Injuries suck.
It’s one of the worst feelings to see a guy who’s carried you so far throughout the season, a player you might have become a genuine fan of outside of fantasy, go down in brutal fashion. Todd Gurley’s injury late in 2018 cost thousands of fantasy players (including myself) a likely championship. David Johnson’s wrist injury in week 1 of 2017 ended many seasons before they even really got started. Even last year, Saquon Barkley’s three-week hiatus due to injury was likely the main culprit towards his dismal 4.8% best ball win rate, despite him having an otherwise impressive season.
As much as they suck, injuries are a fact of life in the fantasy world. They’re going to happen, it’s just a matter of when and to whom. Therefore, it’s our job, especially in best ball, to prepare for them, and even to take advantage of them. Already this offseason, Curtis Patrick has pegged Dallas backup Tony Pollard as a must-draft player for the 2020 season, and despite his ever-rising ADP, Shawn Siegele made a convincing case that Vikings’ handcuff Alexander Mattison is still a strong buy. With those two (and Chase Edmonds, whom Curtis Patrick also listed as a must-draft for the upcoming season) now garnering considerable, and well-deserved, hype, I’m going to take a dive into a few more candidates you should be targeting, from guys with standalone intrigue even without an injury to under-the-radar players who seem buried on the depth chart but could turn out to be massive values.
