Fantasy football week 11 sleepers: 5 running back sleepers

Jay Ajayi-Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins drafted Ajayi in the fifth round out of Boise State, but they hadn’t had a chance to see the rookie in real NFL action until week 9.  Ajayi had a rib injury which forced him to the injured reserve and he was just activated at the beginning of this month.

In his two NFL games, Ajayi has shown some promising signs.  He took five carries against the Bills in his NFL debut and ran for 41 yards.  Last week, Ajayi had similar numbers with 48 yards on six carries against the Eagles.  While the volume hasn’t been there, he’s averaging over eight yards per carry, and the word out of Miami all week had been that the coaches like what they see and are ready to give him more work the rest of the way.

The Dolphins running game was awful early in the season but interim coach Dan Campbell has revitalized the rushing attack and made starting running back Lamar Miller a fantasy football stud.  While Miller is still ahead of Ajayi for carries, the success of Miami running the ball is a very good sign for Ajayi if his touches go up as expected.

This week, Miami hosts the 2-7 Cowboys in a game that is expected to feature the return of Tony Romo.  Dallas’s run defense is one of the worst in the league, so expect big numbers for both Miller and Ajayi today against the Cowboys. At this point, Ajayi is owned in 18.2% of ESPN leagues, but he makes a nice speculative pickup if you can stash him or use him as a flex flier this week.  On DraftKings, Ajayi costs just 3,200 while on FanDuel he is only 5,200 making him a nice cheap flier in both formats for this week.

Next: A 3rd down back in a high-scoring game