July 10, 2018

No need to beat around the bush here - do not draft Samaje Perine in standard sized leagues. I actually think Perine is an underrated talent and wasn't given a fair shake in 2017 given that the Redskins offensive line finished seventh worst in yards before contact, which was mostly because they were starting Joe the Barber and Tim the Mechanic at guard and tackle by the end of the season. When healthy, this is actually one of the better run blocking units in the league. All offseason, we heard Redskins brass talking about how they needed to improve at running back. True to their word, the team went and drafted Derrius Guice in the second round. Guice is going to start and dominate early down carries, while Chris Thompson will remain the passing down specialist. Perine will be luckily to see a 10% snap share. He will likely average around 1-2 touches per game. If Guice were to go down, it would almost certainly be Perine that took over his role and with a healthy offensive line, I do believe Perine could succeed. However, he has absolutely no standalone value and since I don't believe in handcuffing, there is no reason to have Perine on your radar outside of very deep formats. 8/11 Update: Well, Guice went down. Perine now has fantasy value to the extent that he may be the early down back. It is still entirely possible he splits with Rob Kelley, rendering both of them fantasy useless. Regardless, Perine should at least be on your draft board as a potential late round dart throw.--Jason Katz