Corbin Young looks back at the season-long leaders in various running back advanced stats. He also looks ahead to the NFL playoffs to determine which RBs can take their teams deep into the bracket, and deliver NFL Playoff Contest titles for fantasy managers.
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. This week we’ll look ahead to the playoffs to find RBs who might help their teams make a deep run.