July 26, 2017

Chris Moore profiles Oakland Raiders running back (RB) DeAndre Washington as a fantasy football sleeper for 2017. He could be a draft value according to ADP.

The Oakland Raiders were sixth in the NFL in rushing in 2016. Employing a three-headed running back committee led by Latavius Murray, Oakland also got significant contributions from a pair of impressive rookies in DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard. While Latavius Murray turned his lead role into 1,052 yards from scrimmage and an RB13 finish in standard formats in 2016, rookie RBs Washington and Richard combined for 1,267 yards from scrimmage of their own-582 coming from for Washington and 685 for Richard.

Coming off of that kind of excellent RB production as a team, it’s no wonder a suddenly unretired Marshawn Lynch, now assuming the lead role vacated by Murray, who left for Minnesota during the offseason, quickly cracked the consensus top-15 at RB. Still, the risks associated with the now 31-year-old RB who didn’t play football in 2016 are obvious. Lynch only managed a pedestrian 3.8 yards per carry in his last partial NFL season- a seven-game sample from 2015. Meanwhile, it’s hard to blame this entirely on his supporting cast considering Thomas Rawls finished the year with a league leading 5.6 yards per carry on that very same offense once Lynch went down.

What happens if the Marshawn Lynch reclamation project in Oakland doesn’t go according to plan? Still boasting a consensus top-10 offensive line and a pair of sophomores that both easily cleared 5 yards per carry in 2016, it’s fair to say that the situation would be ripe for an unexpected fantasy starter to emerge if Lynch doesn’t prove to be the Lynch of old. While there are other candidates who could step up in 2017- 7^th rounder Elijah Hood, and impressive 2016 UDFA Jalen Richard, reading between the lines, the best bet to ascend to the #2 role appears to be DeAndre Washington.

Why Washington Comes First

After amassing an impressive 1,877 yards from scrimmage and 16 total TDs for a different colored “Red” Raiders team in his senior year at Texas Tech, DeAndre Washington’s fifth-round selection by the Raiders generated some hype heading into 2016 fantasy drafts. Playing behind the notoriously fragile Latavius Murray, he was one of the more popular handcuff/lottery tickets selected in the later rounds in all but the shallowest formats.

Unfortunately for those who took a flier on Washington in 2016, there wasn’t much of a payoff. Jack Del Rio’s heavy committee approach to the RB position likely helped keep Latavius healthy for the team’s first 14 games, meaning Washington had long since been jettisoned to the waiver wire in essentially all leagues by the time he had a chance to show us what might have been. Moreover, he didn’t record a single touch in the four-game span between November 6^th and December 18^th.

Then, in week 16, DeAndre Washington erupted for 99 yards rushing and two TD on 12 carries in one of the most irrelevant, monster fantasy championship game performances in recent memory. Although it helped nobody, it did give fantasy players a glimpse at what his upside might be with something resembling a starter’s workload. Out-touching Jalen Richard 22-13 in those final two regular season games, Washington seemed to have been slightly higher in the pecking order of the the Raiders’ committee backfield.

Fast forward to 2017 and Washington's situation hasn’t changed much. He’s a consensus borderline top-60 RB and he’s playing behind a starter, in Marshawn Lynch, who could be vulnerable to age-related decline and/or injury. Boasting the best combination of draft pedigree and experience among the other alternatives, and considering the integral role Richard plays on special teams, Washington seems to have the early edge in the competition for the #2 slot at RB. Still, the uncertainty of the RB hierarchy in Oakland has left Washington with a dirt-cheap price tag for a guy who could pay off handsomely for fantasy owners inclined to bet against a Lynch renaissance. The smart money says that somebody is going to produce at least RB2 numbers for the Raiders in 2017. While Marshawn Lynch still has the best chance, DeAndre Washington is a very appealing lottery ticket, with league-winning upside.

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