By
Vincent Frank on Saturday, September 13
th 2014
Let's face reality here for a second. And let's use fantasy football to make a point as it relates to said reality. We have heard all those skeptics come out over the past week indicating that we can't look at the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson issues through a fantasy lens.
Those who conclude this seem to act a bit high and mighty from the keyboards on their computers or smart phones. But reality is as follows:
Fantasy sports is a multi-billion dollar industry with as many as 40 million Americans playing it on a regular basis. To indicate that we should just ignore this when focusing on the issues of the day around the NFL is a fantasy in and of itself.
Now with that primer, let's check in on what the past week ( an incredibly dark week for the NFL) might mean to fantasy football moving forward.
Ray Rice Suspension
After TMZ released the video of Rice beating his then-fiancee Janay Palmer in a casino elevator, it was readily apparent that the former Pro Bowl running back wouldn't be seeing action on a football field anytime soon. Just a few hours later, Baltimore release Rice and the NFL suspended him indefinitely.
As it relates to Rice's career and his spot on your dynasty rosters, much like the NFL...just move on. At 27 years old and with 1,800 touches under his belt, Rice is as good as done. This doesn't even take into account the fact that he stands a very small chance of suiting up in a NFL game again.
With Rice out of the mix in Baltimore, Bernard Pierce took over the primary ball-carrier duties against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night. And the results were fantastic. Pierce put up 103 yards on 23 touches. This came against a Steelers defense that ranked in the top half of the NFL against fantasy running backs last season.
Moving forward, Pierce could very well be a decent FLEX play in standard leagues. Rice averaged 14.3 touches per game in 2013. With no one to really pick up the slack for that outside of Pierce, you can expect to see the running back potentially double his touch average of 9.5 from 2013. Through two games, he's at about 15 touches per outing. That will only increase as the Ravens attempt to find more balance on offense. Remember, Flacco attempted over 60 passes in their Week 1 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. That number decreased to 29 on Thursday against Pittsburgh. Expect him to be closer to the 30-attempt plateau as the season progresses.
Adrian Peterson Arrest
This is a little less clear cut. Peterson, who was arrested early Saturday morning on child abuse charges, will not be active for Minnesota's Week 2 game against the New England Patriots. Without their best player, the Vikings are likely going to have to change their game plan a great deal on the fly.
In the long term, we have no idea how the NFL and the Vikings are going to react to Peterson's arrest. The league indicated on Saturday that this situation falls under its personal conduct policy. Roger Goodell (who I won't be covering here) has usually let the legal system play out before handing out suspensions. But that could very well change with the entire scandal that has enveloped the league over the past week. It is in a vulnerable place right now and seems to be fighting a major PR battle. This could indicate that Goodell (potentially through the Vikings) may hand down a severe punishment prior to the legal situation playing out.
In any event, the expectation here has to be that Peterson will not play in the short term. Outside of your own opinion, which may simply include dropping him completely, common sense seems to indicate a wait and see approach. This is to say (from purely a fantasy football aspect) your season is already lost of you cut a player that you likely selected in the top five of your fantasy draft.
Short term really should be the focus here. Some indicate that Matt Asiata is a potentially under-the-radar pick up in Minnesota. And his performance in limited action last season might prove this to be true. He scored three touchdowns on 41 attempts when both Peterson and Toby Gerhart were beat up. But the former undrafted free agent from Utah also averaged just 3.8 yards per attempt. His ceiling is limited simply because the running back isn't quite that dynamic.
On the other hand, rookie third-round pick Jerick McKinnon may be the higher-upside option. He's also someone that plenty of people are sleeping on at this point. The Georgia Southern product put up 108 yards on 22 attempts during the preseason. He also added four receptions.
The idea behind adding McKinnon would be to hide him on your bench while the Vikings experiment with Asiata, at which point you can elevate him to a potential FLEX role should Mike Zimmer and Co. make the switch to the rookie. The odds of this happening at some point in the not-so-distant future are great.