Last week's story noting that Deshaun Watson would be suspended for 6 games this season was, needless to say, optimistic. The league appealed, the appeal will be heard by a judge appointed by Roger Goodell, and it's a lot more likely the suspension winds up being 10-12 games, if not an entire season. Should be Jacoby Brissett starting a majority of games.
This isn't great news for the Cleveland passing game, obviously. Amari Cooper, David Njoku, Donovan Peoples-Jones and perhaps David Bell...those guys aren't going to put up the kind of numbers with Brissett that they maybe could have with Watson.
But what about the running backs?
It would be nice, I think, for a strong passing game to keep defenses honest. A lot of last year's top running backs (Joe Mixon, James Conner, Leonard Fournette, to name just a few) had that going for them.
But Cleveland's duo of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt were stuck in the league's 27th-best passing game a year ago with banged-up Baker Mayfield at quarterback. And when those guys were on the field, they did just fine. Didn't show up as well in the season-long numbers, with Chubb missing three games and Hunt missing nine.
But on a per-game basis, Chubb was the 12th-best fantasy back and Hunt just one spot outside the top 20, among running backs to start or have a significant role at least half the time (8-plus games).
RUNNING BACKS PER GAME, 2021 (8-PLUS GAMES) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | St | Run | No | Rec | Total | TD | PPR |
Derrick Henry, Ten. | 8 | 117.1 | 2.3 | 19.3 | 136.4 | 1.29 | 23.6 |
Jonathan Taylor, Ind. | 17 | 106.5 | 2.4 | 21.2 | 127.7 | 1.18 | 22.2 |
Austin Ekeler, LAC | 16 | 56.9 | 4.4 | 40.4 | 97.4 | 1.29 | 21.9 |
Leonard Fournette, T.B. | 14 | 58.0 | 4.9 | 32.4 | 90.4 | .71 | 18.3 |
Joe Mixon, Cin. | 16 | 75.3 | 2.6 | 19.6 | 94.9 | 1.00 | 18.1 |
Alvin Kamara, N.O. | 13 | 69.1 | 3.6 | 33.8 | 102.8 | .69 | 18.1 |
Najee Harris, Pitt. | 17 | 70.6 | 4.4 | 27.5 | 98.1 | .59 | 17.7 |
James Conner, Ariz. | 15 | 50.1 | 2.5 | 25.0 | 75.1 | 1.20 | 17.2 |
D'Andre Swift, Det. | 13 | 47.5 | 4.8 | 34.8 | 82.2 | .54 | 16.2 |
Dalvin Cook, Min. | 13 | 89.2 | 2.6 | 17.2 | 106.4 | .49 | 16.2 |
Darrell Henderson, LAR | 10 | 64.8 | 2.7 | 17.2 | 82.0 | .80 | 15.7 |
Nick Chubb, Cle. | 14 | 89.9 | 1.4 | 12.4 | 102.4 | .64 | 15.5 |
Aaron Jones, G.B. | 15 | 53.3 | 3.5 | 26.1 | 79.3 | .67 | 15.4 |
Josh Jacobs, L.V. | 15 | 58.1 | 3.6 | 23.2 | 81.3 | .60 | 15.3 |
David Montgomery, Chi. | 13 | 65.3 | 3.2 | 23.2 | 88.5 | .54 | 15.3 |
Ezekiel Elliott, Dall. | 17 | 58.9 | 2.8 | 16.9 | 75.8 | .76 | 14.9 |
Elijah Mitchell, S.F. | 10 | 85.9 | 1.9 | 13.7 | 99.6 | .50 | 14.9 |
Antonio Gibson, Was. | 16 | 64.8 | 2.6 | 18.4 | 83.2 | .65 | 14.8 |
Cordarrelle Patterson, Atl. | 16 | 38.6 | 3.3 | 34.3 | 72.9 | .69 | 14.7 |
Damien Harris, N.E. | 15 | 61.9 | 1.2 | 8.8 | 70.7 | 1.00 | 14.3 |
Kareem Hunt, Cle. | 8 | 48.3 | 2.8 | 21.8 | 70.0 | .67 | 13.8 |
Myles Gaskin, Mia. | 13 | 44.4 | 3.5 | 16.7 | 61.1 | .54 | 12.8 |
James Robinson, Jac. | 14 | 54.8 | 2.2 | 15.9 | 70.6 | .57 | 12.7 |
Melvin Gordon, Den. | 16 | 57.4 | 1.8 | 13.3 | 70.7 | .63 | 12.6 |
Javonte Williams, Den. | 17 | 53.1 | 2.5 | 18.6 | 71.7 | .41 | 12.2 |
Clyde Edwards-Helaire, K.C. | 10 | 51.7 | 1.9 | 12.9 | 64.6 | .63 | 12.2 |
Chase Edmonds, Ariz. | 12 | 49.3 | 3.6 | 25.9 | 75.3 | .17 | 12.1 |
Devin Singletary, Buff. | 17 | 51.2 | 2.4 | 13.4 | 64.6 | .47 | 11.6 |
J.D. McKissic, Was. | 11 | 19.3 | 3.9 | 36.1 | 55.4 | .36 | 11.6 |
Saquon Barkley, NYG | 13 | 45.6 | 3.2 | 20.2 | 65.8 | .31 | 11.6 |
Devonta Freeman, Balt. | 12 | 44.5 | 2.6 | 13.0 | 57.5 | .50 | 11.3 |
Michael Carter, NYJ | 14 | 45.6 | 2.6 | 23.2 | 68.9 | .29 | 11.2 |
Chuba Hubbard, Car. | 10 | 51.4 | 1.9 | 11.0 | 62.4 | .50 | 11.1 |
AJ Dillon, G.B. | 17 | 47.2 | 2.0 | 18.4 | 65.6 | .41 | 11.0 |
D'Onta Foreman, Ten. | 9 | 62.9 | 1.0 | 13.7 | 76.6 | .33 | 10.7 |
Tony Pollard, Dall. | 15 | 47.9 | 2.6 | 22.5 | 70.4 | .13 | 10.4 |
Rex Burkhead, Hou. | 10 | 42.8 | 2.3 | 17.5 | 60.3 | .30 | 10.1 |
Miles Sanders, Phil. | 12 | 62.8 | 2.2 | 13.2 | 76.0 | .03 | 9.9 |
Jamaal Williams, Det. | 13 | 46.2 | 2.0 | 12.1 | 58.3 | .23 | 9.2 |
Kenyan Drake, L.V. | 12 | 21.2 | 2.5 | 24.3 | 45.4 | .25 | 8.5 |
Mike Davis, Atl. | 17 | 29.6 | 2.6 | 15.2 | 44.8 | .24 | 8.5 |
Brandon Bolden, N.E. | 14 | 15.9 | 2.7 | 27.3 | 43.1 | .24 | 8.5 |
Ameer Abdullah, Car. | 10 | 13.6 | 3.5 | 27.2 | 40.8 | .10 | 8.2 |
Ty Johnson, NYJ | 16 | 14.9 | 2.1 | 23.3 | 38.1 | .25 | 7.4 |
Latavius Murray, Balt. | 14 | 35.8 | .7 | 5.4 | 41.1 | .43 | 7.4 |
Nyheim Hines, Ind. | 17 | 16.2 | 2.4 | 18.2 | 34.5 | .18 | 6.9 |
David Johnson, Hou. | 13 | 17.5 | 2.5 | 17.3 | 34.8 | .08 | 6.4 |
Zack Moss, Buff. | 9 | 13.9 | .8 | 8.0 | 21.9 | .33 | 5.0 |
Tevin Coleman, NYJ | 11 | 32.4 | 1.0 | 4.5 | 36.8 | .00 | 4.7 |
Kyle Juszczyk, S.F. | 17 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 17.4 | 18.7 | .12 | 4.3 |
Phillip Lindsay, Hou. | 10 | 13.0 | .3 | 3.7 | 16.7 | .20 | 3.2 |
From a purely fantasy standpoint, would be nice to have Cleveland's offense be as good as it could be. But that's not going to happen. Based on what we will have, I'm not going to be afraid to draft either Chubb or Hunt. They can deal with Brissett this season.
--Andy Richardson