With an increased role in Week 11, and Le’Veon Bell banged up, Bilal Powell is back on the fantasy football radar.
Once upon a time (ok, 2016), Bilal Powell finished as RB16 in full-point PPR fantasy scoring. The following season also wasn’t too bad, as he came in as RB29 in full-point PPR. But a neck injury cost him a chunk of the 2018 season, and while he ultimately re-signed with the New York Jets last offseason Le’Veon Bell also notably came aboard to be the team’s clear lead back.
The talent downgrade around him compared to his peak with the Pittsburgh Steelers invited skepticism about Bell this season. He’s getting plenty of volume (161 carries and 46 receptions), but he’s quite literally having the worst season of his career with a per-carry average of 3.2 yards.
Bell has been increasingly banged up, with a knee issue added to a rib issue recently. He still got plenty of work in Week 11 against the Washington Redskins though, with 18 carries for 59 yards along with two catches for 33 yards. He also scored on the ground for the second straight game. But Powell had an increased role.
Powell saw a 23 percent snap share as well as seven carries for the second straight game last Sunday against Washington. He registered 42 yards on the ground against the Redskins, with one catch for five yards on two targets.
Barring a more serious injury, the Jets will surely not shut Bell down for the season and he’ll continue to play through his issues. Ty Montgomery saw more action than usual last week, with a 21 percent snap share (up from eight percent in Week 10), but a 34-3 lead on the way to a 34-17 win is a logical explanation for that. With the aforementioned consistent snap rate in back-to-back games, Powell is pretty clearly the fantasy handcuff to Bell in the Jets’ backfield now.
Any Bell fantasy owner is probably stuck starting him every week no matter what. But on the idea of protecting against a missed game during the most crucial stretch of the season, adding Powell has to be on radar right now. Even a non-Bell owner could add Powell as a bench stash that could pay off, and he’s essentially available in every league (0 percent owned on Yahoo!, 0.7 percent owned on ESPN).