With Dalvin Cook injured, we saw exactly what we expected out of Alexander Mattison against the Detroit defense — a top-five fantasy finish at the running back position. On a short week, and with Cook’s status still up in the air for Thursday Night Football, what should fantasy football managers expect from Mattison and fellow running back Kene Nwangwu?
Update 12/9/2021: Dalvin Cook is officially active for tonight’s game against the Steelers.
Alexander Mattison is the bell cow
There’s no denying the fact that Mattison is a bell-cow running back when Cook isn’t in the picture. Mattison has started three games this year — he’s averaged 24.3 carries, 105 rushing yards, 6 targets, 5.3 receptions, and 44.3 receiving yards in those contests. He’s legitimately a high-end RB1 without Cook (and I would love to see him get a starting job somewhere, but I digress).
Minnesota’s offense doesn’t change when they lose Cook, which is a luxury not many teams have when their superstar running back goes down. Minnesota can run the same plays at the same frequency and not miss a beat. Without Cook, Mattison is a weekly must-start. No one else in the offense takes any sort of significant volume away from him.
What about Kene Nwangwu?
Nwangwu is certainly interesting, considering he’s a running back that has 4.31 speed. That’s blazing fast.
The Vikings utilize him on special teams because of his explosiveness, and I can see a route where he becomes a Tony Pollard-esque player in a complementary role in this offense. However, it doesn’t appear that that’s happening yet.
[the_ad_group id=”61550″]
Unlike Pollard, Nwangwu isn’t seeing a stable level of involvement in the Vikings’ offense, even though head coach Mike Zimmer said prior to Week 13 that Nwangwu was going to be utilized more. It feels like the Vikings don’t know how to work him into their game plan right now.
Nwangwu was non-existent in Week 13, getting only 2 carries for no yards and 2 receptions for 4 yards. If you’re in a dynasty league, he’s an interesting stash, but he isn’t viable in redraft formats yet. There’s nothing to indicate that he will see enough usage to provide meaningful points.
Fantasy expectations for Mattison and Nwangwu
If Cook is unable to go on Thursday night, it looks to be the Mattison show once again — and it’s a juicy matchup.
Gone are the days where the Steelers were a defensive juggernaut ready and able to stifle opposing ground games. Over the last four weeks, Pittsburgh has been gashed by running backs, giving up the most fantasy points per game to the position (36.8). That’s ridiculous.
Two weeks ago, Bengals RB Joe Mixon had a career day, rushing 28 times for 165 yards and 2 TDs against this defense. Honestly, Mattison is capable of those numbers.
If Cook plays, you start him in his normal RB1 role. If he doesn’t, fire up Mattison once again with RB1 expectations.
