Last week, we highlighted David Montgomery as a potential buy low based on the advanced metrics. Unfortunately, he suffered a knee injury on Sunday. After 23 carries for 106 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, Montgomery ranked fifth with 22.6 fantasy points heading into Monday night. Early reports indicate Montgomery avoided a torn ACL, but he’ll still receive further testing. The buy-low window is probably closed in any case. Hopefully, Montgomery returns healthy to finish out the 2021 season strong. In the meantime, let’s examine the leaders in various RB advanced metrics after Week 4.
Metrics like yards before and after contact, evasion rate, stuff rate, and designed gap rate tell you a lot about how an RB is using his blockers, how effective that blocking is, and how effective that RB is at making would-be tacklers miss — all skills that translate into future production. In this way, the advanced RB stats can help us find waiver wire gems and trade targets before the rest of our league mates.