Good Morning. Week 3 is now behind us and we now know how we fared from one fantasy team to another. It’s like Russian roulette every week when it comes to who gets banged up and the severity of it. Personally, I had Christian McCaffrey and AJ Brown go down. I imagine you have your own situations as well. Today’s injury report covers 6 players and I look at each situation through a fantasy football perspective.
QB: Justin Herbert
RB: Giovani Bernard
WRs: Tee Higgins, Scotty Miller
TEs: George Kittle, Rob Gronkowski
Cincinnati Bengals: Tee Higgins (WR) - Following his absence from Week 3’s game against the Steelers, Tee was not on the practice field on Monday. The game this week is on Thursday so he will need to get back to practice today in some capacity. Ja’Marr Chase and Tyler Boyd received the vast majority of the targets thrown at receivers in the previous game. Auden Tate played in more than half of the teams snaps in this game in Higgins's spot and was thrown to once.
Los Angeles Chargers: Justin Herbert (QB) - It was revealed on Monday that Herbert suffered some minor hand injury during the game against the Chiefs on Sunday. After the game his hand was seen iced and wrapped, but there is no indication he will miss time. The backup to Herbert is Chase Daniel, the highest paid back up in the league. His last start game in 2019 for Chicago, a loss.
San Francisco Giants: George Kittle (TE) - Unbeknownst to us, but Kittle was dealing with a calf injury as he put out a solid performance against the Packers on SNF. This was revealed on Monday by the coaching staff and I will circle back later in the week if he misses practices. Ross Dwelley is the back up, and the last two seasons he has been in the 15-20 reception range.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Rob Gronkowski (TE)/Giovani Bernard (RB)/Scotty Miller (WR) - All three players were reported as injured on Monday although they all finished out the game against the Rams the previous day. Gronkowski is dealing with a rib injury whereas Bernard has a knee issue. Neither is deemed to be serious. Miller’s injury on the other hand is expected to put him on the IR as he is dealing with turf toe. Cameron Brate had four receptions last week and Gronk’s injury could be why. Brate had nearly 30 receptions the last six seasons. The Bernard situation is interesting as Ronald Jones has demanded a trade, and will be dealt once Bernard is healthy. This means that Ke’Shawn Vaughn will play a larger role in the offense long-term, the 3rd round pick from 2020. Vaughn only had just over 100 yards rushing last season. Antonio Brown should return this week from the COVID list to take his place as WR3. But if he doesn’t, I expect Tyler Johnson to get another look. Johnson had three receptions in Week 3 and played nearly half of the snaps.