It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We continue with the running backs. Today, we take a look at a running back whose run-first team just can’t seem to find enough touches for him to matter, especially since they refuse to get him some touchdowns. Let’s find out Miles Sanders’ 2022 fantasy football value!
Miles Sanders ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: RB28, 68 overall
Average Auction Value: $8.5
Miles Sanders Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Rush | Ru Yds | Ru TD | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Touches | Opp | Total Yards |
| 2021 | 12 | 12 | 137 | 754 | 0 | 34 | 26 | 158 | 0 | 163 | 171 | 912 |
| 2020 | 12 | 11 | 164 | 867 | 6 | 52 | 28 | 197 | 0 | 192 | 216 | 1064 |
| 2019 | 16 | 11 | 179 | 818 | 3 | 63 | 50 | 509 | 3 | 229 | 242 | 1327 |
| Year | YPC | Rush/G | Ru Yd/G | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Catch% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec | Touches/G | Opp/G | Yds/G |
| 2021 | 5.50 | 11.4 | 62.8 | 2.83 | 2.17 | 76.5% | 4.65 | 6.08 | 13.58 | 14.25 | 76.0 |
| 2020 | 5.29 | 13.7 | 72.3 | 4.33 | 2.33 | 53.8% | 3.79 | 7.04 | 16.00 | 18.00 | 88.67 |
| 2019 | 4.57 | 11.2 | 51.1 | 3.94 | 3.13 | 79.4% | 8.08 | 10.18 | 14.31 | 15.13 | 82.94 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tch | HPPR Pts/Tch | PPR Pts/Tch |
| 2021 | 91.2 | 104.2 | 117.2 | 7.60 | 8.68 | 9.8 | 0.56 | 0.64 | 0.72 |
| 2020 | 142.4 | 156.4 | 170.4 | 11.87 | 13.03 | 14.2 | 0.74 | 0.81 | 0.89 |
| 2019 | 168.7 | 193.7 | 218.7 | 10.54 | 12.11 | 13.67 | 0.74 | 0.85 | 0.96 |
2022 Miles Sanders Fantasy Football Overview:
When you first look at Miles Sanders’ opportunities, it seems like he should have a more robust stat line than he does. After all, the Eagles ranked first in rush attempts per game last year, and Miles Sanders is their lead back. It should stand to reason that Sanders would get enough touches to produce. Unfortunately, so many of those rush attempts went to Jalen Hurts, that the Eagles ranked eleventh in running back carries and 24th in running back receptions. But, the Eagles also loved to divide running back touches up among Sanders, Jordan Howard, Boston Scott, and Kenny Gainwell. That’s how you end up with a team leading the league in rushing attempts, but with their lead back getting just 11.4 carries and 2.2 receptions per game to go alongside zero touchdowns.
It’s also something that makes absolutely zero sense, as most teams do things like “get their best players the ball,” and, “don’t give Jordan Howard the ball since he definitely isn’t one of their best players.” But, alas, the Eagles spread things out too much to give Miles Sanders the upside many hope he could have when you look at his wild efficiency stats (fifth in breakaway run rate and a 5.5 yards per carry). But, since the Eagles were hellbent on putting him into a timeshare, he ended up averaging the fewest touches and yards per game of his career.
2022 Miles Sanders Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Miles Sanders Salary Cap Value: $16
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming in early July)
There’s something worth leaning into with Miles Sanders, however, as his disappointing 2021 has dropped his 2022 draft stock considerably, despite the fact that Jordan Howard is gone, and Gainwell & Scott do not have the chops to take a ton of touches from Sanders, like Howard did. There’s another reason why I think that Sanders could have a better 2022 than 2021, and it also has to do with Jordan Howard (sort of). According to playerprofiler.com, Miles Sanders had 23 red zone touches, and Howard, a clearly inferior player, had 24 such touches. Gainwell and Scott also ended up with 20, each. This is probably why Sanders had exactly as many touchdowns in 2021 as you and I did. It’s not because he’s bad but because the Eagles split up their red zone touches a zillion ways.
With Jordan Howard gone and the Eagles seemingly turning to Miles Sanders as their primary back (neither Gainwell nor Scott have the size to be a Jordan Howard), that gives Sanders’ a strong upside, especially at his draft price. In salary cap drafts, he’s the RB29 by price ($8.2), and goes behind guys like Damien Harris, Devin Singletary and Travis Etienne, who have shown less in their careers than Miles Sanders showed, at least from a talent perspective. Sanders also isn’t the type of guy you’re going to see a bidding war for, as he isn’t even the sexiest running back name in this price range (that’s Rashaad Penny).
In snake drafts, Sanders goes as RB28, and given that snake drafts have a bit more of a “this or that” quality to them, you have to decide between Sanders and the players going around him. Unfortunately for him, I’m unlikely to end up with Sanders in a snake draft unless he falls, as he goes just after Mike Williams & Brandin Cooks, and just before Allen Robinson, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Jalen Hurts, all players I’m more likely to draft at their ADP. However, even if Sanders falls an extra round from his pick 72 overall ADP, I probably am not drafting him unless I specifically need a running back, as Darnell Mooney, Gabriel Davis, and JuJu Smith-Schuster all go in that range.
Best Case Scenario:
The Eagles overcorrect and give Miles Sanders all 87 running back red zone touches from last season, and he finishes with more touchdowns than he did last year.
Worst Case Scenario:
Well he can’t finish with fewer touchdowns than he did in 2021, right? …Right?
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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]
[Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Miles_Sanders.jpg, cropped under CC BY-SA 2.0]
