Week 9 was a bit of a weird week for our running back rankings, with only three backs topping 20 fantasy points for the week. Christian McCaffrey returned to his rightful spot atop the position in fantasy thanks to another game of being force-fed the ball with 28 rush attempts, along with 6 pass targets. He has miraculously stayed healthy, and his owners are going to continue to enjoy this magical ride as long as he can stay on the field.
The other two top-scoring backs were Rico Dowdle of Carolina and Kyle Monangai of the Bears. What’s interesting about these two backs is that they illustrate how we can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking a player’s ability is the main factor in their fantasy success, when it’s clearly more about opportunity and team context. Dowdle burst onto the scene four weeks ago when Chuba Hubbard missed a game with an injury. While Dowdle has clearly been more explosive than Hubbard ever was this season, his monster fantasy games came against Miami and Dallas, leaving many of us to wonder if it was him or the Panthers’ opponents.
When he put up a big game this past weekend against a stout Green Bay team in Lambeau Field, we have to now consider Dowdle a legitimate top-12 option every week. Similarly, Monangai was given the entire Bears backfield to himself last week with both D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson out, and he responded with 176 yards on 26 carries against the Bengals and their bottom-ranked defense. So, how will we rank him for this week against a Giants team that is bottom 5 in the league against the run? Let’s take a look at this week’s top 10 running back rankings and see if we can avoid some of the pitfalls that got us last week, like Kimani Vidal and Bam Knight.
1) Jonathan Taylor vs. Falcons
When you talk about down weeks, this player tops the list of Week 9’s disappointments. JT has easily been the RB1 all season long, but last week he finished as the RB30 with just 45 rushing yards and just two catches for another 12 yards with no scores. We can cut him some slack since it was his first week scoring under 14 points all year in PPR formats, and you most likely drafted him in the second round after at least seven or eight of the other backs in the league. You can thank the owners who picked right in front of you for taking Chase Brown and De’Von Achane and leaving you with the best player in fantasy for this season. I expect Taylor to get back in gear this week against the Falcons and their 23rd-ranked run defense. Expect him to get into the end zone and total over 100 combined yards just as he has in 6 of his 9 starts thus far this season. Remember, he’s scored three touchdowns more often than he has failed to score in a game so far this year. He’s still a stud, keep him in your lineup.
2) Christian McCaffrey vs. Rams
The last time these two teams met, CMC scored over 28 PPR points as he led the 49ers in receiving with 82 yards and a score on eight catches while adding another 57 yards on the ground. The 49ers seem dead set on feeding their top back as much as he can handle, so let’s keep rolling him out there as long as he’s still standing. I’ll probably keep saying this all year, but this isn’t going to last forever, so enjoy it while it does. If you still own him, keep him in your lineup. This really is the perfect time to trade him, but it would take a lot of guts. If I could trade him now and get a combo of Jahmyr Gibbs and a wide receiver that I would be able to play every week (D.K. Metcalf or Michael Pittman level), I would do it. It’s better to make that deal a week too early than a week too late. I might be wrong, and CMC might be the guy who leads you to a fantasy crown, but the amount he’s being used combined with his age and injury history makes me too nervous to enjoy him every week.
