NFL injury report: James Cook questionable for Week 6 and beyond; consulting at CMC, Cooper Kupp

Greg Scholz of Inside Injuries tackles some of the most pressing injury concerns for Week 6 in fantasy football 2024.

Before we dive in, here’s a quick glossary of terms commonly used by Inside Injuries:

• IRC = Injury risk category (three designations: ‘Low’, ‘High’, ‘High’): the overall likelihood that a player will be injured
• HPF = Health Performance Factor (Peak, Above Average, Below Average, Poor): Our metric for predicting player performance
• ORT = Optimal Recovery Time: The amount of time a player needs to fully recover from an injury (not the same as the time he will miss).

GO FURTHER

NFL Week 6 Fantasy Football Betting Cheat Sheet: Texans without Collins, Kittle likely to play

James Cook, RB, BUF (foot/tip)

Buffalo’s Week 5 didn’t go as planned. Quarterback Josh Allen underperformed, they lost the game and their star running back James Cook was injured late in the fourth quarter.

The injury occurred when Cook landed while trying to catch a pass. His body twisted and his left leg whipped down to the grass. On impact, his toes made contact and appeared to hyperextend.

A toe injury is the concern here. Not the kind of thing that requires a stay in the IR, but some time will probably be lost. We have him categorized with a high risk of injury and an optimal recovery time of 21 days. When he returns, his risk of injury will still be high and will remain so for a few weeks.

Nico Collins, WR, HOU (hamstring)

Collins, the NFL’s leader in receiving yards, was placed on IR because of a hamstring strain he suffered in the first quarter of Houston’s Week 5 win over Buffalo.

The decision to put him on injured reserve is partly a surprise, but not exactly. Hamstring strains require much more attention than other soft tissue injuries, so IR motions are not uncommon. However, many hamstring strains do not require moving a player to IR.

For a speedy player like Collins, the hamstring muscles are crucial to success on the field. As a result, it is in your best interest that your strain be treated slowly and methodically. Rushing his rehab would risk setting him up for a career full of hamstring injuries. If rehabilitation is slow, steady and accurate, they can mitigate many risks moving forward.

Collins’ injury risk will be high for much of the rest of the season. Depending on the severity and how he responds to early treatments, it’s possible Collins could be out in Week 14 for Houston. We still won’t assume it’s that bad, and expect a much more modest optimal recovery time of 42 days.

Michael Pittman Jr., WR, IND (back)

Pittman has been bitten by the injury bug lately. He landed on the injury report in late September with a combination of calf and back injuries that sidelined him for practice, but he didn’t miss a game. Then he didn’t start in Week 5, he was still playing, because of his injuries.

According to reports, the back injury appears to be Indianapolis’ biggest concern. The details haven’t been clarified, but it’s serious enough that the team is considering putting him on IR. Historically, there are a few common injuries that could be to blame here. A stump would be the most common. Other options include a herniated disc or a fracture.

Because landing on IR is a possibility, Pittman is labeled a high risk for injury and his optimal recovery time is 28 days.

Aaron Jones, RB, MIN (hip)

The Vikings’ bye week came at a good time for Jones. After suffering a hip injury in the first quarter of the team’s Week 5 game in London, he will be able to rest Week 6 without missing any playing time.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters the team believes Jones avoided a long-term injury, but will be cautious moving forward. As a result, Jones is considered week-to-week.

Hip pointer injuries vary in recovery times due to several factors. Pain is important. The area where these injuries occur is in a place known as the iliac crest. There isn’t much cushioning here when a traumatic impact occurs. With this, there is swelling and bruising, which limits mobility.

Jones is at high risk for injury in the coming weeks. His optimal recovery time is 21 days, but his health performance factor will be above average in week 7 if he manages to return.

Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, NE (leg)

Reports are conflicting about Stevenson’s injury. Some reports say it’s a calf injury, others say it’s a foot injury. Regardless, it appears to be related to the lower body and we are treating it as a combination of the two.

Stevenson took a low calf hit in New England’s Week 5 loss to Miami and missed a few plays, but returned and finished the game. As for his foot injury, there is no play where we can identify a possible injury.

Without much information to go on, both injuries appear to be minor. His injury risk is high, going to High if he can’t practice on Friday, and his health performance factor is above average.

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Aaron Rodgers, QB, NYJ (sprained low ankle)

If you woke up early to watch New York’s Week 5 loss at London, the injury Rodgers suffered looked much worse at that point. After writhing in a tangle of bodies behind the line of scrimmage, Rodgers was seen screaming in pain and clutching the back of his leg above the knee.

After all the dust settled, Rodgers returned and was later diagnosed with a low ankle sprain. Low ankle sprains usually occur when the ankle “rolls” inward (medial) or outward (lateral). Lateral sprains are the more common of the two and involve the anterior talofibular ligament, posterior talofibular ligament, and calcaneofibular ligament.

Early testing hasn’t shown any tears in those ligaments, and Rodgers isn’t known for his mobility at this point in his career. Because of this, we give it a high risk of injury and a maximum health factor. We expect him to play in Week 6.

Consultation on Christian McCaffrey (Achilles) and Cooper Kupp (ankle)

There’s nothing major new for these guys, but there have been some positive updates, so we’ll check them out together.

McCaffrey returned to practice this week for the first time since mid-September. This comes just weeks after he visited a specialist in Germany. There, it was treated in a capacity similar to PRP. Short for platelet-rich plasma, PRP treatment involves extracting a small amount of blood from a patient, isolating the plasma, which is rich in platelets, from the blood and re-injecting that plasma into the injured area. Platelets in the plasma help speed up the healing process.

For McCaffrey, getting back on the field is a solid step in the right direction, but we still don’t expect him back until Week 10 at the earliest. His injury risk will be high for the rest of the season.

Moving on to Kupp, I should be back sooner. After missing the last three weeks with a sprained ankle, we expect him to return in Week 7 or Week 8. Although Kupp has yet to return to practice, Los Angeles has a bye this week, so he has time extra for resting.

His risk of injury will be high when he returns, but should decrease after a few weeks as long as he doesn’t re-aggravate it. Also, your health performance factor will be above average.

(Top photo by James Cook: Troy Taormina-Image Images)