Rashad Jennings

Week Fourteen Drop: It's time once again to drop Rashad Jennings. Jennings suffered a concussion last weekend against the Bills, but had been averaging a whopping 2.8 yards per carry this season before that. If, and that's a big "if," he passes his concussion tests, he may get some playing time until Maurice Jones-Drew is healthy enough to return. At this point you can't even view Jennings as a handcuff though since he plays so poorly when given starting reps. For once and for all, I'm dropping Rashad Jennings.

Week Thirteen Analysis: With a 2.8 yards per carry average, it's not surprising that Rashad Jennings lost the job to Jalen Parmele last week. But, Parmele was placed on IR on Wednesday and Maurice Jones-Drew is still not ready to come back, so Jennings gets one more crack at a start. The hope for Jennings comes with the matchup against Buffalo. The Bills have allowed a league-high 16 touchdowns to running backs this season and are allowing the third-most rushing yards per game. Not only that, every running back that has logged 17 touches against the Bills this season has scored. In Jennings last five starts he has had 17 or more touches three times.

Week Twelve Drop: Last Sunday's benching of Rashad Jennings was long overdue. He averaged a crappy 43 yards per game, 2.9 yards per carry, and .25 touchdowns per game since taking over for Maurice Jones-Drew. Jalen Parmele got the start, and a lot of work last week. Although Parmele didn't do much to distinguish himself on Sunday, I don't see Jennings getting much work between now and the return of MoJo.

Week Ten Analysis: Rashad Jennings has averaged 49 rushing yards on less than 3.0 yards per carry in his last three games, which is disappointing for a guy who'd looked promising in limited action his first two seasons. Clearly, it's a bad situation playing in an anemic offense, but he should still be able to get something going this week against the Colts. In eight games, Indianapolis has given up 10 touchdowns and 150 combo yards per game to opposing backs. Maurice Jones-Drew averaged 168 combo yards in his last three meetings with the Colts, so with Jennings likely to touch the ball around 20 times, he'll have a chance to do some damage.

Week Nine Analysis: While it hasn't been pretty, Rashad Jennings has topped 100 combo yards in back-to-back games, which is something Maurice Jones-Drew hasn't done this year. In those two games, Jennings received a robust 38 carries, but totaled just 103 yards. Fortunately, one of those carries resulted in a touchdown, and he's been very active through the air, totaling 13 catches for 114 yards. Detroit has give up just three touchdowns to opposing backs through seven games, and the high-water mark has been 31 receiving yards. It's not an optimal matchup, but Jennings' sizable workload should continue to yield solid numbers.

Week Eight Analysis: A Maurice Jones-Drew foot injury has opened the door for premiere backup Rashad Jennings. While he managed just 44 yards on 21 carries against the Raiders in relief of MoJo last week, Jennings did score, and he also chipped in seven catches for 58 yards. Jennings' only other 20-plus-touch effort came in the final week of last season, when he scored and totaled 142 combo yards in Houston, so he's more than capable of producing when given the chance. Green Bay is a neutral opponent that's given up three rushing scores in the last two weeks, so Jennings is certainly viable.

Week Eight Adds: Unless I'm misreading the tea leaves, it looks like Maurice Jones-Drew is going to miss several games, maybe a month, and maybe longer. As I tape this, a full diagnosis of his injury wasn't available, but when a player gets ruled out of Sunday's game on Monday, he's waaaay off. Rashad Jennings will fill in, and he's a very capable backup, far better than most. Jennings has the strength to break tackles, good hands, and strong instincts. He'd be a starter in a third of the NFL's teams. The Jaguars short term schedule isn't great for runners, but he's still going to be startable as an RB2 most weeks. I'd bid around $20 for him, under the assumption that MoJo will miss 3ish weeks. If the prognosis is longer, you could double that amount. If MoJo is out for the year, or has a lisfranc injury, you could easily bid a full $50-60 for Jennings.

Week One: For at least one week, Rashad Jennings will dominate the backfield touches for Jacksonville. He looked the part of a legitimate starter this preseason, and in 123 career carries, he's scored five times and averaged 5.4 yards per-attempt. There's nothing intimidating about the Vikings' once-dominant run defense, and over the final five games of last season they were embarrassed by less-than-spectacular starting backs: Michael Bush, Willis McGahee and Darren Sproles each scored and topped 110 combo yards, Evan Royster rolled up 147 combo yards, and even the unemployed Kahlil Bell managed 82 yards. Feel free to start Jennings with confidence.