After nearly a month straight of losing at least one highly Fantasy-relevant RB to injury, the storm calmed and the RB position made it through mostly unscathed in Week 7. Even with better luck in the health department, it was still a bizarre Fantasy week at the ever-volatile RB position.
Fill-in backs D'Ernest Johnson and Khalil Herbert both finished as top-five options at the position, and they were joined in the top 10 by Myles Gaskin, Eli Mitchell and Brandon Bolden. It was a weird week.
You can catch up on how the volume was dispersed among all of the injury-riddled backfields in the Week 7 RB Usage Report.
Gaskin was of the biggest rankings climbers in Week 7. He saw his role scaled back in a disappointing Week 6 game, but Gaskin assumed the lion's share of Miami's backfield volume and found the end zone as a receiver in Week 8. He joins Cordarrelle Patterson, Boston Scott, JaMycal Hasty, and Mike Davis as the running backs who saw their rest of season rank change the most from Week 7 to Week 8.
After evaluating the data and sharing What We Learned in Week 7, I'm ready to lay out my rest-of-season rankings at the running back position heading into Week 8. Here's where I'm ranking each RB going forward, given the data we have through seven weeks.
1. Derrick Henry
2. Christian McCaffrey
3. Dalvin Cook
4. Alvin Kamara (+2)
5. Austin Ekeler
6. D'Andre Swift (+2)
7. Aaron Jones (-2)
8. Ezekiel Elliott (-1)
9. Najee Harris
10. Jonathan Taylor
Notable changes:
What we've seen from the Saints offense in recent weeks is really exciting. Particularly, Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara are set for a potentially huge second half to the season if the underlying trends we've seen from New Orleans result in increased offensive efficiency and play volume. We're already seeing the effects manifest in Kamara's receiving role, as he's set a new season-high in targets in each of the past two games.
There's really not much differentiating backs at the top of Tier 2 from backs at the bottom -- the difference between Kamara and Jonathan Taylor's weekly matchup-independent projection is less than two Fantasy points. So, factors as seemingly small as New Orleans' encouraging trends and Kamara's uptick in target per route run rate as he and Jameis Winston have become more familiar with each other are enough to split the hairs and move Kamara up the rankings.
Speaking of Taylor, his usage over Indy's past few games (check out the full Week 7 Usage Report here) has been strong enough to bump him up into Tier 2. Taylor's 65 and 69 percent snap rates over the past two games each marked season highs, and he's been seeing more route running opportunities as well.
It took a month and a half, but the Lions seem to be committed to unleashing D'Andre Swift.
Swift racked up double-digit targets for the second time this season in Week 7, as Detroit used him as a route runner at a higher rate than ever before.
Check out Swift's splits over the past two weeks, compared to the five games prior to that:
Swift's snap rate:
Weeks 1-5: 66 percent
Weeks 6-7: 75 percent
Swift's share of the RB rushing attempts:
Weeks 1-5: 49 percent
Weeks 6-7: 62 percent
Swift's route involvement rate:
Weeks 1-5: 62 percent
Weeks 6-7: 78 percent
This type of receiving usage is truly unique to Swift. There is no running back who brings the route involvement Swift has over the past two weeks coupled with the type of target per route run rate we've seen from Swift since he entered the league. The results speak for themselves:
Aaron Jones is poised for a potential Week 8 explosion with Davante Adams sidelined. His slight slide down the rankings has much more to do with the exciting things we've seen from the backs who passed him and less to do with any discouraging signs from Jones.
Which RBs are on the rise after seven weeks? And which running back has dropped 12 spots due to injury? ... Join SportsLine here to see Jacob Gibbs' rest of season Fantasy Football Rankings, all from one of the nation's most accurate experts as graded by FantasyPros!
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