Sometimes habits are easy to form. Like, you stay up late one night, you sleep late the next morning, the next thing you know, you are stuck in a wicked trend.
Sometimes they can be hard. How many of you still occasionally climb out of the car and get halfway to the storefront before realizing you left your mask in the car? Even months later, that hasn’t instilled itself as an ingrained habit.
The fantasy football world operates much the same. Somehow, it still isn’t a habit to plug Corey Davis in fantasy lineups — presumably because he spent the first three years of his career routinely disappointing fantasy owners.
Yet, it took just a couple of weeks for fantasy owners to lock into their brains and lineups the inclusion of Panthers backup running back Mike Davis.
After consensus top-overall fantasy draft pick Christian McCaffrey went down in Week 2, Davis burst onto the scene with three straight 20-plus PPR points outings. But it didn’t take that long for the habit to entrench.
Practically as soon as CMC went down, Davis was slotted right in — in expectation of volume if not efficiency. Yet he delivered both, racking up 23.1 PPR points in Week 3 vs. the Chargers — primarily thanks to his role in the passing game (13-6 rushing, 8-45 and a TD receiving).
And like that — snap fingers — he was locked in as an every-week starter. You didn’t have to think about it, just see him safely secured in a starting RB spot on your roster, then click submit. Habit.
And it worked. He scored 22.1 the next week, 29.9 in Week 5. He was a monster. And he was doing that despite pedestrian rushing totals, failing to top 90 yards during that amazing run. Yet, dating back to Week 2, he had 30 catches in four games — and not fewer than five in any one game. His receiving work was carrying his fantasy value.
So you probably didn’t notice when his production took a sharp nosedive in Week 6 (11.5 PPR points). You still see a bulky weekly average. Besides, by then, you were already in the habit of starting him.
Then came four straight weeks of failing to reach nine points (one of those games featured a brief one-week return of McCaffrey). And he has not reached 16 in any game since Week 5.
He averaged 25 points per game for those first three weeks as a starter, but just 10.6 in his other starts. He is the Travis Fulgham of running backs. In Fulgham’s first five games with the Eagles this season, he averaged 19.3 PPR points. In four games since, he has scored 7.2 — total.
Fulgham isn’t in your lineup anymore — he might not even be on your roster. Davis isn’t much better. So, even with McCaffrey not expected to play with a new thigh injury, why play him?
It’s the fantasy playoffs. You can’t afford a mistake. Break the habit. Drop the Mike from your lineup.