With his hot finish, Rashaad Penny set himself up as a legit free agent RB. After an extremely injured plagued start to his career, Seattle decided not to pick up his 5th year option, allowing Penny to be able to sign anywhere this off-season.
Starting in Week 14 until the end of the year (5 weeks), Penny led the league in rushing and yards per attempt.
He was first this year in yards after contact/attempt (5.38) among RBs with at least 100 carries.
He was ripping off big play after big play, too. More than 50% of his rushing yards came on rushing plays of 15+ yards.
As far as fantasy goes, he killed it when it mattered. He was the overall RB1 (and in FPPG) over the last 5 weeks of the season.
He went over 130 yards rushing in 4 of 5 of those games.
You can see why so many remained truthers of Penny all these years.
The question remains: Can Penny revive his career into a productive NFL RB?
Penny doesn’t have much tread on his tires, and he’s shown he can be a productive workhorse in college.
He’s now two years removed from his ACL injury, so if he can actually get a full off-season of workouts to get back to being in optimal shape, he can potentially be a solid fantasy asset depending on his landing spot.
If there’s a Penny truther in your dynasty league, you might want to field offers right now off of his hot finish. If not, I’d hold to see if he can give you a productive year or two.
As far as redraft goes, I wouldn’t be spending any significant draft capital on Penny given his availability over his first four seasons. But if his ADP settles in as a later pick, he’s a solid flier. Let’s see where he lands and who his competition is.
Did Penny will you your league?