The Jaguars were the last winless team in the NFL coming into Sunday, but Tank Bigsby wasn’t letting that situation continue. He had a massive game against the Colts and burst onto the fantasy scene with a monster game that made him the highest-scoring running back of the week. Now that he’s broken out, should you roll out the Tank in your fantasy lineup going forward? Let’s take a look!
At the start of the season, there was noise coming out of Jacksonville that the Jags wanted to get Bigsby more involved in a timeshare with Travis Etienne Jr. In Week 1, that started to materialize with Tank playing 32% of snaps and producing 73 rushing yards on 12 carries.
Unfortunately for Bigsby’s breakout chances, he was injured during that game and wasn’t able to play in Week 2. In Week 3, he played just nine snaps before returning to his full workload in Week 4. Playing 29% of the team’s snaps, he again flashed upside by running for 90 yards on just seven carries, including an impressive 58-yard scamper in the Jags’ narrow loss to the Texans.
All that background is to say this — Bigsby’s breakthrough definitely didn’t come out of nowhere. He has steadily been earning more work and succeeding, aside from when he was hurt.
On 40% of snaps in Week 5, he took 13 carries for 101 rushing yards and two touchdowns while adding a 28-yard catch on his only target. He vastly outperformed both Travis Etienne Jr. (12.0 fantasy points) and D’Ernest Johnson, who had 3.0 fantasy points. Most of Etienne’s production came on his six catches for 43 yards as he only managed 17 rushing yards on six carries.
Bigsby ranks first in the NFL in Rush Yards Over Expectation Per Attempt, first in yards per carry and third in PFF grades.
Even though he’s still in a timeshare and may not get workhorse volume, Bigsby is definitely a must-start option in most formats as my RB No. 23 this week. He could be even higher if it becomes clear that he will have more of the workload. He has a favorable matchup against the Bears, who have allowed six running back touchdowns in five games while allowing an average of 102.4 rushing yards per game to the position.
Bigsby plays an early game in London on Sunday, so he isn’t an option on the main slate. However, he’ll be a good DFS play in the single-game Showdown contests. Tank’s Jaguars are currently 2.5-point underdogs for that Week 6 matchup with Chicago.
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