The NFL season is in full swing. As happens every year, injuries are rearing their ugly heads. As fantasy football managers prepare to set Week 13 lineups, it’s important to stay informed on the latest injury news. Dalton Kincaid missed some practice time this week due to injury. What is his current status and outlook for this week?
Is Dalton Kincaid Playing Week 13?
Update: Kincaid is officially inactive in Week 13.
Kincaid’s hamstring problem occurred during the third quarter of Buffalo’s Week 10 road defeat to Miami when he visibly grabbed at his hamstring while exiting the field. The injury immediately raised concerns given the notoriously tricky nature of hamstring strains and their tendency to linger.
ESPN’s Jordan Schultz labeled him week to week the Monday following the injury, tweeting, “Sources: Bills TE Dalton Kincaid is considered week-to-week with a hamstring injury suffered Sunday vs the Dolphins.” This designation indicated the injury was significant enough to keep him out for multiple weeks rather than a minor issue that could heal quickly.
Kincaid has missed two straight contests, which was expected given the nature of hamstring injuries. He sat out all practice work last week and was ruled out Friday before Buffalo’s Week 11 home victory over Tampa Bay.
Buffalo played Thursday night against Houston on short rest in Week 12, making Kincaid’s absence a foregone conclusion. He did not practice all week. The combination of the hamstring problem and the quick turnaround to Thursday Night Football made his return impossible.
Head coach Sean McDermott said Kincaid would practice this week and has a chance to play against Pittsburgh. He did not practice on Wednesday, which represented a bad sign for his Week 13 availability. However, Kincaid did return to a limited session on Thursday.
This marked a significant step forward in his recovery and represented the first practice participation since suffering the injury three weeks ago. The progression from a complete non-participant Wednesday to limited work Thursday suggested he was making progress.
Kincaid got in another limited practice on Friday and was listed as questionable heading into Sunday’s game. He’s clearly making progress and should be back no later than Week 14, but is shaping up to be a true gametime decision in Week 13. The Bills face the Cincinnati Bengals at home on December 7, which would give Kincaid an additional week to fully recover if Buffalo opts to hold him out against Pittsburgh.
Kincaid’s Fantasy Football Outlook
A hamstring injury suffered in Week 10 left Kincaid labeled as “week-to-week” following the loss, making consecutive DNP’s not all that surprising.
I’d say that Buffalo’s lead tight end is a complicated player to rank, but he’s really not any different than all of the other pass catchers not named Khalil Shakir on this team.
MORE: Free Fantasy Football Start/Sit Optimizer
He was a top 10 tight end in three of the first five weeks, finishing no worse than TE18 in any of those weeks. Since, he’s been better than TE25 just once and it just so happened to be a TE3 finish against the Chiefs in Week 9.
No big deal. He might win you your week, steady the ship, or completely sink you.
Kincaid has as many touchdowns in eight games this season as he had in the first 29 of his career, but that doesn’t mean he’s a safe option. Once you get outside of the top two tiers at the position, the range of outcomes for all of these tight ends is dramatic, so the fact that he plays for an offense that I view as a top-5 unit in the league lands him as a low-end TE1 for me more often than not.
This is a tough matchup, but so was Kansas City at the beginning of the month and he finished with a 6-101-1 stat line. If he suits up, I think you’re OK to follow suit. Due to the offense he plays on, Kincaid is a tick about the streaming tier, though it’s not by much and if we are getting a compromised version of him, he’ll fall outside of my top 12 by the time this week kicks off.
— Kyle Soppe, PFSN Fantasy Analyst
