LATAVIUS MURRAY - RB NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
Start Him
For many of us, we are in the “witching hour” of the fantasy season as Scott Hanson from NFL Redzone would say; it’s a time where wins become losses and losses becomes wins. Taking advantage of the opportunities presented is more important than ever on the cusp of the fantasy playoffs. It is also a time to be incredibly vigilant when it comes to making the right moves for your team, and part of that is taking advantage of trends occurring in the NFL.
One of those trends is happening with the New Orleans Saints. With Taysom Hill at quarterback, Alvin Kamara has seemed like an entirely different player. In the past two weeks, Kamara has one total catch and has three total targets. Before Hill came in at QB, Kamara's lowest amount of targets on the season was 4 targets. Hopefully Sean Payton makes Hill throw the ball to him, but until Drew Brees is back, that might not be happening too often.
On the other hand, Latavius Murray has benefitted from the introduction of Hill as the starting quarterback. This is mostly due to there now being some confusion to who will run the ball when Murray is on the field. Previously, with Brees at QB, when Murray was in the backfield, the run was about as obvious as Sean Bean meeting a brutal demise in a film or show. However, with Hill, there is an extra possibility leaving less certainty when Murray lines up behind the line. In this past game, he had 124 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns and even had more receiving yards than Kamara, which is very telling. I expect this positive trend for Murray to continue with them facing the Atlanta Falcons for the second time in three weeks. He should put up decent numbers against that Flacons defense that is not nearly as good as the Las Vegas Raiders made them look. I don’t know if they'll be the same numbers he did in this past week, but I think it makes Murray a viable option to play in your flex spot. You should also start Kamara because he is just that good, but Murray has been given the right set of circumstances to do well with Hill at quarterback.
