Getty Jacksonville Jaguars running back Jamaal Charles.
Jamaal Charles is back in the NFL thanks to mounting injuries in the Jacksonville Jaguars backfield, but should you add him to your fantasy team?
Jags starter Leonard Fournette is out indefinitely with a right hamstring strain. In his stead, backup T.J. Yeldon is playing through a nagging ankle injury. And during Jacksonville’s 30-14 defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday, the squad lost third-stringer Ryan Grant for the season to a Lisfranc injury.
Enter Charles, whose 19 rushing and receiving touchdowns in 2013 led the NFL.
The Case for Adding Jamaal Charles
Charles’ 5.4 yards per carry are second all-time among running backs.
The former Kansas City Chiefs star was the No. 1 standard-scoring fantasy player in the NFL in 2013, when he rushed for 1,287 yards and 12 touchdowns, and caught 70 passes for 693 yards and seven more scores.
He was the fourth-best fantasy player three seasons earlier, rushing for 1,467 yards, adding 468 through the air on 45 grabs, and scoring eight touchdowns.
In a six-season stretch with the Chiefs, Charles finished five seasons as a top-12 fantasy running back.
The Case Against Adding Jamaal Charles
Unfortunately, that stretch of brilliance ended in 2014, and was sandwiched around a 2011 campaign in which he made just two appearances before succumbing to a left ACL tear.
After an impressive return from the injury, Charles tore his right ACL five games into the Chiefs’ 2015 season. He didn’t return to the field until Week 5 the following year, but he suffered a setback with his knee that required more surgery, having played just three games.
In 2017, his first season with the Denver Broncos, Charles was healthy and efficient, averaging 4.3 yards per carry and hauling in 82.1 percent of passes thrown his way. But the Broncos hardly used him. Charles carried the ball just 69 times and was targeted on 28 passes in 14 games, and the Broncos made him a healthy scratch in Weeks 16 and 17.
Fournette’s been ruled out for Week 6, but with no set timetable, the fourth overall pick of the 2017 draft could return from his injury shortly after. Plus, Yeldon has been rolling; he’s amassed 452 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns through five games.
Should You Add Jamaal Charles?
If you’ve got the roster space and nothing better to spend it on? Sure, why not. But that’d make your team rare — don’t count on the move to pay off, because there’s probably someone better on the waiver wire.
For this pickup to hit, Yeldon and Fournette would have to be out of the lineup at the same time, and even then, a 31-year-old with two surgically repaired knees is no sure thing.