The Titans' first preseason depth chart four years ago featured four RBs competing behind bellcow Derrick Henry: Darrynton Evans, Jeremy McNichols, Brian Hill, and Mekhi Sargent. Dontrell Hilliard, who they'd recently signed to a cheap one-year contract, wasn't even on the list.
One week later, a knee injury sidelined Evans for nearly half the season. He returned in Week 7, got hurt again after only six offensive snaps, and didn't play again until the following October. Hill also got hurt during the preseason and was promptly released. Sargent played only two offensive snaps before getting released ahead of a pivotal Week 9 matchup versus the future Super Bowl champion Rams. The Titans were 7-1, but had lost Derrick Henry the week before. Presumably, that made McNichols one of the week's biggest waiver adds.
But Tennessee didn't want to put their backfield hopes solely on a 25-year-old former fifth-round pick with 89 NFL touches. So they signed Adrian Peterson in what would be the 36-year-old's final season. They also added reclamation project D'Onta Foreman, who was still trying to prove himself in Year 5 of an injury-plagued career.
Now the post-Henry depth chart appeared to be set. Some managers scrambled to add McNichols. Others snagged Foreman. Maybe a few people took a shot with Peterson. Technically, Foreman turned out to be the "winner" with six of the Titans' 11 best RB performances thru Week 18. But he hit double-digits only four times in 10 games.
And who posted three of the team's four best fantasy performances? Hilliard. The guy nearly everyone overlooked.
Yesterday a community member wondered whether the Chargers' Kimani Vidal or Hassan Haskins is the better pick-up with Omarion Hampton and Najee Harris sidelined. My mind jumped to the 2021 Titans and to other teams who've lost their #1 RB, but lack a predictable #2. Vidal has 53 NFL touches and not much to show for it. His one highlight was a 38-yard TD reception on his first career touch.
Meanwhile, Haskins has only 81 touches since getting drafted in the fourth round in 2022 -- not coincidentally, by a Tennessee franchise that needed to be better prepared if/when Henry got hurt again. He's been painfully ineffective. For example, he's averaged a robust 2.6 yards-before-first-contact on five carriese this year, but somehow is averaging 0.0 yards *after* first contact. That's really hard to do, but not impossible for someone with a career mark of 3.0 yards per carry.
For me, the question isn't whether to grab Vidal and/or Haskins off waivers. The question is whether L.A.'s top RB fantasy producer these next weeks isn't even on the active roster. They just added journeyman Nyheim Hines to their practice squad. Rookie Amar Johnson is there, too. If they need more competition, free agents like Foreman or Gus Edwards couldn't do much worse.
I'm not saying this is a backfield to avoid. I'm saying it should be avoided *for now*. There's simply too much crowded mediocrity to say with certainty that any of them will be fantasy-relevant in the short term.
---
* Today's FF4W podcast, episode 78: "Joe Flacco and Ja'Marr Chase" -- Flacco has never thrown to a wideout as talented as Chase. Will this be a good pairing for fantasy managers?