Black Friday are the two words most likely to make a shiver go down the spine of retail workers. Millions upon millions of bargain hunters descend on big box stores and online retailers hoping to find a deeply discounted purchase that saves the Christmas season and turns them into heroes. The waiver wire is extremely similar in that you’re debasing yourself to scraping the dregs off the pile to try to fluff up your fantasy football week into something better than it otherwise could be. Here are three running backs that would make for great Black Friday deals this week. To make the list, they need to be owned in fewer than 50% of Yahoo! leagues (though this week, that number flies up to availability in 70% of leagues). For deep leaguers, there’s a home run play that should pay dividends for you this week, who is available in over 95% of Yahoo! leagues.
Devontae Booker at Oakland (30% owned)
It’s never easy creating consistent production as a running back in Denver, not with C.J. Anderson around doing his annual vanishing act. Sometimes it’s early in the year, sometimes it’s late. This time it seems to be later. Booker had nineteen touches last week and turned them into 98 yards. This week the Broncos play the Raiders, who allow the seventh-most fantasy points per game to the running back, including nine double-digit fantasy games to running backs in their last eight games. This is banking on C.J. Anderson continuing his slide off into obscurity, and he isn’t my favorite play this week. That would be…
J.D. McKissic at San Francisco (28% owned)
This is pretty much a straight-line recommendation. J.D. McKissic is looking to be the only healthy and non-garbage running back in the Seattle backfield this week. Seattle plays the 49ers, who allow 23.71 fantasy points per game to running backs (the most in the league). They’re averaging a touchdown per game to running back, as well as 179 yards to backs this season. It’s a no-brainer.
Charcandrick West versus Buffalo (3% owned)
Haters will call him Charmander. He’s started to eat into Kareem Hunt’s snaps lately, getting 40% and 27% in each of the last two weeks. This is a matchup play, as visions of both the Saints and Chargers one-two punching the Bills into oblivion and Charcandrick’s two-touchdown game earlier this season swirl in my brain. It’s likely more of a DFS punt play, but I can’t shake this feeling both West and Hunt go off this week.
