Fantasy football is inherently frustrating, but nothing — nothing — is worse than when one of your players gets hurt, especially if he was an early-round draft pick who sat high in the preseason rankings. Some fantasy owners adopt a draft strategy that avoids potential injury-prone busts, but narrowing down which players to highlight in red on your 2022 draft cheat sheet isn’t easy.
Fortunately, Draft Sharks has an industry-leading Injury Predictor tool that lets you know every player’s complete injury history. From there, you can see a risk factor, the probability that a player gets hurt during the season, and the probability of injury in each game. Perhaps most important, there’s a projected game missed. Click here to try it out for free!
Let’s break down how to best use the Draft Sharks’ Injury Predictor, using Christian McCaffrey as an example. He’s one of the biggest first-round injury worries heading into 2022. According to the Injury Predictor tool, McCaffrey has been injured six times since college (ankle, hamstring, glute, shoulder, ankle, hip), and he has an 84 per cent chance of injury this year (10.2 per cent chance in each game). Overall, he’s projected to miss 2.2 games, but clearly, the risk is there for more.
Is McCaffrey too risky to be a first-round pick? That’s up for debate, but at least you have all the data and insight needed to make a more informed decision.
The Injury Predictor really comes in handy when you’re choosing between two similar players. If you’re an especially risk-averse owner, you might always opt for a player who’s projected to miss fewer games. Going back to McCaffrey, he’s being drafted right around Dalvin Cook this year. Cook is also known for injury issues, but he hasn’t missed nearly as many games as McCaffrey the past two seasons (23 compared to six). So, Cook is “safer,” right?
Maybe not. According to the Draft Sharks’ Injury Predictor, Cook has a whopping 12 injuries in his career, which plays into his 94-per cent risk factor. Overall, Cook is projected to miss 3.6 games in 2022, almost 1.5 more than McCaffrey.
Obviously, no one knows for sure what will happen this season — and you might still opt to draft Cook over McCaffrey — but having another tool in your arsenal, particularly a tool that helps with the most unpredictable part of fantasy football, is extremely valuable.
We invite you to check out Draft Sharks’ Injury Predictor for free here on Sporting News. Not only is it an invaluable tool on draft day, but it can also help throughout the season as you research how long players are usually out with specific types of ailments.
