Every week I will bring you a short piece on players who are statistical phenoms. This Doesn’t mean they are guys who are in your first running back spot. You don’t have to carry your team to victory to be featured here, but these guy stand apart from the rest statistically and will have an impact in your lineup.
Antone Smith- Running back, Atlanta Falcons
This man’s stats on paper is like looking at the sun. Every time I look at them I can’t stop seeing them when I look away, and it hurts my head extremely cause I can’t at all understand why he touches the ball so little. His averages per touch are out of this world and his catches per targets in the passing game are beyond reproach. He deserves a little breakdown because he stands apart from the field. That’s what this is all about.
Smith has played in all six of the Falcons games this year. Over the course of those 6 games, he has had 13 carries in the running game. He has had 12 targets for 10 catches through out the same span.
That averages to 2.16 carries a game, 2 targets a game, and a paltry 1.6 catches a game.
So you may ask: “Why am I even writing about this guy? This is fantasy football. Volume is key, especially at running back.”
We’ve heard these quotes…. and they’re right….. Right?
Wrong.
Antone Smith has 346 yards and 5 touchdowns so far this season.
The only way i feel I can put this in perspective for you is to try to compare it top a back you know in fantasy. Lets use Demarco Murray since he is on track to be the best back in fantasy this year. In week five against Houston Murray had his highest volume day this year. He had 31 carries for 136 yards and 8 targets for 6 catches for 56 yards but no touchdowns. I’m going to take Antone Smith’s averages and apply them to Demarco Murray’s workload for you.
You ready for this? 31 carries for 297 yards, 6 catches for 132 yards (429 total yards) and 6 touchdowns.
That is one game!
I am a student of football and I understand that there are many other aspects that go into being an NFL running back than just creating yards and touchdowns. I’m sure he has flaws in pass blocking or reads, but this is fantasy football, and in fantasy all we care about is numbers. Antone Smith is bottled energy at this point and it would make sense for Atlanta to start giving this guy more opportunities. I would start Antone sSmith in my flex and feel good about it. This is the first time I’ve ever said that about a guy averaging less than 4 touches a game over 6 weeks. Get this guy the ball!
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