Fantasy football 2017: Kansas City Chiefs have 3 of top 50 players
By Matt Conner
No. 18, Spencer Ware, RB
First, at No. 18 overall, Gramling has Spencer Ware. Throughout his piece on the top 100, Gramling usually provides commentary for each player, but occasionally he will skip it and just list the player name and number. That’s the case here for Ware who, for whatever reason, gets denied any sort of explanation or context. That said, it’s not hard to see that Ware was the Chiefs primary rusher last season and it’s up to rookie Kareem Hunt to knock him off of the top. Either way, Ware will definitely earn some carries and red zone opportunities even if Hunt cuts into that productivity. More on that battle later.
Last season, Ware separated himself from the incoming young tandem forged in 2015 with Charcandrick West. Together, they performed admirably after Jamaal Charles went down with another season-ending injury and the two kept the Chiefs running game respectable. Unfortunately, West looked mediocre last season and Ware earned the lead back role for K.C. as Charles failed to return to the field for any meaningful length of time.
Ware will hold onto the job for some time if he enjoys the sort of start like he did last season. In a season-opening win against the San Diego Chargers, Ware had 11 rushes for 70 yards and a touchdown as well as another 7 catches for 129 receiving yards in the same game. That 199 yards from scrimmage was by far his best performance of the year.
Unfortunately Ware faded down the stretch considerably. He averaged 129 yards from scrimmage for the first six games of 2016. Ware never once crossed the 100-yard mark from scrimmage again in any other game after that. In 14 starts last season, Ware carried the ball 214 times for 921 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns. He also had 33 catches for 447 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns.