By Brandon Silva:
A lot of craziness occurred this week throughout the NFL with 3 backup quarterbacks leading their teams to victories, the Cardinals winning streak coming to an end, and the Chiefs squeaking out a victory against a deflated Giants team.
The game that shocked the NFL world the most though had to be the 1-win Jets beating the 5-win powerhouse Cincinnati Bengals. They did this without their usual offensive starters of Zach Wilson, Tevin Coleman, and Corey Davis. The Mike White lead Jets looked fantastic on the field, but this team simply couldn’t have gotten this win if it wasn’t for their rookie running back Michael Carter.
Michael Carter was selected in the 4th round this year by the Jets after having a great college career at UNC. It seemed like this guy was everywhere on the field and was getting the ball every play. The Jets won this game focusing on the short game and completing small, accurate passes. Carter totaled 24 touches throughout this game with a stat line of 15 carries for 77 yards and a rushing touchdown. He averaged a very impressive 5.1 yards per carry. In addition to this, he brought in 9 of his 14 targets for 95 yards.
Yes, you read that right, he had FOURTEEN targets.
He totaled the second-most fantasy points in full PPR leagues this week scoring 33.2 points. Carter has already been chipping away at the starting job, but he looks to have sealed it with his last two performances following their bye week. In week 7 against New England, Carter had double-digit carries and still had 8 receptions. It was reported early in training camp that Carter had been working with the starters but after only getting 4 carries for 6 yards in his debut, it seemed like he would be put on the shelf for a little bit. That was not the case and it seems like Carter has that it factor to be the true starting back for the Jets. Carter was on the field for 70% of the team’s offensive snaps this week.
Carter has transformed into someone that should be started confidently every week as an rb2/FLEX play in leagues consisting of 10 or more teams. Michael has benefitted from the play of Mike White who seems to be confident in checking down when it’s open. This is something that will come with time when Zach Wilson is able to get back onto the field but he still should be slotted into lineups for the near future and be someone that can make an impact in your lineup.