David Johnson and Danny Woodhead went way over the median for running backs in week 15, giving some fantasy football owners with fringe running backs hope in championship week.
While Johnson and Woodhead totaled 40 and 30 points respectively, the next highest point total was 16.40 points.
Running backs have been hard commodities to predict this season, so pay attention to the waiver wire and the matchups in our week 16 start ’em, sit ’em guide for running backs.
Daily fantasy start of the week
Doug Martin vs. Chicago Bears
Despite lower totals recently, Martin is still putting up a decent amount of rushing yards.
Martin has totaled 91 or more rushing yards in three of the past four games, making him a consistent option to always generate high in the single digits for owners without a touchdown. Unfortunately for Martin owners, touchdowns have been his hardest statistic to come by as of late.
He’s mustered only four total touchdowns since week 7, so if he’s starting for us in DFS, we’re going to need some production in the end zone. That’s OK, because this should be a week for a breakout performance.
The Bears may have given up for the season and are in the midst of back-to-back road games. Chicago’s rush defense has been awful for the most part this season, allowing 125.9 yards per game this season.
Expect the Bears to be leaky against the run and go with Martin to reach the end zone.
Start
Frank Gore vs. Miami Dolphins
Gore hasn’t been a great option lately for fantasy owners. But we’re not giving up just yet.
We weren’t sold on Gore’s weekly production value, so we were skipping him in the preseason fantasy football drafts. This week, though, we like his matchup.
The Dolphins are really bad against the run (see last week after giving up a rushing touchdown to the San Diego Chargers). Miami is fourth-worst against the run, allowing 132.1 yards per game, and we can’t imagine the Colts will attempt to throw much against the Dolphins.
Matt Hasselbeck is not doing much for the Colts offense at this point of the season, and he’s obviously banged up. His age has caught up with him at this point and the Colts will have to establish some sort of rushing game to do anything against the Dolphins.
Charcandrick West vs. Cleveland Browns
West hasn’t been the same running back since suffering an injury in week 11. He’s managed single digits in weeks 13 and 14, until finally getting into the end zone last week, giving him double-digit points for the first time since week 10.
Despite not being too impressive last week, managing a 38-yard touchdown run during an outing where he only managed 76 yards. But he did carry the ball 16 times last week in a win against Baltimore, so we like the amount of touches he should see this week.
And if he gets attention from the Kansas City offensive staff, he should have a massive game against the Browns.
Cleveland is once again one of the worst teams against the run in the NFL, allowing the second-most yards per game at 134.9 yards. If West gets the carries, he should have the opportunity to put up big fantasy numbers this week.
Daily fantasy sit of the week
Todd Gurley vs. Seattle Seahawks
We know Gurley went for 140 yards two weeks ago against Detroit. But that might be an aberration.
Other than that big game against the Lions, he’s failed to reach triple digits in yards rushing since week 8. Don’t expect him to reach big yardage this week either.
The running lanes just aren’t there for the Rams and much of that blame has to come from the inability to throw the ball. Against the Seahawks, we don’t see the passing or running lanes to have much room to maneuver.
Seattle owns the third-best rushing defense in the NFL, allowing 83.9 yards per game and only 3.7 yards per carry.
Gurley was a quality option during his main run in the middle of the season. However, lately, he’s been a bad option for DFS. Don’t start him this week in daily fantasy.
Sit
Green Bay running backs vs. Arizona Cardinals
James Starks and Eddie Lacy are too inconsistent to be worth a start this week in fantasy football. It’s championship week and if your team is depending on one of these options, you’re lucky to even be here in this position.
Starks has shown glimpses of scoring points, but he’s registered single digits in five of the previous six weeks. Lacy, meanwhile, has mustered three games in double digits in the last five games, but it’s been the other two, where he’s registered a combined 2.40 points that have us worried about this week.
Lacy managed only 23 yards rushing last week and his prospects don’t look great this week against Arizona. The Cardinals are fourth-best against the run in the NFL and we don’t see Green Bay looking to run the ball much against the Cardinals stingy defense.
We anticipate this game to rest on Aaron Rodgers’ arm, so go ahead and sit Green Bay’s running backs.
Javorius Allen vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Allen was horrendous last week, going for negative points against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Chiefs are one of the best in the NFL against the run, but unfortunately for Allen, so are the Steelers.
Pittsburgh allows less than 90 yards rushing per game and to make matters worse, Pittsburgh is terrible against the pass, meaning the Ravens will likely focus more on the pass than on the run.
And when they do attempt to run the ball, we’re not sure if Allen will get the majority of touches. Last week was the second straight game with a fumble and he’s failed to go for more than 20 yards respectively in the last two games.
He was limited to only four carries last week and if the game goes like many of the experts believe, then he will have a hard time seeing many touches.
