Who Should I Start? Elijah Mitchell or Hassan Haskins

Friday, September 5, 7:20 PM

Kansas City Chiefs running back Elijah Mitchell is a healthy inactive for the Week 1 regular-season opener on Friday night in Brazil against the division-rival Los Angeles Chargers, according to Nate Taylor of ESPN. It's bad news for Mitchell heading into his first year with the Chiefs, as it looks like he's the RB4 to open the year, behind starter Isiah Pacheco, Kareem Hunt and rookie Brashard Smith. The 27-year-old was getting some first-team reps early in training camp, but that was a long time ago in late July. Mitchell signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with KC in the offseason after spending his first three NFL seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. In his three years in the Bay Area, the former sixth-rounder in 2021 out of Louisiana averaged 4.7 yards per tote on 327 rush attempts for 1,523 yards and nine touchdowns (five in his rookie season).

Thursday, October 16, 11:14 AM

Despite being named the team's starter leading up to their win against the Miami Dolphins last weekend, Los Angeles Chargers running back Hassan Haskins took a backseat to teammate Kimani Vidal. It was never assumed that the 25-year-old would absorb all of LA's backfield work in Omarion Hampton's (ankle) absence, but Vidal took the opportunity and ran with it. Haskins was out-touched 21-7, out-gained 139-23, and out-snapped 43-20. The Chargers could opt to even out the distribution of backfield touches moving forward. Still, Vidal has the hot hand currently, and figures to get another crack at running away with the starting job in Sunday's home outing with the Indianapolis Colts. Haskins can't be trusted for fantasy, but he's on the radar as the handcuff to own in Los Angeles for the time being.