In the final month of the 2023 season, when Josh Jacobs got hurt, the Las Vegas Raiders did what all Dynasty Fantasy Football managers did by evaluating Zamir White. With Jacobs leaving as a free agent earlier in the offseason to join the Green Bay Packers, a starting bell-cow role is open, and White looks to be the clear beneficiary moving forward. Not every time does simply walking into a high-volume role make someone a fantasy asset, but Zamir White has the talent to take this starting job with the Raiders and run with it.
In the 2022 NFL Draft, the Raiders selected White in the fourth round (122nd overall) from the University of Georgia. Nicknamed “Zeus,” he was once a top-10 national recruit; however, he has a history of two ACL tears in back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018. White, now 24 years old, is a naturally powerful runner with a lower half that’s hard to knock off-balance. When given an opportunity in 2023, he produced even after not playing much during his rookie year (17 touches) and most of 2023 until the Jacobs injury. So, with the 2024 season nearing as training camps and the preseason a matter of weeks away, should you buy, sell, or hold White? Let’s dive in.
* Within this article, the statistics were pulled from Sports Reference, KeepTradeCut (KTC), and Sleeper.
2023 Season Review
For much of the season, White served as Jacobs’ backup, but late in week 14, Jacobs went down with a quad injury. As it turned out, Jacobs missed the remainder of the season, and White was forced into action. He ended up giving the Raiders a glimpse of what he was capable of doing. Once he did get an opportunity, he produced a top-20 finish every week and even placed as high as RB12 in Week 15 with 16.0 fantasy points (Full-PPR).
As White showed, he didn’t disappoint in these four games, and with a full workload, he averaged 21 carries and 3.3 targets per game. And even though he only had one touchdown, that’s something that’s encouraging about his future trajectory, leaving room for growth this upcoming season. However, in those four games, he also averaged 3.43 yards per carry after first contact, which would have ranked him third in the NFL for the entire season, slotting him ahead of some of the elite runners in the league, namely Christian McCaffrey (3.42), and Breece Hall (3.41). While he’s not in that tier as a fantasy asset, his tough-nosed running style does help him rack up fantasy points. These numbers help prove that this is just a sign of things to come in the future, and White should have an opportunity to produce very solid RB2-type numbers going forward.
In that four-game stretch, when he was the lead back getting the majority of the touches, he looked very much the part that showcased why he could be a starter going forward. The main question is: Will he thrive this season in a Raiders offense that typically struggles with consistency? It’s not clear, but he did show us enough when he was the starter to be optimistic ahead of what’s now coming up in his first season as the featured back. Looking to 2024, a running back who’s now identified as the lead back on the Raiders deserves to be on all Dynasty Fantasy Football manager’s radars, and what he’s done so far is just the tip of the iceberg.
Zamir White’s Dynasty Value
Coming into this season, White’s value around the Dynasty community is slowly trending upward compared to last year and should continue to do so once the season starts. If the Raiders’ new RB1 starts to show that the test trial he was on last year was no fairy tale, his value will soar, and he’ll be a tough player to acquire from other Dynasty managers. According to KeepTradeCut (KTC), he’s currently valued at RB21 and is the 109th overall player. He’s placed behind rookies Ricky Pearsall and Adonai Mitchell, behind Tyjae Spears, who projects as the Titans RB2, along with being one spot behind Diontae Johnson. Based on his career statistics to this point, this is a fair evaluation. Still, it clearly shows how severely undervalued he is going into this season regarding his future production. Going into this new season, White is staring at a high-volume starting opportunity for a team that, when Jacobs was the lead back, supported him to three top fifteen yearly finishes (Full-PPR) in five years and even as high as RB3 in his career year during the 2022 season. White has some risk, but the reward could be worth it.
Outlook & Advice
When building your Dynasty team’s backfield, managers are looking for talent, versatility, and opportunity. White will check the opportunity box as the Raiders only added Alexander Mattison as his main competition and have two other question marks in Ameer Abdullah and Dylan Laube, a sixth-round pick. We’ve also seen that White has the talent to produce as he did at the end of last season, but my main concern is his lack of versatility. Most of his touches were on the ground in those four games to round out the year. He only had one game with five or more receptions when he had six catches for thirty-five yards in Week 17. To be a complete back, White will need more consistency to be considered one of the top-tier running backs. For example, in 2023, David Montgomery was the only running back to finish in the top 30 in half-PPR points per game, which averaged under two targets per game.
Still, with the opportunity White has in front of him for the 2024 season and the fact that he’s a young player still developing, I believe he’ll continue to grow and is a solid RB2 target for Dynasty managers. I would recommend buying or keeping White, and there’s no reason to consider moving him at this moment as his current price doesn’t match his value given his projected 2024 role. If you want to sell him after a hot start to the season to a league manager in dire need of running back help during the season, that’s a discussion to have at that time. But his lead role is too appealing to sell right now, and there aren’t many true workhorse opportunities in today’s NFL like White is about to have.
I plan on buying shares of White if I don’t currently roster him, assuming I can acquire him for a reasonable price. I would even consider slightly overpaying. For the one team that I currently roster White with, I will be holding onto him and enjoying his production, as I feel comfortable that White will help me contend. On KeepTradeCut, he’s being valued as an early 2024 second-round pick for anyone who hasn’t had their rookie drafts yet, or around players such as D’Andre Swift and Amari Cooper. I would be willing to trade a player in that range for White since he has less competition than Swift and is younger than Cooper. I’d also be looking at options to acquire him as a second piece in a larger deal.
Conclusion
Whether I’m a contending or rebuilding manager, White is someone I would be looking to acquire and roster because of his cheap cost, his potential to be an excellent fantasy producer, and that he’s a young player at only 24 years old in the prime of his career. In addition, he will be the clear-cut number-one running back on a team that’s supported a top fantasy rusher in the past. White is one of the best buy-low players in Dynasty Fantasy Football right now and best overall values due to his ceiling and the opportunity in front of him. White’s Dynasty value will only increase throughout this season, so get him before his value rises because if he keeps producing like he did to end last season and improves his pass-catching just slightly to become a complete three-down back, the window to buy him will be shut in a hurry. Add him to Dynasty rosters now, as he can become one foundation of your championship-caliber roster.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, and I hope you gained some valuable information. If you have any questions or you’d like additional insight and analysis, please follow me on Twitter/X at @MonicasHubby. #DFFArmy #AlwaysBeBuilding
