By Scott Kacsmar
For as bad as the injuries were to skill players in Week 14, this past week was thankfully a lot healthier. Did that have anything to do with the games mostly being competitive and good? Maybe, but it was just good to see multiple players get put in the blue tent or carted off before returning to action later in the game.
Of course, we have one of the biggest and most mysterious injuries of the season going on in Philadelphia with Jalen Hurts, but nothing definitive has been ruled yet.
Here are all the notable injuries from Week 15 that you should prepare for your fantasy teams, DFS lineups, Same Game Parlays, and other prop bets this week.
QB Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
As it turns out, the Game of the Year in the NFC regular season may have been Week 6 when Cooper Rush led the 4-1 Cowboys into Philadelphia against the 5-0 Eagles on Sunday Night Football. Philadelphia won 26-17 and has been in control of the NFC East and NFC in general for the entire season.
This was supposed to be a big rematch in Dallas with the Eagles having to contend with Dak Prescott, who was just short a week of returning for that Week 6 matchup. This was going to be Dak vs. Hurts with the division still on the line, and the MVP award that Hurts jumped out to the leaderboard for a week ago.
Now it might just be Gardner Minshew against a team that blew a 17-point lead in Jacksonville last week. No real stakes or drama with the Eagles cruising towards the top seed and the Cowboys cruising for another bruising by a lousy Tampa Bay team.
This is what the NFC has come down to?
Well, not so fast. For as surprising as Jalen Hurts’ injury news of a strained shoulder was on Monday, the team is still not ruling him out for Dallas. On Tuesday, head coach Nick Sirianni said Hurts definitely has a chance to play. Whatever that means.
The good news is it’s not considered a serious injury, so we will see Hurts again soon. But the MVP odds have heavily shifted back to Patrick Mahomes as the favorite, so Hurts really needed this game, which most of America will have to view locally Saturday afternoon, to prove he deserves it.
Now we might just get hit with Gardner Minshew memes, especially if the Eagles complete the sweep by beating the Cowboys with their backup quarterback, something the Cowboys could not do in Week 6. The spread has gone from the Eagles as a 1-point underdog to a 4.5 or 5-point underdog.
The Cowboys and Eagles are becoming the Ravens and Steelers when it comes to not having both starting quarterbacks available for these matchups. Prescott and Carson Wentz rarely matched up in meaningful games, and so far, we have seen one Dak vs. Hurts game. Dallas won it 41-21 on Monday Night Football last year.
To paraphrase Sirianni, we’ll see what happens. But the days of Hurts getting 17 rushes against a bad team like Chicago when he also threw for 300 yards might be winding down. You have to have your quarterback healthy for the playoffs.
QB Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans
We seem to have found another one of those cases where a quarterback returned to a game after getting injured, finished the game, but now he may miss the next one.
Ryan Tannehill was carted off early after a sack against the Chargers, but he still ended up returning and played 84% of the snaps. You can see late in the game that he was not moving well on that ankle, and the Titans had to fix the play calling to account for that.
The good news is the Texans are up next. Rookie Malik Willis already started against them in Week 8 and he threw for 55 yards on 10 passes. But why throw when you can just hand off to Derrick Henry, who has monster games every time against Houston? Henry had 219 yards and two touchdowns against the Texans in Week 8’s 17-10 win.
If the Jaguars lose to the Jets on Thursday night, that should just be extra incentive to sit Tannehill and let him heal for the stretch run. The Titans are really struggling right now, but the Texans are an ideal opponent to handle this injury situation. Of course, after nearly beating the Cowboys and Chiefs the last two weeks, the Texans may just show up for win No. 2 this weekend.
QB Colt McCoy, Arizona Cardinals
After losing starting quarterback Kyler Murray to a torn ACL last week, the Cardinals lost Colt McCoy to a scary concussion moment in Denver. With a 4-10 record, the Cardinals may want to just take the cautious approach here and stick with Trace McSorley, who would be making his first start in the NFL against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.
McSorley threw three interceptions in limited work this season, so this is not shaping up to be a great night for the Cardinals on Sunday.
RB Jonathan Taylor, Indianapolis Colts
After injuring his ankle on his first touch of the game, Jonathan Taylor’s 2022 season is over. He will be placed on injured reserve, and his last game will go down as the biggest blown lead in NFL history (33 points).
The shame of it all is that Taylor was clearly missed at several key moments in that game that could have prevented it from being an epic collapse:
- On the opening drive after Taylor was injured, backup Zack Moss was taken down for a 7-yard loss on a third-and-goal from the 1.
- With 3:28 left in the fourth quarter, backup Deon Jackson inexplicably fumbled and was lucky the whistle blew to deny Minnesota a fumble touchdown. Taylor protects the ball better than that.
- Moment of the game: Matt Ryan did the quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 and was stuffed. Hard to argue the call, but maybe they just hand it to Taylor in that moment if he was there.
After winning the rushing title and scoring 20 touchdowns in 2021, Taylor finishes this season with 861 rushing yards, four total touchdowns, and three fumbles. A very disappointing finish for one of the game’s best young backs.
RB Caleb Huntley, Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons can never have enough running backs with the frequency they like to run it, and that may be going up if rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder’s first start is a preview of what’s to come.
But Caleb Huntley left Sunday’s game after logging just two offensive snaps. He was a big part of the rotation with Cordarrelle Patterson and Tyler Allgeier earlier this season. Huntley’s biggest moment was the overtime win against Carolina when he had 16 carries for 91 yards.
But Huntley has barely played the last month, running 7 times for 35 yards in the last four games. This is looking like Allgeier’s show now after he had 139 rushing yards and a touchdown in New Orleans.
WR Equanimeous St. Brown, Chicago Bears
He is not as good as his brother Amon-Ra in Detroit, but this St. Brown was at least a healthy body for the Bears before he had to leave Sunday’s game with a concussion. As usual now, that puts the next game in question for him, but it shouldn’t be more than one week out.
The problem is the Bears keep losing wide receivers. Their best one, Darnell Mooney, is already out for the year with an ankle injury. Chase Claypool did not play Sunday against the Eagles, and the Bears barely use him to begin with.
St. Brown is third on the team with 300 yards. If he is out, then maybe former Chiefs receiver Byron Pringle can take over. He played a season-high 90% of the snaps in Week 15 and caught a touchdown, his second in three games.
