Surprise, surprise. Los Angeles Rams star running back Cam Akers is set to return to playing football.
The Rams designated Akers to return off injured reserve. The second-year back has not played this season after he suffered a torn Achilles prior to training camp. He will now have a 21-day window to practice before returning to action, which is the first step to returning to action.
It is safe to assume Akers won't be back to full speed nor in game shape quite yet and he will have limited fantasy value but how does this impact the rest of the Rams' running backs?
Fantasy Outlook if Cam Akers is Active vs. Vikings
Sean Koerner, Director of Predictive Analytics, says if Akers is good to go that it will have a significant impact on Sony Michel's fantasy value.
"Not sure if he will be able to play this week, but if he does I would imagine this is mostly bad news for Michel and it will be harder to trust him," Koerner said. "I can’t imagine Akers returns to a 15-plus-touch role, so I don’t think he’s all of a sudden a viable fantasy play himself. It’s now a murky three-way running back corps, which hurts Michel."
Koerner currently has Michel ranked No. 18 in his Week 16 Player Rankings and projects him to score 10.6 points in standard scoring.
Akers ran for 625 yards on 145 carries as a rookie last season and got better as the season went on with 84.8 yards per game in his last five games. He ran for 221 on 46 carries in the Rams' two playoff games.
