Fantasy Football's Most Overrated Players at Each Position
Running Back: Matt Forte
It's tough to not love Matt Forte as a player, let alone a fantasy asset. He's never missed more than four games in a season, which is impressive considering he's about to hit Year 9 in the NFL at a position that takes a beating. And he's never ranked worse than an RB2 (20th) at the running back position in standard scoring end-of-season results.
This may be the year he finally breaks that streak, though.
Forte's entering 2016 a year older on a new team that has pretty serious competition. So much competition, in fact, that beat writers continue to predict that Bilal Powell will see significant snaps in the offense this year.
Just now on @NextLevelFF, @DarrylSlater said to expect a near "even carry split" between Forte and Powell this year (slight edge to Forte)
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) August 2, 2016
And it makes sense. Forte has over 2,000 rushes under his belt, and he actually signed a contract that was very, very similar -- in length and money -- to the one Powell signed with the Jets this offseason. In other words, the team's investment is almost identical with the two backs.
Forte was still a good runner last year, ranking fifth among 200-plus attempt backs in efficiency according to our Net Expected Points (NEP) metric. But perhaps the biggest thing that's helped Forte over his career is his pass-catching ability, which is the area Powell excels (nearly 50 catches last year for Powell).
It's easy to see a scenario where Powell digs into Forte's volume both on the ground and through the air this year. And the team's beat writers are making it clear, too.
