2019 Fantasy Football Sleeper: D’Onta Foreman
RB D’Onta Foreman (Houston Texans) | 3rd Year
2018 Stats: One game (seven carries, two catches)
Last year was a lost one for D’Onta Foreman, as he struggled to recover from an Achilles’ tear in November of 2017. One regular season game (Week 16) yielded seven carries for minus-one yard and two catches for 28 yards and a touchdown, followed by one carry in Houston’s playoff loss to the Colts.
The news around Foreman has been all positive this offseason, with running backs coach Danny Barrett most recently saying the 2016 Doak Walker Award winner is “light years ahead” of where he was last year.
Foreman played 10 games as a rookie in 2017, with 410 total yards on 84 touches (78 carries) before suffering his torn Achilles. A 10-carry, 65-yard, two touchdown game against the Cardinals in his last game that season (he was injured on the second touchdown run, a 34-yard scamper) brought speculation he could legitimately push Lamar Miller for the starting job, but it was just not to be last year.
The Texans let Alfred Blue leave in free agency, which opens up the backup role behind Miller and the 170 touches that entailed for Blue last year. Foreman is not only a better player than Blue, in the flashes he showed pre-injury anyway, but he could easily push into a carry split with Miller fairly quickly.
Foreman probably won’t offer much as a pass catcher, but neither does Miller at his point (25 receptions in 14 games last year). At 6-foot-1 and (a reportedly slimmed down) 230 pounds, Foreman is tailor-made for goal line work. In three seasons with the Texans, Miller has never had more than five rushing touchdowns.
Foreman comes in at RB46 (pick 10.07) in 12-team standard leagues right now, via Fantasy Football Calculator’s ADP. He’s in the same territory via Fantasy Pros’ ADP, as RB47 and pick No. 125 overall (pick 10.05 in a 12-team league).
Preseason projections for Foreman necessarily have to be low, with being No. 2 on Houston’s depth chart and lingering concern over how he’ll look in his first chance at extended action post-injury in mind. But in exchange for a 10th round pick his upside is absolutely worth betting on, and Foreman will be worth watching as an early season waiver wire stash if he goes undrafted in your league.
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