Tyler Eifert, the Bengals rising star tight end, injured his ankle in the Pro Bowl this past February. After failing to respond appropriately to rehabilitation, Eifert underwent surgery for this in on May 25th, 2016. The obvious fantasy football questions are: When will Eifert return to play, and how productive will he be this year? Reports are (intentionally) vague, but it seems that he probably had…...

Donte Moncrief, the Colts up and coming wide receiver, injured his toe last December, and exacerbated it while playing in Week 17, the last game of the season. It was recently reported that Moncrief had surgery on his toe, which is almost certainly the repair of a turf toe…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

Julian Edelman, New England’s star wide receiver, suffered a Jones fracture of his left fifth metatarsal against the New York Giants on November 15th, 2015…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

This article from Dr. Budoff is in response to some recent email chain requests for clarification. On 12/13/2015, Week 14, Thomas Rawls suffered a season ending ankle fracture while playing against the Ravens. Pete Carroll called Rawls’ injury “substantial” and said that there could also be “torn ankle ligaments.” The injury did not require surgery and ESPN’s Brock Huard reported in December, that “the injury…...

Lance Dunbar, the Dallas Cowboy’s pass-catching running back, tore his ACL 10/4/15 playing against the New Orleans Saints.  He had his ACL reconstructed and starting jogging again in March. He admitted his recovery could be a slow process…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

Jason Pierre-Paul, the NY Giants star defensive end, recently released an X-ray of his right hand that he injured in a July 4th fireworks accident. And while it’s standard Orthopedic doctrine that one needs at least two X-rays perpendicular to each other to assess a structure, there are still things we can learn from the information that we currently have available. Injury Details As I…...

Alshon Jeffery, the Bears’ elite wide receiver, has a fairly extensive injury history over his four years in the NFL. Let’s examine what this means for his future fantasy football value. Jeffery broke his hand during his 2012 rookie season, missing four games. He then tore a meniscus, missing one game following arthroscopic debridement, and also missed a game with a hamstring injury. He finished…...

I’ve had some questions this week about Ben Roethlisberger’s radio show comments that his throwing shoulder has a sprained AC joint and ‘torn ligaments.’ The question is whether or not his shoulder (the ball and socket glenohumeral joint) has ligament damage in addition to his AC joint injury. While I obviously haven’t spoken to Roethlisberger, examined him or seen his imaging studies, I believe that…...

Arian Foster, Houston’s elite running back, ruptured his Achilles tendon Week 7 (10/25/2015) against Miami, in his fourth game back from sports hernia/torn groin muscle surgery. His Achilles tendon was surgically repaired later that week. The obvious question for fantasy football is: Will Foster be back and, if so, how good will he be? In other words: should I take the injury discount and draft Foster or…...

Mark Ingram, New Orleans’ starting running back, was placed on IR on December 9, and underwent left rotator cuff repair on December 10. Rotator Cuff Repair The rotator cuff is the confluence of many of the tendons that help elevate the shoulder.  The rotator cuff is the No. 1 cause of shoulder pain and dysfunction, and is effectively the ‘weak link’ of the shoulder.  Traumatic rotator…...

Going into Week 12, the Arizona backfield boasted a stable of running backs. Coming out the back end of Week 12, not so much. Their starter, Chris Johnson, fractured his tibia. I haven’t found any reports of where in the tibia the fracture is, its extent or severity. If it was a displaced fracture (meaning that the fragments of bone moved apart from each other)…...

Sam Bradford, Philadelphia’s quarterback, was slammed to the ground Sunday, suffering what was reported to be a grade 2 sprain of his left (non-throwing) shoulder’s acromio-clavicular (AC) joint. He also suffered a concussion on that play. He’ll be in the concussion protocol, and the reader can follow how he progresses through that for further information. I’ll confine the remainder of this article to his shoulder…....

Le’veon Bell, Pittsburgh’s elite running back, injured his knee during Week 8, when it bent backwards.  Bell recently underwent a medial collateral ligament (MCL) repair and a posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) reconstruction. He was placed on injured reserve (IR) and is done for the season. The question now is about his prospects for 2016 and beyond. Reports have stated that Bell is expected to be ready…...

Ryan Fitzpatrick, the New York Jets starting quarterback, tore the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) of his left/non-throwing thumb during a scramble Week 8. The UCL is the ligament that stabilizes the metacarpophalangeal (MP) joint of the thumb during pinching and gripping. When the UCL is torn, the MP joint becomes unstable, and the ability to grip and pinch with force is lost. This has been…...

  Arian Foster, the Houston Texan’s elite running back (and, more importantly, a key player on two of my fantasy teams) tore his right Achilles tendon on Sunday. He’s now on injured reserve, and is having his tendon surgically repaired. Foster is expected back in 6-9 months, i.e. for the start of next season.  The question I’ll address here is how good we can expect Foster…...

During the second quarter of Week 6, Marcus Mariota suffered a grade 2 MCL (medial collateral ligament) injury to his left knee when he was hit low by Olivier Vernon. Mariota donned a knee brace and continued to play until he was pulled late in the game, when Miami’s 38-10 victory was all but inevitable. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt said after the game that Mariota was walking around…...

Blake Bortles, the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback, suffered a grade 1 AC (acromio-clavicular) joint sprain of his right shoulder during Week 5. He played through it, never left the game, and played well. As covered in a few articles in the past,  the AC joint is the small joint at the top of the shoulder, where the clavicle attaches. A grade 1 sprain means no structural damage,…...

Andrew Luck suffered a subluxation of his throwing shoulder.  A subluxation is a partial dislocation, where the shoulder comes partially out of joint, then relocates (goes back in) before it dislocates.  In other words, the ball (humeral head) of the shoulder came partially out of the socket (glenoid), then was pulled back in by the muscles and tendons before it fully dislocated…. Membership Required You...

  Big Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh’s quarterback, was injured Week 3. His knee was bent at an awkward angle, and when all of the dust settled he was diagnosed with a Grade 2 MCL (medial collateral ligament) injury and a bone bruise of his left (forward when throwing) knee. His ACL was not torn. MCL Injuries The MCL is the ligament on the inside of the…...

Dr. Jeffrey E. Budoff is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who wades through misleading coach-speak and vague team injury information to offer advice for your fantasy team…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...