2021 Fantasy Football Consensus Running Back Rankings and Cheat Sheet (Updated Daily)

“Running backs don’t matter.”  Zero-RB strategies?! Stop the crazy talk! Running backs matter and they matter a lot.

After the Running Back Massacre of 2020 — see Christian McCaffrey (ankle/shoulder), Saquon Barkley (ACL), Ezekiel Elliott (offensive line), Joe Mixon (foot), Austin Ekeler (hamstring), Leonard Fournette (cut) — more of your league mates than ever are embracing anti-RB conspiracies, but you shouldn’t.

Seasoned fantasy footballers recognize that every league winner, with rare exceptions, is built around a core of high-performing running backs. Historically speaking, no position has been more impactful.  Leagues have often been won the night of the draft by the team that secures the privilege of drafting fantasy football legends, such as LaDanian Tomlinson, Marshall Faulk, Priest Holmes, Shaun Alexander and Adrian Peterson. Last season was unfortunate but not reflective of larger trends. Despite reports to the contrary, The Golden Age of Running Backs has not ended.

This year our five highest-ranked players (including our consensus No. 1) and 10 of the top 14 are RBs. Draft them early and draft them often.

The table below represents the collective efforts of Awesemo’s fantasy football brain trust to provide you the best fantasy football RB rankings available. To read more about our analysts and see consensus rankings for all players and positions go here: Top 200 Fantasy Football Consensus Rankings.

To create a printable cheat sheet of only RB rankings click on the PDF icon below. For more comprehensive cheat sheets including all players/positions follow this link: Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet Hub.

Legend

Avg – average rank of all Awesemo analysts

ADP Rank – positional rank by ADP

Auction – average auction value between Alex Baker and Steve Buzzard

High – highest rank among all Awesemo analysts (a good measure of upside)

Certain columns are not available on vertical mobile view.  Flip your phone to horizontal view for the best experience.


Half PPR

PPR

Standard (No PPR)

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