Gameday Injury Expectations Week 1

Photo: USA Today Sports

It feels good to be back. After what seemed like a long offseason, August has flown by, and the NFL has returned.

For those of you who are new, welcome. And those who are familiar, welcome back. This article will be on the website every Saturday until the end of the regular season. It will summarize the injuries from the previous week, tracking practice reports and injury specifics to provide you with as much information as possible so that you can make informed decisions when setting your fantasy football lineups.

I am a practicing physical therapist, but along with my experience as a health care provider, I have been committed to providing actionable/streamlined injury information for fantasy managers. I do so with my injury database, which is a nice reference point for injuries using historical comps.

Understanding the NFL's Injury Report

(per Dr. Bramel)

"The injury report released by the NFL is [made up of] two reports. The first is the Practice Participation report, which lists which injured players practiced and their participation level. It also includes players who rested or missed practice for non-injury-related reasons. The second is the Game Status Report, which gives the probability a player will play, i.e., Questionable, Doubtful, Out. The Practice Participation Report is released every day of the week (Monday through Saturday). The Game Status Report is released with the Friday participation report (Wednesday for Thursday games, Saturday for Monday games). In this feature, I'll include the Game Status Listing and my expectations of their likelihood of playing."

If you are reading this article on Saturday, make sure to come back on Sunday morning as more updates trickle in within the next 24 hours.

Key: Player | Injury | Game Status Listing | Playing Expectation

Current Status on High-Impact Injured Players

Gameday Decision

• WR DeAndre Hopkins
• WR Keenan Allen
• QB Russell Wilson

Trending Doubtful (Likely Inactive)

• WR Tee Higgins

Trending Probable (Expected to Play)

• RB Christian McCaffrey

Ruled Out

• WR Roman Wilson (ankle)
• WR Josh Downs (ankle)
• TE Ian Thomas (calf)
• TE Tommy Tremble (hamstring)
• WR DJ Chark (hip)
• QB Marcus Mariota (chest)
• WR Malik Washington (quadriceps)

QB Jordan Love, Green Bay | Knee

Jordan Love is not playing this weekend, in fact, the Packers and Eagles played Friday night in Brazil. However, in the final moments of that game, Love went down with an injury to his left leg. There has been a lot of speculation regarding his injury and with the limited new information that we have been able to receive from Brazil, I wanted to provide an update.

Jordan Love

Grouping in all the information here it seems like ankle has been ruled out. Which means no fracture which is great.

On field assessments for ACL tear have ~90% accuracy for ruling out an ACL tear. Would still need an MRI to be 100% but it sounds like Love may have… pic.twitter.com/AFRwO6aO6g

— Adam Hutchison (@TheRealAdam_H) September 7, 2024

There should be optimism that this is not a season-ending injury. If Love did sustain an MCL sprain, I think he could miss minimal time (0-2 weeks). A patellar (kneecap) sprain or dislocation would be painful, but with bracing, Love could return in ~2 weeks.