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Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston (thigh, illness) finally had his first monster game in Week 18, scoring 31.6 PPR fantasy points by catching 13 of his 14 targets for 186 yards. It was a highly unexpected game from the second-year pro, who's struggled for most of the year.
Week 18 games can be extremely fluky, so we won't put too much stock into his performance just yet. But it could obviously be a sign of things to come. However, he's now listed on the injury report, so we should probably break that down before we make any conclusions about his upcoming game.
So is Johnston hurt or healthy, and will he play in the Wild Card round? What's his outlook if he does?
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Is Quentin Johnston Hurt? Injury Update for Wild Card Weekend
QJ is dealing with an illness and thigh ailment. He practiced on Tuesday in a limited capacity before missing practice on Wednesday, then returned for another limited session on Thursday. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise us if he only missed that Wednesday practice because of his illness.
JK Dobbins (ankle) & Quentin Johnston (thigh) questionable vs Texans. Jim Harbaugh "questionables" are typically more straight forward than say, Belichick, who used to list 20 players as Q just to spite Roger Goodell for disciplining him over injury reporting protocol
— MJChile (@Maynard29Jim) January 9, 2025
There haven't been any reports about his thigh problem being serious, and his illness didn't hold him out of more than one day of practice, so we see it as extremely unlikely that he misses the playoff contest. Players typically are more keen on playing through injuries in extremely high-stakes games like these, anyway.
Quentin Johnston Fantasy Football Outlook for Wild Card Weekend
His fellow WR, Josh Palmer (foot), has officially been ruled out for the Wild Card game. That could lead to an increased role for Johnston, as Palmer consistently earned at least a handful of targets in the games he played this season.
Quentin Johnston is growing before our eyespic.twitter.com/sEGsvzstqT
— Chargers Central (@BoltCentral) January 5, 2025
Week 18 is Tank Week for many NFL teams, though. The Chargers wanted a better playoff seed and the Las Vegas Raiders, their opponent last week, wanted a better spot in the 2025 NFL Draft. The increased targets are the only interesting thing for him in our eyes.
We don't expect him to have a monster game, but wouldn't be surprised if he got 8-10 targets, and that's plenty for fantasy relevancy, especially in PPR scoring formats.
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