Fantasy Football: Redrafting the First Round After 4 Weeks
4. Le'Veon Bell, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers
A consensus top-two pick to start the season, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell remains in our top five, even if his production hasn’t met expectations to date. Perhaps the slow start can be attributed to a lengthy preseason holdout, as Bell returned to the team just days before their first regular season game with little time to knock off the rust.
He averaged just 3.2 yards per carry on 37 attempts, failed to score a touchdown, and had just 19 receiving yards on 7 catches in his first two games. While the workload was fine and his team was winning, we just weren’t seeing the playmaking ability we are used to from perhaps the league’s most talented running back.
But maybe some of that rust is being knocked off -- Bell has now scored three touchdowns in his past two games while rushing for 205 yards on 4.1 yards per carry. He is currently ranked sixth in standard scoring formats, although he's just five points behind the third-ranked Devonta Freeman and appears to be trending back in the right direction.
In terms of NEP, Bell has been below average, notching a Rushing NEP per carry of just -0.04 and a Success Rate of just 35.63%, similar efficiency marks to players like Ameer Abdullah and Lamar Miller. However, he also leads the league in carries while the Steelers offense remains injury- and suspension-free, making Bell a solid top-five selection once again.