Damien Harris is out this week due to a concussion. Rhamondre Stevenson was able to clear the concussion protocol, but he is going to step into Harris’ role. This leaves fantasy football managers wondering what to do with Brandon Bolden. Is Bolden a viable fantasy starter in Week 10?
Brandon Bolden has been a productive fantasy asset
Through nine weeks, Bolden has produced three usable fantasy games. Some are surely thinking, “You call that a productive fantasy asset?” Take everything in context, my friends. Prior to this season, Bolden hadn’t had a usable fantasy week since his rookie season in 2012. He’d purely been a special teamer.
This season, Bolden’s given fantasy managers two RB3 weeks and an RB1 week. That is certainly way more than anyone expected, even after James White went down.
Bill Belichick cannot be trusted
Although Bolden would presumably be the next man up without Harris and Stevenson, Bill Belichick never does what we expect. In fact, Bolden’s ascendence was the product of Belichick being Belichick.
After White got hurt, the initial thought was it would be Stevenson or Taylor. Both of them are younger and actual running backs. Instead, we got a heavy dose of the 31-year-old career special-teamer.
Bolden was the guy last week
While Belichick is unpredictable, we certainly shouldn’t ignore what happened last week. After head injuries to Harris and Stevenson left Bolden as the lone remaining active running back, he played well. Bolden carried the ball 8 times for 54 yards and caught both of his targets for 27 yards.
Bolden played 47% of the offensive snaps last week. That marked his highest snap share since 2015. The Patriots will go into Sunday’s game with Brandon as their primary passing-down back behind Stevenson.
Can fantasy managers start Bolden this week?
Whether you start Bolden should come down to your specific lineup situation. With guys like Alvin Kamara and Chase Edmonds out, along with injuries to Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley, it’s likely someone in each league needs Bolden.
If Bolden is just depth on your team, by no means should you force him into lineups. The Browns allow the 10th-fewest fantasy points to running backs. This game also has all the makings of a slow-paced, low-scoring affair, with a lot of running. While Bolden may get the bulk of his carries, fantasy managers need him catching passes.
There have also been whispers of the Patriots using Jonnu Smith a bit more at running back. Do not put it past Belichick to do some wonky stuff this week.
However, Bolden should still see enough work to come with an RB3 floor. If he can somehow find the end zone, he will reward fantasy managers for believing in him. I wouldn’t start Bolden over anyone established, but he should be a solid bye week/injury replacement RB3.