With twelve weeks in the books, we’re reaching the home stretch of fantasy football’s regular season. If you play in two-week fantasy football playoffs, congratulations on making the playoffs! This week brings us the last bye, with the Titans and Browns off for the week. You’re going to be missing out on DeMarco Murray this week, and maybe the Browns running backs (though maybe you won’t exactly be missing them).
This week’s sleepers article looks at three streamable running backs who are owned in 50% or more of fantasy leagues, with one available in 90% of leagues (figures are based on Yahoo! ownership percentages). With a nearly full season of injuries and benchings in the books, the crop of running backs has gotten bleak. These are some options for you, though they aren’t the strongest and are probably better suited as DFS plays.[embedit snippet=”jeff-ads”]
Jeremy Langford versus San Francisco (26% owned)
Another week goes by and it’s another week that the 49ers are likely to be victimized by a backup running back. Jordan Howard runs the show in Chicago, but Langford should get a good number of carries this week against a bad run defense.
He hasn’t gotten the rock much, but this play is for a vulture touchdown like he got in week eleven. Targeting the 49ers’ defense is a pretty solid proposition for finding some fantasy value.
Dwayne Washington at New Orleans (2% owned)
Washington is supposedly the actual running back in Detroit to Theo Riddick’s ball catching back. However, he hasn’t been all that great since coming back from injury. However, the Lions take on the Saints this week, who have allowed the fifth-most points to running backs this year.
They’ve yielded at least 8.8 points to eleven running backs in their last nine games. While Riddick will get the bulk of production, Washington could do some damage if he was afforded double-digit touches this week.
Denard Robinson versus Denver (2% owned)
T.J. Yeldon and Chris Ivory are both ahead of Robinson on the Jaguars’ depth chart and also both are injured. Ivory has already been ruled out for the year, and Yeldon has been deemed a game-time decision. That means that it’s entirely conceivable that the entire workload falls on Robinson’s shoulders.
The Broncos are #10 in fantasy points per game to the running back, and Blake Bortles isn’t going to be trusted to sling it around against the league’s best secondary, so if Robinson gets the start, he’ll get the opportunity and the matchup to shine.