There were a couple of pieces of good news for Owen Daniels this week. First, he had an MRI that said he was fully healed. Later, he was cleared to play by the noted sports physician Dr. James Andrews, who was the one who surgically repaired the torn ACL in Daniels’ right knee.
“Owen’s been cleared; totally healthy,” Kubiak said on Wednesday. “I was out on the practice field during special teams and he called (head athletic trainer Geoff Kaplan) and we talked to Dr. Andrews, and boy, he’s fired up. It’s great for our team.”
Daniels has been going in the late 7th for the whole month of August, but when you look at his average numbers for the first seven games of the season — 5.6 catches for 71 yards and 0.7 TDs — that’s 17.0 fantasy points per game in a PPR league, which are TE1-type numbers.
Sure, he’s a risk, and he’s probably not going to come out in Week 1 and tear up the Colts’ defense, but he is a proven player and the doctors are saying that he’s ready to go.
After Tony Gonzalez and Brent Celek are off the board, I’d start thinking about Daniels in the 6th round. I’ve been targeting Zach Miller in the 8th, and will continue to do so, but Daniels is the more proven player, so it’s a different kind of risk.
