Jacksonville Jaguars Sign RB Jamaal Charles

by
Former Writers
October 10, 2018

WEBN-TV via Flickr

Jacksonville Jaguars Sign 31-Year-Old Jamaal Charles

The Jaguars who have been ravaged by injury this season have signed former Pro Bowl running back Jamaal Charles. He is no longer the explosive player that he once was. A series of knee injuries have changed him into more of a change of pace role.

He will act as the primary backup to T.J. Yeldon who had 122 all-purpose yards on 18 touches last week. Yeldon has shown that he can be a good player, but he has never been able to perform consistently.

Charles is coming off a season with the Denver Broncos where he appeared in 14 games and had 69 carries for 296 yards. He is coming into this season at 31 years of age, he is no longer a game-changer but will fill the role voided by Corey Grant.

Grant suffered a Linsfranc injury that will hold him out most of the season. Of course, the Jaguars would like to have standout running back Leonard Fournette, but he has been plagued by hamstring issues all season and will be out this week.

Implications For The Jaguars

The Jaguars have now lost two running backs to injury: Leonard Fournette and Corey Grant. Their only healthy running back before the Charles signing was T.J. Yeldon. The Jaguars added Charles as a backup and potentially someone to split carries with Yeldon as Yeldon has never proven to be a reliable starter. In addition, Yeldon could benefit from Charles’ veteran presence.

The Jaguars also signed former seventh-round pick and rookie David Williams off the Broncos’ practice squad. He will provide depth behind Yeldon and Charles. This tandem should provide some offensive stability to a team that was just blown out by the high-flying Chiefs. The Jaguars rely on their running backs to keep the ball out of mistake-prone quarterback Blake Bortles’ hands as much as possible.

Fantasy Implications

Yeldon is coming off a very encouraging week for his fantasy owners. He should maintain high-end RB2 status as long as Leonard Fournette is out. Jamaal Charles has little to no fantasy value as he will need to learn the playbook before being integrated into the gameplan heavily.

Fournette should return by the time that Charles becomes fully immersed likely relegating Charles to a third-string role. He is merely a desperation flex play this week as the Jaguars face the Cowboys. When Fournette returns, he is an RB2 until he proves that he can stay healthy and handle a full workload.