NFL Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 17: Running backs

Credit to the Dolphins for at least trying to do the right thing with Salvon Ahmed on Saturday night. Giving him a chance to carry the ball a few times before he finally got usurped for Gaskin. It’s kind of the way I was at least given a chance to start again on my high school basketball game after our best player missed a game. At some point, however, you know who the really good player is. And it wasn’t me, so I was back on the bench in my eighth-man role. Gaskin was one of the saviors for the Dolphins. I suppose Ryan Fitzpatrick was, too. But Myles had a pair of touchdown catches. He should have a nice game against a Bills team that doesn’t have anything to play for. 

I’ll be honest, I had Gaskin benched for Wilson and David Johnson in my Second City League (I lost, thank you for asking). Jeff has been pretty great for the 49ers this season. He carried the ball 22 times for 183 yards last week. He also caught a pass for a touchdown. And he passed the eye test, too. He’s the kind of guy who should be rising up draft boards next year. Or would be if Kyle Shanahan would ever commit to one running back, though Wilson had consistent touches down the stretch. The matchup against the Seahawks is middle-of-the-road, so you shouldn’t have any hesitation in starting him.

I was really bummed when Johnson got auto-picked for me in a league, and he ended up becoming my most dependable running back. Kind of like when I started watching Stranger Things for the first time. Like, who saw that coming? I didn’t think it was going to be anything great, but it was amazing. But Johnson has now scored over 24 points in back-to-back weeks. And now he has a plus matchup against the Titans, who are one of the most generous teams to opposing running backs.

Gordon dominated the Broncos backfield with 16 rushing attempts (for 79 yards) against the Chargers. He didn’t have any receptions, which is kind of a bummer. And he also failed to get into the end zone. But the Raiders are top five in points allowed to running backs this season. We saw what Gaskin did to them last week. Gordon is a great start.

Taylor continues to dominate, having led a bunch of people to fantasy titles last week. But the good news for you is the Colts lost to the Steelers, meaning Indy has to win this week and can’t be resting any starters, so this worked out for you. Taylor has scored at least 19 points in four consecutive games. A touchdown in three straight. And it’s the Jaguars.

I just realized I put Taylor and Swift back-to-back on this list and that was not on purpose. Though I’m going to totally pretend that it was. But I’ll just shake it off and move on. Swift led the Lions in carries against the Bucs and he hauled in four receptions to help him crack double digits. But the Lions were game-scripted right out of the run early in that one. I’d start Swift with confidence this week. Just keep tabs on Swift’s status this week, just in case he gets pulled and they want to go all-in on an Adrian Peterson REVENGE GAME. 

It was a fun run for Davis, who was great during the middle part of the season while Christian McCaffrey was out. But he’s posted fewer than nine fantasy points in back-to-back weeks in the fantasy finals (or what should have been the fantasy finals). It was like a March Madness Cinderella team that eventually runs out of steam.

The Dolphins defense was very tough against the Raiders on Saturday night. Though it helps when Josh Jacobs just basically takes a knee on the way to the end zone. I hope this ends the trend of players trying to do the “right thing” instead of just going for the touchdown. Maybe the Raiders would have won on Saturday. Maybe I would have won my fantasy matchup, which is my real gripe here. But I’m avoiding the Dolphins defense regardless.