MELVIN GORDON III - RB DENVER BRONCOS

Sit Him

Alright, so I’d just like to say in regard to my pick last week that I am sorry. I only saw the best qualities in Mayfield and forgot that he plays for the damn Browns. I let the positives and potentials blind me from the toxicity that is the Cleveland. I’ve taken a step back and reevaluated my decisions and hopefully this is my RDJ eating Burger King moment in the hopes that I can emerge from that rock bottom and came back in Iron Man-esque fashion.

For this week, I’m going to alter a bit from the previous week and go with a player that I think you should have on your bench. I am choosing the Denver Broncos running back Melvin Gordon III. This is not me saying he is a bad player by any means; in fact, he had a pretty good game against the Titans with 78 yards and a touchdown as well as three receptions for 8 yards. He went into that game as the lead back getting 15 carries to Phillip Lindsay’s seven. The three catches for a running back versus the one to Lindsay is also a pretty big deal because it shows that Drew Lock can rely on him in the passing game as well. He is also positioned himself as the clear RB 1 for that team now that Lindsay will be out for a few games. Given all these positive attributes coming off of week one, it seems like he should be a definite start. It does seem like that for sure, but here’s where the cake becomes a lie… the Steelers Defense.

The Steelers defense played lights out against the run versus the Giants’ Saquon Barkley at running back, who most picked in the top three players of their draft. Barkley had the same number of rushing attempts as Gordon with 15 but only managed to get a net total of 6 yards from that. If that isn’t scary enough for the running back who rushed for over 1,000 yards last year, here’s two scoops worth of facts that make this Steelers Defense look like the demon spawn of Freddy Kreuger and Jason Vorhees. The player with the most rushing yards on the Giants was their quarterback, Daniel Jones. He outrushed Barkley almost four to one with his 22 rushing yards. The devastating right hook in this combo of frightening facts is that Barkley’s longest rush of the night was for seven yards, meaning that most of his rushes were for negative yards. To his credit, Barkley did catch six passes for 60 yards, but I don’t expect that to happen with Gordon III this Sunday.

I understand the temptation is there because Gordon III is a solid RB 1 for the Broncos and performed well in the opener, but much like an apple in the Garden of Eden, playing a running back against the Steelers Defense should be avoided at all costs for the foreseeable future.