What is the latest on Houston Texans RB David Johnson’s status heading into Week 13 as he struggles with illness and a thigh injury? Let’s take a look at whether Johnson is set to play today and what his fantasy football managers should do if he is active or inactive.
Is David Johnson playing today against the Colts with his thigh injury and illness?
Johnson was absent from practice all week for the Texans with a combination of a thigh injury and illness. The RB was listed as questionable on the Texans’ injury report to end the week. The hope was that Johnson might be able to go against the Colts in Week 13 with an extra day of rest.
Unfortunately, that seems to have not been the case. On Sunday morning, both Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport reported that Johnson was unlikely to play.
It has been a tough year for the Texans RB
It has been somewhat of a disaster year for Johnson. He is averaging just 3.1 yards per attempt and 16 yards per game. Both figures are significantly below his career average and even below what he put up in his first season in Houston.
[the_ad_group id=”61550″]
Johnson has also been struggling in the receiving game. He is averaging 2.5 receptions per game for 19.5 yards on average. His 5.8 yards per target is the lowest of his career so far. On top of all of the woes in his game, Johnson has not found the end zone since Week 1.
What should fantasy managers do with Johnson and the Texans’ backfield?
If you drafted Johnson this season, you likely gave up on him a while back. If you haven’t, then this injury/illness situation might be the perfect time to banish Johnson from your team. He has failed to score double-digits in standard formats even once this year. Even if he were to miraculously be healthy, he is not fantasy-relevant in most leagues right now.
Behind Johnson on the Texans’ depth chart is Rex Burkhead. The departures of both Mark Ingram and Phillip Lindsay have left Burkhead as the player with the second-most rush attempts behind Johnson. Burkhead has only scored double-digit fantasy points once this season (Week 8) but appeared to be taking over the lead role for the Texans.
In the past two weeks, Burkhead has had 30 rush attempts and 3 targets but has just 94 total yards on those 33 opportunities. With Johnson set to be out, we could see Burkhead’s role expand to around 20 touches per game.
Unfortunately, the Houston RB will still need a touchdown to approach anything resembling shallow-league fantasy relevance. In deeper leagues, he does have an intriguing floor with the potential opportunities, but his ceiling is limited.
