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Injury creates opportunity in both real life and fantasy football. On Sunday, Chicago Bears running back Jeremy Langford received that opportunity when starter Matt Forte went down with an injury.
It’s unclear at this point how significant Forte’s injury is. He was able to walk to the locker room on his own power, but he was also quickly ruled out, which is never really an optimistic sign:
Doctor David J. Chao, a former NFL head team physician who is typically quite accurate with forecasting injuries, gave his thoughts on Forte’s status:
Just saw video on MATT FORTE @ChicagoBears.
Hoping for contusion, mild hyperextension and a short term injury.
We’ll probably know more on Forte’s status in the coming days, but unless news comes out that he will be 100 percent for Week 9–which is extremely unlikely–then Langford needs to be owned in all leagues.
The fourth-round rookie out of Michigan State entered the week with just 15 carries on the season, but he immediately became the workhorse after Forte left the game, working on all three downs. He did have a costly drop late in the fourth quarter, but he looked comfortable in the running game, tallying 46 yards on 12 carries.
While Langford is still a bit of an unknown and doesn’t really break tackles like you’d like, he’s a speedy player who will be looking at a major workload if Forte needs to miss any time. Volume alone makes him an RB2, and with Forte’s status unknown, he is someone you should go after aggressively on waivers, especially if you have Forte or are in need of running back help.
