Disaster struck for the Miami Dolphins this past week when star running back De’Von Achane went down with a season-ending knee injury. In his absence, two other halfbacks are set to step up to fill the void, including the bruising Ollie Gordon II. He’ll almost assuredly be a hot pickup on the waiver wire in Week 4, but does he deserve that hype?
Let’s dive in and find out whether Gordon is a truly a must-add waiver wire pickup this week or if he’s fool’s gold.
Is Ollie Gordon II a must-add waiver wire target after De’Von Achane’s injury?
Over the last couple of seasons, De’Von Achane has been one of the best running backs in fantasy thanks to his explosiveness as a rusher and top-tier ability to catch passes out of the backfield. He’s been a prolific scorer in PPR formats, but now, his 2026-27 season comes to a premature end following a torn ACL suffered in Week 3. It’s a brutal beat for a team that’s already in the early stages of a rebuild with an offense that’s mostly devoid of talent.
The NFL is a next-man-up kind of league, so someone is going to have to step in as the team’s primary runner in Achane’s absence. For fantasy purposes, there’s some real appeal for finding any halfback who projects to take on starter-level volume. Contrary to what some may say, this might be a situation that’s best to avoid in its entirety.
Ollie Gordon does seem likely to absorb some work moving forward. At 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, he’s built to handle a hefty workload and take a beating. When Achane went down this past week, he saw 17 carries for 41 yards and a touchdown, also catching all three of his targets for 14 yards. In total, that came out to 14.5 PPR points in fantasy, not a half-bad outing given that he was thrust into a major role unexpectedly.
However, it should be noted that Gordon hasn’t been much of a playmaker during his brief time in the NFL. As a rookie last season, he tallied 199 yards on 70 rush attempts, good for just 2.8 YPC. On his 20 rushes this year, he’s averaging a paltry 2.4 YPC, also far below even league-average production. That’s a pretty strong yellow flag in his profile – especially since backfield mate Jaylen Wright, who exited this past week’s game with a stinger, has a career average of 3.9 YPC in comparison.
Gordon has talent, but he hasn’t flashed too much of it since entering the league. It was wild at the time to see a former Doak Walker Award winner – given to the best running back in college football – slide into the sixth round of his rookie class. After all, the guy once led the FBS with 1,732 rushing yards alongside 21 touchdowns as a sophomore. He’s long since removed from that player, though, and it seems slipping in the draft may have been warranted based on what he’s shown in the pros.
If Wright isn’t healthy, Gordon should take the majority of backfield work, but this could turn into an ugly committee when his teammate returns. Consider the state of the Dolphins’ offense for a moment. They’re second-to-last in scoring with 36 points across three games, an average of 12 per contest. They’re also dead last in success rate and 30th in EPA/rush, so it seems that even Achane wasn’t getting a ton going behind this offensive line when he was on the field. The conditions simply aren’t conducive to backfield fantasy production since Miami should trail often in pass-heavy game scripts and won’t see the red zone much, either.
Don’t fall for the trap and burn a waiver claim on Gordon this week. Look elsewhere instead for players with better upside instead.
