Tony Pollard Week 8 Outlook - Titans at Lions

By Derek Brown (FantasyPros), Thu, Oct 24th 2024, 1:05pm EDT

Pollard has surpassed every off-season expectation for him this season. He is the RB20 in fantasy points per game, ranking 15th in opportunity share, 13th in weighted opportunities, 13th in carries, and seventh in targets among running backs. Pollard has averaged 18.7 touches and 81 total yards. Among 66 qualifying backs, Pollard ranks 32nd in missed tackles forced per attempt and tenth in yards after contact per attempt. Detroit has been an incredible run defense, but there's some sneaky hope for Pollard this week when looking at the deeper metrics. The Lions have allowed the seventh-fewest fantasy points to rushing, the fifth-fewest rushing yards per game, and the third-lowest yards after contact per attempt. All of that sounds like nightmare fuel, no doubt, but Detroit has also been terrible at defending gap runs. They are elite versus zone concepts, but the Lions have given up the fifth-highest yards per carry to gap runs and the 13th-highest rushing success rate to the run type (Pollard 69.1% gap). If Pollard can break one long run and possibly get into the end zone, he'll likely pay off this week with the remaining volume he'll rack up.