It’s been confirmed that Jamaal Charles will miss the remainder of the season
During the Chiefs opening drive of the third quarter with a first and goal from the nine-yard line, Kansas City gave the ball to Jamaal Charles who tried to cut left only to have his right knee buckle, falling to the ground in pain. The worst nightmare for Chiefs fans and fantasy owners occurred, as Charles suffered a torn right ACL and will be out for the rest of the season.
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If you are a Charles owner, you can now drop him considering the official announcement from the team. Likely, many of you that drafted Charles also obtained his handcuff, Knile Davis, which seemed like a wise and safe move, as Davis appeared to be the clear backup to Charles. However, over the last couple of weeks, Davis has not been working as the backup running back in Kansas City. Instead the role has been filled by Charcandrick West, an undrafted running back from Abilene Christian. In Week 3 and 4, Davis did not even take the field for an offensive snap, while West totaled 26 offensive snaps during those two weeks, including five carries for 17 yards to go along with one catch on three targets in Week 4. On Sunday, following the Charles injury in the third quarter, West received five carries to two for Davis. West ended the game with seven carries for 31 yards and one catch for five yards on two targets, while Davis only received two carries for two yards.
Head coach Andy Reid is currently stating that both running backs will get carries. While this should be true, expect the first crack to take the primary running back role for the Chiefs to go to West. While West is not the player that Charles is, West’s size, speed and skill set is more similar to Charles than Davis, which will allow the Chiefs offense to use a similar style of play calling with West in the backfield. Davis has had a couple of good games over the last two years when he has filled in for Charles, including Week 17 in 2013 when he had 27 carries for 81 yards and two touchdowns and in Week 3 of the 2014 season, when he had 32 carries for 132 yards and one touchdown. However, Davis, now in his third season, has only averaged 3.4 yards per carry over his 215 career attempts. The Chiefs may also look to bring in another running back for depth, but I wouldn’t expect any to come in and take the job over West or Davis.
West should be the top waiver wire running back pickup this week. Look for him to get about 70% of the carries for the Chiefs and also contribute in the passing game with a few receptions per game. Given the volume that the Chiefs run the ball on a weekly basis, West should likely be ranked in the 10 to 20 range at running back each week. If West doesn’t produce over the next few weeks, then Davis might still get a chance for the lead running back role in the Chiefs offense later in the season. If Davis is still available in your league he could also be worth a speculative pickup just in case West gets injured or is ineffective.
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Brad Richter is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Brad, you can view his archive or follow him @RotoPilot.
