Austin Ekeler Injury Update: Is He Returning From An Injury In Week 12?

Death. The taxes. Fantastic football managers wonder if Austin Ekeler will finally make his long-awaited return to the football field after injury; these are some of the inevitable things in life. Having been out since Week 4 with a game against the Buffalo Bills on the horizon, will Austin Ekeler finally be able to make a comeback, or will the Kalen Ballage train run for at least another week?

Austin Ekeler continues to heal his injury in hopes of a comeback

One of the best things we’ve seen in recent years is the adoption of the fantasy football community by some NFL players. Los Angeles Chargers RB Austin Ekeler was one of the NFL players who regularly recognized the community and made it into one of the his recent tweets stating: “To all my fancy owners who haven’t let me down… the time is approaching.”

While watching the video can easily excite anyone who lines up Ekeler for his return from injury, we still need to be careful before we get too excited about his Week 12 return against the Bills.

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Initially reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, RB Austin Ekeler of the Chargers suffered grade 2 hamstring strain during the team’s meeting against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was later emerged through Ekeler himself on a live broadcast that part of the tendon had essentially torn off the bone, which is much closer to a Grade 3 injury.

At first the diagnosis was 4-6 weeks for his recovery period, but head coach Anthony Lynn said Ekeler’s return would come “later rather than sooner,” according to Athletic’s Daniel Popper a few weeks ago.

Later, that was the case as last week marked the seventh week Austin Ekeler had been out since the initial injury. He’s actually able to come out of the injured reserve at any time if the team decides he’s ready to go and fully healed. Knowing that he’s running at what feels close to full speed, should fantasy managers expect Austin Ekeler to come back from his injury this week?

Does Austin Ekeler play in week 12?

Fantasy managers continue to wonder if Austin Ekeler is set to return, or will his injury prevent him from playing in Week 12? The answer is that we probably won’t see him this week, but he has a better chance of playing than last week. The downside to all of this is the lack of incentive to bring it back at all in 2020.

The Chargers sit 3-7 and are the last in the AFC West. It would even take a miracle to sniff a place in the playoffs. While only what happens in the record books matters, the year has already been a relative success just in the progression of rookie QB Justin Herbert who sits third in the overall standings in passing yards per game with 299.9, just behind Patrick Mahomes with 303.5.

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There’s no doubt the team would want him to come back as bad as anyone who picked Ekeler in the fantasy this year. He came out on fire and continued the hot streak he was in 2019. In the first four weeks, Ekeler ran 47 times for 236 yards (5.1 avg) and hit a rushing touchdown. He was also extremely efficient in the air, catching all 16 targets for 143 yards (8.5 avg). He was the RB13 in PPR scoring during this time although he did not complete week 4.

Another issue at the moment is the lack of incentive to bring him back is due to the production of RB Kalen Ballage. A phrase I never thought I’d say in 2020 or any other year.

If Ekeler doesn’t return to week 12, is RB Kalen Ballage an RB2 in fantasy again?

For the past three weeks, Kalen Ballage has been RB16 or better every week, including an RB4 at Week 9. Last week, Ballage carried the ball 16 times for 44 yards and caught seven of nine targets for 27. yards, finishing with 14.1 PPR Points.

In the past three weeks, Ballage has totaled 49 carries for 181 yards (3.9 avg) and one touchdown while catching 14 of 18 passes for 76 yards. He’s done enough to get head coach Anthony Lynn to name him the starter in the future.

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If Austin Ekeler doesn’t come back from injury in Week 12, I have no problem with Kalen Ballage as RB2 in my standings against the Buffalo Bills, who give the 18th most fantasy points per game to the running backs at 23.29 per game. They allow 105.6 rushing yards and 0.9 rushing touchdowns per game.

The only place that could be difficult for Ballage is his receiving work, which accounted for 47.2% of his fantastic production. The Bills allow just 34.3 yards per game in the air (11th-under), but they also saw the seventh fewest attempts against them and are allowing a sizable 8.36 yards per reception to running backs.

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Tommy Garrett is a writer for PFN covering Fantasy Football. You can read more of his work here and follow it to @TommygarrettPFN on Twitter.