Fantasy Football 2026 Mailbag: How To Handle Malik Nabers' Injury?

We're a few days from Memorial Day, but our fantasy football community will never forget to ask questions about the current state of the NFL, all while looking ahead to drafts and the season itself. Questions came in about injuries, backfields to avoid and even offenses to target. Kendall Valenzuela answers these questions in her weekly mailbag.

Fantasy Football Mailbag

How much concern should we have about injury reports this early in the year?

I grapple with this question every offseason, and we have a lot of players that this can be applied to. First and foremost, we need to care about players returning from injury and that's the easy answer. How early or late did the injury occur? How severe was it? What will the ramp up period look like? These need to be in the back of our minds during early drafts. If you draft closer to the season, then we hope these questions are all close to being answered. But we know teams aren't always the most forthcoming with information.

Let's start with someone like Malik Nabers, who underwent a second procedure on his right knee earlier this offseason, something that wasn't planned but the team said was more of a "cleanup" procedure to remove scar tissue that was causing stiffness. In any world this is less than ideal, especially when New York was optimistic at the start of the year that Nabers would be ready for the beginning of training camp. But now his return date has apparently been pushed back.

In any case with injured players like Nabers, there should be an injury discount in drafts because of the risk you assume when taking them. We can always HOPE he is ready for Week 1, but what if he isn't? Which brings us to another key takeaway with injured players: if we don't have a clear timeline, or if there are doubts about the return, you need to draft accordingly. If you take Nabers at the end of the second round, taking another early receiver is highly suggested just in case the worst outcome happens and he's placed on PUP to start the season.

Other players might just scare you away completely. Bucky Irving is someone who has been constantly moving down the rankings ever since the Buccaneers signed Kenneth Gainwell, but then we get a report last week that he hasn't even been cleared to play yet … yikes. Irving had offseason surgery to address his shoulder issue, but the end of last season was already not a good sign for Irving:

Target Share: 15.0% (Weeks 1-4), 8.0% (Weeks 15-18)
Red-Zone Rush Rate: 87.5%, 38.9%
Two-Minute Snap Rate: 75%, 59%

Updates like this will only keep Irving falling. At some point drafters might look around and stop the fall if he goes too late, but player updates like this should have all fantasy managers concerned.

At the end of the day, training camp is such an important few weeks to see where these guys are in their recovery and to help make realistic timelines for their return. Pay attention!

Are there any backfields that are sticking out to you as, "Maybe there isn't a right decision?"

There might be a few backfields this season where I just split my draft picks between two running backs, because we truly just don't know how it's going to look.

The Commanders feel like they fit the bill right now. I know people aren't excited about Rachaad White (understandably), but what if he does more than people are expecting?

His current projections at Fantasy Life versus Jacory Croskey-Merritt have both landing close in projected fantasy points for 2026:

Rachaad White: 91 rush attempts, 363 rushing yards, 44 targets, 37 receptions, 270 receiving yards and 4 total touchdowns
JCM: 145 rush attempts, 638 rushing yards, 14 targets, 12 receptions, 88 receiving yards and 6 total touchdowns.

Currently on Underdog, Croskey-Merritt is the RB37 and White is the RB41 off the board. White played with Jayden Daniels for two years at ASU—forks up—and so familiarity is something to consider. White also has the experience as both a runner and pass catcher—according to ESPN, he's one of two players in Buccaneers history to notch double digits in career rushing touchdowns (14) and receiving touchdowns (11). No matter what, drafters will probably lean toward Croskey-Merritt more than White, but I'm planning on throwing fliers on both guys.

You talk a lot about being outpriced on certain players, is there an offense that's fitting the bill so far this year?

We love trendy offenses! What we don't love are the soaring costs. There are some players that we just know will never fall that far. The Bengals have three players going in the first three rounds on Underdog—Ja'Marr Chase, Chase Brown, Tee Higgins. The Lions also have three players going inside the first four rounds (soon to be three rounds if Jameson Williams' price rises). The point is, those teams have proven that they can hold multiple fantasy-relevant players, but what about teams that haven't shown that just yet?

Two teams stick out as "trendy" offenses, players that will only continue to get more expensive because people are bought into the offenses: the Bears and Chargers.

Here are the current Bears prices: Luther Burden WR21 (42.7 ADP), Colston Loveland TE3 (46.4 ADP), D'Andre Swift RB23 (53.8 ADP) and Rome Odunze WR28 (56.5 ADP). THE PEOPLE YEARN FOR GOOD BEARS TEAMS!

It makes sense that Chicago is expensive heading into 2026. It's a hopefully ascending offense under Ben Johnson that flashed amazing potential last season and has excellent young players. Burden is going off the board in the fourth round with Odunze close behind in the fifth. Big questions still remain … What if Odunze is the actual WR1 on this offense? Can Caleb Williams continue to get better? How will this team be with a difficult schedule? I find myself taking Loveland more than any of the other pass catchers.

For the Chargers, many are excited about Mike McDaniel joining the team as the new offensive coordinator. Dwain McFarland highlighted the Chargers as a potential breakout offense because of what McDaniel has shown over the past few seasons. He definitely likes our fantasy teams!

Motion at the snap: 69% (2nd of active play callers)
Two-WR sets: 46% (2nd)
Play Action: 27% (4th)

Justin Herbert, Omarion Hampton, Ladd McConkey and more players here could be fantasy contributors. I expect every one of them to get pricier as the season gets closer.