Start or Sit Mike Davis in Fantasy Football Week Five?
Ah, Mike Davis. Mike Davis, Mike Davis. The man vexes me. Well, more specifically, the fantasy football community’s obsession with assuming Mike Davis will make anything of himself as a viable fantasy football asset is what actually vexes me. This week, we get another go’round on the Mike Davis hype train, as he came in last week and had 25 touches for 124 yards against a flat out bad Cardinals pass defense. It made him a hot fantasy football pickup, but can his owners trust him? Can you plug him in right away? Should you start or sit Mike Davis as the Seattle Seahawks take on their divisional rivals, the Los Angeles Rams?
First, let’s take a look at how truly astonishing a feat Mike Davis’ production was last weekend. 125 yards looks amazing at first glance, but was this an aberration or is Davis actually productive? Well, there’s a lot of ways to slice-and-dice how this game was an aberration. First, he had the 101 rushing yards on 21 carries. To start his career, it took him 53 carries to get to 101 rushing yards. That’s one way to put it. He also scored two touchdowns in 21 carries Sunday, after getting one score in his entire rushing career (125 carries). Long story short: we probably saw Mike Davis’s career day. And guess what? He did it against literally the worst defense against running backs this season. Adrian Peterson, Jordan Howard, Todd Gurley all brutalized Arizona’s defense this year. Mike Davis was merely the newcomer to run all over them.
This doesn’t even get into how Chris Carson is back and it’s highly unlikely Davis gets 20+ touches again this week. With Carson healthy prior to this week, Davis had 17 snaps in three games. Forget 20 touches, he might not even get 20 snaps this weekend.
With that in mind, can he brutalize a defense like he did with the Cardinals? Don’t bet on it. Only one back this year has more than 45 rushing yards against the Rams defense. Whether that has to do with game planning, defensive talent & scheming or teams desperately trying to keep up with the Rams doesn’t matter, really. It’s unlikely that the Seahawks will be able to impose their will on the Rams via running the ball an absurd number of times like they did the last two weeks. The Rams are just too good. If you’re wondering if you should start or sit Mike Davis this week, go ahead and sit him. Then cut him because he’s a waste of a roster spot.
If we helped you decide whether or not you should start or sit Mike Davis this week, maybe you have these other guys on your fantasy football squad and need some additional help.
Start or sit TJ Yeldon?
Start or sit Vance McDonald?
Start or sit David Njoku?
