LeSean McCoy Fantasy Football Projections
By Dennis Moody
Thinking about drafting Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy this year? Here’s what you need to know.
LeSean McCoy had a disappointing season in his first year with the Buffalo Bills. He managed to put up just under 1,200 all-purpose yards but due to injuries he only played in 12 games and finished with under 1,000 yards rushing for just the second time since 2010. Both times he failed to reach that milestone he only played in twelve games.
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He also fell short of gaining 300 yards receiving for the second time in that same span. The more alarming part about this stat is that it has happened two consecutive years now. The most disappointing stat for McCoy was only three rushing touchdowns although he did have two touchdown receptions for a total of five.
The issue was that Karlos Williams, Mike Gillislee and Tyrod Taylor put up a combined 14 rushing touchdowns. The leader of that group, Williams, had seven touchdowns but the Bills cut him earlier this offseason which should lead to an increase for McCoy.
To be fair, Karlos Williams wasn’t a touchdown vulture in the true sense of the term. It wasn’t like McCoy was running the ball down to the goal line and Williams was punching it in and getting all the glory. Instead, Williams scored many of his touchdowns on big plays from further out on the field. It will be interesting to see how the touchdown dispersion goes this year with McCoy, Reggie Bush, Jonathan Williams and Mike Gillislee all fighting for touches.
One of the best things McCoy has going for him in fantasy this year is that his offensive coordinator and head coach love to run. The Bills ran the ball more often than every team except for the Carolina Panthers last season. Even though they rotate in backs, McCoy will get the lion’s share of carries and will get plenty of touches every week.
For 2016, we are predicting that McCoy trends back towards familiar numbers. We think he will surpass the 1,000-yard threshold and end up with around 1,200 yards on the ground. We project him to get another 300 receiving yards with about 30 receptions. We would put that number a touch higher but Reggie Bush has also been used as a receiving back in his career and could steal a couple of receptions from McCoy.
Despite having a down year last season Shady still had the 17th most points overall for running backs and he only played in 12 games. He averaged a pretty solid 12.2 points per game in Yahoo leagues. If you calculate his total points based on our projections for this year, he would have finished with the fourth most points last season for running backs.
LeSean McCoy is being forgotten about in a lot of leagues and going below where is market value is. NFL analyst Bryant McFadden agrees with us in the below video where he calls McCoy the Bills best fantasy player.
In Yahoo leagues, LeSean McCoy is averaging out to be the 13th running back selected. There is tremendous value in that pick. There is no way you are going to convince me that Mark Ingram, Doug Martin or Jamaal Charles who is slow to recover after a second ACL surgery are going to have better years than McCoy.
If you need a running back and you see McCoy on the draft board, you can be assured you are getting good value and some upside in that pick if you take him.
Next: Sammy Watkins Fantasy Football Projection
What do you think? Is LeSean McCoy the Bills best fantasy player? Can he return to one of the top five productive fantasy backs? Let us know in the comments section below.