Week 15 Fantasy Football Defensive Matchup Exploitation: RB

Defensive matchups are perhaps the most important thing to consider when setting your running backs. Just consider Bobby Rainey. Rainey couldn’t get much going against the tough defenses in Carolina (17-63-0) and Detroit (18-35-0). On the other hand, he demolished the lackluster defenses in Atlanta (30-163-2) and Buffalo (22-127-1). Most running backs aren’t Jamaal Charles, who is startable in any week against any defense, so we have to strongly consider the defensive matchup for each back on our roster.

This week, Willis McGahee could be out which would allow Chris Ogbonnaya to play feature back against a Bears defense that has allowed an average of 25.3 fantasy points per game to opposing running backs. Ogbonnaya is also averaging 5.3 yards per carry on the season and 5.8 targets per game over his last six weeks.

It’s tough to trust either but Rashard Mendenhall and Andre Ellington have a great matchup against the Titans. Both had 40-some odd yards against the Rams last week and scored a touchdown. The Titans have given up 12+ fantasy points to Knowshon Moreno, Montee Ball, Donald Brown, Rashad Jennings, Marcel Reece, Donald Brown again, Maurice Jones Drew, Zac Stacy, and Frank Gore over just their last seven games.

If Lamar Miller can’t go, Daniel Thomas could be a sneaky start against a Pats defense that has allowed 28+ fantasy points to opposing running backs in two of their last three weeks. Watch out for the Bills backs though. Jacksonville has held Ben Tate, both Browns backs, both Texans backs, both Cardinals backs, and both Titans backs to 74 yards or less over their last five games.

Our must-starts this week are Eddie Lacy, LeSean McCoy, Alfred Morris, Shane Vereen, DeMarco Murray, Jamaal Charles, Zac Stacy, Knowshon Moreno, and Marshawn Lynch.

Pierre Thomas, Darren Sproles, Steven Jackson, Ryan Mathews, Danny Woodhead, Toby Gerhart, and Montee Ball all have favorable matchups.

Watch out for Chris Johnson against a vicious Cardinals run D, as well as any back in Carolina, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and on the Giants. I’m iffy about Frank Gore and Bobby Rainey this week too.

Let’s take a look at all of this week’s fantasy football running back matchups.

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

Highly Unfavorable, Unfavorable, Neutral, Slightly Favorable, Favorable

*Values based on Yahoo standard scoring.

Browse Matchups 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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