Christian McCaffrey

Welcome to the second half of my Wild Card Weekend preview column. We touched on the Saturday matchups earlier. This edition will focus on the Sunday matchups. BUFFALO BILLS AT JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS Sunday’s first game will see the Jacksonville Jaguars hosting the Buffalo Bills. Neither team has made the playoffs in a decade. The Bills finished the year at 9-7 in a weak AFC, and their record was bolstered by sweeping four games against the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets. Particularly with star running back LeSean McCoy’s…

The two big news stories coming out of Week 8 were the denial of Ezekiel Elliott’s request for an injunction and the trade of Jay Ajayi from the Miami Dolphins to the Philadelphia Eagles. Elliott will likely begin serving his six-game suspension beginning in Week 9, giving fantasy owners some tough decisions to make going forward. As of right now, Elliott is out until Week 15, which is Semifinal week in most fantasy leagues. It’ll be tougher to reach the semifinals without Elliott, who is tied with Todd Gurley for the…

Week 5 was not a banner week for running backs. There were just 15 running backs to have at least 10 fantasy points in Week 5. Perhaps more bizarre is the fact that three of the 15 recorded single-digit rushing yards. Running backs had just 11 rushing touchdowns in Week 5, the lowest total since Week 10 of the 2015 season. Doug Martin’s return was certainly a bright spot. He had 74 rushing yards and a touchdown in his return from a suspension. He looks like he could be a borderline RB1 going forward. There was also some good…

Week 5 is the first of the NFL season to incorporate scheduled byes, and could not come at a worse time for many fantasy owners who were dealt significant injury blows to their running backs in Week 4. Vikings’ running back Dalvin Cook tore his ACL and is out for the season, ending what started out as a spectacular rookie year. Chris Carson suffered a fractured leg and high ankle sprain and was placed on injured reserve. (True story - I dropped Cam Newton and picked up Carson last week. Sigh.) Ty Montgomery barely played in…

To illustrate just how quickly things can change in fantasy football, one just needs to view the current running back landscape compared to a few short weeks ago. In standard scoring leagues, there are two (TWO!) Baltimore Ravens currently performing as RB1s, neither of which is Danny Woodhead. PPR flier Chris Thompson is the overall RB6 in standard scoring, and four of the top seven NFL rushing leaders are rookies, including one who is still listed fourth on his own team’s depth chart! Another NFC rookie currently ranks as…