Photo: USA Today Sports

Some player injuries could be the difference between winning and losing your playoff matchups, so let’s see who gets a bump up or a downgrade going into Week 16!

Dallas LB Leighton Vander Esch suffered a shoulder injury and could miss time.

Anthony Barr played 93% of defensive snaps and recorded seven tackles with an efficiency of 10.7%. Barr has a career tackle efficiency of 7.7%, far below the league average. If Vander Esch misses any time, Barr should continue to be a majority-snap player, but his upside seems limited due to his consistently poor efficiency. Still, he should be a safe emergency linebacker start in deeper IDP leagues in a pinch.

Chicago LB Jack Sanborn exited his game early with an ankle injury.

Joe Thomas played as his replacement and earned six tackles with an efficiency of 14%. If Sanborn misses next week, managers should expect Thomas to play a full-time role and be a relevant IDP contributor at linebacker in most leagues.

New Orleans LB Pete Werner is back.

After missing multiple weeks due to injury, Werner returned in Week 15 and played 74% of defensive snaps, still his lowest rate in healthy games. He recorded four tackles with an efficiency of 7%. His tackle efficiency on the season before this game was 15%, so expect some positive regression to hit. Managers should assume Werner’s snaps and tackles were limited as he was coming off an injury but should climb back up in his next game. This also likely spells the end of Kaden Elliss’ fantasy relevance, although he did play 64% of snaps and played more than twice as many edge snaps as box snaps. Keep an eye on his usage, as he could be an upside dart throw in a good matchup.