Preseason RB Rankings

So QBs came first.  But we all know that the heart and soul of every draft is the RB position.  Typical strategy in past years would be to draft 2 RBs as soon as possible and fill in the rest of your squad as you went on.  Then the last few years happened...the RB position became a position like every other with the evolution of the passing game in the NFL and WRs and even TEs were cracking the overall Top 25-50 players.  RB by committee has taken the NFL by storm, and with multiple backs on every team splitting the workload, your RB pool was more deep than super talented.  Enter 2013.  I feel this is the strongest RB grouping in years, with several elite options emerging from committees to be top notch fantasy options.  There are always going to be TD vultures on every team, but the 50/50 backfield split is turning more and more into a 65/35 type split with RBs more involved in the passing game than ever before.  Here are my pre-draft RB rankings, based on 4 important criteria and weighted based on importance.  Let's look together and debate: (Rankings are based on Non-PPR Formatting)

1) Adrian Peterson, Minnesota
2) Jamaal Charles, Kansas City
3) Arian Foster, Houston
4) LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia
5) Alfred Morris, Washington
6) CJ Spiller, Buffalo
7) Matt Forte, Chicago
8) Doug Martin, Tampa Bay
9) Trent Richardson, Cleveland
10) Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville
11) Ray Rice, Baltimore
12) Marshawn Lynch, Seattle
13) Steven Jackson, Atlanta
14) DeMarco Murray, Dallas
15) Stevan Ridley, New England
16) Chris Johnson, Tennessee
17) Chris Ivory, NY Jets
18) Shane Vereen, New England
19) David Wilson, NY Giants
20) Lamar Miller, Miami
21) Darren McFadden, Oakland
22) Frank Gore, San Francisco
23) Montee Ball, Denver
24) Reggie Bush, Detroit
25) Darren Sproles, New Orleans
26) Le'Veon Bell, Pittsburgh
27) Eddie Lacy, Green Bay
28) BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Cincinnati
29) Ahmad Bradshaw, Indianapolis
30) Andre Brown, NY Giants
31) Bryce Brown, Philadelphia
32) Mikel Leshoure, Detroit
33) Rashard Mendenhall, Arizona
34) Jonathan Stewart, Carolina
35) Giovani Bernard, Cincinnati
36) Ryan Mathews, San Diego
37) Vick Ballard, Indianapolis
38) DeAngelo Williams, Carolina
39) Michael Bush, Chicago
40) Fred Jackson, Buffalo

Adrian Peterson is obviously my #1 RB, my #1 overall player, and likely the consensus #1 overall pick in almost every draft unless you play with crazy rules, a 2 QB league, or PPR heavy format.  He is most likely of any fantasy player to duplicate or exceed the staggering numbers he put up last year.  He is the type of player you can draft #1 and wait 3-4 rounds before picking another RB because you are that set with him as your RB1.

Jamaal Charles is my #2 RB because of the potential that exists.  We all saw the kind of fantasy beast that LeSean McCoy and Brain Westbrook were in Philly with Andy Reid at the helm and I believe Reid will not make the same mistakes Romeo Crennel made in under-utilizing the JC of KC.  Barring injury (which I will not say again after this blurb because RBs are the most injury prone of all fantasy assets), Charles, who rushed for a career high 1509 yards last season (believe it or not), can easily exceed that total AND pass his staggeringly low 236 receiving yards from 2012.

I'm not quite as high on Doug Martin this season as I was last year.  He was the player I made sure to have on every roster I drafted last year and I felt very good about that once the season was over.  Historically, when Tampa Bay is destined to have a bounce back season, they let us down.  Josh Freeman is another year older, but no more talented or confident than year's past, and while the offensive line is set to get a jolt from a returning Carl Nicks, I can't predict Martin to be better than he was last season.

17 and 18 will be the most debated portion of these rankings and I get it, but hear me out.  Chris Ivory is set to get a full workload for the first time in his career in a run first offense (mostly due to extreme inadequacies in the passing game) with no one to really steal work from him.  He's a solid #2 RB in deeper formats, and a startable flex option in more shallow leagues.  As for Shane Vereen, I am absolutely ga-ga over the potential in this young man's game.  He was a stud in the playoffs last year and with no recognizable WRs after Danny Amendola, possibly no nameable TE for a few weeks, and Bill Belichick's constant need to play genius and cut into Stevan Ridley's workload, Shane Vereen stands to be a startable weekly option and will produce on the ground as well as the air.  If this were a PPR format's rankings, I could justify drafting Vereen over Ridley.

I'm higher on Lamar Miller and Reggie Bush then their 20th and 24th place rankings indicate, but experience concerns for Miller and workload/career under performance issues for Bush prevented me from ranking either of them higher.  I don't blame anyone for grabbing either of these 2 early on in drafts, but don't reach.

I have Montee Ball as my highest rated rookie RB, but I wouldn't be surprised one bit if Giovani Bernard is the highest scoring rookie RB by season's end.  The Law Firm only rushed for 100 yards 4 times in 2012 and only scored 6 TDs, far less than what was expected given the amount of chances he had as the primary running option on the Bengals.  It has been teased that Bernard could be split out wide and with Mohamed Sanu returning from injury to rejoin this suddenly high powered attack, Bernard could see plenty of touches.

Ryan Mathews at 36 is generous.  He kind of had to be on this list.  If you draft Mathews, have 2 better starting options and plenty of back ups.  No one should trust this guy.

Late round fliers: Bernard Pierce, whichever St. Louis RB wins the job out of preseason, Ben Tate.

Let's debate this.  If you don't like a player's spot, let's chat about it.

Follow me on Twitter @BernacK6