Important injury update from the game that kicks off in London. Saints running back Alvin Kamara, questionable on the injury report with a rib injury is OUT. New Orleans will start Mark Ingram at running back against an iffy Vikings defense.
Looking at the Friday rankings update, I'd slot Ingram about 3-4 spots higher than Kamara was originally slotted, just behind Javonte Williams (PPR). This is not because he's better than Kamara, but because a Kamara-Ingram backfield would probably have been about a 70-30 split, while Ingram should get a larger share of the workload. This isn't certain: When Kamara missed Week 2 against Tampa Bay, Ingram actually played fewer snaps that No. 3 Tony Jones. But Ingram outcarried Jones 10-2 and each caught 2 passes. The Bucs are really tough on the run, and the Saints didn't run much in that game. The Vikings have allowed an average of 138 yards on the ground, and with 5 rushing touchdowns. I like Ingram.
Jameis Winston and Michael Thomas are both out, but you knew that. Much is made of the Saints being down to their backup quarterback, but I don't believe going from Winston to Andy Dalton is seismic enough not to use Chris Olave or Jarvis Landry. They're ranked appropriately on Friday.
Another early injury note is that Cordarrelle Patterson (knee) is apparently iffy for Atlanta's game. According to Adam Schefter, he plans to play but will test things out pregame. This is different than what we were thinking on Friday, and makes sense to downgrade Patterson (and also confirm he's actually active). Atlanta will still probably use a committee at running back, of Tyler Allgeier and Avery Williams, so I would not personally go all crazy moving Allgeier ahead of better players. But a chance he winds up starting, if Patterson actually inactive.
Finally, the after-effects of Hurricane Ian are going to affect some games, most notably in Philadelphia -- 20 mph winds, according to weather.com, and rain. Also in Baltimore: not as much wind (10-12 mph), but rain likely. Pittsburgh (Jets-Steelers) and New Jersey (Bears-Giants) could also have rain, but the wind doesn't look quite as bad (10 mph) and I'm pretty sure we didn't recommend any passing game components in Bears-Giants anyway.
Because of the wind and rain, it makes sense to consider other kicker options than from these teams (especially Philadelphia and Jacksonville). As far as the passing games, avoid Bears-Giants anyway, I think Steelers-Jets should be fine as ranked (Diontae Johnson the only really favorably ranked player), Bills-Ravens too. I'm not avoiding Diggs, Bateman or Gabe Davis (with him it's more the injury concern than 10 mph winds).
The wind is a concern for A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Christian Kirk. I think it makes sense to tune in to the pregame shows to see just how bad things look shortly before kickoff. I'm not automatically benching any of those three players for someone ranked 20 spots below, but if guys are close in the rankings (if you were deciding between DeVonta Smith and Drake London, playing indoors), I'd avoid the weather. I am NOT benching Jalen Hurts or Josh Allen. Maybe those guys run a little more. I'm also not filling lineups with likely committee backs Miles Sanders and Devin Singletary. I like both a bit more (especially Sanders, since Boston Scott is out) but not dramatically upgraded.
Getting this up early because of the London start time. If I see anything else significant before the early kickoffs, I'll post in the comments below.
--Andy Richardson