Sean McVay doesn’t care about your fantasy football team. Whether you have Cam Akers, Darrell Henderson Jr. or possibly even Kyren Williams, you’ve been left guessing which running back might get the bulk of the carries each week.
At this point in the season, you’re probably not starting any of the three, but McVay can’t seem to make up his mind on who to lean on. Against the Saints on Sunday, it was Cam Akers’ backfield, with Kyren Williams working as the backup ahead of Darrell Henderson Jr. Last week, it was Henderson who played the majority of the snaps at running back. Two weeks ago, Malcolm Brown was getting more snaps than Akers.
The entire workload distribution and playing time split has been confusing the last three weeks.
Week 9
- Henderson: 49% snap share, 12 carries, 56 yards
- Brown: 28% snap share, 2 carries, 9 yards
- Akers: 19% snap share, 5 carries, 3 yards
Week 10
- Henderson: 57%, 6 carries, 21 yards
- Williams: 16%, 1 carry, 9 yards
- Akers: 10%, 6 carries, 22 yards
Week 11
- Williams: 55%, 7 carries, 36 yards
- Akers: 39%, 14 carries, 61 yards
- Henderson: 7%, 2 carries, 9 yards
Good luck guessing which running back will play the most snaps or get the most carries next week against the Chiefs. Only once in the last three weeks has a running back played the most snaps and gotten the most carries. That was Henderson in Week 9, yet Henderson played just 7% of the snaps Sunday and got two carries.
The running game showed some signs of life against the Saints, gaining a season-high 148 yards on the ground. Maybe McVay sticks with the same plan next week in Kansas City – though, the game script probably won’t call for many runs against the high-powered Chiefs offense.
The rookie Williams is certainly gaining some traction in the backfield and the Rams could prefer to give him more opportunities to play in this all-but-lost season, so he’s someone to watch moving forward – especially after leading the group on Sunday. But Akers ran hard and had his best game since Week 3.
Regardless, this is as jumbled as the backfield has been all season.
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