Bobby Rainey's Updated Fantasy Value for Week 2 with Doug Martin Injured

On the bright side, Doug Martin was ruled out before Sunday's early afternoon games. On the down side, owners had roughly 15 minutes to assess Bobby Rainey's value versus their bench guys and come to a decision.    

Fox Sports' Jay Glazer first reported Martin would not play, with Rainey expected to get a majority of the work:

Martin suffered a knee injury in the Bucs' Week 1 loss to the Carolina Panthers. He'd carried the ball nine times for only nine yards before ceding to Rainey for a majority of the second half. Rainey himself had just 12 yards on his four carries, but made a six-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter as the Bucs narrowly missed out on their comeback effort.

Tampa Bay hosts the St. Louis Rams in Week 2, which is a better matchup now than it would have been one week ago. Rams defensive end Chris Long suffered an ankle injury last week and has been placed on the designated injured reserve—keeping him on the shelf for the next eight weeks.

Tom Gannam/Associated Press

That leaves St. Louis' world-beating defensive line looking a little thinner than it did coming into the season. On the other hand, the Rams have enough depth in their front seven that Rainey will have a difficult time regardless. Aaron Donald had an excellent outing in his NFL debut last week, Robert Quinn is one of the league's best defensive players and linebackers Alec Ogletree and James Laurinaitis are both solid against the run.

Last week, the Rams held Adrian Peterson to 75 yards on 21 carries. Vikings wideout Cordarrelle Patterson was able to rush for over 100 yards and took a 67-yard gain to the end zone out of the backfield, but those designed runs were worked largely due to misdirection. As noted by Rotoworld, it's unlikely that Rainey gets a Martin-esque workhorse load, either:

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Rainey is more of a change-of-pace back, but figures to be forced into lead-back work in Week 2, perhaps with Mike James and FB Jorvorskie Lane mixing in. The Rams don't do a lot well as a team, but they do stop the run. 

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In a desperation situation, Rainey is a low-end RB2. He's a fine flex play because of his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, but we're not talking about an instant must-start here. Rainey is probably best kept on the bench unless you have no better options.

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