SportsMedAnalytics - Nabers Playing Wk 1? + Kraft, Mahomes and more fantasy football injury updates
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
30 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 3, 2026
Published
Mon, August 3, 2026
18
Player insights
18
Players mentioned
Topics
Alec PierceBucky IrvingChristian McCaffreyChristian WatsonDalton KincaidDaniel JonesDrake LondonGeorge KittleJonathan TaylorJonathon BrooksMalik NabersPatrick MahomesQuinshon JudkinsRicky Pearsall
Player analysis
Player insights
Alec Pierce
NegativeInjury17:20
Pierce is recovering from an ankle surgery following a failed PRP treatment. While he is expected to practice soon, the lack of a clear diagnosis for the injury creates elevated risk, though he could return to near pre-injury levels if he ramps up successfully before Week 1.
Insight pageBucky Irving
PositiveInjury10:45
Irving is fully cleared following labrum repair. His late-season 2023 production dip (70% decrease in receptions) is attributed to the shoulder injury. Since labrum repairs typically see a return to pre-injury form and his midfoot sprain was non-operative, Chona is optimistic about his outlook.
Insight pageChristian McCaffrey
PositiveValue46:51
McCaffrey is preferred over Jonathan Taylor due to his massive usage in both the running and passing game. Despite a history of soft tissue injuries, he did not miss any games last year.
Insight pageChristian Watson
PositiveValue38:25
Watson is a potential value in dynasty and redraft. His recurring hamstring issues appear resolved after addressing a strength asymmetry, and data suggests he will continue to improve in his second year post-ACL surgery.
Insight pageDalton Kincaid
PositiveProjection39:15
Kincaid is expected to rise in 2026 as he continues to recover from a 2024 PCL injury that lingered into 2025. He played through pain and swelling last year, but with no surgery required and positive reports from the team, he should improve significantly.
Insight pageDaniel Jones
PositiveProjection25:41
Jones is expected to play Week 1 following an Achilles injury. While his rushing output will likely dip, his arm strength and the Colts' likely run-heavy, short-to-mid-range passing scheme should keep him effective. He is a viable comeback candidate.
Insight pageDrake London
PositiveValue35:30
London's 2023 production dip was tied to a PCL sprain, which has since healed. Given his high usage rate prior to the injury and his current ADP of WR7, he represents a value and is expected to rise in performance.
Insight pageGeorge Kittle
NegativeInjury23:33
Kittle is a high injury risk due to his age (over 30), a significant Achilles injury, and a history of soft tissue issues. Chona suspects he will see a major production hit regarding explosiveness and separation, leading to a recommendation to pass on him in drafts.
Insight pageJonathan Taylor
NegativeValue46:51
Taylor is a comparable option to Christian McCaffrey, benefiting from a strong offensive line and high usage, though he carries an ankle injury history. Choosing between him and McCaffrey is a matter of user preference.
Insight pageJonathon Brooks
PositiveValue13:58
Despite a second ACL tear, Brooks' youth, high draft capital, and elite athleticism are strong predictors of a favorable return. While the cumulative knee damage suggests a shorter career prime, Chona recommends drafting him in redraft leagues, though advises against it in dynasty.
Insight pageMalik Nabers
PositiveInjury1:57
Deepak Chona notes Nabers is cutting and decelerating smoothly, signaling he is likely to play Week 1. While ACL/meniscus repairs typically cause a 10-25% production dip, Nabers' elite athleticism and youth suggest a faster recovery. He projects to return to form closer to four weeks post-return rather than the six-week average. He is a value at his current Round 3 ADP, though taking him in late Round 2 is reasonable.
Insight pagePatrick Mahomes
NegativeUsage8:46
Mahomes is expected to play Week 1, but Chona warns of a dip in rushing efficiency and attempts for roughly 12 months post-ACL surgery (mid-December). Mahomes has indicated a desire to scramble less, suggesting a more pocket-oriented, albeit still effective, passing season.
Insight pageQuinshon Judkins
PositiveProjection34:07
Judkins is expected to play Week 1. His elite athleticism and draft stock suggest he will return to his performance level by mid-October, two months faster than the average 12-month recovery for his injury type. Expect a strong finish to the season.
Insight pageRicky Pearsall
NegativeValue30:35
Pearsall's PCL injury is likely not career-threatening, though he may look limited through the first half of 2027. Chona views him as a dynasty 'buy-low' candidate for rebuilding teams, noting that the data on isolated PCL surgeries is limited but generally suggests a return to baseline.
Insight pageRome Odunze
NegativeValue21:33
Odunze's perceived value has been depressed by offseason injury comments, but he is now feeling like himself. Data supports a return to pre-injury form, and while there is some re-injury risk from his previous plantar fasciitis and stress fracture, it is not considered high.
Insight pageSam LaPorta
NegativeInjury28:42
LaPorta is on track to return to his baseline following back surgery for a disc herniation. While the injury carries long-term re-injury risk due to the removal of disc material, the data suggests no negative impact on his short-term production.
Insight pageTank Dell
NegativeProjection19:05
Dell is returning from a severe multi-ligament knee injury. As a speed-dependent player, he faces a high probability of a production dip in his first year back, with data suggesting a full recovery might take up to 24 months. A rise in production is more likely in 2027.
Insight pageTucker Kraft
PositiveInjury7:00
Kraft is a 96th percentile athlete who is nearing the Packers' nine-month post-ACL surgery threshold. He reports feeling ready, and Chona projects he will reach 90% of his pre-injury performance level by Week 8, making him a viable fantasy starter by that point.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
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0:49Fred Meyer. Fresh for every day. All right. What is good?
0:53Deepak Chona, Sportsman Analytics, bringing you today's NFL Injury Updates.
0:56Thank you very much for joining. We're figuring out live as we're going here today, so bear with us.
1:03But we are excited. We're going to bring you NFL Injury Updates all season long.
1:08And we are also going to be trying to get as many of your questions answered, so feel free to drop them in the chat as you go.
1:17We'll get right to it. We'll start here with the biggest name of them all, Malik Nabors.
1:23Now, Neighbors has actually looked relatively promising so far early on in camp, obviously, so no contact yet.
1:29He is really looking like he's in play for week one, and we would lean towards him playing at this point.
1:36Now, he's been shown cutting and decelerating pretty smoothly going both directions on this knee, and that's important because that's the last step of non-contact activity.
1:45The next is basically adding pads and adding contact.
1:48For the New York Giants, that starts on Monday.
1:51It's currently Sunday, so of course, we haven't yet seen anybody in pads on the Giants.
1:56Even if he's not there on Monday in pads doing contact, he still has several weeks, about five to six weeks before
2:03he would, of course, need to be out there to be ready for week one.
2:08The trajectory is still pretty favorable here. Now, keep in mind that when he starts back, you would still project a decrease in his initial production.
2:17Part of that comes from the overall effect of the ACL and meniscus repair.
2:22The average is about a 10% to 25% dip.
2:25About 20% is average for most wide receivers, but the young wide receiver, which Malik Nabors is, who's drafted highly, also relevant
2:32for Nabors, and who has the very high-level elite athleticism, does tend to project to come back a little bit faster and
2:39also regain that performance of their pre-injury level a little bit faster.
2:43Now, the one thing that works against him is that he had that second cleanup surgery.
2:49The initial reporting was that he had that done in May, which is a little atypical for an NFL player to have
2:56this sort of stiffness, so to speak, that leads to the cleanup surgery done several months later.
3:02But actually, he came out and said that was an incorrect report.
3:06It was actually done much earlier. So it all starts to make a little more sense why he looks as good as
3:13he does on the video so far. We would anticipate Malik Nabors being probably close to ready to play week one.
3:20And again, if he's ready to play week one, even at sort of a dip from where he's normally at, that's a pretty solid player.
3:28Do keep in mind that data still favors that most wide receivers will have a dip in their targets at least about four weeks into their return.
3:37And so for Malik Nabors, we're projecting him closer to the four than the six, which is the average range.
3:44But again, we do think that this is quite promising.
3:47Where he is right now, we think you could get a value on Malik Nabors' ADP.
3:53That probably will continue to climb, especially if you see him put on pads in the coming days.
3:59So we're thinking right now we want to snatch him up if we're getting him round three.
4:04If he's going any earlier than that, then it becomes kind of a decision of personal risk tolerance in terms of what
4:12you want to do for your round two pick.
4:15But I think it would be not unreasonable to take him even late round two.
4:20Then we have Tucker Craft. So another very elite athlete.
4:23He's age 25. He looks very heavily like he's leaning towards playing week one.
4:28And we usually with the Green Bay Packers, they're pretty strict about their nine month rule.
4:33And that's a data driven rule in that they don't allow their players to practice for nine months after ACL surgery.
4:40For Tucker Craft, that would be in about two weeks.
4:43And he has already come out saying he feels and looks ready according to doctors.
4:48So we'd anticipate him hitting that practice field pretty soon here.
4:52Now, in terms of next steps here for Tucker Craft, he's a 96th percentile athlete according to his combine metrics.
4:59And he projects to recover pretty quickly. So his pre-injury level of performance projects around week eight.
5:05And that's about 90% of pre-injury level. But that's essentially we use that 90% as a surrogate for when you won't really
5:12notice a huge difference or you would still probably play that player, start that player in your fantasy lineup.
5:18So we're pretty optimistic about Tucker Craft. Largely depends on ADP in terms of whether he's worth it for you or not.
5:26Then Patrick Mahomes. Now, he's very likely playing week one.
5:29Mahomes has been out there taking reps in practice.
5:32He's looked reasonably good. I think there's been maybe an over-analysis of how he's looked in practice.
5:38It's very different in practice because you know those guys aren't hitting you.
5:42So you're not really in that mentality until you get to the game or at least some sort of environment like a
5:49preseason game potentially where you can take a live hit.
5:53Now, the data on this for quarterbacks coming off an ACL suggests pretty strongly that we should expect a dip in both
6:00rushing attempts and rushing output or efficiency. And that usually lasts about 12 months.
6:05So for Mahomes, that'd be mid-December. Now, the other aspect to this that sort of further confirms that suspicion is that the
6:12comments from Mahomes himself have said that last year he scrambled too much and this year he wants to hand that ball
6:19off more and let the play develop more. So we really wouldn't expect to see him scrambling all that much early on especially.
6:27Now, as he gets more comfortable, that may change.
6:30And the other sort of thing to note is that in ACL data for quarterbacks specifically, they don't tend to see a
6:37dip in their passing production that first year back.
6:40So you look for a less mobile version of Mahomes but still very effective.
6:45Then we have Bucky Irving. So interestingly, he is sort of flown under the radar for the most part this week.
6:52He was reportedly cleared to be full go now.
6:55He's about six months from his surgery for his labrum repair on his shoulder.
7:00Now, he had a midfoot sprain and a labrum tear last year around week four or five.
7:05If you look at his numbers pre and post injury, they're completely different and especially in the receiving game, which makes sense
7:13because if you can't trust your shoulder, that's where you're going to see the main sort of dip.
7:19So his stats weeks one through four, 4.8 receptions, 48 yards receiving per game.
7:23Week 13 through 18 when he came back from the injury, that dipped 70%, so to 1.8 receptions and 14 yards per game.
7:31The data on labrum repair is pretty promising in that most players do see a return to their pre-injury level of production and form.
7:39Now, if he couldn't trust the shoulder and the stability of the shoulder specifically, that again very much explains the dip that he saw last year.
7:48The midfoot sprain, if it was non-operative, which it sounds like it was, wouldn't be expected to carry any lingering dip into the coming year.
7:56So overall, again, pretty optimistic on Bucky Irving. Then we have Cam Scadaboo.
8:00So the open ankle fracture in this location that he had was pretty severe.
8:05It was late October. Most running backs and receivers, most skilled players, do see their stats dip about 12 months.
8:12So this would be about late October again. Now, with his role, specifically high volume, low short yardage, and probably some dump
8:19offs from the quarterback, we would expect that to be probably less affected.
8:24It's not the same as kind of a traditional third down back or a guy who's forcing the ball to the outside as much.
8:32Difficult to say for sure, but we would lean towards him still being relatively effective from the jump.
8:38Then Jonathan Brooks. This is a pretty interesting one.
8:41He had an ACL tear coming into the league.
8:44Then he had another ACL tear December of 2024 after only playing for about three weeks on it.
8:50So with Jonathan Brooks, still an elite athlete, we wouldn't expect that to have changed.
8:55He's still young and he's got age very much on his side.
8:59And then lastly, he was a top two round pick and that also predicts a better return.
9:04Now with the second ACL, that's the wild card to this.
9:08About 50% of players don't regain their pre-injury form after their second ACL tear.
9:13Again, those three factors, youth, high draft capital, and elite athleticism, all are predictive of a favorable outcome and all work in his favor in this case.
9:22The one thing we would say is that although we would suspect that this year he probably looks pretty good, the longer
9:29term aspect of this, we would expect a shorter prime.
9:32And that's really due to the cumulative damage in his knee that happens with each ACL tear and with each surgery.
9:39So, you know, with all of that being said, I would still take Jonathan Brooks in redraft.
9:45I would not in Dynasty. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra.
9:50Even if you're a pro or just in it for fun, the moment you play for Michelob Ultra, everything changes.
9:56The focus sharpens. The game gets real. Every point, every move suddenly means something more because a superior light beer is on the line.
10:04Superior is worth playing for. Michelob Ultra Superior Light Beer.
10:08Find it near you at MichelobUltra.com. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026.
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10:40Fresh for everyone. Then we have Alec Pierce. This one has some risk, and it's mostly due to the fact that there's
10:47very limited info been released on him. So he said he's played through this injury.
10:52He actually played reasonably well. In fact, had really, it sounds like a career season playing through this injury.
10:58However, he tried to then treat it with PRP in January.
11:02The doctors told him six to eight weeks, let it take, see if it heals the issue.
11:08And apparently it didn't really do so. And so he ended up having surgery for what's just being called an ankle injury.
11:15Again, there's no real clear answer as to what the actual injury was.
11:19My suspicion is that it was some sort of moderate degree ligament injury.
11:24They're reporting, Chris Ballard, the GM, is reporting that he's expected to practice in the next couple of weeks.
11:30If that's the case, he would have about a month to ramp up still before week one, and we would anticipate him probably being near pre-injury level.
11:39But again, with the limited information here, there's some elevated risk just inherently without knowing the full diagnosis.
11:45Then we have Tank Dell. So we know the full diagnosis here, and we know it's maximally severe.
11:51He sat out all of last year. He's going to be coming back from an injury that involved several ligaments, a meniscus, and a dislocated kneecap.
12:00Now, with Tank Dell, the question is he's a speed player, he's a smaller player, and can he hold up for a whole season?
12:08And secondly, can he regain that explosiveness? That fast twitch athleticism is really what made him who he was as a player.
12:15So the data on this pretty strongly favors a dip in his production that first year back with a rise going into 2027.
12:23Think of Javante Williams. J.K. Dobbins had an injury like this.
12:27There are several players who have come back and who have come back for long and promising careers.
12:33But with that being said, this is about as severe as an injury gets.
12:37And most players do see a dip that lasts a full 24 months.
12:42And for Tank Dell, that would be about December.
12:45So as much as a Texans fan, I want to see him at full speed right away.
12:50It seems a little unlikely that that may happen.
12:53Then we go to Rome Udunze. So I think these comments from the offseason have led to a depression in his perceived value.
13:01Rome Udunze, if you looked at his first four weeks of the season, he put up five touchdowns, had great rapport seemingly with Caleb Williams.
13:09And that was as they were just getting used to this new offense.
13:14Then he started dealing with plantar fasciitis as well as a stress fracture in his foot.
13:19These are issues that don't get better as you play on them.
13:23In fact, they get much worse. And so he was in and out of practice.
13:28He was mostly in the lineup, but still I think was clearly hobbled by this.
13:33Because in the sort of looking forward from here, although he said his new normal is with calluses and kind of altered
13:40motion and whatnot, we would anticipate a pretty favorable return here.
13:44And the data does support that. It very heavily actually favors a return to his pre-injury level.
13:50This week he has come out and said he feels more like himself and that some of those comments may have been
13:57misrepresentative of how he really feels and what he really expects going forward.
14:01Uh, we would expect that based on the data.
14:04And so there is a little bit of a re-injury risk here, but it's not tremendously high.
14:10So overall, we'd feel pretty good about drafting Rome Udunze.
14:13Then George Kittle. Now week one's to be determined here.
14:17I do feel like it's realistic. He's not yet practicing though.
14:20So we have to keep an eye on that.
14:23The question really with these becomes, when does the player have enough strength to protect himself and not present an asymmetry compared to his other side?
14:32So the idea with that is that the timeline should be fine for Kittle to practice pretty soon here.
14:38So keep an eye out for those updates. The question then becomes, how much do the 49ers use him and to what
14:46level of explosiveness will he return initially? That's where I have some suspicions.
14:50He's over 30. He's got the Achilles, which is pretty much for a player trying to push off and make cuts, like
14:58a get separation, like a tight end who's catching passes.
15:01That's where you would see a pretty huge production hit.
15:04And the other question or aspect to George Kittle's injury history, a lot of hamstring and soft tissue history now add in
15:12this very significant Achilles, add in the age over 30 aspect to it.
15:16It all makes him a very high injury risk in general.
15:20And that's not just the Achilles, but just any soft tissue injury for the year.
15:25So with all that being said, I wouldn't really invest much into George Kittle.
15:29You can probably get him pretty cheap. So if you want to take a flyer on him, I wouldn't fault you for
15:37that, but I am going to pass myself. Then we have Daniel Jones.
15:41So another Achilles, but interestingly, he's already to the point where he's practicing and very likely to play week one.
15:48The data on this is somewhat limited in that we really only have Kirk Cousins and Aaron Rogers who have recently had Achilles injuries as quarterbacks.
15:56And quarterback is, of course, a very different position than any skilled position player.
16:01So we would almost certainly expect a dip in his rushing.
16:05And that's coming from a lot of NBA data, a lot of NFL data.
16:09And the question, though, with Daniel Jones, he's got a pretty big arm.
16:14So even if he can't push off as strongly as he's used to from that right Achilles, then he may be able
16:21to still compensate for that with just upper body strength and core strength that he has in his favor.
16:27His O-line is likely good enough to prevent a good amount of the pressure here as well.
16:33And then lastly, we would expect the play calling to sort of adjust to accommodate some of his limitations.
16:39Run heavy focus. They were already probably going to do that with Jonathan Taylor.
16:44And then the short and mid-range passing game is probably where you're going to see a lot of this go.
16:51Now, keep in mind also, Alec Pierce has been out.
16:54So the strengths of this team as I see them in skill positions are going to be, of course, Jonathan Taylor, Tyler
17:01Warren, and Josh Downs, all of whom should win in that range of play.
17:06So that's where we really would anticipate this going for the Colts, probably going reasonably well for Daniel Jones.
17:12I don't think it's a bad pick for a potential comeback player, although personally, I would lean Mahomes.
17:18But overall, Daniel Jones is pretty optimistic. Then Sam Laporta.
17:22So he had a pinched nerve from a disc herniation in his back.
17:26He had that basically trimmed out. And then over the past few months, he talked about that strength in the muscle and
17:33the atrophy in the muscle kind of coming back and regenerating.
17:37That suggests he's on track to return basically to his baseline level.
17:41And that would be what the data suggests as well.
17:44Now, this was a pretty severe injury to begin with.
17:48But with that being said, the data is relatively promising that it doesn't cause any impact in the short term, any negative
17:55impact in the short term on his production. The longevity here does see a pretty notable dip.
18:01And there's kind of two aspects to consider here.
18:04One is re-injury risk. You have in between the spine, you have these shock absorbers, these discs.
18:09And now part of that disc, when it herniates or slips out of place, has to be trimmed so that it's not pushing on the nerves.
18:18Now he has less shock absorber there. And that then makes it, one, more likely to wear down, but two, more likely to get re-injured.
18:27So that combination is obviously not ideal, but something that Sam Laporta will just have to deal with inherently for the rest of his career.
18:35With that being said, again, 2026 looks promising. Then we have Ricky Pierce also a little bit surprising, but not totally unheard of.
18:43Now, we've got a lot of questions about did they mismanage this or was he told bad advice?
18:49And really, I would say very likely no. Now, most PCL sprains and even high-grade PCL injuries generally do well without surgery.
18:56Lamar Jackson had this a few years back and you kind of didn't hear about it afterwards.
19:02Ezekiel Elliott had it before and came back without too much problem.
19:06There's pretty limited data on isolated PCL tears having surgery in the NFL.
19:10And it's because most of them, again, are able to come back at near full strength without any sort of operation.
19:17Now, in non-NFL data, so we're talking about like recreational athletes, normal people, there's a study on modern technique that shows relatively comparable outcomes to ACL treatment.
19:26Now, the data there is hard to kind of generalize that and take it to the NFL directly.
19:32But it does suggest that we probably would see him back on the field.
19:37We doubt that this is going to be a truly career-threatening type of injury.
19:41The question, though, is what does he look like when he comes back, in my opinion?
19:47We would lean towards a 9-12 month return. This is a little bit harder than an ACL, which we would say averages the 9-11 for most players.
19:56The other sort of question is the dip and how long does it last?
20:00Probably into at least early 27. We're kind of limited, again, on data, but extrapolating some things here.
20:06My guess is the first half of 2027, he looks like a limited version of himself with an eventual return to his baseline.
20:14Truthfully, if you're rebuilding, we'd consider this a dynasty by low.
20:18Most people will see this. There have been several tweets out there saying the data on this is very bad and there
20:25are limited cases of people coming back. Those are kind of true.
20:29But with that being said, the data on this is very limited.
20:33And therefore, there are limited cases of people coming back from isolated PCL surgeries.
20:38So not something that's a career ender, hopefully and likely, but certainly something to keep an eye on.
20:44Again, dynasty by low if you're rebuilding in my eyes.
20:47Then, Quinshawn Judkins. So he has a similar injury to Cam Skadaboo, had it a couple months later, though.
20:53So typically, you would see a 12-month dip, as we mentioned, for Skadaboo.
20:58That would take him into December. Now, he is already cleared.
21:01He's likely playing no limits week one. But if you factor in his age, draft stock, and also very elite combine metrics
21:09for Quinshawn Judkins, that projects him to return to his performance level two months before that average 12-month period.
21:15So that would be about mid-October. With that being said, you would expect the last probably two-thirds of the season to look pretty strong.
21:23But he may have some limitations early on, just in terms of his explosiveness that you see on the field.
21:30Then Drake London. So there's not an injury necessarily here to talk about right now.
21:35But if you notice, his performance dropped off a cliff in week 11 or after week 11 when he hurt his PCL last year.
21:43So up to that point, he was wide receiver three on wide receiver three usage.
21:48That's fantastic, really. But he's being drafted currently at ADP wide receiver seven.
21:52So we may be getting a little bit of a value.
21:56Now, he did dip upon his return pretty badly.
21:59But the fact that he was able to return after just a few weeks suggests that this is not the PCL that Ricky Pearsall is dealing with.
22:08This is more of a PCL sprain that probably has healed.
22:12And therefore, the data would favor him really rising from here, not falling.
22:16Then we have Amarian Hampton. So he had a pretty hard rookie season for us to judge.
22:22He had in-season ankle surgery, then major O-line injuries.
22:25Joe Ault and Rashawn Slater both out for a large portion of the season.
22:29And with that, it's hard for us to say that any of that is comparable to what he's going to be seeing this year.
22:37We would expect this one to be a riser going into 2026.
22:41Now, he's being drafted comparable to Saquon Barkley. That is a little bit of a tough call, truthfully.
22:47We would lean Hampton on that one. But because of the youth and strength of the O-line and real interest in Mike McDaniel as a play caller.
22:56But Amarian Hampton, very much promising season going, very much promising coming into this year.
23:01And I think last year's stats understate the potential here.
23:05Then we have Christian Watson. Now, he had some solid play after his ACL return in mid-season last year.
23:11He has this reputation as a very injury-prone player.
23:14Part of that, it was these recurrent hamstring strains.
23:17But these hamstring strains appear to have been improved or partially resolved.
23:21The underlying cause was really dealt with, meaning that there was a strength asymmetry.
23:26That strength asymmetry was what was leading to these to be recurring.
23:30And it seems that they have addressed it. They haven't popped back up, at least as far as we know.
23:36The other aspect to this is that although he came back pretty fast and very solidly after his ACL return, the data
23:44actually pretty strongly suggests that he's going to continue to improve going into year two post-surgery, which is this coming year.
23:51So he may be a potential value in both dynasty and redraft as well.
23:55And then last, we have Dalton Kincaid. So another PCL injury.
23:59This one happened actually in 2024, lingered into 2025, caused four missed games, and almost certainly caused his stats to dip.
24:06Now, he was probably playing through some pain and some swelling.
24:10Again, four missed games due to this injury. So with that in mind, we would anticipate that as he continues to progress,
24:17which is what the comments from both him and the team have suggested.
24:21And he has not needed surgery, by the way.
24:24If all of that is accurate, which we have no reason to suspect it's not, then the data is very favorable that
24:32as he continues to improve off the second year off of this injury, that he should rise going into 2026.
24:38And that's particularly relevant for any Josh Allen-centric team, because last year, the pass catchers were a little underwhelming, and Dalton Kincaid still shined in moments.
24:47So we have some optimism here. It's hard to say for sure that Dalton Kincaid is back to normal, but we certainly
24:55don't think we saw it last year. All right.
24:58So that's all we have for the scheduled list here.
25:01Now, let's take a look. We're, again, working on learning the chat here.
25:05So he1989 asking about neighbors. So we'll go over neighbors again.
25:09I think you probably can't really have too much neighbors talk, truthfully.
25:13He's, you know, in my eyes, I would take him late second round.
25:17I would take him pretty reasonably in the third, pretty comfortably, I should say.
25:22The reason being that neighbors projects the last half of the season to be at 90% or more of what he was previously.
25:30His injury, his original injury was early in last year.
25:33It was in the first quarter of the season.
25:36And therefore, he's had a lot of time. Now, the other aspect to this that has been somewhat misleading, I would say,
25:43up until now is that he has been on this second surgery sort of reporting or cleanup timeline that's been reported.
25:50And as a result of that, we've everybody sort of downgraded him, us included.
25:55But the question was, you know, why did they wait so long?
25:59It was reported originally that the surgery happened. The second surgery happened in May, but the first surgery happened in like October or November.
26:07So why would they wait so long if the player was dealing with stiffness in the knee?
26:13And so the real answer is that didn't happen.
26:16And so neighbors has actually been post-operative, meaning in just straight recovery mode for several months now.
26:21And he came out and said this just this week.
26:25So so that's why neighbors is looking a lot more promising than before.
26:29Now, the question is, with an ACL and meniscus repair, week one was going to be a close timeline already.
26:36The nature of the injury is about 10 to 11 months for most players.
26:40And then you usually lean towards that 11 for the ones who have the meniscus repair in addition, because that first usually
26:48four to six weeks of the injury, that usually means you got to use crutches.
26:53So with the sort of overall like atrophy that results from that, you usually see a little delay in when the player gets back to full strength.
27:02Then you add in the second surgery. It doesn't actually delay the timeline to return.
27:07That's important, I think. But it does delay when they get back to full strength specifically.
27:12And so from here, we would say we not sure we would really bank on him to be a wide receiver one
27:19type of player for those first four to six weeks, because initially when players wide receivers specifically come back, they usually average
27:27about four weeks to ramp up their touches and some take as long as six.
27:32And that's partly in terms of snap count and target percentage.
27:35And that's just the number of targets they get as well.
27:39So with neighbors, you know, they're going to target him once he's out there and you're probably not going to play him
27:46if he's not feeling quite good and looking quite good.
27:50So at least you would know to some degree if he's going to be startable for you that season that week early on.
27:57But once he gets to midseason onwards, I think this could be a potential league winner.
28:03So yeah, I would take neighbors probably, like I said, round three, certainly late round to consider it depending on who's out there.
28:11We got Yik Joe, CMC or JT this season.
28:14That's a tough call. I think I would probably go CMC.
28:17The reason being he didn't miss any games last year.
28:21He's got, yes, this pretty massive injury history of soft tissue injuries.
28:25JT's got some ankle injury history. So I would say their injury history is somewhat comparable.
28:30And the overall situation for both is relatively favorable in that CMC, you know, they're getting him a ton of usage.
28:37And the key though is that he's getting a ton of usage in both the running game and the passing game.
28:44And JT with the strong O-line with Daniel Jones coming off of Achilles also going to get strong usage.
28:50So I think you're splitting hairs and I think it's a user preference.
28:55My preference slightly leans towards CMC. And let's see.
28:58That looks like all we've got for the moment.
29:01And we're going to come out with a lot more injury updates for you.
29:05So keep the questions and come in, drop them in the comments anytime and we'll get to them shortly.
29:12All right. Thank you all for joining. This has been fun.
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