Fantasy Football: Potential replacements for injured players on waiver wire
By Zach Cohen
How can fantasy football managers replace injured players on the waiver wire in Week 3?
Not even the world’s biggest first aid kit could patch up the frenzy of injuries that bombarded Week 2 of the NFL season. Fantasy football teams were ravaged as a flurry of star players fell victim to the injury bug, leaving fantasy owners in grief and disbelief.
While a speedy recovery is certainly wished to any players who went down on Sunday, the fantasy football season still trudges along. All of a sudden, those high picks you spent on Saquon Barkley and Courtland Sutton have been tossed in the trash.
Christian McCaffrey owners must somehow find a way to replace McCaffrey’s 26.8 fantasy points per game. And honestly, that replacement may lie with the Falcons’ 1-1 record in the dimension of nonexistence.
For all it’s glitz and glamour, fantasy football is simply just an attempt to predict the future. Why not peer a little deeper into our crystal ball? Maybe we’ll find some suitable replacements for the recently injured stars.
Replace Saquon Barkley with: Dion Lewis, RB, Giants
Confidence Meter: Medium
ESPN Rostered Percentage: 0.9
Right off the bat, there’s little shot that Barkley’s production is duplicated in fantasy football. Sure, he only scored 12.6 PPR points in the Giants’ Week 1 loss to the Steelers. But Barkley averaged 18.8 points in 2019 despite missing three games. And he’s also, you know, a fantastic player.
In no way is Dion Lewis going to fill the gigantic shoes left by Barkley, who’s season ended Sunday with a torn ACL.
To be fair, Lewis put in a respectable day once Barkley went down. He got 10 carries for only 20 yards, but he scored and caught four balls for 36 yards as well. On top of that, Lewis saw 47 percent of the Giants’ offensive snaps. Barkley saw 50 percent before he got hurt and Elijhaa Penny and Wayne Gallman combined for just 9 percent.
Don’t get your hopes up too high with Lewis but, if Sunday is any indicator, Lewis could still get a fair amount of looks in New York’s offense.