Xavier Jones might become the biggest sleeper addition in the coming weeks. This comes with the unfortunate news of Cam Akers tearing his achilles, which shook the Los Angeles Rams as well as the fantasy football community. The need for both parties is to find the next guy up. The early consensus is that we’ll see Darrell Henderson take over the workload, but we have yet to see Henderson make it a whole season without injury. This brings up the idea that Xavier Jones might be a sleeper to grab and this article is going to show why he won’t be a bad sleeper to add.

The Workload

The workload at SMU is what makes Xavier Jones an interesting prospect for the Rams in 2021. In 2019, Jones put up 1276 yards, and an incredible 23 TDs on 244 carries. That was the 2nd time in his career at SMU that he surpassed 1,000 yards. The guy was a bell-cow and has the ability to take on a workload at the next level. Jones obviously proved to be an efficient red zone threat and could feel right at home in this Rams run-heavy offense. Darrell Henderson was the Rams most efficient RB in the red zone in 2021 with 84 yards, 4 TDs on 31 carries. There might be room though for someone else to step up and take a few carries and maybe a few TDs, and that someone is Xavier Jones.

Skillset

Xavier Jones went undrafted after a season in which he scored 23 TDs. The Rams ended up snagging him up and they may have found a serious diamond in the rough. In 2019, Xavier Jones was a mixture of patience and vision at the line of scrimmage. Jones popped on the tape as someone who was going to get to the second level of the defenses with his decision making. After that he was going to either use his quick twitch cutting ability to get away from defenders or break tackles. His college tape was impressive and made me wonder why he didn’t get drafted. The only thing I saw that was a detriment to his case was Jones’s lack of acceleration. Something that’ll hurt his ability to break runs at the next level, but who cares if this guy can average 4-5 yards per carry. One last stat-line to throw in is his SMU career receiving totals with 72 receptions, 488 yards, and 3 TDs. This will come in handy on passing downs, and could get Jones on the field more this year. Overall, Jones has the talent to be a sleeper candidate in 2021.

Conclusion

The Rams are in a great situation even with Cam Akers going down. Adding Matthew Stafford this past year will help bring stability to the quarterback position and balance out the offense. Then we have the offensive line in LA, which was recently ranked 8th by Pro Football Focus. Whether it’s Darnell Henderson, Xavier Jones or a mixture of the two this offense should be explosive. So whoever takes over this backfield will have the resources to make something out of the 2021 season.

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