Week 1 Running Back Rankings & Tiers

here's every running back that you would ever consider starting week one starting off with the guys to the very top mcaffrey Bean Bree obviously you're starting them every week I don't even have to talk about them I will just mention I do think that Bree has a tough matchup against the Niners which is why he's ranked behind bejan Robinson this week our next tier these are also guys you're starting every single week regardless of format Gibbs Taylor Barkley H and Kiren what I'm looking for with every running back this week Gibbs I want to see the Red Zone Roll versus David Montgomery Jonathan Taylor I want to see the target share out of the backfield with Anthony richen under Center I can say the same thing about saquon Barkley in Philadelphia with Devon hen I want to see the split with moster and if Jaylen Wright gets involved at all and then with Kiren Williams I want to see exactly how large of a role that Blake corm has now with all that being said it doesn't matter you still start them week one now this is where maybe if you're in like super shallow leagues You' possibly consider benching one of these players but your team would have to just be absolutely nuts um Travis etn at 9 with etn super safe projectable volume we did have this coaching staff earlier this year saying that tanks Bigsby will possibly have a short yardage roll which could be a little bit concerning if you get inside the 5 yard line and all of a sudden tank Bigsby is seeing some snaps so that's definitely not what you're wanting to see if you have Travis CN should be a high-scoring game against the Miami Dolphins though but right now Miami is favored by about three and a half points so if Jacksonville were to get behind potentially the rushing volume won't be there for etn um Isaiah Pacho is probably going to be higher than this in our rankings going forward but should just be a tough matchup going up against Baltimore typically what you're going to want to see with Pacho is a game where the Chiefs should easily be able to handle it a game where they are running the ball in the second half here against the Baltimore Ravens there is a chance that I don't know maybe Baltimore's ahead it's a closer game overall and you do see more passing attempts for momes but Pacho should get more third down utilization this year than he previously had unless a P Ryan is actually as scary as a lot of y'all think now Josh Jacobs will be our next guy Jacobs does have a tough matchup going up against Philly this week right now the Green Bay Packers have an implied team total of about 23.25 points but AJ Dylan is on the IR and at the same time marshan Lloyd while he's backup practice is not fully healthy so with those two notes I think that Jacobs is a very safe play to just see 70 plus per of his backfield opportunities and what should be a very good offense even if it's a toughest matchup James Conor at 12 now with James Connor I'm definitely going to want to monitor the split with Ray Davis but going up against the Arizona Cardinals the Buffalo Bills are favored current Sportsbook projections have them scoring about 26 and a half to 27 points this week now obviously the issue is you do have Josh Allen just monopolizing so many of the touchdowns in the Red Zone um Rashad white will be our next guy at 13 going up against Washington this is a situation where you could see the team actually look to run the ball in the second half but Rashad white is almost just matchup proof in a full PPR format given the amount of receiving volume that he should see out of the back field now I know yall going to hate seeing Derrick Henry this low and I still think that Derrick Henry is a must start running back I think he's a borderline lowend rb1 highend rb2 this week against Kansas City my thought process here is I think that Henry will be ranked a lot higher in other weeks but this is a game where the Baltimore Ravens are actually underdogs to the Kansas City Chiefs very rarely will the Ravens be underdogs if you are looking at Vegas spreads this year but Chiefs really good team if Baltimore does fall behind they may not be able to slow the game down and just run it non-stop with Henry and we know that Henry is kind of at least in Tennessee he was reliant on game script because if they get behind in the second half and they have to drop back consistently we know Derrick Henry doesn't really have a receiving role now dropping down to our next here this is going to be the first running back I actually have in my starting line up in the flock league y'all know I went with the zero RB approach James Connor is someone that I am heavily relying on early in the season and yeah James Conor is going up against Buffalo this week right now you actually have the Arizona Cardinals as pretty big dogs like five and a half Point dogs to the Buffalo Bills now the thing that you will have though is a very small role for Trey Benson week one James Conor should just see almost every snap almost every touch out of this back field against Buffalo so even though it's not a great matchup I think you can still comfortably rely on James Connor or at least I am on my team this week because I'm not expecting Benson to be a a player that makes a large impact week one um Kenneth Walker at 16 going up against the Denver Broncos should be a great matchup for Walker and right now the Seattle Seahawks are massive favorites over Denver right now Vegas is really not giving Denver any respect when it comes to their total Point projection from week to we perspective if you are looking at just the spread on this game by itself I mean now you actually have about five and a half points in favor of the Seattle Seahawks if they get ahead I know this coaching staff has been rumored that they're going to go through and they're going to throw the ball a lot more than the previous regime did but I don't know I still think you probably just lean on the ground with Denver and I I don't it's irrelevant bringing up the fact that Miami scored 70 points pretty much just running the football against them last year but anyway it's irrelevant moving over to Joe Mixon at 17 looking at Joe Mixon it should be a pretty high score game against the Indianapolis Colts if you're actually looking at the over under here and we really don't know what the situation is behind Mixon and what these other running backs are going to have in terms of a role obviously cam Acres actually looked decent in the preseason Damen Pierce is somebody that looked good as a rookie fell off last year and early on Camp report sounded like Damen Pierce going have roll late in the preseason it seemed like Pierce was relatively disappointing typically I going to be trying to to be a little hesitant to just immediately start rookies and to immediately start players in offenses before we have at least some idea of what we can actually expect from these guys I think we're going to hear a lot about Mixon week one or see a lot about them now Alvin Kamar will be our next guy at 18 with Kamar you're going up against Carolina and obviously Carolina is kind of garbage so the New Orleans Saints are heavily favored in this game so you maybe say well Mason they're going to run the ball a ton in the second half Kamar because so much of his value comes from just raw receptions it's not like he's too game script dependent what you're really just wanting to see is you're wanting to see a lot of touchdowns scored in New Orleans and right now outside of taes Hill it does look like that Kamar should be the favorite for goal line opportunity here in New Orleans with conre Miller pretty much being nothing with Jamal Williams showing nothing last season so I think Kamar is a safe play as a mid- running back too and then David mcgomery will be our next running back at 19 I do want to reiterate right now you have the highest implied team total for the Detroit Lions this week Vegas is telling us that this is going to be the highest scoring offense overall and with Montgomery I do expect him to be vultured at the goal line sometimes by jir Gibbs this season but Gibbs is coming off the hamstring so it wouldn't be the most surprising thing in the world in mcgomery is viable for week one now somebody that you will see is well behind this in our rest of season rankings is Jerome Ford at 20 but specifically for week one Jerome Ford is set up to Crush Nick chub going to be missing the first four weeks not only is Nick chub missing the first four weeks but at the same time you actually have no deont Foreman that you have to worry about in Cleveland now you also can see that the Cleveland Browns are actually favored in this game over the Dallas Cowboys indicating that they should be able to run the ball in the second half forward will also have the receiving role as well so to be honest with you when we update our rankings later this week and y'all know I'm updating my rankings every single day on flog fantasy.com all year long both our rest of season and our weekly you may see Jerome Ford a little bit higher than this but of course if you want access to my rest of season rankings that will be on flock fantasy.com but the cheapest way you can actually get them is by going through and making a $10 deposit on Underdog fantasy with the link in the description or the comment section if you use code flock on Underdog where which is where I'm drafting every single night on the live stream which is where you can also get a Christian maccaffrey special pick them more than less than half a total yard a Travis Kelce special pick them more than less than half a total yard but anyway use code flock you also going to get a 50% deposit bonus up to $11,000 my rankings draft guide and 2024 ADP consensus cheat sheet and yeah it's the best place to get to an extra Fantasy Football Draft before the season starts because there's no time commitment at all during the year so draft H teams every year side won 150,000 on Underdog two years ago but going over to our next back we are going to look at Aaron Jones now I was initially thinking that um this Minnesota Vikings offense was going to be absolutely garbage it was going to be very difficult to project them to score really any reasonable amount of points but they're going up against the Giants here the Giants aren't exactly a great Squad you actually have current sportsbooks putting out a an implied team total of 21 points for the Minnesota Vikings they're actually favored in this game over the New York Giants so think Aaron Jones will probably be a better play this week than he is most others now neris will be our next running back at 22 Nai is going to be in a low-scoring attack where you also have to deal with Jaylen Warren but Jaylen Warren dealt with the hamstring earlier this preseason now Ward should be good to play week one but given the fact that he is coming off the hamstring injury I think there is that possibility that niji Harris sees an expanded role in comparison to what you should expect for him throughout the rest of the year now this is where I am having my tough decision please let me know what you think down there in the comment section between ra Andre Stevenson and DeAndre Swift so these are my running back two and running back three options on my current team in the flock League my thought process as I'm going to be going back and forth with these guys all week you'll probably see me update the rankings on flog fantasy.com 10 times before Sunday gets here raadreeb compared to the Chicago Bears right now the New England Patriots have the lowest implied team total by a decent Gap right now according to sports books where they're only supposed to score about 16 points this week however if you compare this to actually what you have in Chicago Chicago is projecting to almost score 25 points I think the receiving volume should possibly be similar between rre Stevenson and DeAndre Swift as well so I'm going back and forth here I think maybe Swift is the upside play rre Stevenson is the safe play it's going to be a really tough decision that I have to make this week this is what I'm going to be kind of muing over so please if you could go to the comment section and let me know what You' do it would help me out a ton now Raheem moer will be our next guy at 25 with Raheem moer like I said with aan I want to see what the split's going to be here in this Miami Dolphin backfield I am making these rankings for PPR and half PPR format obviously if you're playing in a non PPR League at that point R moer would be a lot more exciting because in a non PPR format all you're caring about is touchdown upside touchdown upside touchdown upside we saw that moer has a ton of that based off what he did last year also currently the Miami Dolphin are projected out score 26 and a half points this week so it should be a good setup maybe you assume that Jaylen Wright as a rookie doesn't have a large role week one and if that's the case I easily think you could move Raheem board over this my thing is just in a full PPR format he's not really going to catch the ball so that does lower his floor if he doesn't score a touchdown zamir white will be our next running back at 26 zamir white very similar that he is not not going to catch the ball but he's in a worse spot given the fact that he is in a much worse offense than what you should expect in Miami right now the Raiders are actually only projected to score about 19 or slightly under 19 points this week against the Los Angeles Chargers this should be a lower scoring game overall where right now I think most people including myself are expecting the Los Angeles Chargers to really try to just play good defense slow the pace of play down and actually not have a ton of plays run per game that's not exactly what you're wanting for a game environment whether you're looking to start a wide receiver or a running back so as zamir I think he's like almost ra modre Stevenson that's not going to catch passes like you can start him you have projectable volume I just am not too excited about it um chubba hubard is honestly kind of right in that same boat right now the Carolina Panthers only projected to score 18 points this week but with Hubbert he should have pretty much every single touch in the backfield with no Jonathan Brooks for the first four weeks going up against the New Orleans Saints this is an interesting spot and what I'm going to be interested to see is not only can this coaching staff improve this overall offense can they make Bryce young a better quarterback but also specifically for the first month of the season I want to see what chuba hub's role as a receiver looks like in this back field because if Hubbert is able to have five six targets per game which I mean I know that sounds crazy given the running back that he is but this is an offense that's going to be trailing almost every single game if he's able to get five targets a game I think you can definitely be more excited about start starting him in a full PPR format I just don't necessarily know what the split's going to be initially and it's not as clear as Jerome Ford and it's not as good as an offense what you have in Cleveland um Jaylen Warren will be our next guy at 28 to be honest with you like I said we're going to be updating our rankings on the site every single day I think this is why this video is so good because I have to justify these out loud so as I look at this there's no reason that jayen Warren should be this high it's going to be a very lowc scoring offense in Pittsburgh as we already discussed as we already discussed I actually think that Jaylen Warren more likely knots going to have a smaller role week one given the fact that he is coming off that hamstring injury and they can just very easily pivot over to Nai Harris so I don't think Jaylen Warren should be this high in these rankings I think Jaylen Warren should go to the bottom of this tier we will update that on the site um Tony Pard will be our next guy at 29 if you are looking at Tony Pard this is a running back that will more likely than not be the starter against Chicago now of course what does the quote unquote starter mean here in Tennessee because this coaching staff's come out and they've said yeah we don't have a starting running back where we have co-starters there's no difference between Tony Pard and taji Spears now that's what they told us and then they turned around and they decided to throw taji Spears out there with the backups in the preseason and take Tony Pard out of the game so that's enough for me to just assume Pard is going to be maybe the leader of his 6040 backfield and what is surprising is it does project out to be a decently high-scoring game with the Chicago Bears and Tennessee Titans Now Javon tte Williams going up against Seattle you have no samaji Pine but based off preseason usage it looks like Jalil should actually have the third down roll and I'm interested to see if estimate is going to have any snaps and any touches from week to we perspective because if audri EST comes out and he potentially sees I don't know a series or two he just takes some second down snaps away from javante Williams at that point javante may not be viable because this could turn into a three-man running back by Committee in one of the worst offenses in the league but there's also that chance the estimate does absolutely nothing it's only javante and Jalil our next two backs with Zach moss and Chase Brown this should be a very high-scoring offense for Cincinnati right now they are projected to score 25 points the spread on this game is I mean I want to say almost nine points this should be the largest spread of the week going up against the New England Patriots so as we look at this I definitely think that it's hard to justify having guys like javante Williams jayen Warren ahead of moss and Chase Brown I think both running backs have a very high ceiling from a rest of season perspective I just don't know what the split's going to be personally earlier in the offseason a lot of people were projecting the guy to be Zach Moss if you looked at high Stak drafts over the past week or so it looks like most people are projecting that to be Chase Brown regardless I think both backs have upside I just really want to see what the role looks like week one they should be higher than this and the rankings we will update that our next guy will be Brian Robinson at 33 Brian Robinson going up against Tampa my thought process is Jaden Daniels May steal some rushing touchdowns at the goal line and Austin Eckler May steal some Targets on third down so Brian Robinson could be in one of these situations where he has a very large role but it's in a bad offense and he is being squeeze for the high value touches on both ends which isn't super exciting Devin single will be our next guy at 34 I think single also you can make an argument to have higher than this specifically because the Giants don't project out to be one of the worst off in the NFL this week in particular going up against Minnesota should be a close game against Minnesota as well we know most weeks here the Giants should just be expected to get blown out but this is another situation where I wouldn't fault you if you just wanted to say okay it's a running back on a new team let's get some clarity week one and then maybe we start them week two um Gus Edwards at 35 this is operating under the assumption that Gus Edwards is going to be playing week one obviously if that's not the case then we will go through and we will update these but I expect him to be playing going up against the ra they are favored in this game it's going to be interesting to see what the split is between Dobbins and videll there is an outside chance that JK Dobbins is a starting running back here that's not necessarily what I'm expecting I'm expecting early in the season it is Gus Edwards but in a full bbr format I definitely think you probably just want to avoid him get the clarity week one and then you can make that decision potentially in week two and going over to 36 we're going to look at taji Spears like we discussed previously it does sound like this coaching staff really wants it to be close to a split between Spears and Pard and at the same time Spears does have receiving upside now Austin Eckler will be your next guy at 37 I actually have Eckler in the flock league as well and I have Spears in the flock League too both these running backs I was planning on just throwing them on my bench and I was planning on choosing between rre Stevenson as well as DeAndre Swift if you think that's a mistake and you think I'm way off and I should cons consider Spears or Eckler I'm all ears my thing with Eckler though is he's most likely settle second fiddle behind Brian Robinson most likely he has the third down rle but I don't necessarily know how often Jaden Daniels is going to be checking the ball down so if Jaden Daniels isn't checking the ball down very often I don't know how valuable that role is even if it's a full PPR format until we see otherwise I think Eckler is probably just a bi-week fill in now of course if he comes out and if he's um operating with the same workload that he's had in the past and that not only does he have the targets out of the back field but he has the usage inside the Red Zone then at that point I definitely think you would move him up our next two guys will be Ezekiel Elliott and Rico d i very similar to what we have with the situation in Cincinnati I would rather not start either one of these running backs I see the case for them having a high ceiling what's different between the Dallas backs and the Cincinnati backs this week in particular the Dallas backs have a horrendous matchup going up against the Cleveland Browns the Browns have one of the better defenses in the NFL this season right now the implied team total is actually only about 19.75 points for the Dallas Cowboys and the Browns are favored in this game and like I discussed I don't know what the workload split's going to look like here so this is going to be one of the main things to watch week one if you can bench both these guys I would um Blake corm will be our next option at 40 Blake corm going up against Detroit should be a super high-scoring game obviously we've had some really good reports coming out of Los Angeles regarding Blake Corum and that Kiren Williams is actually going to be returning punts because they think Blake Corum can help out Kiren and take some carries this year and then Zach sharan a Trey Benson here at 4142 I think both running backs are extremely talented but until you actually see them out on the football field see a role that's large enough where you can trust them in your starting lineup they're just premium players down there on the bench for you or if the starter were to go down in front of them or maybe they expand their roles later in the season they could have a ton of upside but definitely not guys that you are wanting to start week one week two or even week three unless something dramatic happens but I think that's all I have for you I would love to get in a draft with you before the season starts like I said Underdog is by far in away the best place to get into an extra draft since it's best ball there's no time commitment at all during the season it's I draft 100 teams every year it's high 1 150,000 on Underdog two years ago and if you want to join a draft with me in the live stream you can find that link in the description in the comment section if you use code flock you're going to get a 50% deposit bonus up to $1,000 get my 2024 rankings draft guide and ADP consensus cheat sheet plus with code flock you're going to be getting a Christian MCA special pick of more than less than half a total yard and a Travis Kelce special pick of more than less than half a total yard for week one so definitely recommend taking advantage of that but that's all I got for you I will update my rankings every single day on flog fantasy.com but much love really do appreciate you and really hope I can draft with you in the live stream tonight