Fantasy Football Stat of the Day: The RBs who had the fewest defenders in the box

(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.)

Our last few Stat of the Day pieces have been examining stats around “defenders in the box.” First, we looked at which RBs had to face the highest number of defenders in the box on their rushing attempts. Then we looked at league average for yards gained based on how many defenders are in the box.

Today, we’ll take a look at which RBs had the fewest number of defenders in the box on their rushing attempts.

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Is it time to be worried about Miles Sanders?

Here are the top 10 RBs from last season that had the fewest average number of defenders in the box on their rushing attempts (min. 100 attempts). This includes the playoffs.

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Player	Rushes	Avg. Defenders in Box
Devin Singletary	172	6.44
Austin Ekeler	116	6.47
Miles Sanders	164	6.57
Chris Carson	157	6.65
Clyde Edwards-Helaire	196	6.65
Zack Moss	119	6.69
Brian Hill	100	6.75
Tony Pollard	101	6.76
David Montgomery	259	6.78
Kenyan Drake	239	6.78

A few thoughts from this study:

Both Buffalo RBs had it easy last season. Both Devin Singletary (6.44) and Zack Moss (6.69) ranked in the top-six in terms of fewest defenders in the box on rushing attempts. Despite these easier fronts, neither RB shined last season and they are headed for an RB-by-committee in 2021. If one of the RBs can improve in 2021 and be more of a featured back, they may really pop in fantasy. If not, this backfield may be ripe for an overhaul in 2022.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire needs to step up in Year 2. With just 6.65 defenders in the box on average, Edwards-Helaire should have benefitted from an easier front to run against as defenders were forced to key in on Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, and the Chiefs passing attack. The defenses should be soft again in 2021, making Edwards-Helaire a breakout candidate.
It’s OK to be nervous about Miles Sanders. Sanders saw just 6.57 defenders in the box on average last season, which may have been a large contributing factor to his strong 5.29 YPC average and impressive breakaway stats. But despite the soft numbers in terms of defenders in the box, Sanders still ran for fewer than 900 yards. On top of that, he only 28 receptions, and early camp reports show that the Philly backfield is looking more like an RBBC with Sanders losing both attempt and target share.