Week 15 Fantasy Football RB preview: Starts/sits, DFS, more

With the Fantasy playoffs upon us, the running back rankings are getting very crowded. The returns of Omarion Hampton and Bucky Irving have the potential to give us more depth in the RB1 section of the rankings, but if they are stuck in committees, it may just muddy the RB2 waters. We have some big disagreements about those two in our initial Week 15 rankings.

Irving’s case seemed settled. In his first game back, in Week 13, he had a 60% rush share while Rachaad White and Sean Tucker both had a 7.4% share. In Week 14, that changed drastically with White matching Irving’s 49.3% snap share and Irving’s rush share falling to 38.5%. This could just be a one-week blip, but what concerns me is that the Buccaneers have a reason for playing Irving less on running downs. By almost any measure, he has been their worst rusher.

Irving ranks behind both White and Tucker in rush success rate, rush EPA, yards before contact, yards after contact, and number of rushes for zero or negative yards. For added context, he has had a lower percentage of his carries against stacked boxes than White and Tucker. It’s not a pretty picture. 

Hampton, on the other hand, looked good with the ball in his Week 14 return, but awful in pass protection. Kimani Vidal played 69% of the snaps in this game, had a higher rush share and target share than Hampton. Because it was Hampton’s first game back, I expect more work for Hampton moving forward, but I am not sure I expect them to play him often on true passing downs or in the two-minute drill. 

In my early Week 15 rankings, you will see Irving and Hampton in the low-end RB2 range, as opposed to Dave and Jamey, who both have Irving top 10 and Hampton top 18. One guy they would sit for both of them is Woody Marks, and I have Marks ranked the highest of the group. He was impressive against the Chiefs, and the Cardinals have been hemorrhaging Fantasy points to running backs in the last month.

Now let’s get to the rest of the Week 15 RB Preview:

Week 15 RB Preview

• 3.4 — Bucky Irving’s 3.4 yards per rush ranks 40th out of 41 rushers with at least 100 rush attempts this season. Only Rhamondre Stevenson has been less efficient.
• 18 — Rico Dowdle has at least 18 rush attempts in four of his last five games. Even in a committee, he should get plenty of touches in a positive game script against the Saints.
• 71.9% — Travis Etienne had a season-high 71.9% snap share in Week 14. Bhayshul Tuten did not touch the ball again after his fumble. Etienne is a potential league winner with this role.
• 69.3% — Over the last month, Woody Marks has a 69.3% rush share. Only Jonathan Taylor and Ashton Jeanty have seen a higher percentage of their team’s rush attempts.
• 3.81 — TreVeyon Henderson is averaging 3.81 yards after contact per rush attempt. Only De’Von Achane and Jonathan Taylor have a higher average.
• 60 — The Cowboys have not allowed a running back to run for more than 60 yards in a game since Week 9.

My full set of Week 15 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don’t live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 15. Projected stats for all starting running backs are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.