This week’s injury report is brought to you by hurt hamstrings. These seem to be all the rage around the league right now and make up a majority of the injuries we’re seeing on this week’s report. The good news is that once old Doc here can figure out how to heal them, a lot of players should be coming back.
Hamstrings are the muscles in the back of the leg that help allow you to bend your knee. Imagine yourself trying to kick a football but you couldn’t bend your leg. That would be what life is like with a hamstring injury. Kicking is tough, running is hard and slow and they don’t seem to heal quickly for anything.
Let’s take a look at who is all on the training table this week. All injuries are hamstring unless noted otherwise.
Houston quarterback Matt Schaub (ankle) is not going to play this week and Case Keenum will get the start for the Texans. There’s going to be some upgrades to the running backs of Arian Foster and Ben Tate while I would downgrade Andre Johnson, DeAndre Hopkins and Garrett Graham with this news. Keenum was a pretty good quarterback at the University of Houston but he needs to prove it at the NFL level.
Foster is listed as questionable with the injury of the week. He should play but double-check his status again after today’s practice and get a good idea about what’s going to happen. Tate has sleeper value and it will go up if Foster is limpy.
Nick Foles gets the call at quarterback for the Eagles for the second straight week while Mike Vick is still healing with his own injury. It’s difficult to be a running quarterback when you have hamstring issues. Foles gets a potentially leaky Dallas defense in what appears to be a high-scoring game.
Roddy White hasn’t practiced much this week dealing with the our special injury. With Julio Jones out, White has to become the go-to receiver for the team. White’s underperformed all season and it looks like Harry Douglas will step up and be the top receiver this week if White can’t go. With Atlanta taking on Tampa Bay, whoever the number one receiver is will get a a free bottle of sunscreen to use while they sit on Revis Island all day. I’m also not real big on Matt Ryan this week because of all of this. Tony Gonzalez should see more targets because the idea of Kevin Cone doesn’t sound great to fantasy players.
Steven Jackson isn’t likely to play this week and is just week-to-week now. Jason Snelling and Jaquizz Rodgers are going to pick up the slack  but neither is a good play against Tampa Bay.
James Jones of the Packers (knee) will not play this week. He has been ruled out with a sprained posterior cruciate ligament. Add to that the loss of Randall Cobb (broken leg) until at least Week 15 and the Packers are going to have to go deep at wide receiver. When you factor in defensive back Joe Haden of the Browns is likely to cover Jordy Nelson, this could be a real rough week for Aaron Rodgers.
Cecil Shorts (SC sprain) is questionable for this week against San Diego. An SC sprain has nothing to do with SportsCenter or South Carolina. It stands for sternoclavicular joint. That’s where the sternum (breastbone) meets the clavicle (collarbone) and it impacts Cecil’s ability to get his hands up for catches. If he can’t go look for Justin Blackmon to have another solid game this week.
DeMarco Murray of Dallas (knee sprain) is likely out for this week. He’s officially listed as doubtful but he should be out this week and maybe a couple more depending on how bad it is. Joseph Randle gets the call at running back with Lance Dunbar ailing. Randle should be a solid play this week against the Eagles.
Calvin Johnson of the Lions is without his knee brace and looks good to go against Cincinnati.
Blair Walsh is probable for Monday night against the lowly Giants. He should be a busy kicker and score a bunch of points.
Adrian Peterson is also probable for Monday. Plowing through the Giants looks definite.
Rob Gronkowski hasn’t been cleared to play yet so his Week 7 status is up in the air. Double check today’s injury report to see what the update is on Gronk. Even if he plays, I wonder how effective he will be. New England is likely to be without Danny Amendola (concussion, groin) this week so a rusty Gronk would get plenty of coverage. Rusty Gronk. Sounds like the name of a fantasy team or a bad band.
Jimmy Graham of the Saints (foot) should be back for Week 8. Although it hasn’t been said what the injury is, it’s reportedly not serious. He’ll resume his mauling ways after the bye.
Vernon Davis of the 49ers and Mike Williams of the Bucs are both likely to go this week. The hammy didn’t slow VD down last week with his 8-180-2 line against Arizona.
There you have it. People are hamstrung everywhere. Hopefully they don’t leave your fantasy team limping to the loss column this week.
