Use these recommendations for a little last-minute pep in your fantasy football lineup or an investment for the future.
In this series, I’ll try to help find some fantasy football running back diamonds in the rough to help you for this week and beyond. Some will be better suited as bye week fill-ins, others will be wait-and-see bench stashes, and hopefully some will be stars in the making.
I’m shooting for under 50 percent ownership in ESPN and Yahoo! leagues to make this column, but there will occasionally be exceptions. Here are the previous weeks picks:
Week 6: 10. Alex Collins, 9. Jalen Richard, 8. Elijah McGuire, 7. Semaje Perine, 6. Wayne Gallman, 5. Thomas Rawls, 4. Shane Vereen, 3. Alfred Morris and Darren McFadden, 2. Marlon Mack, 1. Matt Breida
Week 7: 10. Rex Burkhead, 9. Charles Sims, 8. D’Onta Foreman, 7. Jamaal Charles, 6. Devontae Booker, 5. CJ Prosise, 4. Chris Ivory, 3. Dion Lewis, 2. Marlon Mack, 1. Wendell Smallwood
With 32 teams and (at most) two fantasy options at running back on any given team, my goal here is to not give you the same player two weeks in a row unless there’s a significant breakthrough in their status. And given the enormous amount of byes the next two weeks, I’m going to break my under 50 percent ownership rule a few times this week. But hey, desperate times, desperate measures:
10. Malcolm Brown, LA Rams
Ownership % — ESPN: 1%; Yahoo!: 0%
Role: Bench stash/handcuff
Yes, I’m leading off with a guy on a bye. Don’t worry, your appetite for bye week fillers will be sated in a couple players, but I’ve got to get these deep-league options out of the way first.
Brown has snatched a clear backup role behind fantasy superstar Todd Gurley, it would seem, toting the ball 11 times for 48 yards last week and adding one catch for seven yards.
If you’re a Todd Gurley owner, you grab this guy and stash him on your bench in case of injury, because the Rams are a team that clearly cares very much about the run (they’re at fourth in the league currently with 212 rush attempts). But if you’re not a Gurley owner, there still may be a case for picking Brown up and seeing what happens.
The Rams are now 5-2 and in first place in the NFC West. As the season winds down and they start (probably) gearing up for the playoffs, they may look to rest Gurley a bit more than they have so far this season.
Gurley’s sitting at second in the league right now in rushing attempts with 145, which, extrapolated over a whole 16-game season, would put him at about 331 carries. Sean McVay is a young, hip coach, but I bet he’s more than aware of the 300-plus carry plateau that has spelled disaster for running backs in the past 10 years.
If the Rams continue winning, Gurley might get spelled by Brown more, and then Brown could become a decent option down the stretch as a potential flex.