Well, that was some game.
The top two fantasy RBs faced off, and one came out on top in every possible way. I wrote yesterday that Alvin Kamara would provide a huge early-week boost and tweeted that he'd get 30+--a total he hit before halftime. It was one of the highest-impact fantasy playoff games in history, and quite possibly the best opening-game performance of a playoff week.
Kamara entered yesterday needing to average 47.8 points these final two games to have the 5th best fantasy season ever. He now needs 38.6 next week. After today's outburst, it seems doable. Of course, we've witnessed Kamara's brilliance many times. He's averaging 1.30 fantasy points per touch for his career. For context, Adrian Peterson is averaging 0.78. LaDainian Tomlinson averaged 0.75. What Kamara's doing is not normal. He has a shot at cracking 400 points this season with less than 200 carries. Who does that? Austin Ekeler had 309 last year on only 132 carries. But he also averaged only 4.2 yards per carry. Kamara is averaging 5.0, and is at 5.1 for his career. Only a handful of backs have eclipsed 5.0 in their careers.
Of course, if Taysom Hill takes the reins next year (he might still need to beat out Jameis Winston), Kamara could be an overdrafted RB1. It remains to be seen whether he can thrive in what we've seen is a very different offense with the versatile Hill at QB. But for now, let's appreciate what Kamara has done, particularly coming off an injury-riddled 2019 campaign that left him undervalued on draft day.
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As for today's games, here are the fantasy storylines I'm watching most closely:
Lions vs. Buccaneers -- Detroit deserved better this year. With Kenny Golladay on the field the whole game they're 3-1. In all other games they're 2-8. As always, I'm eyeing D'Andre Swift as a potentially sneaky QB1 bellcow in 2021. And can Leonard Fournette be an unlikely fantasy hero two weeks in a row?
Cardinals vs. 49ers -- Chase Edmonds out-touched and out-produced Kenyan Drake last week. Assuming he's a go, will Edmonds do it again? And what impact will a returning George Kittle have on Brandon Aiyuk?
Raiders vs. Dolphins -- Josh Jacobs hasn't surpassed 3.9 YPC in nine of 14 contests--including his last four. Against a tough Miami D, should he be viewed as an RB3/4? (Yes, I believe he won't be a top-24 RB despite an expert-consensus RB-11 ranking.) And will Myles Gaskin return to his bellcow role, or will he split touches with Salvon Ahmed?
Good luck today.