How to Handle Puka Nacua's Injury in Fantasy Football (Is Tyler ...
Week 1 of the fantasy football season typically brings high highs and low lows for fantasy football managers. One such low was the injury suffered by Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua on Sunday Night Football. This quickly puts managers in a bind, as they likely took him off the board in the late first or early second round, and his absence can cause a huge issue in the lineup. It also made managers very aware of his backup, Tyler Johnson.
With Week 2 waivers approaching, here's what you need to know about Nacua and Johnson.
Nacua was carted off the field after going down with a right knee injury in the first half and was pretty quickly ruled out for the remainder of the game. The Rams haven't provided any updates yet (this section will be updated when they do), but considering it's the same knee he injured in the preseason, it wouldn't be surprising if the team exercised some caution.
Estimates of any potential missed time are basically pure speculation at this point, and the range being projected is anything from zero to eight-plus games.
So what can fantasy football managers do? Not a whole lot. You're not trading Nacua. Unless he's ruled out for the season you're not releasing him. If you have an IR spot in your league you might be able to stash him there, but basically, it's just a wait-and-see situation right now.
Hopefully this early in the year you still have some decent wide receivers on your bench that you can start in his place, but if not then you'll have to look to the waiver wire.
Nacua's replacement, Tyler Johnson, also suddenly draws attention as one of those potential waiver wire adds.
Tyler Johnson doesn't profile as someone we'd expect to care about in fantasy football this season. He's 26 years old and on his third NFL team in five seasons. He played in a grand total of three games (with a combined 65 offensive snaps) in the last three seasons. But the NFL landscape changes so rapidly that we need to be willing to update our beliefs quickly.
Even with Nacua being healthy enough to play 32% of the Rams' offensive snaps on Sunday night, Johnson suited up for 65%. He may well be an every-down player if Nacua misses any more time.
And these weren't empty snaps for Johnson either. He showed a pretty immediate rapport with Matthew Stafford, hauling in 5 of his 7 targets for 79 yards. That had him tied with Demarcus Robinson for the second-most targets on the team (behind Cooper Kupp).
He may have benefited from the Rams' game plan having accounted for Nacua playing, but considering Johnson's 11.3 yards per target was the most on the team, that's something that may well continue.
Hopefully we'll have a more concrete update on Nacua before waiver claims are finalized for Week 2. If we don't, Johnson will be a strong target anyway. If Nacua sits then Johnson will be a viable starter against the Arizona Cardinals this week, and he has the potential to be a long-term FLEX play throughout the season if Nacua misses any significant time.
