Fred Jackson out for at least a month: Fantasy Impact
By now we all have heard that Fred Jackson is expected to be out for more than a month, and with the Bills declining to sign anyone up to today it looks like Spiller will be counted on to handle the full workload with Tashard Choice backing him up.
Spiller was effective last year when Jackson went down with an injury and posted averages of 5 yards per carry and 23 receiving yards per game. His avergae rushing yards per game looks pitiful on his yahoo splits as a starter, but after F_Jax went down and he was the true starter he actually averaged 74.3 yards per game and 31 receiving yards per game off of four receptions per game.
Fantasy Impact:
C.J Spiller: C.J Spiller will be a solid RB2 with RB1 upside as long as Fred Jackson is nursing his injury. As mentioned above Spiller averaged over 100 yards from scrimmage per game last year filling in for Jackson and is fresh off of a 169 rushing yard explosion in week one. Spiller has always had talent, he just never had the opportunity to be the feature back except for last year and his final year in college after James Davis left. The argument could be made that Spiller is an RB1 with Fred Jackson out, and while we wouldnt go that far, we do admit he has weekly RB1 upside.
Ryan Fitzpatrick: As evidenced after Fred Jackson went down, opposing teams respected Jackson a lot more than they do Spiller and with David Nelson also out Fitzpatrick gets a serious downgrade. Hopefully you have a good backup if you have Fitzpatrick as your QB2 as even though the Bills will continue to throw a lot, the passing lanes will not be as open as they would with a healthy Jackson.
Stevie Johnson/Donald Jones: With Jackson hurt as well as David Nelson, life figures to be a little harder for the Bills top two wideouts. The Bills like to line up with a ton of three and four wide receiver sets and opposing defenses are likely to play three plus corners in order to stop what’s left of the Bills aerial attack. Stevie Johnson remains a WR2 play but is better deployed as WR3 if possible. Jones looks like a flex2 play while rookie T.J Graham is no more than a stash until further notice.
