Healthy teams do better in the postseason. That’s a fact.
Keeping your team healthy going into the postseason is a really hard thing to do. Somehow, there are a decent chunk of teams in the playoffs this season that are weirdly healthy. The Jags, Steelers, Patriots and Panthers are just peachy, and the Packers aren’t dealing with anything all that new to anyone super important.
Those absences are already locked in. What matters now are the players whose injury statuses are still in flux. These are the ones trending toward a return, or whose availability could swing a Wild Card game.
Trent Williams, 49ers, Left Tackle
DNP
On the first play of the game in Week 17, Brock Purdy threw an interception. On that play, Trent Williams came up limp with some kind of hamstring injury. This Wednesday afternoon, Kyle Shanahan said that both Trent Williams and Ricky Pearsall weren’t going to practice. Shanahan said he was hopeful that Williams would be better on Thursday to get work in.
It’d be tough if Pearsall doesn’t play, but it’d be straight-up gutting if Williams isn’t there. Per SumerSports, since 2022 (the beginning of the Brock Purdy era), the 49ers average 19.3 points and have a 3-10 record when Williams doesn’t play, and average 27.6 points and have a 40-15 record when he does. The 49ers already don’t have a great offensive line, and when you’re missing a future Hall-of-Fame left tackle like Williams, those are the kinds of numbers that you’d expect.
Lane Johnson, Eagles, Right Tackle
Returned to practice
In Week 11, Lane Johnson had a Lisfranc injury (some kind of foot thing). In really bad cases, that requires some kind of surgery; He didn’t get surgery, he didn’t go on the IR, and he hasn’t played a snap since then.
That kind of makes sense. The Eagles were in a decently comfortable position at the top of the NFC East, so there’s no need to rush a future Hall-of-Famer back from a pretty wicked injury. Luckily, both Adam Schefter and Brian Baldinger have said that he’s going to be playing in the Wild Card round, and he returned to practice on Wednesday, Jan. 7, for the first time since the injury.
Aside from Johnson’s ability to completely smother the pass rush from an entire side of the ball, he also allows the Eagles to put Fred Johnson (Lane’s replacement) back in as the sixth offensive lineman. That’s a much better heavy package than their two-tight-end heavy package.
The 49ers' defense is beyond pathetic, so there should be an opportunity for Saquon Barkley and the offense to get back on track if (and it’s a big if) the Eagles choose to call plays instead of “just running it to run it.”
Davante Adams, Rams, Wide Receiver
Full participant
On both the Rams’ injury reports from Tuesday and Wednesday, Davante Adams was listed as a full participant. That's huge for them. He jacked up his hamstring in the Week 15 game against Detroit, and we haven’t seen him since. The Rams went 1-2 in their final three games. There are a lot of reasons for that, but Matt Stafford not having the best red zone target in the NFL is one of those reasons.
Throughout the entire season, the Rams scored a touchdown on 63% of their red zone trips. In their three games without Adams, that number dropped to 46%. That’s a massive difference.
He makes that offense a whole lot more multiple in scoring position, but he’s a real threat that offenses have to respect, game plan for, and allocate resources toward. To put it simply: He’s good, and defenses know it. So they have to plan to cover him, and actually have to cover him.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Bears, Safety
DNP
Having playoff experience is very important when it comes to postseason play, and the Bears don’t have a lot of guys on defense who have playoff experience. C.J.G.J. has played in 10 playoff games, one of which was a Super Bowl win over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Everyone else on their defensive roster (not just the starters) has combined for 14 playoff games.
No one in the history of the world has ever called C.J.G.J. ‘calm, cool, and collected,’ but it's going to be important for the Bears' defense to have a guy who has shown that he can stay calm, cool and collected, especially when it’s a win-or-die game against a Packers offense that is more than willing to punish defensive backs.
The problem is that C.J.G.J. is dealing with a concussion. That’s not something that you can just play through. That's a ‘you’re not legally able to touch your pads today’ kind of thing.
He’s been a DNP on both Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s practice report, and since this game is on Saturday night, it’s not looking great.
Maxwell Hairston, Bills, Cornerback
Unlikely to play
It’s been a rough start to Maxwell Hairston’s NFL career. He hurt his knee in training camp, spent time on IR until Week 8, returned to play well. and then suffered an ankle injury late in Week 18 that will keep him out of the Wild Card game against the Jaguars.
When Hairston was active, he’d rotate in with Tre’Davious White depending on the coverage they were running. Now, it’s going to be a full game of White.
The Jags are loaded with wide receivers who all get their fair share of targets. If either Christian Benford or White starts to slip in coverages they aren’t comfortable with, Liam Coen is going to be totally fine getting guys in position that expose him, and Trevor Lawrence is going to be totally fine executing both the plays and the players.
Omarion Hampton, Chargers, Running Back
DNP
Justin Herbert can’t quite catch a break, can he? Everything that has happened this season seems to be the universe giving him a big middle finger, spitting on his shoes, and saying, ‘Hey, bud. You think you’re a big tough guy, huh? How’s abouts you win a football game without an offense?’
That offense has been in shambles for literally the entire season. Now that they’re going into the playoffs, the hits keep on coming. Their rookie running back, Omarion Hampton, is on the injury report with an ankle injury.
The Patriots have been much more gettable on the ground, but without him? That’s trouble. That means they’re not going to be able to effectively attack New England the way they should be attacked, and it’s going to put even more pressure on Herbert.
If the Chargers win this game and Justin Herbert gets his first-career postseason win, it might be the most deserved win a quarterback has had this season. If they don’t win and Herbert throws the ball 40 times, it’s going to give all of the anti-Herbert people a ton of fodder over the summer.