Posted by travis in 
Back up running backs often remain virtually unknown players to most fans throughout the football season unless that fan happens to own the team’s starting back. That guy generally never sees the light of day unless the starter suffers some sort of injury or the team is resting players towards the end of the regular season.
That backup player could also find himself in the unique position that Jamaal Charles found himself in earlier this year. He had been sitting behind the Kansas City Chief starting running back, Larry Johnson ever since he came into the league in 2008 as well as Kolby Smith. The former Longhorn standout got his chance to shine though after the disgruntled Johnson was released and Smith did not perform (and was eventually injured).
In a short time as the featured back, Jamaal Charles has made a definite impact. In those five games Charles rushed for over 100 yards twice, gained a combined 100 yards three times, and scored 5 touchdowns for the offensively challenged Chiefs. In that time the Chiefs even won twice and were competitive in a third game. His statistics for the last five games are as follows:
Att Yds Avg TD Rcpt Yds TD
Charles, Jamaal RB, KC 87 453 5.2 4 17 117 1
With only five starts under his belt and just over a hundred carries for the season (116) Charles has done nearly as well as several featured backs that have played in almost every game. For the year he is less than 100 yards behind fantasy studs such as LaDainian Tomlinson and Matt Forte who have carried the ball an additional 73 and 85 times, and has outrushed the likes of other former fantasy stars such as Cadillac Williamswho has nearly 40 more carries!
With the fantasy season coming to a close and injuries piling up for some teams there are fantasy owners everywhere scrambling for help. Those that picked up Jamaal Charles off their respective waiver wires may have added the missing piece they needed to make their fantasy football team a championship caliber one.
