The Washington Football Team's starting running back Antonio Gibson will miss Sunday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles after being placed on the COVID list on Friday.
Washington will now be forced to start Jaret Patterson — an undrafted rookie out of Buffalo — for this weekend's pivotal game.
The Football Team will be out of playoff contention with a loss.
Patterson has only taken more than 10 touches once in his career during an October game against the Denver Broncos.
This spells bad news for those of you knee deep in your fantasy football playoffs.
Gibson had been ranked the No. 17 running back for standard leagues by our fantasy football experts and is the eighth-leading rusher in the NFL this season.
The Action Network's fantasy expert Chris Raybon had Gibson ranked as high as No. 11 in this week's fantasy rankings.
Gibson was ranked as the No. 13 running back in fantasy football for PPR leagues.
The second-year back out of Memphis had been projected by The Action Network's fantasy football gurus to score 10.8 points in standard leagues and 14.1 points in PPR. As far as Patterson goes, Action Network fantasy analyst Samantha Previte says, "he'll see significant volume, but is a low-upside desperation play at best."
Stay up to date with how our fantasy experts will rate Jaret Patterson via this link.
Washington had been +4 underdogs at DraftKings and the line moved to +3 after the Gibson news. The line then promptly moved back to +4 later on Friday morning.
Washington will need 80 tons of help to get into the playoffs, even with a victory.
The Action Network's metrics give them just a 6% chance of making the postseason. They'd need to win out against the Eagles and Giants and have the 49ers lose out. Washington also needs the Vikings, Saints and Falcons to each lose at least one game.
