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Kerryon Johnson was ruled out during Sunday’s bout against the Minnesota Vikings with a reported knee injury. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Monday that Kerryon is expected to miss a couple of weeks. Ty Johnson led the backfield in snaps on Sunday and will be this weeks top RB waiver add. JD McKissic, who was slightly more efficient with his touches than Ty, is a speculative add in deeper formats and for RB needy owners in PPR leagues. If Kerryon’s injury is longer than 1-2 weeks, don’t be surprised to see the Lions make an acquisition at the running back position. Jay Ajayi and LeGarrette Blount are names to watch, unless the Lions make a trade with another NFL team. Both Ajayi and Blount have had workouts for other NFL teams in recent weeks. Either would be worth a bench stash if acquired. Kerryon and the Lions running game has underwhelmed this season, tied for the 11th worst in the league in yards per rush attempts (3.8) and 14th worst in yards per game. Unless you own Kerryon or have huge holes at the RB position, I would not waste top waiver priority position OR blow my FAAB money. We know Ty Johnson is expected to take over the #1 spot, but there is too much uncertainty. The Lions could make an acquisition or decide to treat the backfield like a true RBBC with McKissic, until Kerryon returns.

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Today we finish off my NFC East preview with taking a glance at the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins. Part I can be viewed here.

Completed Previews:  AFC North – NFC North

2019 projections referenced below are based on razzball.com 2019 projections managed and updated by our very own @RudyGamble . ADP, and strength of schedule data referenced below are based on fantasypros.com consensus data.

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If you are reading along this week then it means one of two things; A) you are still alive in your fantasy football league or B) you have really enjoyed following my pieces all season long. My brain says option A but my heart wants to believe option B. After a couple of quiet weeks, we have a lot of meat on the bone today. If you have not been following along all season, please pick up your studs handcuff heading in to the playoffs. Exhibit-A: Melvin Gordon. I am angry with the Chargers and how they handled their star RB but let’s have that conversation elsewhere. The main point here is to not get caught with your pants down.

I will jump straight in to the Bad Boyz of week 13, enjoy!

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What’s going on everyone, and welcome to the thirteenth week of the 2018 NFL season! I hope you guys all had a great Week 12 and a happy Thanksgiving thanks to some awesome performances from Dak Prescott, Deshaun Watson, Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Amari Cooper, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Eric Ebron, and LeGarrette Blount? Oh no! That’s not right at all! Below are my rankings for Week 12, for all scoring systems, so enjoy!

And like always, be sure to check out Rudy’s fantastic premium tools here, and follow myself, MB, and Jay on Twitter.

In the meantime, I’ll be back on Saturday for the thirteenth edition of my 2018 Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em series!

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It feels just like yesterday that I was writing pre-season articles for you. Now, we are facing the last week(s) of the fantasy football regular season. While we are all getting stuffed on side-dishes (because we all know turkey is just taking up space on our plate), we have crucial decisions to make regarding our rosters. What is your favorite thanksgiving dish?

This week, due to the holiday, I’ll keep it brief and get straight to this weeks culprits. We have a few backfield situations worth monitoring…

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Is it not the most awkward damn trolley you’ve ever seen? That it will be on display in Buffalo of all places with a decent chance of vandalism in the forecast for it only makes me more excited for the Pats blowout of the Bills on MNF. While Booger rails against logic and analytics throughout the broadcast and Jason Witten bumbles through introductory 3rd grade math, there is a non-0% chance a member of the #BillsMafia will make a leap of faith from the stands onto the #BoogerMobile. But before that game takes place, there are a couple from the Sunday slate that are worth looking at.

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I have witnessed one of the worst overtime games that I have ever seen. There was an interception, a fumbled punt, and a coach that doesn’t know the overtime rules. Jameis Winston threw an interception in Tampa Bay territory leaving the Browns with only about 15 yards to gain to give them a shot at a game-winning field goal. Tampa Bay held strong on defense and forced a punt. Jameis Winston then puts together a terrible 3 and out. Tampa punts the ball and strips Jabrill Peppers leaving the Buccaneers with the ball right around mid field. Jameis is able to complete a pass to DeSean Jackson to get inside the 40 setting up a 59-yard field goal attempt from a kicker who previously missed an extra point and a 40 yard field goal to win the game in regulation. One would think the Buccaneers coaching staff would go for it on 4th and long because the chances of Catanzaro making this kick are slim to none. NO! KICK IT! They did… He made it… What is life? Let’s get to some individual player tidbits from that dumb game.

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If you drafted Jay Ajayi at the end of the first round in 2017, you probably thought that you got the steal of the draft. After week one, you were convinced. It was all down hill from there and if you were lucky, you swindled a hopeful league mate for a useful player. Ajayi was eventually traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and didn’t see double digit carries until the final three games of the season. It’s also tough to find the end zone when Legarrette Blount is the red zone back. 208 rushes and 1 touchdowns just isn’t going to cut it…

Legarrette Blount and his 40 red zone carries have left for Detroit. In fact, Ajayi didn’t see a single carry inside of the 5-yard-line in all of 2017. The Eagles ran 77% of their offense out of the shotgun and that is exactly the offense that Ajayi can be successful in. According to Warren Sharp, when the Eagles were in the lead, Ajayi averaged 8.6 yards per carry from shotgun and when trailing he averaged 4.6 yards per carry. Obviously, with more of a workload these averages are sure to regress. But, with more volume, comes more overall fantasy production.

Check out my pieces on Undraftable Quarterbacks, Leonard Fournette, Doug Baldwin, Undraftable Running Backs, and Undraftable Wide Receivers.

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Yesterday was the cut off for franchise tags which makes the free agency picture a little bit clearer. Free agency is coming up next week so I suppose we should talk about the players on the market. What teams plan on doing in the draft seems as relevant as ever when it comes to free agency this year. There are a lot of teams in need of a quarterback. If you’ve been paying attention to mock draft related things, you’re well aware that there is a good chance that 5-7 quarterbacks go in the first round. Of these 5-7, my guess is 3 see more than a handful of starts this season depending on their landing spots. That leaves a few teams who need starters from the free agency pool.

In this free agency running back class, I don’t see much more than running back by committee contributors. The running back class is very deep as far as this upcoming draft goes, so I’m doubting anyone makes a huge financial splash. Wide receiver is going to be interesting. There are a couple of big playmakers whose services are available. Speculating is all that we can really do here, so let’s run through some of the players and talk about ideal landing spots.

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We are now more than two-thirds and less than three-quarters of the way through the NFL season (#math), which means your league should be right at its trading deadline as you try to shore up those running back slots for a playoff run. Making matters more interesting the last couple weeks were a bunch of injuries that should clear up some playing time for running backs who were either riding the bench or snoozing on the waiver wire. Like Samaje Perine, for example.

I liked Perine coming into the season for a number of reasons. The biggest was that I think Rob Kelley stinks, so I figured Perine would take over that job and keep it at some point. Kelley has been injured off an on for most of the season, and Perine has gotten some chances and not done much with them. But those were week-to-week situations, with Kelley lingering in the background as he got healthy, so you knew that Perine would have to get hot in order to keep the job. And even if he did, Kelley would probably still be there to vulture and eat into the share of touches.

But Kelley is gone now and was placed on injured reserve. Making matters more interesting, Chris Thompson, who was averaging roughly a gazillion fantasy points per game earlier this season by taking swing passes to the house, joined him on injured reserve on Tuesday. That leaves Samaje Perine all by his lonesome with all those touches. His backup, Byron Marshall, was on the Eagles practice squad last week and is nothing more than a third-down running back/wide receiver hybrid and return man.

The time has come for you to consider a Perine implant. In his first game as the dude, Perine put up 126 total yards and a touchdown. More importantly, he got 24 touches (23 carries and one reception) on Sunday, while Thompson seeing five before leaving with a fractured fibula. If you need a running back and can find that kind of volume on the waiver wire or in a trade that shouldn’t be very expensive (don’t overpay, but check in on his price), you have to pull the trigger.

If you have a solid team but are maybe one running back short of a real run, Perine could be your guy. Maybe you’re like me and have been alternating one spot between Bilal Powell, Matt Forte, Marlon Mack, and someone from the Seahawks all year. Perine can be our savior, guys.

Now, to the charts!

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