Fantasy Football Week 12: Start or Sit Marlon Mack, Gus Edwards, or Josh Adams?
Week twelve is upon us, which means that some of us are just two games away from worrying about our fantasy football playoffs. If you’re still reading this, congratulations, the marginally-long slog of the fantasy football season hasn’t broken you yet. Every week, we at Football Absurdity like to highlight players with marginal matchups that you might get a wild hair about. We hope to provide you with some basic facts to help you inform your start or sit decisions. These running backs below did not start the year as the starter, and all are in crowded backfields, but they all have great matchups this week that make them worth a look.
Start or Sit Josh Adams versus New York Giants
Josh Adams has bubbled up as the newest Must Own Philadelphia Eagles Running Back. Doug Pederson & Co. have sifted through Jay Ajayi, Darren Sproles, Wendell Smallwood, and Corey Clement, with Adams emerging from the other side as the best back to own in the City of Brotherly Love. He totaled 71 yards and scored on a pretty impressive run last week against a Saints defense that ranks as one of the stoutest against the run this year. While he may have an extremely generic name, his production should be anything but that. He’s hit a jackpot over the last three games, going for 7.7 carries per contest (7 yards per carry). He has fresh legs, and his cherry status should bar the Giants from doing much to stop him. Casino jokes aside, the most encouraging part of his game last week was not the carries, but the targets. He had six targets, which was second to Golden Tate for the Eagles. Thirteen opportunities should go far this week against the Giants, who are a top-ten RB matchup on the week. Long story short on their ineptitude: at least one running back per game this year has gotten double-digit fantasy points against the G-Men. Literally every week. Adams should lead the backs, and lead you to some good backend RB2 numbers. If you snatched up Adams and you’re wondering if you should start or sit Josh Adams, start him if you’re in dire straits or as a bye week fill-in for those of us lucky enough to roster Todd Gurley or Kareem Hunt.
Start or Sit Marlon Mack versus Miami
Over the last five weeks, here is the complete list of teams who have allowed a higher yard per carry than the Miami Dolphins:
Pretty extensive list, right? Nobody has been worse at stopping the run lately, and Marlon Mack will be the next back to chew up the Miami run defense. The falling apart is not a real fluke, as the Dolphins defense is in revolt, with instances of things like Reshad Jones benching himself. Aaron Jones destroyed them the last time they played, and Lamar Miller & Kerryon Johnson both had massive games against the Miami run defense in the last month. While the Colts backfield was a mess to start the year, a healthy Marlon Mack grabbed a firm hold on the position, averaging 16.8 carries and 2.6 targets per game since returning from injury. He’s the capital L, capital B Lead Back in Indianapolis in a suddenly potent offense. Matchup aside, Mack has been an incredible pickup, but he gets one of the juiciest possible matchups in the league this week. He was picked up late enough in the year that he could seriously be your third running back and the decision to start or sit Mack is a real one. Don’t worry; start him this week, as he’ll turn from your RB3 to your RB1 this week.
Start or Sit Gus Edwards versus Oakland
Should you start or sit Javorious Allen? Should you start or sit Alex Collins? Should you start or sit Kenneth Dixon? Should you start or sit… Gus Edwards?! Edwards is the newest Ravens running back that has us scratching our heads trying to sort him out. When everyone (myself included) thought that Alex Collins would chew up the Bengals, it was instead Gus Edwards who did the chewing. He ran it seventeen times for 115 yards and a score against the Bengals, out-touching, out-gaining, and out fantasy point scoring Collins in a sweet matchup. The Ravens seem to have had a different game plan with Lamar Jackson under center, using the beefy Edwards alongside Jackson to turn back to ground-and-pound to get the victory. This week, Edwards gets a godawful Raiders run defense. While there’s a question as to whether he will get seventeen touches again, he will be productive if he hits double-digit carries (which should be his floor). Over the last five weeks, nobody has allowed more rushing yards than the Raiders, and they only played four games. While they are only sixth in yards per carry, there should be plenty of carries to go around: with Jackson and Edwards, the Ravens ran the ball 54 times to their 19 pass attempts. He sat on virtually every waiver wire last week, so the question to start or sit Edwards is a real one. He’s as good a bet for flex consideration as anyone, so throw him in there as a start this week in a great matchup.
These three running backs this week are all likely to be good options for you, but if you’re trying to decide who to start or sit, I would go with:
- Marlon Mack
- Josh Adams
- Gus Edwards
If you need more start or sit advice, check out the remainder of our start and sit articles for week twelve!
Start or Sit Baker Mayfield, Nick Mullens, or Eli Manning?
Start or Sit Dak Prescott, Andy Dalton, or Kirk Cousins?
Start or Sit Mohamed Sanu, Keke Coutee, or Sterling Shepard?
Start or Sit Marques Valdez-Scantling, Christian Kirk, or Corey Davis?
Start or Sit Adrian Peterson, Chris Carson, or LeSean McCoy?
Start or Sit Cam Brate, Vance McDonald, or Jordan Reed?
Start or Sit Evan Engram, Kyle Rudolph, or Jared Cook?
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