Fantasy Injuries & Rankings: Players Who Get Boost With Michael Thomas, Chris Godwin, More Out

It's only Week 2 and there's already a long list of injuries sidelining high-profile fantasy football stars.

Whether you've rostered one of those hampered stars and you're in need of a backup plan, or one of their teammates is on your bench and you're wondering if they're now start-able, our trio of award-winning rankers are here to break down which players should benefit the most from the absence of four key stars.

Each of our rankers pick a player who got a big boost in their projections based on the following high-profile injuries below. (Note: Rankings are for each player's position and for half-PPR formats.)

Fantasy Injuries & Rankings

Here are the injuries we'll cover:

• Saints WR Michael Thomas
• Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin
• Lions WR Kenny Golladay
• 49ers TE George Kittle

Now let's quickly meet our rankers before diving into their picks:

• Sean Koerner was FantasyPros’ No. 1 fantasy football draft ranker of 2019, has finished as their top in-season ranker in three of the past five seasons and is The Action Network’s Director of Predictive Analytics.
• Chris Raybon was the fourth-most accurate FantasyPros’ ranker of 2019 and has watched every NFL snap since 2010.
• Matthew Freedman is the Editor-in-Chief of FantasyLabs and was the sixth-most accurate FantasyPros ranker in 2017.

Michael Thomas Injury

Koerner's Analysis: I think Saints will get creative with Thomas out. They could have Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray on the field at the same time more often, with Kamara in the slot and Murray as the traditional back, making Murray is a sneaky RB3/Flex play. I'm not chasing any WR beyond Emmanuel Sanders as Drew Brees is starting to show his age in terms of arm strength.

[Go To Their Real-Time Rankings]

Chris Godwin Injury

Koerner's Analysis: We could see more two tight end sets, which means Howard is at least in the streamer discussion.

[Go To Their Real-Time Rankings]

Kenny Golladay Injury

[Go To Their Real-Time Rankings]

George Kittle Injury

[Go To Their Real-Time Rankings]