James Starks Injury: Updates on Packers RB's Week 15 Status and Fantasy Value

James Starks is dealing with an ankle injury that was been hobbling him for the last few weeks and after tweaking it pretty severely against the New York Giants. He sat out the Packers 46-16 romp over the Oakland Raiders.

As the postseason quickly approaches, the Packers are going to make sure they have their top running back healthy enough for the postseason. In his second year in the league, Starks has run for 565 yards while reaching the end zone once.

UPDATE: Saturday, Dec. 17, 11:30 a.m. ET by Donald Wood

The Green Bay Packers are seriously considering going hard after an undefeated season and their hand will be shown by the way they handle returning running back James Starks.

Packer Report is reporting on twitter:

If Starks plays, the Packers will be showing the NFL that they are going after the perfect season record with all of their guns blasting. While Green Bay will be going full on, even if Starks plays, his fantasy impact will be limited.

Injury Update

Update Monday, 3:00 PM EST

Starks sprained his knee and ankle back in Week 11 and played through the pain as much as he could, but he's re-aggravated those injuries in both of the last two games.

The main concern is making sure he is healthy and ready to go for the playoffs and the last three games lack urgency for the 13-0 Packers.

When He’s Ready to Return

With the Packers remaining schedule featuring the Chiefs, Bears and Lions, they don’t need to rush Starks back. Their best choice is to let him rest and make sure his various injuries are healed in time for the playoffs.

I’d guess the Packers certainly won’t play him next week, with the last two games up in the air depending on if they’re still in danger of not clinching the No. 1 seed.

Fantasy Impact

Starks is questionable for now and would be a pretty risky start at this point, especially with the way Ryan Grant ran on Sunday. He had 10 carries for 85 yards and two TDs for his best fantasy output of the season.

Unless his ankle magically returns to 100 percent in the next five days, I’d look for other options in Week 15. Grant is a legit replacement against a porous Chiefs defense.

What They’re Saying

Packers’ offensive coordinator Joe Philbin was asked by the Green Bay Press Gazette if he wishes Starks could at least get some practice reps:

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"It works both ways. On the one hand, he could be a little fresher when he heals completely. The negative is, you haven’t moved and developed and progressed as a player when you haven’t got out there, competed, made mistakes, learned and improved. From a freshness standpoint? Maybe. But not from a football development standpoint — I don’t think it helps."

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It sounds to me that we may not be seeing Starks until the second week of the playoffs after the Packers first-round bye. Starks is not somebody to rely on for the rest of the fantasy season.