Jacksonville Jaguars starting running back James Robinson will not play on Sunday in Week 9 due to a heel injury, opening the fantasy football door for Carlos Hyde and Dare Ogunbowale.
Hyde has been Robinson's back-up all season, although some fantasy managers would argue Hyde has been head coach Urban Meyer's favorite player. Hyde is averaging 4.2 yards per carry on 33 attempts, averaging just 23.3 yards per game.
He's caught 8-of-12 targets for 54 yards, which could be useful in a game script with Jacksonville expected to trail. Robinson has been targeted 24 times in seven games; only Marvin Jones Jr. (55), Laviska Shenault Jr. (45), Jamal Agnew (26) and Dan Arnold (25) have more targets on the team than Robinson.
Before Robinson's status was announced, his playing time was already in question leading our fantasy football experts to rank him RB31. Hyde was RB40 in standard scoring leagues.
Backing up Hyde this week will likely be Ogunbowale, who has played in all seven games but has just four carries and two receptions.
Here's what The Action Network fantasy analyst Samantha Previte had to say about the Jacksonville backfield situation earlier this week:
If Robinson sits — which is the direction he is trending as of writing on Thursday — Hyde would be in line to see the lion’s share of the running back touches and should be considered a RB3/flex play. He, too, has been banged up and was limited in practice on Wednesday, listed with a calf injury, but practiced in full on Thursday.
The Jaguars also added Devine Ozigbo off waivers this week for additional running back depth. He played for the team in 2019 and 2020.
Even if Hyde were to see a full workload, however, the matchup is extremely unfavorable for whichever running backs are active.
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