Elliott has shot up fantasy football draft boards, but owners will have to wait a little longer to see him on the field. The Fort Worth Star-Telegraph is reporting that Elliott will not play in the team’s preseason opener at Los Angeles on Saturday night due to a hamstring injury. Hamstring injuries are tricky, as you well know, and this certainly impacts his value if you're drafting this week.
Elliott is a top-10 pick in many leagues and the hamstring injury is a very worrisome factor for owners who are thinking about picking him early in their drafts. Will he come back too soon and re-injure the hamstring? He is projected to rush for over 1,100 yards this coming season. An injury would clearly knock those numbers down to a point where he wouldn’t be worth taking that early in the draft. This is a situation fantasy team managers have to watch very carefully to see what happens next with Elliott.
If he doesn’t play in the team’s second preseason game you must evaluate the situation and decide whether or not Elliott has improved and is worthy a first round draft pick. He doesn’t appear to be a player that owners should allow to drop too far, but one must be careful not to draft a gimp rookie in the first round. Everyone is high on drafting a wide receiver in the first round this year. So should you consider drafting someone like DeAndre Hopkins or Julio Jones versus Elliott? Fantasy owners need to keep their eyes wide open with the Elliott situation before they go into their draft rooms for the 2016 season because the first round pick is one that can’t be messed up.
