It had been a while since a key fantasy player was carted off with an ACL injury, which I guess meant the fantasy gods felt they had to act Sunday. Bad fantasy gods. Don’t. Mean.
Fantasy football aftermath: The injuries of Week 10
ACL injuries and concussions. Everyone hates ACL injuries and concussions. Ban them.
Christian Petersen
There were a few injuries of note across the league Sunday, but the biggest one might have been the team with the league’s best record losing its starting quarterback, and possibly losing him for a long time. Let’s run through it:
Quarterback injuries in Week 10
- The Arizona Cardinals lost quarterback Carson Palmer to what they believe is a left ACL tear early in the fourth quarter Sunday. Arizona's defense went to down on the Rams after Palmer's injury, so the Cardinals won going away to get to 8-1, but the team will likely be without Palmer the rest of the season, and will resort to Drew Stanton at quarterback. Stanton is no Palmer, but the team has enough weapons that Stanton could still put up some numbers for fantasy (though not Palmer-like), while the weapons -- namely Andre Ellington and Larry Fitzgerald -- ought to be basically fine.
- I couldn't imagine a scenario in which it made sense to use Tony Romo Sunday, dealing with a back injury and coming off of a long flight to London. Which of course meant he put up his second-best fantasy performance of the season. Showing he can perform through the injury, with no signs of setbacks and with a bye in Week 11, Romo appears to be a full go the rest of the way.
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Running back injuries in Week 10
- It doesn't sound like Ronnie Hillman's foot injury Sunday was anything significant -- the team just opted for the hot hand of C.J. Anderson. Which in itself is fairly foreboding, because Anderson now joins Hillman, Juwan Thompson and the soon-to-return Montee Ball in what has become a very crowded Denver backfield. It might be tough to know which of the group to use week-to-week. Just keep an eye on the news out of Denver, because there are at least three different guys who could potentially be the team's starting running back.
- The Giants lost both Peyton Hillis (concussion) and Michael Cox (broken leg) in Sunday's game at the Seahawks. Neither was crucial to anything real or fantasy, except that the Giants are now down to rookie Andre Williams and Rashad Jennings, and that's only if Jennings can make it back healthy for Week 11. Expect the Giants to go out and sign someone this week.
- Two running backs coming back from injury Sunday -- the Bills' Fred Jackson and the Dolphins' Lamar Miller -- weren't really at full strength despite being active for their respective games; if the Dolphins and Bills weren't fighting for every win possible, the teams might have given their stud running backs the week off. Unfortunately for both, the Dolphins and Bills play each other in Week 11, and that's a Thursday night game. With a short week, it might be wise to look elsewhere for a running back option.
Wide receiver injuries in Week 10
- The Jaguars lost wide receiver Allen Hurns to a concussion Sunday. With a concussion, of course, there's no way to guess at a prognosis until he goes through the protocol, so the best you can do right now is monitor, especially with the Jaguars heading into their bye. If Hurns is out for any extended time, though, it could mean increased looks for Allen Robinson and/or Cecil Shorts III.
- Brandon Marshall was the lone bright spot for the Bears Sunday night before being forced from the game with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter. Marshall had eight catches for 112 yards and a touchdown before suffering the injury. It's way too early to guess at what this means for Marshall's rest-of-the-season value, but any extended absence could help Alshon Jeffery. Or it could send the Bears even further into the toilet. One of those.
- Similar to the issues of Jackson and Miller at running back, Sammy Watkins was active for the Bills, but probably shouldn't have been, as his groin injury had him running at below full speed. He caught only four of his 10 targets for only 27 yards Sunday. And, as mentioned above, on a short week, Watkins is a dicey play for Week 11.
Tight end injuries in Week 10
- The Titans lost tight end Delanie Walker to a concussion in the second quarter Sunday. He was down on the field for a while after the injury, though he did tweet that he was "all good" later in the day. We'll have to wait and see how Walker does going through the league's concussion protocol, but no other tight end on the roster stands to offer much fantasy value if Walker is out. His targets would likely go to wide receivers Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright.
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