July 22, 2016

Nick Mariano's 2016 tiered fantasy football rankings for standard leagues. Our tiered ranks include running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks, tight ends.

Welcome to the first breakdown of our 2016 fantasy football rankings here at RotoBaller, as our best and brightest have put their minds (and numbers) together to drop some serious knowledge on the world. The rankings come from Nathan Powell, Zach Wilkens, Bill Dubiel, Frankie Soler and myself, Nick Mariano. This will be the first look at the overall standard rankings, where we’ll analyze some tiers and check in on some polarizing names and trends as draft season descends upon us. More in-depth breakdowns by position will follow for both standard and PPR formats, so don’t touch that dial after this episode ends!

First order of business - for those that want to play along, you can also click here to access our rankings page. I've pasted the entire table in this article below, but it's a long list. Our handy rankings tool shows you all of our staff rankings, player news, and weekly waiver wire rankings. You can easily filter, sort, and export all sorts of ranks – standard, half-PPR and PPR leagues, tiers, rookies, dynasty formats, keeper values and more. It's all in one place, and all free.

Editor's Note: RotoBaller has the best Premium NFL Subscription for only $1.99 per week. We have all the preseason tools to help win your drafts, and in-season tools to win your seasonal and daily leagues: Draft Kit, Premium Rankings, ADP Sleepers Tool, Matchup Ratings for every player, Daily DFS Cheat Sheets, Lineup Picks, Expert Lineups, Stacks and Avoids. 

2016 Fantasy Football Preseason Standard Rankings Analysis: Overall

Tier One houses our top five picks, with each player holding an average ranking of five or higher before a roughly three pick drop-off from Todd Gurley’s 4.8 to DeAndre Hopkins at 7.6. Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham Jr., Le’Veon Bell, Julio Jones and Gurley are all highly skilled players who have an insane amount of opportunity and a solid surrounding cast. One could easily argue that the team around Gurley isn’t all that special, but the offense undoubtedly goes through him.

Tier Two is headlined by Mr. Hopkins at #6 and goes all the way to Ezekiel Elliott at #15, with none of these players standing out as poor consolation prizes for anyone’s top pick. These guys are also primary options in their own offenses, with Elliott’s stock getting a huge bump thanks to Dallas’ offensive line and bellcow potential despite being a rookie.

Tier Three kicks off with Devonta Freeman, as some reports have circulated regarding the Falcons wanting to reduce Freeman's workload, as well as reactions to the drop-off in his production after his hot start (scored 10 TDs between Weeks 2-6, then scored three the rest of the way). Jordy Nelson is making his way back from his injury-shortened 2015, as confidence is high in the 31-year-old reasserting himself as a WR1 alongside Aaron Rodgers. This tier houses eight WRs and five RBs, and it is doubtful that most will want to wait past here to take their first of either in most leagues.

Tier Four trips the QB alarm, as Cam Newton and Aaron Rodgers live in this cluster as the QB1 and QB2, respectively. T.Y. Hilton is an intriguing name considering his quarterback is now fully healthy, with plenty of speculation rising this offseason about Andrew Luck’s effectiveness on deep throws considering his average attempt dropped 1.5 yards from 2014 to 2015. Sammy Watkins and Thomas Rawls are both entering training camp with injuries, but the recent news has been positive on both.

Tier Five starts off with Russell Wilson (whose tier is this? This is Russell Wilson’s tier…sorry), and ends with his breakout wide receiver in Doug Baldwin. Baldwin turned 104 targets from Wilson into 78 receptions, 1,069 yards and 14 TDs, which is a huge jump up from 2014’s 98-66-825-3 line. Jordan Reed and Greg Olsen, the first non-Gronk tight ends, fall in line here as well, with Reed’s high ceiling and chemistry with quarterback Kirk Cousins buoying his ADP despite durability concerns, and Olsen’s strong floor on a run-heavy team giving him value.

Tier Six spans 18 players, with DeMarco Murray being quite the buzzy running back as he looks to lead the TEN backfield and regain the confidence of fantasy owners everywhere as an RB1, but with an RB2 price tag. Matt Jones is another quiet option with serious upside, as Alfred Morris is gone and Washington appears very committed to him. John Brown, Devante Parker, Allen Hurns and Donte Moncrief are all WR3 types with high chances at cracking into WR2 territory, especially Parker.

Tier Seven brings only five players our way, namely three running backs and two tight ends, with Tyler Eifert notably sinking due to reports that he’ll miss some regular season games to start the season (this also boosts A.J. Green). Frank Gore is another low-cost option sitting around the sixth/seventh round, mostly due to age/durability woes, but should still be able to deliver with a healthy IND offense around him.

Tier Eight kicks off with another high-upside RB in Ameer Abdullah, who could literally run with the job in DET should he show more decisiveness between the tackles. Here we also find Mr. Tom Brady, who obviously takes a hit due to the four-game suspension, but boy I do not want to be in his way once he’s back on the field. I do want him on my fantasy team for that campaign though. The exciting “rookie” Kevin White can also be found here, whose real rookie campaign was lost due to a broken leg, but now should be a nice #2 wide-out aside an Alshon Jeffery that's coming off of an injury-riddled season in Chicago.

Tier Nine brings two trendy QBs in Blake Bortles and Eli Manning, with Bortles trending down a bit as folks start to embrace the “TD-regression” theory while Eli rises thanks to the hype surrounding his wide receivers and a McAdoo-led squad. Four tight ends reside in this tier as well, each of them being large athletic types who could post double-digit TDs if health permits. Coby Fleener is most interesting to me, as he now stands to be the biggest target for Drew Brees in the red zone while also being a solid option between the 20s.

Tier 10 has four quarterbacks, four running backs, four wide receivers and…only one tight end. Well that was almost neat right there, but regardless the lone TE is Antonio Gates (who does have Hunter Henry behind him) who should still be a strong presence in the red zone as Philip Rivers’ most trusted target, making him a nice grab in standard formats. Rashad Jennings carry total in the last four weeks: 22, 16, 14, 27. He averaged less than 10 through the first 13 weeks of the season, so there’s potential here (especially after he uncorked 170 yards against Philly in Week 17). Markus Wheaton is another name to tuck away with Martavis Bryant out for the season, as Pittsburgh’s potent offense churns out stats like Land O'Lakes butter.

Notable Names from Lower Tiers:

Tier 11: Torrey Smith, Travis Benjamin, Sterling Shepard, Tyrod Taylor.

Tier 12: Josh Doctson, Arian Foster, Michael Thomas, Eric Ebron, DeAngelo Williams.

Tier 13: Bilal Powell, Kirk Cousins, Ryan Tannehill, Kendall Wright.

Tier 14: Kamar Aiken, Dwayne Allen, Zach Miller, Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks.

Tier 15: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Arizona Cardinals, Rueben Randle, Jordan Cameron, DeAndre Washington.

Tier 16: Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, Clive Walford, Wendell Smallwood.

Tier 17: Los Angeles Rams, Chris Thompson, James White, Josh Gordon, Anquan Boldin.

Tier 18: Spencer Ware, Steve Johnson, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets.

Tier 19: New England Patriots, Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Tim Hightower.

Tier 20: Robert Griffin, Colin Kaepernick, Justin Hardy, Stephen Gostkowski.

Standard League Rankings (July)

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