Don’t Overlook Knile Davis
Don’t overlook Knile Davis
The season-ending tear to Jamaal Charles’ right ACL made Charcandrick West a hot pickup on the waiver wires this past week, and rightly so. West is the heir-apparent to the RB starting gig in Kansas City now that Charles is out of the picture. I myself put in the token effort to add him to my lineup on the off-chance that the bottom-dwellers of the league were ignorant of the situation, but of course he was long gone by the time my fantasy team reached the front of the waiver wire queue. But as desirable as the situation looks for West, the number of carries moving forward between him and Knile Davis is up for debate.
Based on recent workloads, it appears that Davis has fallen out of favor with the coaches. He rushed the rock only twice last week for a paltry two yards. West, meanwhile, saw the majority of carries behind Charles. But who’s to say that that will be the case moving forward? Davis is the bigger back so may be given the short yardage love. Davis is also more likely to hold up to the wear and tear of being an every-down back. And even if West is given the role of feature back, he is not the same caliber back as Jamaal Charles. The most probable scenario is that both backs split the workload resulting in uninspiring statistics for either.
My take? Moderate your expectations of Charcandrick West. There is some upside, but it’s not likely he’ll put up Jamaal Charles-like numbers. More importantly, don’t overlook Knile Davis. He’ll be more involved in the running game than most expect, and may be featured in goal line situations. His role with the Chiefs may be as big as or bigger than West’s.