There was a time when LeSean McCoy of the Buffalo Bills was one of the best running backs in football and a Fantasy Football demon, but after a miserable 2018 campaign in which McCoy rushed for just 514 yards and averaged a meager 3.2 yards per carry, you have to wonder if his days as a top-flight threat are over.
So, just what is the Fantasy Football outlook like for the six-time Pro Bowler heading into 2019?
Well, first of all, we should not just cast 2018 aside as some sort of mirage season, as McCoy was 30 years old, and we all know what tends to happen to running backs once they hit 30.
McCoy will be 31 at the start of the 2019 campaign, so, obviously, he isn't getting any younger.
But will he be able to at least better his production from a year ago when he was genuinely one of the least efficient running backs in the NFL?
While it might seem like it's hard for McCoy to go anywhere but up from 2018, we need to keep in mind that we also saw signs of his decline two years ago when he rushed for 1,138 yards and made the Pro Bowl.
How can a guy rush for over 1,100 yards and be declining, you ask? Just look at McCoy's efficiency. He registered only four yards per carry in 2017, which represented the lowest mark of his career until his dreadful 2018 season.
As a matter of fact, McCoy owns a lifetime average of 4.5 yards per carry, and he recorded over five yards per carry three times, including his terrific 2016 campaign in which he racked up 1,267 yards and 13 touchdowns while tallying 5.4 yards per attempt.
But that may very well have been his last truly great season.
Remember, too, that the Buffalo Bills are not exactly a great team with a dynamic offense, so it's not like McCoy has much support, either. Josh Allen is still a baby, and the Bills' receiving corps is, well, not very good.
Buffalo's top wideout in 2018 was Zay Jones, who hauled in just 52 receptions for 652 yards.
The Bills also have a horrendous offensive line.
So, McCoy is 31 years old, and he has a young and unproven quarterback, a very thin receiving corps and a miserable offensive line in front of him.
As you can see, there is literally no reason to expect that McCoy is going to have some big bounce-back season in 2019, and while he may end up being better than he was this past season (which won't be very hard), he is not even remotely close to being an elite halfback in fantasy anymore, and a legitimate argument can be made that he shouldn't even be getting the bulk of the Bills' carries.
Buffalo signed Frank Gore this offseason, so it should be interesting to see which of the two of them gets the most burn, but chances are, McCoy and Gore will end up splitting carries.
Basically, the days of McCoy being a No. 1 back capable of breaking a game open on a weekly basis are long gone. Not only is his body betraying him, but the situation around him is just not very conducive to positive results.
Don't waste time picking up McCoy in fantasy this year.
Follow Us
Subscribe