his left knee, which you said is important um at the beginning of this. He had surgery on December 15th, 2025. Camp is about 7 and a half months from the date of his surgery. Week one kickoff against the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football is September 14th, which is almost exactly 9 months after his injury. So reportedly he's way ahead of schedule according to the Chiefs and he is Patrick freaking Mahomes. So part of me goes this guy's just kind of an alien in general. I don't know if regular timelines apply to him, but I'll let you uh I'll let you take it away with with this injury.

>> Yeah, it's a really good setup. So talking about the LCL, that's a really important structure. So just a framework for LCL's. If the LCL, the lateral collateral ligament is injured along with the ACL, it tends to be a different story. And the reason for that is they found that when they go if it's injured bad enough, and it's not always, but if it's injured bad enough, they found that if they try to repair the ACL and the LCL at the same time, the failure rates are a lot higher. It's just the knee gets unstable, the graft doesn't take right, and it's not generally a good idea. So, if the LCL is injured bad enough, what they tend to do is they'll go in and they'll repair the LCL first, let that heal for a month or two, and then they'll go back in and do the ACL repair, which we've kind of already established. The problem is is that that one to two months now extends your timeline. So, instead of, you know, 10 months, give or take, with an ACL, now you're looking at 12 months. And then if you have a cleanup, now you're into 13 months, which is what happened with JK Dobbins a few years ago. if you remember, he had bad LCL, bad ACL, a bunch of other stuff, and he was out for 13 months. So, that's the bad news. That's kind of the framework. Now, let's talk about Patrick Mahomes specifically. So, and let this serve as a trigger warning for all of my like Kansas City fans out there. Like, I know people might observant people might see the Marshon Lynch jersey hanging in the background. I am a Las Vegas Raiders fan. Um, this is not an anti- Kansas City Chiefs take. This is just we'll go through it. So week one, as you said, basically nine months after surgery, the fact that they did surgery to repair both ligaments in one shot is actually good news. It suggests that the LCL damage probably wasn't that bad. Um, but even if the LCL wasn't involved at all, nine months is really pushing it, like we've already discussed. Um, now I have a quote for you. Um, so let me read this to you.

>> Uh, quote, "We have a pretty strong nine-month rule. It's just all about just through the research and the data. There are no good outcomes with players coming back early from an ACL, especially if you had other things that had to get fixed up. Now, who said that? Was it the surgeon general? Was it the president of the American Orthopedic Surgeons Association? No. It was Micah Parsons who's also recovering from his own ACL injury. So, even Micah Parsons knows that you shouldn't come back from an ACL repair early. Now, that all being said, as you said, Patrick Mahomes is kind of an alien, so I don't know. Maybe he really is Superman.

>> So is Michael Parsons for what it's worth.

>> Yeah. Right. Well, I mean, maybe Patrick Mahomes like he is Superman and like the yellow sun is going to heal him faster and and he's going to beat this timeline, but I'm just telling you where the facts as we understand them are leading me. And maybe I'm missing something, but I don't know, man. It seems like that's really pushing it. So, I don't know. What do you think? So this is my thought process on things. He had the surgery 3 days after the injury which I don't know does that mean something because some like neighbors had to wait multiple weeks if I'm not mistaken to have his surgery. Does it matter that the surgery happened immediately?

>> Not necessarily. I think sometimes they they kind of look at the MRI and and they say okay like this thing is completely destroyed. There's a lot of inflammation. we kind of want to let things calm down and then we'll go in and repair it because we just don't want to go in there and kind of messing around with things are really, you know, irritated and inflamed. Maybe it wasn't to that level and they felt like, you know, we want to go in there and do it now. Maybe they kind of looked at the calendar and looked at the timeline and said, "Hey, if we want to even have a shot at having this guy back for week one, then we got to go in and do it now and it's worth it for us to to kind of go in and do it." So, you know, it's kind of hard to speculate as to why, but th those would be a couple of reasons why they might have done it. Either way, it looks like it went okay. And, you know, things are kind of progressing, but just calendar-wise and timeline timeline wise, the math ain't math. So, I don't know.

>> That's This is what scares me. Carson Wentz, week 14 of 2017, ACL and LCL tear. He the exact same injury as Patrick Mahomes. Anybody be like, Carson Wentz, that's not a fair comparison. Carson Wentz was the MVP of the NFL when this happened. Um, Carson Wentz in 2018 was back for week one. Did not suffer any compensatory injuries of any kind, but does anybody remember what Carson Wentz played like in 2018?

>> It wasn't as good as he played in 2017. So, I don't know if the injury was a factor.

>> Obviously, Patrick Mahomes way more accomplished than than Carson Wentz ever was. But to me, it just worries me that like we could hear at the end of next season that ah Patrick Mahomes was never actually fully healthy. He has a cleanup procedure, blah blah blah blah blah. He actually was running a ton too before the injury. Um, and it was one of Mahomes best rushing outputs of his career. So, I think it just it it's a like a yellow light. It's like a there's this there's some caution up for the Patrick Mahomes situation and the Kansas City Chiefs that people are just going to automatically assume that they're going to be a top five to 10 offense cuz honestly they even before this injury they haven't really been that um in the past couple of seasons. Now they have Waller to take some pressure off and all that kind of stuff. Like the Mahomes situation is one that I'm very fascinated by. I I wouldn't put money down that this is Patrick Mahomes best season of his career I guess is where I'm at with it.

>> Yeah. And I I think that's fair. And there's a lot of ways that it can go bad. Like he can miss time and therefore you're not getting that production or he can come back and his production can be hampered or he cannot run as much and then you're losing that productivity. So there's a lot of ways it can go bad and there's only a few ways that it can go well. Um so I'm just kind of more pessimistic on their timeline. He's still an amazing player and I think once he gets back right um he's going to be amazing but if he rushes back as we talked about the risk is not just underperformance but reinjury and now you're potentially looking at losing him for another extended period which if I'm the Kansas City Chiefs like I don't want to do that so I can win you know week two or week three like I want to have him good for the playoff down the stretch in the playoffs and for the next few years since I am going to be paying him half a billion dollars or whatever it is.

>> Yeah. So, I this is my understanding of the whole situation, then we can move on here is they're not going to play him in any preseason games. They're not going to put him on the field without a non-contact jersey in training camp. Um we're going to have absolutely no clarity on his timeline until the first game of the season. That's that's my thought is what's going to happen. So, if you're drafting Patrick Mahomes on underdog, three quarterback builds. If you're drafting uh Patrick Mahomes in Dynasty, you better have a better third quarterback than you probably normally would in superflex leagues or a better second quarterback in one quarterback leagues. And also to understand that maybe there's a possibility that you need to roster a second quarterback most of the season if you have a redraft standard redraft one quarterback league where you you know maybe you draft uh Bo Nix later on in your draft just to hold for the first couple weeks to see how Patrick Mahomes is playing. That's kind of how I would handle the situation. I'm okay taking the risk but just make sure you have some fail safes in place there like second and third quarterbacks and that kind of thing. So um Tucker Craft tight end five off the board 82.4 480p dynasty tight end 66, 6980p. Call me crazy, but that seems pretty expensive for an ACL tear. Tight end. I know he's a great player and was breaking out before this happened. ACL tear was torn on November 2nd. Meniscus trim, minor LCL damage. It did not require surgical repair. The LCL damage, Christian Watson, his teammate, so we have a a framework for how this team handles ACL tears, took 294 days to return from the same injury. um August 23rd, 2026 would be 294 days away from um Tucker Craft's injury. So, we're talking like a week and a half before the first week of the season. The team and Tucker Craft remain steadfast that he will be ready for week one.

>> Yeah. So, like you said, you know, kind of 10 months puts him back in early September. So, you know, I'm kind of optimistic that he can be ready for week one provided he doesn't have any setbacks or issues. So, I you know, I'm again I'm I'm feeling decent about it. So you draft him at that price tag thinking I'm going to probably have him with with an increased reinjury risk and increased kind of compensatory risk. Is that kind of how you'd handle it is that he's just like he's probably a little bit higher risk injury-wise than the other tight ends going at his range.

>> Yeah, I think there's there is a little bit of elevated injury risk, but moreover it's like like we talked about it's like there is that kind of productivity uh downside for the first, you know, say month or or so. Uh so the first four games that he comes back. So, you know, kind of expecting them to be on a any of these ACL guys once they come back, they generally don't get thrown right into the fire. A decreased snap count, their productivity goes down as a result. They're not running as many routes, they're not blocking as much, things like that. So, I'm kind of baking in like a 20, 25% decrease in productivity for the first, you know, month or so. And then provided there's no other issues, my expectation is he's going to be back to how he was before. So, that's kind of the way that I'm playing it.

>> Yeah, I think very similar to what I just said about Mahomes, like you probably want to draft three tight ends. If you draft Tucker Craft on underdog, build them into a three tight end build. Take a couple, you know, take a Dalton Schultz, Cole Kmet combo later on in your draft, and then you can feel confident that you have guys to advance you if Craft does start out pretty slow. Um, and same goes for for Dynasty. You probably want to have a decent backup tight end on your bench or whatever. So, yeah, he's one that I struggled with just because it's it's a pretty high price tag. like tight end 5, 828 ADP is it's not cheap for for a a redraft league or a best ball league.

>> Yeah. And we know that's kind of not like how you you like to build teams either. It's like you like to get the guys at the very top or you like to kind of punt the middle and and draft guys at the end. So I I mean that's a very valid strategy. But if you like Tucker Craft and you want to take a shot on him or because people with injuries, they tend to fall into two groups. They're they're very binary. They're either like, "This guy's injured and I don't care, so I think he's going to be wheels up." Or, "This guy's injured, so I want nothing to do with him, so therefore I'm not touching him." And depending on your own micro market, like that may kind of dictate the price and and how you play it. Um, but I think the truth really kind of lies, not so much in the middle, but somewhere in the range of he's probably going to be hampered early in the season and then he could probably back be back to the way that he was. and had when you price that in, I think you can come to a decent judge of when you should be taking him.

>> Yeah, I think it's the right answer is probably a case by case basis. Um, injuries, timelines, medical stuff, all comes into factor and it's not one sizefits-all. Never draft a player off an ACL tear, never draft a player off of this or whatever the case is.

>> And that's why we're here, right?

>> Yeah, exactly. That's why we're doing what we're doing. Speaking of ACL tears, uh, we have Jonathan Brooks who's got two of them that he's recovering from. uh running back 37 off the board in ADP and climbing by the way. I think he's almost inside the top 100 picks on underdog now. Dynasty RB32, 128 overall. So Jonathan Brooks, while a member of the University of Texas, Hook 'em Horns, tore his right ACL on November 11th, 2023 at UT. Had he not torn his ACL, he might have been a first-round NFL draft pick. He was still a top 50 NFL draft pick. even despite tearing his ACL in November of that season, not doing any pre-draft combine stuff or any of that kind of thing, he re-tore his ACL December 8th, 2024 after roughly five or six weeks of a ramp-up period. Like, he started that season on the PUP. They were actually quite patient with him. Like, I don't think they tried to rush him back at all in Carolina, but his his re-surgery took place mid January 2025. They said, "To hell with this. We're not even going to risk 2025 season." 16 and a half months post surgery by training camp this season going into the 2026 season, 18 months post ACL surgery by week one. What are your thoughts on Brooks? Because a lot of people will tell me in the comments that there's he's never going to be anything for fantasy because he's done this twice.

>> Yeah, so the thing with ACL retirees is they can happen up to 25% of the time within a six-year period. So, it's not common, but it's not uncommon either. So, this is something that does happen. Now, I'm going to ask you, when somebody comes back from one ACL tear, statistically speaking, what are the chances that they return to their previous level of functioning? Would you say percentage-wise?

>> Well, I don't think it's 0% like the comments would tell me. I think it's probably somewhere above 50%, let's say 60%.

>> Yeah. So, for one ACL repair, generally speaking, players return to their previous level of function, it's somewhere in the high 80s. So, you have a high 80% chance, in some cases almost 90% chance of being who you were before once you've done the rehab and everything like that. Now, when you have two ACL tears, that changes the calculus a little bit. What do you think the percentage is for somebody coming back from two ACL tears? Corey?

>> I'll stick to my 60% total.

>> 60% is exactly right. It's about 50 to 60% chance of returning to your prior level of functioning, which doesn't mean that if you're not back to your prior level of functioning that you're a zero. It just means that you're not exactly who you were before. Um, but as you said, his prior level of functioning was really freaking good. So, a 60% chance that he is who he was before he tore his ACL's, that speaks to a player who's pretty talented. I think that's probably worth taking a shot on, don't you?

>> Yeah, especially when, you know, Chuba Hubbard already lost his job last year to a player that they didn't even feel like they needed to resign in Rico Dowdle. And probably a large part of that was because they actually had some faith that Jonathan Brooks would be ready for the start of the season. Otherwise, the Panthers would have resigned Rico Dowdle. They would have been like, "Hey, we don't trust Jonathan Brooks at all. We're going to bring back Rico Dowdle because we don't want to be hamstrung at running back." So, I think the fact that he's a top 100 pick makes sense to me. This is one of the truly most ambiguous backfields in the NFL. And it could be the most profitable backfield in the NFL because the Dave Canalis Carolina Panthers are a very strong rushing team. They have a top 10 run blocking offensive line. And I know from my days watching Dave Canalis call plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that he's really good at calling run plays as well. And he can, you know, scheme up some good plays for Jonathan Brooks, who's, by the way, not even 24 years old yet. He's still a very young running back. He's the same age as Jalen Coleman, EMTT Johnson, K.R.on Allen, most of the running backs that were in this year's class. Jonathan Brooks was born the same year as those players. Yeah, I mean I I'm I'm kind of optimistic about this whole thing and I think it presents a really interesting buying opportunity because as you said there are people out there, smart people too, who are saying, "I want nothing to do with this guy. He tore his ACL twice. There's no chance he's going to be a productive NFL player." Like that just objectively is not true. So, you know, when you're dealing with that and and you're like, "Okay, I got it. There's a decent chance better than 50/50 that this guy could be who he was." That's definitely very interesting to me.

>> Yeah. And again, 18 months from week one is when he last, you know, had his surgery. So, we're we're from uh as long as the boxes are checked, he, you know, he's being ramped up in in mini camps and OTAs right now, but if he's out there full go in training camp, there's probably no reason this guy shouldn't be anything other than like a seventh or eighth round redraft pick to be honest with you. Um cuz him and Chuba Hubbard both could go right in the same territory. Do you want the early season potential of Chuba Hubbard? I think the team wants Jonathan Brooks to be the starting running back, but they need to see that he has confidence in himself, his knee, and all that kind of stuff. So, um, Travis Hunter, very similar to Rasheed Rice, um, two years ago, LCL reconstruction, November 11th surgery. He injured it in practice. He's going off the board at an absurdly discounted wide receiver, 57, 137.8 overall, ADP. He's Dynasty wide receiver, 32, 84th overall. Now, putting aside the quarterback stuff for a second, the timeline for this injury is listed at 6 to 9 months. And Rasheed Rice last year is a good example of he didn't really look like he was coming off of an injury when he was on the field. Granted, he had the first six games off because he was suspended, but he did participate in training camp. He was playing preseason games, so it didn't seem like the injury hampered Rasheed Rice if I'm correct.

>> Yeah, that's that was uh exactly what happened. And the timeline is spot on. Like that's the typical repair timeline that I give for these things is about 6 to 9 months. 9 months puts Hunter back mid August. He could be recovered well before that. So, you know, just briefly, I'm optimistic all around with this. Okay. So, what you're saying here is like Travis Hunter, you can fade him because of the cornerback stuff, but maybe not so much the injury stuff. Does it matter to you that because he's kind of cross-playing two positions, maybe if he's not like he's being ramped up in OTAs in mini camp, he's non-contact. I think he's actually doing some walkthroughs and stuff at times. Does that do you think that matters for the fact that he plays wide receiver not 100% of the time even though he did actually play double the amount of snaps at wide receiver that he played at corner?

>> To me it doesn't really because the statistically with LCL repairs there's a very very high success rate with these even higher than with an ACL repair. So, you know, the chances of him coming back and being who he was, which was an amazing two-way player, which is, you know, somewhat of a unicorn, you know, in the NFL really um are really good. So, I, you know, I'm just really optimistic and, you know, I don't know if you want to speak to like your thoughts as to whether or not I know you've mentioned it already about whether or not you think he's really going to play quarterback that much or, you know, how good of a wide receiver he is, but I I just I remain very optimistic about the situation. I think that his price is absurdly low. um there's not a lot of risk associated with or or the risk is being overblown to put it that way. The risk the play risk the the playing time risk the positional risk and the injury risk is kind of being mixed together and is uh you know creating this really high-risk situation in some people's minds and I just think that's not the case.

>> Yeah, it doesn't affect you at all really to miss on a seventh or an eighth round redraft or best ball pick. That being said, it really doesn't affect you at all to miss on a 12th or a 13th round redraft pick, which is where he's actually going right now. I would be willing to take him in the seventh or eighth round if that's where his ADP was, but that's not where his ADP is right now. So, yeah, I'm I've drafted a crap ton of him on underdog. And I'm going to be willing, especially on underdog, that's the format you want him in. Cuz him, Liam Con, and James Gladstone, the only three people I actually care about, uh, have been steadfast that he's still going to play a lot of wide receiver. And again, he played double the amount of wide receiver as corner. Cameron Wolf from NFL Network can report all he wants that he's going to play more on defense. Like James Gladstone literally refuted that report himself and said, "No, no, no. He's going to play more on defense, but that's because he played so much on offense already that we're trying to catch up his defensive snaps to what he played on offense, but the offense is isn't going to change." That's basically exactly what he said. So, um, let's talk about some rapid fire guys. They're just less important for fantasy, but they are all knee injuries, so they are worth mentioning in this segment here. Michael Penix, partial tear in his left ACL. Now he's torn his right ACL twice going back to his college days, but he had his surgery in late November and he's doing let's call it non-contact and walkthrough drills as of right now. We'll see. My opinion is let's see what happens in training camp because if he's not going to get the starting reps, I think Tua is going to start the season.

>> Yeah, I think that's probably right. So, you know, surgery in late November, 10 months is late September. He's probably going to go on the PUP to start the year if I had to guess. and any setbacks could push it into October or November. But after all that, there's a 65 to 85% chance he'll be what he was. Um the question is, do you think what he was is very good? The only caution I would add is putting him out to pasture too quickly, uh, you know, could be an issue. He's still a first-round pick and I tend to want to give these guys a long runway. I mean, you could even see with our Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold. I mean, that guy was buried more times than the Undertaker and he just kept rising and and now he's a Super Bowl champ years later. So, you know, Michael Penix is still pretty young. He still has a big arm. He's a first-round draft pick. So, I'm I'm not looking to cut the guy. I'm just not necessarily super enthusiastic about the situation for this year coming off the injury, having to ramp up, and also having another very capable quarterback in the fold already who's not injured, at least not right now. Yeah, it's ironic that he's the healthier of the two. I I tend to be of the opinion that this regime GM coaching staff did not draft Michael Penix. So, I actually don't think his his first-round pick status holds much weight unless Arthur Blank comes in and overrules everything, which is possible. I I I don't I don't think it's out of the range of outcomes. Um I tend to think that Tua will take over this job because Tua has always been better than Michael Penix any point in his career. Like the ceiling comp to me for Michael Penix was Tua Tagovailoa coming out of college. So, I uh I tend to think that he'll just he'll take this job and run with it and Penix still ease him in, like he said, start on the PUP. Maybe he gets back in there at some point in the season, especially if Tua misses time, but I'm uh I'm not holding my breath for Michael Penix's dynasty shares, uh to put it that frankly, and I don't have any, so thankfully that's not an issue for me. Um, Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL, left ACL January 17th, 2026 during, I believe, the divisional round game of the playoffs. February 21st is when he had his surgery. So it was almost a month later or over a month later. Camp is only five months post surgery. Nine months away from that February 21st date is November 21st. So the fact that he's even being drafted at all on underdog kind of surprises me. And he's not going super like he's going in like the 160s which is like what a 14th or 13th round draft pick. I'm of the opinion that I would just much rather draft Emanuel Wilson if I'm going to draft a running back that's not Jaren Price on the Seahawks.

>> Yeah, this is a tough one because like you said, nine months is late November, which is essentially the best case. Like that's if everything goes perfect from here on out realistically is more like late December, which would be 10 months out and then any setbacks and he could miss the whole regular season or maybe even the whole year. So, you know, it's just really not looking good from uh from that standpoint. And then to spend a 12th or 13th round pick on him uh with the intent of kind of utilizing him this year, I think is really tough. Yeah, I get like, oh, all the money's in week 17 for best ball and stuff like that. I just wouldn't rather just bet on Jaren Price to win this back. They spent a first-round pick on the guy because they clearly can't count on Charbonnet. And Charbonnet is also a free agent after this year. So, it sucks for him obviously because he's, you know, probably going to have a really weak market in free agency after this year. If he doesn't play at all or barely plays or when he plays, he doesn't look good or something like that. So, for Charbonnet, I just just stop wasting draft picks on him is all I would say. And from a dynasty perspective, you should probably sell him if people think he's going to be back by week six or something like that. Um, Tyreek Hill and Tank Dell both had essentially very very complex knee injuries, left knee dislocation for Tyreek Hill, ACL, PCL, MCL. Google says 12 to 18 months. He remains unsigned and that tells me that he could miss the entire season. I don't think he's going to retire. I think he would have done that already if he was going to. Um, but he is old too, so that also plays into things. We'll talk about Dell in a second who's essentially a year further along than Tyreek is.

>> Yeah. So, this one was bad. This was ACL, PCL, MCL, and a knee dislocation. The timeline's spot on, 12 to 18 months. The good news is he's got a mid to high 80s% chance to return to previous level of functioning. The bad news is the last time that we saw him, that level of functioning wasn't really very good. Now, the team was a dumpster fire. Everybody ends up getting fired. Was it that? Are we seeing him fall off the age cliff? Could it be both? So, it's not outside the realm of possibility that you get another, you know, year and change of production out of him. Um, but that's kind of that's kind of where where it is with him. So, it's really ambiguous. It's really there's a lot of ways that it can go bad. Tank, it's a little bit different, but I don't know. How does that impact him? Yeah, for me on Hill just quickly, I would stop spending best ball picks on him because I think best case scenario, we're looking at like November he signs with Kansas City and maybe he's useful, but like he kind of reminds me of when OBJ tore his ACL in the uh in the Super Bowl and then he was like pretty much not on the field the entire next season and people still drafted him kind of high in best ball. I just wouldn't waste any draft picks this season on Tyreek Hill. If you got him in Dynasty and you want to just hold the line on him, I think that's totally fine to see if he ever comes back. But I wouldn't count on him this season from a redraft or a best ball standpoint. Uh Tank Dell, like I said, it's effectively the same injury except he suffered it on December 21st, 2024. He's only 26 versus 33 years old. And it sounds like he's actually progressing well. He's moving around in OTAs. He's doing drills, that kind of thing. I tend to think that his price tag, which is like in the 180s on underdog, will increase to the 130s or 140s by the time the actual season starts. And the reason I think that is because last time he was fully healthy as a rookie, 16 point per game receiver. Him and CJ Stroud are like best friends on the team as well. Um maybe it's just a little bit of shower narrative here, but I tend to think that he's kind of a buy unless you

think otherwise.

No, I I think that's a really good way of approaching it. I mean, training camp about 18 months post injury. Week one's about 20 months post injury. And like you said, he's already back at OTAAS. Statistically, mid to high 80s% chance he was what he was before. And you know, we have two years of his body at work and he's kind of vasculated between like an 11 something points per game wide receiver and like a 15 to 16 point per game wide receiver. So even if you kind of split that down the middle, that's still, you know, 13 14 points per game, which >> which is a thousand yard receiver.

>> Yeah. Which ain't nothing as they say. So I mean that's that's uh pretty interesting to me.

>> Yeah. Yeah. I think at his price tag right now, if you're doing best drafts, like obviously if you you are doing best drafts, make sure to use our code because you'll get access to our draft guide this season. Um, if you're doing basketball drafts, I'm taking him all day. And I I'll flatten out my expo if if things go wrong for him and he's not on the field in training camp, I'll stop drafting him at that point, but I'm going to get my exposure up now when he's a pick in the 180s cuz he might be a pick in the 130s by the time August gets here if he's practicing and playing train uh preseason games and that kind of thing. So, uh, yeah, Dell also late round of Dynasty startups. He's like a 22nd round Dynasty startup pick. Like, you can get him for basically nothing at this point in Dynasty. Tack him on to the back of a deal. uh especially if you have CJ Shroud too.

So um those are all the knee injuries. We can uh go through the ankle stuff because we have two major secondyear running backs coming off of essentially fibula fractures and dislocated ankles. Uh I have this tweet from Ryan Heath I just wanted to show really quick. We've seen some guys return quickly. Tony Pard returned for OTAAS January 22nd is when he suffered his injury. That was like a four-month recovery. Mark Andrews returned actually the same season in the AFC Championship game after suffering the injury on November 18th. Isaiah Pacheco returned in week 13 after suffering the injury in week two. Uh Chris Godwin returned 11 months and his was pretty bad. His ankle was completely but he didn't really look the same either. I guess the point is here from what I'm gathering about this injury for Judkins and Cam Scaboo both. You can return from this injury, but are you going to be the same player that you once were? For Judkins, we're talking RB24 price tag 55 overall ADP. Dynasty RB13 54th overall ADP. Now based on what you have written here, it sounds like these injuries are a little bit different. Let's talk about Judkins first. Dislocated ankle, fractured fibula in week 16. He's already participating in mini camp and OTAAS, and I've watched him run like angle routes and look like the same player he was before. He's expected to be a full go by camp 7 months after the injury. Are you worried about Judkins?

>> I mean, in a word, not really. Um, so, you know, one of the things with uh with that Oracle that you mentioned, they had a couple of things in common. One thing was the players were coming back early from this injury. like the kind of standard timetable for this type of injury is about four to six months. So they were either coming back before that or they were coming back on the earlier side of that which is not going to be the case with Judkins. The second thing is a lot of these players were a little bit on the older side um which you know you haven't found out yet but trust me I have. As you get older things just kind of tend to get worse. Um so at this point all reports are positive to date. You know I I really am optimistic about the whole situation. Hey, I'm I'm going to be 28 this year. I'd be a washed up running back in the NFL at my age right now. Like Naji Harris and I are the same age. So like >> we're going to talk about him. So I don't know, maybe a little foreshadowing.

>> Yeah, like he's washed. So I I uh I I will uh from an athletic standpoint, I guess I would be a washed up player, but yeah, I I think for me with Judkins, like it's fine to be worried about the Browns and how bad they might be, but I actually am not really that concerned about the injury myself.

>> Yeah, totally agree. All right. So, Cam Scataboo, little different.

>> Yeah. >> Dislocated ankle, fractured fibula, just like Judkins, but he also ruptured a ligament in his ankle or foot or wherever. Um, he's RB19. He's actually going off the board earlier than Judkins. Uh, 43.9 overall ADP. Dynasty RB 17, a little bit cheaper in Dynasty 63rd overall. Now, he's doing back flips at, you know, celebrity baseball games and participating in mandatory mini camps. The team seems to be talking differently about his injury versus Neighbors. They seem to say that he's gonna be ready to go by the start of the season. Um, what do you think of Scataboo versus Judkins?

>> Yeah. So, the thing is like the ligament that was injured is a ligament in the ankle called the deltoid ligament. It's a really, really strong ligament. So, the issue with that is is that to tear that ligament, it requires a lot of force. So, that just kind of gives you an idea of the forces involved and how bad this was. Aside from the gruesome fact that when he broke the bone, it was like sticking through the skin, which is not great either. But that's what required the emergency surgery because you can't kind of throw a cast on that and leave it. So they fixed it up because of the ligament injury. It extends the timetable from four to 6 months to 6 to9 months. Um 9 months puts him back at the end of July. Um they didn't really add any significant competition for him. This is all very encouraging. So you know I believe he's going to be fine.

>> Yeah. And he did suffer I didn't mention it but he did suffer his injury in October versus December when Judkins suffered his injury. So even if it is a longer recovery timetable like you said um he has about a two two and a half month advantage timetable wise on Judkins for a similarish injury. So yeah I mean I'm drafting both of these guys because I do think that they're both good values in that round. Like I'm drafting them who could be 15 16 point per game running backs versus wide receivers who are like wide receiver twos on mediocre teams. like it doesn't seem like like in 2018 Judkins and Scataboo would be like two three turn picks, you know what I mean? Like the fact that you're getting them midway through the fourth and fifth round in in most cases, I think that they're decent risks to take at that point, but they're they're risks nonetheless for sure.

Um, speaking of risks, cuz uh my Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting running back, Bucky Irving, at one point had an ADP in the 30s, I think, early 40s at the very least. He is now RB23, 53 ADP off the board. Dynasty RB 16. He was once a top six or seven running back in Dynasty as well. So last year he missed seven games for foot and shoulder injuries. The shoulder injury seems to be the bigger concern of the two right now impacting his availability. The quote that got everybody scared about Bucky Irving was head coach Todd Bulls from Coach Speak Index. I'm quoting this here. He tends to think that Todd Bulls is a very honest coach. He he doesn't usually sugarcoat things. He anticipates a return at some point during the summer or fall. So, he's not participating in mini camps right now. Closely monitoring progress for me as training camp approaches. If he's not out there for training camp, his price is probably going to continue to fall.

>> Yeah. Um, so, you know, just one thing I want to put out there as far as like coaches, like when we say a coach is more honest than another coach, like we're kind of that's a really low bar. We're kind of >> we're preparing politicians maybe.

>> Yeah. Right. It's like we're grading on a on a really low curve here. It's like we're more honest than like say I don't know Pete Carol but it's like is that really saying anything? Um love Pete. Sorry things didn't work out with the Raiders by the way. Anyway, Bucky Irving. What happened with him? You're right. The shoulder was more of the issue than anything else. So he had a shoulder subluxation. So what does that mean? It means the ball of the shoulder joint kind of partially came out of the socket and went back in, which is better than it coming all the way out of the socket. But even if it goes back into place, the ligaments that hold the ball in the socket get loose. And sometimes you can tear the cartilage which is the labum and either way you end up with instability usually and then over time you can fully dislocate. So he didn't fully dislocate but he had instability and that's why he was missing time. So they were smart and when they realized he was coming back he was still having issues. His snap percentage and production was down after he returned. They got surgery for him in February which this type of surgery generally has about a four to six month recovery. So sometime from June to August is when we should expect him to be back. Now with you know there's an instability recurrence with these things of about 10 to 20% postsurgery which is not high but it's not zero. Still with that and given the factors like they have two other very capable running backs in that backfield and the cost which still seems to be really high compared to like all this risk that you're taking on. I mean it doesn't seem to be a great bet for me.

Um, you know, what do you think? This reminds me of when Dvin Cook had kind of recurring shoulder stuff. Um, the difference being Dalvin Cook is about 25 pounds heavier than Bucky Irving and had a little bit more of a history of playing through injuries than Bucky Irving as well. I tend to be of the opinion that I'm going to draft Gainwell and Sean Tucker uh over Bucky Irving. And I'm literally a fan of this team. So like I of anybody who's going to be the most likely to be optimistic about a player on their own team, it's probably me. And I'm not optimistic on Bucky Irving. So, I'm going to I'm going to let his price continue to fall. That's kind of where I'm at with him. And Dynasty, I've sold a couple shares in reddraft and and best baseball. I think I'm good. I think I'll take Shawn Tucker and Kenneth Gainwell at cost. I I know for a fact that if he's out there healthy and on the field, I'm not overly concerned about Gainwell and Tucker taking more than, let's say, a 35% opportunity share combined away from him. What I'm worried about is the second he's on an injury report, him not getting his full workload, and he's 195 pounds soaking wet.

>> Yeah, I mean, I I agree with you 100%. I don't really have much more to add.

>> All right. So that one may be the first kind of like red light. Uh maybe we're avoiding him. Um let's talk about some other guys. Romo Dunay, wide receiver, 29, 57 overall off the board. Now, this one is one I'm really scared to hear your opinion on because I've been drafting a crap ton of Romo Dunes in every format, but Dynasty especially. I'm very in on him. Stress fracture in his left foot. He missed the final five games last year. He avoided surgery, but he stated himself that the way that the bones like broke, it formed calluses, leaving him with what he dubbed his new normal foot structure. That sounds very scary to somebody who knows nothing about medicine, but he said it wasn't painful. He just needs to make adjustments to how he runs and cuts and that kind of thing. What does this mean for for all the overreacting baseball bros?

>> Good. This is it. This is why I'm here. This is my moment. All right. So, stress injury, stress fracture, stress reaction, they're all euphemistic ways of saying a partially broken bone. So, like when you hear all those things, like we're talking about a partially broken bone. So, that's what it is. Now, when bones heal, there's often remodeling that happens, which means the bone has a different shape and it may feel different. So, there's a bump there now that wasn't there before. That's the way the bone heals in adults, generally speaking. Now, if it hurts, that's worrisome because it raises the question of is the stress reaction happening again, which can happen. Now, if it isn't hurting him and he says it's not, I don't think there's a reason to panic over an issue that could probably very easily be solved with some padded Dr. Scholes inserts. So, his cost seems to be dropping a lot. And for me, that makes a very interesting potential buying opportunity. Okay, so let me paint a picture here because I've been of the opinion that Romo Dunay is personally my preference between the two Bears receivers um of over Luther Burden because I have more of a sample of of Ounce being a great receiver. He was a top 10 pick and all that kind of stuff. It's week three. Romo Dunce pops up on the injury report with a foot. He's limited. Are you selling him if that happens?

>> Yeah, now I am because now I'm worried. So I want to hear things from him about, oh, this is fine. I could play through it or whatever. Great. keep saying that and then I'm getting on the horn and I'm saying, "Hey, look, man. This guy's this guy's a beast. Ben Johnson offense. Come on, come get him." Because now I'm worried that stress reactions coming back.

>> Okay. So we're talking about maybe an increased injury risk as far as if he >> aggravates it of in some form or facet, whether it's in training camp before people are drafting teams or during the actual season and, you know, maybe he misses three games because of it or something like that. Like that's I guess my my concern would be not what what happens before the season when I'm drafting, but what happens during the season when I'm trying to start them.

>> Yeah. And the reason I get worried with people that have stress reactions that continue to have pain and continue to play through it is because like we said, a stress reaction or a stress fracture is a partially broken bone. If you continue to play through a partially broken bone, you generally end up with a fully broken bone and that's a problem. So that's the way that I look at it. And I think there's a little bit of confusion as to what a stress reaction actually is for the general public, not you guys cuz you're watching this video. But that's what you can take advantage of.

>> Okay. All right. That's that's good to know. Another a little bit more complex injury that people like I think generally a lot of fantasy players know about like you know ACL injuries generally. Um, what about Sam Leaporta? Tight end seven off the board. Uh about a top 100 pick. Dynasty tight end 85th overall pick. He's recovering from a mid November surgery for a herniated disc in his back that was suffered in week 10. He's participating in walkthroughs. He's limited in positional drills at OTAAS, but he is expected to have full clearance by training camp. Um, what are your thoughts on Sam Laora? Because I've heard other doctor type content say that as long as he meets his timelines, as long as he meets his checkpoints, then people are not concerned.

>> Yeah. So, we could do a whole hour on back injuries and and still have time left over. We're not going to do that. But basically, the thing that, you know, the audience needs to know is back injuries scare the crap out of everybody. And a back injury is they're not all created equal. There's bones, there's muscles and nerves. And then there's what Sam Laaporta has, which is an intervertebral disc injury. Um, so I'm gonna use a really, really jargony analogy that I think is, you know, it's going to take a lot of medical knowledge to understand. So just bear with me. A disc is like a jelly donut. Okay? So if you compress the jelly donut a little bit, maybe a little bit of the jelly comes out. The disc is still intact, but a little bit of the jelly comes out. It gets somewhere you don't want, and that's not really that big of a deal. out. It's not completely smashed and the jelly is not getting everywhere. But when that jelly gets out, they need to go in. They need to clean out the jelly. The disc is still intact. The doughut is still structurally sound. And we're in pretty good shape. That's what happened with Sam Laaporta. They took a little piece of the disc out. They cleaned everything up. And generally, there's very high success rates with this. One study showed that up to 9 almost 95% of patients had a successful outcome meaning significant relief from symptoms including leg pain 6 months after surgery. Now the success rates dropped to about 84 85% at around 30 months which showed good but not perfect long-term results. But in Leaporta's case 6 months is basically now and reports are that he's out there in OTAAS and he looks good. So all of that is very encouraging.

So, what I'm gathering from this conversation is he's maybe better off for reddraft and baseball than he is for Dynasty. Like, this could be a long-term issue for him potentially.

>> Well, you know, 85% chance that it's not going to be an issue for him. So, I don't know. 50 of >> the two formats, which one would you be more likely to draft or buy him in?

>> Uh, yeah. I mean, I honestly both. If I'm contending, I think his price is depressed. and for the next, you know, two, maybe two and a half years, if that's your window, then he's going to be Sam Laaporta. And we've seen what he can do when he's, you know, at his best, which was number one tight end overall. Um, so now his price is depressed, so you know, there still is a buying opportunity. And reddraft, I think the buying opportunity is is kind of similar. It's like people get very spooked about back injuries and, you know, some of them can be bad, and we'll get an opportunity to talk about some of those, you know, before too long, I'm sure. Uh, but this does not appear to be one of them.

>> Okay. Yeah. Because from my perspective, I look at them from a reddraft in best standpoint, like call me crazy here, but the Lions with the 32nd or the easiest strength of schedule in the NFL, all the dome games that they're going to have, I wouldn't be shocked if Sam Leaporta outscored Trey McBride this year because, you know, if you deal with any injuries for JMO or Monra St. Brown, that's going to obviously increase his target share. He could score 10 plus touchdowns like he did as a rookie. that makes me excited about Sam Laora both from a dynasty and a reddraft perspective, but the injury has depressed his cost to some degree. So, I was curious kind of your thoughts on that. And it sounds like is it a yellow light situation kind of thing where you're like, ah, you should probably be paying attention to it, or are you more just like, I don't think it's going to be an issue based on this this exact procedure that he had.

>> Yeah, I I don't think it's going to be an issue. I mean, you know, like I said, 95% chance he's going to be fine. Like, that's pretty good. Like, you don't generally don't get better than that when it comes to medical stuff. So, I mean, 95% chance I'll take my chances. It's the NFL. Obviously, anything could happen. He could something else catastrophic could happen to him. That's just the way it is. But as far as this being an issue and people kind of overweighting that, I'm going to try to take advantage of it.

>> Yeah. Okay, that's good to know. Um, Achilles injuries, we got two major ones. George KD tight end 9, very expensive in my opinion. 117.5 overall for a 33y old tight end who admittedly is absolutely awesome when healthy. Achilles surgery on January 14th and like I said he's 33 years old. What are your thoughts on KD from from a medical standpoint?

>> Okay. So let me just give you a little bit of a framework like Achilles injuries in football used to be essentially a career killer. Like the best returns to play after Achilles injuries were household names like Marlon Mack and Muel Lashure. Um and then Cam Cam Acres happens and he was one of the first athletes that underwent this new procedure called a speedbridge repair. So this is like a medical marvel thing that kind of changed the game. So he came back not in 9 to 12 months like they would previously see in a typical Achilles repair. He came back in under six months. So the reason that is is they think it has to do with early mobility and early return to weight bearing um less atrophy of the muscles, things like that. Nobody really cares about that. The point is is that these guys with a speedridge repair can get on the field a lot sooner and there's a lower reinjury rate associated with this than there was previously. The ret bridge repair is like 0 to 2% whereas with a traditional repair it's somewhere like 3 to 10%. Um so with an Achilles injury you just need to find out if it was a speed bridge repair and if it was typical time frame for that 6 to9 months give or take a couple of weeks and if not a traditional repair 9 to 12 months. So let's talk about George KD. He did have a speed ridge repair in uh mid January of 2026. So tendons attach muscles to bones. Ligaments, by the way, attach bones to other bones. But this Achilles tear, this Achilles tendon tear was high. It was near more near the muscle, which is good because that's where the blood flow is better. Nine months would be mid-occtober, but he's back on the field at OTAAS, which suggests he's on the lower end of the time frame. And remember, it's not unprecedented for guys to come back in six to seven months or less. So you maybe don't care about that. You want to know what I think happens. So, if he has a setback, I think almost assuredly he starts on the pup. But if not, I think the way that things stand now, there's a good chance he avoids the pup. Now, there's one more caveat aside from his age. They play week one in Australia, so they need to leave early and they need to travel. So, maybe he avoids the pup, but they just end up keeping him states side and have him ready for week two in LA while the rest of the team is down under Waltz and Matilda for week one. Um, the only other thing that I'll add to KD specifically is some studies have shown decreased performance for for skill players coming back for Achilles repair up to 20 to 30%. But even with a 20 25 to 30% drop off for KD, that's still top five sixish tight end uh production and there's a chance he outperforms that. So bottom line thesis, I'm buying and I'm taking my chances, hitching my wig into modern medicine, a potential hall of fame talent, and a top five tight end or better finish at a discount. And the last thing I want to say is whenever you look at injuries for players, the one question that I ask myself is, it's very simple, Corey. Is this guy a Hall of Famer or a potential Hall of Famer? And if he is, I want to give those guys the benefit of the doubt because they've already demonstrated themselves to be the outliers of the outliers. And when they come back, if they come back, the ceiling is just so much higher as far as what you can get from them. The Christian McCaffries, the Travis Kelce's, the George KDs. I really want to give those guys the benefit of the doubt because when they come back and they are who they were before, they smash.

>> So, I I did some Google research for a second there. I was very curious if George KD and Daniel Jones, who we're going to talk about in a second, both had Speedbridge pairs. They did. Yes. Ironically, I don't know if you knew this or not, Deshun Watson, who just retore his Achilles, did not have a speed bridge repair >> when he did.

>> Yet, another one of the bad decisions Deshun Watson has made apparently.

>> I was just curious because I was like, okay, who's ever retorring their Achilles? I was like, well, Deshawn Watson just did it.

>> So, did he have a speedridge repair? And it says he initially explored it. Um, which was the it says the technique used by Aaron Rogers and JK Dobbins and Cam Acres. and he ultimately decided to go with the traditional Achilles repair and Deshaawn Watson did in fact retar his Achilles. So, a little bit of confirmation that um you might know what you're talking about here and these journals and and you know what might know what they're talking about. I'm assuming Jason Tatum and Kevin Durant and all these guys that did it in the NBA also probably had speed bridge repairs I would imagine as well because they're >> Tatum definitely Tatum definitely did. I didn't look up Durant, but I think he did as well, >> cuz I know that was the first wave of like the the Achilles might not be a career ender was actually NBA um medicine more so than than the NFL because it happened to a bunch of stars um in the NBA like I said. Um shout out to Kevin Durant's Achilles tear because it did result in the Toronto Raptors being NBA champions that season. But um Daniel Jones, same exact question. obviously ruptured Achilles on December 4th, surgery December 9th, roughly 9 months between uh week one, 7 and a half months to training camp.

>> They paid him. I would say there's a pretty good chance that they're not concerned about it.

>> Yeah, I mean nine months puts him back right at week one, but he's already on the field at OTAAS. Um again, suggesting he's coming in on the lower end of that timeline. So, I agree that all signs pointing being ready for week one. The only concern might be like his mobility and things like that. Maybe you can speak more to that. um he wasn't really on pace to rush for a lot. You know, it was like 200 yards or so last year. You know, I think those those years of him being Vanilla Vic and rushing for 700 yards are long gone. Um but Aaron Rogers, as you said, came back from the same thing. He was 10 years older than Daniel Jones, and he essentially saw no appreciable decline in his production postsurgery, and we're going into year three at this point. So, a decline for Jones in 2026, I don't think is a given. Um, as for how it might affect the Colts offense, you could probably speak to that better than me.

>> I think while he isn't the same vanilla Vic that he was in the Giants offense, I still think defenses were accounting for it. So maybe they're not accounting for it as much. And I actually think that the person most affected by that would be Jonathan Taylor because Jonathan Taylor having a mobile quarterback probably helped him quite a bit last year. Um, or at least a mobile quarterback who could also throw the football because Anthony Richardson could not do both. Um, I think that it might affect Jonathan Taylor's efficiency, but that's kind of about the extent I'm thinking about it. I'm actually more worried. We actually I don't actually have him listed, but while we're talking about the Colts, really quick, do you have any concern with Alec Pierce as well? Um, I believe it was a tightroppe that he that he the surgery that he had. I I'll look it up really quick because I know I didn't prep you on Alec Pierce. I just remembered that he did have an procedure.

>> I do have a little concern with that because I've seen players kind of have this protracted recovery from that. This is all anecdotal. Um, you know, at some point we can talk about like more statistics around that. Um, but I I didn't love the fact that he kind of had this mystery surgery that they kind of sprung on us after he signed this big contract and um, you know, that you know, the rehab time was going to be three months and things like that. You know, he's going to miss time and um, you know, it's it's a little discouraging for me. So, you know, the Alec Pierce shares that I have, I'm holding them for now. Um, but there is there is that it would be more of a yellow light situation as you said.

>> Yeah, I would say for for if he's back on the field for training camp, I'd be probably not concerned, but if he's miss if he's not back on the field for training camp, it's obviously kind of wheels up for Tyler Warren and Josh Downs and those types of guys. Okay, we're going to go straight rapid fire on the rest of these because we've gone a little long here. And all these guys, too, it sounds like the concern level is probably a little less than some of the ones that we talked about. um Bo Knicks um going off the board, you know, late round quarterback, quarterback 15 or so. He fractured his ankle on January 17th during the playoffs surgery on January 20th. It's the third surgery on this right ankle since high school. He had one in high school and one in 2021 at Auburn. The rehab says 3 to 6 months I think he should be back for training camp. Is there anything else on bonicks that you'd have to worry about?

>> No, I mean he had this scheduled cleanup procedure in late April, which is not uncommon or expected. you know, recovery from that sometime in June or early July. Um, as long as we don't hear anything else, he should be fine for training camp.

>> Okay. Jaden Daniels, elbow dislocation, hamstring sprain, PCL sprain last season going very high in drafts, quarterback four. Anything to be concerned about long term or are we just kind of like Jaden Daniels might just be a band-aid in general and he might suffer a bunch of injuries. Is there any of one of those injuries that he suffered that actually could be, you know, reinjury risks?

>> Well, the only one I would have been concerned about really was the elbow, but the MRI showed no fracture, no ligament injury. Um, so there wasn't any surgery needed. Recurrence rate for redislocation in those cases is less than 2%. Um, the bigger issue would have been like decreased range of motion in his elbow, but you know, since it's his non-throwing elbow, it doesn't really matter.

>> Okay. And then the other rapid fires that we have here are just less fantasy relevant guys. I guess Brock Bower is very fantasy relevant. He had a PCL sprain and suffered in week one last year. anything to be concerned about because he played through it most of the year.

>> Yeah, I mean that was uh you know he suffered that injury in week one and and then he had to play through it. That's a really tough ask to play through a sprained PCL. Usually takes like four to six months to totally heal. So credit to him for trying. He didn't need surgery. So he should be fully recovered.

>> Garrett Wilson knee hyperextension October 12th. Jets were a dumpster fire.

>> It was it just a simple fact that they just shut him down because they wanted him to recover more so than something to be worried about?

>> I think so. You know, he had a knee sprain, no surgery, should be fully recovered. That's basically it.

>> Okay. Trey Benson, meniscus tear, September 25th. James Connor, foot injury, likely a Jones or a Liz Frank. We actually don't know. Late September. And Naji Harris Achilles tear September 21st. None of these guys are very fantasy relevant. Is there any that you're like very concerned about?

>> Uh Trey Benson should be fine except for that small issue of them signing Tyler Algier and that Jeremiah Love guy. Um but that's really that's his bigger issue. I mean, he could get del. The only reason I brought up Benson is and Connor, too, actually, is because it wouldn't shock me if one or both of them gets dealt or cut.

>> Yeah. And I think that's totally reasonable, but yeah, Trey Benson not really concerned. James Connor, the foot injury kind of looked like it could be a Jones fracture or a Liz Frank injury. Um, I initially thought it was a Liz Frank from what I saw, but the reports are denying it. So, that's fine. Either way, um, there's a good chance he's recovered by week one. Naji Harris, he had a speed ridge repair in September. He was running by February. Late June is nine months out. I bet he gets a job and disrupts somebody's backfield when he's healed up.

>> Yeah, I'm curious to see where he would actually go. That would be the fun part for me is I could see him just go to like something stupid like he goes to the Ravens or something and we're like, why are they giving Naji Harris carries instead of Derrick Henry. So maybe just a landmine to look out for for for Naji Harris. And then Calvin Ridley fractured his fibula November 16th. Anything to be worried about there?

>> I mean, he should be fine. The real question is, is he cooked or the odd man out now or both? Um, that's really the bigger issue.

>> I find myself drafting him just because I'm chasing routes at that point in my baseball drafts where I'm like, I think he's going to be on the field like 80 90% of the time because I know like they signed Wandelle, but he's actually a slot receiver. Like, is he going to come off the field in in 12 personnel and that kind of thing. The Titans do run a lot of 11 for what it's worth. Um,

>> yeah, I I think I think there's upside there because somebody else could get hurt. Wando gets hurt, he steps in, he gets a lot more production. What if Tate's not ready to be the number one guy right away?

>> Tate's slow to ramp up. All that stuff could happen and then he could step right in. He's still He's still a veteran.

>> Yeah. And he last time he was healthy in 2025 or 2024, sorry. He was like a 12point per game receiver. He wasn't nothing. Um the last guy I believe was recent news. Chris Rodriguez now of the Jacksonville Jaguars who has I would say the drum beat's been louder for him being the starter than it has been for Tootton being the starter since he was signed.

>> Yeah. And it had to do I think more with like he had a relationship with the coach and stuff like that which isn't nothing but you know this kind of throws a little bit of cold water on that. So he had a it not clear what he had yet. They had a foot procedure. Um a Jones fracture doesn't fit the timeline which is usually a 3 to four month recovery. So they're not saying that. They're saying it's kind of more like a month to two month recovery. Um so maybe it was something like a broken toe that just needed to be surgically put back in place. So not really something significant. probably not an issue, but it does open the door uh even wider for Tuton to grab a bigger piece of the backfield pie.

>> Call me crazy, too, but I actually don't hate scroll the f down Allen in the 18th round of my basketball drafts. I don't know why. I just feel like because, you know, he had like Liam Cohen had Rashad White in Tampa Bay finished as a top 25 running back the same year that Bucky Irving broke out. I wouldn't be totally shocked if Laquin Allen had a nice receiving workload. But anyways, Tutin is probably the biggest winner out of that injury, obviously. Um, anything that I missed that you want to bring up just like, hey, we we got to talk about this guy. Otherwise, I can uh I can save the people some time here.

>> I don't think so. I mean, we covered a lot. So,

>> we covered literally pretty much every injury in the NFL that fantasy that's fantasy relevant at least.

>> So, that was a bunch. We got that in just over an hour, which I think is pretty good. Hopefully, uh it's not too long for the people and and they were uh engaged for the entire time. But, um yeah, that's that's all I got for now.

>> Yeah. And I um I think a lot of the time people just want this one shot. Like just give me all the injury an out. Like if I was watching this video, I'd be like just give me everything you got on injuries and then I'll I'll do what with that information what I can. Well, I want to have you back on closer to the start of the season when we have training camp injuries to talk about. Guys who got banged up in training camp. We won't redisuss any of these injuries unless somebody like Neighbors or something suffers a setback or something. Maybe we can talk about it. But I do think injury analysis is a super important part of fantasy football. I have traditionally been an injury optimist most of the time, but I do want to really break it down case by case going forward and make sure that you know I could be an injury optimist at heart and not want to draft Bucky Irving, for example.

>> Yeah, I think honestly I think having some level of optimism is really good. Um, but then there are those cases like with the Bucky Irving case where it's probably going to pay to be a little bit more pessimistic. And granted, I have a bias, but I believe that the edges in fantasy football and fantasy sports in general are shrinking. But one of the bigger edges that you can get still remains injury analysis. And if you can get better at that, that can give you a big leg up on market discrepancies and and dealing with your league mates and and things like avoiding some landmines and things like that.

>> Yeah, absolutely. So, James, really appreciate you having uh coming on the channel. Again, you've been following our content. We started our tone setter truthers league which is you are a member of four years ago.

>> Former champ former champion by the way just >> former champion. Yeah. James actually diced me up the first year of the league if I'm not mistaken with Jerick McKinnon and a CD Lamb Dak Prescott stack to bounce my 13-1 team out of the playoffs that year. It's all right. I got a championship two years ago. So I'm I'm good. But yeah, you, me and Danny, we got what 75% of the championships between that league, which is

>> Don't Don't forget about AJ. I think AJ has two as well. Oh, does he have Okay, so I guess it has been going for five years then. So, generally, we've been in the in the mix for for many years, but uh yeah, like I said, longtime fan of the channel. Really appreciate you coming on and giving us some real actionable advice from a doctor's perspective because like I said, I am a very very pretend doctor. Um, and you are a real one. So, we appreciate you coming on. Um, one more time, if you want to shout out where people can find your info and if you guys really appreciate James work, uh, we'll definitely maybe work something out involving our draft guide if possible or something like that. Um, and definitely potentially have you on again.

>> That's great. Well, I I'm not really on social media that much, but if you want to learn more about me and my work, I do have a website. It's called injuries suckbook.com. Um, so you can go there and check it out. And if you want to support me there, that's great. If you don't want to support me there, then, you know, leave a like here and continue to support Corey and and Danny and FSE and and the whole Flock family. And, you know, I just want to thank you for having me on here. I mean, this was great. This is a lot of fun. I love doing this and kind of making things with injuries, you know, more approachable and more actionable for uh fantasy players. Um, you know, leave a comment down below what you think I got right, what you think I'm way off on, make fun of my New Jersey accent, whatever. And uh, you know, if the people want me back, I'd love to be back.

>> Yeah, I'm glad we got more Italian on this channel as well. Um, we needed more of that. Uh, because we didn't have enough of it before.

>> That's fantastic.

>> All right. So appreciate you guys for tuning in. Make sure to check out everything over on Flock Fantasy. Again, take Underdog is the biggest actionable part of this video. If you guys want to go draft some baseball teams right now, head on over to Underdog. Use promo code FSE. 50% deposit match up to $1,000, $50 in bonus entries. And of course, like I said, you will get access to our Dynasty rookie draft guide, our reddraft guide, and our weekly start set rankings for the entire calendar season. That's a $100 value if you were to sign up for an annual subscription on the site for just a $10 sign up and first play with our promo code over on Underdog. So, definitely check that out. Go draft some of these guys that are discounted, Sam Laaporta, some of the guys that we talked about already, and maybe avoid Bucky Irving, who we talked about already as well. But appreciate you guys for tuning in. Peace out. We'll talk to you soon. You beat me. You beat me.