Surprise Christian McCaffrey Injury Update Clouds Week 3 Fantasy Outlook

There's only a select few football players who can truly ruin a fantasy manager's day thanks to a simple injury designation on the practice report. Christian McCaffrey is certainly one of them.

McCaffrey popped up on the Carolina Panthers' injury report on Thursday, striking an earthquake of fear for fantasy football managers everywhere.

Christian McCaffrey Injury Update

According to team sources, McCaffrey was given a "limited participation" status thanks to some lingering stiffness in his ankle.

#Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey was added to the injury report on Thursday, but the team says he's still expected to play on Sunday. He's dealing with some lingering stiffness.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 22, 2022

The good news is that Panthers insider Joe Person reports McCaffrey "should play" on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. Either way, this creates a bit of a cloud over his Week 3 fantasy outlook.

RB Christian McCaffrey showed up on the injury report. He was limited with stiffness in his ankle. Team said he should play Sunday against the Saints.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) September 22, 2022

Christian McCaffrey Fantasy Outlook

McCaffrey is the quintessential example of a fantasy football star truly held back by injuries. The former Pro Bowler and All-Pro has played in just 10 games over the last two years. He's the best PPR back when healthy, though, based on his RB1 status in 2019 and RB2 status in 2018.

This seems like a situation where the Panthers are simply playing it safe. Managers should pay close attention to Carolina's injury report on Friday, but he could easily be 100% by Sunday. If so, start McCaffrey with confidence. He entered the week as RB11 in The Duel's Week 3 PPR rankings.

Unfortunately, there's an outside chance McCaffrey's status remains murky over the weekend. Any sort of limited capacity diminishes his value against a tough Saints rushing attack. New Orleans has allowed the second-fewest PPR points to opposing running backs this year after holding Alvin Kamara to just 7 receiving yards and Leonard Fournette to just 9.

New users earn an instant FREE entry when you sign up for FanDuel DFS! Sign Up Now!

Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. 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.