Jerick McKinnon has emerged as a fantasy difference-maker. (Photo by Cooper Neill\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nMcKinnon had the last word in Sunday’s surprisingly competitive overtime win at Houston. McKinnon’s 26-yard touchdown run ended the game and pushed McKinnon to the top of the Week 15 running back board. He finished the day with 52 rushing yards and that score, eight catches for 70 yards and another score and, just for fun, a two-point conversion catch mixed in.<\/p>\n
Welcome to the 30-point club.<\/p>\n
We often think of rookies as late-developing Polaroids in a fantasy season, but McKinnon fits that frame, too. He didn’t have a double-digit score this season until a respectable 13 points in Week 13. Then last week, McKinnon exploded for 28.9 points, vaulting to the top of the running back board. Unless someone goes off in the final two island games of Week 15, McKinnon just recorded back-to-back RB1 weeks out of nowhere.<\/p>\n
Some regression is reasonable, of course, but McKinnon’s fantasy value is unlikely to crater. He’s clearly in Andy Reid’s Circle of Trust. You’ll find McKinnon playing plenty on passing downs, sometimes as a blocker. obviously, if Patrick Mahomes<\/strong> goes down hard, the Chiefs go down hard. Mahomes was sacked just twice against 41 attempts Sunday and was not intercepted.<\/p>\nIt’s crazy that the game at Houston needed overtime, when you consider that the Chiefs racked up 502 total yards against 219 for the Texans. A couple of Kansas City fumbles didn’t help, but that doesn’t explain the game being competitive.<\/p>\n
One of the fumbles came from McKinnon’s running mate in the backfield, Pacheco. Otherwise, Pacheco looked fine \u2014 15-86-0 rushing and one catch for 11 yards. The Chiefs seem reluctant to involve him much in the hurry-up or third-down package. But it didn’t seem like Reid put Pacheco in fumble jail after the rookie’s miscue.<\/p>\n
Story continues<\/button><\/p>\nThe rest of the offense was business as usual. Mahomes was 20-for-20 when targeting his two primary guys, cheat code Travis Kelce<\/strong> (10-105-0) and JuJu Smith-Schuster<\/strong> (10-88-0). Smith-Schuster did lose a fumble, and the other Mahomes touchdown pass went off the board to Marquez Valdes-Scantling<\/strong>but we’ll gladly take 10 catches from anyone in a PPR or half-PPR format.<\/p>\nThe Chiefs have a mixed-bag schedule moving forward. Seattle’s reeling defense comes to Arrowhead Stadium next week; that’s an obvious bonanza. But Denver’s defense is on the Week 17 menu. Granted, the Chiefs and Broncos did have a shootout back in Week 14. But that’s not the defense you want to draw in championship week.<\/p>\n
But we’ll worry about championship week when we get to it. McKinnon and Pacheco are both approved for work against the Seahawks, and given McKinnon’s edge in the passing game, I’ll probably rank him higher. You have to figure the Chiefs will give a bunch of fantasy points as a holiday present.<\/p>\n
Editor’s note: Stay tuned for more fantasy booms and busts<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We’ve been searching for an answer to the Kansas City backfield all fantasy season. Clyde Edwards-Helairethe draft-capital pick, hasn’t worked out. Isaiah Pacheco, the surprise rookie, has given us moments. But maybe the right answer all along was the old guy in the group, the journeyman, the man forgotten about \u2014 30-year-old Jerick McKinnon. Jerick …<\/p>\n
Is the (new) answer to the Chiefs’ backfield Jerick McKinnon?<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs the (new) answer to the Chiefs' backfield Jerick McKinnon? - harchi90<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n