Fantasy nightmare for Ravens
THE LEVEL of excitement for the NFL season is off-the-charts, but for every up there is a down and as the Cowboys and Buccaneers kicked off the season on “Thursday Night Football,” there was no lower a moment for both the Ravens and fantasy owners than the news of Gus Edwards tearing his ACL during practice that day. Injuries have already decimated the Ravens’ backfield. They lost their top running back, J.K. Dobbins, for the season with a torn ACL at the end of August, back-up Justice Hill ruptured his Achilles shortly after that, and now Edwards is done.
The only runner remaining from their depth chart was Ty’Son Williams, who spent most of 2020 on their practice squad. Fantasy owners are freaking out, and a rash of roster moves made by the team don’t exactly instill confidence in this rushing attack.
We now have an even bigger mess, and all Le’Veon Bell, Devonta Freeman and even the recently released Latavius Murray have been signed.
Murray is currently on the 53-man roster while Bell and Freeman were signed to the practice squad with the expectation of officially joining the roster prior to Monday’s game. Baltimore also added Trent Cannon, who made the Panthers again, but was waived a few days later. That’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen now.
So, how does all of this look for fantasy? It’s pretty darn ugly. Given the age and declining skill-sets for all three of the signed veterans, your priority should be Williams. He may not be your ideal, but he should be manageable in a support role for Lamar Jackson, who is now likely to be the team’s leading rusher.
Murray may end up being your next target, followed by Cannon. There are still too many questions regarding Freeman’s abilities, and Bell has been a stiff over the past two seasons.
The situation is not good for fantasy, and it seems like the only one who may be able to hold the job full-time is Williams. The rest will be lumped into one unproductive committee.
Howard Bender is the VP of operations and head of content at Fantasy-Alarm. com. Follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy football advice.