A Running Back to Target in Each Round of Your Fantasy Football Draft

Round 9: LeGarrette Blount, New England Patriots

ADP: 107th overall (9.08)

According to our projections, LeGarrette Blount is one of the more overlooked backs in the league. He's coming off the board as the RB42, but we rank him the RB30 and the 69th overall player.

A lot of the reason behind our positive view of him comes from expected volume. We project him to get 183 carries, which would be Blount's most attempts in a season since his first two years in the league. If he gets that workload in what should be a quality offense, he'll have a tough time not returning value at this price.

Blount turned in a very good campaign a year ago before getting hurt.

Among backs to see at least 100 carries, he ranked 9th in Rushing NEP per carry and checked in 20th in Rushing Success Rate. A lot of Blount's value came from his goal-line work as he scored 6 touchdowns despite rushing for just 703 yards, but as the numbers show, he was pretty good whenever the Patriots gave him the rock.

There are a couple variables in play here.

Dion Lewis, his backfield mate, is coming off a torn ACL he suffered in Week 9. Lewis -- our recommended pick in Round 4 -- took part in minicamp and appears to be on track to play Week 1, but that would make for a quick turnaround from a serious knee injury. If Lewis isn't ready to go, Blount would be in line for more volume.

There's also the not-so-small matter of Tom Brady missing the first four games.

That is probably a key reason for Blount's depressed value, and it makes perfect sense. With Brady under center, New England will move the ball better, leading to more red zone opportunities for Blount (and everyone else). Although, the Patriots may be a more run-oriented team sans Brady, trying to predict New England game plans is a pretty fruitless endeavor.

No one knows what to expect from Jimmy Garoppolo, but we have a pretty good idea of what the Patriots' offense will look like when Brady is back at the controls. It should be similar to the offense that helped Blount to an RB29 finish a year ago. Even if he's just a flex play you start in games where New England is a heavy favorite, Blount is a valuable selection this late in the draft.