Alfred Morris' Updated Fantasy Outlook After Matt Breida's Ankle Injury

Matt Breida suffered an ankle injury in the first quarter of Sunday's Week 5 game against the Arizona Cardinals and was ruled out, according to Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area. This leaves Alfred Morris as the top option for the San Francisco 49ers. But does Morris' likely increased workload mean all that much for fantasy owners?

Yes...but also no. Let's discuss.

The 29-year-old Morris was a true fantasy presence in the first three years of his career, rushing for at least 1,000 yards and seven touchdowns in each campaign. Since a disappointing 2015 season, however, Morris has largely been a handcuff in fantasy, serving as Ezekiel Elliott's backup for two years in Dallas.

In six games during Elliott's suspension last year, Morris registered 430 rushing yards and a touchdown, adding six receptions for 36 yards. That came out to an average of 8.7 fantasy points per contest. Hardly a shabby number, hardly an elite one.

That was on a Dallas offensive line that was simply better than San Francisco's unit this year.

This year, he's been splitting time with Breida, offering the 49ers 167 yards and one touchdown along with three receptions for 36 yards heading into Week 5. Fairly ho-hum stuff. Obviously, with Breida out of action, Morris' overall workload will increase, and by proxy, his fantasy value will go up somewhat.

But there several types of backups or committee backs, in order of overall value:

• A truly talented player who probably deserves a chance to start somewhere on a great offense that props up their fantasy value (RB1)
• A truly talented player who probably deserves a chance to start somewhere on an average offense that doesn't really affect their fantasy value (RB2)
• An average player on a great offense that props up their fantasy value (RB2/Flex)
• Talented player/bad offense (RB2/Flex)
• Average player/average offense (Flex)
• Bad player/great offense (Flex)
• Average player/bad offense (Bench)
• Bad player/average offense (Bench)
• Bad player/bad offense (Ignore)

Morris falls into the average/average camp. And players in that camp generally sit in the flex spot. So consider Morris a player who will give you something in the 5-9 points range, making him a fine flex consideration but hardly an elite option at the position.