November 27, 2015

Below you will find our Week 12 running back rankings, to help determine your RB starts/sits for this week, brought to you by Edward Gorelik (@EdwardGorelik) and Zach Wilkens (@LopsidedTrades).

Featured fantasy football writer Zach Wilkens also highlights some RB rankings and matchups analysis for Week 12, and draws some matchup conclusions. He tells you who he likes, who he doesn't, and most importantly who he thinks you should be starting in Week 12.

You can also check out our 2015 fantasy football ranking dashboard, for more in depth rankings analysis on all positions including rookies and dynasty leagues.

Week 12 Fantasy Football Rankings - Running Backs

Week 12 Running Back (RB) Rankings Analysis

By Zach Wilkens (@LopsidedTrades)

We have a couple new starters this week at RB thanks to some injuries. Thomas Rawls isn’t new, as he’s making his 5th start this season, but now we know he’ll be around for a lot longer than anticipated.

In his four previous starts, he averaged just over 130 rushing yards. That is good enough to make him a top ten player and a must-start. Don’t get too excited though. The Steelers give up the fewest points to opposing RBs. I have Rawls at #10. If he has a big game here, he is likely a championship winner.

One of the starters that is new is Tevin Coleman, in replacement of Devonta Freeman. Freeman has officially been ruled out, so Coleman is the guy. Coleman had two starts early in the season before Freeman took over and had somewhat promising results.

In his first career game, he had a respectable 20 carries for 80 yards. And in his next, it was nine carries for 32 yards with his lone touchdown of the season. Since then he has played sparingly thanks to Freeman’s crazy breakout. It’s a tough matchup against the Vikings, but Coleman should see 18-20 touches. He definitely won’t provide Freeman numbers, but expect a solid RB2.

We also have Javorius Allen (also known as Buck Allen) of for Baltimore, in place of Justin Forsett. To date Allen has a 3.9 YPC on 64 carries with no touchdowns. He did have 115 yards from scrimmage last week, thanks to 27 touches.

Now that Joe Flacco is out, this offense is going to be really bad. That has both positives and negatives as the offense may put up very low yardage as a whole. Alternatively, it may just mean 30 touches for Allen even though he is an inexperienced rookie. Even if I don’t think he is very good, the touches make it worthwhile and he is an RB2.

I like Danny Woodhead to bounce back this week. Woodhead is having an awesom year, but is coming off a game with just 16 yards. I think the Jaguars are a good matchup for him, even though they continue to allow the fewest yards per carry in the NFL. Where they show a weakness is against pass-catching backs. Their 63 receptions and 519 receiving yards allowed to RBs are both in the top ten. Expect a return to five plus catches and good yardage for Woodhead.

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