Dalvin Cook injury: 5 fantasy replacements to save your season

3. Wendell Smallwood, Philadelphia Eagles

On the heels of Darren Sproles’ season-ending injury. Smallwood had 12 carries for 71 yards and one catch for nine yards against the New York Giants in Week 3. LeGarrette Blount is still around to split work, or more likely take away early down and goal line work, but Smallwood may have only needed a chance and now he has it.

In four games as a rookie last season where he had at least nine carries, Smallwood averaged 4.5 yards per carry (234 yards on 52 carries) and he averaged 9.2 yards per catch for the season as a whole.

As of this writing, Corey Clement actually has more carries than Smallwood early in Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers. But Smallwood has over 50 total yards in a Sproles-like role, which he is a perfect fit for.

Fantasy football owners have been pretty slow to buy into Smallwood’s potential, at least judging based on his ownership rates on ESPN and Yahoo!. Now’s the time to take a closer look at him though, particularly if you’re a Cook owner facing a dire need for a capable running back.

ESPN Ownership: 13.8%
Yahoo! Ownership: 58%