The Giants are signing Devonta Freeman, on the same day they placed Saquon Barkley on injured reserve with a torn ACL. Can we therefore say that fantasy teams can replace the No. 2 overall pick in most drafts with a waiver wire pickup? Well, yes and no.
It was clear they had to add somebody. Dion Lewis is a smaller, complementary type running back, and Wayne Gallman isn't highly thought of -- he was a healthy scratch in Week 2. Lewis carried 10 times for 20 yards in place of Barkley last week, but he can be an asset in the passing game. He caught 4 of 5 passes sent his way for 36 yards at Chicago.
Freeman will reportedly today, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him in the starting lineup on Sunday. Most likely all three backs will be active, and maybe Freeman splits carries with Gallman and loses passing downs work to Lewis. But ultimately, once he picks up the offense, he should be the guy.
Freeman is 28, and although that might seem young, we seem to be seeing plenty of players losing a lot of steam at that age, either due to wear and tear, injuries, or perhaps conditioning. Whatever the case, Freeman definitely isn't the difference maker he was earlier in his career.
Last year 41 backs played at least 10 games, as either a starter or as a full-time 3rd down back. (I removed clear committee guys from consideration, which wiped out the San Francisco backs, for example.) Freeman shows up 19th in terms of fantasy points per game. Not bad, but in 2015 and 2016 he was a top 7 running back, and in 2017 he was 14th. So it's been a steady decline.
| RUNNING BACKS PER GAME, 2019 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | Att | Run | No | Rec | Total | TD | PPR |
| Christian McCaffrey | 16 | 17.9 | 86.7 | 7.3 | 62.8 | 149.5 | 1.21 | 29.5 |
| Dalvin Cook | 14 | 17.9 | 81.1 | 3.8 | 37.1 | 118.1 | .93 | 21.2 |
| Derrick Henry | 15 | 20.2 | 102.7 | 1.2 | 13.7 | 116.4 | 1.20 | 20.0 |
| Aaron Jones | 16 | 14.8 | 67.8 | 3.1 | 29.6 | 97.4 | 1.19 | 19.9 |
| Ezekiel Elliott | 16 | 18.8 | 84.8 | 3.4 | 26.3 | 111.1 | .88 | 19.7 |
| Austin Ekeler | 16 | 8.3 | 34.8 | 5.8 | 62.1 | 96.9 | .69 | 19.6 |
| Saquon Barkley | 13 | 16.7 | 77.2 | 4.0 | 33.7 | 110.8 | .62 | 18.8 |
| Alvin Kamara | 14 | 12.2 | 56.9 | 5.8 | 38.1 | 95.0 | .43 | 17.9 |
| Leonard Fournette | 15 | 17.7 | 76.8 | 5.1 | 34.8 | 111.6 | .20 | 17.4 |
| Mark Ingram | 15 | 13.5 | 67.9 | 1.7 | 16.5 | 84.3 | 1.04 | 16.4 |
| Nick Chubb | 16 | 18.6 | 93.4 | 2.3 | 17.4 | 110.8 | .50 | 16.3 |
| Chris Carson | 15 | 18.5 | 82.0 | 2.5 | 17.7 | 99.7 | .60 | 16.0 |
| Melvin Gordon | 12 | 13.5 | 51.0 | 3.5 | 24.7 | 75.7 | .75 | 15.6 |
| Kenyan Drake (total) | 14 | 12.1 | 58.4 | 3.6 | 24.6 | 83.0 | .60 | 15.4 |
| Todd Gurley | 15 | 14.9 | 57.1 | 2.1 | 13.8 | 70.9 | .96 | 14.9 |
| Josh Jacobs | 13 | 18.6 | 88.5 | 1.5 | 12.8 | 101.2 | .54 | 14.9 |
| James Conner | 10 | 11.6 | 46.4 | 3.4 | 25.1 | 71.5 | .70 | 14.8 |
| LeVeon Bell | 15 | 16.3 | 52.6 | 4.4 | 30.7 | 83.3 | .29 | 14.5 |
| Devonta Freeman | 14 | 13.1 | 46.9 | 4.2 | 29.3 | 76.1 | .43 | 14.4 |
| Devin Singletary | 10 | 13.8 | 69.2 | 2.9 | 19.4 | 88.6 | .40 | 14.2 |
| Joe Mixon | 16 | 17.4 | 71.1 | 2.2 | 17.9 | 89.0 | .50 | 14.1 |
| Miles Sanders | 16 | 11.2 | 51.1 | 3.1 | 31.8 | 82.9 | .40 | 13.8 |
| James White (3rd) | 15 | 4.5 | 17.5 | 4.8 | 43.0 | 60.5 | .42 | 13.4 |
| Damien Williams | 11 | 10.1 | 45.3 | 2.7 | 19.4 | 64.6 | .64 | 13.0 |
| Marlon Mack | 14 | 17.6 | 77.9 | 1.0 | 5.9 | 83.8 | .60 | 13.0 |
| Phillip Lindsay | 16 | 14.0 | 63.2 | 2.2 | 12.3 | 75.4 | .44 | 12.4 |
| David Montgomery | 16 | 15.1 | 55.6 | 1.6 | 11.6 | 67.1 | .44 | 10.9 |
| Ronald Jones | 16 | 10.8 | 45.3 | 1.9 | 19.3 | 64.6 | .38 | 10.6 |
| Tarik Cohen (3rd) | 16 | 4.0 | 13.3 | 4.9 | 28.5 | 41.8 | .19 | 10.2 |
| Adrian Peterson | 15 | 14.1 | 59.9 | 1.1 | 9.5 | 69.3 | .33 | 10.1 |
| Carlos Hyde | 16 | 15.3 | 66.9 | .6 | 2.6 | 69.5 | .38 | 9.8 |
| Duke Johnson (3rd) | 16 | 5.2 | 25.6 | 2.8 | 25.6 | 51.3 | .31 | 9.8 |
| Sony Michel | 16 | 15.4 | 57.0 | .8 | 5.9 | 62.9 | .44 | 9.7 |
| Chris Thompson (3rd) | 11 | 3.4 | 12.5 | 3.8 | 34.4 | 46.9 | .00 | 8.5 |
| Jaylen Samuels (3rd) | 14 | 4.7 | 12.5 | 3.4 | 21.8 | 34.3 | .14 | 7.6 |
| Nyheim Hines (3rd) | 16 | 3.3 | 12.4 | 2.8 | 20.0 | 32.4 | .25 | 7.5 |
| Peyton Barber | 16 | 9.6 | 29.4 | 1.0 | 7.2 | 36.6 | .46 | 7.4 |
| Jalen Richard (3rd) | 16 | 2.4 | 9.1 | 2.3 | 20.2 | 29.3 | .00 | 5.2 |
| Dare Ogunbowale (3rd) | 16 | .7 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 17.9 | 18.9 | .13 | 4.8 |
| Giovani Bernard (3rd) | 16 | 3.3 | 10.6 | 1.9 | 14.6 | 25.3 | .00 | 4.4 |
| Dion Lewis (3rd) | 15 | 2.6 | 9.4 | 1.6 | 9.7 | 19.1 | .07 | 3.9 |
That being said, a top-20 running back is a pretty decent starter, especially with top guys dropping like flies. If Freeman is healthy and can push Gallman and Lewis off the field most of the time, he should be pretty good.
The key running back pickups are Mike Davis and Freeman. Davis will likely be better over the next month, but in 4-6 weeks, he'll be a backup again. Freeman could be the Giants main back the rest of the way. I'm going to slot Davis higher, because I want the superior all-around production (including a handful of catches per game) over the next month-plus. The Giants could use a committee, and maybe Freeman isn't the back he used to be (he wasn't aggressively pursued this offseason). He's also less likely to be able to stay healthy. But a close second, I think.
--Andy Richardson