Jets' Breece Hall Quad Injury Less Severe Than Feared; Allen to Start Week 4

An MRI showed Breece Hall's quad injury is less serious than initially feared, and Braelon Allen is in line to start at running back for the Jets in Week 4.

New York Jets running back Breece Hall appears to have avoided a lengthy layoff after Monday's MRI on his injured quad returned better news than the team anticipated. According to Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter, Hall is considered week to week following the scan.

Hall suffered the injury in Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Initial expectations pointed to an absence of three to six weeks, but the encouraging scan has reshaped that outlook: the best case now calls for Hall to miss only one or two games rather than the month-plus once feared. He will not play in Week 4 under any scenario.

Jets coach Aaron Glenn said a full update on Hall will not come until Wednesday. Until the team speaks then, the early timeline should be treated with some caution, though the report notes Rapoport's standing as one of the most reliable sources in the field lends weight to the favorable initial reading.

With Hall out, Braelon Allen is set to take over as the Jets' starting running back in Week 4. The depth-chart order was visible in Week 3, when Allen logged four rushing attempts while Isaiah Davis dressed for the game but did not record a single carry.

The projection gives Allen roughly 70 percent of New York's rushing offense while Hall is unavailable. Davis is expected to land between 15 and 30 percent, with the remaining share split between scrambles from quarterback Geno Smith and end-around runs.

Allen is in his third season with the Jets, the same stretch he has spent as Hall's backup, and the analysis does not anticipate a major shift in the team's pass-to-run ratio while he leads the backfield. The staff's trust in Allen as a ball carrier underpins that expectation.

For fantasy purposes, Allen grades as a low-end RB2 for Week 4. The volume ahead of him carries real value, but the report notes he lacks the overall skill and pass-catching upside that have made Hall a weekly top-10 option at the position.

On the waiver wire, Allen is rated the top pickup of the week, ahead of Ollie Gordon, who is filling in for Miami's De'Von Achane after Achane tore his ACL. Emmanuel Wilson of Seattle, Kendre Miller of New Orleans and Miami's Jaylen Wright round out the recommended streamers, and the report calls this week's pool the most attractive of the season so far, with Allen and Gordon projected to start for their teams in the coming weeks.

Among the other backfields in play, Wilson out-rushed Jadarian Price nine carries to five in Week 3, and Miller is projected for 30 to 40 percent of the Saints' rushing workload with Travis Etienne Jr. out. In Miami, a debate continues between Gordon and Wright, though the report expects Gordon to command the lead role on the strength of his heavier Week 3 usage.