3 fantasy football waiver wire replacements for Christian McCaffrey

Ballage stepped off the Chargers practice squad in Week 9, and after Justin Jackson exited the game early he finished with 15 carries for 68 yards and two catches for 15 yards. Jackson (knee) went on IR last week, and with Austin Ekeler still out Ballage delivered again as the lead back in Week 10 (18 carries for 68 yards, five catches for 34 yards against the Miami Dolphins).

Ekeler may back soon, and it looks like Week 12 against Buffalo at this point. So with Jackson also out and Joshua Kelley not much of a factor, Ballage is in line for another nice workload in Week 11.

The New York Jets are allowing the seventh-most fantasy points per game to running backs (Yahoo!, 0.5-point PPR). There’s also a revenge game angle here, as there was last week against Miami. The Jets first tried to trade for Ballage when the Dolphins were moving toward cutting him, then they picked him up when Le’Veon Bell was injured. Then they cut him after three games with little use.

Going strictly back to fantasy, Ballage got 18 carries and ran 22 pass routes as he played 46 snaps (73 percent) in Week 10. Another 20 touches is in store this week, and even after Ekeler is back history shows the Chargers can support two fantasy relevant running backs. So Ballage may have solid value beyond Week 11.

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