All of the Patriots’ skill position players are in an interesting spot this week — and I don’t just mean London. For as poor as the team has been at moving the ball this season, New England did look more promising with Drake Maybe under center in Week 6, racking up 291 total yards of offense. I know that doesn’t seem great, but in the context of the Patriots’ season, it was elite. New England also gets to face Jacksonville this Sunday, the team currently allowing the most points per game of any squad in the AFC (29.7).
Where this matchup is most interesting is in the Patriots’ backfield. After missing practice on both Wednesday and Thursday, Rhamondre Stevenson returned to the field on Friday. He then stated that he “feel[s] like I should be ready to play Sunday.” That’s notable news, as Stevenson’s managed to stay fantasy relevant in an underwhelming environment, registering 356 rushing yards and three touchdowns in his five games. He’s also averaged 18.0 touches per contest.
Another thing to think about is how underwhelming Antonio Gibson performed in Stevenson’s absence last weekend. Despite seeing a majority of the RB snaps (48.5%) and carries (13), Gibson finished the 41-21 loss producing a paltry 1.5 yards per rushing attempt. If he was going to steal his teammate’s job — if a Wally Pipp situation was going to go down — you’d assume the results would need to be better.
In my perspective, this is one of the best matchups the Patriots are going to draw this season. Heck, it’s one of the few times you could go into a contest sort of expecting New England to get into a positive script where running the ball would make the most sense. In Week 1 and Week 2 when that happened, Stevenson saw over 20 carries in each game. If you’ve been riding with him to this point, you should be happy to re-insert him back into your lineups as solid RB2, especially going against a Jaguars defense that’s allowing over a rushing touchdown per contest (1.2).
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All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
