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Deebo Samuel Jones Fracture Injury Sends 2020 Fantasy Football Outlook Plummeting

By Jason Schandl

Deebo Samuel's Jones fracture injury could crush his fantasy football value for 2020.
Deebo Samuel's Jones fracture injury could crush his fantasy football value for 2020. / Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
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It was announced on Wednesday that Deebo Samuel suffered a Jones fracture in his foot, and he will need to undergo surgery. That's expected to sideline him for 12 to 16 weeks, meaning he's not a guarantee to be ready for Week 1 of the 2020 NFL season.

That is a crushing blow to his fantasy football outlook for the upcoming season.

Deebo Samuel Fractured Foot News

Samuel had become the San Francisco 49ers' go-to receiver down the stretch of his rookie season, seeing targets on 31 percent of Jimmy Garoppolo's pass attempts in the playoffs.

FantasyPros' average draft position (ADP) data shows that Samuel was being drafted as the 26th wide receiver off the board, at an average pick of 55.0. He should no longer be considered in this range, as even if he suffers no setbacks it could take two or three games before he's really up to speed.

The downside of a potential re-injury or setback makes him even riskier. We saw that last year when Trent Taylor underwent foot injury in the offseason and ended up missing the entire 2019 campaign.

This does boost the fantasy outlook for the rest of San Francisco's wideouts though. Between Samuel and the departed Emmanuel Sanders, 44.8 percent of the targets from the Niners' playoff run are unaccounted for.

This means rookie first-round pick Brandon Aiyuk and even presumed backups like Jalen Hurd, Dante Pettis and Kendrick Bourne could start to offer some value if they crack the starting lineup in Samuel's absence.

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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 his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.