Sports Time Radio

The NFL has played just two weeks of their season and it seems like there have been a large amount of injuries. Now I’ve heard multiple experts who have tried to come up with a reason for this rash of injuries, but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on why this is happening.

It seems like that most of the experts believe that the lack of preseason is the cause of these injuries, but last week San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned the turf at Met Life stadium where the 49ers played and beat the New Yok Jets on Sunday. Hopefully Shanahan was wrong about the turf being an issues as his 49ers will be playing their second game in a row on that turf at Met Life field as the 49ers take on the New York Giants this Sunday.

As it’s far and away more important for NFL teams to deal with these injuries fantasy football owners also have to find a way to replace these injured players and just my luck I happen to be one of these fantasy football owners.

We have two fantasy football league that we run in accordance with the Sports Time Radio podcast. We do one auction style league while the other league is a standard snake style league draft. In our snake style league I was lucky enough to get the #1 pick and I took running back Christian McCaffrey of the Carolina Panthers with that pick. As you know McCaffrey was one of those players wo got injured last Sunday; so I’ve been out on the waiver wire looking for someone to pick up, but it’s very difficult in our league since it’s 20-teams.

Now since McCaffrey is going to be out about a month I tried to get the player who looks likely to replace him Mike Davis, but someone had a higher waiver wire priority on him than I did; so I missed out. After going through what seemed to be every roster in the NFL I settled on Jordan Wilkins of the Indianapolis Colts. Some of my other choices where David Ogunbowale of the Jacksonville Jaquars, Lynn Bowden Jr. of the Miami Dolphins, Travis Homer of the Seattle Seahawks and Ito Smith of the Atlanta Falcons. Do you like one of those running backs over Wilkins who I picked up?

In our 20-team snake style league we start two running backs. I used that first pick on McCaffrey and then I picked up Le’Veon Bell of the Jets who is also hurt and currently on Injured Reserve. I also added Carlos Hyde of the Seattle Seahawks and Giovani Bernard of the Cincinnati Bengals; so it looks like they’ll have to handle my the running back duties until McCaffrey and Bell return.

While both McCaffrey and Bell are top tier running backs who are currently injured they’re both expected back this season. Unfortunately for the Giants and any fantasy owner who picked Saquon Barkley his season is over. Barkley torn the ACL in his knee early in the Giants game Sunday against the Chicago Bears. Barkley had gotten off to a rough start in Week1 as he carried 15 times for just 6 yards as the Pittsburgh Steelers defense keyed on him and was able to shut him down. On Sunday Barkley looked better before he got injured as he had 4 carries for 28 yards and appeared to be on his way to having a good day running the football.

While I mentioned that it looks like Mike Davis will get the bulk of the carries for the Panthers while McCaffrey is out the Giants will turn to veteran Dion Lewis who they signed as a free agent this off season.

Lewis has never had more than 150 rushing attempts in a season, but he should surpass that total this season. Lewis has always been looked at as a change of pace type running back who catches a lot of passes. Lewis had a career high 59 receptions two seasons ago. While it’s impossible to replace a running back the caliber of Barkley the Giants have a capable replacement in Lewis. It also looks like Wayne Gallman Jr. will get some carries for the Giants as well. It’s also being reported that the Giants will be signing free agent Devonta Freeman the former Atlanta Falcons running back. It’s unclear if Freeman will be up to speed to get some carries on Sunday for the Giants, but he’ll be a quick pick up in large fantasy leagues like ours.

I mentioned the 49ers early here and it looks like their quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will be out of action for their Week 3 game against the Giants. It hasn’t been reported yet on what running back Raheem Mostert status will be for Sunday’s game. Mostert injured his knee in Sunday’s game. The 49ers also lost two big defensive players as Solomon Thomas and Nick Bosa where both injured on Sunday and while it does appear Thomas will be available this Sunday Bosa’s season is over as he has a torn ACL.

Here are some more injuries that will affect fantasy owners. Los Angeles Rams running back Cam Akers has a rib injury and as of right now is expected to miss this Sunday’s game. Denver Broncos quarterback Drew Lock has been placed on Injured Reserve; so he’ll be out for a period of time. Lock injured his throwing shoulder in Sunday’s game and was replaced by Jeff Driskel. Denver has also signed Blake Bortles to add some quarterback depth to their roster. Also Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Parris Campbell was carted off the field with an apparent knee injury on Sunday and there has been no update on his injury. Campbell was looked at as one of the top sleeper wide receivers coming into this season.

So I’d be interested to know if your fantasy football season has been affect by any of these early season injuries and if they have what are you doing to replace your injured players? I’ve already let you know what I’ve done to try and fill McCaffrey’s spot on my roster, but I wat to know what you had to do to fill your injuries.

I mentioned it earlier, but I hope you’re listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the live edition of the podcast just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime