The struggling Kansas City Chiefs get their top RB, Isiah Pacheco, back this week. He has missed the last two games for an offense that has been struggling to live up to expectations all year.
Should the fact that he injured his shoulder cause fantasy football managers to consider starting Clyde Edwards-Helaire instead of playing it safe?
Should You Start Isiah Pacheco in Fantasy This Week?
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said Monday that he expects Pacheco to be able to go in the Christmas matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. If Reid is saying he is playing, that should be enough for us.
To say the Chiefs missed Pacheco would be an understatement. The first game without him was that crushing loss to the Buffalo Bills. Then, last week, they were able to rush for only 43 yards in the win against the New England Patriots. Pacheco had arguably his game this season when he went down with his shoulder injury.
He rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown in Week 13 against the Green Bay Packers, and that came one week after he ran for two scores against the Raiders. With the game on Monday, Pacheco should go over the 1,000 total yards of offense mark for the year.
Assuming that Pacheco is healthy enough to play this week on Monday against a Raiders defense that is allowing the 11th-most fantasy points to the RB position this year, he can be viewed as a low-end RB1.
Should You Start Clyde Edwards-Helaire in Fantasy This Week?
With Pacheco out the last two weeks, Edwards-Helaire got the start and plenty of opportunities to show what he can do. In the win against the Patriots, he had 101 total yards of offense and had an impressive receiving touchdown.
That touchdown was only his second of the season, and despite the solid game against the Patriots, he did rush the ball 24 times for only 76 yards in the two games without Pacheco.
MORE: PFN’s FREE NFL Playoff Predictor
Using the Pro Football Network Start/Sit Optimizer, our Consensus Rankings say that Pacheco is the player to start. His projected 12.0 points include 67 rushing yards and one reception for 14 receiving yards. His projected stat line outperforms Edwards-Helaire’s 5.6 points.
It is hard to go against the Optimizer on this, as Pacheco has been pretty good when he is healthy this year. For the season, the Raiders rank 23rd against the run (124.9 yards), so this should be a good matchup for him. Add the fact that he has made steady improvements when it comes to catching the ball out of the backfield, and he could be in store for a top-10 RB day.
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