Welcome into the Week 3 edition of Redzone Risers and Fallers for the 2021 season. This is a brand new series for our site, and uses the redzone touches information that is freely available on our site. The reason for adding this tool, and making it available is its importance in helping you make better decisions when it comes to your roster. This week, and going forwards, we are going to also include fallers who have had decreased usage recently.
The idea is that if a player is starting to be used in the redzone more, then the opportunity to score is increased and you want to add them to your roster. If the opposite happens, you might look to sell that asset.
Now, in this series, we aren’t going to look at big-name players on the whole. That is to say, Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara are expected to be used in and around the redzone. That is unless they start stop being used, in which case they will be included in the fallers.
Week 3 Redzone Risers
Zack Moss (RB, BUF) 22% RZ Touches
In the past two weeks Moss has established himself as an effective scoring back. A big part of that being repeatable in future weeks is his usage in the redzone. Last week the Bills ran 19 plays in the redzone. Moss was directly involved in six of them. That’s a massive workload, there is no reason to think that the team are going to move away from him. Oh, and the age old narrative that Josh Allen is the weapon the team use, he only has one more rushing attempt than Moss. So that looks like it is changing.
Peyton Barber (RB, LV) 21% RZ Touches
Barber has come in off the street to become a massive part of the Raiders offense. He now leads the team in redzone touches, being used in a massive way in the game against Miami this past week. As long as Josh Jacobs is set to miss time, Barber is worth owning. Kenyan Drake still has some involvement, but his upside is massively capped with the team bringing in Barber to shoulder the majority of the workload.
Cole Beasley (WR, BUF) 13% RZ Touches
Beasley has typically been a slot, PPR type of receiver. However, recently he has established himself as the team’s lead redzone weapon through the air. Infact, his six targets equal the sum of Stefon Diggs (4) and Emmanuel Sanders (2). If he is unowned in your league, it really is time to pick him up now.
Brandon Aiyuk (WR, SF) 13% RZ Touches
Aiyuk was limited in the opening weeks of the season, but returned to a meaningful workload in Week 3. That has been shwon in his usage in the redzone, where he now has more touches than Deebo Samuel. Infact, Aiyuk was second on the team in redzone touches last week behind Kyle Juszczyk. Given Aiyuk’s ability to find space he should start to repay the faith fantasy owners put into him during the draft.
Tyler Conklin (TE, MIN) 13% RZ Touches
Conklin had a breakout game last week. A big part of that was getting the opportunity in the redzone. The team were clearly without their main threat, Dalvin Cook, but managed to replace him with Alexander Mattison and Conklin. At a position that is dependent on TD opportunity, Conklin could be worth a go on your roster.
Pat Freiermuth (PIT) 11% RZ Touches
The Steelers offense has some gaps it needs to fill, particularly at receiver. Rookie Najee Harris has done a great job in shouldering half of the team’s redzone opportunities, but Freiermuth has increased his role in the offense. With injuries to Diontae Johnson and JuJu Smith-Schuster, there are targets available in the offense.
Week 3 Redzone Fallers
Jonathan Taylor (RB, IND) 42% RZ Touches
Taylor has really suffered from the change in offensive leader. The Colts offense isn’t the team that it was last season. Taylor is also struggling to get the ball into the endzone in this area of the field too, with the team cycling in Nyheim Hines and Zach Pascal instead. It’s not panic stations yet, but if his usage and conversion don’t change soon, he is unlikely to return value on the draft capital that was invested.
Robert Tonyan (TE, GB) 6% RZ Touches
Last season Tonyan was a beast for fantasy. The reason was the number of TDs that he was able to score. That TD upside led to him being drafted highly. However, this season the Packers offense has lent heavily on Aaron Jones, and Davante Adams. Those two combine for around 70% of the redzone opportunities. To put it into context, Malik Taylor has the same number of redzone touches as Tonyan.
Emmanuel Sanders (WR, BUF) 4% RZ Touches
Sanders may be the guy that has grabbed headlines this week in after the game against the Dolphins, but the narratives of him being a redzone weapon are false. Or, at least, that hasn’t been seen on the field. This season he has only had two touches in the redzone, with one last week. It’s more akin to Dawson Knox’s usage in the redzone than anything else.
So, that’s this weeks edition of Redzone Risers and Fallers for the 2021 season, taking into account the action from Week 3. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or jump into our Discord server
Image Credit: Mark J. Rebilas – USA TODAY Sports
