Tre Mason's Rise Has Made Zac Stacy a 2014 Fantasy Football Dud

Jeff Fisher and the St. Louis Rams coaching staff have discovered what Gus Malzahn and the Auburn University Tigers have known for the last two years: Tre Mason is an absolute beast who needs to be fed the ball on a consistent basis. 

Over the last two games, the rookie running back, who helped lead Auburn to the national championship game last season, has averaged 5.4 yards per carry. He ran for 85 yards and scored his first NFL touchdown on Sunday in the Rams' surprise win over the Seattle Seahawks.

Meanwhile, last year's flavor of the year in the Rams' backfield, Zac Stacy, didn't get a touch.

Stacy had been battling an ankle injury over the last few weeks, but he participated fully in practice and was expected to play. However, the running-back-by-committee approach the Rams had been utilizing didn't include Stacy against Seattle.

Moving forward, Stacy will likely see some carries and opportunities in the passing game. But Mason's success would lead you to believe that he has taken over as the team's primary contributor out of the backfield.

The sturdy, strong and deceptively quick 21-year-old has an opportunity to be one of the steals of the NFL draft—and of the fantasy season.

After Mason was taken 75th overall in April's draft by the Rams, some may have believed that Stacy would keep him from making a major impact with the team. After all, Stacy had rushed for 973 yards and seven touchdowns in 14 games last season.

Before he went down with an injury, Stacy struggled to put up big numbers, which might have prompted fantasy owners to go lukewarm on the Rams running back. With the emergence of Mason, there's reason to look to the Show Me State for a potential fantasy stud again.

Mason deserves serious consideration for a start next week when the Rams take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the Battle of Missouri. The Chiefs came into Week 7 as the 23rd-best team in the NFL against the run.

That would seemingly be a good matchup for Mason. 

As for Stacy, there's nothing scarier to fantasy owners than a healthy scratch as it pertains to a player's fantasy value. Perhaps you wait a week before sending him to the waiver wire, but he's definitely a non-starter in Week 8.