Week 5 Fantasy Football Defensive Matchup Exploitation: RB

Reggie Bush
Reggie Bush
Sep 29 2013 Detroit MI USA Detroit Lions running back Reggie Bush 21 runs with the ball as Chicago Bears strong safety Major Wright 21 chases during the third quarter at Ford Field The Lions won 40 32 Rick Osentoski USA TODAY Sports

As we watched C.J. Spiller struggle once again against the Ravens and Chris Johnson run into a wall against the Jets, we were reminded that a bad matchup can spell the collapse of a fantasy team in any given week. On the flip side, an easy matchup like Le’Veon Bell against the Vikings or Jamaal Charles against the Giants can win you the week.

This week, it’s Jacquizz Rodgers and Jason Snelling facing a vicious Jets D and I wouldn’t start either unless I was completely desperate and ruined by bye weeks. Darren Sproles isn’t a typical RB and figures to get plenty of receptions but I wouldn’t go near Pierre Thomas against the Bears (or against most teams). Knowshon Moreno is a tough start against the Cowboys but you have to figure Peyton Manning will solve that D pretty quickly.

Even if Ahmad Bradshaw sits out another week with his neck injury, it’s tough to start Trent Richardson against the tough Seahawks D and Lamar Miller and Ryan Mathews are practically unstartable against the Ravens and Raiders. Danny Woodhead, like Darren Sproles, should still be okay since he’s primarily a receiving back.

Chris Johnson, DeAngelo Williams, C.J. Spiller, Rashad Jennings, Stevan Ridley, and Bilal Powell are all benchable this week with tough matchups in Week 5.

On the other hand, the 49ers D is banged up and has been lax against the running attack so Arian Foster and Ben Tate should have plenty of points after a surprisingly strong game against the Hawks. Unfortunately, we’re missing three of the worst rush Ds because of byes this week but we still have favorable matchups in Eddie Lacy, DeMarco Murray, LeSean McCoy, Reggie Bush, and Davis Wilson. Daryl Richardson has a favorable matchup but seems unstartable regardless but Maurice Jones-Drew could have a solid game against the Rams if the Jags don’t go into catch-up passing mode early.

Let’s take a look at all the RB matchups coming up in Week 5.

Browse Defensive Matchups by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE

Highly Unfavorable, Unfavorable, Neutral, Slightly Favorable, Favorable

Rank
vs
RB

AVG
RB
FPS
Allowed

Defense

Week 5 Opponents

1

9.4 Jets Jacquizz Rodgers, Jason Snelling

2

9.8 Bears Darren Sproles, Pierre Thomas, Mark Ingram

3

10.03 Cowboys Knowshon Moreno, Ronnie Hillman, Montee Ball

4

10.87 Seahawks Trent Richardson, Ahmad Bradshaw

5

11.1 Ravens Lamar Miller, Daniel Thomas

6

12.07 Raiders Ryan Matthews, Danny Woodhead

7

13.4 Chiefs Chris Johnson, Jackie Battle

8

13.57 Cardinals DeAngelo Williams, Mike Tolbert

9

13.67 Browns C.J. Spiller, Fred Jackson

10

14.53 Chargers Rashad Jennings, Darren McFadden (Q)

11

14.57 Bengals Stevan Ridley, LeGarrette Blount, Brandon Bolden

12

14.6 Buccaneers BYE

13

14.67 Falcons Bilal Powell, Mike Goodson, Chris Ivory (Q)

14

15.07 Texans Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter, LaMichael James

15

15.5 Patriots BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Gio Bernard

16

15.73 Panthers Rashard Mendenhall, Andre Ellington, Alfonso Smith

17

16.4 Saints Matt Forte

18

16.73 Titans Jamaal Charles

19

16.73 Colts Marshawn Lynch

20

17.13 Bills Willis McGahee, Chris Ogbonnaya, Bobby Rainey

21

17.17 Eagles David Wilson, Brandon Jacobs

22

17.43 Packers Reggie Bush, Joique Bell

23

17.9 Dolphins Ray Rice, Bernard Pierce

24

19.4 Giants LeSean McCoy

25

19.73 Jaguars Daryl Richardson, Isaiah Pead, Zac Stacy

26

21.03 Rams Maurice Jones-Drew

27

21.11 Broncos DeMarco Murray

28

22.47 Steelers BYE

29

22.9 Vikings BYE

30

23.67 Redskins BYE

31

25.03 Lions Eddie Lacy, Johnathan Franklin, James Starks (Q)

32

25.67 49ers Arian Foster, Ben Tate

*Values based on Yahoo standard scoring.

Browse Defensive Matchups by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE

author avatar
Igor Derysh
Igor Derysh is Editor-at-Large at XN Sports and has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sun-Sentinel, and FantasyPros. He has previously covered sports for COED Magazine, Fantasy Alarm, and Manwall.com. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');