Jerick McKinnon a Shaky Week 7 Fantasy Option but Still a Must-Own Player

For the second time in three weeks, we got a glimpse of the Jerick McKinnon Show in Week 6 against the Detroit Lions: 17 touches, 82 total yards, explosiveness, athleticism, a clear leap-frog of Matt Asiata, fantasy goodness all around.

Unfortunately for fantasy owners, they'll have to wait a bit longer than expected for the encore.

An expected increase of touches for the plodding yet reliable Asiata—and even if that doesn't happen, the uncertainty of the situation is the real problem—combined with a brutal matchup against the NFL's best run defense makes McKinnon a flex play at best for Week 7.

Let's start with McKinnon vs. Asiata, which has turned into one of the bigger ongoing fantasy storylines of the past month.

McKinnon is expected to start for the second week in a row, but head coach Mike Zimmer, per WGR 550 Sports Radio's Joe Buscaglia, doesn't want the workload to be nearly as split as it was last Sunday (48 snaps for McKinnon, 15 for Asiata):

"I just like Asiata," Zimmer added, via 1500ESPN.com's Andrew Krammer. "I think he's got some physicality...Matt's an extremely dependable guy. I anticipate that when he carries the ball, he's going to get some yardage."

This is another example of that pesky real life getting in the way of our fantasy interests. McKinnon is averaging 5.47 yards per touch compared to just 4.61 for Asiata. The talented rookie is a rare athlete who explodes through holes like a Ferrari and has RB1 potential with a full workload. Asiata, on the other hand, slowly eases into traffic like a moped.

Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press

But the former is incredibly physical, better in pass protection and therefore a valuable player for the Vikes in certain situations.

This is an incredibly difficult situation to forecast. McKinnon could get 19 or 17 touches (as he did in Weeks 4 and 6), or he could get 10 (as he did in Week 5). Josh Moore of 4for4.com put it simply:

To make things worse, the Buffalo Bills, who have given up a league-low 2.8 yards per carry, await in Week 7. Here's a look at how running backs receiving at least 10 touches have fared against Doug Marrone's squad:

Player	CAR	YDS	AVG	REC	YDS	TDs	Fan Pts
Matt Forte, CHI	17	82	4.8	8	87	0	16.9
Lamar Miller, MIA	11	46	4.2	2	7	0	5.3
Donald Brown, SD	31	62	2.0	5	27	0	8.9
Alfred Blue, HOU	9	9	1.0	2	16	0	2.5
Arian Foster, HOU	8	6	0.8	7	55	0	6.1
George Winn, DET	11	48	4.4	0	0	0	4.8
Stevan Ridley, NE	10	23	2.3	1	6	0	2.9

Not since Matt Forte in the opening week has a running back tallied double-digit fantasy points against the Bills. Lamar Miller and Arian Foster, who have both been producing at an RB1 level on a per-game basis, were mostly shut down.

Stay away from McKinnon if you can in Week 7, but make sure to hold onto him for the rest of the season.

Bigger things are coming for the electrifying back.