Las Vegas Raiders RB Zamir White was given the chance to lead this backfield down the stretch last season while Josh Jacobs was banged up, and he enters 2024 as an unquestioned bell cow.
The role is not in question, and that gives White a nice floor; however, it doesn’t guarantee fantasy viability. Let’s dive into his skill profile and the projection of Las Vegas’ offense as a whole to see if successful fantasy football managers will draft White at cost this season.
Zamir White’s 2024 Fantasy Forecast
There’s no way to explain last season’s finish as anything but a trail. In a lost season, the Raiders wanted to test drive their backfield plan for 2024 and fed White 20+ touches in each of their final four games.
Zamir White szn#RaiderNation
— CJ Errickson (@CJ_Errickson) May 10, 2024
The results were solid (4.9 yards per touch with either 110+ rushing yards or 3+ catches in all four contests). However, White went scoreless for 91 straight touches to close the season, an unfavorable trend that could be the story of the 2024 campaign.
White was a touchdown machine during his final two seasons at Georgia (11 rushing scores in both campaigns), but that was a situation in which his team had a significant physical advantage. That’s pretty clearly not the case in Vegas.
You’re likely well aware of a frustrated Saquon Barkley having nowhere to run behind a highly questionable line in New York last season. Well, the former Giant averaged more yards per carry before contact than both Jacobs and White.
Coming into the NFL, White was labeled as a two-down back. And while we saw some growth in that department during the final month of last season, multiple catches per game is still an optimistic projection for 2024.
With the Raiders expected to play from behind consistently (6.5 win total projection) and the addition of Brock Bowers — a great prospect who will subtract from White’s potential in the passing game while carrying below-average run-blocking metrics — the path for White’s success at a high level is a tough sell.
That said, the asking price of a seventh-round pick isn’t prohibitive. I prefer running backs like D’Andre Swift, David Montgomery, and even James Conner in this range, since they all play in offenses I consider to have much more upside than White’s.
Still, if you have a full starting lineup and want to add Vegas’ lead back to your weekly Flex conversation, I have no problem with it. He’s just not a priority target of mine.
If you find yourself in a receiver-heavy build where maybe you invested one of your first six picks at a onesie position, White makes more sense. I have my concerns about his true ceiling in this offense, but the floor is solid, and a narrow range of outcomes is exactly what you’re looking for in a roster that takes this shape.
If you’re looking to play chess while your opponents play checkers, footing shouldn’t be an issue for White down the stretch. Vegas plays at home three times and travels to Tampa Bay and New Orleans to round out its 2024 regular season, making weather a non-factor with your fantasy championship on the line.
Jason Katz’s Fantasy Analysis for Zamir White
White’s ADP sits at RB22. It’s a reasonable price for the lead back of an NFL team, but not one I’m necessarily looking to pay. Ultimately, we need upside with every pick beyond the first round or two.
Outside of an extremely outlier touchdown year where White scores something like 15 times, what is his path to outperforming his ADP? It’s very hard for a pure runner to have 15 PPG upside. White’s lackluster receiving profile, combined with the Raiders drafting a pure pass-catching RB in Dylan Laube, makes it extremely unlikely we see any sort of impactful receiving numbers from White.
Drafting pure two-down grinders on below-average offenses just isn’t the path to fantasy success. As a result, I must advise managers to only target White if he falls below ADP to the point where he’s a clear value.