James Conner Injury Update Clouds Early Fantasy Outlook For Week 3

Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner's Week 2 fantasy performance took a punch to the gut when the oft-injured playmaker went down with an ankle issue in the third quarter.

Conner was not able to return to the field following this early exit. Not only did this crash his Week 2 stock, but it also complicates an early look at his Week 3 fantasy outlook.

James Conner Injury Update

Week 1's RB15, Conner ended his Week 2 performance after playing in just 21% of Arizona's offensive snaps. This resulted in an uninspiring output, including 7 rushes for just 25 yards and 2 receptions on 4 targets. Notably, Conner didn't find the end zone once after notching a pair of scores in Week 1, finishing Week 2 as RB35 in PPR formats (excluding Monday Night Football).

There have been no concrete updates on Conner's status, but missing the entirety of a fierce second-half comeback win is usually not a good sign.

Fantasy managers should pay attention to the Cardinals' early-week injury report before making any decisions, but it's time to start considering options on the waiver wire.

James Conner Fantasy Outlook Week 3

Eno Benjamin and Darrel Williams split the RB2 duties down the middle in Conner's absence. Both RBs saw 8 rushing attempts, although Williams did more with his opportunities. Williams racked up 59 rushing yards (including a long 30-yard run) and 1 rushing TD.

Benjamin amassed just 31 yards on his 8 attempts but was more of a threat in the passing game. While he only received one more target than Williams, he still ended up with 20 receiving yards compared to Williams' 3.

If Conner is forced to miss any time, simply adding one of Arizona's backups is not the savviest move. The splits were far too even in Week 2 to make any sort of definitive assumption about which back will carry more of the load in Week 3, or if both will continue to share the workload evenly.

Accordingly, the waiver wire is a much safer option to consider.

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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.