Fantasy football implications of Frank Gore signing with the Jets

Another year goes by, and Frank Gore continues to play football. The New York Jets have signed the ageless wonder to a one-year deal, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. This will mark the fifth team Gore has played on in his soon-to-be 16-year career.

Gore joins a Jets team with Le’Veon Bell seemingly locked in as the starter and fourth round pick Lamical Perine looking like a guy for the future. Kenneth Dixon, Trenton Cannon, Josh Adams, and Jalin Moore round out the roster for the time being.

Gore spent last season with the Buffalo Bills where he rushed for 599 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 3.6 yards per carry. He also caught 13 passes for 100 yards. He came up one yard short of 700 yards from scrimmage, which he had done every season of his career prior to that. Notably, he holds NFL records for most consecutive seasons of 500+ rushing yards and seasons with 125 or more rushing attempts (all 15 seasons of his career for both). He heads into year 16 ranked third all-time in rushing yards, 1,379 yards back of Barry Sanders.

Gore is a popular player with coaches in part because of his tenacious blocking ability. He was a solid ground-gainer for the Dolphins in 2018, and while he was decent in 2019 on the ground, he was fairly limited. But his blocking keeps him in the good graces of coaches.

He’ll reunite with Adam Gase in 2020, and one has to wonder what it means for Bell and Perine. Evan Silva noted how Gore ends up with more playing time than expected because of how much coaches love him.

Devin Singletary missed four games last season for Buffalo and finished with 15 fewer carries than Gore. If he had been healthy, he would have shot past Gore by a decent margin. Starting in Week 9, Singletary had more carries than Gore every week through Week 16, before Singletary sat out Week 17 to rest for the playoffs.

Bell will be the clear starter, but Gore could chew into his carries to some degree. Gore does significantly less as a pass catcher these days, so Bell’s PPR value does not take as much of a hit as his standard value. Bell was drafted as an RB1 last year but performed as an RB2. With some offensive line help, Bell’s value goes up, but that is offset to some degree by the Gore signing. Bell is a fringe RB1 if he can bounce back this season, but if you can get him as your second back, you’re going to be in better shape.

As for Perine, it will come down to his pass blocking. He’s a decent dynasty consideration, but his year one value will depend on how he picks up pass protection. For rookie backs, particularly those drafted on day three, pass protection is how you get any kind of offensive snaps. His year one value takes a hit, but if you like his long-term potential, this should not be a problem for dynasty drafts.