With Derrick Henry primed to miss the rest of the 2021 NFL regular season after undergoing surgery on a foot injury he suffered last week, the Titans will likely turn to some combination of newly-signed Adrian Peterson and Henry's backup Jeremy McNichols.
Our fantasy football experts considered Peterson the top waiver wire priorityif the Titans didn't add another running back, though it's worth noting the team did sign D’Onta Foreman after our experts weighed in, so you'll want to check their final rankings closer to kickoff as the Titans' new-look backfield starts to take shape.
In the meantime, though, should you add McNichols off the waiver wire? Let's find out.
Jeremy McNichols Fantasy Outlook
Sean Koerner
Peterson is the higher priority as long as the Titans don't sign or trade for another running back, but McNichols is still worth an add in PPR formats — he is the de-facto No. 1 RB for them right now, but I don’t expect that to last long.
Chris Raybon, expert fantasy football ranker: McNichols should be added speculatively, but I can’t imagine him being a fantasy factor for long.
I doubt the Titans organization views him as an every-down back. This season, 131-of-145 (90%) of McNichols’ snaps have come in the passing game. His career yards per carry drops a full yard when going from shotgun to under center, so he's not a one-for-one replacement for Henry.
And while Henry was averaging 27.4 carries per game, McNichols’ career-high is 11 carries, which he took for only nine yards. In fact, McNichols has carried more than five times in a game only three times, and he's been held to 3.1 yards per carry or fewer in all three of those games.
