San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates has been sidelined by torn scar tissue in his injured right foot, missing two of the team's four games so far this season.
Gates said last week that he may rest the foot through the team's Week 6 bye as a preventative measure against him missing any more time later in the season, but reports surfaced today that he's going to attempt to run during the Chargers' scheduled practice on Tuesday.
While it's good that he is "making progress" as head coach Norv Turner said upon making the announcement that Gates will take the field in a limited capacity tomorrow, Rotoworld suggests fantasy owners temper their expectations that the tight end will play before the team's bye.
This leaves Gates' fantasy owners in pretty much the same situation they were in last week, trying to determine if what value remains with the tight end is worth holding on to until his return or if he should be traded or even cut.
The obvious answer is that Gates should not be cut from any team. He's the most valuable fantasy tight end for a reason, and talent like that does not get thrown to the waiver wire. If your patience with him has run out, by all means try to move him in a trade, either straight-up or in a package, with another GM willing to hold him on the bench until he returns.
But my recommendation is to keep him on your roster and not attempt to move him until he's back in full time action. Even with these injury issues, once he is healthy it's not going to be hard for him to return to his usual form. Granted, there's a glut of tight end depth in this year's fantasy market, but a healthy Gates is still head and shoulders above the next-best option.
I know that bye weeks begin now, and holding an injured player on the bench means sacrificing a spot for either a starter on bye or a replacement player for later, but just as you wouldn't drop Michael Vick were he your starting quarterback and slated to miss two or three games with an injury, you wouldn't drop his equivalent at any other position.
Consider Gates the Vick of tight ends; high-risk, high-reward, and a must-start in any situation if healthy. There are 32 starting tight ends in the NFL, and a lot of them are quite good. But none are Gates, the best in the league. Keep him around, and your patience will pay off in the weeks that matter most.
Steve Garrison Phil Hughes Damaso Marte Mariano Rivera Kerry Wood Francisco Cervelli
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