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. Now that we’ve finished with the main bulk of the player profiles, it’s high time that we fill in around the edges with extra players that you need to know. Today, we take a look at the presumptive RB2 in Philadelphia, Kenneth Gainwell. Gainwell burst onto the scene for the Eagles last season, scoring six touchdowns in 101 touches. Can he repeat his 2021 campaign, or does it not even matter if he does? Let’s take a look at Gainwell’s 2022 outlook in his 2022 fantasy football player profile!
Kenneth Gainwell ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: RB52, 161
Average Auction Value: $1.4
Kenneth Gainwell Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Rush | Ru Yds | Ru TD | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Touches | Opp | Total Yards |
| 2021 | 16 | 1 | 68 | 291 | 5 | 50 | 33 | 253 | 1 | 101 | 118 | 544 |
| Year | YPC | Rush/G | Ru Yd/G | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Catch% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec | Touches/G | Opp/G | Yds/G |
| 2021 | 4.28 | 4.3 | 18.2 | 3.13 | 2.06 | 66.0% | 5.06 | 7.67 | 6.31 | 7.38 | 34.0 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tch | HPPR Pts/Tch | PPR Pts/Tch |
| 2021 | 90.4 | 106.9 | 123.4 | 5.65 | 6.68 | 7.7 | 0.90 | 1.06 | 1.22 |
2022 Kenneth Gainwell Overview:
So, here’s the weird part with Kenneth Gainwell. He finished as an RB1 a higher percentage of the time (18.75%) than Miles Sanders (16.67%). Granted, Gainwell had more bites at the apple because Sanders missed five games last year and Gainwell missed just one, but that’s why I put them in terms of those insanely awkward percentages instead of just raw number of games. But, a lot of that had to do with the fact that Gainwell had six touchdowns, and Sanders had zero. By fantasy points without touchdowns, Gainwell averaged 5.5 PPR points per game, to Sanders’ 10.35 PPR points per game. So, you have to figure that Sanders will get a lot more touchdowns this year, and that will likely take away from Gainwell’s touchdown volume. That’s knock #1 against Gainwell.
The second knock against Gainwell comes in the already short-on-targets passing game in Philadelphia, of which Gainwell was a key component (50 targets, 24th among running backs). They added A.J. Brown to this passing game while casting off Jordan Howard, whose touches would go toward Miles Sanders, not Kenneth Gainwell.
Ironically, he doesn’t seem to be a good handcuff option, either. Gainwell isn’t a particularly big running back (5’9” 200 lbs) and struggles up the middle. So, turning him into a more traditional back instead of a scat back hurts him; in games without Sanders, he gained rushing attempts but lost targets, virtually evening out his yardage production with fewer points due to fewer receptions.
But, I like Kenneth Gainwell in the Nyheim Hines/J.D. McKissic/Darrel Williams role. He should get a good number of targets this year, with 65 well within the range of possibilities. That would put him in the top ten of running back targets from last season. He pretty much only has a standalone role, however, and isn’t much to look at as a handcuff. He’s pretty much just a flex play in deeper leagues.
2022 Kenneth Gainwell Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Kenneth Gainwell Salary Cap Value: $0
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet!
Kenneth Gainwell’s price is right for what he is. He’s just $1.3 in salary cap drafts, and he’s drafted in 5% of salary cap leagues. In snake drafts, he’s RB52, pick 161 overall. Both of those are appropriate for him, as it indicates that he isn’t coming off the board in your standard ten-and-twelve team leagues. If you’re in a league that size, with a standard bench, even in PPR, you can ignore Kenneth Gainwell. Gainwell is best suited as a bye week PPR flex play, whose consistent 8-10 points will find him finishing well inside the top-30, but somehow doing it without and weeks where you want to start him in the vast majority of leagues. Availability-based RB30 roster fluff in smaller leagues, but crucial to success in deep leagues.
Best Case Scenario:
Gainwell becomes a PPR monster, getting 75+ targets and becoming the peak pass-catching running back.
Worst Case Scenario:
Jalen Hurts stops throwing altogether and runs the ball 600 times, rendering Gainwell unnecessary.
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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/1/1e/WFT_at_Eagles_-_51770639236.jpg, cropped under CC BY SA 2.0]
