Can Jay Ajayi save your fantasy season?
On Sunday, Jay Ajayi had 204 yards rushing and two touchdowns. It was the breakout performance for the Miami Dolphins running back, but is it something that we should expect to see again? There are mixed reviews over this question out there, so let’s look at the statistics to give us a more educated answer.
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Ajayi now has four touchdowns this season, and a total of 321 yards. His performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers doubled his number of touchdowns for the season, and more than doubled his rushing yards for the year. This makes sense, however. Even though Ajayi did play nine games last season, he only had 1 touchdown and 187 yards rushing. He has the NFL experience, but he really hasn’t had the opportunity to succeed yet. Now that the Miami management knows what he is capable of, this is likely to change.
Don’t forget that the Pittsburgh team was pretty banged up this weekend. QB Ben Roethlisberger was the victim of an injury, and the team’s confidence was shaken thanks to this. The Pittsburgh defense is fairly strong against the rush. After this game where Ajayi alone was responsible for more than 200 yards, they are still averaging 101.2 yards allowed per game. This game could have been a fluke on Ajayi’s behalf thanks to this, but it is too early to tell just yet.
My advice? Ajayi is a good pick in your league if you can get a good price or deal for him. If you need to sacrifice a strong player, he isn’t worth pursuing just because he isn’t an established star. But thanks to this breakout performance and thanks to the conditions surrounding it, there’s plenty of reason to believe that he could be a valuable asset for the Dolphins going into the future. Ajayi has now set the precedent for what he is capable of, and if the Miami Dolphins offense is paying any sort of attention, they will utilize his skills to try and revive their season.
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Matthew Young is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Matthew, check out his archive and his blog at www.windailyfantasy.com or follow him at @AuthorMGYoung.
