Why compare him to players who get receptions and goal line? The reason left for me to keep him, since he doesn't get those was an idea that he had enough explosiveness to get some chunk and house gains from inside the 20s. He can get chunk. He won't get house. Add to the above that he seems proclive to get hurt. He has no fantasy legs left to stand on for me. At least not until his situation changes, and barring injury to other Lions, I'm not seeing that anytime soon. Watch uncle Theo go down now that I've jixed it. Hope not.
Because those are all situational things. From a talent/long-term standpoint, he still looks very promising. And he is quick and elusive enough that he could easily house it. I once saw LenDale White score an 80 yard TD. You don't have to be the fastest guy on the field in the 100 yard dash to score a long TD. In fact, being able to juke a DB and accelerate back up to top speed quickly (even if it's not that high end) is just as important for long gains as top speed is. A slow first gear will get you caught quicker than a slow top gear!
People act like his current usage is indicative of his abilities. To me, if Charles can be used for ~250 touches/year, including goal line, I don't see why Abdullah couldn't. Abdullah is a little more compact, but they are similar weights. Athletically they are quite different (
Charles didn't have the same burst, but
Abdullah lacks Charles' long speed) however from a usage perspective I think AA
could be used similarly to JC in his prime. Another comparison I like is Tiki Barber.
But while he's stuck in this RBBC, people need to back off the binary thinking. It's like the naysayers want to say because his situation precludes him from top 10 numbers, that he's a waste of a roster spot. He was drafted around RB23. If we're down with analyzing a 2 game sample, my takeaway is that he's faced two tough defensive fronts and gotten some very promising workloads which indicate that, despite a slow statistical start, he has a high probability of returning good value (RoS) for his original RB23 price tag. I would feel a lot better about Abdullah at RB23 than CMC at RB12 or Lamar Miller at RB13. For reference, Mixon was RB19, Ingram was RB21, Powell was RB24, and Coleman was RB25. And really, just scanning the ADP list, I'm not seeing anyone below him that I'd consider an upgrade over him*. I'm sure I'm missing someone, but nothing that stands out at the moment. So to me that indicates that, while not a high upside RB this season, AA does appear to be good value... contrary to the narrative that he's fantasy garbage due to no goal line touches** and Riddick's presence.
*I think I mentioned in a previous post in this thread that CJA (RB22) and Martin (RB26) were other guys in AA's range that I liked - I still consider them good values, too. I'm not someone who views his lineup as fixed, so I like to take a shotgun approach and see who stands out and/or play the matchups.
**As already mentioned by someone else, he's got 2 of the team's 5 carries inside the 10 yard line this year