Bye Weeks: Baltimore, Kansas City,
Oakland, Philadelphia
Risky RBBC: If you want to gamble on a
Patriots running back this week give Rex Burkhead a look.
Grab a Helmet
Rex
Burkhead @ DEN: I’m inviting all sorts of comments
by recommending a Patriots RB (especially this one), but I have
a hunch Burkhead could be busy come Sunday night. The Pats actually
possess the fourth-most prolific fantasy rushing attack (23.3
points/game), but how those points get distributed week-in/week-out
relies largely on opponents and game planning. This week, New
England draws one of the league’s very best run-stopping units,
meaning the rush-reliant Mike Gillislee (literally zero targets
this season) could be marginalized. Same goes for Dion Lewis,
who’s only been targeted about once per game on average. Enter
James White and/or Rex Burkhead, who excel as pass-catching options
out of the backfield or, if the need arises, out of the slot.
Chris Hogan’s injury means the need may arise. I like the versatile
Burkhead and could even see him getting a sneaky goal-line look
or two. Heard it here first.
Carlos
Hyde v. NYG: It’s been a rough first season for Kyle
Shanahan, who’s still looking for his first win as an NFL head
coach. He inherited a team mostly bereft of talent and then upped
the degree of difficulty by installing a rookie QB to run the
show several weeks back. The Niners were reasonably competitive
before C.J. Beathard took the reins, but have been getting routinely
bombed ever since (93-30 the last three weeks). That’s not necessarily
Beathard’s fault (he doesn’t play defense) but it’s definitely
not Hyde’s fault. The one foundational piece of the San Francisco
offense has averaged over 21 touches/game since Week 6 and has
become especially useful as a check-down option in the passing
game. Only Christian McCaffrey has been targeted more this year,
actually. Hyde looks to be a really good play, especially in PPR
leagues, against a disinterested Giants squad this weekend.
Christian
McCaffrey v. MIA (Mon): McCaffrey’s on pace for 128
targets this season, putting him within sniffing distance of the
unofficial league record for running back targets in a season
(Matt Forte had 130 in 2014). I say “unofficial” because our FF
Today target stats only go back to 2004 and I can’t find any reliable
source of target info, especially for running backs, prior to
that season. Regardless, the Panthers are throwing the football
to him a ton and finally started using him for his true intended
purpose last weekend when they handed him the rock 15 times against
Atlanta. He rewarded them with 66 yards and his first NFL rushing
touchdown. The trade of Kelvin Benjamin seems to have hastened
McCaffrey’s arrival as the true centerpiece of the Carolina offense,
so plug him in again v. the Fish this coming Monday. Career high
yardage could be in store.
Grab a Gatorade
Ameer
Abdullah v. CLE: If Abdullah was hoping to convince
Detroit’s shot callers he should be the team’s goal-line option,
he sure has a funny way of showing it. The Lions’ primary ball
carrier has been clamoring for more work of late, specifically
on third down and in the red zone, but coughed the football up
twice against Green Bay, one within a football’s length of pay
dirt. If that wasn’t bad enough, he blithely dismissed the miscues
by saying “it happens.” If he played for Bill Belichick, I guarantee
it wouldn’t happen again because he’d be standing next to Bill
Belichick for the rest of the season or until he got traded, whichever
came first. There’s no telling how the inscrutable Jim Caldwell
will respond, but I’d be suspicious of Abdullah heading into a
sneaky tough matchup against the Browns’ top-notch run defense.
Sit him down if you can.
Doug
Martin v. NYJ: Short-term trends can certainly be misleading,
but Martin’s trajectory since a Week 5 return from suspension
is foreboding. He tallied 14.2 points against the Patriots that
Thursday night and has scored progressively fewer points in every
game since, bottoming out last week with 0.7 in New Orleans. He
was so uninspiring, in fact, that coach Dirk Koetter finally replaced
him with Peyton Barber, who proceeded to tally 54 all-purpose
yards on 13 touches, a respectable enough output that could earn
the former Auburn Tiger more work in Week 10. It’s unlikely Martin
has completely lost his grip on the starting job and it’s at least
refreshing Jacquizz Rodgers, his fill-in Weeks 1 through 4, was
MIA. Nevertheless, things are going from bad to worse in Tampa
and Koetter’s seat is getting pretty warm. Coaches on the hot
seat tend to do drastic/desperate things. You’ve been warned.
Mike
Gillislee @ DEN: Gillislee sure looked like a worthy
replacement for LeGarrette Blount when he tallied three rushing
touchdowns in the season opener against Kansas City. Who could
have guessed at that time he would only add one more since and
become a virtual afterthought in the New England offense (just
13 snaps each of the last three weeks)? It’s taking a village
to replace Blount’s value, it seems, but replace it they
have done. New England backs scored 23.4 points/game in 2016 and,
as previously mentioned, have only dipped to 23.3 this season.
Where Blount did most of the heavy lifting last year, however,
three Patriots backs have shared the wealth this season and now
a fourth, Rex Burkhead, is healthy and back in the mix. Gillislee’s
a TD-dependent back who doesn’t score enough TDs and shares
the rock with too many other hungry mouths. Sit him down.
