Fantasy Football Injury Outlook: Davante Adams, Javonte Williams, Justin Herbert, Tee Higgins

With Week 4 in the books, I am back with another edition of the injury round-up. As always, I am a physical therapist using my knowledge and experience with injuries to guide the week’s waiver wire pickups. As always, these articles come out early in the week before any practice reports, so a lot of this information is based on educated guesses at this time. Practice reports are the most important part of the week when it comes to injuries, and we like to see a full practice before placing someone in our fantasy lineups. Here are all of my takes for the week. And below we dive into a few notable players.

Injuries to Know for your Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

Tee Higgins (WR – CIN)

Higgins had suffered a rib fracture in Sunday’s blowout loss to the Titans. The bad news is that a typical rib fracture takes approximately six weeks to heal, but the good news is that most NFL players will play through a partially healed rib at around two to four weeks. He will likely miss time with this injury, although the Bengals coaching staff have shown they are willing to play their players through injuries.

Justin Herbert (QB – LAC)

Herbert had a fracture of his middle finger on his non-throwing hand on Sunday. Luckily for Chargers fans and Herbert managers, he won’t miss any time with this, although it may slightly decrease his ball security when taking sacks. Either way, he is going to be a must-start for the rest of the season.

Javonte Williams (RB – DEN)

Williams suffered a hip flexor strain in Week 4 against the Bears. 66% of players with a hip flexor strain returned within six days of injury and 19% between 7-13 days. Based on the data, we can assume he’ll play this week although he might be limited. Or the Broncos may choose to rest him for a week before returning him due to him coming off an ACL tear last season. Either way, Jaleel McLaughlin looked great and should probably be rostered because he may have carved out a role, even if Javonte were to play next week.

Davante Adams (WR – LV)

Adams suffered a shoulder injury during his game on Sunday, then ultimately returned, but said after the game that it does not feel good. Based on the mechanism of injury, it seemed to be an AC joint injury similar to what Derek Carr had. As I mentioned last week, this is more of a pain tolerance issue but it’s going to be painful. Luckily for Davante, it’s a little bit easier to catch than to throw with this type of injury. Monitor his practice reports to see the severity of the injury.

-Eric Hund PT, DPT