Red Zone Report: Justice Hill, Tyler Allgeier, Latavius Murray Are Fantasy Football Vultures

Sync your league with the Fantasy Assistant to get rankings, waiver help, trade suggestions, optimal lineups, and more. Not sure Who You Should Start? We can help. Utilize our fantasy football trade analyzer for trades.

Fantasy Football Red Zone Report: Vultures

A few years ago, there was a show on FX called “The League”. For fantasy football players, it is must-watch television. It is basically what you’d think it would be with a title like that: a group of friends playing in a fantasy football league and busting each other’s chops constantly. Every week followed the football season and their fictitious league up until the championship. No money was on the line, just a trophy that went from champion to champion, called “The Shiva,” and the championship game was called “The Shiva Bowl.”

Just about every possible scenario and fantasy topic was brought up throughout the seven-year run of the show. They talked about slot receivers, getting burned by an unexpected hot performer, being locked out of making a move because the internet went down, bad trades, bad drafts, and, of course, the vulture.

To me, this red zone report can often relate to the idea of a "vulture," a player, usually a running back, who steals all the red zone touchdowns despite having done none of the work to get there. One of the episodes of the league mentioned an RB only gaining three yards but scoring three TDs, that is a textbook vulture

There are a handful of RBs who could fall into the vulture category so far this season:

Baltimore Ravens: Gus Edwards vs. Justice Hill 

Gus Edwards is the lead back in Baltimore. He leads fellow RB Justice Hill in just about every category. He leads in snaps, 193 to 135. He leads in touches, 75 to 47. He has more yards … nearly double, in fact, 282 to 150. 

The two areas he does not lead in are red zone attempts and TDs. Hill leads Edwards 12 to eight in red zone attempts and has three TDs to Edwards’ one. With only 37 rushing attempts on the year, nearly a third of Hill's rushes have been in the red zone.

Atlanta Falcons: Bijan Robinson vs. Tyler Allgeier

Nobody would call Tyler Allgeier a vulture. He is a bona fide, solid NFL RB. And on some teams, he could be a serviceable RB1. But a team doesn’t spend first-round draft capital on an RB unless they want him to be the centerpiece of their running game (except the Lions). Bijan Robinson is that guy.

With that said, Allgeier has twice as many red zone attempts as Robinson. He has 14 to Robinson’s seven. Allgeier has played in nearly half as many snaps and generated about half as many yards, but inside the 20-yard line, he more often than not is the one who gets his number called. He has two rushing TDs and Robinson still hasn’t found paydirt on the ground, although he does have two receiving TDs. 

Buffalo Bills: James Cook vs. Latavius Murray

James Cook is the No. 1 RB in Buffalo. He’s played 219 snaps, with 89 touches and 75 rushes. And he’s gained 363 yards on the ground. But for all that activity, he’s only found the end zone once this year. The next most-productive RB on the team is Latavius Murray. His numbers are about half of what Cook’s are across the board this season, except in rushing yards, where he only has about a third of Cook’s production. 

There are only two areas where Murray has the edge. He has more red-zone attempts than Cook: 10 to nine. It is only one more, but with so much less playing time in general for Murray, it is still something to watch. Murray also has more TDs, leading Cook two to one. Like Justice Hill, about a third of his attempts have come in the red zone.

Fantasy Football Red Zone Report: Injuries

Another topic the group on “The League” griped about was injuries. One episode was dedicated to the term questionable: what it meant, and how it could destroy your week, not knowing whether to play or sit someone.

Here are a couple of players who may benefit due to a teammate’s injury:

San Fransisco 49ers: Jordan Mason vs. Elijah Mitchell

Christian McCaffrey is clearly the best and most effective RB in the league this season, but he can’t help the Niners or your fantasy team from the bench. He leads all RBs with 30 red zone touches. The next closest on the team is Jordan Mason, who only has three. In fact, he only has 21 total attempts all year, but he is the only other RB on the team to score a rushing TD. If CMC is sidelined, either Mason or Elijah Mitchell will be the beneficiary of the copious amount of red zone work being generated by Kyle Shanahan's offense.

Los Angeles Rams: Zach Evans vs. Darrell Henderson vs. Myles Gaskin vs. Royce Freeman

RB Kyren Williams has been the Rams' RB1 this season. He leads by a large margin in every single category. He’s had 337 snaps this year. To put it in perspective, all other Rams RBs combined only have 74 snaps. But with his ankle injury, the team may be forced to look elsewhere. Ronnie Rivers was the obvious candidate, but he is also injured. The Rams have made multiple moves to address the situation and now head to Sunday with a potential four-headed monster of Zach Evans, Darrell Henderson, Myles Gaskin, and Royce Freeman. Keep an eye on who takes the lead job, as they should be able to benefit from an offense that helped Williams tie for the fifth-most red zone attempts in the NFL. 

#fantasy-football #week-6 #red-zone-report