Also, the safety room gets a jolt.
Here is your Week 7 injury wrap-up as the Cleveland Browns take on the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday.
Biggest Injury Storylines
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Nick Chubb is back. That’s the biggest storyline of the season, by far. We’ll see what his pitch count ends up being. There is other running back injury news, though. Jerome Ford is out this week with a hamstring injury. Nyheim Hines was a full participant in practice all week, which made me think we’d see his debut. However, head coach Kevin Stefanski said on Friday that Hines is unlikely to play this week.
- The only other player who is out is safety Ronnie Hickman. However, Grant Delpit is back from a concussion, and Juan Thornhill will return from the calf injury that kept him out since after Week 1.
- The other players’ statuses who will be monitored are LB Jordan Hicks and C Ethan Pocic, who are questionable. Pocic was limited in his two practices this week, and seems unlikely to play. That means Michael Dunn would get his first career start at center, even though he basically played all of last week’s game at center. Hicks was a full participant in Friday’s practice, so the outlook is more positive for him.
- The Bengals pretty much have a clean and short injury sheet.
Betting Odds Impact
According to FanDuel Sportsbook, the Browns are 5.5 point underdogs against the Bengals. Cleveland originally began the week as 4.5 point underdogs, and we saw the line go up to 6.5 at one point. Chubb’s confirmed return may have had a factor in the line movement, but it still didn’t change by a big margin.
Fantasy Implications
- Obviously, people who rolled the dice and drafted Nick Chubb will be eager to reap those rewards. I don’t think he’ll be on as big of a pitch count as we expect, but there might be some more rotation of reps so they can assess how he’s doing. You’d have to imagine that he’ll be utilized down in the red zone too.
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David Njoku arguably becomes the Browns’ top receiver with Amari Cooper traded. Also, Njoku passed the injury test with a lot of reps last week, so he should especially be a full-go this week with his reps.
- The Browns’ defense has had the Bengals’ number for awhile, and with them at full strength, they could be in for a big day.
Dawgs By Nature
