Zone vs. Gap Rushing – Week 3 - Razzball Fantasy Football

I don’t know about you, but Week 2 gave me whiplash. We lost not one, not two, but three fantasy QBs. At the same time, we had a number of WRs go bananas. I even had a team in one of my leagues start Dart and Puka…and still won! Craziness.

My man, Matt Stiles (@stiles08) does a great waiver wire article every week that helps make sense of what we see (READ IT HERE). By the time you read this, your waivers have run already for Week 3 but do yourself a favor and look for his articles early next week to help you out for Week 4 and beyond.

While you’re at the site, go check out all our great work, and the FREE tools. I conveniently put the links right here for you.

Because we’re focusing on Rushing in this article, I need to kick the podium for that one. The DEF Zone vs. Gap rushing is a great tool to help identify good (and not so good) RB matchups. If you want a short refresher (or tutorial, if you’re new to this tool) on the table, simply go back to my original article HERE.

Like I said, we have a whole suite of FREE tools as well as Rudy’s premium tools to provide everything you need, no matter your fantasy taste. Here are links to both:

Want more data-driven stats and tools to help you win your fantasy league? Check out the Razzball Fantasy Football premium subscriptions for $0.00 upfront with our 3-day free trial!

Before we get to the Week 3 matchups, let’s do a quick review of Week 2:

Zone:

Last week, I pumped up Jadarian Price, Christian McCaffrey (and Kaelon Black), and Travis Etienne. Let’s look at the numbers:

Price ran behind Zone blocking for 11 of his 13 (85%) attempts before leaving with an injury. Although the stat line doesn’t look great (13-54), what stands out to me was his elusive rating (194.5). This stat measures success and impact of a runner with the ball independent of blocking, and 194.5 is pretty damn good. I know Charbonnet will be back at some point, but this kid is going to be alright.
McCaffrey and Black combined for 16 of 17 Zone. The numbers don’t look great (48 yards combined), but did they really need to do much on the ground? A pair of TDs for McCaffrey more than makes up for it.
Etienne didn’t have to do much on the ground either, but his Zone% still hit 50%. The Saints made it a priority to give Alvin Kamara some run (78% Zone by the way) but that putrid 1.7 yds/carry average is not going to cut it. Better days are ahead for Etienne owners.
I was a little nervous for Bucky Irving since the Browns were solid vs. Zone rushing. Well, Bucky and the Bucs got the message too, ran behind Gap blocking 65% of the time, and almost got to the century mark. At least the Bucs did something right on Sunday!

Gap:

Switching over to Gap rushing, I gave you the Rams, Chiefs and Packers backfields.

The Rams (Kyren Williams and Blake Corum) led the way with 67% and 50% Gap rushing, respectively. They combined for 164 yards. Nice!
The Chiefs (Kenneth Walker) kept it up with 117 yards on 24 carries. I mentioned the Colts doing a nice job limiting Gap rushing, so you know what the Chiefs did, they employed a Zone rushing attack 65% of the time. Nobody calls Andy Reid a dummy!
The Packers were my dart throw of the week, and I didn’t quite hit the bullseye. To their (and my) credit, the stuck to the Gap rushing (67%) but the team total was a disappointing 63 yards and 0 TDs.
I told you Jaylen Warren would probably struggle behind Gap blocking against the #2 Gap defense in Week 1, and the numbers bore it out. I guess that’s why the Steelers ran only 40% Gap as a team. It still didn’t matter.

With just one week of data to work from, I like to see some trends forming. As the data grows, we should see much more correlation with game script – like we did last year.

In the meantime, let’s keep doing the work and get those dubs. Now, on to Week 3.

Week 3 Matchups

Zone Matchups

The Bears have the top ranked Zone rush offense and that will be put to the test against the Eagles (#23 Zone Defense). With Caleb Williams out, they’ll need to lean on D’Andre Swift (82% Zone) and Kyle Monangai (85% Zone).
In the third-best Zone matchup this week, you’ll want to keep riding the Chiefs RB train (#13 Zone Offense) against the Dolphins (#27 Zone Defense).
The Colts (#6 Zone Offense) and Johnathon Taylor (61% Zone) run against the Texans (#26 Zone Defense). Yes, the top of the Zone matchups are loaded.
One I don’t really like…the Jets (#25 Zone Offense) vs. the Lions (#9 Zone Def). Jets OC, Frank Reich, may want to run Breece Hall (47% Zone) behind more Gap blocking this week.

Gap Matchups

Denver is known for their stout defense, but the Rams (#1 Gap Offense) will look to take advantage of an apparent Achilles heel against the Broncos #23 Gap Defense.
Aaron Jones (57% Gap) and the Vikings Offense (#7 Gap Offense) will look to continue punishing weaker Gap Defenses. Next up, the Titans and their #22 Gap Defense.
The Patriots look to get back into the Win column against the Jags. They may want to feed Stevenson (54% Gap) and Henderson (81% Gap) against Jacksonville’s #18 Gap Defense.
I always give you three I like, one I don’t. For the latter case this week, I give you the Eagles. Although the Bears haven’t been particularly stout against Gap rushing (#22 Gap Defense), the Eagles Gap Offense has been worse (#26 Gap Offense). If they need to lean on Tank Bigsby (57% Gap) again, the ground game may be the weak link.

That’s All Folks

Do you take advantage of all our free tools? If you don’t, why not? All of the RazzballNFL staff is here to help so get on the ball. Be sure to read our daily articles and especially join us on gameday morning for the Razzball Sunday Start/Sit show. We had another great turnout last Sunday with excellent (i.e., tough) lineup questions to talk through. Keep bringing it!

As always, the show airs LIVE on the Razzball YouTube channel this Sunday from 11:00 am EDT (8:00 PDT) right up right up to gametime. The Boys and I will be there to answer all your fantasy football questions. Don’t miss it.

As always, look for my articles right here each week and be sure to follow me on Twitter/X @Derek_Favret. I’m also on BlueSky as well (@dfavret.bsky.social).

Until next time, my friends.

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