With key injuries occurring down the stretch this season for stalwarts of fantasy football rosters, let’s continue to see who did what inside the 20 in Week 10 and see if we can expect that to continue into Week 11 and beyond as you make a push for the fantasy football playoffs in a few weeks.
Red Zone Passing
Philip Rivers IND - Rivers had his best red zone passing day of the season in Week 10 with 11 passes thrown. Five of those were inside the 10 with one going for a touchdown. The veteran even ran in a score as well. Rivers has really started to turn the season around over the last few weeks and they will need that to continue as there is really no semblance of a running game and so that should lead to more weeks like Week 10 for Rivers going forward, at least in the red zone.
Lamar Jackson BAL - Is this a Jackson sighting in the Red Zone Report? Why yes it is. It’s been several weeks since he did something inside the 20 notable enough to make this article as his six red zone attempts against New England was the most in a game since Week 1 and the eight passes he had then. Three of the six passes were inside the 10 and two went for scores as they fought through the windy night in Foxboro and he rushed it once inside the 20 as well. The Ravens passing attack has been suspect the last few weeks but this was a nice change to see from Baltimore.
Tua Tagovailoa MIA - Tagovailoa has done more and more offensively each week he’s held the reins of the Dolphins attack and that includes red zone passing attempts. In Week 10 he got up to six passing attempts, after two and four in the previous two weeks respectively, with three of those inside the 10 and two going for touchdowns while rushing it twice as well. He has his first trip to Mile High coming this weekend and the stout red zone defense of the Broncos so it might be a tricky assignment for him to keep improving.
Red Zone Rushing
Salvon Ahmed RB MIA - We’ve been touting Ahmed for two weeks now on livestreams, coaches, watch lists, playbooks, and dart boards and in Week 10 he led the NFL in red zone rushes with seven. Of those, two came inside the 10 and one went for a touchdown as well as him catching a pass as well. It’s clear that Ahmed is going to continue to see the work in the Dolphins’ backfield given the injuries and lack of depth they have at the moment and how well he’s shown so far. The Broncos rush defense isn’t great so he could see just as much work in Week 11.
Ronald Jones RB TB - It’s been an interesting backfield for Tampa Bay this season between Jones and Leonard Fournette but in Week 10 Jones posted his best red zone day, volume-wise, of the season with six carries inside the 20. His previous season-high was five in Week 6 and this was only the second time he topped three totes as well. Now he did fail to score on any of those six carries but the volume is good to see as this was the first week since Week 6 that he had decidedly more carries than Fournette. He still appears to be the lead back in Tampa and so he remains a safe play each week.
Cam Akers RB LAR - Akers was back in the field for more than just a few snaps huh? Yes he was and he led the team in carries overall for the first time since Week 1. Of his 10 carries on the day in Week 10, five of them were in the red zone which also led the team. The problem for Akers though is that he was the only one of the three backs to not find the end zone. Darrell Henderson and Malcolm Brown combined for three red zone carries with Henderson getting one and Brown two while combining for three touchdowns. That’s not a great look for the rookie back they took in the second-round and that could be exactly why we continue to see a hard to predict three-headed backfield in L.A.
Wayne Gallman RB NYG - Gallman has seen increasing work in the offense each of the last four weeks with 10 carries in Week 7 then 12 then 14 and in Week 10 he saw 18 carries. His red zone work load has followed a similar pattern with one, then two in Weeks 8 and 9, then four in Week 10 which is the most in a single week by a Giants back all season. He was also quite productive with the four carries as well with two scores. With the volume he’s getting, if he’s still available in a league of yours at this point he should be absolutely rostered and works as a decent dart throw in GPPs when he’s not on bye.
Red Zone Receiving
Mike Evans WR TB - For those worried about what the addition of Antonio Brown would do to the passing distribution in Tampa got a big relief in Week 10 as the Buccaneers posted 46 points and used Evans a lot in the red zone. He saw five targets and caught a few including one for a score while Tom Brady posted 10 on the day giving Evans a 50-percent target share. In terms of on the season Evans is by far and away the most popular target on Tampa with 14 on the year with the next closest being Rob Gronkowski at nine and next closest wideout being Chris Godwin at five so even with the extra crowd in the receiving options, Evans is still the top dog.
Michael Pittman WR IND - Welcome back to the Colts offense. It’s been a bit since he’s really been a threat on the outside aside from the seven targets overall he saw last week and then backed it up with eight this past week. He turned eight of those targets into three red zone looks to lead the team and caught all three, though none for a score. There was a lot expected of the rookie coming into the season given the lack of depth in the Colts receiving room and he’s starting to live up to the hype now that he’s fully healthy.
Willie Snead WR BAL - Snead was the beneficiary of the short passing game employed by the Ravens in the bad weather on Sunday night. It may not have been a huge volume night but the two targets he did see led the team and he turned both into touchdowns. His five red zone targets on the season are the best amongst the wide receivers on Baltimore as Mark Andrews has nine on the year. The passing game is secondary in Baltimore to the rushing attack but Snead has been a target inside the 20 the whole season and so that adds value to his stock.
Jonnu Smith TE TEN - It was an interesting day for Smith as he got several targets overall and saw three in the red zone but didn’t catch any of them. He did however get a red zone rushing TD of all things and that bolstered his fantasy scoring day. He’s still got a precarious spot in the Titans offense and this most recent week shows that off to a tee where he’s getting targets but isn’t doing much with them and needed an odd rushing attempt to capitalize.
Red Zone Defense
We’ll see a bit of dichotomy with defenses being talk about. While they all have something in common, two of them have something else in common and two of them are the opposite of that. All of these teams have played nine games to this point.
Baltimore Ravens - The Ravens have allowed the fewest trips to the red zone in the NFL at just 21 through nine games or 2.3 trips a game. The problem here is that they are allowing the highest percentage of touchdowns to be scored in the league as well at a whopping 76.2-percent or 16-of-21 trips resulting in opponent touchdowns. They face Tennessee this week and the Titans convert the highest percentage of their trips to opponent red zones into touchdowns in the league so this could be a higher scoring affair.
Kansas City Chiefs - Like the Ravens, the Chiefs are allowing a low number of trips to their red zone on defense at just 2.6 a game or 24 through nine games this year which is tied for second-fewest in the league. The other way they are similar to the Ravens is they are allowing a very high percentage to be turned into scores with 75-percent of opponent trips getting into the endzone. With the Raiders on tap for Week 11 and them being able to punch it in on the ground or through the air, it could be hard for the Chiefs to change their fortunes this week, at least inside the 20.
Washington Football Team - The surprisingly good Washington defense is tied for the third-fewest trips allowed to their 20 at 25 on the season or 2.7 a game. So they fit in with the two units listed ahead of them but now the difference is coming, they stop offenses at a much better rate. They’ve allowed just 14 red zone touchdowns all season which is tied for the fewest allowed in the NFL and gives them a 56-percent conversion allowed rate, which is seventh-best in the league. The Bengals come to town this week and they rank 26th in the league in converting on offense so they may have a tougher time of it than it appears on paper.
Los Angeles Rams - L.A. is one of the seven teams allowing less than three opposing trips to the red zone a game at 2.8 through nine games or 26 on the year. Given how good they’ve been throughout the year over the whole field it’s not that surprising to see them allowing this few trips to opponents on the year, but just because they don’t allow a lot of trips inside the 20 doesn’t mean teams can’t put up points, just look at Baltimore and Kansas City. However, the Rams are tied for the second-fewest TDs allowed this year in the red zone at 15 giving them a 57.7-percent conversion allowed rate which is ninth-best in the league. Them slowing down the Tampa offense who converts at a 70-percent clip in the red zone could be the key to their Monday Night Football match-up.