Fantasy Football Dilemmas: McCoy's stock falling

Jamey Eisenberg looks at LeSean McCoy's Fantasy value following his hamstring injury, and there's more cause for concern with his outlook this year.

Bills running back LeSean McCoy suffered a hamstring injury in practice Tuesday, and he's expected to be out for the rest of the preseason. He should be ready for Week 1, which is positive, but there's starting to feel like a negative vibe with McCoy this year.

Prior to getting hurt Tuesday, McCoy was already a polarizing running back coming into the season with his move from Philadelphia to Buffalo, and the naysayers now have more ammunition for their argument. We just hope he has a speedy recovery and can return soon at 100 percent.

The reason for doubting McCoy was he was leaving a great system with Chip Kelly and the Eagles behind a solid offensive line for a worse situation for the Bills. Even though Buffalo was going to lean on McCoy as the centerpiece on offense under coach Rex Ryan and offensive coordinator Greg Roman, the talent around McCoy was worse.

I didn't mind McCoy going to the Bills when the trade first went down this offseason. I expected another year of 300 touches, and I hoped leaving Darren Sproles would help McCoy's receptions go up slightly, even if Roman doesn't involve his running backs as receivers.

With his workload and talent, along with the motivation of being shipped off by Kelly, I expected McCoy to still remain a Top 10 Fantasy running back and worthy of consideration toward the end of Round 1 or beginning of Round 2 in all leagues. I already drafted McCoy in two analyst leagues that we're playing out this season (our two-quarterback and IDP leagues).

Clearly, McCoy can still play at a high level this season in Buffalo. And since the injury doesn't appear to be a long-term issue, he might fall to a spot in your draft where the value is now too good to pass up. But when you start talking about first-round options you have to consider the pitfalls, and McCoy now has a bigger one than before.

Remember, your first-round pick in most cases won't win you your league, but it can definitely lose it for you. And I don't want to take that chance, and neither should you. So McCoy now gets moved down the rankings.

You have to draft the following running backs ahead of him right now if you haven't done so already: Le'Veon Bell, Adrian Peterson, Eddie Lacy, Jamaal Charles, C.J. Anderson, Marshawn Lynch, Jeremy Hill, Matt Forte and DeMarco Murray. Most of those should have been obvious, but McCoy might have been ahead of Hill, Forte and Murray prior to the injury.

Comparing him to the receivers, I'd rather have the elite eight over McCoy in all leagues (Antonio Brown, Dez Bryant, Julio Jones, Calvin Johnson, Demaryius Thomas, Odell Beckham, Jordy Nelson and A.J. Green). And I'd definitely rather have Rob Gronkowski.

As for Buffalo, the Bills need a healthy McCoy, and the backups are also banged up with Fred Jackson (hamstring), Karlos Williams (illness) and Anthony Dixon (calf) all missing practice time. Jackson remains the likely handcuff for McCoy, but Williams' stock has risen during training camp. We'll see how it all shakes out because the backup to McCoy could be valuable, especially if his hamstring turns into something nagging all year.

I'm still hopeful McCoy will have a good season, but I'm not as optimistic as before. After Tuesday his stock is trending downward, and we'll see if it will recover at all in 2015.