Miles Sanders Week 4 Outlook - Cardinals at Panthers

By Mike Tagliere (FantasyPros), Thu, Oct 1st 2020, 9:46am EDT

The good news is that Sanders has continued to take on the workhorse back role in the offense, but the problem is that this team isn't getting into scoring position very often and now has an 18.5-point team-implied total. The Eagles offensive line has caught a lot of heat this year, but their running backs are averaging 1.38 yards before contact, which is right around the league average. Meanwhile, the 49ers have allowed 1.32 yards before contact to running backs, so it's a near-even match here, though the 49ers aren't allowing much beyond that, as their 3.24 yards per carry they've allowed indicates. They've also allowed just 3.12 yards per target to running backs, which all amounts to a league-low 0.61 PPR points per opportunity. What does that mean? On average, a running back who totaled 15 touches would finish with less than 10 PPR points. Crazy, right? To be fair, the running backs they've played have included Kenyan Drake (who finished as the RB17), Frank Gore, and Devonta Freeman, so they've hardly been tested. With Dallas Goedert out, it should raise Sanders' floor in the receiving game, which was already massive with 15 targets through two games. Start him as a low-end RB1/high-end RB2 despite the numbers the 49ers defense has put up to this point, as Sanders' floor is just too high.