Cam Akers’ fantasy football outlook in 2020

How should you view Cam Akers in fantasy football next season?

Cam Akers was a somewhat surprising pick by the Los Angeles Rams at No. 52 overall in the draft, going ahead of J.K. Dobbins as the fourth running back off the board. But it’s become abundantly clear just how much Les Snead and Sean McVay like the former Florida State Seminole.

He landed in a good situation with the Rams, who are looking for Todd Gurley’s replacement. It seemed like Darrell Henderson Jr. was in line to take over that role in 2020, but with Akers now in the mix, that doesn’t seem so likely.

The Rams’ backfield is crowded with Akers, Henderson and Malcolm Brown, and Snead said before the draft that he wants the team to utilize a committee approach rather than leaning on one workhorse like it did with Gurley.

The word “committee” is a fantasy football player’s worst nightmare when it comes to running backs, because it becomes difficult to gauge the value of the players who are part of that committee. For the Rams, it applies to Akers and Henderson.

With the Rams planning to use multiple backs in 2020, what is Akers’ fantasy outlook? We’ll start by saying it’s certainly better than Henderson’s, and you should target the rookie before Henderson in your fantasy drafts.

The reason is relatively simple. Akers has the build and experience to be a workhorse back. He handled that duty for three years at Florida State, whereas Henderson was only a true No. 1 running back for one year at Memphis.

On a pre-draft conference call with scouts, Snead even asked if the Rams should take Akers in the second or Lamical Perine in the fourth. Area scout Michael Pierce responded without hesitation, picking Akers.

“I’m taking Akers. If he’s there, I think you have to take him because he’s just so much of a complete back. He’d end up being your workhorse, in my opinion,” he said.

That’s the feeling a lot of people have with Akers, and that likely includes the Rams’ coaching staff, too. They didn’t spend their first pick in the draft on a running back to give him 10 touches a game.

You could make almost the same argument with Henderson, who the Rams traded up to select in the third round last year, but the belief from the beginning with Henderson was that he’d be a complementary weapon who can contribute as a big-play threat and receiver.

Snead said last year after the Rams selected him that Henderson could bring a “Kamara element” to the offense, indicating he’d be a complementary piece to Gurley and not necessarily a workhorse.

Akers was high on the Rams’ board, which is not only an indication of how they feel about the rookie’s potential, but also how they view Henderson’s fit on offense. Most likely, it’ll be Akers handling first- and second-down carries, which gives him an extremely high fantasy ceiling.

He’s not going to be an RB1 in fantasy as a rookie, but he shouldn’t be viewed as worse than a low-end RB2 or really strong RB3/Flex option.

Pro Football Focus projected Akers’ stats in 2020, and the analytics site sees a big year out of the Rams running back next season.

What should make Akers’ transition to the NFL somewhat easier is his experience running into stacked boxes and behind shaky offensive lines. Akers is the only offensive player from Florida State to be drafted in the last two years, which shows how little help he had around him.

Yet, he still rushed for more than 1,000 yards in two of the last three years and did a lot of the work himself. He averaged 3.91 yards after contact per carry last season, fourth-best among draft-eligible running backs.

The fact that he was able to gain as many yards as he did despite being the only real threat on Florida State’s offense – and while running behind an offensive line that Snead said wasn’t very good – shows just how good he is at creating his own yardage.

Akers’ ceiling in fantasy is relatively high in 2020, and in dynasty leagues, it’s even higher in the future. If he breaks out as a rookie next season and proves to be Gurley’s replacement, he’ll be an RB1 quickly and likely among the five or 10 best players at his position in fantasy by Year 2 or 3.

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