Running Back Sleepers Fantasy Football Week 9: Riding the Pope Mobile

troymaine pope running back sleepers

I waited as long as I could to write the intro to this, but Nevada and Arizona outlasted me. Here are some running back sleepers for week nine. Now, if you’ll excuse me, back to frantically refreshing my news feed. To make this list, these running back sleepers must be rostered in 50% or fewer of Yahoo! leagues, with one deep dive available in at least 90% of leagues.

J.D. McKissic versus N.Y. Giants (25% rostered)

Can I interest you in a running back who over his last four games has 24 targets and 21 catches? That sounds pretty good in PPR, to me. Toss in his 57 yards per game in that span and you have a recipe for success in the Tarik Cohen/James White/Darren Sproles mold. That’s McKissic. While Antonio Gibson has sucked up all the accolades and media buzz, McKissic is quietly having a great PPR year. He started getting worked in during week three’s game in Cleveland, and since that time, he’s on pace for 90 targets, 77 catches, and about 900 yards. That’s not blow-you-away numbers, but that’s a nice little PPR guy to have.

This week he gest a Giants team that’s a pretty neutral matchup, on paper. They are middle-of-the-road as a matchup, but McKissic already notched 14.4 PPR points against them (without a TD!) back in week six. He, Gibson, Scary Terry McLaurin, and Logan Thomas make up this offense. The Giants are quickly circling the drain, so getting a part of this offense might unlock your teams this weekend.

Jordan Howard at Arizona (22% rostered)

Myles Gaskin went on IR with an MCL injury, DeAndre Washington just arrived in Miami, and Matt Breida is out for Sunday. That leaves one man standing to get the bulk of the Dolphins’ snaps this weekend. That man is Jordan Howard… probably.  He performed well in his time in Chicago and Philadelphia but disappeared entirely this season outside of the goal line. That is the most praise I will heap on him as he is dead to me.

Troymaine Pope versus Las Vegas (1% rostered)

Troymaine Pope is currently in concussion protocol, but dancing between raindrops when handling injuries and rosters is just the reality of 2020 fantasy football. If he plays, he seems to have stolen the RB2 job from Joshua Kelley last week. Pope notched 17 opportunities, when he turned into 95 yards (including five catches, for you PPR leaguers) last week, so the Chargers really turned to him. The man he has seemingly replaced, Joshua Kelley, turned 8 opportunities into 25 yards. The Raiders are a great defensive matchup but Pope is doubtful for this weekend, so monitor that situation before streaming him.

Additional Options:

Frank Gore v NE (19%), Gus Edwards @ IND (31%)

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About Jeff Krisko

You can follow me on twitter, @jeffkrisko for the same lukewarm takes you read here.

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