What It Means:

Hooper missed Friday's practice for an appendectomy procedure, and the team could hold him out through their Week 9 bye Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports. If that is the case, David Njoku and, to a lesser extent, rookie Harrison Bryant could be elevated to fantasy-relevance for the next couple games.

Cleveland's offense emphasizes the tight end position and often plays with two tight ends on the field at once, so Hooper's absence at the very least opens up snaps for Njoku and Bryant. Njoku, the veteran, would make the most sense as a potential fantasy starter with his history of being a receiving tight end. Our models project him to score 7.1 fantasy points in today's game.