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Nothing makes the NFL more fun than fantasy football and few things make fantasy sports more fun than rankings, rankings, and more rankings. RBs are ranked in this post with the ESPN and Yahoo! standard fractional scoring.
Players who receive point-per-reception (PPR) bumps are noted with the asterisk. Consult my weekly Depth Charts and Volatility post, where we analyze all of the timeshares where multiple backs are involved for teams. The top of these ranks generally favor backs involved in the receiving game, as it is, because the bellcow RBs who largely are involved in the passing game are largely unaffected when their respective teams abandon the run.
Rank | Player | Team | Last Week |
1 | Todd Gurley | Rams | 1 |
2 | Devonta Freeman* | Falcons | 2 |
3 | Adrian Peterson | Vikings | 3 |
4 | DeMarco Murray* | Eagles | 6 |
5 | Charcandrick West* | Chiefs | 17 |
6 | Chris Ivory | Jets | 4 |
7 | Darren McFadden* | Cowboys | 7 |
8 | Lamar Miller* | Dolphins | 8 |
9 | Mark Ingram* | Saints | 9 |
10 | LeSean McCoy* | Bills | 18 |
11 | DeAngelo Williams* | Steelers | 5 |
12 | Danny Woodhead* | Chargers | 11 |
13 | LeGarrette Blount | Patriots | 15 |
14 | Latavius Murray | Raiders | 13 |
15 | Doug Martin | Buccaneers | 10 |
16 | Chris Johnson | Cardinals | 12 |
17 | Jonathan Stewart | Falcons | 20 |
18 | Marshawn Lynch | Seahawks | 14 |
19 | Matt Forte* | Bears | 19 |
20 | T.J. Yeldon | Jaguars | 24 |
21 | Frank Gore | Colts | 27 |
22 | Justin Forsett* | Ravens | 16 |
23 | Jeremy Langford* | Bears | 25 |
24 | Giovani Bernard* | Bengals | 23 |
25 | Karlos Williams | Bills | 21 |
26 | James Starks* | Packers | 29 |
27 | Ronnie Hillman | Broncos | 22 |
28 | Carlos Hyde | 49ers | 32 |
29 | Eddie Lacy | Packers | 30 |
30 | Ryan Mathews | Eagles | 33 |
31 | Antonio Andrews | Titans | 26 |
32 | Jeremy Hill | Bengals | 28 |
33 | Matt Jones* | Washington | 37 |
34 | Duke Johnson* | Browns | 31 |
35 | Thomas Rawls | Seahawks | 49 |
36 | Jay Ajayi | Dolphins | --- |
37 | Melvin Gordon* | Chargers | 38 |
38 | Charles Sims* | Buccaneers | 34 |
39 | James White* | Patriots | --- |
40 | Andre Ellington* | Cardinals | --- |
41 | Denard Robinson | Jaguars | --- |
42 | David Cobb | Titans | 35 |
43 | Shane Vereen* | Giants | 36 |
44 | C.J. Anderson | Broncos | 42 |
45 | Jerick McKinnon | VIkings | 50 |
46 | Tevin Coleman | Falcons | --- |
47 | Bilal Powell* | Jets | --- |
48 | Rashad Jennings* | Giants | 40 |
49 | Theo Riddick* | Lions | 41 |
50 | Ameer Abdullah | Lions | 43 |
51 | Alfred Morris | Washington | --- |
52 | Alfred Blue | Texans | 44 |
53 | Shaun Draughn* | 49ers | 47 |
54 | C.J. Spiller* | Saints | 45 |
55 | Jonathan Grimes* | Texans | --- |
56 | Orleans Darkwa | Giants | 39 |
57 | Dexter McCluster* | Titans | --- |
58 | Joique Bell | Lions | --- |
59 | Darren Sproles* | Eagles | --- |
60 | Tim Hightower | Saints | --- |
Notes:
- There is a slight bump for the RBs who have already had their bye weeks, as they have seven games remaining in their regular seasons against everyone else's six.
- As we go down the rankings, there is an increase in the weight of strength of schedule. And the better matchups sooner than later because there is sell-high value to come. These are not weekly rankings, but the idea of these rankings is to measure whom we should be owning now over whom.
- These rankings devalue the messiest backfield situations noted in the Depth Charts and Volatility post. I don't care how talented a guy is if he doesn't get the ball. There are tons of new entries into the rankings because guys who never get the ball can start getting dropped for handcuffs and these handcuffs are shoved ahead of wasted roster spaces.
- Bellcows always get the edge. There aren't many of them, so the value in scarcity increases for those backs with lesser variance. As we go down the rankings, the bad bellcows who we can never trust in our lineup lose value to receiving backups with more upside in whom we can reasonably instill hope. The bad bellcows are not only unstartable, but untradeable, and that is a recipe for a wasted roster spot. This is the reasoning for the huge shakeup in the top-10, as volume trends are setting in.
- Do your research and use rankings cautiously, as they are always a work-in-progress. Rankings are a bad tools to tell us what to do. They are conversation starters, tier setters, value mirrors, and a combination of the scientific explanations of what has happened with the art of predicting what will happen. Feel free to supply contrary evidence to me on Twitter at @AlexSontySBN or in the comments. They will help me help you.