Statistically Significant: YAC/Attempt

Evaluating RB play independently of his offensive line, scheme, and overall team environment can be especially difficult. Much like missed tackles forced per touch (MTF/touch), a player’s yards after contact per attempt (YACO/A) can provide us a window into their inherent running ability.

This stat is calculated by charting all of the rushing yards each RB amasses after the first time a defender makes physical contact, and then dividing them by the player’s number of rush attempts. Compared to missed tackles, YACO/A emphasizes an RB’s ability to take advantage of the tackle he broke, employing his burst and explosiveness to gain yards. Ideally, an RB can both make defenders miss and gain yards after contact at a high rate.

However, like every efficiency metric at the RB position, YACO/A isn’t predictive of fantasy football success by itself. Volume is everything for RBs, and dividing yards after contact by the player’s number of carries controls away the impact of that volume.

Rather, YACO/A is most useful for telling us which RBs may have the burst to take advantage of a positive change in situation or team context. Finding those instances is up to us.

Below are 2024’s top-12 RBs by YACO/A (min. 125 carries). Let’s see what we can glean from the list for your 2025 fantasy drafts.

2025 NFL Yards After Contact Per Attempt Leaders

Kenneth Walker, RB, Seattle Seahawks

Underdog ADP: RB19

Virtually every piece of statistical and film-based evidence tells us Walker is one of the NFL’s most explosive RBs. Aside from ranking top-6 in YACO/A (2.65) last season, he led the league in MTF/touch (0.30) and ranks 2nd in total missed tackles forced since entering the NFL.

Most importantly, Walker’s coaching staff agrees. He’s a perfect fit for new OC Klint Kubiak’s outside zone scheme — as Kubiak himself will tell you — and even stands to build on his career-high 12.7% target share (5th-best), as Kubiak’s backfields have ranked 10th and 1st in total RB targets. He also concentrates screens within the backfield to an insane degree; Alvin Kamara received a whopping 56% of the Saints’ screen targets last year, averaging 3.5 FPG on them.

Aside from getting banged up for a few games, the main reason Walker didn’t destroy fantasy leagues in 2024 was the outlierishly poor run blocking he suffered through (unlike Zach Charbonnet). Seattle’s guard play should be improved this year with the addition of 18th overall pick Grey Zabel, but even if not, he’s a screaming value and will be one of my highest-owned players at his RB19 Underdog ADP.

Tony Pollard, RB, Tennessee Titans

Underdog ADP: RB26

For years, Tony Pollard was the poster boy for explosiveness and per-touch efficiency. However, he lost that reputation after an inefficient 2023 season in which he took over as Dallas’s lead back for the first time, coinciding with recovering from a significant postseason ankle injury.

But one year removed from that injury in 2024, Pollard nearly reclaimed his previous advanced efficiency metrics in Tennessee, averaging 2.76 YACO/A (4th-best) and a 5.0% explosive run rate (14th). That was despite brutal offensive surroundings, with the Titans’ offensive line ranking bottom-3 in adjusted yards before contact per attempt (1.37) and Will Levis ranking last in ANY/A (4.61), providing nothing else for opposing defenses to worry about.

Those surroundings meant Pollard averaged just 12.3 Underdog FPG (~RB21) before his Week 15 ankle injury, but they’ve arguably improved significantly. No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward should begin the year under center, and the Titans spent up on LT Dan Moore and G Kevin Zeitler in free agency. If the Titans get even average line play, Pollard should begin to benefit from the heavy workload the team fed him through much of 2024. Even in games Tyjae Spears was active (and before that same ankle injury), Pollard commanded 59.0% of the team’s rush attempts (~RB10) and a 12.8% target share (~RB5).

Those numbers would place Pollard squarely in RB1 territory on a team with a competent overall offense. So again, it’s not surprising he averaged 18.4 Underdog FPG in the Titans’ three wins (would have ranked ~RB4). The team’s win total of 5.5 for 2025 isn’t particularly inspiring, but even a modest improvement from last season would make Pollard a smash at his RB26 Underdog ADP.

Chuba Hubbard, RB, Carolina Panthers

Underdog ADP: RB18

Game script sensitivity defined Hubbard’s 2024 season even more than Pollard’s: Hubbard averaged a league-leading 25.0 Underdog FPG wins, but just 11.2 FPG in losses (would have ranked ~RB25). So, as with Pollard, an environment-agnostic stat like YACO/A — by which Hubbard ranked 5th-best in 2024 — better tells the story of his efficiency and provides a window into why the Panthers rewarded him with a contract extension likely to keep him with the team through 2026.

And although the Panthers’ win total remains at just 6.5, there’s a world where another step forward from Bryce Young and the additions they’ve made on the defensive side of the ball keep them in more games this year, preventing Hubbard from being scripted out. Their defensive line could prove particularly formidable, having added pass rusher Tershawn Wharton in free agency as well as spending both their Day 2 picks on edge rushers.

The team’s offseason backfield additions also aren’t convincing threats to Hubbard’s massive workload from 2024 (his 16.8 XFP/G ranked 9th-best). Rico Dowdle (who also happens to have ranked top-12 by YACO/A) provides a lesser version of Hubbard’s skillset and signed a backup-level one-year deal with fewer than $3 million guaranteed, while Day 3 pick Trevor Etienne would likely only see the field in obvious passing situations, a la Raheem Blackshear. And remember, Dave Canales loves feeding a single bell cow; his lead backs have averaged 16.3 weighted opportunities per game (~RB8) over the past two seasons.

As with Pollard and Cam Ward, Hubbard makes sense as a correlated season-long bet on teams alongside Bryce Young, banking on one of these teams to exceed expectations. But even outside of that, Hubbard offers strong standalone value and is a player I won’t mind exposure to at his RB18 ADP.

Breece Hall, RB, New York Jets

Underdog ADP: RB13

Hall was a superior runner to teammate Braelon Allen in 2024, whether you compare their YACO/A (2.59 to 2.32), YPC (4.2 to 3.6), explosive run rate (5.3% to 1.1%), or almost any other metric. But unlike with Kenneth Walker, our film charters were largely unimpressed, noting that he seemed to have lost the explosiveness of his first two seasons despite being over a year removed from his 2022 ACL tear.

Whatever the case, Hall’s remaining level of juice may not matter. New HC Aaron Glenn (along with OC Tanner Engstrand, also formerly of the Lions) has made his intention to platoon his running backs incredibly clear. And if Hall doesn’t consolidate the vast majority of the work, this backfield could be worthless for fantasy; Justin Fields’ backfields average just under 4.0 targets per game across his 44 career starts, which would have ranked bottom-10 in the NFL last year.

There’s an argument to be made that Hall was playing through injury for at least part of last season, that he’s simply better than Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis, and that he’ll convincingly take over the backfield in training camp or early in the season regardless of this coaching staff’s preferences for a committee. I’d love to make that argument if Hall were being drafted a few rounds later, but at his RB13 Underdog ADP, the risk he fails to improve on his 15.5 XFP/G from last season (~RB13) — which Glenn seems fixated on reducing — far outweighs the reward.

Jordan Mason, RB, Minnesota Vikings

Underdog ADP: RB34

The Vikings have a type! They traded a pick swap for the rights to pay Jordan Mason over $7 million guaranteed this offseason. Incumbent Aaron Jones (whom they also re-signed for $11.5 million guaranteed) averaged 2.59 YACO/A (12th-best) last season, while Mason similarly excelled in this metric with 3.06 YACO/A (2nd-best).

Based on HC Kevin O’Connell’s recent comments (per the CoachSpeak Index Discord), the Vikings intend to use both RBs in a “1A/1B” backfield, as the similar guarantees and Jones’ history imply. He complimented Mason’s burst and said he loves how tough it is to tackle him — Mason’s excellent YACO/A shows up on film, too — but most importantly, he believes Mason will help in short-yardage and goal-line situations. That’s massive for fantasy football; a red zone carry is worth roughly 2.7x as many fantasy points as a non-red zone carry.

Still, I’m skeptical that Mason can carve out meaningful fantasy value from a goal-line role alone; this offense has ranked top-8 in pass rate inside the 10-yard line during each of O’Connell’s seasons as head coach. To pay off his ~RB35 Underdog ADP, he’d have to either usurp Jones as the 1A (which feels unlikely outside of Jones slamming into the Age Cliff at 30 years old) or win out as a contingent bet if Jones gets injured. But even then, Mason averaged just 14.8 Underdog FPG (~RB13) across six healthy games without Christian McCaffrey last year, while the Vikings ranked middle-of-the-pack in total backfield fantasy opportunity. Mason’s explosiveness and YACO/A may have earned him a promotion from clear backup to 1B in real life, but if I’m paying up for such a premier handcuff, I’d want much clearer RB1 upside.