Directional rushing update for Week 3

During the 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 that we’re targeting in fantasy football. 

Bird’s eye view

Note: Red is left, gray is middle, blue is right.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Chase Edmonds and Leonard Fournette have an entire portion of the field that they haven’t rushed toward yet. Josh Allen hasn’t rushed to the right yet, but that makes more sense, because when the rush pushes him right, he can still get off a solid throw. 

Rushing – Left

Unfortunately, the top two guys on this list are dealing with injuries at the moment. Christian McCaffrey just left Thursday night’s as I sat down to write this piece. Darrell Henderson has yet to practice this week. 

Nick Chubb is showing out with the third-most yards in this zone despite being behind fifteen (15!) other rushers in attempts for this zone. Obviously, that’s skewed by a long run or two, but Chubb is one of the most fun running backs in the league to watch. 

Rushing – Right

Lamar Jackson has the third-most rushing yards off right tackle or right end despite being tied for eighth in volume. Dalvin Cook is leading the way on rushes to the right, though, in volume. 

Rushing – Middle 

David Montgomery is doing work between the tackles. Two-thirds of his rush attempts and over 75% of his yards have come from runs up the middle. Damien Harris is another running back that has been forced to earn tough yards up the middle. 

The others

We’ll wrap up with a quick look at the ball carriers who saw somewhere 5-19 rushes and where they were deployed most often.