National Football League injuries are killing fantasy football teams
Photo courtesy of SewageBoy/Wikimedia Commons
Puka Nacua, the Los Angeles Rams wide receiver, suffered an injury during Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season against the Detroit Lions. This loss along with other injuries on the roster will affect the Rams offense and Fantasy Football teams alike.
Fantasy Football is one of the unique ways football fans make every Sunday matter. For those of you who may not be familiar, fantasy football is when a handful of people—usually ranging from eight to 12—conduct a draft of actual National Football League (NFL) quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, kickers, and team defenses during the summer before the season starts. Each team has a certain amount of starters and bench spots, replicating how actual NFL rosters are designed.
The goal of fantasy football is to score more points than your opponent of that week. Your players will gain points depending on how many yards they gain, receptions, and touchdowns when playing actual games during the football season. Although the fantasy football landscape is its own entity in the football world, that does not mean the mass injuries happening in the NFL are not affecting fantasy teams worldwide.
Injuries happen every year in every sport; however, this NFL season seems to be worse than ever. The NFL season is heading into its fifth week of 18, and there are already many injuries to manage. Some of the currently injured players include San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco, both wide receivers of the Los Angeles Rams Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams, and Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon. This list of names includes players drafted at a very high rate this past summer for fantasy teams. Some major injuries that have happened to players drafted slightly lower include Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice, Miami Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert, and Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson.
Injuries are freak accidents that are rarely avoidable, but there has to be a reason as to why the amount of NFL injuries has seemed to be rising recently. Many fans and players alike point to franchises implementing artificial turf fields as a suspected reason. These fields are known for being the main catalyst of non-contact NFL injuries. Many players have voiced their opinions on artificial turf fields being far less forgiving than a traditional grass field. Puka Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams was listed as one of the players who has suffered a major injury this year, and his injury specifically happened while playing on an artificial turf field. His injury was also non-contact—which is a massive concern.
It is a very slippery slope for a fantasy football player. Many NFL teams have changed their style of play to incorporate multiple players into their offensive schemes rather than rely on one or two players. For example, a handful of NFL teams have changed their running style to more of a “running back by committee” approach, which means that they give multiple players a split amount of opportunities to run rather than give their most talented player the ball 30 times a game.
As a fantasy football player, the idea was you always wanted the guys that got nearly all of their team's opportunities because that would give them the best chance to gain yards, receptions, and touchdowns—which entails fantasy points. The problem with teams doing this model is that the more an actual player is being used on the field, the more likely they are to get injured. Ironically, targeting players who share opportunities with their teammates will limit their chances of gaining your team's fantasy points.
At the end of the day, this dilemma pales in comparison to the importance of injuries themselves. The fact that injuries seem more common nowadays is the biggest problem and is a concern the League should take more seriously.