Taking a deeper look at Jordan Howard’s fantasy football value
Once upon a time, Howard was a fantasy football darling when he was with the Chicago Bears. The former fifth-round pick would average 1,217 rushing yards and eight total touchdowns in his first two years with the Bears. He would also catch a modest 52 passes for 423 yards from 2016-2017.
However, after an impressive start to his career, Howard saw his effectiveness decline in his third year with the Bears. For the first time in his career in 2018, he failed to reach 1,000 rushing yards and averaged a career-worst 3.7 yards per carry. As a result of his underwhelming production, Howard was traded to the Eagles before the 2019 season.
Despite starting the season as the starter for Philadelphia, Howard quickly saw his touches decrease behind Sanders. It didn’t help that the Indiana product would deal with a nagging shoulder injury. Altogether, in his four seasons, Howard has finished as RB10, RB14, RB20, and RB44 in fantasy football.
As he prepares for his first year with the Dolphins, it’s evident that Howard isn’t much of a threat as a receiver. Similar to his fantasy scoring, Howard has seen his receiving production decrease in every single season of his career thus far.
Entering the 2020 season, Howard is currently being selected as RB37, according to MyFantasyLeague.com. Furthermore, he is being taken off of the board nearly 20 picks ahead of Breida. Provided that, it’s probably best to take Breida at his current ADP over Howard.
Why Breida is the RB to own in the Dolphins’ backfield
Unlike Howard, Breida has shown that he can be an effective pass-catcher when his name is called. Even though he has shared plenty of touches with other running backs in his first three seasons with the 49ers, he’s combined for 67 catches, 561 receiving yards, and four receiving touchdowns since 2017.
At the same time, he’s been explosive as a runner, averaging five yards per attempt on 381 attempts in his career. In addition to that, he’s found the end zone six times as the ball carrier in the past three seasons. With that in mind, he is more than capable of handling an expanded workload for the Dolphins.
Seeing that Miami could be playing behind in games in 2020, they’ll be putting the ball in the air more often than they run it. Therefore, the game script will be more suited for Breida to see the field more often than Howard.
By having to share a workload in San Francisco, Breida has never had a chance to be a consistent fantasy football contributor. But with the Dolphins wanting a viable playmaker at running back, Breida gives them the most explosive option.
Of course, some people are going to be hesitant to select one of Miami’s running backs in their fantasy football drafts. Nonetheless, if you are interested in having a piece of the Dolphins’ running back situation, then Breida seems to be the clear-cut option.
