Christopher Harris' Fantasy Football Mailbag Week 7

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John: Where do you have Mike Gillislee ranked now that LeSean McCoy is out for Week 7?

I have Gillislee right around 15th or 16th among running backs in all formats, which edges him pretty close to "must-start" territory for those who were hoping McCoy would be able to play through his hamstring injury. And since someone leaked that McCoy could be looking at a multi-week injury, Gillislee could wind up becoming a valuable piece of some winning fantasy teams here pretty soon. He's a testament to the power of handcuffing. (Note that competing sources are saying that McCoy could be a game-time decision, so you'll want to check back in on the inactives Sunday.)

Now, things could absolutely go wrong here if Gillislee is starting. In limited action, he has looked like a pretty good player, but you're not going to mistake him for Shady. He doesn't have the insane lateral agility and burst McCoy does. I actually think Gillislee's calling card is some pretty nice straight-ahead power for a guy his size (5'11", 219 pounds), but he has enough burst and all-around skills to be adequate in most situations. I know sometimes folks get frustrated with my analysis when I'm like, "That guy is all right!" because they desperately want players to be "special," but the fact is that most NFL running backs are average talents, and only a select few are noticeably amazing. Gillislee's talent looks OK to me, and the rest of his fantasy value will come down to how much the Bills use him, how well his line plays, whether he can stay healthy, and fantasy football's dirty grandpa who lords over everything: luck.

The Bills also have Reggie Bush and Jonathan Williams on the roster, and it's not impossible that one or both of those guys gets a larger role. But for one week, I'm assuming Gillislee is the guy and that he could be just fine against a so-so Dolphins run defense. We shall see.

Jason: With the recent spate of starting RB injuries, who are your top handcuffs to roster for the rest of the season?

Gillislee already ranked near the top of that list for me, so I'm hopeful most McCoy owners are able to fall back on him this week. I'm also not going to include Jacquizz Rodgers on this list: he has already been thrust into Tampa's starting lineup because Doug Martin will miss more time. In rough order of importance, here's the rest of my top tier of handcuffs:

Alfred Morris, Cowboys: The most obvious name in the NFL. Zeke Elliott has been an awesome story, but he also runs behind the NFL's dominant blocking unit and often has a laughable amount of room. Morris might not be quite as good as Elliott is, but he'd be an RB1 should the rookie get injured.

DeAngelo Williams, Steelers: D-Willy himself has battled a knee injury, so he'd need to show he's healthy before we could trust him as Le'Veon Bell's understudy. Plus, Ben Roethlisberger's injury-related absence interrupts the Pittsburgh offense's flow. But you've seen Williams be fantasy's No. 1 RB in September. Bell owners must hold him.

Tim Hightower, Saints: Is it annoying when John Kuhn swipes touchdowns from Mark Ingram? Sure, but that doesn't mean Kuhn would be the starting tailback if Ingram gets hurt. That would assuredly be Hightower, and while touchdowns have been tough for Ingram to come by, Hightower would still be Drew Brees's caddie, and that means something.

Devontae Booker, Broncos: I don't know what in the wild world of sports is going on with the Denver offensive line. I may have severely overvalued them after their hot start. Booker is already gnawing into C.J. Anderson's workload—should C.J.A. go down, he would have free rein.

Andre Ellington, Cardinals: David Johnson is an incredible player, potentially a legitimate inheritor of the Adrian Peterson mantel of being the best all-around back in the league. But he's still made of flesh, and he's had a pretty big workload. Ellington wouldn't be able to dominate like D.J., but he'd have a lot of value as Arizona's starter.

Maks: Is it time to give up on Eddie Lacy?

For 2016, I think so. Lacy went on injured reserve Thursday, which means he's not eligible to return for a minimum of eight games. That means the soonest he could be back would be Week 15, also known as your fantasy semifinals. Anyone in a shallow fantasy league will have need of high-upside players between now and then. Anyone in a deeper league will be trying to cobble together bye-week solutions between now and then. The only way I could see hanging on to Lacy would be if you have an IR slot.

How likely is it that Lacy will be able to return from ankle surgery and actually play eight weeks hence? Nobody outside the Packers organization knows that yet, because we don't know what procedure Lacy is having done, but I find it difficult to imagine. He's not exactly a lightweight, and presumably he won't be able to do much conditioning to stay in anything resembling game shape.

If the question Maks is asking is, "Is it time to give up on Eddie Lacy in general," as in beyond this season, I say probably not. The time when I believed he might be an exceptional player is past.

Anyone who knows my work knows I think Yards Per Carry is an overused and fairly terrible stat, so when you hear people saying how Lacy was averaging more than 5.0 yards per carry as some sort of proof that he was having a good year, cover your ears. He was OK. He had nice moments of power and pop where you could see glimpses of the player we hoped he'd be. While he's still got pretty good feet for a guy his size, the hope that he could be a mid-career Jerome Bettis is gone. Lacy doesn't have that kind of vision or balance, and seems to go through phases where he's not interested in running with that kind of power. Lacy will probably be back for the Pack, but I doubt I'll view him as an RB1 again.

Jim: Can Carson Palmer turn it around? Why did I draft a late-round QB?

Yeah, drafting a late-round quarterback is the way to go in most leagues! But here we are with Palmer; I'll admit, I was hopeful that last season would carry right through to '16, but it hasn't happened so far. Many of the bad habits Palmer has shown over the course of his career—staring down receivers, getting jumpy in the pocket, having his throwing accuracy come and go, making mistakes at the worst moments—are showing up on film again. It's been a frustrating first month-plus. Add into the mix the fact that he's apparently dealing with an injured hamstring and about to face a great Seahawks defense, and things don't feel like they're going to get better this week.

Despite a blowout loss Monday night, the Jets reinforced a plan for beating Palmer: bring pressure. Palmer is a tough dude, but you can get him to see ghosts and hurry through his progressions; while his footwork is mostly pretty good, he doesn't have a great sense of when he's about to be hit and winds up having his throwing motion altered by contact more than most quarterbacks. And since Arizona doesn't have a great offensive line, the Jets just blitzed—more than they've blitzed all year—to try and cover up for a subpar secondary. The Seahawks are a zone team who don't blitz a ton, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them try and get pressure in Palmer's face Sunday night, and try and force mistakes.

Longer term, is there hope for a fantasy resurgence for Palmer? Sure. He's still got good aerial weapons. But maybe the biggest strike against him is that David Johnson also plays for Arizona, and the touchdowns have been going to DJ. What goes around in that regard tends to come around—rushing touchdowns often disappear in favor of passing touchdowns, just through the random-number generator of life—so Palmer will probably have some games with good TD numbers at some point.

Jed: Is Jordy Nelson hurt? It feels like they're not telling us the whole story.

I don't have any way of knowing any more than you do, Jed, and beat reporters who are around teams often don't get that information, either. There was definitely a moment Thursday night where Nelson collided with Tracy Porter and came up limping, but he was back out on the field on the very next play, and played most of Green Bay's offensive snaps.

I don't believe that Nelson's usage Thursday reflects on whether or not he's injured. Aaron Rodgers basically found a couple patsies on the Bears defense he could take advantage of, and he did so in spades. Welcome to the big time, De'Vante Bausby and Jacoby Glenn. My God, those two young Chicago defensive backs cannot play, at least not yet, and Rodgers pumped passes at Davante Adams at an insane rate, allowing Adams to dog-walk man coverage on the outside up and down the field. Naturally, the CBS announcing crew took no notice of this and instead sang hosannas to what an amazing night Adams was having and how the Green Bay offense was finally figuring everything out, and hey, maybe they did figure some stuff out. But ask any Packer fan: targeting Davante Adams 16 times in one game usually isn't a path to glory.

Essentially, once it became clear that Porter would shadow Nelson on most downs, Rodgers just stayed away from him and threw it to Adams, Ty Montgomery, and Randall Cobb. Folks who just read box scores will proclaim that Nelson is hurt or bad or on the outs, and I can't proclaim with 100 percent certainty any of those options are not the case, but I don't think this game is an indication one way or another. This was just a great quarterback taking advantage of some awful defenders.

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