The game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens should kick off sometime in the afternoon of Wednesday, December 2nd, a full six days after its scheduled date. Another major change is that the Steelers will be starting second-year running back Benny Snell with their usual starter James Conner out after he tested positive. But after everything Week 12 has thrown at us, can we trust Benny Snell in fantasy football this week? Let’s look into it.
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Benny Snell’s history
Benny Snell is from my hometown of Westerville, Ohio. He went to a high school that isn’t too far from my parents’ house, so I’ve been a fan of his for quite some time now. Even after he went to the University of Kentucky, a school I hate as a University of Cincinnati graduate, I kept up with him and was pleased to see him continue to do well in college. When the Steelers drafted him, I was again happy to hear it, even though I’m a Cincinnati Bengals fan. I felt like this kid was finally going to make a name for himself in the NFL.
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Sure, his Combine results weren’t great. He had a RAS of 3.48 when he entered the NFL, meaning his measurables were better than only 35% of all athletes measured since 1987. His score was low due to his slow speed, where he put up a 4.66 40-yard dash time. He also didn’t have good explosion with a paltry 29.5 inch vertical. He wasn’t exactly speedy or shifty, but he was definitely built to take hits, which fit the Steelers’ offense well.
Benny Snell was lucky enough to show some of his talents in 2019 as a rookie. His best performance of the year came in his first NFL start in Week 8 against the Bengals. Snell rushed 21 times for 98 yards, a 4.7 yards per carry average. He caught one pass for five yards and put him over 100 total yards on the day. Snell and the Steelers won that day, but I felt more like Snell himself was the winner. He proved that he could handle a solid workload when called upon, which he’s now being asked to do again.
James Conner out for Week 12
Benny Snell started a second game in 2019, in Week 17, but that was likely because the team was out of contention, and there was no reason to risk Conner getting hurt. Snell hasn’t started any other games in his short career, but he has seen spot work throughout the season. Now that James Conner is out, all eyes will be on Snell, but Conner wasn’t exactly lighting it up himself this year.
On the season, Conner is RB17 with 134 PPR points. He has 145 rushes for 645 yards (4.5 ypc) and five touchdowns to go along with 25 catches for 145 receiving yards. Conner has a Consistency Score (CS) of 4.16 (RB21), meaning he’s been slightly underperforming his stats as of late. It’s hard to blame Conner, though, as it really just appears that the offense is trying to throw the ball more than run it this year. With James Conner definitely out this week, how will the running game hold up?
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been much more consistent for fantasy. He’s QB8 in CS and QB13 in PPR scoring, meaning he’s overperformed his stats a little. He’s more consistent than he is explosive, but for fantasy football that’s not a bad thing. Now that Conner is officially ruled out, it’s not hard to imagine that the Steelers offense will rely even more on the passing game, but can Benny Snell find enough action to make him worth starting in fantasy?
Benny Snell’s fantasy outlook
At this point, if you have Snell in your lineup, your options are all but gone to change your mind. Week 12 is all but done, so it’s more likely that Snell is your last hope to pull off a win this week. That being said, the Baltimore defense is one that scares me in general, and even more so against a backup running back.
On the season, Baltimore is 23rd against the running back position in Defense Points Against Consistency (DPAC), meaning they’re generally stout against opposing RBs. Given that they’re dealing with some positive tests of their own, both on offense and defense, it’s hard to say exactly what kind of team we will see on the field. Baltimore could be exactly what we expect, but they could be a much worse version of themselves, leaving Snell as someone who can exploit them.
Even though some of the data tells me otherwise, my gut tells me that Benny Snell’s fantasy outlook should be solid this week, putting up something like 20 carries for 100 yards and a score. Given how this entire season has gone, those numbers would be solid RB1 type numbers most weeks. Like I said, if he’s in your lineup, you’re pretty much out of time to tinker. Given everything on the field and all the uncertainty that this game involves, you could definitely do worse this week.
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