Fantasy Football Stat of the Day: Running against 8-man boxes

(Leading up to the 2021 NFL season, FTN’s Tyler Loechner will dive into the fantasy football numbers to bring you his Fantasy Stat of the Day, five days a week.)

Not all running backs are created equal — and not every rushing attempt is an equal opportunity for RBs to rack up the yards. If the defense has more players “in the box” (near the line of scrimmage), running becomes inherently harder. More bodies, less space to run.

But some RBs were able to produce stellar yards per carry averages while facing stacked, 8-man boxes. Today’s Stat of the Day article will take a look at the RBs who gained the most YPC against 8-man boxes last season.

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Derrick Henry is not from this planet, and David Johnson might not be 100% finished

The chart below shows last season’s leaders sorted by averaged yards gained against 8-man boxes. on play action passes versus all passes (minimum 100 total rushing attempts).

Player	Pos	8 in Box Atts.	8 in Box Yds.	8 in Box Yards/Att.
Devin Singletary	RB	13	96	7.4
Nick Chubb	RB	72	433	6.0
Ronald Jones	RB	55	318	5.8
Derrick Henry	RB	129	705	5.5
Jeffery Wilson	RB	50	257	5.1
D’Andre Swift	RB	30	149	5.0
David Johnson	RB	26	128	4.9
Gus Edwards	RB	50	246	4.9
Damien Harris	RB	66	315	4.8
James Conner	RB	39	171	4.4
J.K. Dobbins	RB	31	136	4.4
Lamar Jackson	QB	27	117	4.3
Aaron Jones	RB	50	209	4.2
Kareem Hunt	RB	91	372	4.1
Wayne Gallman	RB	62	251	4.0
Dalvin Cook	RB	115	446	3.9
Kenyan Drake	RB	50	194	3.9
Alvin Kamara	RB	31	121	3.9
Mike Davis	RB	70	276	3.9
Adrian Peterson	RB	46	181	3.9

Devin Singletary sits atop the list with an impressive 7.4 YPC average against 8-man boxes. His sample size is really small (only 13 attempts against stacked boxes), but the breakaway potential is apparent. With fellow Buffalo RB Zack Moss garnering a lot of looks at the goal line, Singletary’s best bet for sustained fantasy relevancy is to continue ripping off big runs.

Nick Chubb, one of the best breakaway rushers in the NFL, averaged 6.0 YPC on 72 attempts against stacked boxes, an impressive feat. Chubb remains a fantasy RB1 even with Kareem Hunt seeing significant volume in his own right.

Ronald Jones is viewed as the backup to Leonard Fournette, but Jones had an all-around solid 2020 campaign. His average here is boosted by his 98-yard TD run from Week 10, but that’s not a knock on him. 8-man boxes means there are fewer — if any — defenders at the second and third levels, so if an RB is able to break through the muck, taking it to the house is a very real possibility on these types of runs. Not every RB can do it.

Then we arrive at Derrick Henry, who went up against 8-man boxes on an insane 129 rushing attempts. And he averaged 5.5 YPC while doing it. What else is there to say about Henry? He pops in every rushing statistic you look at, no matter how you slice it. Even with limited passing usage, he’s one of the best fantasy bets each week.