Week 2 Running Back Rankings & Tiers – 2025 Fantasy Football

I talk about my Top 36 Running Back Rankings & Tiers for Week 2 of the 2025 Fantasy Football season.

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TIME STAMPS
00:00 100k Subs
00:46 Betr & Sunday Ranks
01:40 Derrick Henry
02:48 Christian McCaffrey
04:00 Bijan Robinson
05:09 Jahmyr Gibbs
06:37 Saquon Barkley
07:28 Josh Jacobs
08:19 Kyren Williams
09:18 Chase Brown
10:11 De’Von Achane
11:31 James Conner
12:29 Jonathan Taylor
13:19 Bucky Irving
14:24 Ashton Jeanty
15:30 James Cook
16:33 Breece Hall
18:16 Chuba Hubbard
19:18 Alvin Kamara
20:32 Javonte Williams
21:57 Travis Etienne
23:15 Omarion Hampton
24:15 Tony Pollard
25:00 J.K. Dobbins
26:03 D’Andre Swift
26:48 Zach Charbonnet
28:15 Patreon
28:57 Tyrone Tracy Jr.
29:56 Jaylen Warren
30:40 TreVeyon Henderson
31:45 David Montgomery
32:54 Aaron Jones
33:56 Jacory Croskey-Merritt
35:08 Kenneth Walker III
36:10 Jordan Mason
36:42 Isiah Pacheco
37:16 Dylan Sampson & Quinshon Judkins
37:56 Austin Ekeler
38:46 RJ Harvey
39:20 Week 2 RB Matchups

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#fantasyfootball #2025fantasyfootball #week2

[Music] Greetings and salutations everyone. My name is Ed Kurov and welcome to my YouTube channel. Today I’m going to be talking about my week 2 running back rankings for the 2025 fantasy football season going over my top 36 running backs. So if you’re looking for my thoughts on a specific player, be sure to travel down below to the description as we have timestamps available there. While you’re down in the description, if you have not yet already, of course, subscribe to the channel as I’m making daily fantasy football content for the entirety of the season. Whether it’s rankings videos, whether it’s hidden gems, live streaming every single day, so I can go ahead and help you get one step closer to capturing a 2025 fantasy football championship. And by subscribing today, not only are you going to gain an edge upon your league mates, of course, you’re going to get us one step closer to achieving our goal of 100,000 subscribers. Now, besides subscribing to the channel, for those of you who want an even greater edge upon your league mates, be sure to travel down below and check out Better. I’ll be partnering with them for the entirety of the season. Not only providing plays every single episode. I’ll mention a couple over the course of today’s episode in regards to Josh Jacobs and Austin Eckler going into the Thursday game. But besides that, of course, providing rankings. All you have to do is sign up using code Andrew. Make that first time deposit a minimum of $10 and make a first time play picking more or less on two player statistics within a real cash play and you’ll be eligible to get my rankings every single Sunday morning for the remainder of the season. for my email directly to yours. These rankings are by position, by tier, half PPR, full PPR, and includes flex rankings to help you set your lineups and of course help you capture a 2025 fantasy football championship. So, if you want to go ahead take advantage of the new user special in which if you go ahead and sign up today, you get a free $10. In order to take advantage of that, be sure to check out the map to the right side of the screen to determine your eligibility based on your current location. Thank you very much for all the support. All right, let’s get into talking about my top 36 running back rankings. Beginning with our number one, this is Derrick Henry going into week two. obviously coming off an incredible week one performance against the Buffalo Bills in which we all saw on Sunday Night Football. He put up 28.7 half PPPR fantasy points and carried our fantasy teams with 169 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns, an incredible performance in which he had three rushes of over 30 yards and a 6.0 yards after contact per attempt average. Derrick Henry was unstoppable and unfortunately he did fumble late in that game and I think he’s going to take out his frustration this week against a division rival in the Cleveland Browns. Last season against the Cleveland Browns in week eight and in week 18 he combined for 31 attempts for 211 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns, a 6.8 yard per carry average against the Cleveland Browns in 2024. In those two games in the in the game in which they won, 29.1 fantasy points in the game in which they lost against Cleveland last year. Yes, a shocking reminder that in fact the Baltimore Ravens lost to Cleveland last year. In that game, still put up 14.2 fantasy points. This week, the Ravens are an 11 12 point favorites at home. Expect for Derrick Henry to dominate with a huge performance here once again. The next running back is Christian McCaffrey. Now, we were all worried about Christian McCaffry’s calf going into week one. Now, despite all that concern, we don’t even have to worry about Christian McCaffrey as much anymore as the remaining members of the San Francisco 49ers offense are finding themselves injured. I’ve said it before, there’s something in the water in San Francisco that continues to force these players to get injured. George KD now going to the injured reserve. Jawan Jennings dealing with a shoulder injury and Brock Pury as well not only has a shoulder injury, but what is described as a serious toe injury going into this week where he is questionable. Regardless of how this all transpires, whether or not Brock Party’s active, whether M. Jones is starting this week, it’s all going to lead to a lot of targets in the direction of Christian McCaffrey in the short term in the absence of a George KD and a Jawan Jennings. Even though he was an inefficient runner in week one with 22 carries for only 69 rushing yards, again, he did what Christian McCaffrey does, 10 targets, nine grabs, 73 receiving yards. He was targeted on 34 12% of the routes that he ran in week 1 and now has an opportunity of taking on the New Orleans Saints. A match up in which, of course, the running backs of the Arizona Cardinals combined for 20 carries for 108, 10.8 fantasy points, but yet a 5.4 yard per carry average. I would anticipate Christian McCaffrey to have himself a great performance here in week two. To continue the Sier, we have Bejon Robinson. Speaking of an incredible performance, especially through the air, Bjon Robinson, very similar to a Christian McAffrey, had himself six grabs, 100 receiving yards, and a receiving touchdown. we all saw early in the first quarter on red zone. Of course, that incredible play in which Michael Pennix checks it down to him and he goes for 50 yards and a touchdown. But, you know, of course, the receiving work continued from there on. I mean, whether he was lining up out wide and running slants, whether he was utilized within the screen game, it doesn’t matter. They continued to get him a lot of opportunities and the checkdowns were consistent primarily because the rushing efforts of this offense weren’t as great as they typically have been. That Tampa Bay Buccaneers run stop defense looked good whether it was Bejian Robinson or Tyler Algier. And speaking of Algier, unfortunately, he did handle 10 rushing attempts, which I truly believe are unnecessary. And as we progress throughout the season, I’m hoping we’ll see less and less opportunities in the direction of Algier. But for those of you who are worried about the opportunity share that he saw in terms of snaps, Bejan Robinson played nearly identical snap share in comparison to the last five games of the 2024 season as he did in week one of 2025. So, I’m not worried. I think the rushing yards are going to increase and as long as that target opportunity continues to stay consistent, taking on Minnesota this week should be a fantastic play once again. Number four, we have Jir Gibbs, who unfortunately, for those of you who don’t play in a full PPR, was quite underwhelming because he only had again 50 total all-purpose yards. 19 on the ground, 31 through the air on 10 receptions. Now, when we look at this game back again, the Green Bay Packers at the line of scrimmage dominated, I mean, just completely dismantled the Detroit Lions running game. 16 of the Lions 22 rushing attempts, whether it was a running back, quarterback, or a wide receiver. 16 of the 22 carries from this offense led to the ball carrier being hit in the back field. Again, when 44 a.5% of Jir Gibbs rushing attempts were stuffed at the line of scrimmage, it really gives us an indication as to the offensive line of this Detroit Lions attack just wasn’t up to par in comparison to what the Green Bay Packers were providing. Even despite all this unfortunate reality within the rushing category, luckily Jir Gibbs got himself 10 receptions for 31 yards which was highly influenced by the negative game script which forced him to play 66% of the snaps. Now from watching back week one, a couple of the positives for Jir Gibbs, even though there weren’t many, couple of the positives in terms of early down usage, he dominated in comparison to David Montgomery on one running back set. He played 32 of the first and second down snaps in comparison to David Montgomery playing just 14. Therefore, if we’re going to go into a softer matchup against the Chicago Bears this upcoming week, I would expect a bounceback performance here from Jir Gibbs, who should continue to stay on this track of 20 plus touches per game. And of course, being at the top tier of this running back position. The final of our S tier is Saquon Barkley. Of course, he takes on the Kansas City Chiefs. We have a little bit of a Super Bowl rematch. You guys know that I talk about this all the time. The Kansas City Chiefs run stop defense is elite. When we go back to 2024, the Kansas City Chiefs allowed the second fewest yards per carry on average to opposing running backs, 3.76. And they’ve continued that streak of success thus far this season in week one, only allowing 3.31 yards per carry to opposing running backs. Now, of course, Saquon Barkley always has the ability to be able to outperform a defense, and considering how elite his offensive line is, it is all trending in the right direction. But of course, for another consecutive game here, we have Jaylen Herd stealing touchdowns near the red zone. Obviously, Jaylen hurts two rushing touchdowns this most recent week. Even though Saquon Barkley did find the end zone, we’re hoping for him to find the end zone this week to make himself a stable play despite how difficult the upcoming matchup is against the Kansas City Chiefs. All right, let’s move on to the A tier where we have Josh Jacobs who will be taking on the Washington Commanders this upcoming Thursday night. Now, over the course of the last nine consecutive games, Josh Jacobs has scored one rushing touchdown minimum. He continues to see himself elite levels of opportunity in which he has had over the course of those nine games, 17 touches minimum every single game. So, we would anticipate going into the short week where this offense continues to lean upon the run game to of course expect Josh Jacobs to find success against the Washington Commanders. I mean, if you were to potentially make a play via better, a potential anytime touchdown for Josh Jacobs considering the nine consecutive game streak, whether it’s on the ground through the air during the regular season, I think that’s a pretty solid play via better. But again, as of right now, the game on Thursday has a total of 48 1/2. That is the second highest total implicated going into this week. This should be a shootout. And if in fact it is, of course, maybe there’s potential for even more than one touchdown for Josh Jacobs. Number seven, the thumbnail of today’s episode is Kron Williams. Look, Kyron Williams is following in the footsteps of Josh Jacobs in terms of a consecutive game streak of scoring touchdowns. Kyrie Williams, when we look at the last seven games he has played, six of them in the regular season consisting of one touchdown minimum. So, six of the last seven a pretty solid rate. Now, you have an opportunity of taking on the Tennessee Titans in which they are five and a half point favorites on the road in Tennessee. You would assume that of course this Los Angeles Rams team should come away with a victory. And in doing so, they’re going to run the ball a lot in the second half just like the Broncos did. The Broncos, their running backs combined for 22 carries, 133 yards, and a touchdown, 19.3 fantasy points just off of rushing statistics alone, which is the fifth most allowed in week one. Therefore, if the Tennessee Titans, who even last season were allowing 15.62 fantasy points per game on the ground alone, two opposing running backs from weeks 1 through 18, you would anticipate Kron Williams to continue to, of course, batter this defense behind the solid offensive line. We have our number eight, Chase Brown, taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Listen, he continues to get elite levels of opportunity coming off of a game in which he had 24 opportunities and 23 touches. So, even with a couple sprinkles of Samaj Piran, it didn’t matter. Chase Brown is continuing to get himself the bulk majority of touches and as long as that continues, he’s going to prove to everyone how valuable he is for fantasy purposes. Now, even though the rushing opportunities of 21 attempts only led to 43 rushing yards, luckily he did score a rushing touchdown. He forced six missed tackles in week one, which amongst all players was in the top two of the discussion. And unfortunately, yes, the Cincinnati Bengals early in the season, weeks one and two, over the course of the last couple seasons here have really struggled year-over-year in terms of scoring as an offense, but going into the Jacksonville Jaguars matchup, this current total is the highest of week two with a 49 a half. We’re expecting a shootout between these two highpowered offenses. Number nine, we have Devon Achan taking on the New England Patriots. Look, the New England Patriots defense, even though they played incredibly well against Ashen Genty in the rushing efforts of the Las Vegas Raiders, where Devon Aan is going to thrive, is not only on the ground, but where he finds his success is through the air. And even though he only came away with three receptions for 20 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown, which was on fourth and 11, by the way, he did save the entire game for the Dolphins. If it wasn’t for Devon Chan running over multiple defenders to get himself in the end zone and willing himself to scoring 15 fantasy points, many of us would have had a dud performance there. But just looking back to this most recent week of his 10 total touches in week one, six of them consisted of six or more yards. He had forced four missed tackles, which over the course of 10 total touches is a pretty good rate, the 40% rate. So now that you go into a matchup against New England, where we of course are expecting this to be a game in which the Miami Dolphins should be able to compete in comparison to where they were in Indianapolis this past Sunday. When we travel back to 2024 and look at the week 12 matchup in which Devon Achan took on this defense, 10 carries for 32, three receptions for 24, and two receiving touchdowns for 19.1 fantasy points. We are hoping to get far more target opportunity in the direction of HN in order to keep Tua Tonga Aoa not only in rhythm but away from the pressure of the pass rush that continues to get to him on a downly basis. Moving on to our number 10, we have James Connor to begin the Btier. This is another consecutive week in which I have him in my top 12 and it’s not by accident. It’s purely because of their schedule. They take on the Carolina Panthers this week. We just saw the Carolina Panthers get demolished by the rushing efforts of one Travis ETN. But when we look at the entire running back efforts on the ground from the Jacksonville Jaguars, we’re talking about 25 carries for 173 rushing yards, which led to 17.3 fantasy points, which was the sixth most allowed in week one. Now, when we travel back to last season, of course, James Connor has experience against this Carolina defense as he went for 15 carries for 117 and a touchdown, four receptions for 49, and 25 fantasy points and a half PPR. The Cardinals this week are 6 and 12 point favorites at home. Like I mentioned last week, during the 2024 season when the Arizona Cardinals were home favorites over the course of the year, he was averaging over 18 fantasy points per game. I’m expecting a lot of upside here for James Connor and hopefully a lot more rushing yards with the opportunities that he is given. Number 11, we have Jonathan Taylor, who takes on the Denver Broncos. Really, this is going to be a true test of strength for what the Indianapolis Colts are in 2025. Obviously, they blew the barn doors off of that Miami Dolphins defense. Obviously, Jonathan Taylor, 18 carries for 71, three catches for 27. In terms of opportunity share, this is a sixth consecutive game for Jonathan Taylor where he has 20 or more touches. Now, Daniel Jones unfortunately went ahead and stole two rushing touchdowns on the goal line with the QB sneak tush push, whatever you want to call it. But going forward, we would anticipate that of course Jonathan Taylor is going to be given a little bit of those opportunities. And of course, he will be able to develop these 10-point performances to 16 20 point performances in those bigger weeks. Last season, he did take on Denver late in the year. In fact, week 15 against them, 22 carries for 107 on the ground. We would assume very similar production with the upside of hopefully finding the end zone as well. Number 12, we have Bucky Irving. Look, I understand that Bucky Irving’s overall efficiency level wasn’t relatively close to what he was able to produce in 2024, but what was very promising was the absence of Rashad White within the opportunity share. Again, Bucky Irving coming away with 18 total opportunities in 18 touches. And very similar to the final two games of the 2024 season, Rashad White only coming away with three touches. Therefore, if we’re going to continue to see Bucky Irving, who is coming off of a game in which he played a career-high 76% of the offensive snaps in a singular game, again, he didn’t hit that watermark a single time in his rookie season. As long as he’s continuing to see elite level opportunity, 18 total touches, a lot of snaps. They’re lining him up out wide. Of course, he’s continuing to get himself utilization within the receiving category, taking on the Texans this week. Even though they are, of course, underdogs, I would still anticipate to see Bucky Irving highly implicated for a solid top 12 week, especially considering what Kyron Williams and that offense were able to accomplish despite all of the offensive consistency that the Rams had in week one. I think Bucky Irving again in a position to succeed here in week two. Number 13 to close out this tier, we have Ashton Genty, who very similar to Bucky Irving. A very inefficient week one, but the opportunity share was there. 21 total opportunities, 21 touches. That is an elite level workhorse back that if he’s going to continue to see 20 plus touches per game for the remainder of the season, he’s always going to be implicated to being fantasy relevant. Now, even though he had himself a tough matchup against New England and his offensive line did him no favors with a 0.4 4 yards before contact per attempt. One of the worst in week one of the NFL season. I mean, he was at the level of what Tyron Tracy had to deal with in week one, which again speaks volumes considering, again, you would have hoped that the Raiders offensive line in terms of the run blocking category would have been a little bit better. I mean, in terms of Ashen Gent’s rushing attempts, of the 19 attempts, 42% of them he was stuffed at the line of scrimmage. So, I would like to hope that, of course, this Las Vegas Raiders offensive line are going to get back to the basics, going to improve, and as they take on a division rival with the Los Angeles Chargers, even with a tough matchup on hand. The volume of opportunity that Genty is given, he’ll be able to at least break out a couple of those runs to make himself, of course, a solid top 15 option this week. Continuing on to our number 14, we have James Cook, who founded the end zone and of course, a lot of utilization through the air with five targets, five catches, 58 against the Baltimore Ravens in a negative game script. Of course, he had to get utilized and on one of those passes, of course, goes 40 yards down the field, tackled down at the 2-yd line. Two plays later, unfortunately, Josh Allen is rushing it in for a touchdown. Of course, we’ve seen that year-over-year here within this offense. But going forward, as long as James Cook continues to get himself a very similar level of opportunity, 18 touches in this most recent game against the Baltimore Ravens for 18.7 fantasy points. As long as that opportunity share is there, that’s fantastic because he’s coming off of a game in which he had the highest percentage of snaps played since week five of the 2024 year. These are all positive signs on top of the fact that the Buffalo Bills are seven-point favorites on the road against the New York Jets this week. If they take an early enough lead in this capacity and of course the New York Jets offense flounders at points, this could lead to a lot of rushing in the second half for someone like James Cook. But I do think this could be a closer scoring game than many anticipate or at least where it’s currently being set at via Vegas. Let’s move on to our number 15. Speaking of Bree Hall, one of the main contributors as to why the New York Jets looked so good in week one. I mean, Bree Hall, four rushing attempts of 10 or more yards. That’s 21% of his rushing attempts. Again, that’s a ridiculous number. On top of the fact that 47% of his rushing attempts led to five or more yards in week one. Now, besides the fact that he came away with 15 and a half fantasy points in a half BPR, had three touchdowns vultured inside the 10 yard line. One by Brilland Allen and two, of course, by Justin Fields. Now, it wasn’t like he wasn’t given opportunities. He had rushing attempts inside the 10 yard line, but unfortunately, the offensive line, the defensive efforts, it didn’t really lead to success. Therefore, there were alternative options in the form of Justin Fields keeping it and of course, Brilland Allen rushing forward for a huge rushing touchdown inside the 10. But as we proceed, Bree Hall, who looked incredible. I mean, really did look like, you know, a former version of himself. I did not see that kind of a Bree Hall in 2024. It did remind us of late 2023. And as we proceed when we take on the Buffalo Bills, a division rival, and we look at the 2024 efforts of Bree Hall, he was still solid against that defense. 28 carries for 158 yards, a 5.64 yard per carry average, and averaged over 12.5 fantasy points per game against the Bills last season in the two matchups. a Bill defense that couldn’t stop a soul in the run game as of course Derrick Henry slaughtered that defense as the Baltimore Ravens running back to combined him for 21 carries, 160 yards, and two rushing touchdowns. I truly do believe that Bree Hall is going to have himself a solid week here, especially when we consider how great his offensive line played. He was number three amongst all running backs in week one in terms of yards before contact per attempt with an average of 3.3. I mentioned it just moments ago. Ashen Genty had an average of 0.4. Again, a huge difference there. 16 is Chuba Hubard taking on the Arizona Cardinal despite the negative game script in week one for Chuba Hubard. Still got himself 21 opportunities and 19 touches. 16 on the ground and of course five targets through the earth that led to three receptions and of course his singular receiving touchdown the sideline and of course garbage time. We will take it. Now despite all the concern this offseason in regards to Rico Dattle and his utilization, Rico Dattle is playing exclusively on the third down snaps. But when we’re talking about the two-minute drill, it is still Chuba Hubard. Chuba Hubard’s not going away and his opportunity share is still very much so consistent which we were very much so concerned about this off seasonason. But it is evident that of course Chuba Hubard is going to continue to be an elite running back in terms of opportunity share and that’s going to turn him into a workhorse once again. They take on the Arizona Cardinal this week which again is an advantageous matchup in my mind especially considering what Chuba Hubard was able to accomplish against them last season in week 16. 25 carries for 1522 rushing touchdowns and 30.5 fantasy points in a half PPR scoring format. We’re hoping for similar levels of production here in week two. Number 17, Alvin Kamar. Look, this is the first time that I have seen Alvin Kamar, and I even looked back in the history books. This is the first time that Alvin Kamara has had less than three receptions in a loss since 2022. That’s how long it’s been. And the reason why I went ahead and I looked that up is because I put together a lot of better plays this past weekend in regards to, you know, Alvin Kamara surpassing 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 receptions and going more on that number, but unfortunately came away with only two targets, two receptions, and 12 receiving yards while guys like Jawan Johnson, Chris Olive, Rasheed Shahed were heavily targeted. Now hopefully going into the match up against the San Francisco 49ers, Rattler will be looking in his direction far more often because we truly are dependent on those targets leading to fantasy points for someone like Alvin Kamara. That is how he has made his entire career. There’s a reason why Alvin Kamar in his career has never rushed for a thousand total yards within a season. It’s primarily because again he’s thrives within the receiving game. Now of course this most recent week we did see a lot of Kendry Miller and Deon Neil as they both combined for seven attempts on the ground for 33 yards. that I think is promising because at least it does keep Alvin Kamara fresh. But if we’re going to continue to dig into his overall workload of opportunity, it does hurt him and move him down the list in terms of his potential for upside within a given week. Number 18 is Javvante Williams, a running back that yes, even though in last week’s video I didn’t have him ranked on Patreon in terms of my rankings on Thursday afternoon, I had him ranked. Was he close to the, you know, the top 15 or the top 10 where he finished? Absolutely not. but he was certainly in my top 36, but he performed far better than I anticipated, considering he found himself in the end zone twice. Now, in terms of the competition within his backfield, my Sanders obviously got himself the second RB role, Jaden Blue was a healthy scratch in week one. My Sanders after he fumbled, didn’t play a single snap after that for the remainder of the game. Therefore, if this is going to lead to my Sanders pretty much falling out of favor and of course Javvante Williams having the full reign of this backfield, then that’s fantastic. But in the event in which Jaden Blue is no longer a healthy scratch and he takes over for my Sanders, that could dig into the overall workload of Javvante going forward. But as of right now, he has the clear pole position and now has an opportunity of taking on the New York Giants this week. I think this is an automatic start based on matchup alone. The Giants in week one allowed 21 carries for 152 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, which is 27.2 rushing fantasy points to the running backs and dbo Samuel of the Washington Commanders. I mean, again, the New York Giants as an organization just haven’t been able to stop the run since 2021. In fact, since 2021, in each of those individual last four seasons, they have been top six in terms of rushing yards allowed to opposing teams over the course of those seasons. Therefore, of course, as the top of the conversation, once again, Javvante Williams an automatic play here against the Giants defense. Another one of these running backs that broke out in week one is Travis ETN with 16 carries going for 143 rushing yards. Tank Bsby being traded to the Eagles yesterday afternoon. All signs are pointing towards Travis ETN having immediate value in the short term and potentially for the remainder of the season if he continues to play incredibly well as he did this past week against the Carolina Panthers. Now again, the elite level of opportunity leading to 19 total touches is incredibly promising on top of the fact that he played 70% of the offensive snaps on early downs, which is first or second down. Now, Laquent Allen did end up playing eight of the 10 third down snaps, which does call into question as to whether or not Bashaw Tutin is going to get any sort of rush. But going forward, it seems like Travis ETN and the confidence of the organization to continue with him having traded away Tang Bsby does give me the confidence now to of course assume that in a game this week against Cincinnati Bengals that struggle early on in the season. And again, this game is assumed to be a high-scoring shootout as they are currently at a 49 and a half point total in week two, which is number one amongst all games this week when you take into account how well Travis ETM played, how well the offensive line played. He was number four amongst all running backs this most recent week in terms of yards before contact per attempt. 2.9. When you’re getting that level of push up front, it does really allow your running backs to dominate. And of course, we would hope that continues this week in Cincinnati. Moving on to our number 20, we have Omar Hampton. Really quickly, for those of you who have been asking me over the course of the last couple days, live streams, Patreon messages, etc., Andrew, where should I be looking in terms of potential trade options, I am trading for Amarian Hampton when I get an opportunity to do so. He is a bo candidate in my mind in an ascending offense. Based on how well the passing attack looks for Justin Herbert and how easily they cut through that Kansas City defense, I truly do believe that now that you’re going to see matchups in which they’re not playing against Kansas City every week for the remainder of the year, Omar Hampton will be significantly better. And sure, Naji Harris did end up being active, but he had one rushing attempt. It is not going to be impactful against the potential upside of Omar Hampton for the remainder of the season. as they take on the Raiders this week. I would anticipate for him to have himself a far greater performance and it may be the final week in which you may have an opportunity to be able to go after the team in your league that has Omar Hampton and speak to that manager and potentially get yourself an opportunity at a running back that is going to have himself a lot of upside for the remainder of the year. Number 20, we have Tony Paul. Look, I understand that he had himself an underwhelming performance with the fumble. He went from 9.4 fantasy points and a half PPR to only 7.4. But again, without Spears, he’s going to continue to get elite level opportunity. 19 total touches in week one. As of right now, they’re five and a half point underdogs at home against the Los Angeles Rams. And as long as he continues to get himself this kind of level of opportunity, there’s a pretty good likelihood that he may even fall into the end zone this upcoming week. If it wasn’t for all the drop passes that of course Cam Ward had to deal with from the receivers of this offense, we were probably going to be in a position which they would have scored a couple more field goals and kept that game close. In my mind, if they can compete with the Denver Broncos, then they can compete with a team like the Los Angeles Rams early on in the season, which of course will allow someone like Tony Pard getting this level of opportunity to be fantasy relevant once again. Number 22, JK Dobbins. Now, speaking of level of opportunity, he had 18 total touches in week one, identical to Tony Pard, who we just previously mentioned. JK Dobbins, clear and away, is the lead running back. 18 total touches, played 53% of the offensive snaps, and was able to handle 16 of the team’s 22 running back rushing attempts, which is 73%. So, when you’re handling that kind of a workload share, and we saw R.J. Harvey not even get utilized within the receiving game. Sure, Harvey was able to get himself a huge run and looked great in terms of his overall breakout potential in terms of that regard. But, as it currently stands with Tyler Baddy being the primary receiving back, JK Dobbins getting more targets than Harvey, it seems like the Harvey situation is something for the future. And in the meanwhile, as JK Dobbins is relevant, taking on the Indianapolis Colts, a defense that was giving up 6.6 yards per carry to opposing running backs in week one, they haven’t been tested yet on the ground because, of course, the Miami Dolphins weren’t of course allowed to considering they were down early in that game, and Gamecript did not allow for it, but I would assume JK Dobbin should have himself a pretty good outing here against this Indianapolis run stop defense in week two. Number 23, we have DeAndre Swift. Again, opportunity is king in fantasy football. 20 total touches on 22 opportunities. And even though he wasn’t able to be as efficient as we would have liked and the offensive line wasn’t getting much movement up front against that Minnesota Vikings run stop. Again, there is still a lot of opportunity this week against Detroit in a revenge game in which DeAndre Swift takes on his former team and so does Ben Johnson. There is an opportunity here in which DeAndre Swift can be fantasy relevant. Now, of course, five targets, three catches, 12 receiving yards. Very promising numbers, especially when we consider Kyle Manungai did not see much utilization. Roshan Johnson still dealing with a foot injury. This all leads to DeAndre Swift continuing to be heavily utilized within this offense which will continue to keep him in this top 24 conversation. Speaking of number 24, we have Zack Charbanet who was the surprise outside of guys like Dobbins, ETN, Javvante Williams in week one having incredible performances. Zack Charbanet coming out and completely dethroning Kenneth Walker was quite a surprise. Now when we look at the big picture of this backfield in terms of early down snap share he played 43% 12 of the early down snaps first and second down in comparison to you know Kenneth Walker who played 16 of those early downs. But where Charbet made the biggest difference was playing 100% of the goal line opportunities and 71% of third down opportunities. So if he’s going to be on the field for those opportunities and he’s going to continue to dig into the overall workload of someone like Kenneth Walker, we have seen Zack Charban last season when given, you know, the entire backfield to himself be able to average over 17 fantasy points per game and a half PPR, over 19 in a full PPR. Incredible production. Now, in the event in which this week, which we have another backfield split in terms of total touches, that’s why I have him at number 24. I would assume that he is going to continue to lead this backfield as they take on the Steelers. that couldn’t stop a soul within the running game last week had having given up 134 on the ground to the Jets running backs and one rushing touchdown. If it wasn’t for Fields, it could have been three rushing touchdowns. All in all, Zack Shar amongst all running backs in week one had the highest rushing success rate at a 67%. We would assume if he’s going to continue to find that level of success in comparison to the inefficiency of Kenneth Walker, he will continue to maintain as the lead back of this offense. Now, before we continue to the rest of our top 36 rankings, a quick reminder for those of you guys who want all-encompassing rankings, want to be able to ask me questions, want to get Discord community server access that is exclusive to Patreon. All you got to do is check out the link down below and travel on over to Patreon. Of course, I’ve been helping people win fantasy football championships over the years via the Patreon. So, for those of you who are interested, and of course getting any and all of your fantasy football questions answered, whether it is a trade question, whether it’s a waiverwire question, starter sits, getting my all-encompassing rankings every single week, every Thursday and Sunday, all of this available there for those of you who want additional content and want to, of course, go ahead and get my opinions on any and all of your questions, whether I’m live or not. Again, this is a great way to get my access over the course of the remainder of the season. Thank you very much for all the support. All right, continuing on with our number 25, we have Tyrone Tracy Jr., who I understand had an incredibly inefficient week one with 10 carries for 24. But when we look at his success rate, he had actually had a pretty solid success rate in terms of his rushing attempt. So, if it wasn’t for the unfortunate reality of the offensive line really just not doing much up front and getting dominated at the point of attack by the Washington Commanders, Tyrone Tracy would have had a better week. Now, I would have loved to have seen him got far more receiving utilization, but as we approach this week, I’m assuming that the New York Giants as a whole, they’re overhaul themselves and they’ll look a lot better as they didn’t score a single touchdown in week one against the Commanders. Of course, Russell Wilson was 17 of 37 passing. It doesn’t get worse than that. So, if we approach this week against the Dallas Cowboys and the script aligns itself to being far more running back friendly, we should see some success. Now, I understand this most recent week Saquon Barkley behind an elite offensive line found a lot of success on the ground. I don’t expect that kind of level of success from Tyrone Tracy, but as long as the receiving utilization is there, he should still be relevant in a top 36 capacity, but specifically as my number 25. Number 26 is Jaylen Warren. I understand that many of you look in the direction of Kenneth Gainwell as a potential waiverwire pickup. I personally don’t think that Kenneth Gainwell is a long-term answer for the organization. There’s a reason why they went ahead and they inked the new deal with Jaylen Warren. And there’s a reason why he had 13 touches this most recent week and scored nearly 13 fantasy points, put up 12.9 to be exact, and a half PPR. He handled 58% of the running back rushing attempts in this backfield. And I truly do believe he is the most relevant running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Caleb Johnson’s role pretty much ensures that Jaylen Warren is going to get the goal line overall opportunities. And over the course of week one against the Jets, he in fact did that inside the red zone. He handled every single rushing attempt from the running backs. Therefore, we should anticipate him to continue to get more opportunity in that direction in week two. Number 27, we have Trayvon Henderson. Look, the receiving workload was very promising. For those of you who play in a full PPR, you shouldn’t be afraid to play him. But if you are playing in a half PPR in the standard league, it becomes a little bit more tricky. Now, if it wasn’t for the fact that Trevon Henderson had two of his rushing attempts called back due to holdings, he would have had an identical amount of rushing attempts in comparison to Raandre Stevenson. Now, with that being said, and that opportunity share being a 50/50 split between the two of them, Raandre Stevenson still dominated in terms of snaps across the board. whether it’s early down, first and second down, whether it’s goal line, whether it’s third down, whether it’s two-minute drill. Raandre Stevenson played the bulk majority of opportunities in terms of snaps. Now, going into this week, we heard from, of course, Mike Rabel after the game. He said, “We have to run the ball better. We have to run it more efficiently.” If that’s going to be the case, you got to hand the ball off to Trevian Henderson on a far more consistent basis. as Raandre Stevenson only averaged 2.1 yards per carry in week one. I think the door is opening for the full takeover from Henderson potentially in week two, but hopefully by the time that we get to, you know, week four, it’ll establish itself at that point. Number 28, we have David Montgomery. Look, like I mentioned earlier with Jir Gibbs, 16 of the 22 carries for the Lions in week one consisted of the carrier of the ball carrier being hit in the back field. Now, despite the negative game script, he still touched the ball 15 times, 11 on the ground, four through the air, he still played 37% of the offensive snaps in a negative game script, and was able to get himself nine of his overall 11 rushing attempts on first and second down. Now, the only reason that he didn’t get more rushing attempts is because the Lions didn’t get many first downs. They had 17 total first downs in this game. To go ahead and put into perspective just how low of a number that is in comparison to what we saw from the Lions last season in the final seven regular season games of the 2024 season. The Detroit Lions were averaging 28 first downs per game. Just to put into perspective just how rough of a week one they had. Just gives you an idea. Now, as we approach week two, we have the Chicago Bears on hand. And I think again, this should be a far softer matchup. And in that, they should be able to move the chains. They should be able to get themselves red zone rushing opportunities. And when those opportunities do arrive, we saw this most recent week in terms of the red zone, in terms of short yardage opportunities, David Montgomery is still their go-to guy within those categories. Number 29, we have Aaron Jones. Look, Aaron Jones, he’s taking on a tough run stopping defense in the form of the Atlanta Falcons that just shut down Bucky Irving. But even with that being the case, and let’s say, for example, Aaron Jones is going to be efficient this week. It doesn’t matter what the matchup is, it’s the lack of touches in comparison to someone like Jordan Mason that is incredibly concerning. Jordan Mason usually had twice as many rushing attempts in week one in a match up in which yes they were in a negative game script but Mason just looked like the better runner. So if that’s going to continue to be the case then they are going to require a lot of receiving work in the direction of Aaron Jones for him to be fantasy relevant. Really did bail himself out with that deep reception down the field against the linebacker. I don’t know why the safety decided to go ahead and shift in the wrong direction. He should have played the outside leverage there for the linebacker. Nonetheless, Aaron Jones finding success even despite his age and even despite only 11 touches, as long as he’s given receiving utilization or the eventual and occasional goal line work, he will be fantasy relevant. But with Jordan Mason continuing to build his momentum, it does scare me for his upside. Number 30 is Jakori Kroski Merritt. Some of you call him Bill. I call him JCM to make it easy. In week one, he broke out on Sunday morning. We all saw the inactive healthy scratch of Chris Rodriguez Jr. So I immediately moved Jako Cory Kroski Merritt into my top 36 running back rankings for the Sunday morning live stream. Now in the efforts of the 23 total snaps he played in comparison Eckller’s 33, Jeremy McNichols 13, he had 10 total carries for 82 yards in a rushing touchdown. He accounted for 50% of the running back rushing attempts in week one. Had an 8.2 yard per carry average, 4.2 2 yards after contacts per attempt, a 30% miss tackle force rate. He was number two amongst all running backs in terms of a rushing success rate at 60% only behind Zack Charbanet in week one with the potential of him continuing to get more opportunity going forward considering how efficient he was in week one. Of course, we would assume that in a short week taking on the Green Bay Packers in week two, he may see more looks, but let’s not forget the Green Bay Packers just annihilated the rushing threat of Jir Gibbs and David Montgomery. So, what they’ll be able to accomplish against JCM does have me a little bit worried. Therefore, I have him at number 30 in comparison to if he had an easier matchup where I would put him. Number 31, we have Kenneth Walker, who takes on Pittsburgh, who again, like I mentioned earlier, the Pittsburgh Steelers couldn’t stop the run. 27 carries for 134 and a rushing touchdown against him this most recent week in the efforts of Bree Hall and Brilan Allen. But look, the thing about Kenneth Walker is that I’m worried. I think we have to sound the alarm because not only was he going ahead and losing some valuable opportunities, especially near the goal line, but on top of it was highly inefficient in terms of his overall opportunities. I mean, 50% of his overall rushing attempts were stuffed at the line of scrimmage. The offensive line not helping him out. Even though he is the primary receiving back of this offense, having come away with three targets, three catches, while Sharon had zero targets, I still think that if he’s going to continue to be inefficient, it’s just going to lead to the organization giving him less touches, which in my mind makes him a lower tier RB3 going into the week despite a potentially advantageous matchup on hand. Unless he is given more opportunities in terms of outside zone, which again, he only had three rushing attempts out of his 10 in terms of outside zone, which for a Clint Kubak offense is scary. That’s got to be like seven of the 10 rather than just three. Number 32, we have Jordan Mason. Look, coming away with 16 total touches for eight fantasy points, we will take it. Especially considering this offense is beginning to ascend. The first three quarters of their week one performance were completely garbage. So, if we’re going to go ahead and ascend and take on the Atlanta Falcons and have an opportunity of potentially having a neutral game script, if not a positive game script, it should lead to in again very similar levels of opportunity from Jordan Mason to be implicated for more touches within the upcoming matchup. He looks fresh, he looks clean, and he looks like he is going to take over the shot from Aaron Jones in just a couple weeks. Number 33, we have Isaiah Pacheco. Look, taking on the Eagles is not an easy matchup. Now, even though Javvante Williams, my Sanders combined for 107 yards and two rushing touchdowns, 5.63 yards per carry on average, the fact of the matter is the Kansas City Chiefs and Andy Reid don’t want to run the ball. They don’t feel comfortable giving more opportunity in the direction of Isaiah Pacheco. So, until he sees himself 10 plus touches per game on a consistent enough basis, I can’t feel comfortable ranking him any higher than my number 33 going into the given week, despite the fact that there should be an opportunity for him to be fantasy relevant. Dylan Samson, one of the waiverwire potential pickups that you have an opportunity of grabbing going into this week. We are not 100% certain as to the status of Quinn Sean Judkins. If in fact he is going to join this backfield and play this week, there is an opportunity in which he could be relevant, especially considering Raheem Sanders and Jerome Ford combined for nine carries for 11 yards and one rushing touchdown, one target. The rest of the targets going in the direction of Dylan Samson. Eight targets on 16 routes ran a 50% target rate. Again, as 11 and a half point underdogs this week, we would assume there should be a lot of opportunities within the receiving game for Dylan Samson. In a full PPR, far more valuable than the number 34. But in a half PPR, I think this is a pretty safe spot considering we are anticipating the return of Judkins. Number 35. Speaking of receiving upside going into the Thursday night matchup, which is considered the second highest potential scoring game based on Vegas totals this week at 48 and a half, if we’re going to be in a position in which the Packers run stop defense, annihilates the rushing threat of, of course, Shaka Crosky Merritt, Jaden Daniels, and Austin Eckler, that should lead to a lot more receiving opportunities. I went ahead and I checked out better earlier and I was like, okay, you know what, the number at 1.5 receptions for Austin Eckler, I think is very achievable. That’s something that I’m certainly going ahead and putting a play together with going into Thursday. Potentially alongside of, you know, Josh Jacobs anytime touchdown, considering he’s accomplished that in the last nine consecutive games going back to last year in the regular season. As long as we’re going to be in a potential negative game script here, it should lead to far more opportunity for Eckler in comparison to this most recent week, which still he had himself 33 total snaps in comparison to JCM’s 23. The final player I wanted to mention is R.J. Harvey. Look, he came away with six carries for 70 yards. But was incredibly worrisome was the fact that Tyler Baddy was the primary receiving running back. Six targets, two catches, 16 yards. Until Harvey gets himself more utilization within the receiving game, which he saw less targets than Dobbins, he truly is a fringe low-end RB3, high-end RB4. And there could be a conversation in which we are playing alternative options in comparison to him like a Kenneth Gainwell even going into the given week taking on the Indianapolis Colts that did give up over six yards per carry to the Dolphins running backs. Now, before I close out today’s video, I wanted to go ahead and share with you guys something that I share with you every single episode in regards to every position. It’s in regards to matchups. I’ve gone ahead and isolated the running back rushing statistics a lot from week one. Obviously, once we get a bigger picture after the first four weeks of the season, we’ll begin to understand which matchups are truly the most advantageous going into the given week. With only one week of data, it’s really not enough to be able to feel confident regarding a specific play. But we have seen tendencies from some of these teams thus far. And hopefully for our sake, we’ll be able to see these trends continue in order to understand which matchups are truly the most advantageous going into the given week. So, as you can tell, the Buffalo Bills allow the most rushing running back rushing statistics in week one. of course Derrick Henry, you know, doing majority of that overall workload. But I primarily just isolate running back rushing statistics because the receiving work of a running back is primarily dictated not by matchup, but rather the quarterback’s tendency to check it down the running back’s receiving ability. And additionally, the tendencies of offensive coordinators keeping their running backs in the backfield on third downs as a pass blocker or as someone that is running a route. Those definitely making a huge difference in the grand scheme. All right, so these of course are the top 16. And then we have the tougher matchups. The teams that weren’t as successful. Again, the Washington Commanders incredible in terms of stopping the New York Giants. The Chargers were great. The Packers were great. The Raiders were great. So maybe this will go ahead and kind of give you some sort of inclination as to what could occur in week two. But until we get further information, potentially a full, you know, month workload, we’ll be still sitting here wondering whether or not these are going to be the official kind of run stop teams going into this upcoming season. All right, with this all covered, thank you everybody for watching. Be sure to click the like button. I’ll be live streaming later tonight starting at about 7:00 p.m. PST. So, if you’re interested, be sure to swing on by. Thank you everybody for watching and until next time, I’ll see you guys. Peace. [Music]