Waller Picks Up a Hamstring Injury 🫢

All of the most important fantasy news over the last 24 hours – all in one place.

• Giants TE Darren Waller lands on injury report with hamstring injury, status up in the air for Sunday night vs. Dallas

  • Not ideal timing for hamstring tightness to rear its ugly head for the 30-year-old tight end, but the injury is reportedly minor and there’s still a fair chance that Waller will be good to go come Sunday night. However, with the injury happening just two days away from the Giants season debut, there’s also the chance that New York could let him rest and get back to 100% for the long season ahead in 2023. In that case, Daniel Bellinger would become a reasonable start in Waller’s place, while Saquon Barkley would be locked in for a heavy workload.

• Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson unexpectedly lands on injury report with illness, officially questionable for Sunday vs. Philadelphia

  • Stevenson is reportedly dealing with an illness – not any kind of physical football injury. As a result, there’s no reason to expect him to miss the season opener for the Patriots. Any work that Rhamondre doesn’t receive will more than likely go to Ezekiel Elliott, who will be waiting in the wings to vulture as much work from New England’s RB1 as he can. Fantasy managers can return to their regularly scheduled programming until further notice.

• Rams HC Sean McVay says there’s a “definite possibility” that WR Cooper Kupp lands on injured reserve

  • The trip to the specialist in Minnesota must not have yielded any positive news about Kupp’s hamstring, with the next trip Kupp takes potentially being on his way to injured reserve. At this point, Kupp should be held in the IR spot of most fantasy rosters or even potentially sold. The fact that McVay floated the idea of IR suggests that Kupp could be back later rather than sooner, and fantasy teams that could be left struggling without him will have to make a decision just a few games into the year if they’re unable to overcome his absence. Tyler Higbee’s short term stock was already up, but his medium-term stock also gets a boost from this news.