Justice Hill (RB, BAL) - Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: Quite the season for the Ravens, isn’t it? Baltimore has already won its division and will be on a bye during the first round of playoff games. Of course, leading-back Mark Ingram will sit out next week’s game (because of Baltimore’s record and due to injury) and that leaves the door open for both Gus Edwards and Justice Hill. Just this past weekend, under a normal workload that will increase next week, Hill finished with 51 yards from scrimmage on 6 touches and scored a touchdown. No wonder it was Hill’s most productive game of the year netting him 14.1 fantasy points.

Hill profiles more as a receiving-back than a pure rusher. Most of his upside comes from that side of the game and paired with second-fiddle Gus Edwards it is to expect that Hill will play that role against Pittsburgh this next weekend. Hill has been barely used on the year, having logged 13 targets and 7 receptions through 15 games for 60 yards, and 48 rushing attempts for 186 yards in the same span. Those numbers are not impressive when presented that way, but looking at his averages of 3.9 yards per carry and 8.6 per reception things look a bit better.

While the Steelers rank fourth against rushers in fantasy points allowed to the position, Hill’s upside for this game comes basically from the chances he’ll get to rack up plays and therefore points. He and Edwards will share the workload with Ingram out and it is possible that Baltimore also protects Edwards to a certain extent just in case Ingram’s problems are more worrying than expected. Consider Hill a flex or second-flex exclusively in deeper leagues that award bonus points per reception as that is the role he’ll almost surely play for the Ravens.