Directional rushing update for Week 7

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 that we’re targeting in fantasy football. 

Bird’s Eye View

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

I’ve noted just about every week that there were some teams that were actively avoiding rushing in certain directions. Those conclusions seem to have been small-sample anomalies — welcome to the NFL.

Here’s a look at the breakdown for all of the running backs with at least 50 rushes. 

Rushing – Left

You can look at any direction in the tool and you’re likely to see the same name on top of the rushing list. Without exaggeration, Derrick Henry is testing the limits of what we thought was possible for an NFL running back in 2021. 

Nick Chubb is now injured and hasn’t been able to keep up with Henry, though he was doing his best to keep up before he was forced to miss time. One interesting name in the top five is Chuba Hubbard. There was some curiosity about what type of workload he would see with Christian McCaffrey’s absence, and he’s stepped in and has been given about as much as you could possibly expect. 

Rushing – Right

The quarterbacks are climbing the ranks here. Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts are both in the top eight. It makes intuitive sense that mobile quarterbacks would be more likely to take off running to the right. You’re more likely, as a right-handed quarterback, to be facing in that direction so when the play breaks down that’s the escape route. 

There are plenty of tandems on this list. One that jumps out is Zack Moss and Devin Singletary. 

There’s been a bit of Whack-a-Mole going on with the rushing share between the two running backs in Buffalo. It looked like Singletary was going to take off and own the backfield. Then Moss fumbled a couple of times. Somehow, Singletary has lost rush share since that moment, though. 

Rushing – Middle 

Najee Harris is a bit of a unicorn in the sense that he’s seeing so many targets and is also only trailing Derrick Henry by a few carries up the middle. Ezekiel Elliott is also being given a healthy share of rushes up the middle. Alvin Kamara is still, paradoxically, toward the top of this list, as well.