Fantasy Football Week 13 Waiver Wire Debate: Dylan Sampson vs Chris Rodriguez Jr.
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The trade deadline may have passed, or is imminent in any of your Fantasy Football leagues. That means that the Waiver Wire has become your best friend. No matter how good your roster seems to be, you will always find yourself adding and dropping players all year long. Today, we are going to explore some options at Running Back. They will be Dylan Sampson and Chris Rodriguez Jr.
The Case for Dylan Sampson
Sampson has played in all 11 Games for the Browns this season. He has mostly vied with Jerome Ford for RB2 duties. Sampson has 38 Attempts (14% Share), and 89 Yards. Sampson has added solid value in the air with 25 Targets (7% Target Share), 23 Receptions, 195 Yards, and 2 Touchdowns. In PPR formats, Sampson is the RB50.
Week 12 provides Sampson with great, yet lucky sleeper value as a Top-10 Running Back. This all came on one huge screen pass that went over 50 yards to the house. It is unreasonable to expect this to happen again.
Sampson will be a great handcuff, but less so of a viable option. He has out snapped Ford all year long, having over 50% more Attempts on the season. Time is thin before the Fantasy Football season ends, but if Judkins were to go down at any point, Sampson will compete for RB2 status in the game.
The Case for Chris Rodriguez Jr.
Rodriguez Jr. has played in 9 Games this season. He has 60 Attempts (19% Share), 279 Yards, and 3 Touchdowns. He adds nothing in the receiving game with (1) Reception on the season. Rodriguez Jr. is the RB50 in Non-PPR formats.
The Commanders have made changes to their backfield of recent. Rodriguez Jr. has now been playing as the RB1 in this offense. He is averaging 13.0 Attempts per Game over the past three games. Croskey-Merritt is averaging 12.3 Attempts per Game in that same span. They are in a true 50-50 split.
The greatest value-add of them all has been the usage of Rodriguez Jr. in the Red Zone. He leads the team in this area and has all season long. In most games, Rodriguez Jr. will have a 20-35% chance to score a Touchdown.
Waiver Wire Debate: Dylan Sampson vs Chris Rodriguez Jr.
Sure, both players are options, but one is a much better option. That player is very clearly going to be Rodriguez Jr. He is working in a 50% split of carries while owning Red Zone work. The Commanders are also run-heavy (48%), so this even further benefits Rodriguez Jr. He is closing on (2) Red Zone Attempts per Game.
As for Sampson, he is a handcuff, and one on a bad team. They may trend upwards with Shedeur Sanders based on his Week 12 performance, but that is very hypothetical and hopeful.
Pickup Chris Rodriguez Jr. for Flex-worthy streaming status and good touchdown upside.
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Thomas Carelli is a sportswriter based on Northern New Jersey. He is a massive New York Jets and Mets fan, but that is not where is sports fandom stops. He loves to watch and play golf, all things football, baseball, and much more. If he can watch it, he will. Thomas graduated from William Paterson University in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sport Management. He spent 4 years working at a local golf course, volunteered past PGA events, and spent some part-time experience with the New York Jets events team. His passions for sport runs deep and his articles show for it.