THE INJURY FILES: WEEK 1

What’s good Rush Nation? The Injury Files is back for some in-season injury reports. I’ll be looking into players availability before each game week throughout the season. Letting you know the duration they could be sidelined and who could step up whilst they are out. Your weekly one stop injury spot, here on 5 Yard Rush. 

In the off-season I looked into players coming back from a serious season ending injury and how they will fair in 2022. Covering the likes of Robert Tonyan, Robert Woods, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Michael Thomas, JK Dobbins and Cam Akers. You can give those a read at the links above. Now, with the weekend matches less than 2 days away, it’s time to focus on the meat of your rosters. Here’s some early injury analysis on players you can keep your eye on whilst setting those line ups.

Quarterback

It’s a pretty clean bill of health across the league at Quarterback. The only starter likely to miss week one is Zach Wilson. The Jets second year signal caller suffered a torn meniscus in week one of pre-season, which needed surgery. At present there’s no timeline available for Wilson’s return to the field at MetLife and veteran Joe Flacco will take the reigns this weekend against Baltimore. I’ll keep you posted on Wilson’s return over the coming gameweek’s. 

Running Back

Now it’s probably just an insurance policy with Gus Edwards on the PUP list but I’d be wary of J.K. Dobbins for week one. The Ravens have a nice match up with the Jets and coach Harbaugh has said “he’s looked better every day”. The signing of Kenyan Drake recently adding to Mike Davis’ addition this off season leads me to beleive they will approach the Dobbins return cautiously after suffering a torn ACL last year.

Seattle are in a rough spot this year and Rookie Running Back Kenneth Walker III is dealing with a hernia issue. After needing a procedure this pre-season it’s still unknown wether or not Walker will suit up for Monday Night Football. If he does, he will not start ahead of Rashaad Penny who some might say surprisingly, has a clean bill of health. I’d probably bench Walker this week and see how he gets on next week in practice before unleashing the Rookie.

Wide Receiver

Probably the position with the most questionable player statuses across the NFL at present. Let’s start with the Packers. Matt La Fleur said on Monday he is “hopeful” Christian Watson plays on Sunday against division rivals Minnesota. The second round pick has been dealing with a knee injury all of camp. Allen Lazard also has an undisclosed issue and missed all last week’s practice and was seen running off to the side on Monday. 

Chris Godwin practiced without a knee brace on, on Monday. Coming back from an ACL and MCL tear which he picked up in week 15. It’ll be quite remarkable if he plays against Dallas on Sunday and if he does will no doubt be limited in the snaps he takes. Sit Godwin this week and keep an eye on this for week two and in the mean time Russell Gage or Julio Jones will step up into the WR2 role behind Mike Evans.

In the final pre-season game against the Lions, Pittsburgh’s number one wideout Diontae Johnson hurt his shoulder. Mitch Trubisky should have his main target available come the weekend though and it seems not being able to finish the game was more precautionary then anything else. It’s all change since the departure of Big Ben this off-season and wether it’s Pickett or Trubisky under center, Johnson is an integral part of this offense. Fire up Diontae in your line-ups this week despite the “questionable” tag. 

One more before we move on to Tight End. Highly touted Rookie Drake London is set to open the season against division rivals New Orleans. He injured his knee in his pre-season debut for the Falcons. He’s not practiced at all since until this past Monday. Head Coach Arthur Smith has been positive throughout that his WR1 will be available but it’s still something to keep an eye on as we approach the weekend. 

Tight End

Cardinals star Zach Ertz has missed a lot of training camp with a calf injury and didnt play a single snap in pre-season games. They face the Chiefs week one and if Ertz can’t play plus the suspension of Hopkins, it’s likely newly acquired Hollywood Brown and veteran AJ Green will see an uptick in targets. Kliff Kingsbury is hoping Ertz shows progress this week before he makes a decision on his status for the Kansas City game. 

One of Russell Wilson’s new weapons is third year Tight End Albert Okwuegbunam. He missed the teams last pre-season game and the following practise with a lower body injury. Albert O made it clear if it was in the regular season he would have been playing. The Rookie in the Denver Tight End room Greg Dulcich, starts the season on the IR. So, fire up the O who has zero competition for snaps at Tight End this week. 

That’s all for week one. Check the waiver wire article Stacey released earlier this week here for some replacement’s. If you’re unsure on a player this week, he uncovered some low owned gems you can plug n play. As always be sure to check player’s statuses closer to kick-off. Week one is finally here. Until week two. Keep Rushing.

Lewis -@LVenes1