David Njoku Injury Update Boosts Outlook for Fantasy Football Playoffs

The Cleveland Browns' season has been full of disappointment, and part of that includes losing David Njoku from their offense for most of the year after he landed on IR with a broken wrist. He only made it 10 snaps into the second game of the regular season before going down.

Njoku has been activated from IR, though, and is eligible to return now. Given Cleveland's relatively soft upcoming schedule, Njoku could once again be fantasy relevant, just in time for the fantasy playoffs.

Njoku opened the year with a promising performance, catching four of six targets for 37 yards and a score, finishing eighth among tight ends with 13.7 PPR fantasy points.

The Browns passing game has seen some increased production lately with a softening schedule, and Baker Mayfield just threw three TDs in a game for the first time this season in Week 12 against the Miami Dolphins. That favorable schedule (and likely increase in passing production) should continue in the coming weeks.

In Week 14 Njoku will (likely) return to a matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, who rank 31st in pass defense DVOA, only beating out the Dolphins. After that the Browns get the Arizona Cardinals in Week 15, which is the best matchup possible for tight ends.

Arizona has allowed the most fantasy points per game to the position by an absurd margin, with a bigger gap between the Cards and anyone else than there is between the team allowing the second-most points and the league average.

There's plenty of risk in playing Njoku this week, since we don't know whether he'll be held to limited action or not after sitting for more than half the season. He doesn't make his way into the top 12 at the position in our Week 14 PPR fantasy football rankings.

With that being said, he does bring some intriguing upside. If you're hurting at tight end, he brings some boom-or-bust appeal. He's also worth adding early now if you have bench space, because if he does see a solid workload then he's going to be locked in as a top-12 play against the Cardinals next week.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.