Who Should I Start? Elijah Mitchell or Kimani Vidal

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).

Wednesday, October 15, 9:53 AM

Los Angeles Chargers running back Kimani Vidal exploded in Week 6 with 124 rushing yards on 18 carries (6.89 YPC) and three receptions for 14 yards and a touchdown through the air. The reason for his opportunity is that rookie Omarion Hampton (ankle) landed on the injured reserve in Week 5, which opened up the door for Vidal, and he made the most of it. At this point, Vidal should not be on your waiver wire and should be picked up immediately if he is. The most encouraging thing for Vidal is that he outsnapped, out-touched, and outplayed other Chargers running back Hassan Haskins by a landslide, saw 67% of the snaps to Haskins' 31%, out-touched him 22 to seven, and outgained him 138 to 23 in all-purpose yards. While fantasy managers may want to temper expectations, considering the Chargers faced the Miami Dolphins, who have allowed the seventh most points to running backs on the season, it was encouraging to see one of the two running backs get a majority of the touches, as coming into the matchup on Sunday, it was unclear who the lead back was going to be. Vidal can be viewed as a low-end RB2 moving forward until Hampton returns.