Perhaps no other player in all of fantasy football has been more disappointing than Denver Broncos running back C.J. Anderson. After a stellar second half to the 2014 season, Anderson was a consensus first-round pick across all fantasy formats this year and even a candidate to be the No. 1 overall player. Yet entering Week 8 he had scored a grand total of 21 standard fantasy points while rushing for just 180 total yards and zero scores.
Talk about a bad return on your investment.
However, Anderson bounced back in a big way Sunday, totaling 16 points on 101 yards and one tuddie. Though Ronnie Hillman supplanted him as the starter and outworked him Sunday (20 touches to 15), Denver's improved run blocking should help Anderson be more productive going forward.
"Over its past two games, Denver has posted a 40 percent or higher mark in my good blocking rate (GBR) metric that measures how often an offensive blocking wall gives its ball carriers good blocking (very roughly defined as not allowing the defense to disrupt a rush attempt)," ESPN NFL Insider KC Joyner wrote. "The 40 percent mark is significant because it is the league average. The consecutive weeks streak is meaningful because it is the first time this season the Broncos have posted a 40 percent or higher GBR in back-to-back contests. This improvement in run blocking is part of why Denver ranks tied for second in the league in rush attempts per game since Week 6 (33.5)."
Also helping matters is the fact that Denver will play the Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers (twice), Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals over the final half of the season. Each team ranks in the bottom half of the league in rushing yards allowed per game and yards-per-carry. Even though Denver lost rookie starting left tackle Ty Sambrailo for the year, their somewhat soft schedule should still allow for fantasy production.
However, until Anderson strings together multiple good games in a row, Hillman is the Broncos back you want to be starting. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
