DeAngelo Williams Could Hurt Le’Veon Bell’s Fantasy Value

By Joel Childers | Sep 11, 2015

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell was the second highest drafted player in ESPN Fantasy Football drafts this season, behind only Vikings star Adrian Peterson, and that was with fantasy owners knowing full well that Bell would miss the first two games of the season due to a suspension. Clearly, people thought that 14 games of Le’Veon Bell would be worth more than a full 16 games of any other player (aside from Peterson).

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In the NFL season opener, Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams had an excellent game in relief of the suspended Bell, leading many to be worried that he may dig into Bell’s production even after the starter returns. Williams’ 127 yards on 21 carries were good for 12 fantasy points in ESPN standard leagues, and likely were enough to land him in the top-20 among running backs in fantasy scoring for Week 1.

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Williams will get another chance to carry the team’s workload next week, and we will get to see then whether this level of production is repeatable. Certainly Williams isn’t as talented as Le’Veon Bell, and won’t truly compete for a large share of the workload, but if he can be as productive and efficient as he was last night, he may carve out a larger role than many people expected.

Williams averaged over 6 yards per carry against what we thought would be a solid New England defense, good for the highest YPC average he has had since December of 2012, when he ran for 210 yards in a game against New Orleans.

This reminds us that DeAngelo Williams’ days of being a dominant running back are likely behind him. Gone are the days when he can total over 1,000 yards from scrimmage, or lead the league in total touchdowns. Williams hasn’t averaged over 4.3 yars per carry since 2011, and may never do so again.

He’s certainly going to be a backup to Le’Veon Bell, and should never even come close to having as many carries as Bell in any game they both play, but he may have a bigger role than many people expected. In 2014, Williams averaged only 3.5 yards per carry, the least in his career, and managed to play in only 6 games due to injuries. In fact, he’s played in all 16 games only once in his career, and at age 32 it is easy to imagine his career to be coming to a rocky end.

The former Memphis star has other plans, and won’t die off easily. He kicked off the 2015 season with a bang, including five runs of over 10 yards, more than he had in his entire 2014 season. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin wasn’t particularly phased by his excellent performance:

"“We’re not surprised by what he did tonight,” Tomlin said after the game (Per Jacob Klinger of PennLive.com). “As a matter of fact, we expect it.”"

The Steelers may know better than anyone what they have in DeAngelo Williams, and they may already have plans to get him the ball more often than we have been expecting. Fantasy owners have been drafting Le’Veon Bell expecting him to have a monstrous season, and that may still be the case. If Williams plays at this level regularly though, it will be tough to keep him off the field entirely.

The Pittsburgh Steelers should have one of the league’s top offenses this year, and they have two of fantasy football’s top players in Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. If DeAngelo Williams takes away some of Bell’s carries, however, fantasy owners may be wishing they had drafted Jamaal Charles or Eddie Lacy instead.

Next: Fantasy Football: Top 10 Sleepers for Week 1

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