Time moves quickly in any fantasy football draft, and preparation is critical. Many fantasy managers rely on simple overall rankings in the draft application, but draft rankings rarely are enough. They offer no context of how much more valuable one player portends to be over another, how a fantasy manager should covet them based on perceived value of later options. Each pick has an opportunity cost, and we can and should do better than bare-bones rankings, and see the bigger picture.
Positional tiered systems add the necessary context, especially as the seconds tick off and the sounds pulsate in a pressure draft situation. Value is the key word in any fantasy football draft, and following a tiered system is critical to properly grouping what may appear to be similarly valued players. Those top available players may be indistinguishable from each other, or perhaps not.
Regardless, decisions must be made quickly on draft day, analyzing expected supply and demand inside one position and versus others, so here are one analyst's always-evolving tiers for running backs, based on 10-team standard, PPR leagues. The order and tier of some players will change as news (roles, injuries, etc.) dictates through August, but mostly, these are your drafts, so follow your own tiered rankings.
Check out more tiered rankings: QB | WR | TE
Tier 1: First overall pick
1. Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers
Notes: Yeah, this talented fellow really is in a class by himself. Just. Stay. Healthy. Please!
