fantasy aftermath of Saturday Night's wild ride in the NFL

In the span of a few hours late Saturday evening, Adam Schefter delivered a pair of nukes to the NFL world like we were Japan in 1945, shaking up the fates of 2 teams, the AFC South, the league itself, and, most importantly, our fantasy teams. To nobody's surprise, there was also immediate trade activity in the aftermath of this. Here's who is affected, and how.

TL;DR

• Alex's weak RB core is weaker
• Duke Johnson stock is on the rise just when Wings needed it the most
• Chuck is not fucked but is playing with fire
• Joe dodges a bullet
• Gio gets a king's return from Chuck's panic

Lamar Millers ACL Tears Apart Alex's RB Core

Alex was already thin at RB before Lamar Miller took a bad hit to the knee and went down. People had already speculated the worst, but Schefter's confirmation raises serious alarms about who will be starting at RB for Alex week 1.

Texans fear RB Lamar Miller tore his ACL, per source.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 25, 2019

With the loss of Lamar Miller for the season, Alex's remaining rostered RBs are Phillip Lindsay, Jordan Howard, 🅱️J Anderson and 🅱️arlos Hyde. Hyde may not even make the roster, which leaves 3 running backs that are all in committee situations. At the moment, Alex has his draft capital intact and solid options at WR should he go the trade route to get someone. Beware of fleeces though, my friend.

Fire Up Your Dukes?

The immediate next man up in Houston's RB system is Duke Johnson Jr, who I smartly snagged soon after news broke of his trade from the Browns. Unless the Texans plan to move for someone like Melvin Gordon or Jay Ajayi, it is presumed that DJJ will take the starting role. For Wings, this is huge given his need for RB depth while waiting on the Zeke situation. However, Duke's never been able to assume the role as full-time starter in his 4 year career, so it remains a question to see if he will be given the opportunity and whether he will be able to succeed. This leaves the door open for a potential RBBC with Damera Crockett (who Nauch picked up) and Karan Higdon (unowned) who are next on the depth chart.

Andrew Luck Retires, Hilarity Ensues

A few days ago I prophetically warned that trading for a QB was not a wise decision in a 10-man, 1-QB league because the wire will always have solid streaming options should your starter suffer an injury. This was more or less in response to Chuck, who in the last few days traded for Andrew Luck and Cam Newton, trading away, among other things, Matt Ryan and a 16th round (aka Nauch just have him Cam). 

From Carolina Panthers GM Marty Hurney: "Cam Newton has a mid-foot sprain in his left foot, and we are cautiously optimistic he will be ready for week one."

— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) August 23, 2019

This meant that, in a 10-man, 1-qb league, chuck was Rostering three quarterbacks. Now, in the span of a couple days, one is in a walking boot and the other.. well you guys know

Filed to ESPN: Andrew Luck has informed the Colts he is retiring from the NFL, per source. There will be a press conference Sunday to make it official, but Luck is mentally worn down, and now checking out.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 25, 2019

Not only did Chuck trade for luck, but also made moves to acquire Colts players Eric Ebron and TY Hilton. It was clear Chuck was high on the Colts this season and Andrew Luck to follow up an excellent 2018 despite his preseason injuries.

The league reacted with sympathy to this news.


Overall, this doesn't hurt Chuckie too much in terms of team composition outside of getting burned bad on these trades. He still has a solid team and while TY was his top receiver the other options behind him aren't awful either. The obvious thing to do here was to not panic and evaluate your team before making moves...
these are a minute apart.

Chuck immediately hit the trade market and, while he originally set out to tank, couldn't fathom the concept of doing so and instead reverted to the Chuck we know and love and traded away TY (still a great receiver), his draft capital (which he acquired from spending his original picks in the first place) and depth for a shiny running back in David Johnson and benchwarmers. This lack of depth may come back to bite him later, but for now he's still a contender on paper.

Gio feasts

Gio may have given up his best RB in David Johnson, but the return he got was immaculate. Not only does he have the best WR trio in the league, he now has the best collection of WRs period. On top of that, he got a cushy return of draft capital. Gio is considerably weaker at RB compared to his competitors, even with some added depth, but he is still in a good position regardless. I'd call this trade a win in his favor.