How does Zach Wilson injury affect other Jets' fantasy value? | Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast
In the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast, analysts Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski look at how big of an impact the sophomore quarterback's knee injury will have on the remaining offensive players in New York.
Video Transcript
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MATT HARMON: Oh, man, Zach Wilson. You know, I had my buddy, Franchise, over and his wife, from the NFL Network days. They came over to the house on Friday and, you know, I'm starting to look at my phone just as I'm getting ready to serve dinner and it's all these, like, nightmare-looking, you know, reactions for Zach Wilson. Looked like he really, on a non-contact play, had torn his ACL. You know, there were, of course, the Twitter doctors were out, man, looking-- trying to diagnose it off the video.
It turns out he has a bone bruise, which is interesting and maybe-- I mean-- listen, you don't want to have a bone bruise, but it seems like he avoided the potential worst-case scenario there. But right now there's no timetable for his return. He's having knee surgery on Tuesday out in California. I don't know, Scott, like-- he's probably highly questionable for Week 1 is Zach Wilson. And you've said this several times, like, we're drafting Jets. We're interested in this team in fantasy. So we, kind of, need Zach Wilson to play well this year. And I don't love him getting off to a start in which he's going to be hurt.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: For sure. I mean, the quarterback is a connective tissue to every other piece of any offense. So even if you're in a standard start one quarterback league and Zach Wilson was somebody you were never were going to draft, you probably had interest in Breece Hall, you probably had interest in Elijah Moore, you may have an interest in Corey Davis or Garrett Wilson, maybe Michael Carter, who we think would be the second running back. So all of those things depend on quality play at quarterback.
And Zach Wilson is-- he's one of these several sophomore quarterbacks who had a bad rookie year for several reasons, to some degree it's an excuse to absence. And he's somebody who I wanted to see something positive this preseason, instead he gets hurt right away. So it wipes out the rest of the month for him. Maybe we're going to be looking at Joe Flacco. You know, I don't know, maybe Mike White gets on the field, who actually was-- wasn't that bad last year. But, you know, with Flacco, what is he, 37 now? I mean, he-- he's not somebody the Jest want to play. This is the unfortunate nature of preseason.
And, you know, we know, Matt, in the last five, 10, 15 years teams have pulled back more and more about putting their primary guys on the field. And the more important you are to a team, usually the less you play because they don't want guys to get hurt.
But with the case of Wilson, just his rookie year was such a washout, they need him to get reps, they need him to get game reps. And I thought the preseason was very important for him. And I hate to be reactionary about this, but I don't know how you can like Elijah Moore, Bryce Hall. I think you have to like them a little bit less with this quarterback situation unsettled.
Now, granted, there is no guarantee that Zach Wilson was going to play well. Maybe he would have had a healthy preseason and then had a poor season and then he could tank some of the fantasy values here. But it's just frustrating that the Jets-- I was hoping to look at the Jets as a team on the upswing and when their presumed franchise quarterback gets hurt in the first preseason game. I feel like you have to pump the brakes on everybody else tied to this offense and that-- it doesn't make me feel good.
MATT HARMON: Man, the damn Jets, like, they can't get out of August with-- every year it seems like they have at least one catastrophic injury in training camp preseason. Last year, it was Carl Lawson. This year, obviously, they lose Mekhi Becton already.
Yeah, it's not starting on the right type of momentum that you'd want if you're in on the Jets this year. I mean, the good news for Elijah Moore is he did play nine of nine snaps with Zach Wilson. Corey Davis played eight. Braxton Berrios was the slot receiver in three receiver sets, and he played six. And rookie Garrett Wilson only played one. It's the first preseason game, but, like you said, who guys are playing with, what team they're playing with-- first, second, third team-- does matter a lot, especially for these rookies. And it looks like Elijah Moore is clearly cemented as the number one receiver.
I had it-- buddy, Scott, it's fantasy season, right, like you're at the expo, you're doing the salary cap panel. I had a draft today for one of my teams I'm actually going to manage all year like-- not a slow draft either. And I still-- I had that thought in the back of my head like, all right. Zach Wilson, you know, how much does this change the trajectory for Elijah Moore? And I sat there in the sixth round, and I still took Elijah Moore, where I probably would have taken him before as, like, the 30th wide receiver off the board and the fifth wide receiver for me in a start at least three wide receiver PPR league where I want to be pretty wide receiver heavy.
