Breaking News: Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs (ankle) ruled out week 2 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Sep 13, 2021; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs (28) runs the ball against the Baltimore Ravens during the second half at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
It will be next man up for Jon Gruden and the Raiders this week, as they get the news they’ll be without Josh Jacobs who will be out with an ankle injury. It’s been a wild start to the season for Jacobs as his week one availability was up in the air with a lingering toe injury as well as being a late add to the injury report with an illness. He managed 10 carries on his way to 34 yards and two touchdowns in week one against the Ravens while playing on just 52% of the team’s snaps. Next in line for snaps was Kenyan Drake who came over from the Arizona Cardinals in the offseason, he played 48% of snaps right behind Jacobs. Drake was granted just six carries mustering up 11 yards, but he was able to grab some production in the receiving game, catching all five of his targets for 59 yards. It is worth noting that coach Jon Gruden came out and said that newly acquired Peyton Barber would take over the Jacobs role in the offense with Drake’s role remaining the same, as more of a pass-catching back. This type of situation is what can get the casual DFS player in trouble. Many times, when people see a starting running back get ruled out, they are all too quick to move right onto the next guy on the depth chart, who in this case is Mr. Kenyan Drake. This is where our tools and coaching at DFSArmy can give you an edge over the field in your contests. Currently, our projection system, the Domination Station below, has Kenyan Drake projected for just 9.04 fantasy points on DraftKings which would put him at 1.84x his salary which is less than ideal. DraftKings is where I would want to roster him even if I did want to go this route due to his PPR upside in the passing game, his point per dollar projection on FanDuel is even worse at 1.41x his $5,500 price tag.
Now, obviously, Gruden could be giving us a bunch of coach speak, and Drake could come out and play 75% of the snaps and have the backfield to himself which would make Drake look better from a projection standpoint. However, not only do you need to be correct in ignoring Gruden’s words, but you also need Drake to perform well in an incredibly tough matchup against this Pittsburgh Steelers defense. If we head to our Research Station, we can see the Steelers rank third-best in DvP against opposing running backs, so production will not come easy to whoever is in the backfield for the Raiders in this one. Whenever a situation like this presents itself where a coach is stating something other than what might be the popular opinion/assumption I like to break it down just like this and in this case you need to be right twice in order to come out on top. First, you need to look through Gruden’s comments about Peyton Barber and then you need Drake to go out and perform well against a tough matchup. If it were a better matchup, sure, take the risk, but at $4,900 on DraftKings and $5,500 on FanDuel wouldn’t you rather just go to guys like Chase Edmonds, Devin Singletary, or even Ronald Jones at a similar price point? Overall, unless we get more clarity on the situation, I will be avoiding both Drake and Peyton Barber in my lineups this week.
I quickly want to shout out VIP member ‘bobbywow1’ for his success in NFL DFS last season, as he took home $1,000,000 cash on the FanDuel main slate last season. I know he’s ready to put our VIP tools back to use for this season!
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