Mikel Leshoure Tears Achilles: What This Means for Fantasy Football

Adam Schefter has reported this morning that Detroit Lions rookie running back Mikel Leshoure has torn his Achilles and will be out for the season.

While this is certainly a huge blow for the Detroit Lions football team, it might even be worse news for fantasy owner who had Leshoure tagged as a sleeper.

OK, well that's not true, but it's certainly noteworthy.

Depending on what site you look at, Leshoure was rated somewhere around the 30th best running back. ESPN has him at No. 34 while Yahoo! has him ranked 27th.

So, who is affected by this injury?

First and foremost, Jahvid Best.

The second-year back from California is currently ranked No. 21 and 32 by ESPN and Yahoo!, respectively. You can go ahead and bump that Yahoo! ranking up quite a bit and even bump ESPN's up a few spots.

I would definitely take Best in the top 20.

Even though he's the featured back for the Lions, though, don't go drafting him as your No. 1.

Even though Best has the speed and skills to turn any run into a huge one, he hasn't proven he can handle a full workload over the course of an entire season. He is extremely injury prone and still remains a high-risk pick.

With Leshoure's injury, however, his reward just got a lot higher. 

Maurice Morris isn't sexy but will make for decent handcuff picks late in your draft, now. You can almost guarantee he might find a start or two over the course of the season. 

Also keep an eye out for a veteran like Clinton Portis. Detroit will likely take a look, and he would make for an intriguing backup.