After missing four games with an ankle injury, all signs are pointing toward Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams coming off the injured reserve and returning to action this week. But is that enough to get him the start over Royce Freeman in fantasy football managers’ lineups? Let’s look at the fantasy outlook for each player this week.
Should You Start Kyren Williams or Royce Freeman This Week?
In the Pro Football Network Start/Sit Optimizer, our Consensus Rankings say that Williams is the player to start. His projected 10.5 points include 40 rushing yards, four catches, and 30 receiving yards. That projected stat line outperforms the consensus projection of Freeman (6.4 points).
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My ranking for these two running backs aligns with the consensus. Williams was on a roll before his injury, and if healthy, he needs to go back in starting lineups on most fantasy teams.
Fantasy Outlook for Williams This Week
Before his ankle injury sidelined him for five weeks and four games, Williams was playing like a true RB1 in fantasy lineups. In his final game before the injury back in Week 6, Williams rushed for a career-high 158 yards and a touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals, who happen to be the Rams’ Week 12 opponent.
Williams’ numbers over the first six weeks were impressive, to say the least. He was averaging 93.5 scrimmage yards a game and had seven total touchdowns in those six games.
He appeared to be coming into his own right before his injury, with the first two 100-yard rushing games of his career coming in a three-week stretch. Over those last three games before the injury, Williams was averaging 5.6 yards a carry, and for the season, he is averaging nearly five yards a carry (4.7).
He is also averaging 18.3 touches per game, so he was clearly able to handle the workload the Rams were putting on him.
The Cardinals are 26th in rushing defense and have allowed at least 90 rushing yards in all 11 games this season. No other team has had a streak of more than seven such games this season.
Fantasy Outlook for Freeman This Week
Freeman did an admirable job trying to fill in with Williams out, averaging 4.3 yards a carry over four games. And he did enjoy his best game of the season last week against the Seattle Seahawks, finishing with 73 rushing yards on 17 carries, both season-highs.
But he is strictly one-dimensional as a running back, without a reception all season — or even a target. And he scored just one touchdown in those four games with Williams out, so there isn’t even the option of keeping him in the lineup because of goal-line situations.
The PFN Start/Sit Optimizer projects Freeman to finish with 29 rushing yards and two catches for 12 yards.
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