The 2021 NFL season is finally upon us and with that, the fantasy football season is officially underway.
The level of excitement is off-the-charts, but for every up there is a down and as the Cowboys and Buccaneers kicked off the season on “Thursday Night Football,” there was no lower a moment for both the Ravens and fantasy owners than the news of Gus Edwards tearing his ACL during practice that day.
Instead of smack-talking their opponents and prepping their nachos for the game, fantasy owners were scouring the waiver wire looking for a last-minute running back.
It has not been a fun preseason for the Ravens, as injuries have already decimated their backfield. They lost their top running back, J.K. Dobbins, for the season with a torn ACL at the end of August, back-up Justice Hill ruptured his Achilles shortly after that and now Edwards is done, just three days before their first game.
The only runner remaining from their depth chart was Ty’Son Williams, who spent most of 2020 on their practice squad. Fantasy owners are freaking out, and rash roster moves made by the team don’t exactly instill confidence in this rushing attack.
When Dobbins went down, there was plenty of speculation surrounding which past-his-prime, veteran back the Ravens would bring in. Names such as Le’Veon Bell, Devonta Freeman and even the recently released Latavius Murray were all thrown into the mix. But with the injuries to Hill and Edwards, we now have an even bigger mess, and all three have been signed.
Murray is currently on the 53-man roster while Bell and Freeman were signed to the practice squad with the expectation of officially joining the roster prior to the Ravens’ game Monday night. Baltimore also added Trent Cannon, who made the Panthers again, but was waived a few days later. That’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen now.
So, how does all of this look for fantasy? It’s pretty darn ugly. Given the age and declining skill-sets for all three of the signed veterans, your priority should be Williams. He may not be your ideal, but he should be manageable in a support role for Lamar Jackson, who is now likely to be the team’s leading rusher.
Murray may end up being your next target, followed by Cannon, as they’ve actually played most recently. There are still too many questions regarding Freeman’s abilities, and as we’ve seen with Bell over the past two seasons, he’s looking more for a paycheck than he is a legitimate role in the offense.
Staying vigilant on your waiver wire is all you can do right now. The situation is not good for fantasy, and it seems like the only one who may be able to hold the job full-time is Williams. The rest will be lumped into one unproductive committee.
Howard Bender is the VP of operations and head of content at FantasyAlarm.com Follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy football advice.