Fantasy Index favorite Isiah Pacheco will play today. That's the Sunday morning news. Pacheco is listed as questionable with both ankle and toe injuries and got in one limited practice on Friday, but there's no tomorrow and he should be on the field.
It's fair to wonder if the injuries will cause him to lose more snaps than usual to Clyde Edwards-Helaire; that's one concern. I was also wondering how fearful we should be of the Ravens defense. At least based on the season, that appears a little less concerning than the injury issues.
The Ravens were ranked 14th in run defense. Above-average, but not a shutdown group. They did allow only 6 rushing scores, however, so not a great matchup by any stretch of the imagination. Pacheco himself, though, fared OK in tough matchups this season.
During the season (and including a playoff game), Pacheco played six games against defenses ranked higher in run defense than Baltimore. He scored in three of them, and with receiving production factored in, scored double-digit fantasy points (PPR) four times; 13-16 in half of those games. Carried the ball at least 15 times in all but one of them, too. Perhaps didn't knock it out of the park in those games, but if you're comfortable he's reasonably healthy and playing his usual snaps, he should come through with solid lineup production this week.
| PACHECO VERSUS TOP-12 RUN DEFENSES | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Att | Run | No | Rec | TD | PPR |
| Det. | 8 | 23 | 4 | 31 | 0 | 9.4 |
| Chi. | 15 | 62 | 2 | 16 | 1 | 15.8 |
| at Min. | 16 | 55 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 13.4 |
| Mia. | 16 | 66 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.6 |
| Phil. | 19 | 89 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 10.1 |
| Mia. | 24 | 89 | 1 | -1 | 1 | 15.8 |
--Andy Richardson