Week 17 Friday Injury Report: Wide Receivers Dominate Game-Time Decisions

Week 17 Friday Injury Report: Wide Receivers Dominate Game-Time Decisions

This article is part of our Injury Analysis series.

The Thursday game was missing Tony Pollard and Derrick Henry, not to mention Ryan Tannehill, but this at least looks like a fairly easy weekend in terms of game-time decisions.

The bottom section — truly questionable — 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 🚑 

The Thursday game was missing Tony Pollard and Derrick Henry, not to mention Ryan Tannehill, but this at least looks like a fairly easy weekend in terms of game-time decisions.

The bottom section — truly questionable — 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 🚑 

   

Key Defensive Players + Offensive Linemen (Ruled Out)

          

Listed as Questionable - Should Play 👍

      

Truly Questionable 🤔

Early Games

Hopkins was added to the injury report Friday as a non-participant and 'questionable' after exiting practice early (apparently before he did much of anything). If he plays, he could see a lot of Falcons CB A.J. Terrell while catching passes from David Blough. I'd rather start a one-handed Tyler Lockett... actually, I'll be doing just that (in a third-place game, sadly).

Olave and Henry are the other potentially startable players here, with Jonnu Smith ruled out and the Saints likely forced to throw more this week (albeit on the road against a tough Philly secondary). Rashid Shaheed had already been getting a bit more playing time than Olave, actually, and the undrafted rookie led the team in routes and targets with Olave out last week.

     

Late-Afternoon Games

All the Seattle beat reporters expect Lockett to play, especially after a full practice Friday, but I'm not quite ready to assume it with the wideout less than two weeks removed from surgery. He also mentioned Friday that he plans to play but still needs the coaches and training staff to sign off on it. Lockett should play, but let's keep in this category for now.

Watson, on the other hand, looks 50/50 after only one practice (Friday - LP) this week. He missed the entire second half of last week's win over Miami, with Romeo Doubs then playing more than 80 percent of snaps after halftime (and Allen Lazard tying a season high of 11 targets).

Higbee managed limited practices Thursday and Friday after erupting for 9-94-2 last week, but he did need an MRI (which reportedly brought encouraging results). Brycen Hopkins also had a nice game last week and would make for a good DFS punt if Higbee ends up inactive.

   

Primetime

Knox was a limited practice participant Thursday and Friday due to a hip pointer. If he ends up inactive, the fill-in options Monday night at tight end would be Buffalo's Quintin Morris or Cincinnati's Hayden Hurst (who returned to full practice this week after missing the past three games with a calf injury).

Key Defensive Players + O-Linemen

   

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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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