NFL Injury Report: Conference Championships
As the NFL DFS season winds to a close, every little bit of information on the status of a particular player becomes much more important with so few options available to choose from. Let’s take a look at the injury reports from the four teams playing in the Conference Championships.
Saturday Update (from DFS Alerts): The Patriots have listed 16 players as questionable for Sunday’s game with the Broncos. Among them are Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, but there’s next to no chance that they end up sitting out in a game of this magnitude. Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins and Rob Ninkovich are also listed as questionable but it would also be surprising to see any of them end up as inactive. We’ll update the Patriots injury report as inactives are released tomorrow, but don’t expect any surprises. As for Jonathan Stewart, he missed practice Wednesday but was a full-go the rest of the week, and Ron Rivera has said he expects him to take on his normal workload against Arizona. Stewart is a top-two RB play this week, so he’s viable in any format.
Head on over to DFS Alerts for more updates to help you build more informed lineups.
New England Patriots @ Denver Broncos
New England Patriots
It would be an understatement to say the Patriots are thorough with their injury report listings. Despite having no absences from practice, they have a staggering 14 players listed as questionable on the Friday injury report. The most notable players on the offensive side of the ball (and their ailments in parenthesis) include: Danny Amendola (knee), Rob Gronkowski (knee/back), and Julian Edelman (foot). With all these players have practiced in some fashion this week, I’m sure they will all be active for Sunday’s matchup against the Denver Broncos. Any questions about Edelman being able to play at a high level should have been put to rest after last week’s 10-catch, 100-yard effort against Kansas City.
As for the defensive side, Dont’a Hightower (knee), Rob Ninkovich (shin), Chandler Jones (abdomen/toes), and Jamie Collins (back) are listed as questionable as well, and like their teammates mentioned above, have practiced this week and will be ready to go on Sunday.
Denver Broncos
This will be quick.
The Broncos have a few notable players listed with injuries: Peyton Manning (foot), DeMarcus Ware (knee), and Chris Harris (shoulder) are listed on the report, but all of them practiced in full and there is no reason to expect any of them to miss the big game on Sunday.
Arizona Cardinals @ Carolina Panthers
Carolina Panthers
Jared Allen has already been ruled out of this game with a broken foot. Other notable injuries include Jonathan Stewart (ankle) and Fozzy Whittaker (ankle), both of whom practiced in full.
While both guys will be good to go on Sunday, there is always a risk of re-injury during the game. He should be the highest-owned quarterback this week, but it’s worth noting the injuries to Carolina’s backfield might open up a few more rushing opportunities for Cam Newton.
Arizona Cardinals
Carson Palmer (finger), David Johnson (toe) and John Brown (shoulder) are all listed as probable for the Cardinals.
If you watched the Cardinals’ last game, you likely saw a few bad throws from Carson Palmer. While it’s impossible to say it was because of the finger injury he sustained, it is definitely something noteworthy when you’re constructing your rosters. All players on the Cardinals active roster practiced in full, so there should be no reason to believe any of these guys will miss time.