Fantasy Football Week 16 Running Back Preview: Waiver adds, stashes, starts, sits, and more

The running back waiver wire is pretty robust for a Fantasy Football playoff weekend. Jerome Ford is expected to lead the Browns with Nick Chubb out, and we’re ranking Kendre Miller as a starter in place of Alvin Kamara. Alexander Mattison and Ameer Abdullah both get a boost if Sincere McCormick misses time.

As you may have gathered from this list of names, there are a lot of high-end flex/low-end RB2 types. So the question becomes who we would actually sit for them. My answer would be: No one, you actually feel good about starting.

Ford was set to be the exception to that rule this year, then the Browns went and benched Jameis Winston. Their implied total has already dropped two points, and I expect it will drop more as the week goes on. Still, I would start Ford over committees in Denver, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Jacksonville, and Pittsburgh. I would also start him over Rhamondre Stevenson, D’Andre Swift, and Rachaad White. 

The one name I struggle with is Breece Hall. Hall was supposed to be a league-winning running back in the Fantasy playoffs because of a great schedule. Last week, in his first game back, he only had 11 touches for 51 yards and had his day saved by a touchdown. If Hall remains out of practice this week, I’ll have him below Ford for sure. If Hall gets in a full practice, I will start him over Ford for sure. If he’s limited all week, check into our shows later in the week.

Now, let’s get to the rest of the Playoff RB Preview:

Playoff RB Preview

The following players are not being projected to play in Week 15 at this time. Here’s what it means:

• 13.6 — Zach Charbonnet has scored at least 13.6 PPR Fantasy points in every game Kenneth Walker has missed. But he does not have more than 28 yards rushing in a game Walker has played.
• 37% — Isiah Pacheco’s snap share fell back down to 37% last week. This is a true hot-hand situation; you should try to avoid both Chiefs backs.
• 21 — Tyrone Tracy has 21 targets in his last four games. That makes up for the touchdowns Devin Singletary is stealing.
• 9.2% — Jerome Ford’s 9.2% explosive rush rate is tied with Breece Hall for 13th best amongst backs with at least 75 rush attempts.
• 40% — Kenneth Walker leads all running backs with a 40% tackle avoid rate.
• 4.2 — Bucky Irving is averaging 4.2 yards after contact per rush attempt.

My full set of Week 16 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. You’ll find them here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don’t live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 16. Projected stats for all starting running backs are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.