After starting the season on injured reserve, Elijah McGuire made his season debut with a bang in Week 9, immediately supplanting Trenton Cannon as the Bilal Powell-replacing passing-down back for the New York Jets.
Cannon played 54% of the Jets' offensive snaps in Week 8, but that dropped steeply to 11% last week while McGuire led the team at 55%. No Jets back has played that high of a share of their snaps since Week 5, when Powell did it, and only Powell has hit that mark this season (doing so twice). It is not only clear that McGuire is fully healthy, but also that the Jets plan on leaning on him for significant work.
It wasn't just empty playing time that McGuire saw, either, racking up six carries and five targets. That's not in line with the kind of rushing volume that Powell was seeing (11.4 carries per game), but it does include a lot more work through the air (Powell averaged only 2.6 targets per game, topping 5 looks twice in 7 games).
The Buffalo Bills boast a good defense, but volume is what we're looking for at running back, and McGuire promises to see plenty of that on a weekly basis. He's a solid start this week, and he also has the upside of being a potential mainstay in your fantasy lineup if he continues to command a significant role in New York.