Sit Start Injury Report Sunday Morning Week 21 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 Conference Championship 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.
 

Cincinnati at Kansas City

Cincinnati injuries

Doubtful
WR Stanley Morgan
DE Cameron Sample

Questionable
DT Josh Tupou
The only notable injury concerns for the Bengals on this week's injury report were Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins being listed with knee and thumb ailments, respectively, but both practiced in full all week and thus will be playing in this contest.

Kansas City injuries

Questionable
S Tyrann Mathieu
RB Darrel Williams
Mathieu missed almost all of last week's game against the Bills due to a concussion he suffered in that contest, but he had full practices on Thursday and Friday and thus looks to be on track to play. The same cannot be said of Williams, who had a full practice on Wednesday but then had limited practices on Thursday and Friday. Williams could also see reduced playing time due to Clyde Edwards-Helaire having full practices all week. This makes Edwards-Helaire the percentage and upside candidate among Kansas City running backs.

Saturday night update: ESPN's Jeremy Fowler has reported that Mathieu and Williams are both expected to play in this contest.

San Francisco at Los Angeles Rams

San Francisco injuries

Questionable
T Trent Williams
RB Jeff Wilson Jr.
Williams may be the most important offensive lineman for the 49ers, so the fact that he is a game time decision after missing practice all week could be a problem for any San Francisco passing game player (and to a lesser extent their run game players). Wilson moved from not practicing on Wednesday and Thursday to a limited practice on Friday, but with Elijah Mitchell putting in a limited practice on Thursday and a full practice on Friday and Deebo Samuel coming off back-to-back games with 10 carries, Wilson is a very low percentage fantasy play this week regardless of his injury status.

The 49ers also received good news on the injury front with Jimmy Garoppolo and Ambry Thomas not showing up on the final injury report after being listed with right thumb and knee injuries, respectively.

Los Angeles injuries

Doubtful
T Joseph Noteboom

Questionable
WR Van Jefferson
S Taylor Rapp
Noteboom's doubtful status could have hurt the Rams starting lineup were it not for Andrew Whitworth's return this week, but not having Noteboom available (which he almost certainly won't be given the doubtful status) does impact the Rams offensive line depth.

Jefferson was held out of Wednesday's practice but did have limited practices on Thursday and Friday. This puts him on pace to play in this contest, but his fantasy value should still be considered in the longshot tier. Rapp did have limited practices on Thursday and Friday and thus looks to be ready to clear the concussion protocol and play this week. His presence will help the Rams secondary slow George Kittle and Deebo Samuel but is nowhere near enough to keep Kittle or Samuel out of fantasy lineups.

Saturday night update: The Rams moved safety Eric Weddle and cornerback Blake Countess from the practice squad to the active squad. The Weddle addition may be an indicator that Rapp will not be available for this contest, but it could also be a roster depth move for a Los Angeles defense that relies heavily on its safeties.