Week 6 Fantasy Football Defensive Matchup Exploitation: RB

As we saw with Chris Johnson being stuffed by the Chiefs and the Seahawks shutting down Trent Richardson in Week 5, a bad matchup can kill your fantasy chances. A favorable matchup, however, like Zac Stacy against the Jags or Knowshon Moreno against the Cowboys can make you look like a genius.

This week, it’ll be Le’Veon Bell’s turn to take on the toughest run defense in the league, one that held the Falcons to 64 rushing yards in Week 5. I wouldn’t risk starting him, or anyone in Oakland or on the Giants this week with tough matchups all around. The Browns rush D isn’t as good as it looks on paper, helped by poor games by Daniel Thomas, Bernard Pierce, and Gio Bernard. I’d still start Bush. Tampa also hasn’t seen too many good RBs and I certainly wouldn’t think of benching LeSean. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have kept every RB they’ve faced (including Doug Martin, Reggie Bush, Darren Sproles) to under nine fantasy points so Frank Gore isn’t an optimal start.

The Chargers have kept Arian Foster, Chris Johnson, and DeMarco Murray to under 9.2 FPS so I don’t like Trent Richardson’s chances either. On the other hand, Buffalo has given up some big games to Shane Vereen, Bilal Powell, and Willis McGahee so Gio and BJGE have a decent matchup.

I wouldn’t worry about Danny Woodhead since he’s primarily a receiver but, while I like Eddie Lacy a lot, I don’t like him this week. The Ravens have held Arian Foster, Knowshon Moreno, Trent Richardson, and CJ Spiller to under 8 FPS.

The Chargers have been almost as good but I’d still take the chance on Jamaal Charles after they gave up 16.7 FPS to LeSean McCoy. I’d stay away from Chris Johnson, though, against a tough Seahawks D.

Arian Foster, Bilal Powell (watch out for Chris Ivory and Mike Goodson though, Powell owners), Willis McGahee, DeAngelo Williams, DeMarco Murray, Knowshon Moreno, Matt Forte, Ray Rice, and Doug Martin all look good in their matchup. I wouldn’t start Maurice Jones-Drew against the Broncos, though, considering the Jags will be behind all game nor would I start Rashard Mendenhall against the Niners.

Let’s take a look at all of the fantasy football running back matchups in Week 6.

Browse by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE

 Highly Unfavorable, Unfavorable, Neutral, Slightly Favorable, Favorable

*Values based on Yahoo standard scoring.

Browse by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE

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. Follow @IgorDerysh !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');

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