Cordarrelle Patterson Injury Update Boosts Mike Davis & Wayne Gallman Fantasy Outlook in Week 11

The play of Atlanta Falcons offensive weapon Cordarrelle Patterson has been one of the biggest storylines of the season. Patterson has racked up a career-high 776 yards from scrimmage with 7 total touchdowns in nine games.

Unfortunately, Patterson's breakout campaign may have to be put on hold for a bit. The 30-year-old injured his ankle in Week 10 and appears to be in danger of missing Week 11 against the New England Patriots – and potentially a few more weeks as well.

If he's forced to sit, both Mike Davis and Wayne Gallman could be decent FLEX plays on Thursday.

Mike Davis Fantasy

Davis was brought in to be the feature back, but Patterson has pretty much taken that role from him. He hasn't recorded double-digit carries since Week 5 and has only rushed for more than 50 yards once this season.

Averaging just 3.3 yards per carry this season, it doesn't look like Davis will have much upside even if he's playing in an expanded role. That's especially true considering his opponent, as the Patriots have Football Outsiders' fifth-best defensive DVOA rating in the NFL.

Assuming Patterson sits, Davis should be looking at double-digit touches on Thursday. That's enough to make him a name to monitor, but don't view him as a must-start RB or anything just yet. He's just a FLEX option for now.

Wayne Gallman Fantasy

Wayne Gallman is coming off his biggest usage of the season, and he looked a lot more effective than Davis. He turned his 17 opportunities (15 carries plus 2 targets) into 76 yards from scrimmage while playing 43% of the offensive snaps.

It's fair to wonder how much last week's usage will really tell us, though, as Atlanta clearly threw in the towel in a 43-3 beatdown against the Dallas Cowboys.

Based off last week, Gallman is probably the preferred play. But it's probably best to take the wait-and-see approach with this backfield until we see how everything shakes out.

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Max Staley is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Max Staley also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mstaley1212. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.