Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely will undergo surgery to repair a fracture in his foot that he sustained in practice Tuesday.
Head coach John Harbaugh said Likely will miss approximately six weeks of action but could be available for Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season.
Likely was receiving palpable buzz ahead of this August's fantasy football drafts. Should players cross him off their cheat sheets or still consider him an option as their starting tight end?
MORE: Isaiah Likely to undergo foot surgery, could be ready for Week 1
Fantasy update after Isaiah Likely's injury
This injury doesn't drastically change Likely’s fantasy football value, which was based on enticing speculation.
Likely has been a fan favorite in fantasy leagues after showing glimpses of being an elite tight end.
Few can forget Likely's electric Week 1 performance in 2024 against the Kansas City Chiefs (9 catches for 111 yards with a touchdown) or when he averaged 13.9 PPR fantasy points per game when starter Mark Andrews missed Baltimore's final six regular-season games in 2023.
The Ravens' recent history of tight end snaps also works in Likely's favor:
- The Ravens logged the league's best EPA overall (0.34) and EPA on pass plays (0.50) in two-tight-end ("12") personnel, while running the fifth-highest frequency in the formation, according to SumerSports.
- Plus, Likely logged 56.5% of Baltimore's offensive snaps last year, with Andrews not far ahead at 61.4% (Pro Football Reference).
However, after that great 2024 opener, Likely never received double-digit targets for the rest of the season, remaining the No. 2 option at his position behind Andrews, despite his own early-season struggles that included zero-catch efforts in Weeks 3 and 4.
Of course, from Week 5 onward, Andrews averaged 4.6 targets and 46.7 yards per game. On top of that, Andrews scored a touchdown in 10 of the final 13 games.
Does this improve Mark Andrews' fantasy draft stock?
Andrews is typically picked among the top 5 or 10 tight ends, and this doesn't move that needle drastically.
Justifiably, Andrews leaves draft boards on average nearly 70 picks ahead of Likely (77 average draft position, compared to his backup's 147, per FantasyPros).
The overall passing picture for the Ravens still muddies how much Andrews can rise among fantasy TEs, though. Most weeks, he'll be competing with an active Likely, Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman and DeAndre Hopkins -- not to mention the challenges presented when the aerial games takes the frequent back seat to Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson on the ground.
Plus, fantasy players should fade a repeat of Andrews' inflated total of 11 touchdowns from 2024.
Is Isaiah Likely still a fantasy sleeper?
If you're in a shallower league where rotating between boom-or-bust tight ends makes sense, Likely is a fine option thanks to his red-zone prowess.
However, other than blindly predicting Likely having an uneventful recovery and Andrews suffering an injury or getting traded, fantasy managers shouldn't overestimate Likely's ceiling or consistency.
Unlike Likely, many tight ends being selected around him serve as the unquestioned No. 1 tight end on their respective teams. Likely will have to claw his way toward a higher target rate in a crowded receiving picture to match the opportunity upside.