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NFL Week 3 Injury Report: Waddle Deemed Questionable, Ravens Hurting for Minshew Matchup

NFL Week 3 Injury Report: Waddle Deemed Questionable, Ravens Hurting for Minshew Matchup

Written by 
Jerry Donabedian 
Updated on September 22, 2023 6:41PM EST

This article is part of our Injury Analysis series.

We've got another week with two Monday games, for what I believe will be the last time until Dec. 11 (Week 14). Unfortunately for fantasy folks, the early MNF contest may have a high-impact game-time decision with Joe Burrow (calf) looking about 50/50 as of Friday evening.

It's one man in, two out for the injury-ravaged Houston secondary, with Jimmie Ward making his Texans debut this week but top corner Derrick Stingley and slot man Tavierre Thomas missing the first of what likely will be multiple games for both. Things actually could've been worse from the Texans, but their experienced No. 3 safety Eric Reid (filling in as a starter) managed to clear concussion protocol after an early exit last week.

Baltimore also has a loaded injury report, with seven of 22 starters ruled out Friday ahead of a home matchup with the Colts... sans Anthony Richardson (concussion). For fantasy purposes, we don't have many game-time decisions this week, but it does skew toward key players like Burrow, including Jaylen Waddle, Aaron Jones and Christian Watson in the early games.

Below you'll find four different categories, with our lists including key offensive linemen and defensive players whose presences/absences might impact fantasy decisions. The bottom section — truly questionable — is sorted by kickoff times and can be used as a checklist/cheatsheet for Sunday morning and afternoon when inactives come out. First, let's see who's definitely in and who's definitely out...

Good to Go 💯

We've got another week with two Monday games, for what I believe will be the last time until Dec. 11 (Week 14). Unfortunately for fantasy folks, the early MNF contest may have a high-impact game-time decision with Joe Burrow (calf) looking about 50/50 as of Friday evening.

It's one man in, two out for the injury-ravaged Houston secondary, with Jimmie Ward making his Texans debut this week but top corner Derrick Stingley and slot man Tavierre Thomas missing the first of what likely will be multiple games for both. Things actually could've been worse from the Texans, but their experienced No. 3 safety Eric Reid (filling in as a starter) managed to clear concussion protocol after an early exit last week.

Baltimore also has a loaded injury report, with seven of 22 starters ruled out Friday ahead of a home matchup with the Colts... sans Anthony Richardson (concussion). For fantasy purposes, we don't have many game-time decisions this week, but it does skew toward key players like Burrow, including Jaylen Waddle, Aaron Jones and Christian Watson in the early games.

Below you'll find four different categories, with our lists including key offensive linemen and defensive players whose presences/absences might impact fantasy decisions. The bottom section — truly questionable — is sorted by kickoff times and can be used as a checklist/cheatsheet for Sunday morning and afternoon when inactives come out. First, let's see who's definitely in and who's definitely out...

Good to Go 💯

    

    

Ruled Out/Doubtful 🚑 

Joshua Kelley gets a much better matchup filling in for Ekeler this week after the Titans held him below 40 rushing yards last Sunday. Don't forget about him amidst the excitement over Jahmyr Gibbs' debut in a featured role (and Gus Edwards' return to one!!!).

Other potential injury beneficiaries this week include Jags WR Christian Kirk, Ravens WRs Rashod Bateman and Nelson Agholor, Saints RBs Tony Jones and Kendre Miller, Dolphins RB De'Von Achane and Seahawks TE Noah Fant.

      

Key Defensive Players + Offensive Linemen

          

Listed as Questionable - Should Play 👍

Hopkins is the one to watch here, after downgrading from FP on Wednesday to LP on Thursday to DNP on Friday. That's the opposite of what you'd normally want to see, but in his case it's probably just a rest thing. Still, it's a little weird, so I'll keep an eye on him. Fortunately the Titans have an early kickoff anyway. They're also the healthier team

       

Truly Questionable 🤔

Early Games

The Packers once again have our attention, listing two guys drafted to be fantasy starters as questionable. We at least don't have any ancillary skill-position guys listed this week, and it's pretty clear the main beneficiaries of absences would be AJ Dillon (for Jones) and Jayden Reed (for Watson). Side note: I'm interested to see what happens between Reed and Romeo Doubs once Romeo Doubs is healthy. Matt LaFleur still likes his multi-TE formations, so at least one of the two will have to come off the field a bunch. The Packers haven't been giving their starters huge workloads anyway, to be fair, apart from TE Luke Musgrave (kind of).

Waddle is the other big GTD from the early games, and probably the most important of the day whether you're looking at it from a fantasy, betting or wins-and-losses perspective. The Broncos have elite cover man Patrick Surtain in an otherwise beatable secondary -- especially with S Justin Simmon out this week -- and might really struggle against Waddle if he can clear concussion protocol. They might also really struggle against Tyreek Hill because he's incredible, for what it's worth, but coverages should be more favorable for Waddle (not always the case given that he lines up on the LOS a lot and faces a lot of pressing, whereas Hill is motioned around more and often not aligned on the line).

     

Late-Afternoon Games

The Chiefs might be without their top running back... and also their most skilled ballcarrier. Getting a read on workloads there is hard enough without injuries factoring in, and Toney or Skyy Moore could shift to more special teams work now that Richie James is out with a knee injury. Anyway, there's nobody besides Travis Kelce (and Patrick Mahomes) that can be started with confidence, but Moore would be my pick of the others. Without Pacheco, the Chiefs might run even less than usual and likely would give Clyde Edwards-Helaire more carries than Jerick McKinnon (while playing time could be the other way around... or not?).

      

Primetime Games

If you've got the luxury of benching Ja'Marr Chase, Joe Mixon or Tee Higgins, this is about the only time you'd consider it. I still don't think I could do it unless we're talking about a 6-team league or something like that. Mixon, maybe, in other scenarios, but Burrow's absence won't hurt him as much as Chase/Higgins (and might actually help if the Bengals can make a game of it without Joe). In any case, I wouldn't bet against Burrow playing. The Bengals are 0-2. The Ravens are 2-0. The AFC looks pretty deep. Etc, etc etc. He'll play if it's at all possible.

      

Key Defensive Players + O-Linemen

Green Bay's injury woes aren't limited to the fantasy positions, and both Bakhtiari and Alexander are impactful enough players to impact everything from betting odds to QB projections. Alexander, the team's top corner, was added to the injury report Friday as a limited participant. With Elgton Jenkins already ruled out, Bakhtiari's absence would leave the Packers without their two most prominent blockers (again).

   

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jerry Donabedian
Jerry Donabedian
Jerry was a 2018 finalist for the FSWA's Player Notes Writer of the Year and DFS Writer of the Year awards. A Baltimore native, Jerry roots for the Ravens and watches "The Wire" in his spare time.
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