Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em Week 1 Running Backs

Ahhh, can you smell it ladies and gents? The smell of crisp leaves, pumpkin spice lattes, and most importantly… Football baby! Its back! All kicking off tonight as the reigning Super Bowl Champions the New England Patriots host the Kansas City Chiefs. If you are new to fantasy, welcome and best of luck. For everyone else, you know the drill, lets get to the players.

Start ‘Em:

1. C. J. Anderson is back, healthy, and the head of the backfield for the Denver Broncos. I know there are still questions at QB, but all the more reason for them to lean on the run. Anderson getsa pretty decent match up home against the Chargers who will be without Denzel Perryman. Anderson will most certainly begin the game the starter, he needs to fend off Devontae Booker, and Veteran Jamaal Charles, but I like his chances of coming out of the gates hot in 2017. Anderson should produce solid RB2 numbers this week.
2. Bilal Powell is the starter for the Jets, and lets be real there is not a soul on that offense that you really want apiece of with the exception of this guy here. The Bills allowed the 4^th most yards per game to opposing backs. I know Forte is still around, but there will be a plethora of touches for this backfield. Powell will be good for 20+ touches, and hopefully he can find the End Zone. He is a really solid RB2 this week with RB1 upside.
3. Todd Gurley after a crash landing back to earth last season coming off a stellar rookie campaign, is now in his third year with a much different looking offense. Jared Goff gets a year of professional football under his belt, and then the Rams went out and acquired a real receiver in Sammy Watkins. There are still questions about the offensive line, but I like Gurley to have a nice comeback season as this offense becomes more balanced and doesn’t solely lean on the run. They get a nice easy matchup to start the season home against the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts are easily one of the worst rush defenses in the league and their offense will be playing without star Quarterback Andrew Luck. I like the chances of the Rams winning this one, and Gurley gets at least one TD. He’s a lock for me as an RB1 this week.
4. Adrian Peterson finds himself in his 11^th season playing with a new team for the first time in his career. After putting up a really solid 2015 comeback season, Peterson has an abysmal 2016 and gets injured. He now sits behind Mark Ingram on the depth chart in New Orleans in ahigh powered, high scoring offense. There are a lot of questions Marks (Yes that capitalization is intentional) surrounding this backfield and how it will pan out this season. I like Mark Ingram initially as the starter as he has proven to be a dependable back, but there is no denying Peterson’s ability and potential to break out if he can get back to form. I would normally recommend waiting until we get a larger sample size of what their usage will look like, but I’m a big believer in the revenge game. On Monday night the Saints travel to Minnesota in what will prove to be a tough game. The Vikings run defense is very solid, but again the revenge factor for me is always the trump card. They will unleash Peterson, and if there were a game for him to break out, its going to be this one.

Sit Em:

1. Mark Ingram is still number one on the depth chart in the Saints backfield, as they enter their contest against Minnesota on Monday night football. As I mentioned before I like Peterson in this one and I already expressed my opinion about these guys, so I’ll keep it brief. I think long term Ingram will out touch Peterson, but I think on Monday Peterson gets the larger workload. The matchup is tough as it is, I would avoid Ingram for this one if you have another guy you can roll with.
2. Joe Mixon is the fresh new face in the Bengals backfield with a lot of hype behind him. A lot of people said he might go first if not for character concerns, but alas he fell to the Bengals in the second round and now finds himself behind Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard. There is no question the kids got talent, but this is the NFL and the starting gig doesn’t just get handed to you. The Bengals listed Mixon third on the depth chart for a reason. Now I know you may have drafted him in the middle of your draft and may want to unleash him week 1, but you need to temper expectations early for Mixon. I am sure he will get some carries, but the workload won’t be great enough to start him as your RB2.
3. Leonard Fournette so far in the NFL has played in one single preseason game against the New England Patriots, rushing nine times for 31 yards and a TD and then goes on to say the NFL is “really easy”. Well Fournette, we will see just how easy you think the NFL is after playingyour first real game against a top rush defense in the Houston Texans. Fournette was brought over to take the pressure off of Blake Bortles and he figures to get a heavy workload. That being said, I think Fournette gets hit a couple times by J.J. Watt and realizes shit, this isn’t as easy as I thought. I think that offense struggles to get anything going, and we see more of the same from Bortles in terms of interceptions and just getting garbage time points airing out 50-50 balls for Allen Robinson late in the fourth. I think Fournette still finishes with 20 touches, but I don’t think he eclipses the 100 yard mark, nor do I think he finds the End zone. I would lower expectations for Fournette out of the gates.
4. Frank Gore, the ageless wonder now finds himself in his 13^th Season in the NFL and third with the Colts. I don’t think I need to go in to too much detail other than to say I am avoiding pretty much all Colts playersin this week one match up. No Andrew Luck means the big passing game is not going to be a threat so the Rams will be focused on the run to ensure there are no holes for Gore to break through. The Rams Defensive line is probably top 5 in the league with Aaron Donald leading the pack, and I don’t really see an outcome where Gore is particularly productive in this matchup.