With electrifying lead back Jamaal Charles done for the season after tearing his ACL on a non-contact play during their game against the Chicago Bears this past weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs and fantasy football owners suddenly face a conundrum - what to do with the remaining backs in KC. Charcandrick West is shifty and most closely resembles Charles, but he's unproven with just 12 professional rushing attempts and 48 yards to his name. Knile Davis is a bigger back with some talent, but he's never averaged more than 3.5 yards per carry in his career. He's averaging 2.5 thus far this season. And recently promoted practice squadder Spencer Ware last saw NFL action with the Seattle Seahawks in 2013 when he rushed three times for 10 yards. So, what does it all mean for fantasy owners?
Beware the dreaded committee approach.
"You know you're not going to replace Jamaal. He's one of the best. Really, when it's all said and done, one of the best in the history of the game," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said this week, via ESPN. "That's not how you go about it. You find out and (take advantage of) the strengths of those other players. And that's the challenge as a coach, to make sure you're putting them in a good position to do that. We've had some success at that position doing that. Knile's had some big games for us here when he's been called on. And then Charcandrick is getting better every week, so we can surely move forward and still be successful there."
Davis has looked the part of a starting-caliber NFL running back at points over the past two seasons, but simply lacks the explosiveness to warrant a three-down role. And unless West has some type of hidden, Charles-like potential that the NFL world simply hasn't seen yet, he's a poor bet for consistent production as well.
In the end, the best choice for the Chiefs, as Reid intimated, is probably a three-headed approach with Davis taking the lead on downs one and two and West working in as a third-down back who could potentially take on more eventually should he prove capable. And what this means in the here and now for fantasy owners is that the Chiefs backfield is nearly toxic.
That could change if one of the three backs set to try and replace Charles takes the top role and, literally, runs with it. But unless you want to spend your next couple of weekends betting on one runner or the other to take the spot and/or praying that either Davis or West can squeak out an altogether unexpected score, you'd better search elsewhere for quality running back output.
