J.K. Dobbins Fantasy Outlook Could be Set to Explode Based on Week 1 Workload

J.K. Dobbins was in a tricky spot for fantasy football purposes this offseason. He was a top RB prospect in the 2020 NFL Draft, and he had a perfect landing spot for fantasy production with the Baltimore Ravens. But he was stuck behind Mark Ingram on the depth chart.

Dobbins' fantasy appeal seemed to be based on his potential upside later in the season if he managed to beat out Ingram for that RB1 role. Well, in Week 1 we saw some early signs that he may show off that upside sooner rather than later.

J.K. Dobbins Fantasy Outlook

The Raven's top three running backs were all pretty close in snaps played, but Dobbins already out-snapped Ingram. Considering Week 1 is when Dobbins was likely to play his smallest role, as a rookie coming in with no preseason to get comfortable, that's especially notable.

Admittedly, some of those snaps came in garbage time as this game was a blowout in the fourth quarter. But the snap count trend was similar at half time, with Dobbins' 12 pacing the group while Ingram (11) and Edwards (9) were close behind.

Fantasy football managers may be reluctant to get too excited about Dobbins' 2-touchdown debut because his 7 carries and 22 yards were underwhelming, and that is fair.

Considering how modest Week 1 expectations for Dobbins should have been, however, having him already leading the backfield in snaps suggests that it may not be long before we see him develop into an every-week starting option.

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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 his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.