Sit Start Injury Report Sunday Morning Week 20 2021

Every fantasy manager knows that injuries can have a huge impact on a fantasy team's performance.

That makes properly navigating each week's injury report a must. To assist in this effort, this weekly article series will analyze the fantasy football impact of the Friday and Saturday injury reports.

The injured players are noted by player position and then their injury status. Out means the player has been ruled out of this week's contest. Doubtful means the player is very unlikely to start. Questionable indicates the player might start. Start likelihood is increased if a player has participated in practices that week, so practice participation levels are frequently noted in these posts.

Let's look at the Divisional injury report. The initial edition of this article is generated following the league's Friday injury report. It is then updated on Saturday night with any injury changes that have been posted since the Friday update.
 

Los Angeles Rams at Tampa Bay

Los Angeles injuries

Out
S Taylor Rapp
T Andrew Whitworth

Doubtful
RB Buddy Howell
The loss of Whitworth could be huge, but Joseph Noteboom did a solid job replacing Whitworth last week. This means the projections for the Rams passing attack remain basically unchanged. Not having Rapp could have been another significant blow to the Rams, yet the Los Angeles secondary held up quite well last week with Eric Weddle coming out of retirement to help Nick Scott and Terrell Burgess man the deep area of the field, so this isn't the weakness that it could have otherwise been.

Tampa Bay injuries

Out
RB Ronald Jones
WR Breshad Perriman

Questionable
WR Cyril Grayson
C Ryan Jensen
CB Sean Murphy-Bunting
LB Jason Pierre-Paul
T Tristan Wirfs
Tampa Bay is easily the most injury-wracked team in this playoff round. Jones is out for this contest. Leonard Fournette didn't play last week because of concerns he wasn't quite yet back to 100 percent. Fournette did practice on Friday but is yet to be activated from the injured reserve list. If Tampa Bay doesn't activate him on Saturday, Fournette will not play in this contest. That makes investing in any Buccaneers running a very risky proposition, so tread lightly when making that personnel decision.

Those aren't the only issues for Tampa Bay's run game, as they have two starting offensive linemen listed as questionable for this matchup. Wirfs' status is very much up in the air, as he did practice on Friday but only on a limited basis. He may be ruled out for this matchup on Saturday.

Perriman's absence may add some longshot upside value to Scotty Miller.

Saturday night update: Fournette was activated from injured reserve and will play in this contest.

Buffalo at Kansas City

Buffalo injuries

The Bills are easily the healthiest team in this playoff round, as they had no players on their injury list. They also only had two players show up on the injury report during the week, those being Stefon Diggs, who did not practice on Friday due to the team resting a player, and Mario Addison, a defensive end who was limited in practice on Wednesday and Thursday but put in a full practice on Friday.

Kansas City injuries

Questionable
CB Rashad Fenton
RB Darrel Williams
It's possible that Williams will be available for this contest, but the news that Clyde Edwards-Helaire practiced in full this week and will be available for this matchup makes the Williams news almost moot. Fenton did not practice all week and thus is highly likely to be out for this contest. It's a problem since Fenton was on the field for 60+ percent of the defensive snaps in nine games this season, but Buffalo's run-centric approach of late and the Chiefs secondary depth means this injury doesn't do much to impact fantasy value.