Wednesday, October 16, 2013

FANTASY FOOTBALL WEEK 7 RUNNING BACK HOT ZONE: GET TO KNOW JOSEPH RANDLE

Week 7 in fantasy football beckons Thursday night with the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals.  As always there is a lot to discuss when it comes to the running back position.  Let's get to the most pressing news items.

LEVEL 4

DeMarco Murray (injured)-Joseph Randle-Lance Dunbar (injured):  DeMaro Murray could only make it Week 6 before the inevitable injury hit and this time it is his knee and not his foot.  Murray is slated to be out at least two weeks and maybe more with a sprain.  Primary backup Lance Dunbar is also expected to miss his third straight game this week with a hamstring.  That leaves rookie 5th round pick Joseph Randle to handle the load against the Philadelphia Eagles.  Drafted out of Oklahoma State, Randle didn't do much of note in the summer and he only made his season debut last Sunday night against the Washington Redskins when he failed to impress in rushing for only 17 yards on 11 carries.  Not good.  However Randle did run for a score and he clearly had some rust to work off.  He has some receiving ability which gives him some intrigue in PPR formats.  When you consider how horrible the Eagles defense has been this season, Randle could find a spot as a very low end PPR back.  In standard leagues we wouldn't touch him. 

LEVEL 3

Brandon Jacobs-David Wilson (injured):  This is now the Brandon Jacobs Show as Wilson has been ruled out for the next 3-4 games after he was ruled not to need surgery on his injured neck.  Jacobs ran great in posting his first 100-plus yard rushing game in years last Thursday and he will get almost all the carries going forward until Wilson gets back.  Ride it out. 

Steven Jackson (injured)-Jacquizz Rodgers-Jason Snelling:  Steven Jackson is still not practicing yet which means Week 7 is looking like his fourth straight missed game.  Rodgers has seemed to pass Snelling on the depth chart despite not great running on his part either.  If you have to own anyone here than Rodgers is the guy but until Jackson gets back this is one situation you may want to avoid.

LEVEL 2

Stevan Rdiley-LeGarrette Blount-Shane Vereen (injured):  Another week and another primary back for the New England Patriots.  Ridley re-claimed the job he lost amid a bunch of fumbles in Week 6 by running with authority and picking up two rushing scores.  Ridley no doubt has earned back his starting role which means those holding onto Blount can feel free to let him go to the wire.  However we continue to reiterate picking up Vereen who is due to come back in a few weeks. 

Bilal Powell-Chris Ivory-Mike Goodson (injured):  You can scratch Goodson off of the three-headed New York Jets rushing attack after he tore up his knee last Sunday.  That means the intriguing Powell and to a lesser extent Ivory will handle the majority of work in the Jets' backfield.  One less person to share carries with means a slight boost for both.  Powell is the only one who should be owned and he is really just a RB 2.  A weak one at that.

LEVEL 1

Ryan Mathews-Danny Woodhead:  Matthews finally had a decent game Monday night against the Indianapolis Colts which in turn likely ended Woodhead's appeal for the time being.  Or until the next Matthews injury which should be in the next 1.5 games.  Still we don't feel comfortable relying on Matthews as anything more than a bench guy.

There you have it.  Let's hear your thoughts. 

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