Hunter Henry Misses Another Practice With a Foot Issue, and Week 9 Looks Shaky

Somewhere in Foxborough there is a practice field with a Hunter Henry-shaped hole in it, and the Patriots' training staff is walking around it like it's a sinkhole at a Dunkin' drive-thru.

The news is short, so I'll match it. Henry (foot) wasn't spotted at Thursday's practice, per Evan Lazar of the Patriots' official site, as relayed by Rotowire¹. Our file has him Questionable with a foot designation^{our data}. That's a man who is neither ruled out nor ruled in, which is the worst possible address for a fantasy starter.

#What the season already told us

Henry's year is a perfectly respectable, perfectly unexciting 9.2 PPR points a game across 8 games^{our data}. That's TE20 of 58^{our data}, which at tight end counts as a gated community. The recent log has a little rollercoaster in it: 14.8 in Week 6 on a 4-48-1 line, 14.1 in Week 7 on 7-71-0, then 6.0 in Week 8 on 3-30-0^{our data}. Three weeks, three very different moods.

The usage was trending the right way until it wasn't. His snap share went 64%, 76%, 76%, then 13% in Week 8^{our data}. That last number is a man who showed up to work and was gone almost before the coffee was poured. I'm not diagnosing anything, and I won't guess why, because the sources don't say. I'll just note that 13% looks nothing like 76%^{our data}.

The target share held up at 16% in that same game^{our data}, so when he was out there the quarterback hadn't forgotten him. That's the one encouraging thing in here, and it's the size of a participation trophy.

#The Fantasy angle

The Week 9 projections are not a love letter: ESPN has 5.8 points and Sleeper has 4.3^{our data}. Those are leans, not promises, but even the generous one is a number you'd shrug at from your kicker. Add Thursday's missed practice¹ and you're holding a lottery ticket that might not have a drawing.

If you have a real alternative at tight end, take it. If you're in the streaming trenches with the rest of us, Henry is still a usable floor play only if he's cleared, and you should plan the lineup as if he isn't. Check the final designation before kickoff, and keep a backup tight end locked in a later game, because the only thing worse than a zero is a zero you saw coming on Thursday.

Somebody in your league is going to start him blind, get 4.3 points, and blame the schedule makers. Don't be that guy. Be the guy with the backup plan and the smug little grin.