What It Means:

"He's earned that opportunity," McCarthy said. "We'll stay with the one-two punch." Starks is performing much better than teammate Eddie Lacy, who appears to be overweight and continues to suffer from nagging injuries. Starks will get the start against Detroit, who is giving up the fifth-most fantasy points to running backs.

Starks currently ranks 30th in Total Net Expected Points per play among the 59 running backs with at least 50 opportunities through Week 9. Lacy is 41st in this metric.