Running Back PPR Rankings - Fantasy Football Tiers and Draft Analysis

The NFL might be a quarterback-driven league dominated by potent passing attacks and game-breaking wide receivers, but running backs still rule the roost in fantasy football.

If you want to win in fantasy football, you need to know which running backs are on which teams, who is part of a committee, who is a one-man workhorse, who will lose carries due to their scramble-happy quarterbacks, and whose fantasy values are skyrocketing or plummeting. And the sooner you know these things, the better.

RotoBaller has ranked running backs for the upcoming 2022 NFL campaign, so fantasy players can get a head start on their Draft Day prep!  Here is a look at RotoBaller’s 2022 running back fantasy football rankings for PPR leagues, along with my analysis.

Fantasy Football PPR Rankings - Running Backs

Tier 1 - Running Back Rankings

Taylor ran away with the 2021 rushing title as if all the other running backs were slow-footed fullbacks. His closest competition trailed by over 500 yards. Taylor is a durable, powerful back who excels at running between the tackles and has the breakaway speed to take it to the house from 50-plus yards away.

He runs behind one of the best offensive lines in the NFL and now has Matt Ryan as his QB to keep defenses from crowding the box, so there is no reason to think Taylor cannot win back-to-back rushing crowns and be fantasy football’s top point-getter.

Ekeler is the top tailback in an above-average offense that is about as far from conservative as Nancy Pelosi. For him to score 20 touchdowns last season with his sub-six-foot-tall frame was mighty impressive, as was his dual-threat ability that led to him amassing 1,558 combined yards.

The two things going against Ekeler are that he might lose touches on running downs to a better banger who can run between the tackles and that his shorter size and reckless running style could lead to an injury that costs him some games.

McCaffrey has lost his fantasy stud status thanks to back-to-back injury-marred seasons that cost him 22 of 32 games. He has gotten more press for dating Olivia Culpo than he has for racking up receptions.

But McCaffrey will be only 26-years-old at the season’s start and had a super season in 2019 when he piled up 1,387 rushing yards and 1,005 receiving yards, so he remains ranked in the top tiers at the position until another injury and/or subpar season sends him to the fantasy outskirts.

Henry and Taylor are cut from the same physical cloth and, let’s be honest, Henry would be right there with Taylor on the fantasy scale if a foot injury did not rob him of half his season in 2021. Henry is only a year removed from winning his own rushing title and galloping for over 2,000 yards.

He has also scored double-digit touchdowns for four consecutive seasons. The only thing you need to worry about with Henry is if Ryan Tannehill can keep defenses honest now that A.J. Brown was traded to Philadelphia and Julio Jones was released.

Harris is a workhorse, just like so many of the tailbacks that came before him in Pittsburgh. He is not a greyhound, but his inside running, durability, dependability, and pass-catching ability are all above-average.

Harris is in an offense that is in a state of flux now that Ben Roethlisberger has retired, though, and he is not a game breaker who will give fantasy managers bonus points in leagues where long touchdowns are rewarded. Harris touched the ball 381 times last season and had no plays over 40 yards.

Tier 2 - Running Back Rankings

Cook has rushed for 1,000 in three consecutive seasons and scored 36 touchdowns over that span, yet the reason he is not in the top tier is his propensity for injuries. He has missed 25 games over his five-year career and has not been suited for 15 games in any season. If he can stay healthy and show up for 17 games, he would be the best back in fantasy football, but it probably will not happen.

Mixon had the best year of his NFL career during Cincinnati’s Super Bowl season, setting new personal bests with 1,205 rushing yards, 314 receiving yards, and 16 total touchdowns. He will remain the top tailback in one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL and should be handed several scoring opportunities by Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and co.

Fournette is riskier than most runners in the upper tiers due to his history of not being on the same page as his organizations and coaching staffs, and that has reared its ugly head again this preseason as he supposedly showed up overweight. Tampa Bay's offense might not be as explosive with Rob Gronkowski retired and Chris Godwin recovering from injury, so Fournette's scoring opportunities might take a dive as well.

Swift’s value in PPR leagues is higher than in standard leagues due to his soft hands and the garish amount of targets he gets in Detroit’s lackluster offense. He was aimed at 135 times between 2020 and 2021, and he missed seven games over those two years.

After back-to-back 1,000-yard years in 2019 and 2020, Jones failed to crack the 800-yard barrier in 2021. What saved his fantasy season were his outstanding receiving numbers (52-391-6). Jones will be asked to do more this year without Adams as the linchpin of the offense, but his value will be stunted as long as power runner A.J. Dillon is around.

Tier 3 - Running Back Rankings

Chubb is the centerpiece on a run-first team with one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, but will Deshaun Watson being the new quarterback help or hurt Chubb’s fantasy value? If Watson is suspended for a long length of time, opponents will use everyone to stop Chubb since Jacoby Brissett does not scare defenses.

When Watson is on the field, Cleveland might not be the run-first team they have been, although he could set up Chubb with more red-zone scoring chances and force defenses to lay off the line.

Barkley is one of the biggest enigmas at the position and has probably flattened the championship dreams of millions of fantasy managers during his career. It feels like decades have passed since he gifted fantasy players 2,000 combined yards and 15 total touchdowns during his scintillating rookie season in 2018.

There is no reason to believe he will stay healthy and regain his game-breaking form this year, but there is also no reason to believe he will not have a heavy volume of touches, either.

Kamara has a plethora of questions surrounding him heading into the 2022 season, most notably if he might be suspended regarding his arrest after last year’s Pro Bowl. The playmaker was unable to make as many things happen last season without Drew Brees as his QB as he set career-lows in yards per carry, receptions, and receiving yards. If Kamara is suspended for three-to-six games due to his transgressions, his fantasy stock falls further.

Elliott was not the same player in 2020 and 2021 he was in years prior, despite numbers that would have made many fantasy managers happy (1,981 rushing yards, 20 total touchdowns). Looks like the blame should fall on him playing through injuries that slowed him down, but you have to wonder if he has flat out lost a step and in turn is losing fantasy value to speed burner backup, Tony Pollard.

Conner had a great comeback season in 2021 with Arizona after his 2019 and 2020 campaigns in Pittsburgh were mediocre at best. There is no doubt Conner can find the end zone (18 TD last year) and should get the bulk of the backfield work in Kliff Kingsbury’s explosive offense now that Chase Edmonds has taken his talents to Miami.

The hang-up with Conner is he always misses two-to-six games per year due to injury, and now his odds of getting injured in 2022 increase if he is not splitting time with a tailback teammate.

Truth be told, I am a Montgomery mark. He has helped me in fantasy leagues and daily contests before. I believe a combination of bad luck, untimely injuries, and unhelpful teammates on the offensive side of the ball have weighed down his fantasy worth, and Chicago did not do much this offseason to address the third of those issues.

But Montgomery is a back who can average 100 total yards per game and score double-digit touchdowns no matter how bad the offense he is in.

Williams had the makings of becoming a top-10 fantasy back this year with Denver acquiring quarterback Russell Wilson in an offseason blockbuster, but the brakes got slammed on his fantasy value when the Broncos re-signed veteran Melvin Gordon to a one-year deal. He still has the better chance of being the 1,000-yard man in the Broncos backfield, but his sledding gets tougher thanks to Gordon.

Tier 4 - Running Back Rankings

Do not allow Akers' poor postseason where he had fumble fingers and looked like he was running in quicksand prevent you from taking him for your team. If the guy can just stay on the field for at least 14 games, he should be able to post phenomenal numbers with the Super Bowl champs.

Gibson gutted out 1,037 rushing yards, 294 receiving yards, and 10 total touchdowns despite being hampered by nagging injuries throughout the 2021 season. The guy runs hard and is as tough as a rusty nail, but his workload needs to be managed better and if it is this year, then his stats will dip a bit.

Mitchell comes from a long line of injury-prone 49ers running backs in recent years. He can be thought of as the No. 1 RB for now, but the dreaded RB-by-committee approach will probably cut into his carries, and so will Deebo Samuel I'm sure.

The Jets finally have two decent tailbacks with Michael Carter and second-round steal Hall forming a formidable duo. Carter is not the type of runner who can handle a Walter Payton-like workload, so Hall will find the field and will likely unseat Carter as Gang Green’s top tailback at some point in the season, if not before the season starts.

Tier 5 - Running Back Rankings

You start to see the slippage in fantasy value with this tier. Harris cannot be ranked any higher than this in PPR leagues because he is never on the field on passing downs. He only has 23 career receptions and will likely be pigeonholed as an early-down-only back again in 2022.

Etienne was a fantasy zero when his rookie year was ruined by a season-ending foot injury. He might be a fantasy hero this season since Urban Meyer is not around to ruin his fantasy value as he did to James Robinson last year.

The Baltimore backfield could be a muddled mess for fantasy managers. Both Dobbins and Gus Edwards are coming off torn ACLs and could be questionable for the start of the season.

If one is 100 percent quicker than the other, that back has the lead track on the No. 1 RB spot in the Ravens’ vaunted rushing attack. That man just had to share the rushing load with quarterback Lamar Jackson, which will cut into that player’s fantasy worth.

The arrival of Davante Adams to spearhead Las Vegas’ receiving corps and passing attack should open up rushing and scoring opportunities for Jacobs, but will his role be reduced now that Josh McDaniels is running the team and offense?

Kenyan Drake, rookie Zamir White, and former McDaniels chess piece Branden Bolden will be battling Jacobs for touches, so his time as the Raiders bell cow back might be nearing the end.

Tier 6 and Lower - Running Back Rankings

Sanders was the Cole Kmet of running backs in 2021. Even though he had 163 touches last season and averaged 5.5 yards per carry, he failed to find the end zone. This somehow happened on a run-centric team that scored a decent amount of points.

I am going to go out on a limb and say Sanders scores at least three touchdowns this season, although I cannot go any higher because of his storied injury history.

After two-and-a-half years of borderline average production, the light finally went on for Singletary. He scored a half-dozen touchdowns over the final four games of the season when fantasy managers needed him most, and he added three playoff scores as well.

Singletary would be ranked higher if Josh Allen did not vulture so many of his touchdowns and if Buffalo did not draft Georgia’s James Cook in the second round of this year’s draft. If Singletary runs this season the way he did at the end of last season, he will move up a couple of tiers.

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