Tony Pollard (RB, DAL) - Week 16 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED: 45% of Leagues

ANALYSIS: The lone thing keeping Tony Pollard from being your weekly RB1 is Ezekiel Elliott's contract and its implications. Of course, Jerry Jones--and HC Mike McCarthy by extension--won't bench Zeke in favor of a secondary player in Pollard, if only out of stubbornness. But man, has Pollard played to top-tier levels lately.

Elliott played 63 percent of the Cowboys W14 game against Cincinnati, scoring 7.9 PPR points (12 carries, 3 targets). In relief, Pollard appeared on the remaining 37 percent of plays, logging just 11 carries and 2 target but outscoring Zeke with 12.8 PPR points. Pollard also scored a touchdown (receiving) to Zeke's goose age in that department.

Now, with Zeke entirely out of the gridiron yesterday, Pollard was handed the ball 12 times, rushed for 69 yards and two touchdowns, and also finished with 6-of-9 receptions for 63 extra yards through the air. No wonder this game was Pollard's best of the season to the tune of 31.2 PPR points and an RB1 (sixth-best fantasy player overall pending MNF) finish in W15.

The fact that Dallas is somehow still fighting for the playoffs will undoubtedly make Elliott the RB1 ROS as long as he's healthy enough to play. Is that something on the horizon? Hard to tell. Elliott was assumed to play through the pain this past Sunday, but he (and/or Dallas) opted not to. That could very well be the case next week again. If that happens, Pollard should be insta-played in virtually every league, let alone WW-targeted by all GMs in deeper formats.

If there is a replacement-RB with RB1 and league-winning upside, that's Pollard. And the best of all is that even if he is "forced" to play the RB2 role in the Cowboys offense he still has RB2/RB3 upside on that limited role. Must-add player.

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