Fantasy Football Week 3: Don't even think about starting this Ravens running back!
- The Ravens backfield keeps evolving after losing J.K. Dobbins with Baltimore applying changes on a weekly basis.
- Fade this running back no matter what happens in the next few days and until we know more about the usage split.
If there is one player you don't want to have anything to do with in Week 3, that's New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley. Barkley suffered a "high ankle sprain" on Sunday, left the field with just seconds left to play, and was ruled out for Thursday Night Football against the San Francisco 49ers.
On Wednesday, the Baltimore Ravens also announced (unexpectedly) that one of their players, a running back, had also suffered an injury on Sunday forcing him out of practice and adding his name to the first injury report released by the team ahead of Week 3.
The Ravens listed Justice Hill in their injury report with a "foot" injury, but Jeremy Fowler of ESPN revealed that the running back "suffered a toe injury" against the Bengals in their intra-division clash last weekend.
#Ravens RB Justice Hill suffered a toe injury that could keep him out of the Week 3 matchup with the #Colts but shouldn’t result in a lengthy absence, per source.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) September 20, 2023
Baltimore signed vet Kenyan Drake as insurance.
The injury "shouldn't result in a lengthy absence," Fowler wrote, although Hill has yet to practice this week entering Thursday with just a few days between now and Sunday's kick-off.
Why you shouldn't start this Baltimore Ravens running back in Fantasy Football
Last Sunday I wrote about a few players worth starting and/or benching ahead of Week 2, including Mark Andrews and Tee Higgins. I hit 100 percent of my picks, just in case.
I will write another breakdown on Sunday, but here's one early piece of advice: avoid starting Justice Hill in Week 3, whether he gets cleared in time to play or not.
Hill has rushed the ball 19 times for 50 yards and two touchdowns this season. Those two touchdowns were fluky goal-line carries in Week 1 against the lowly Texans.
Last weekend, however, Hill carried the ball 11 times but only got 41 yards with no scores and was outperformed by Edwards (62 yards and a touchdown) on a lower workload (10 carries). Hill caught three passes for 12 yards to Edwards' zero-for-zero, though.
The Ravens activated Melvin Gordon ahead of Week 2 but didn't play him even a single time, leaving him on the sideline for the duration of the game. On Wednesday, Baltimore signed Kenyan Drake to their Practice Squad, which doesn't bode well for Gordon and kinda forecasts that Hill might be out for a while.
Expect Gus Edwards to lead the backfield easily this week and later until/unless Hill gets back and is 100% available, thus eating from Edwards' opportunity-pie.
Fade Melvin Gordon and Kenyan Drake for now too until we know more about how the touches are split between them in the RB2/RB3 role with Hill out, and if you have Edwards around you can consider him a low-level flier with upside if the Ravens take an early lead and just run the clock.
Injuries are already making Ravens vs. Colts look dreadful. Injuries are already making Ravens vs. Colts look dreadful. dark. Next
There is a chance Edwards does in Week 3 what Hill did in Week 1: vulturing goal-line touches and touchdowns without much more production on actual, mid-field rushing.
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