It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We continue with the running backs. Today, we take a look at one of the most talented running backs in the NFL, but one who plays behind another one of the best runners in the league. What can we expect from Kareem Hunt on the new-look Cleveland Browns for 2022 fantasy football?
Kareem Hunt ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: RB30, 77 overall
Average Auction Value: $3.5
Kareem Hunt Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Rush | Ru Yds | Ru TD | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Touches | Opp | Total Yards |
| 2021 | 8 | 1 | 78 | 386 | 5 | 27 | 22 | 174 | 0 | 100 | 105 | 560 |
| 2020 | 16 | 5 | 198 | 841 | 6 | 51 | 38 | 304 | 5 | 236 | 249 | 1145 |
| 2019 | 8 | 3 | 43 | 179 | 2 | 44 | 37 | 285 | 1 | 80 | 87 | 464 |
| Year | YPC | Rush/G | Ru Yd/G | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Catch% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec | Touches/G | Opp/G | Yds/G |
| 2021 | 4.95 | 9.8 | 48.3 | 3.38 | 2.75 | 81.5% | 6.44 | 7.91 | 12.50 | 13.13 | 70.0 |
| 2020 | 4.25 | 12.4 | 52.6 | 3.19 | 2.38 | 74.5% | 5.96 | 8.00 | 14.75 | 15.56 | 71.56 |
| 2019 | 4.16 | 5.4 | 22.4 | 5.50 | 4.63 | 84.1% | 6.48 | 7.70 | 10.00 | 10.88 | 58.00 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tch | HPPR Pts/Tch | PPR Pts/Tch |
| 2021 | 88 | 99 | 110.0 | 11.00 | 12.38 | 13.8 | 0.88 | 0.99 | 1.10 |
| 2020 | 180.5 | 199.5 | 218.5 | 11.28 | 12.47 | 13.7 | 0.76 | 0.85 | 0.93 |
| 2019 | 64.4 | 82.9 | 101.4 | 8.05 | 10.36 | 12.68 | 0.81 | 1.04 | 1.27 |
2022 Kareem Hunt Fantasy Football Overview:
First and foremost, we need to have an agreement, here: Kareem Hunt is one of the best running backs in the NFL. When he was with the Chiefs, he showed that he was as good as anyone, averaging 110 yards and nearly a touchdown per game on 14.2 carries and 3.3 receptions per contest. He was all-around good. Then, the Chiefs cut him following video evidence that he “shove and kick” a woman, for which he served an eight-game suspension. Hunt has been remorseful about the incident and has not had any off-field incidents since then, so I am going to say that he is a changed man. That is to say, he did his time for the incident, is contrite, and well, is the opposite of teammate Deshaun Watson in this regard.
So, for Kareem Hunt the player, now, he’s still really, really good at football. He was RB22 in PPR leagues in each of the last two seasons on a per-game basis because injuries limited Hunt to just six effective games last season (he returned for two games, but was mostly ineffective because he was not healed from his injury). In those six games, he averaged 86.8 yards per game on 11.5 carries and four catches per contest. The Browns love to utilize Hunt as their 1B to Nick Chubb’s 1A, and there’s plenty of opportunities to go around, as the Browns run the ball at the fifth-highest clip in the league, and Hunt has a lock on the running back target share (over the last two seasons, he’s averaged twice as many targets per game compared to Nick Chubb).
All-in-all, Kareem Hunt is a good fantasy football player to have on your roster. He’s highly productive, unfortunately, he hasn’t shown himself to be the high-upside handcuff that many hoped he would be. In fact, he’s stayed pretty much the same over the last two seasons, at least from a total points perspective. He actually lost 0.7 PPR points per game without Nick Chubb, though that’s pretty easily explained away: touchdowns. With Chubb, Hunt has 0.8 touchdowns per game over the last two seasons, and without Chubb, he has just 0.4 touchdowns per game. But, his rushing market share doubles without Chubb, meaning that Kareem Hunt can still be the high-level handcuff, he just has to get those touchdowns.
2022 Kareem Hunt Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Kareem Hunt Salary Cap Value: $4
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming in early July)
Just like last season, Kareem Hunt remains an absolutely insane value in fantasy football drafts. While he isn’t at Nick Chubb’s level of production (17.4 PPR points per game, RB9), he does provide great value, as he is the #32 running back in average salary cap draft cost ($3.2), and is RB29 (81.3 overall) in snake drafts. Again, this is for a guy who has been an RB2 in points per game in each of the last two seasons, and who averages nearly 15 opportunities per contest in that span.
Kareem Hunt is a cheap and easy way to buoy your fantasy football production from the running back spot and is a must-have for any and all ZeroRB drafters, or for anyone who wants a slam dunk RB2 at RB3 prices. For the third-straight year, we can say this: you can draft Nick Chubb at his cost and hopefully do well in your league; he’ll outscore Kareem Hunt. But, Kareem Hunt is the far better value. You can either draft Chubb at ADP and lose, or draft Hunt at ADP and win.
Best Case Scenario:
Nick Chubb wanders into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and becomes transfixed by the Beatles’ exhibits. He returns to practice the next day and declares himself “the Eggman.” And when Kevin Stefanski asks for clarification, he sprints away yelling, “goo goo g’joob!” Kareem Hunt then takes over the RB1 role from Chubb and is a fantasy football RB1.
Worst Case Scenario:
Nick Chubb absolutely dominates touches, and Kareem Hunt remains just a few wasted bucks or a wasted pick in the 80s. That is to say, there’s no real downside, here.
Check out all our 2022 player profiles, here.
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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]
[Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Kareem_Hunt_2019.jpg, cropped under CC BY-SA 4.0]
