Fantasy Football 2010 Preview – Running Backs Rule!

No matter what format your fantasy league follows, Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson are going to be the first two picks in your 2010 Fantasy Football Draft. The jury is still out on whether CJ or AP will be the first player off the board but they will go one-two in 80% of all drafts.

Fear not Fantasy Freaks, there is still a lot of extraordinary running back talent on the board after the top two are long gone.

A common mistake made in many fantasy drafts is owners backing off a cornerstone running back to snag a big name wide receiver because the top two or three running backs are off the board. There are 64 starting wide receivers that play on virtually every down. Running backs that carried the mail full time in 2009 were limited to twelve at best and that’s being generous.

Running Backs Over Wide Receivers

Many teams across the NFL have started employing the “running back by committee” game plan. Even a stud like AP gave up 96 carries and 44 catches to his back up Chester Taylor last season. Grabbing a running back that is an every down back helps establish a solid base to build your fantasy team around.

Out of the top 60 fantasy point producers in 2009, 16 were running backs who produced 3996 fantasy points and 19 were wide receivers who recored 4022 fantasy points. While those numbers appear to make the two positions equal, you have to dig a little deeper to see the big picture.

The 15th overall RB (211 FP) was 187.70 fantasy points behind the top RB (398 FP) in 2009. While the 15th overall WR (233 FP) was just 81.5 fantasy points behind the top WR (314 FP).  It gets even more complicated when you start looking at the top and bottom ends of those categories, but we will spare you the brain cramp. Suffice to say, get yourself a stud RB and build a winning fantasy team around him.

Fantasy Running Backs Who Carry The Mail Are Golden

After CJ (358 carries) and AP (331 carries) Thomas Jones from the Jets (now with the Chiefs) had 331 carries while Steven Jackson was the featured back for the Rams with 324 rushes in 2009. Jones is entering a RBBC scenario in Kansas City and Jackson is stuck in a horrible offense on a bad team in St. Louis. You can look past both of them in the first round this year.

Workhorse running backs that produce results like Ray Rice with 254 carries and Maurice Jones-Drew ,who hauled the pig skin 312 times, should both be targeted in the top five. As the third and fourth point producing running backs, Rice and MJD outscored the top two wide receivers by 51.3 fantasy points.

The next level of primary running backs includes Frank Gore, Ryan Grant, Michael Turner (if healthy) and Matt Forte. We see big things out of each of these players in 2010 and would be hard pressed to pass on any of them in the first round of a standard scoring fantasy football draft.

Getting a solid running back, even late in the first round, will help you make a run towards your League Championship!