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After many questions regarding his availability a week ago, the New Orleans Saints decided to activate and play all-pro running back Alvin Kamara in their Week 6 game against the Jaguars. Kamara was noticeably slowed by the ankle injury that held him out for the majority of practices leading up to the contest. So much so that the team decided to give fellow running back Latavius Murray his most prominent workload of the season, carrying the ball just three times less than Kamara in the game.
It seems as if Kamara’s ankle has not healed the way he, nor the Saints, would have liked. In fact, it may have gotten worse. Kamara has been ruled out for Week 7, and could miss the next few games.
Murray is the most logical player to benefit from a fantasy perspective due to the absence of Kamara. Yet, how much will a gruesome matchup with the Chicago Bears limited his starting viability in your lineups? Let’s take a look.
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Latavius Murray’s Fantasy Outlook vs. Chicago Bears
Latavius Murray has been constantly undervalued and criminally underutilized during his now six-year career. The former UCF Knight has never averaged less than 4.0 yards per carry over any of the three different stops he’s made along his NFL journey. That has not changed one bit over his first six games as a New Orleans Saint. Murray has averaged 4.3 yards per carry serving as a complement to Alvin Kamara in the running game.
Murray saw a season-high in touches (11) snaps (28) and yards from scrimmage (79) in Week 6. Those yards would have seen a 42 yard bump had it not been for a holding penalty that nullified a Murray touchdown on a screen pass from Teddy Bridgewater.
Murray’s usage is bound to continue to increase in Week 7 with the loss of Kamara. Kamara is currently tied for the fifth-most touches in the NFL in 2019. There is no other running back on the roster besides Murray worthy of consuming the majority of his workload left behind. Fellow running backs Dwayne Washington and Zach Zenner have not logged a single touch all season.
While Murray will undoubtedly be the workhorse in the Saints backfield on Sunday, he will have his work cut out for him against the vaunted Chicago Bears defense. Chicago allows the fifth-fewest rushing yards per game in 2019. Not to be outdone by themselves, they currently rank as the third-best defense in terms of allowed yards per carry with a minuscule 3.30. While those numbers are certainly daunting, that doesn’t mean there aren’t fantasy points to be had against them.
Over the Bears past two games, they’ve allowed an average of 21.9 points to the likes of Dalvin Cook and Josh Jacobs. However, Cook only totaled 35 rushing yards and the ground, and saved his performance by finding the endzone.
The good news for Murray’s owners is that he has shown a nose for the endzone throughout his career, totaling 26 rushing touchdowns from 2016-2018.
Should You Start or Sit Latavius Murray in Week 7?
Just because he’s the RB1 for the Saints on Sunday, doesn’t mean he’ll produce like an RB1 for your fantasy team. Still, Murray offers touchdown upside matched with a high-usage rate in a week where the running back position is littered with studs either on a bye or injured.
Murray should be started this week, however he more of a high-end RB3, low-end RB2 vs. the Bears as the matchup is less than ideal.
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