Do NOT Sleep on Jamaal Charles This Fantasy Season

Recovering from ACL surgery is one of the hardest obstacles an athlete can run into. This is no exception for Kansas City Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles. Back in Week 2 of the 2011 NFL season against the Detroit Lions, Charles suffered a knee injury that put him on the sidelines for the rest of the year. It was later determined that Charles had a ruptured left Anterior Cruciate Ligament, which is one of the major ligaments that stabilizes the knee joint. Luckily for Charles, and future fantasy owners, the odds are in his favor.

The injury occurred in Week 2 of last season, and the surgery date to have the ligament repaired was October 6^th, 2011. Week 1 of this upcoming NFL regular season is September 9^th, 2012 (just under a year from the surgery date). This gives Charles plenty of time to recover and strengthen the injured left knee. With ACL replacement surgery, the two main options surgeons have are to take a portion of one of your hamstring muscles, the group of muscles on the back of your leg and above the knee, or to take a portion of your patellar tendon, the tendon that attaches to your thigh muscle and wraps around your knee cap. I am unsure which of these Charles decided to go for but due to the fact that he’s a running back my guess would be that the surgeons chose to take a portion of his patellar ligament to replace the damaged ACL. If this is the case then the main recovery process wouldn’t to strengthen the ACL but, to strengthen the now shortened patellar tendon. The newly repaired ACL would still need therapy and strengthening but, nothing close to what it would have been prior to the surgery. With about a year to recover from the surgery and to strengthen the knee, I am quite certain that Charles will be 100% (or close to 100%) going into Week 1 against the Falcons.

I know most RB’s do not come back from an ACL tear to have an outstanding season the next year but, I feel quite optimistic about Jamaal Charles. He’s not known for his overwhelming size (5’11” and 199 lbs) which I believe plays to his advantage. This means that there is a lot less force acting on his newly repaired ACL compared to someone who is 6’5” and 250 lbs. Charles is also well known for his speed and agility which tells me that he has a high amount of type 2 muscle fibers in his legs, also known as fast twitch muscle fibers. Type 2 muscle fibers allow for quick and rapid muscle contractions. If this is the case, which I strongly believe is true, the amount of time that Charles’ ACL would be in use to stabilize his knee during a cut would be much shorter compared to a player who is not as quick as Charles. What I believe to be the key contributor is that when he makes cuts to the left or right, Charles seems to be in more of an upright position. To have the least amount of tension on the ACL, the knee should be flexed between 30 and 60 degrees. Being in more of an upright position when cutting will help decrease the tension Charles will put on his left knee. I believe this is also a strategy that Wes Welker used after he came back from his ACL surgery where he put up 1,165 receiving the next season.

Given all of the upside Charles has going forward from his surgery, along with having a top 10 run blocking offense, I believe he is ready to once again put up some huge numbers in the 2012 Fantasy Football season. I would still consider Charles as a number 1 Fantasy RB.

For more Fantasy Football advice follow me on twitter @DannyFantasyFB