Fantasy Football Red Zone Report: Joe Mixon, Ezekiel Elliott, Evan Engram

Numbers are amazing. Stats and data are, too. Week after week, when preparing to write this article, I obviously look at players' stats using the FantasySP Red Zone Tool. And invariably, running backs get more touches in the red zone than receivers get targets. The ceiling for receiver red zone targets is always three or four, only rarely going above that mark. The numbers for running backs are always higher, usually doubled. Because a team usually has multiple receivers on the field but only one red zone back, that player can be insanely valuable for fantasy football.

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Fantasy Football Red Zone Report Week 14

This is the case this week as well. There were 12 receivers who had at least two red zone targets, with two getting four red zone targets. But there were 12 RBs who had at least three red zone touches. Nine of them had four or more, and three had at least six. 

Joe Mixon led all RBs with eight red zone touches, accounting for a third of his 24 total touches. And for the year, Mixon is now tied for third with 41 red zone touches, only behind Christian McCaffrey and Tony Pollard. 

Interestingly, out of the 12 RBs only one of them scored a TD, Cincinnati’s Chase Brown ... and his TD actually came from outside the red zone on a 54-yard screen pass. For the last two weeks, Brown and Mixon have been a solid two-headed monster in the backfield for the Bengals. Mixon has had 49 touches while Brown has gotten a total of 20. 

Not only do RBs get more action in the red zone than receivers, but they normally find the end zone more. But not this week: The 12 receivers scored six TDs to only the one TD from Brown. Jacksonville’s TE Evan Engram had two TDs, more than all 12 RBs to see at least three red zone touches combined.

It’s important for receivers to catch the ball whenever it’s thrown to them, but especially so in the red zone. Out of the 12 receivers who had at least two red zone targets, only two of them caught all of their targets. None of the receivers who were targeted three or more times caught them all. Only Engram and the Jets' Garrett Wilson caught both of their two red zone targets. Conversely, Romeo Doubs and Cole Kmet didn’t catch either of their two red zone targets.

Surprisingly, Christian McCaffrey only had 17 total touches, not reaching the 20-tough plateau. And only one of them was inside the red zone, while backup RB Jordan Mason scored on his only red zone touch. Another interesting nugget from the weekend is that Ezekiel Elliott had the most overall touches out of all RBs with 29, yet only had two in the red zone. The 49ers scored on big plays to limit CMC's red zone touches, while the Patriots simply didn't make it that far down the field very often. Sometimes it is better to get a smaller share of red zone touches on a more efficient offense than dominate touches on an offense that rarely reaches the red zone.