Fantasy Football: 4 Unexpectedly Great Week 9 Performances

Corey Clement, RB, Philadelphia Eagles

NFL.Com Start Percentage: 0%
Week 9 Fantasy Points: 24.6

Considering that nobody (okay, 0.1% of owners started him) played running back Corey Clement in Week 9, it's safe to say his performance was a surprise. It's also probably safe to assume it won't happen again.

For starters, it's hard to see a scenario where LeGarrette Blount and recently-acquired Jay Ajayi aren't still getting a ton of touches in the Philadelphia Eagles' backfield. Blount is averaging a healthy 4.6 yards per attempt and has handled nearly 40 percent of Philadelphia's rushing attempts. Ajayi has had a disappointing season to date, but the Eagles probably didn't trade for him so that they could feature Clement instead.

In the Week 9 blowout of the Denver Broncos, only two of Clement's 13 opportunities (rushing attempts plus targets) came when the score was within seven points. Most of his work came with Philadelphia in command of the game. Ajayi was still learning the playbook, and with the game in hand, it probably made sense to get Clement some work. He also didn't stand out from an efficiency point of view. He got the touchdowns, but his yards per carry was similar to Blount's and it was actually Ajayi who had the longest run from scrimmage.

Mad props to Clement for the nice game, but expect Ajayi and Blount to get more work in closer games.