Shock waves were sent through both the NFL and the fantasy football community when news broke Friday morning that Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is being suspended for six games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. This all comes according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, one of the most reliable of NFL reporters.

For those who have only been casually following the rumors, this probably comes as a major surprise. Over the past several weeks, the number of games to be suspended bandied about has been one or two and as of Thursday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and teammate Dez Bryant were swearing that he wouldn’t be suspended at all. However, given both the length and notoriety of the investigation, the NFL was compelled to not only take action, but send yet another message of its stance on domestic violence and the behavior of its players.

While many – meaning Cowboys fans and Elliott owners in fantasy -- will overreact to the news and cry for the head of Roger Goodell, the bottom line is that Elliott, with his recurring behavior problems, has forced the league’s hand. This investigation started more than a year ago when Elliott’s ex-girlfriend accused him of abuse and while the Columbus City Attorney’s office did not pursue charges due to “conflicting and inconsistent information,” the NFL is well within its right to take action, even without legal action being taken. Perhaps, had Elliott walked the straight and narrow during all of this time, the league would have dismissed everything, but with the incident in which he pulled down a woman’s tube top on camera during a St. Patrick’s Day celebration and reports of his possible involvement in a bar fight in Dallas last month, the league needed to put its foot down.

Obviously, we can expect Elliott to appeal this suspension. He has three business days to file his notice of appeal and a hearing must be scheduled within 10 days of receipt of the appeal. Unfortunately for Zeke owners and the Cowboys, that pushes a final decision on everything to roughly August 28 at the latest. Given the start date of the NFL regular season, the hope is that this will all be rectified sooner than later.

So what does this mean for fantasy football owners? Well, it sure isn’t good. Last season, Le’Veon Bell was suspended for four games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy and he got it cut down to three with his appeal. But the NFL is clearly, and rightfully, taking a stronger stance against domestic violence and even though his suspension could be reduced, it’s probably not going to be fewer than four games. That’s roughly a third of your regular season in fantasy leagues and he needs to be immediately downgraded on your draft boards. The question is, how much?

When Bell was tossed for three games, he was still drafted by many in the late second round. Those who drafted him handcuffed him to DeAngelo Williams and were able to deal with the suspension quite easily. For this situation, it’s not so cut and dry. First off, you have to assume it’s six games when drafting right now because of the league’s stance against domestic violence. Everyone thought one or two games and it turned out to be six, so you cannot just assume the suspension gets reduced, no matter the lack of legal action. For that, a bump down a few tiers is essential and Zeke’s value becomes that of a potential fifth-round pick, at best. If the suspension is reduced to four, we can consider him a slightly better option, but probably still nothing more than a late-third, early-fourth round selection.

For Darren McFadden and Alfred Morris, both demand a bump up in value. McFadden is considered the primary handcuff and is expected to see the bulk of the work, but Morris looked a lot stronger thus far in the Cowboys’ preseason. Neither should be zipping up too high, but if you’re going to take the risk and draft Elliott, you may have to act quicker on McFadden and/or Morris in order to lock down the Dallas backfield. Again, that’s a huge problem in fantasy as now you’re sitting on two, possibly three players for one job. If you want to draft Zeke and his handcuffs, you have to accept that you’re now playing with a shortened bench. Some might not care about that in the immediate, but once injuries start piling up in the early weeks of the regular season, those bench spots are going to prove to be a whole lot more valuable.

This is going to put a lot of fantasy football owners in a tight spot over the next two weeks. The hope is that things get sorted out sooner or later and the NFL makes a firm, but swift decision. If you are drafting between now and the deadline for the appeal hearing, it’s going to be about risk and how much you’re willing to take on. Yes, when he’s healthy and playing, Elliott is one of the premier running backs in the league. But with the potential of losing him for half of your regular season, the juice just might not be worth the squeeze.