Ezekiel Elliott will miss the first game of his career due to injury, making Tony Pollard a clear Week 15 play against the 49ers in Dallas as a flex or even RB2 with upside.
Ronald Jones will miss Week 15 after having surgery to have a pin inserted into his pinky earlier in the week, plus he was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday.
Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians said Leonard Fournette would start for the Buccaneers withJones out. If he's on your bench, or on your waiver wire, the solution is pretty simple: I project Fournette as a top-30 back without Jones. His team is implied to scored four touchdowns by Vegas, so he has decent touchdown odds.
If you need to go to the waiver wire and Fournette isn't there, things gets complicated. Jeff Wilson, Benny Snell and Lynn Bowden could all be legitimate starters but they're all dependent on the status of the starter on their team. Wilson is a good flex even with Raheem Mostert active, so that makes him the top priority.
Wilson has double-digit touches in three of the 49ers past four games and he has the Cowboys on the schedule. He and Raheem Mostert could both be good starts.
Bowden is behind Wilson in non-PPR and half-PPR, but in full PPR he could be the top add regardless of position. Make sure you look to see where he's eligible in your league. In standard CBS leagues he's both a running back and a wide receiver. In non-PPR, DeAndre Washington is a decent flex play as well if Ahmed remains out.
Ito Smith is the only Falcons back showing any burst at all. That probably doesn't matter in Week 15 against arguably the best run defense in the NFL but the Falcons get the Chiefs in Week 16. There's at least some chance Gurley goes the way of Mark Ingram and Smith is a top-24 running back for championship week.
This is a classic case of the price not catching up to the performance fast enough. I fully expect Akers to be chalk this week, and I could not care less.
