Derrius Guice Injury Opens Door for Adrian Peterson Fantasy Value

As quickly as it disappeared, opening the 2019 NFL season as a healthy scratch, Adrian Peterson's fantasy football value is back.

The Washington Redskins' top running back in the 2018 season, Peterson fell on the depth chart with Derrius Guice healthy in 2019. Guice was hurt again in Week 1 though, and is undergoing evaluations on the knee he injured in college.

With that, AP should once again find himself as a lead back.

The 34-year-old dominated the touches available in Washington last year, turning in the seventh 250-plus carry season of his career. His 251 rushes were good for the fifth most in the NFL.

He was highly inefficient, with his 4.2 yards per carry ranking only 21st among the 29 players with 150-plus carries on the year, but his fantasy football finish of RB16 in standard scoring leagues shows you just how far volume goes at RB. Even in PPR leagues his ranking fell to only RB19.

One possible reason to be concerned is that six of Peterson's games in 2018 came with Chris Thompson sidelined, and Thompson is back on the field for Washington now, having notched 10 targets in Week 1.

Peterson's value didn't change much without Thompson though — his 16-game pace with Thompson in the lineup was still for 246 carries and 26 targets (five fewer carries and the same number of targets he actually saw).

There's not a huge difference in Peterson's 2019 and 2018 situations, and that makes him a virtual must-add in fantasy football if Guice does indeed miss any extended time. His immediate schedule isn't great, taking on the Dallas Cowwboys in Week 2 and drawing a nightmare matchup against the Chicago Bears in Week 3, but he then gets a very soft matchup against the New York Giants that you're not going to want to miss out on in Week 4.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. 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.