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What's up RotoBallers. The 2015 fantasy football draft season is upon us, and we've been churning out tons of great fantasy football rankings & analysis throughout the preseason. Throughout this week we'll be releasing our tiered fantasy football rankings. Putting players into tiers is a great strategy to prepare for your drafts, and allows you to easily identify which players to draft when.
Today we're starting with our tiered running back PPR rankings for 2015. These staff consensus rankings take the average ranks of our best and brightest analysts, and break the players out into color-coded tiers so you can easily group players to target on draft day. Let's get to it.
Editor's note: Be sure to check out our Who To Draft Tool, a free player comparison tool which can help you make decisions on who to draft. Need to choose between a few players? Not sure who to pick next? Compare any two NFL players and see which is recommended for your drafts.
Tiered PPR Running Back Rankings - 2015 Fantasy Football
|
RotoBaller
Rank |
Rankings
Tiers |
Running Backs
(Team/BYE Week) |
AVERAGE DRAFT POSITION BY PROVIDER | |||
| Yahoo | ESPN | CBS | AVG | |||
| 1 | 1 | Jamaal Charles KC/9 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2.3 |
| 2 | 1 | Eddie Lacy GB/7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2.7 |
| 3 | 1 | Le'Veon Bell PIT/11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3.7 |
| 4 | 1 | Adrian Peterson MIN/5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| 5 | 1 | Marshawn Lynch SEA/9 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4.3 |
| 6 | 2 | Matt Forte CHI/7 | 15 | 9 | 8 | 10.7 |
| 7 | 2 | DeMarco Murray PHI/8 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 10.3 |
| 8 | 2 | Justin Forsett BAL/9 | 24 | 33 | 23 | 26.7 |
| 9 | 2 | C.J. Anderson DEN/7 | 18 | 7 | 9 | 11.3 |
| 10 | 2 | Jeremy Hill CIN/7 | 13 | 18 | 19 | 16.7 |
| 11 | 2 | LeSean McCoy BUF/8 | 19 | 15 | 17 | 17 |
| 12 | 3 | Lamar Miller MIA/5 | 42 | 31 | 25 | 32.7 |
| 13 | 3 | C.J. Spiller NO/11 | 84 | 67 | 79 | 76.7 |
| 14 | 3 | Mark Ingram NO/11 | 37 | 26 | 34 | 32.3 |
| 15 | 3 | Frank Gore IND/10 | 30 | 38 | 33 | 33.7 |
| 16 | 3 | Joseph Randle DAL/6 | 57 | 50 | 50 | 52.3 |
| 17 | 3 | Melvin Gordon SD/10 | 29 | 39 | 27 | 31.7 |
| 18 | 3 | Jonathan Stewart CAR/5 | 77 | 41 | 62 | 60 |
| 19 | 4 | Andre Ellington ARI/9 | 60 | 55 | 40 | 51.7 |
| 20 | 4 | Carlos Hyde SF/10 | 48 | 36 | 41 | 41.7 |
| 21 | 4 | Latavius Murray OAK/6 | 43 | 47 | 38 | 42.7 |
| 22 | 4 | Alfred Morris WAS/8 | 40 | 29 | 37 | 35.3 |
| 23 | 4 | Giovani Bernard CIN/7 | 104 | 64 | 73 | 80.3 |
| 24 | 4 | Ameer Abdullah DET/9 | 80 | 79 | 58 | 72.3 |
| 25 | 4 | T.J. Yeldon JAC/8 | 81 | 59 | 55 | 65 |
| 26 | 4 | Shane Vereen NYG/11 | 139 | 91 | 105 | 111.7 |
| 27 | 4 | Christopher Ivory NYJ/5 | 97 | 72 | 70 | 79.7 |
| 28 | 4 | Isaiah Crowell CLE/11 | 127 | 80 | 95 | 100.7 |
| 29 | 4 | Todd Gurley STL/6 | 64 | 46 | 59 | 56.3 |
| 30 | 4 | Danny Woodhead SD/10 | 153 | 114 | 150 | 139 |
| 31 | 4 | Devonta Freeman ATL/10 | 169 | 104 | 86 | 119.7 |
| 32 | 5 | Rashad Jennings NYG/11 | 99 | 66 | 53 | 72.7 |
| 33 | 5 | LeGarrette Blount NE/4 | 87 | 71 | 82 | 80 |
| 34 | 5 | Reggie Bush SF/10 | 128 | 165 | 122 | 138.3 |
| 35 | 5 | Doug Martin TB/6 | 98 | 77 | 78 | 84.3 |
| 36 | 5 | Joique Bell DET/9 | 106 | 57 | 54 | 72.3 |
| 37 | 5 | Tevin Coleman ATL/10 | 107 | 93 | 85 | 95 |
| 38 | 5 | Denard Robinson JAC/8 | 178 | 228 | 203 | |
| 39 | 5 | Bishop Sankey TEN/4 | 173 | 106 | 131 | 136.7 |
| 40 | 5 | Fred Jackson BUF/8 | 140 | 202 | 171 | |
| 41 | 5 | Roy Helu OAK/6 | 192 | 182 | 187 | |
| 42 | 6 | Arian Foster HOU/9 | 56 | 73 | 84 | 71 |
| 43 | 6 | Tre Mason STL/6 | 145 | 95 | 88 | 109.3 |
| 44 | 6 | Ryan Mathews PHI/8 | 144 | 78 | 94 | 105.3 |
| 45 | 6 | Darren Sproles PHI/8 | 123 | 158 | 145 | 142 |
| 46 | 6 | Charles Sims TB/6 | 181 | 125 | 133 | 146.3 |
| 47 | 6 | Alfred Blue HOU/9 | 126 | 97 | 89 | 104 |
| 48 | 6 | Duke Johnson CLE/11 | 176 | 112 | 143 | 143.7 |
| 49 | 6 | Matt Jones WAS/8 | 200 | 200 | ||
| 50 | 6 | Lance Dunbar DAL/6 | 240 | 240 | ||
| 51 | 6 | Darren McFadden DAL/6 | 119 | 119 | 110 | 116 |
| 52 | 6 | David Johnson ARI/9 | 180 | 155 | 167.5 | |
| 53 | 6 | Terrance West CLE/11 | 194 | 233 | 213.5 | |
| 54 | 6 | Theo Riddick DET/9 | 186 | 211 | 198.5 | |
| 55 | 7 | Chris Polk HOU/9 | ||||
| 56 | 7 | Cameron Artis-Payne CAR/5 | ||||
| 57 | 7 | Andre Williams NYG/11 | 151 | 133 | 191 | 158.3 |
| 58 | 7 | Jay Ajayi MIA/5 | 166 | 197 | 201 | 188 |
| 59 | 7 | Knile Davis KC/9 | 184 | 160 | 127 | 157 |
| 60 | 7 | David Cobb TEN/4 | 171 | 138 | 118 | 142.3 |
| 61 | 7 | Jerick McKinnon MIN/5 | 185 | 227 | 206 | |
| 62 | 7 | DeAngelo Williams PIT/11 | 142 | 150 | 159 | 150.3 |
| 63 | 7 | James White NE/4 | ||||
| 64 | 7 | Daniel Herron IND/10 | 196 | 196 | ||
| 65 | 7 | Javorius Allen BAL/9 | ||||
| 66 | 7 | Jonas Gray NE/4 | 150 | 174 | 114 | 146 |
| 67 | 7 | Lorenzo Taliaferro BAL/9 | 142 | 235 | 188.5 | |
| 68 | 7 | Damien Williams MIA/5 | 241 | 241 | ||
| 69 | 7 | Branden Oliver SD/10 | 232 | 232 | ||
| 70 | 7 | Stevan Ridley NYJ/5 | ||||
| 71 | 7 | James Starks GB/7 | 206 | 206 | ||
| 72 | 7 | Trent Richardson OAK/6 | ||||
| 73 | 7 | Toby Gerhart JAC/8 | ||||
| 74 | 7 | Montee Ball DEN/7 | 140 | 153 | 167 | 153.3 |
| 75 | 7 | Ronnie Hillman DEN/7 | 143 | 166 | 185 | 164.7 |
| 76 | 7 | Zac Stacy NYJ/5 | ||||
| 77 | 7 | Brandon Bolden NE/4 | ||||
Running Back (RB) PPR Rankings Analysis
Alfred Morris falls in my ranking as Matt Jones continues to make bigger and bigger cases for seeing the field. The Redskins have already talked about potentially having Jones eat into Morris' ground game workload, and we already know that Morris will see no time in the passing game.
The upside with Morris is capped, and minimizing with every passing day. Unless Morris can have some convincing early season performances, he'll immediately be put on alert by Jones attempting to take him over as the lead running back in Washington.
Cameron Artis-Payne, despite not being a big name on my rookie board, has big 2015 potential thanks to the constant nagging injury history of Jonathan Stewart and the 3-down abilities he has to offer. It's likely that Artis-Payne sees time even without Stewart being injured, just due to the need to keep the workload light to avoid getting hurt.
If Stewart does go down (as he has nearly every year), then obviously Artis-Payne's value takes off. Although he'll be unlikely to be used as a bell-cow type, he'll be the lead man in a rotation that'll involve him rushing and catching passes.
Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman have both been injured for a majority of this preseason, but Coleman's still not the guy to expect to win the starting job outright. Coleman still won't fit into the scheme he's being asked to play.
Once Freeman is back, he should be able to take all the pass catching opportunities (Coleman offers nearly no value there right now) as well as lead the backfield due to how well his skills fit into the Shanahan zone scheme. Ultimately, this is likely a situation to avoid drafting altogether, but if value falls into it- Freeman's the one to take and Coleman's ADP is worth letting pass.
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