This week's WaverWire can literally determine your fantasy championship. Because so many players just got injured last week. So heading into Week 16, there's actually some solid players that you could pick up and play right away on the Waver Wire. And we could start right away with what's happening in the Arizona Cardinals backfield. Running back Bam Knight injured his ankle. Not only did he injure it, he did not return to the game. And we just got reports today. I'm recording this on Monday morning and the afternoon. Bam Knight, ankle, unlikely to play week 16 after suffering a bad sprain. To me, that means it was probably a high ankle sprain. That likely means he's done for the rest of the fantasy season and probably the rest of the season as well, since the Cardinals aren't making the playoffs. So who is going to step up here? Well, let's keep in mind, James Connor done for the season, Trey Benson done for the season.

And now Bam Knight done for the season,

the Cardinals backfield has been a curse,

just dealt with so many different injuries.

So who is the next guy in line?

Well, it appears that right now,

that guy's name is going to be Michael Carter,

and we got confirmation of that this past week,

where he led the backfield with 14 carries in a game where Bam Knight did not suit up compared to the only other guy getting a carry in this backfield. Amari Di Mercado only had one carry. Now I should call out. Amari Di Mercado did come into this game with an injury as well. He was being limited and missing practices the last couple of weeks. So that might have impacted kind of the touch split here. But we now have a sample size of Michael Carter actually being the starter a couple times this year when Bam Knight has been banged up and Trey Benson has been out. Now this past week,

79% of the snaps go to Michael Carter, 70% of the rush attempts, and 72% of the routes from,

which is exactly what he's known for. He's known as a pass catcher coming out of UNC, early days

as well with the Jets. And here's the deal. You can see as Ryan Heath points out here,

he says Bam Knight was carted off the field after only one touch today. He actually only played one

snap as well. He got a touch on the first snap that he played and he ends up getting injured.

During that time, Michael Carter took over as the bell cow. He saw 78% of the backfield carries,

a 10% target share, which is very good for running backs, and he got the only carry inside the 10 yard line. So again, it's a smaller sample. It's just one game. There's only one carry inside the 10 yard line. But what this shows you is that they trusted him in all situations. Red zone, goal line, passing down usage. Brian Heath would go on to say on Twitter, be sure to follow him that this was the highest carry share by any Cardinals running back since James Connor in week two. and by the way, Michael Carter in the Arizona Cardinals, great schedule upcoming. We're going to talk about this in a second. They get the Falcons and the Bengals the next couple of weeks to close out the fantasy season. So you're talking about Bam Knight, was on of a night, not going to play in week 16. I would suggest and probably assume that he's not going to play in week 17 either. The running back for the rest of the season and a Cardinals offense that is putting up points, whether it's in Gar 16. I would suggest and probably assume that he's not going to play in week 17 either.

The running back for the rest of the season and a Cardinals offense that is putting up points, whether it's in garbage time or not right now at Jacoby Burset, is likely going to be Michael Carter. He could be a flex play right away. And we saw this earlier this season when Michael Carter had to play in a game where Bam Knight was a little bit banged up as well. Michael Carter came in and saw 18 carries. This was right after

Trey Benson went down earlier this year.

18 carries in that game, So we now have a sample that was week five of a couple of times this year. Carter would go on to score 16 fantasy points in this game. He added five catches for 22 yards. So 23 total touches. Again, multiple times now this year. When Bam Knight is banged up or like a little bit limited michael carter without james connor trey benson and bam knight not fully there he's taken over now two out of two times over amari demurcato as the main back and i could only assume that's going to be the case moving forward in those beneficial matchups like we just mentioned at home against the falcons who have just been getting torched everywhere and then on the road against the bengal, who you can put up fantasy points there are bottom 10 defense in the NFL for now two straight years. And the funny thing is, Michael Carter, I know a lot of people in a lot of these videos are like, oh my God, this guy's already rostered in my league. He's certainly available as of this recording in 95% of fantasy leagues. So the far majority of leagues out there, whether If you're fighting to not finish last in the toilet pole, whether you're fighting for some sort of third place prize or still your fantasy championship, Michael Carter needs to be the priority ad this week. And the next situation takes us to a wide receiver room, the Green Bay Packers wide receiver room. Man, oh man, it's been a cast of rotating characters this year due to some injuries and just new faces there like Matthew Golden. So what are we looking at this week? Well, we have to look at the wide receiver room because Christian Watson is now dealing with injury. In this game for the Green Bay Packers, it was kind of all spread out. But the nice thing was that Jaden Reed came in now his second game back from injury, had five catches, 55 yards, led the team in receptions, tied for the team lead in receiving yards. And he led the team and targets with six for a team that was leaning on their run game Josh Jacobs had a 40-yard touchdown run and their defense in the first half second half had a play from behind a little bit struggled without Christian Watson and some offensive linemen and even jaden reid himself limped off the field late in the game now we don't have an update on jaden reed status again i'm recording this Monday afternoon. We'll probably get some updates once they start to practice on Wednesday and then Thursday the rest of the week. But it doesn't seem like it was anything major for Jaden Reed because they didn't put any reports out compared to Christian Watson, who left the game, didn't return and went to the hospital later that night. So what we ended up seeing was Romeo Dobbs seeing the most routes. Jaden Reed was second on the team. and then we had to see Dantavian Wicks play a little bit more. Matthew Golden play a little bit more without Christian Watson out there.

Now, Christian Watson out there.

Now Christian Watson did go to the hospital. It was only out of caution. He was able to travel home with the team. And as of today on Monday, Christian Watson's shoulder, it says that he avoided a major injury. Now, we don't have any other updates. We're going to have to see how the practice reports go the rest of the week to see if he has any chance of playing in week 16.

A very big matchup against the Bears that potentially and likely will be for the NFC North of Division title. So my guess is that Christian Watson's going to do everything he possibly can to play, but even if he does play, probably going to be a little bit banged up. Even if this is just like an AC joint sprain, it's hard to really fully extend for a downfield wide receiver. That could be an issue. So I do believe that Jaden Reed becomes becomes a priority add at the wide receiver position.

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