Christian Kirk expected to have surgery that may end his season

Multiple reports say Jaguars WR Christian Kirk is expected to need surgery for a core-muscle injury he suffered on the first play of Monday night's loss to the Bengals. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport says "rehab for a core muscle issue is generally about eight weeks." The fantasy season, of course, has just four (in most leagues) or five weeks left. Kirk hasn't finalized the surgery plan yet and is still getting medical opinions. So you might want to wait for confirmation before dropping him. But plan on missing the Jacksonville wideout for the rest of the year. Zay Jones gets a boost in Kirk's absence, but he must also contend with QB Trevor Lawrence's injury and a challenging matchup with the Browns and Ravens the next two games. His Week 17 matchup with Carolina has also been bad for WR scoring this season. Week 16 at Tampa Bay looks good, at least. Jones currently sits just 52nd in our Week 14 PPR WR rankings. He's not likely to climb a lot higher even if Lawrence gets cleared. And he's not likely to climb beyond WR4 territory (if that high) in our Week 15 rankings. Keep all that in mind as you decide whether to go after Jones on the waiver wire this week. Rookie WR Parker Washington also came out of nowhere for a 6-61-1 receiving line against the Bengals after Kirk's injury. He might remain relevant for PPR leagues while Kirk is out, but we'd like to see at least one more game before trusting him in redraft lineups outside of deep leagues.

Jaguars WR Christian Kirk (groin) is inactive for today’s game vs. the Titans. He was seemingly close to making it back for this one and will likely be able to play next weekend if Jacksonville takes the AFC South with a win today.

Jaguars WR Zay Jones (knee, hamstring) "should play" vs. the Titans today, while WR Christian Kirk (groin) is "less certain," according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. We'll get Jacksonville's inactives around 11:30 am ET, but it sure sounds like Kirk will be operating at far less than 100% if he ends up playing. We'd try to avoid him in season-long fantasy lineups. He's a risky DFS play, even at deflated price tags.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports that the Jaguars plan to activate WR Christian Kirk from IR ahead of Sunday's game against the Titans. Kirk has been out a month following core-muscle surgery. He's questionable for the game and considered a game-time decision. We'd guess that if Kirk is active, he should be ready for something close to his normal role. Of course, we can all only guess at that, barring further reports of his expected use. The month off plus QB Trevor Lawrence's right-shoulder injury compound the risk for Kirk as a fantasy play. He's interesting as a DFS flier -- because of extremely cheap salaries on both DraftKings and FanDuel -- but you'll have to consider the risk-reward of playing Kirk in season-long formats.

Jaguars WR Christian Kirk (groin) is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game vs. the Titans after a limited week of practice. He’s been out since early-December core-muscle surgery. We’ll see whether Jacksonville activates Kirk on Saturday afternoon. If he plays, he’d be a risk/reward fantasy start coming off the groin injury and with QB Trevor Lawrence set to play through his throwing-shoulder injury.

Jaguars WRs Christian Kirk (groin) and Zay Jones (knee, hamstring) were limited in Wednesday's practice. Kirk was just designated to return from IR after early-December core-muscle surgery; Jones missed last week's game with his injuries. We'll keep tabs on these two leading up to Sunday's must-win game vs. the Titans.