Week 12 Running Back Rankings

Armando Marsal

Fantasy Writer

@Armando_fbguru on twitter

In Week 11, Ahmad Bradshaw suffered a season ending injury and Montee Ball aggravated his groin injury, and will miss 2-3 weeks. In addition, LeGarrette Blount was released by the Steelers, and Ben Tate was released by the Browns. Not to mention, LeVeon Bell is on a bye this week. So it's safe to say, that you may see some running backs a bit higher in the rankings than you would normally see in other weeks.

For the most part, in the top 10, you'll see the usual suspects, but there are also see some different backs. Denard Robinson, Justin Forsett, and Steven Jackson are not generally in the top 10. Robinson has been on a tear in the last four games. He's rushed over 100 yards in two of them and has scored four touchdowns in his last four games. He's facing a running back friendly defense that gave up four rushing touchdowns to Jonas Gray in Week 11, and has surrendered twelve for the season. Forsett has been as reliable as any running back can be. He either gets it done on the ground or on the receiving end. He also has a good matchup this week and should have no problems continuing his positive production. Jackson has over 15 carries in each of the last three games and has a touchdown in two of those games. He will face the Browns defense that just got torched by Alfred Blue.

Right outside the top 10 are Mark Ingram, Alfred Blue, and Andre Ellington. Ingram's 100+ rushing yards streak came to an end last week. However, he still rushed for 67 yards on 23 carries and caught seven passes for 30 yards. Despite a tough matchup, he is getting over 20 touches per game in the last four games, and should continue to see a heavy workload. Blue started in place of Arian Foster last week and rushed for 156 yards on 36 carries. This week he has a favorable matchup. The Bengals have been unable to stop the run and have surrendered 11 rushing touchdowns to backs this season. Unless Foster returns, which is a possibility, Blue should be considered a high-end No. 2 running back this week. Ellington will take on the Seahawks that prior to last week, were clamping down against the run. In their last game however, they struggled against the Chiefs' backs and allowed over 150 yards and three touchdowns. This week they will be playing in Seattle, which makes this a tougher matchup. With that said, Ellington remains a solid RB2 this week simply because of how involved he is in this offense.

Outside the top 20 you have a couple of backs who received a ton of volume in Week 11. What remains to be seen is if they are going to receive that heavy workload once again this week. That's the reason both Tre Mason and Jonas Gray did not break the top 20. It's almost impossible to know what the Patriots will be doing offensively on any given week. The only two constants on that offense are Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. If Gray receives as many touches as he did last week, he can finish amongst the top 20 in scoring, but that's a huge if. Mason is coming off his first 20+ carry game and his first 100+ rushing yard game. Prior to last week, he had not received over 19 carries in a game. He's another back that can finish in the top 20 as long as he gets the volume.