While there are opportunities for backup running backs to provide value for fantasy football managers, finding the right reserve back isn’t always easy.
Here is the fantasy outlook for both Tyjae Spears of the Tennessee Titans and the Green Bay Packers’ Emanuel Wilson.
Should You Start Tyjae Spears or Emanuel Wilson This Week?
In the Pro Football Network Start/Sit Optimizer, PFN’s Consensus Rankings say that Wilson is the player to start. His projected 7.0 points include 40 rushing yards, two receptions, and 11 receiving yards. That stat line narrowly outperforms the consensus for Spears (6.8 points, 32 rushing yards, one reception, and 12 receiving yards)
My ranking of these two running backs aligns with the consensus. Wilson’s potential touches outweigh those of Spears for this week.
Spears’ Week 4 Fantasy Outlook
With Spears, it’s a glass-half-full/half-empty situation.
On the one hand, Spears managed to come up with a season-high 54 receiving yards last week versus the Green Bay Packers. It turned out to be the second-best receiving game of his career, topped only by his 89-yard effort in Week 14 last season against the Miami Dolphins.
However, Spears, who has seen his rushing yards decline each week of the season, had a season-low seven rushing yards on just two carries (tied for his career-low for carries in a game last week).
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So while he finished with a season-high in fantasy points (10.1), it’s still difficult to look at Spears and wonder what his outlook is in fantasy. He was on the field for only 20 offensive snaps last week — also a season-low — and he has yet to get in the end zone.
He does bring an element of pass-catching skills that is a definite plus. In fact, he is one of only two players — Khalil Shakir being the other — that has been targeted at least 10 times and has a catch percentage of 100%. Spears is 10-for-10 when targeted this season.
Wilson’s Week 4 Fantasy Outlook
Wilson is coming off easily a career game, in terms of fantasy production. Wilson finished last week with 16.5 fantasy points, which was not only the highest in a game of his young career, but it was more fantasy points than he compiled all of last season in seven games (14.8).
For the first time in his career, Wilson had at least 30 yards both rushing and receiving in a game, finishing with 50 rush yards and 35 receiving yards, along with his first career touchdown, a 30-yard reception. After getting just 11 total touches over the first two games of the season, Wilson had 14 touches last week, and clearly made the most of it.
For Wilson, the question becomes whether he is a candidate to bounce back to his previous unproductive form, or was Week 3 the beginning of a positive stretch for the second-year back?
It will not come easy for Wilson or the Packers. Their Week 4 opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, ranks second in the NFL in rush yards allowed (71.3 per game) and they rank fourth in opponent yards per carry as well (3.6).
However, I’m willing to ride the momentum of a solid Week 3 performance and see what Wilson can do in Week 4.