Anthony McFarland Jr. (RB, PIT) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED: 2% of Leagues

ANALYSIS: For the second year in a row, the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted a running back in the fourth-round while James Conner still has a firm grip on his place in the backfield. The first fourth-round draftee was former Kentucky Wildcat Benny Snell, and the 2020 edition was Maryland RB Anthony McFarland Jr. Benny has fallen on hard times in the two weeks following his impressive 19-carry, 113-yard performance in Week One, managing only 16 yards from the ground in ten attempts, one catch for negative-four yards, and a lost fumble, as his window of opportunity to solidify his spot directly behind James Conner in front of McFarland closed on a negative note.

In Anthony McFarland Jr.'s case, he didn't make his pro debut until Pittsburgh's Week Three contest  with Houston, and while he was only a part of 13% of the offensive snaps and didn't see a very telling sample size behind Conner, he made the most of the six carries and two targets he received, converting for 42 rushing yards with one catch of seven yards, decisively out-performing Benny and receiving the heftier workload in their first look at sharing the backfield with each other. He only played college football for two years, but he made key strides in that time towards becoming a more dangerous pass-catching back, and it is very promising to see glimpses of that burgeoning skill in his first sniff of the NFL. In deeper formats, Anthony McFarland Jr. is a savvy choice for depth at running back now that he appears poised to overtake Benny Snell, but the presence of James Conner atop the depth chart likely places a hard cap on McFarland's performance ceiling in a given week.

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