Kenyan Drake Injury Update: Is he playing in Week 10?

We are less than 24 hours from kickoff for Week 10, and fantasy football managers need to know who will be available for their teams once they hit the field. One player that is up in the air after a disappointing start to the season is Arizona Cardinals RB Kenyan Drake. Having not played since Week 7, is Kenyan Drake playing, and if so, can he be trusted, or has there been a changing of the guard to relegate Drake to second-string duties behind Chase Edmonds?

Update on November 15, 2020: Kenyan Drake is active for the Arizona Cardinals Week 10 matchup against the Buffalo Bills.

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Kenyan Drake has been a limited participant in practice leading up to Week 10

Having been sidelined since injuring his ankle at the end of the team’s Week 7 game, Drake was a limited practice participant Wednesday through Friday and is listed as questionable on the final injury report. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury says Kenyan Drake is a game-time call for Week 10 against the Buffalo Bills.

“We want to make sure he feels good pregame and can do what he does best. If not, he won’t go,” Kingsbury said on Friday afternoon. In the late hours of Saturday night, Adam Schefter reported that Drake has a good chance to play Sunday, but the Cardinals will have him test his ankle prior to the game to see how he feels.

Related | Fantasy RB Injury Report Week 10: Joe Mixon, Austin Ekeler, Nick Chubb injury updates

Those updates are not exactly the clearest of statements, that is for sure, leaving fantasy managers with the dreaded game-time decision. Also, will Drake be active, or will be “active”? There is a massive difference between a good to go player and one that is more of a decoy that might only see 20% of the team’s offensive snaps. 

The other factor to consider is the timing of the Cardinals kickoff against the Buffalo Bills. This is a 4:05 PM EST start, so making this choice becomes more difficult as you would have to have sat some of your better players already and committed to Drake’s status before the opening slate of games. We know we won’t get any further updates on his status until 2:35 PM EST, which is the 90-minute mark in which teams must report their inactive players. From then, it could be up to minutes before kickoff for them to make their final determination. 

If Drake can’t play, Chase Edmonds can and has filled the RB1 role admirably

In Arizona’s last time out, Chase Edmonds was the main back in a 34-31 loss to the Miami Dolphins with Kenyan Drake out with an ankle injury. Edmonds carried the ball 25 times for 70 yards as Miami did a good job focusing on the running game. He also added three catches for 18 yards on three targets. It was a bit of a let down for fantasy managers as this seemed like a smash play with Drake out and given how well Edmonds had been playing in recent weeks.

Even when Kenyan Drake was healthy and on the field, Chase Edmonds was the better play in fantasy, especially from a per touch basis. 

At the time of Drake’s injury, Edmonds had been out-touched by Drake 126 to 55; yet he only trailed him by 1.3 points in PPR fantasy scoring. Edmonds (1.52) more than doubled Drake’s (0.67) in terms of fantasy points per touch. He had done all of this while only playing in more than 44% of the team’s offensive snaps one time (Week 8 due to Drake’s injury).

Related | Justin Jackson or Kalen Ballage: Which Chargers RB to play in fantasy in Week 10?

Even with Week 9 being a slight disappointment from an efficiency standpoint, the volume can’t be ignored. During the Cardinals last two games, Edmonds has rushed 30 times for 128 yards (4.26 avg) and has added 10 receptions on as many targets for 105 yards. That’s a combined 33.3 fantasy points over the last two weeks. Chase Edmonds’ 16.7 PPG has him as RB8 since Week 7. 

He now gets to face a Bills defense that has already allowed three running backs to go for over 100 yards on the ground against them and have given up the fourth-most rushing touchdowns (9). There have also been six running backs who’ve totaled at least 25 yards through the air, which is where we would expect Edmonds to shine. Though they have not allowed a receiving TD to a running back, Edmonds has been able to put up decent fantasy points while not getting into the end zone already. 

Prior to the Seattle game, the Bills had allowed at least 97 rushing yards and a touchdown to each of the last four backfields they faced (Titans, Chiefs, Jets, and Patriots).

Edmonds may have disappointed from an expectations standpoint last week, but I don’t think it would be smart to fade him this week, even if Kenyan Drake comes back to play as he has already been one of the bigger disappointments of the season.

Drake has been one of the biggest disappointments in fantasy football for 2020

In 2019, he rushed 123 times for 643 yards (5.23 avg) and eight touchdowns during his eight games with the team. He also added 28 receptions on 35 targets for 171 yards (6.1 avg). When compared to 2020, it’s a tale of two different players.

Drake has run the ball 119 times for 512 yards (4.30 avg) for four touchdowns. The massive drop in his production has come in the passing game, where he has seen only ten targets, catching seven for 29 yards (4.19 avg).

To put this into perspective, Drake was on pace to have more targets (70) in 2019 than he has receiving yards (66) in 2020. Outside of Week 6, Kenyan Drake has yet to score over 14.5 PPR fantasy football points in a game, something he did in five out of eight games with the team last year.

A lot of this all comes down to which opportunities that Drake gave up to Edmonds, which are the valuable targets. Edmonds has seen 35 targets on the season, catching 29 for 240 yards and two touchdowns. Those additional 65 fantasy points are what has allowed Edmonds to be the RB1 on the team even when seeing half as many total touches as Drake has this season.

The only thing that Kenyan Drake has been consistent at is being inconsistent. 

When looking at the Fantasy Football Consistency Score (CS), developed by Phillip Caldwell, which shows not only how consistent a player is, but how consistently that player scores high fantasy points, Drake comes in with a score of 3.99 and is RB25 on the season. 

For reference, the higher the consistency score, the more consistently that player scores high-level fantasy points. The lower the number, the player is either highly volatile or consistently produces low output.

Kenyan Drake or Chase Edmonds: Which Cardinals RB should you start if both are active?

Even if Kenyan Drake is playing this week, I don’t know how much faith I can put in him, as I am concerned about him both underperforming as well as him being on a limited snap count. I would choose a wait-and-see approach for him and have him as an RB4 based on talent but would have zero confidence starting him, which is a shame given how high I was on him entering the season.

Out of the Cardinals backfield, I am starting Chase Edmonds, regardless of the status of Drake. This is a solid matchup in a game where I think points will come rather quickly, and Edmonds will get his full share in the passing game as well as red zone touches. I would treat Chase Edmonds as a low-end RB1 for this matchup with or without Kenyan Drake playing this week.

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Tommy Garrett is a writer for PFN covering Fantasy Football. You can read more of his work here and follow him at @TommygarrettPFN on Twitter.