If you want to win on the Waverwire this week in your fantasy football league, you have to get ahead of guys who are going to have actual value the rest of the season.

Which means you want to avoid the guys who just pop up for one week and aren't going to be valuable in one to two weeks and definitely in your playoff stretch. So for this week, we want to focus on the guys who can actually improve your fantasy teams. And we'll start with Kamani Vidal, the second-year player, former six-round pick on the Los Angeles Chargers, because I think the Chargers found their guide.

There was a lot of questions coming out after Marion Hampton went on IR. He's going to miss at least four, and now it seems like probably six to eight plus weeks. Who is going to be the new running back in this backfield? We got the report recently, just a couple of days ago, that he's not expected to be out for the season, which is never a good report, right? This ankle injury, not expected to be out for the season. It seems like there was some sort of structural damage in terms of like a break in the ankle. He's on track to be silent for more than four games. I'm expecting and what kind of reading between the lines is at least six to eight weeks and then they're going to re-evaluate him after that four to six week stretch and see what happens here, which means you're going to get a very good piece on the

waiver wire if you can hit on the proper Chargers running back. So what does this mean? It means that heading into week six, the biggest storyline in fantasy football was what is going to happen between Hassan Haskins, who saw more usage in week six once Amari on Hampton went out of the game and Kamani Vidal, who's a second year,

more explosive player, better pass catcher, but he didn't make the initial 53 man roster. The running backs that made the team were Amari on Hampton, Naji Harris, obviously both those guys are injured right now, and Hassan Haskins made the team over Kamani Vidal. So there was a lot of reason to believe, based on the usage we saw last week, and the fact that Haskins made the team and the fact that he was a Michigan alum with Jim Harborough,

right their time together there, that Hassan Haskins was going to lead the way. And that's exactly what happened. Hassan Haskins led the way early on in this game. Across the first 15 snaps in this game, it was Hassan Haskins being the primary runner until Kamani Vidal broke off a 30-yard run, and after it was Kamani Vidal's season. I mean in a major way. He finished the game with 18 carries compared to just six for Haskins and a massive 124 yards compared to just 14 for Haskins. Vidal was averaging 7 yards per carry, just 2.3 yards per carry for Haskins. The problem with Hassan Haskins, outside of the fact that he's not much of a pass catcher, he doesn't have a lot of burst. He's mostly a plodder, a big red zone back. He doesn't have these explosive plays like we saw from Kamani Vidal when he broke off multiple big plays, including the 38-yard run that basically broke open his day. If you look at it, to end the day, despite not seeing the majority of the snaps in the first quarter of this game, Vidal finished the game, final two to three quarters commanding the backfield. Sixty-seven percent of the total snaps led the backfield with 72 percent of the rush attempts, an elite number for a running back these days. Anything over 70 percent is usually top ten on the week in the backfields. And easily, as expected, led the backfield in Rout's run with 54%. So what does this mean? It means that moving forward, Kamani Vidal, we got our answer. I mean, maybe something happens like matchup-wise where Asan Haskin sees more usage, but it seems like Kani Vidal, both as a receiver in this game and a rusher, was the primary option and is going to be moving forward for at least probably the next five to six weeks, if not longer, which is why he is a priority, one of the biggest priorities on the Waver Wire all season. And this isn't just some guy who popped up out nowhere. Like he had the production at Troy. Sure, it was a smaller school. His final year in 23, 300 carries was a workhorse running back, over 1,600 yards.

And despite having a ton of carries, usually you see these guys get a lot of carries,

250 to 300 to 350 in college, and their efficiency falls off.

They only average 4 to 5 yards per carry.

He was averaging 6 yards per carry on 300 touches.

Oh, he also is averaging over 25 receptions per season.

If you look at this right here, multiple 25 reception seasons, this was a player who had almost 1,900 total yards in his final year of college at Troy. He kind of just sputtered out last year. J.K. Dobbins took over. Gus Edwards, the veteran. They liked more ahead of him. Hassan Haskins early on in the season had a nice receiving touchdown, but other than that, he was really quiet. I think I said Hassan Haskins have the receiving touchdown. Come on, Evedal last year as a rookie, but he was a six-round rookie stuck behind a couple of veterans.

But this year... season had a nice receiving touchdown, but other than that, he was really quiet. I think I said Hassan Haskins had the receiving touchdown.

Kamani Vidal last year is a rookie, but he was a six-round rookie stuck behind a couple of

veterans.

But this year, since other veterans, Naji Harris got injured on this team, the rookie Amari and Hampton got injured, he's getting an opportunity and he just made the most of it. So Kamani Vidal is somebody that if you want to, if you have like 50 bucks left in your fab, go put all 50 of it on Kamani Vidal because you're going to get a guy who will be an rb2 on a weekly basis during the by weeks and that worse the flex

option for probably the next one and a half to two plus months of the season until amarian hampton is back and once amari and hampton comes back maybe it's in five weeks maybe it's in six weeks we don't even know if he's going to be 100% himself being out that long and you have some atrophy building up

you have to do physical therapy all that stuff so comrade deau's going to be 100% himself being out that long and you have some atrophy building up.

You have to do physical therapy, all that stuff.

So, Camane Vidal probably going to be a starter for six more weeks in fantasy. And the next situation we have to talk about also might give us a starter, a flex optioner show in fantasy. So just when you think you have a backfield figured out, Michael Carter last week seeing 15 plus opportunities, finding the end zone. he wasn't efficient but he didn't fumble the ball at the goal line like Amari Di Mercado did. So it looked like Michael Carter moving forward was going to be the clear cut running back in this backfield. But that wasn't the case. We got just everything like a monkey wrench was thrown into things right before the game started on Sunday, which is the worst case scenario. Confusion sucks. We got a report from Adam Schaefter himself that Bam Knight was going to start ahead of Michael Carter. You could see how important this was because 1.4 million people this tweet went viral just tweeting about that. Adam Schaefter said this and I started to get a ton of questions. In the Discord, in the Patreon, Blueprint Plus members were asking me like, what do I do now with Michael Carter? And I honestly said, look, if Adam Schaefter's saying that Bam Knight's going to start,

it's going to be a pretty messy situation, and we don't even know what Amari Di Mercado is going to do. Seems like it's going to be a messy three at a backfield without Kyler Murray. So my opinion was just avoid this situation if you can, assuming you have anybody of value on your bench, I'd probably start them over Michael Carter.

And I hope people did that because for the most part, Michael Carter busted, right?

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