Who Should I Start? Jerick McKinnon or Samaje Perine

Monday, September 18, 2:55 AM

Kansas City Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon came down with all three of his targets for 24 yards and lost two yards on his lone rush attempt in the Sunday's 17-9 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The 31-year-old's first reception, an 11-yarder, stemmed from soft coverage on third-and-20. That was essentially McKinnon's highlight of the day, and his two opening performances are a far cry from what he was providing down the stretch of 2022. Sunday's matchup came off as a promising one after the Jags poured out RB receiving production last year, but there was no dice for the pass-catching specialist on Sunday. K.C. has not yet spent enough time in goal-to-gos to gauge which of their three backs will consistently see the lion's share of those touches, but Isiah Pacheco may have pulled away a bit in garnering that treatment with 70 yards in this one.

Monday, September 18, 12:26 AM

Denver Broncos running back Samaje Perine was supposed to be sharing a bigger part of the backfield workload early in his first season in Denver as the team eased backfield mate Javonte Williams in after his ACL and LCL tears in Week 4 of 2022. But in the Week 2 loss to the Washington Commanders, Perine had just one carry for four yards and caught three of his four targets for 20 yards in the 35-33 loss at home. Rookie Jaleel McLaughlin had as many carries as Perine and took his handoff five yards to paydirt. In the season opener last week, Perine saw 12 touches for 78 yards, so this was a big-time disappointment. The full expectation is that Williams will eventually gain even more work in the Broncos' backfield, so Perine will enter the Week 3 matchup in Miami as tough to trust as an RB3/flex in deeper leagues.