Get Away From Me: How to Use your Injured Stud

Dan Hasty

“Get away from me!”

peterson5It’s not only what Kate Upton would say if you asked her out, it’s what you need to think if you’re about to start a player recovering from injury. Nothing is worse than one of your players trying to beat the odds to come back, only to return too soon. If you went into last season with Arian Foster or went into this season with Adrian Peterson, you know what I’m talking about. I had both players and even with the success Peterson had this year, hoped each wouldn’t play for at least a few weeks.

Allow me to explain.

Last season, Foster missed week one with a hamstring injury and returned too quickly in week two, re-injuring himself after giving his owners just three points, likely costing them a win. Foster would bounce back later in the season, returning to top-5 status, but he got many owners off to a slow start with his performances in the early season.

Peterson, like Foster, was in the “Will he or won’t he?” category for week one this season after tearing his ACL at the end of last year. The recovery time for a torn ACL has shrunk dramatically over the years. Peterson has set the new standard for recovery (mainly because he’s a freak of nature) and is posting a solid start this season when many thought he’d be sitting out. Even watching the success Peterson has had, it’s not the blueprint you want to follow when it comes to starting injured players.

While his off-season reports and recovery time were impressive, most players don’t perform like Peterson. Most players give you underwhelming performances while you keep starting them thinking an injury will clear up and they’re bound to break out at any time. Last season, Andre Johnson injured his hamstring in week four, only to return too early and post pedestrian numbers during his handful of games last season. In the meantime, the thought of playing Johnson was too tempting to put him on your bench and you started him. His lackluster performances cost your team late-season, and possibly playoff victories.

Jeremy Maclin went through something similar last season. After posting a top-15 season in 2010, expectations were that Maclin would become a top-10 receiver. It may have happened if Maclin wasn’t stricken with an illness and battled injuries for most of the season. Rather than posting a top-10 finish, Maclin nearly fell out of the top 30 at his position while being outscored by the likes of Jabar Gaffney. Maclin’s effort to play through injuries were admirable in real life, but were a killer for your team.

If I owned Denarius Moore heading into this season, I would have preferred he sat out longer than a week before returning to Oakland’s lineup. Like most players battling back from injury, I didn’t need him and planned on using him as bye-week substitutes.  I didn’t need Moore to lead the league in scoring this season, but once he’s healthy, I expected he’d dominate and make up for lost time. In the meantime, I would keep playing the healthy body and give myself one less thing to worry about each week. After missing week one, Moore has posted six and ten points in weeks two and three – this type of production usually represents your best-case scenario when dealing with players of injury concern.

Some people say they’d rather have an elite running back playing at 50% health rather than a serviceable running back at 100%. This adage simply doesn’t work in fantasy football. As an owner, you can’t give yourself excuses to lose. If I’m rolling the dice and starting a player I know is injured, I don’t deserve to win. This game is all about eliminating risk and making smart decisions. Playing someone with a pre-exsisting injury is as risky as it gets, no matter who the player is. There’s too much success to be had based on match-ups with players on your bench – that’s how someone like Kevin Smith gives you 40 points against the Carolina Panthers, which he did in week eleven last season.

You’re going to have to deal with the fact that all your players will want to play as soon as possible, regardless of if they’re ready. They’re competitors – it’s what they do. My advice: let your player earn his way back into your lineup. Just because the team rushes him back, doesn’t mean you have to.

Follow Dan Hasty on Twitter @DanHasty34