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Kansas City Chiefs: Charcandrick West has major upside this week

By Kevin Parvizi

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Unless if you are in a six-team league, Kansas City Chiefs running back Charcandrick West has already been scooped up by an opportunistic fantasy owner, looking to take advantage of Jamaal Charles‘s season-ending injury. Knile Davis used to be the obvious favorite as Charles’s emergency handcuff, but Chiefs head coach Andy Reid sees West as the back who plays most similarly to Charles, and it was Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole who first reported that Reid likes West more than Davis.

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Both running backs will get playing time going forward, as the Chiefs would be wise to take a committee approach to the situation. Davis himself believes he’s more effective in a workhorse role, but that’s unlikely to happen, unless if he really takes off. Although people like to hype him up- and he does have talent- Davis has quietly averaged just 2.5 yards per carry on 11 attempts this season.

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Worse yet, he averaged just 3.5 YPC in both of his first two seasons, which is a sample-size of 204 carries. He’s had a real nose for the end zone and has big-play ability, but Davis is way too inconsistent to be trusted with the type of role he’s looking for.

Enter West. It seems like Reid is smitten with the 2014 undrafted free agent out of Abilene Christian, and West did indeed look like an intriguing player this offseason. He’s only put up 4.0 yards per carry on just 12 rushing attempts so far this season, but his speed and quickness could prove to be big-time assets in the Chiefs backfield.

Back in mid-August, Reid said to the Associated Press, “Charcandrick, he can do everything.”

It’s that purported all-around ability that makes West the favorite to run with No. 1 running back duties in Kansas City, and projecting his pass-catching role on an Alex Smith-led offense will be especially interesting. Davis has just 28 career receptions so far in his career, and it’s extremely unlikely for him to become the Chiefs main pass-catching back. Based on Reid’s offseason praise of West and the stretched-out Charles comp, it looks like the second-year pro will be given every opportunity to be the Chiefs third-down back.

That opportunity starts tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. ET when the Chiefs travel to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Vikings. West has massive upside for fantasy owners and for the Chiefs this week, because the Vikings have had major issues stopping opposing running backs this season. Even if you try to ignore Carlos Hyde‘s trampling of the Vikings defense in Week 1 on Monday Night Football, you can’t overlook the fact that they’ve allowed a whopping 4.7 yards per carry on the ground this year.

Heck, even Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson, who have been rather poor this season, had success on the ground against Minnesota in Week 4, racking up 144 yards on the ground in that Denver Broncos victory. Neither the Detroit Lions nor San Diego Chargers fared out well on the ground against the Vikings, so that prevents a big day from West- or Davis- being a guarantee. However, the Chargers and Lions displayed some embarrassingly poor blocking in those games, and, as a whole, the Vikings are 26th in the league in both yards per carry allowed and total rushing yards surrendered.

Oct 11, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Charcandrick West (35) runs the ball during the second half against the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium. The Bears won 18-17. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

It’s also worth noting that Football Outsiders has the Vikings marked poorly for their work against running backs in the passing game, and that’s something West will need to take full advantage of this week.

He needs to claim a big role in the passing game, and this is his chance to put in some top-notch work against Eric Kendricks, Chad Greenway, and the Vikings linebackers.

While the Vikings have one of the NFL’s better defenses on paper, West has a chance to put up some strong numbers. Fantasy owners absolutely must realize that playing him in his first game with a big role is a risk, and West is very much a boom-or-bust play this week.

That said, West has plenty of “boom” to work with, because he has a favorable matchup on paper when crunching the numbers. He’s a completely unknown commodity as a player, but Reid wouldn’t put his eggs in West’s basket if he didn’t have confidence in his ability to get the job done.

I like to bet on SPARQ stars at the running back position who have the support of the coaching staff, an above-average matchup on paper, preseason success, and possible passing game upside.

One of West’s biggest sources of “bust” potential comes from Davis taking carries, but I like his chances of having a big game this week.

The Chiefs will use a committee at running back, but West looks like the more well-rounded player and probably won’t be as prone to getting stuffed as Davis, who is more of a No. 2 back due to the way he picks up yardage.

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