Updated RB rankings. Age as of 11/1/14. Prev shows my
August 31 rankings; I also shared my top 12 at the
beginning of October. Rankings assume no PPR, 24 starting RBs, about 250 position players rostered.
Tiers mean a lot here - there is quite a large drop from #6 (Lacy) to #10 (Ellington), and not that all huge a drop from #10 to #39 (West).
These rankings are a bit less polished than my offseason ones, which means that an additional 30 minutes of work on them would probably cause more changes now than would did then.
Tr Rk Player Team Age Prev
1 1 LeVeon Bell PIT 22.7 (8)
2 2 LeSean McCoy PHI 26.3 (1)
2 3 DeMarco Murray DAL 26.7 (6)
2 4 Jamaal Charles KC 27.9 (2)
2 5 Giovani Bernard CIN 23.0 (5)
2 6 Eddie Lacy GB 24.4 (3)
3 7 Matt Forte CHI 28.9 (10)
3 8 Marshawn Lynch SEA 28.6 (13)
3 9 Arian Foster HOU 28.2 (21)
5 10 Andre Ellington ARI 25.8 (17)
5 11 Alfred Morris WAS 25.9 (12)
5 12 Carlos Hyde SF 23.1 (15)
5 13 Doug Martin TB 25.8 (4)
5 14 Christine Michael SEA 24.0 (14)
5 15 Bishop Sankey TEN 22.1 (20)
5 16 Adrian Peterson MIN 29.6 (9)
5 17 Mark Ingram NO 24.9 (30)
5 18 Tre Mason STL 21.3 (29)
5 19 Jerick McKinnon MIN 22.5 (36)
5 20 Ryan Mathews SD 27.1 (16)
5 21 Montee Ball DEN 23.9 (7)
5 22 Ben Tate CLE 26.2 (24)
5 23 C.J. Spiller BUF 27.3 (11)
5 24 Shane Vereen NE 25.7 (22)
5 25 Trent Richardson IND 24.3 (18)
5 26 Ronnie Hillman DEN 23.2 (60)
6 27 Jeremy Hill CIN 22.0 (28)
6 28 Zac Stacy STL 23.6 (19)
6 29 Rashad Jennings NYG 29.6 (27)
6 30 Ahmad Bradshaw IND 28.7 (61)
6 31 Denard Robinson JAX 24.1 (63)
6 32 Brandon Oliver SD 23.5 (93)
6 33 Chris Ivory NYJ 26.6 (49)
6 34 Lamar Miller MIA 23.6 (38)
6 35 Charles Sims TB 24.1 (41)
6 36 Joique Bell DET 28.3 (31)
6 37 Isaiah Crowell CLE 21.8 (69)
6 38 Justin Forsett BAL 29.1 unr
6 39 Terrance West CLE 23.8 (42)
7 40 Knile Davis KC 23.1 (52)
7 41 Khiry Robinson NO 24.9 (58)
7 42 Frank Gore SF 31.5 (44)
7 43 Reggie Bush DET 29.7 (25)
7 44 Andre Williams NYG 22.2 (46)
7 45 Devonta Freeman ATL 22.6 (35)
7 46 Toby Gerhart JAX 27.6 (23)
7 47 Pierre Thomas NO 29.9 (37)
7 48 Darren McFadden OAK 27.2 (40)
7 49 Jonathan Stewart CAR 27.6 (43)
8 50 Darren Sproles PHI 31.4 (50)
8 51 Stevan Ridley NE 25.8 (33)
8 52 Ray Rice FA 27.8 (26)
8 53 Bernard Pierce BAL 24.9 (34)
8 54 Knowshon Moreno MIA 27.3 (39)
8 55 Fred Jackson BUF 33.7 (54)
8 56 Bryce Brown BUF 23.5 (48)
8 57 Steven Jackson ATL 31.3 (45)
8 58 Chris Johnson NYJ 29.1 (32)
8 59 Benny Cunningham STL 24.3 (62)
8 60 Marcus Lattimore SF 23.0 (47)
8 61 C.J. Anderson DEN 23.7 (59)
8 62 Maurice Jones-Drew OAK 29.6 (51)
9 63 Juwan Thompson DEN 22.5 (86)
9 64 Antone Smith ATL 29.1 unr
9 65 Lorenzo Taliaferro BAL 22.9 (79)
9 66 Latavius Murray OAK 23.7 (67)
9 67 Anthony Dixon BUF 27.1 unr
9 68 Donald Brown SD 27.6 (65)
9 69 Dri Archer PIT 23.2 (57)
9 70 DeAngelo Williams CAR 31.6 (55)
9 71 Bobby Rainey TB 27.1 (84)
9 72 Lance Dunbar DAL 24.8 (53)
9 73 Shonn Greene TEN 29.2 (66)
9 74 Robert Turbin SEA 24.9 (71)
9 75 Roy Helu WAS 25.9 (74)
10 76 Brandon Bolden NE 24.8 (89)
10 77 KaDeem Carey CHI 22.0 (80)
10 78 Storm Johnson JAX 22.3 (97)
10 79 Joseph Randle DAL 22.9 (85)
10 80 Stepfan Taylor ARI 23.4 (87)
10 81 Travaris Cadet NO 25.8 (90)
10 82 Alfred Blue HOU 23.5 (77)
10 83 Danny Woodhead SD 29.9 (56)
10 84 LeGarrette Blount PIT 27.9 (64)
10 85 Chris Polk PHI 24.9 (70)
10 86 Vick Ballard IND 24.3 (101)
10 87 James White NE 22.8 (68)
10 88 DeAnthony Thomas KC 21.8 (73)
10 89 Kendall Hunter SF 25.2 (99)
D Murray, D Robinson, Bradshaw, and
McKinnon are guys who I was high on in the offseason, so [insert gloating here]. On the other hand, I was also relatively high on David Wilson, and low on Le'Veon Bell. Robinson and McKinnon could still turn into busts, but their athleticism plus the performance that they've flashed (especially McKinnon) makes them pretty exciting prospects. Bradshaw is the same age as Forte, Lynch, and Foster, and has consistently performed when he's been on the field - this is his 5th straight year averaging over 75 YFS/g, and his YPC has been 4.5 or higher in every season except 2011. Bell looks legit as both a fantasy RB1 and an NFL runner (and pass catcher), and he's 22. I've come around on him.
Young guys have generally moved up the rankings since August, in part from some of them flashing skills but even more from attrition as some of the older win-now guys sliding down the rankings as they've shown that they actually won't help you very much at winning now. That why guys like Alfred Morris and Christine Michael seen their ranking stay stable (or even improve a bit), even though they've both been downgraded slightly in my eyes since the season started.
At first glance, Cleveland's 3 RBs have all been looking pretty good when they've played. But I think is about their strong offensive line than about them having a stacked RB corps. Crowell has jumped up in my rankings to a similar level as West, but West & Tate have basically stayed put in my eyes. (Tate benefits from the team's strong running game, but is hurt by the competition.)
Andre Williams has not looked very good this season, after an apparently strong preseason. It's even more striking after Rashad Jennings lit it up when he was healthy.
Gerhart's struggles might have been due to playing through an injury; he still has a chance to win his job back (or win the job elsewhere next year, if the Jags let him go). Fred Jackson looked good before he got injured, and is worth stashing for his playoff run. Knowshon Moreno has basically had one week of good news amidst a relentlessly bad offseason and season, but I think he's worth an IR stash for next year. I'd bet that Ray Rice has less than a 50% chance of ever playing another snap, but he still has significant upside - if it turns out that he doesn't suck, then his chances of a team eventually being willing to give him another chance are significantly higher. Hillman has won the Denver RB job for now, but it's not clear that the depth chart there is stabilized so Anderson & Thompson are still worth stashing.