Directional rushing update for Week 13

During the NFL season, we’re going to break down how different offenses are utilizing their running backs. As the year goes on, patterns begin to emerge that will allow us to anticipate and exploit mismatches between a defense and an offense we’re targeting in fantasy football. 

Bird’s Eye View

Rushing – Left

Antonio Gibson continues to lead in rushes out wide to the left. Elijah Mitchell is rocketing up the leaderboard as well. 

It’s abundantly clear that the 49ers want to involve Mitchell in their offense when he’s healthy. He’s cracked a 60% rush share in a half-dozen games this season and has only been active for eight games. A concern for his fantasy relevance is the inconsistency of his target volume. Over the last three games, he’s had 11 targets, but he had games of 5-0-6 targets. If you have him on your roster, you’d prefer that he see more of a floor for those high-value touches like targets, but his emergence makes him impossible to ignore down the stretch with or without the targets.  

Rushing – Middle

It’s no surprise that the leaders for rushes up the middle are facing stacked boxes.

It should also come as no surprise that many of the names on this list have missed time already or are currently out due to injury. Fantasy managers with Jonathan Taylor on their roster are hoping he doesn’t see the same fate as most of this list. 

Rushing – Right 

Joe Mixon is way out in front when rushing to the right. The gap between Mixon and Derrick Henry (No. 2 on this list) is the same as the gap between Henry and No. 6 on this list, Javonte Williams. We also see two quarterbacks in the top five of this list in Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson.