Every year in Fantasy Football drafts, there comes a time when you have players at the same position that you can't decide between. Both could be destined for big things. Or maybe both players might carve out a decent role.
It causes frustration for Fantasy Football owners when they draft the wrong one, but elation when they made the right choice. The problem is, this isn't a once-a-draft thing. This is something that an owner could run into countless times in a single draft.
One of those player comparisons in 2019 is between two running backs – Leonard Fournette and Derrick Henry.
Which player is the better running back target for your Fantasy Football team in 2019?
When looking at their stats from last season, this question seems like a no-brainer. Leonard Fournette ran for just over 400 yards in eight games, while Derrick Henry had 1,059 yards and 12 touchdowns playing in 16 games.
However, things go much deeper.
To start, Fournette is on the Jacksonville Jaguars, who picked up a new quarterback this offseason. Nick Foles might not be an elite quarterback, but he's an improvement over Blake Bortles. With a little more consistency in the passing game, the running game should open up quite a bit.
When it comes to consistency, the edge is given to Fournette as well. However, this is admittedly a small edge as both have had consistency problems in the past.
That's an issue as consistency is one of the most important things to consider when drafting a fantasy team. If you have weekly head-to-head matchups you need consistent performers.
Last season, Henry had a 238 rushing yard and four-touchdown game. The next week he had a 170 rushing yard and two touchdown game. Combined between the other 14 games, he had 651 yards and six touchdowns. That's an average of 46.5 yards per game.
Henry had four games with under 30 rushing yards. Three of them saw him score no touchdowns. That's a lot of goose-egg performances.
With that in mind, Henry is someone who can steal the show and single-handedly win you a game. He can also give you almost no help and destroy your chances.
While I'm high on Henry, for fantasy purposes he's a major question mark. People tend to rank him higher due to his overall numbers, but they're all thanks to a few games.
Fournette has had issues like this in the past too. However, he seems to at least score a touchdown in those low-rushing games more often than Henry.
Henry does have the upward trend of finally being the main back. That could help his consistency problem a little bit.
If Henry can command a lot of carries, big things could happen. He has a major edge in yards-per-carry over Fournette in their careers. Henry is at 4.6 (had a career-best 4.9 last season), while Fournette is at 3.7.
However, Fournette's rookie season (2016) saw him carry the ball 268 times in just 13 games. Henry's career-high was last season with 215. If he can catch up to Fournette, the yards should be in his favor.
Neither of the two is going to light it up in the passing game. That being said, this favors Fournette as well. Henry has Dion Lewis joining him in the backfield. Due to that, he'll be lucky to get 20 receptions in a season.
Fournette, on the other hand, could definitely surpass 40 given a full 16 games.
In a PPR league, that gives a pretty hefty advantage to Fournette.
If you take a quick glance at their stats, Derrick Henry is the clear winner. He averages more yards per carry and scores more touchdowns. However, half of his damage was done in two games. That left 14 games of below-average production.
Fournette gives you more consistency and more positive possibilities with things like receptions and getting more carries.
Can he stay healthy for a full 16 games though? He's played in just 21 games through two seasons so far.
That starts to sway things back to Derrick Henry's side. With that in mind, the safer bet for your fantasy football team is Henry simply due to the fact that he's been healthy throughout his career. However, if you look past the injury concerns, Leonard Fournette is the way to go.
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