Preseason Fantasy Rankings: RBs 1-10

by Skeller on Jul 10, 2009 8:00 AM EDT in Football

As everybody knows, running backs are the key to fantasy football. This is such a well-known fact that the NFL is even making commercials about it. While it's not really that true in most leagues anymore, you still gotta know your Wells from your Ward from your White. Don't worry, we're here for you.

Here are my preseason fantasy running back rankings.

Rank	Player	Team	Comments
1	Peterson, Adrian	MIN	The only thing that can slow down the Vikes' running game is Brett Favre. After last season's 363 carries, an injury isn't out of the question though.
2	Jones-Drew, Maurice	JAX	Remove Fred Taylor, Add Torry Holt. This should be Jones-Drew's best season yet.
3	Turner, Michael	ATL	The Falcons won't have to run as much this season, so they won't. Turner will still be one of the most reliable RBs in the game though.
4	Forte, Matt	CHI	The Bears offense still runs (ha-ha!) through Matt Forte. I'm not sure Jay Cutler realizes that yet.
5	Barber, Marion	DAL	Terrell Owens giveth fantasy value (Barber) and taketh away fantasy value (Romo). The Cowboys will become a run-first team this season and Marion Barber is their man.
6	Slaton, Steve	HOU	He put up 1282 total yards with only five 100+ yard games. He's very capable of doing that again and probably will. Maybe the quietest 1200 yard rusher in the league.
7	Brown, Ronnie	MIA	He was the #2 overall draft pick in 2005 and has rushed for more than 900 yards in 3 of his 4 seasons. His team went to the playoffs last year and his quarterback is the steady but not spectacular Chad Pennington. Why aren't more people all over this guy?
8	Smith, Kevin	DET	Who's the fantasy star of the Detroit Lions? Calvin Williams? Matt Stafford? Nope, it's Kevin Smith, a guy who ran for 976 yards and 8 TDs on probably the worst NFL team in 30 years. Both he and the Lions will be better this year.
9	Portis, Clinton	WAS	Did well last year without any support from the passing game. If the passing game improves this year, Portis has one more great season in him.
10	Lynch, Marshawn	BUF	Don't let the three-game suspension throw you - with TO on the field Lynch is going to chew up the yardage this season. He'll make up for the lost time and you should be able to get him cheap.

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Comments

wow, am I high? Where's LT?

I know he’s fallen off his pedestal that’s over looked the fantasy world for several years, but is he really not a top ten option anymore?

In my mind he’s still somewhere between 6th and 8th. If I had to go by this list, I’d slide him in over:
Barber (injury prone and Felix Jones will steal just as much value as Sproles will from LT)
Brown (another injury risk who wasn’t all that productive in 08 despite playing 16 games for the first time in his career)
Portis (last time he ran as many times as he did last year he missed 8 games the following season)
Lynch (is 13 games of Lynch really more valuable than 16 games of LT?)

That moves him into 7th on my list and I’ll leave him there.

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by Bezekira on Jul 10, 2009 9:26 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

No kidding

I’m no LDT fan, but at the very, very least he replaces Lynch at #10.

by KDean75 on Jul 10, 2009 11:10 AM EDT up reply actions

I think your to ready to jump ship on some of the older guys. LT, Gore, and S Jax are all still top 10 backs in my opinion

"There are no next times when you're competing for big things." - Tom Izzo
Go Spartans

by msufan23 on Jul 10, 2009 1:53 PM EDT reply actions

Interesting

In your Top 10 are a couple of RBs, I expect to slip into the 3rd round – Brown and Lynch, who will allow me to draft two WRs with my first two picks.

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by faketeams on Jul 10, 2009 1:54 PM EDT reply actions

Number of carries.

I read this article in a Fantasy Football mag, about running backs that have over 350 carries have a significant drop off in production the next year. This would be Turner and Peterson last year. I dont know how much weight i put into that because in my mind they are still the top two backs fantasy wise, but i dont know something else for me to think about

Melooooooo

by Mr.Clutch15 on Jul 10, 2009 2:30 PM EDT reply actions