Expect Jamaal Charles to share more time with Knile Davis, but is that a good thing?
If you were lucky enough to draft Jamaal Charles to your fantasy football team in 2013, congrats! You might be thinking, “What?!? If the Chiefs want Jamaal Charles to share more time with Knile Davis, where does that leave my fantasy team?” Even with sitting out the final game of the season, Charles ended up the highest scoring fantasy running back on the season.
Here is his amazing season, by the numbers:
3rd most rushing yards: 1,339
Tied for 6th most rushing touchdowns: 9
1st in receiving yards for running backs: 693
1st in receiving touchdowns: 7
He did lose two fumbles, but with all of those yards and touchdowns, who cares?!?!
Next year might look a little different because the Chiefs would like to utilize Knile Davis more. During the combine head coach Andy Reid discussed beefing up his role.
Knile was a rookie and he was learning every week and getting better every week. As the season went on we were able to give him the ball a little bit more. Coming into this season, we’ll be able to mix it up a little bit better than what we did early in the season last year.Andy Reid, Head Coach, Kansas City Cheifs
During Knile Davis’ rookie season he amassed 242 rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns, 75 receiving yards, one return touchdown and lost one fumble. The majority of Davis’ work came in the last four games in the season, once he was more comfortable in the pro-style offense.
But don’t let this deter you from drafting Charles as your fantasy husband. The Chiefs will continue to utilize Charles’ immense talent but they also want to minimize the amount of wear and tear they inflict on their start player.
And Knile Davis is in the process of rehabilitating a broken leg. He should be fine and back for the season opener, but don’t look for him to compete with Charles. He is the compliment, not the deterrent. If anything, you can add Knile Davis to a nice bye week sleeper a la Andre Ellington or Joique Bell.
More Davis, less Charles is a good ideaKansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid answered some questions from reporters Thursday at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. One of the topics was the possibility of reducing the workload on running back Jamaal Charles. Reid indicated the Chiefs intended to do that by playing Knile Davis more than they did last season, when he was a rookie.
