Shawn Siegele dives into the running back landscape ahead of Week 5, including players who could be expensive buys on next week’s waiver wire.
Although D’Andre Swift left Week 3 with a multi-week injury and Jonathan Taylor missed last night’s mid-week affair, 2022’s first landscape-altering blow came when Javonte Williams was lost to an ACL tear. Much like recent season-ending injuries to Travis Etienne, Cam Akers, and J.K. Dobbins, this is a devastating development for the young runner who will now lose a year of his prime.
After posting above-average peripherals the last two seasons even as he aged, Melvin Gordon made this fall’s Zero RB Candidates Countdown. Sadly, that listing is now in position to pay off, although the Broncos have been a disaster in the early days of the Russell Wilson/Nathaniel Hackett pairing. Offensive context was a big part of the thesis for Gordon, but he managed 103 yards from scrimmage on 18 touches in his first game without Williams.
Gordon’s struggles with fumbles over the first month also created serious waiver-wire interest in Mike Boone and Latavius Murray.
There wasn’t much time to get Murray up to speed on a short week, but Boone looked explosive as the sidekick on Thursday night.
For readers/listeners interested in how to approach bidding on these complicated backfields, Ben Gretch and I put together an episode on waivers bidding strategy for Stealing Bananas.
