Fantasy football rankings for Week 18: Running back (2024)

FAQs

Who is the best running back pick for fantasy football? ›

Christian McCaffrey is expected to be the top pick at running back — and the No. 1 overall pick, in general — for fantasy purposes.

Conclusion: I will reference the inciting question, "Do Wide Receivers score more points than Running Backs in Fantasy Football", and conlcude that the answer is yes, Wide Receivers definitively score more points than Running Backs.

That said, if it's potentially position-leading upside you desire at running back, spending one of your first two picks on RBs was much more likely to result in success: 31% of running backs selected in the top two rounds finished top five at the position in scoring.

Round 1, Picks 1-12: Draft a wide receiver or Christian McCaffrey. Anyone with the top overall pick should take McCaffrey with little hesitation. He scored over 100 more PPR points than any other running back last season and has the perfect combination of talent, opportunity and situation.

Top 2024 Fantasy football RB rankings

1. Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers: McCaffrey missed 23 games combined in 2020 and 2021 but that all seems like a distant memory. He's coming off his first NFL rushing championship and also led the league in total scrimmage yards (2,023) and total touchdowns (21).

Perfect 2024 fantasy football draft strategy, round by round for 12-team leagues: 4.0. Wide receiver is the right first-round pick outside of 1.01: Christian McCaffrey is the right pick at 1.01, but a wide receiver is the way to go at any other pick in the first round.

I recommend dedicating (at least) one of your first four picks to either a QB or TE. Consider Travis Kelce, Sam LaPorta, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts in the third round, or Lamar Jackson, Trey McBride, Mark Andrews or Dalton Kincaid in the fourth. ... stuff your bench with league-winning upside.

When you get to the level of PPR performance where one player basically wins you the week, 30+ points, a WR is almost twice as likely to do it than a RB. No need to go further with this. It's always going to be true that WRs are more explosive than RBs in PPR.

But elite RBs and WRs typically get drafted first because you need more starters at those positions and their scoring drops off more sharply. That's why the best way to draft is generally to prioritize RBs and WRs while waiting on QBs and TEs.

What is the no RB draft strategy? ›

Zero Running Back (Zero RB for short) has become a trendy fantasy football draft strategy in the past few years. Zero RB was created with the idea that running backs in the NFL are largely replaceable and have high injury risk, so it is not worth spending early-round picks on players who are likely to get hurt.

In 12-Team Half-PPR, the best draft position is pick No. 1 or 2. Drafting optimally from the No. 1 or 2 spot in 12-team half-PPR drafts lands you on the same team through six rounds -- and a whopping 328.6 3D Value points.

Round 3, Pick 29: Draft a quarterback

A quarterback is the ideal pick at the start of Round 3. These perfect draft articles constantly mentioned Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts at the end of Round 2 last season, and they ended up finishing first and second in fantasy points at the position.

Draft Slot 1

Round 1 (Pick 1 overall): Christian McCaffrey is the consensus No. 1 pick. He led all of fantasy in points per game last season, scoring 100.8 more total points (and 3.2 points per game more) than any other running back did.

In general, it's fair to say the fastest running backs have gone on to have a lot more success. Of the 20 running backs to run a sub-4.4 40, exactly half of them (10) have had at least one top-10 fantasy season (PPR). The wide receiver numbers were less than one in five (8 out of 43).

Christian McCaffrey had the most fantasy points by a running back last year, with 391.3. StatMuse has him at RB1. He is projected to put up 334.5 fantasy points this season.

Top Target: Jalen Hurts

Hurts has averaged at least 21.0 fantasy points per start in every season of his career. While his tush push touchdowns have certainly helped his fantasy value, he's one of just four quarterbacks with at least 2,200 rushing yards over the last three seasons while no one else is above 1,300.