Fantasy Football Injury Update: Kansas City Chiefs RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire dealing with ankle injury

Kansas City Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire suffered a medial ankle injury early in Friday night's preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals. Andy Reid defined the injury as “slight” in his postgame press conference. We are still waiting for more news, but there could be a wide range of outcomes depending on what the MRI shows.

#ChiefsKingdom RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire suffered an ankle sprain last night. The reports of spraining the “inside” of his ankle is concerning. This means a medial ankle sprain. RTP Grade 1: 2-3 weeks or Grade 2 (partial tear): 6-8 weeks. Grade 2 is MT all over again.

— Mario Pilato (@PFF_Mario) August 21, 2021

Don't overreact if you are drafting today with this limited information, but don't ignore the situation. Edwards-Helaire is currently going near the Round 2-3 turn in 12-team PPR formats.

Recommendation:

Don't take Edwards-Helaire over players graded similarly — adjust him slightly downward on your board. For my PPR tiers, that means avoiding him over these running backs, receivers and tight ends:

Running Back: Jonathan Taylor, Najee Harris, Nick Chubb, Antonio Gibson

Wide Receiver: DeAndre Hopkins, D.K. Metcalf, Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown

Tight End: Darren Waller, George Kittle

Edwards-Helaire should be going in the tier with Terry McLaurin, Keenan Allen, CeeDee Lamb and Allen Robinson II until we know more. Anytime he drops further than this group, he becomes an opportunistic buy in the mid- to late-third round if you are drafting multiple teams.