If the NFL is about to get started, then so is your fantasy football league. In real football, running backs may be an afterthought for some and a fading relic to others, but in fantasy running backs are king.
Wait on a quarterback if you want to. Plenty of receivers to choose from throughout the draft that can help win you a title. But if you sleep on your running back position, you’ll find yourself playing from behind more often than not.
With 32 teams stacking one or even two (or three if you’re New England) running backs they like to use on a regular basis, it can be hard to decipher sometimes whether or not a certain player is worth the risk or being way over drafted.
Evan Winter and I got together recently on the Locked On Bucs Podcast to help apply some logic and recent news to help untangle where each running back stacks up against the other backs in their respective division.
Some of the big questions of course are Ezekiel Elliott (Dallas Cowboys) or Saquon Barkley (New York Giants)? How much does New York’s dwindling offense still have to offer, and how will the absence of Odell Beckham Jr. impact Barkley’s own performance? Is Elliott’s holdout something to worry about right now, or is there time to salvage his status as one of the top fantasy football options in 2019.
In the AFC, is there any back in the East division worth drafting outside of Le’Veon Bell? How will the Titans’ two-back system impact fantasy performances, and can Phillip Lindsay replicate his 2018 performance now that he’s in his sophomore season?
Of course, Buccaneers fans want to know what to make of the team’s running back situation and whether or not it’s time to stack Ronald Jones onto your own draft boards.
Get the early look at what’s going on as the pre-season gets rolling, and be sure to come back as we continue to monitor and update every fantasy football player’s relative value as the NFL pre-season unfolds!