J.K. Dobbins’ time as a featured running back is upon us

J.K. Dobbins may become the Baltimore Ravens’ featured back for the stretch run.

Wednesday afternoon was a weird and very real thing in Week 12 of the 2020 NFL season. Though the Baltimore Ravens fell to 6-5 on the year, as the arch rival Pittsburgh Steelers stayed perfect, we may have seen something interesting regarding Baltimore the rest of the way. While he did not play, is J.K. Dobbins about to become the featured back in Baltimore going forward?

The Fantasy Footballers are projecting this because of what they saw out of Justice Hill filling in for presumably Dobbins in the Baltimore backfield. With Dobbins and Mark Ingram out for Wednesday afternoon’s game vs. Pittsburgh due to COVID-19, the guys thought it would be Gus Edwards who would lead the way in the Baltimore ground game. Instead, it was Hill who did.

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So how are the guys able to project this for a guy who did not even play this past week? What Jason Moore and Mike Wright were hinting at was the Ravens offense wanted to keep the rotation in place, meaning Edwards was not going to take more than his normal allotment of carries. With Baltimore using a day-two pick on Dobbins back in the spring, it is his time to be a featured back.

This is why the Ravens drafted J.K. Dobbins as high as they did this past spring

While Ingram had a fantastic first year in Baltimore a season ago, the Ravens knew he was not going to be the team’s featured back for very long. He is on the back-nine of his career, having had great success with the New Orleans Saints previously and in college with the Alabama Crimson Tide before that. Over time, Dobbins was going to end up being the featured back in Baltimore.

So how does this help your fantasy team the rest of the way? There is a good chance Dobbins has already been gobbled up and is chilling on someone’s bench. Had someone dropped him because he tested positive for COVID-19, you need to go pick him up and see if he can carry you into the fantasy football playoffs. Dobbins’ featured role may emerge as the weather starts to change.

With Baltimore fighting for its playoff life, look for guys like Dobbins to pick up the slack. If he does consistently get 15 carries per game out of the backfield, Dobbins may emerge as a top-20 fantasy back in time for the playoffs. Again, his featured back status may truly come into form in 2021, but this is the time of the year where he may end up getting a bigger share of the workload.