Transcription
Some of these running back twos just aren't even startable anymore. We'll go through our top 50-ish running back rankings for you.
Starting off with S tier. You already know it's three players. It's been three players pretty much all season with McAffrey, Jonathan Taylor, and Bejian Robinson. We go back and forth, back and forth of who's going to be RB1 between CMC and Jonathan Taylor. And really, we're just riding whoever is the hot week this past week. McCaffrey 34 fantasy points. And McAffrey so far this season has actually come through with 168 carries and 80 targets. We have only played nine games and McAffry's 80 targets is on pace to blow out any season that he has had in his NFL career outside of maybe 2019. And in that 2019 season, he averaged 29 and a half fantasy points per game and put up one of the best fantasy seasons that I have ever seen, if not the best. And then with Bejon, um I understand that he hasn't really averaged the same points per game mark as what we've had with the other two running backs, but realistically he's already through his buy outside of the one bad game he had against the Miami Dolphins in week eight. He's given you an incredibly high floor every single week with at least 16 fantasy points per game.
Now, let's move over to our A tier running backs. Leading off with Jamir Gibbs, Gibbs does fall down after this past week in points per game to 18.2. I mean, this is a running back that gave you 5.8 points against the Minnesota Vikings. Only nine carries and three targets coming out of the buy. But realistically, I'm not worried about this being a continued trend. This is the second game that Jir Gibbs has had with singledigit fantasy points since 2023. So, still have an incredibly high floor. This is still a great offense. We had Jamir Gibbs as that sell high running back about a month ago just saying, "Hey, if you can package a wide receiver too with him to go get a true S tier level running back, I think it's a great idea." And y'all screamed at me in the comment section that it wasn't.
Now, Devon Han will be our next running back. Um, yeah, the Miami Dolphins are a dumpster fire, but frankly, it doesn't matter. Devon Achan's worst game this season. He has scored 12.8 fantasy points, and that was the only game this year where he hasn't scored 16. He's had 60 targets this year, 43 receptions, and you are just getting an insane floor in a full PPR format because of that receiving volume.
Going over and looking at James Cook, James Cook doesn't have anything close to the same level of volume that you have as a receiver as Han does, where James Cook is averaging only 1.9 targets per game. But his actual rushing yards per game is up at 108. And obviously most weeks for James Cook, you are going to be walking away with the rushing touchdown. Um, this past week, I was very lucky to have those rushing touchdowns going the direction of Josh Allen. And as somebody who's starting Josh Allen in fantasy every week, I hope that's the case going into the future, but it won't be.
Now, Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley are my running back one, running back two on my own fantasy team. I was kind of ignoring the Emanuel Wilson usage back against the Pittsburgh Steelers in week eight, saying like, "Oh, yeah, Emanuel Wilson's getting involved a bunch, but the Green Bay Packers are blowing out the Steelers." So, in reality, I think that this is just more so them keeping Jacobs fresh. The game's not in range. But Emanuel Wilson continued to get used when they were down to the Carolina Panthers. Ended up losing this game. Now, am I going to sit here and cry about it? No. Jacobs had 22 opportunities, but it is something to continue to keep your eyes on. But we know that Josh Jacobs is going to be scoring a touchdown most weeks. We've only played eight games this season for Jacobs, and he's already had a total of 10 rushing touchdowns.
Now, with Saquon Barkley, I think I could move him ahead of Jacobs in these rankings if we knew that he was 100% healthy. But he had the groin injury back in week eight. It was a good time by week that you add week nine for the Philadelphia Eagles. I'm seven and two. I'm fighting for a buy in the flock league. So, I'm really hoping that Saquon Barkley is fully back and healthy in week 10, but you do have some tough matchups coming up like the Green Bay Packers this next week.
Now, going over to Javvante Williams. Um, haven't had a chance to see Javvante play against the Arizona Cardinals. I'll say going into this game, we have seen Javvante have a phenomenal role both as a receiver and a rusher where he's averaging 79 rushing yards per game while at the same time 4.3 targets per game. If you're looking for the expectations tonight, right now on Underdog Fantasy, they have Javvante Williams higher lower 13.45 fantasy points and higher lower 81 and a half total yards.
Now, if you want to say, "Mason, those projections are way off." Um, by all means, go over to Underdog Fantasy. You can go higher, you can go lower, whatever the hell you want. Links in the description. It's in the comment section. Code Flock will get you $100 added to your account after you play your first five. Plus, you get a free Dak Prescott pick. Higher, lower, half a total yard for the game on Monday night. And you'll be getting free questions that you can ask me in the live streams. And I'm live streaming every single day until Christmas answering your free questions.
Now, Kairen Williams will be our next running back. The Los Angeles Rams are incredible. And here you have Kairen with 17.4 points, but the issue that I would have with Kiran is you don't have the same receiving involvement that you do with some of the other running backs in this range such as Javvante. But you do have the touchdown upside most weeks.
Now, Dererick Henry obviously was much lower than this when you had no Lamar Jackson in our rankings. But now that Lamar's back in just going to be a much better offense. Like Dererick Henry this past week was kind of letting you down with the only 13.1 fantasy points, but in reality, I think you can rank him as a must-start running back every week going into the future. With how good this Baltimore Ravens offense is, there should be touchdown upside.
Now, Bucky Irving is the number one player that I am wanting to see the injury report for this week. Like I have no idea if we are going to be getting Bucky Irving back in week 10 or if he's coming back at all. He's dealing with a multitude of injuries. We have been completely left out of the situation in terms of this team telling us what's going on. So I have no idea if Buckyy's healthy or not. If he's not at practice, we'll probably move him down a tier in these rankings. But if he's back practicing in full on Wednesday, I can tell you he's probably going to move up to a tier, which we'll keep these rankings updated and all the live streams. So, just make sure you subscribe to the channel. And obviously, all these ranks are on flockfantasy.com.
Now, Ashton Genty does finally come through and just monopolize everything in this backfield for the Raiders where he doesn't let another running back touch the ball. You have 18 opportunities, almost 20 points scored. And what I was most excited about is seeing the 47 receiving yards for Ashen Genty, which was the highest mark that we have had so far in his NFL career. Um, right now he is averaging only 3.1 targets per game, but that is 100% trending in the right direction.
And then obviously Rico Dattle is trending in the right direction as well. It may be just Rico Datt's the most talented running back in the league. and maybe outside of Jonathan Taylor, maybe outside of Christian McCaffrey, Jamir Gibbs, but then after that, Rico Data looks like a top five talent at the running back position. And I'm saying that halfway joking, but in reality, like this dude has had three weeks with the opportunity to be the actual starting running back for the Carolina Panthers where they're not trying to mess around and get Chuba Hubard involved for god knows what reason. And in those three weeks against the Miami Dolphins, he ran for 206 rushing yards, 28 receiving yards. Against the Dallas Cowboys, he had 183 rushing yards, 56 receiving yards. And then against the Green Bay Packers, which obviously much tougher defense to play against than Miami and Dallas, 130 rushing yards. Absolutely incredible. This coaching staff told us coming into the week, Rico D's now our starting running back. We are done with the Chuba Hubard experience and it looks like we can fully believe them at this point and Rico Dattle honestly would be much much higher in these rankings if we didn't have to put an artificial cap on them like we are doing with Ashen Genty like we are doing with Bree Hall here as well just because the offense is so bad.
But yeah, Bree Hall, I mean, obviously before the by-week, he's dropped 33 points against the Cincinnati Bengals. That's the only game this season where he's had 20 points. Now, I believe the NFL trade deadline is either this week or next week. And Breeall has been the number one running back that's been discussed as a potential trade target for these teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, like the Los Angeles Chargers. So, there's an outside chance that this Brie Hall ranking needs to get a dramatic update later this week, which of course I'll do with the dedicated live stream.
Then going over and looking at Quinn Sean Judkins as our next RB. If you wanted to put Judkins in the B tier, I'm not going to fault you for it at all. But the issue is we're dealing with the shoulder injury. We don't have the practice report updates yet in week 10. That is going to be something we need to see. Um, if we are looking at the other red flag that I personally am going to have is this is a running back that's averaging about eight and a half receiving yards per game and he plays for the Cleveland Browns. So, no receiving upside and garbage offense.
Now, Marian Hampton is one week closer to returning from this injury. He has so far missed weeks 67 89. So, technically he is eligible to return to the IR in week 10. But they had already told us, "Hey, Amarian Hampton's going to be missing more than four weeks." And also, I believe we actually had word that he was still spotted in the walking boot after the week eight game against the Minnesota Vikings. So, my expectations with Hampton right now will be that he probably misses against Pittsburgh, he probably misses against the Jackson Jaguars, and then you have this team with a week 12 buy. So, he's probably coming back week 13ish. But, you know, typically with these injured players, every week they get closer to returning, I move them up in my rankings. I'm not moving Amari and Hampton up compared to where we had them last week, though. If anything, he actually, I believe, fell from RB 16 to RB 17. And the reason being is now Joe Alt going down does lower my expectations for this running back room overall.
Now, Jaylen Warren will be our next running back. With Jaylen Warren, um, consistent usage, you got the multiple rushing touchdowns this past week. The ceiling is 100% capped where we have yet to see Jaylen Warren have 20 or more fantasy points this season, but you have a very high floor.
You also have a decent floor here with Chase Brown now where Chase Brown had 14 targets this past week, bringing his mark up to 45 targets so far this season. 108 carries through nine games played. Um, and realistically, this offense is just significantly better with Joe Flack under center. I did not expect this type of production to continue for Cincinnati the way that it has been given the offensive line struggles that they have, but hell, Joe Flaco is incredible. Chase Brown's now averaging five targets per game and he just played pretty much every single snap for this team this past week where I do think you can just go ahead and jam him in.
Then Travis ETN will be the last running back in Ctier. I have Travis ETN on my own fantasy team. I would love to rank him a lot higher than this, but the issue is we've seen the consistent usage of Bshell Tutin inside the red zone at the goal line. Trevor Lawrence's vultured rushing touchdowns. For whatever reason, Travis ETN cannot score these rushing touchdowns to save his life. I mean, if you go back to 2023, he had 11 rushing touchdowns and finishes the RB seven in points per game. But here, I mean, it's a decent spot where you get a floor with the opportunities, which is more than you can say for a lot of these other running backs.
Now, our next player is going to be DeAndre Swift. With DeAndre Swift, I am going to have a very difficult time ranking him right now when it's super late Sunday night because I don't know what the situation is with his injury versus Kyle Manungai. Because right now what I would say is like I would expect DeAndre Swift to probably come back this week and do probably be the lead running back here, but definitely not having the same exact role that he did previously based off how well Kyle Manungai just played.
Then going over to David McGomery, McGomery is always in this range in our rankings because if you're desperate, like if you're dealing with a buy, if you're dealing with an injury, you could always put David McGomery into your starting lineup. you're never that excited to start him, but you do have that upside case where if you were to get an injury to Jamir Gibbs, David McGomery turns into a top three to five running back in fantasy and he would have a much higher ceiling than pretty much anybody else in this range.
Now, we're going to have a couple teammates here next to each other with RJ Harvey as well as JK Dobbins. JK Dobbins very much is still the starting running back for this team, but it's hard to ignore the fact that over the past two weeks, despite only having a total of 15 opportunities, RJ Harvey has come through and he has had 40 fantasy points. And what we typically see with these running backs is we typically see the rookie running backs expand their roles as time goes on and the veterans to get scaled back. So, I'm gonna assume here that we do have more RJ Harvey going into the future and less JK Dobbins. And I'm making these rankings for a full PPR format where obviously JK Dobbins has absolutely nothing as a receiver where RJ Harvey does currently have that role on lock.
Now, Trevon Henderson will be our next running back. Trevian Henderson um gets a career high 12.7 fantasy points this past week. Um, I am making this ranking under the assumption that this Remandre Stevenson injury is going to lead to Armadre Stevenson missing a considerable amount of time. There have been rumors that the New England Patriots go out there and trade for a running back. And if Raadre were to come back this next week, then obviously we would have to move Trevon down significantly in our rest of season ranks.
Moving over to E tier, we are going to have Jordan Mason at the top of this here. Let me just let you know E tier and below. I'm never wanting to start any of these running backs. I'll start them if the guy in front of them is injured and we are desperate enough to do it, but in reality, I think all these are bench fillers for you with Jordan Mason. The reason I'm gonna have him at the top of this bench filler range is currently you have Aaron Jones injured. So it does look like here in the short term Jordan Mason is going to be startable. But if Aaron Jones does come back this week then all of a sudden Jordan Mason will fall behind the Seattle backs.
With the Seattle backs they're right where they were last week where they're just taking enough away from each other where neither of them is exciting. like they're both players that you absolutely need a roster because if Charbanet were to go down, Kenneth Walker turns into a league winner, if Kenneth Walker were to go down, Zack Charbanet turns into a league winner, but you don't want any of them in your starting lineup right now. Um, Tyron Tracy, I add ranked inside our top 24 running backs coming into this week. However, now we just see that he's in a 50-50 time share with Devin Singleary. Now, I still have more faith with Tyrone Tracy than Devin Singleary for sure. So, I will give him the benefit of the doubt here, but one more week with that Devin Singleary usage, he will fall even further down.
Now, I played against Woody Marks this week myself and maybe I'm seven and two. We'll let you see in that in the Flock League video on Tuesday. But Woody Marks dropping only two and a half fantasy points kind of saved my ass here. Um, I will say that he had a total of 13 opportunities, but it just does look like this is an offense that's going to continue to let Nick Chub take work until the end of the season. So, it's tough seeing Woody Marks a startable name outside of a Chub injury.
Um, Trey Benson will be our next running back. He's another week closer to returning. So far this season, he's missed weeks five, six, seven, eight, nine. Um, I'm assuming you don't get him back for a couple more weeks, but I mean once he does eventually make his way back, I don't think any of the Arizona backs are talented enough to take work from him. So, obviously, every week that goes by, Benson will be a little bit higher and a little bit higher and a little bit higher in our rankings until he officially returns.
Um, it's RIP Alvin Kamara. Like honestly, we were saying early in the season like, "Oh, save Kamar, send him to the Chargers, so all of a sudden he can actually u be viable and he's not in a garbage offense, but it doesn't matter now because now if you were to actually look at this, I would say if he got sent to the Chargers based off how bad he has been this season, I would probably bank Kamani Val. to be ahead of him. Like it is horrendous. Career low yards per rush attempt. Career low yards per target. Not even remotely close. He's averaging 9.2 fantasy points per game right now. Like even if he got sent to a better offense, I don't think he'd be startable. Like send him to KC and I think he's just in a committee with Pacheco.
Jaori Kroski Merritt will be our next running back. Um, this offense takes a significant hit while at the same time Jakori Kroski Merritt continues to do absolutely nothing. You had a lot of Chris Rodriguez in this game. We know JCM has absolutely no receiving upside whatsoever, which is a big reason why we traded him away early in the season, but he scored 27 points against the Chargers. He has some upside, but it looks like you're going to have no Jaden Daniels rest of season. So, in reality, I think we're probably going to move Jakori Crossy Meritt even lower than this.
Um, Kabani Vidal, I would say I would be more excited about him if it wasn't for the Joe Alt injury. But because you now have Joe Alt down, I would assume that you're actually in a spot in which this offense is just much worse than it was before and we have to lower our expectations across the board. And also, there's the outside chance they go out there and they trade for a running back or you just end up getting Amari Hampton back.
Now going over to Kyle Manungai. Um I would like to say oh my gosh crazy good week. 22 and a half fantasy points 176 rushing yards. He is going to take over and DeAndre Swift's not going to be anything going into the you can't say it. We saw Kenneth Gainwell come through for the Steelers and have a better game than anything we had ever seen from Jaylen Warren in the past. And what did the Steelers do? They just went, "Oh, okay. Well, let's go ahead and let's just give Jaylen Warren the role that he had all along." I I'm a worried that we're going to see the same exact thing here happen with DeAndre Swift and Kyle Manungai. Now, of course, if we were to see DeAndre Swift missing practice this week, Kyle Manungai is going to move up these rankings and DeAndre Swift will fall down.
Then our next name is going to be Raandre Stevenson. If we are looking at Raandre, my assumption here is we are not getting him back this week. I think he's going to be out for some time here. And also at the same time, he is only averaging nine fantasy points per game. So, he wasn't even startable when he was the starting running back for New England.
Um, Bam Knight, I think for the short terms probably going to be in a three-man running back by committee here in Arizona. Um, obviously, I know a lot of people are going to be excited about him this week against the Dallas Cowboys. He's currently higher lower 67 and a half total yards on underdog for that Monday night game. But long term I think it's Trey Benson and short term I think he's in a three-man committee.
Um Aaron Jones looks like he's just washed up and now Aaron Jones is injured yet again. So we'll put a year out of respect but in reality not excited. Isaiah Pacheco averaging seven and a half fantasy points per game and he's injured. No reason to ever get excited about Pacheco. Rashad White um handcuffed running back where it looks like the starter coming back and also you had him falling down to 55% of the snaps this past week where it looked like he was kind of losing that job to Shawn Tucker. Chuba Hubard just pure handcuffed running back at this point. He would never be startable outside of an injury to Mr. Dowel.
Then Taji Spears, Tony Pard, the very similar to the Seattle running backs, right, where they're not startable outside if one of them were to go down. But the issue is with Tennessee. It's a garbage offense and neither of these running backs are as talented. So lower the upside in general.
I'm rostering Kenneth Gainwell on my own team just as like the handcuff appeal that if you were to get a Jaylen Ward injury, we have seen that he does have the upside to turn into a mustart name. I'm B shell T tootin I mean handcuff Tyler your handcuff Nick Chub desperation start Kareem Hunt handcuff with the cap ceiling but I think that's all I got for y'all with this rankings video of course I will continue to live stream every single day answering your fantasy questions if you wanted to get free questions to ask in those streams you can do so by taking advantage of the offer on underdog fantasy links in the description links in the comment section code flock on underdog will get you a $100 added to your account after you play your first five. Plus, you're going to be getting a free Dak Prescott pick, higher, lower half total yard for the Monday night game and free questions that you can ask me in the live streams that I'm live streaming every single day until Christmas answering your free questions. But I really appreciate you and I really hope we get to see you out in the live stream later.