Making sense of the Seahawks fantasy football options
By Dan Viens
THOMAS RAWLS:
Rawls is a guy worthy of being excited about based on the sheer talent he showed while rushing for 830 yards he piled up subbing for the injured Lynch last year. But we don’t know if Rawls can sustain the punishment of a full-season workload, especially after the ankle injury that ended his 2015 early. He’s back and working in on-field drills again, and expected to be ready for the regular season opener.
The problem with Rawls is all the other running backs the Seahawks acquired this offseason. Even if you see him as more talented than rookies Alex Collins, C.J. Prosise and holdover Christine Michael, there will clearly be a carry-share system in place. Rawls will never be the 20-25 per game rusher Lynch was, heck no one will be. Is he the starter? Most likely, but expecting more than 1,000 yards and 6 TD’s out of him may be a stretch. Michael has been the star of camp so far, and Prosise is being groomed as a third down back extraordinaire.
That said, there just aren’t as many franchise RB1’s as there used to be. What you’re left with after the first round is sorting out other backs with similar workloads. Rawls is a solid RB2 option, and with most owners targeting the position early, grab him in the 2nd round if you can (ESPN has him as the 16th RB). However, if you’re in a PPR league, there are probably better options. In that case, wait until the 3rd.
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