2013 Fantasy Outlook: Fred Jackson

Information is constantly changing in the NFL and fantasy player values can change at any moment. Having updated, informative news can help you not just at your fantasy football draft but during the regular season. Feel free to glance at our recent articles to make sound decisions throughout the year.

To help you get ready for draft day you will notice articles for ADP advice, cheat sheets, mock drafts and projected stats for Fred Jackson here. During the season, you can also find regular weekly ranking articles at this section as well.

Welcome to Fred Jackson fantasy football outlook archive. At this section of Jackson’s player page you will notice our past thoughts and advice for fantasy football.

Summer of 2012: Fantasy Projections

Fred Jackson has been a good football player since his rookie year, but because the Bills have been such a bad team, and it always seems another young runner is around to take his place; he’s been an afterthought in fantasy drafts.

Buffalo is a competitive team again, and with upgrades on defense, I expect the running game to be a force, once again. Jackson may not be the fastest runner, but he’s smooth in the open field, and for a guy, who’s had to beat out two high first round running backs (Marshawn Lynch, C.J. Spiller) you know he’s gotten to this point with a sound work ethic and a can-do attitude.

Still, I believe recent ADP trends are down playing his talent, whether it be because of his injury, or the expected work load of C.J. Spiller. This is a top fifteen fantasy back and I don’t really care what style of league you’re in.

Yes, Spiller will be active in the Bills offense, but he’s likely to be matched up often as a slot player, because this team is desperate for a chess piece that gives defenses something to think about in the passing game.

Jackson will be the starter, and should be good for around 250 carries and over 40 receptions. Because this team has improved, the game scripts should regularly allow Jackson to run the football throughout each game, and his touchdown opportunities will go up.

If you’re thinking Jackson applies to the 30 and old crowd as a reason to knock him down a few spots on your rankings, don’t. Jackson is 31, but he’s only been in the league for five years and his career workload is merely 817 carries — that’s very little for a player this age.

Coming off his best season as a pro, I expect Jackson to maintain at least a 4.5 yard per carry average and will be an asset to any team that selects him.

	Rushing Stats			Receiving Stats
	Attempts	Yards	TD	Rec	Yards	TD
2012 Projected Stats	240	1,104	7	43	396	1

Summer of 2011: Fantasy Projections

It may be easy to look past Fred Jackson because he wasn’t a high draft pick coming out of college but thus far he’s managed to outproduce two top fifteen overall selections that the Bills have brought in as competition. Marshawn Lynch came to the Bills the same year Jackson did in 2007 but off the field issues and a lack of dedication to the game finally forced the team to part ways with him last season.

While Jackson is likely to begin the season as the Bills starting tailback, it will be interesting to see if C.J. Spiller is ready to challenge him as the season moves along because the young runner has the tools to be a big time difference maker. For now fantasy owners should look to Jackson as the top running back to select from this team at fantasy drafts.

Coming into the summer Jackson ADP value on Mock Draft Central checks in as the 23rd best running back (49.61 average selection) to draft. This would make him a flex play option in ten team standard leagues and that is about right as Jackson is probably worth using as a starter to begin the season, but again, he may lose value as the year progresses.

	Rushing Stats			Receiving Stats
	Attempts	Yards	TD	Rec	Yards	TD
2011 Projected Stats	212	892	5	29	219	1

2010 Preview

Fred Jackson ran for over 1,000 yards in 2009 after taking over the starting job from Lynch. If Jackson keeps the job this season, I wouldn’t expect much more production than what he did a year ago. Look for Buffalo to remain at the bottom of the AFC East.

2010 Fantasy Football Outlook

2009 Fantasy Year In Review: Maybe the lone bright spot for the Buffalo Bills offense was the play of Fred Jackson throughout the season. In the final week of the year Jackson pounded the football 33 times for 212 yards rushing against the Colts.

Audio: RB Fred Jackson | 2010 NFL Fantasy Football Player Rankings

This great performance gave Jackson his first and probably only 1,000 yard rushing season of his career. The impressive part of this achievement was that Jackson did it with 237 carries and behind a bad offensive line. Jackson was everything Marshawn Lynch wasn’t as he continued to be a team player and fought hard on every snap.

2010 NFL Fantasy Football Player Rankings: Jackson will probably start out the season as the Bills starting running back as they use C.J. Spiller in the slot. The Bills do still have Lynch as of June, and we will have to see if they keep the troubled runner by the seasons beginning.

For now Jackson is a stash away player at the very end of your fantasy draft at best as he will be in a running back committee on a bad offense. I like Jackson as a player because he gives his team everything and is a professional but in fantasy he’s just on the wrong team with average personal ability.

Assets

- Hard Worker

- Projected Starter

- Good Hands

Liabilities

- In A RBBC

- Bad Overall Offense