Your fantasy football league might benefit from a Marshall Plan this fall.
The Washington Redskins rightly used their top draft choices on positions where talent is harder to secure than at running back. The Redskins’ decision to let Alfred Morris seek employment elsewhere was also the right course of action.
There are just too many examples of running backs emerging after lower-level investments — Morris being a prominent example — to devote prime resources to non-elite players. Moreover, the Redskins weren’t in position to select Ezekiel Elliott.
That said, the defending NFC East champions’ indifference might have gone too far. The Skins are going to roll with Matt Jones and PPR man Chris Thompson. However, the player they did select in the draft somehow has a quicker path to playing time than nearly all of his peers selected on day three.
Despite being taken 11 spots before Mr. Irrelevant, Keith Marshall has a legitimate opportunity to see some significant action in Washington’s backfield this season. Matt Jones, a second-year runner who averaged 3.4 yards per carry as a rookie, may be the only thing standing in the way of a bizarre ascent.
Marshall could conceivably rise from Georgia’s third-string running back (in 2015) to Washington’s 2016 starter at some point this season. If that sounds insane, it is. However, compare the Redskins’ and Bulldogs’ running back contingents. Whose rotation would be harder to crack?
In bolstering their receiving corps, secondary and linebacking depth in the draft, the Redskins are now about to venture into OTAs with the thinnest running back depth chart in the league. It’s fascinating.
If you play in a standard 10-team league, this suggestion probably isn’t for you — not immediately, at least. Those in deeper arrangements should pay attention to the Redskins’ backfield competition this offseason. Your own Mr. Irrelevant could be the Combine’s fastest running back this year.
A former five-star recruit, the 5-foot-11, 219-pound Marshall blazed to a 4.31-second 40-yard dash in February, alleviating concerns about past leg injuries that hampered him at Georgia. Even then, it was always likely that his ceiling at UGA was going to be limited: Todd Gurley’s college timeline overlapped with Marshall’s.
Yet, as true freshmen, Marshall’s 6.5 yards per carry topped Gurley’s 6.2. The 2015 Offensive Rookie of the Year was obviously the Bulldogs’ starter in 2012, racking up 1,385 yards on 222 carries. Marshall, though, wasn’t a mop-up player; he went 117/759/8 (carries/yards/TDs) that fall before leg injuries derailed his career the following two years.
Despite playing just eight games as Gurley (and then Nick Chubb) led the Georgia backfield in 2013-’14, Marshall returned to play in 11 contests in 2015. Marshall again functioned as an auxiliary runner (to Sony Michel after Chubb’s season-ending injury), but the fact he made it through the season and booked a Combine invite proved more important than his actual numbers. His 253 college carries in four years will make him the freshest rookie runner in the draft class, two years removed from injury.
Daniel Kucin Jr./Icon Sportswire
Jones did not do much to inspire confidence as a rookie. He rushed for 490 yards, fumbling five times and ranking as Pro Football Focus’s fourth-worst back among players who accumulated enough snaps (349) to qualify as a regular.
Washington’s offseason apathy toward creating competition at the running back spot indicates some level of confidence in Jones. However, Marshall’s measureables — he led all pure running backs with 25 bench press reps at the Combine — are too tantalizing to ignore, even if there isn’t much recent game tape to study.
This is therefore an admittedly speculative suggestion.
Considering his injury history, Marshall will probably start his career as Washington’s backup. Things change quickly for NFL ground attackers, though, whether due to injuries, ineffectiveness or game flow. At nearly 235 pounds, Jones is much slower — a high-4.5s 40 man — and may have a shorter leash after last year’s rampant struggles (two ex-UDFAs round out Washington’s running back corps).
Washington has a decent offensive line, with tackles Trent Williams and Morgan Moses — along with 2015 first-round guard Brandon Scherff — leading the way. Any 12-, 14- or 16-team owners can attest to how ugly the running back situation became toward the end of the draft last year, when names such as Boom Herron, Terrance West and Roy Helu were flier-level options.
A safe choice Marshall is not, but he’s a low-risk burner who inexplicably has a clear path toward playing time. That’s great flier material.
You’ll be the person who receives the obligatory “What is a Keith Marshall?” comment following the selection. That’s great fun if one of the more unlikely stashes in memory turns out to matter this upcoming season.
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