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Running Back Roundup Week 15: The Final Rodeo

Running Back Roundup Week 15: The Final Rodeo

Week 15 is in the books, and it’s time to take stock of the crazy week we just experienced. What better way to do that then with a retrospective of the top stories from fantasy’s favorite position – the running back. Each Wednesday, we’ll look back on studs, busts, breakouts, timeshares, situations to monitor, and all things RB from the past week.

In our final article of the season, we’ll reflect back on the running back landscape in 2020, by noting the good, the bad, and the surprising.

Settle in, partner. It’s time to saddle up for the RB Roundup. Yeehaw.

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Stud of the week: David Montgomery 28.7 fantasy points

Monty has been unstoppable as of late, and he’s become a fixture in our “Stud of the Week” spot. After a slow start to the season, he’ll look to finish the year as a bona fide RB1.

Bust of the week: Kareem Hunt 4.3 fantasy points

Sunday’s win over the Giants was an ugly affair, and Hunt flopped miserably in the fantasy semi-finals. He’s been a top-12 play this season and remains a high-quality option with or without Nick Chubb on the field. This was an unfortunate outlier.

Breakout of the week: Tony Pollard 28.2 fantasy points

He earned a last-minute spot start with Ezekiel Elliott surprisingly inactive, and Pollard “ran away” with the opportunity.

He finished with a huge performance, including a game-sealing touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Pollard may be in line for another start in Week 16, where he’ll have obvious RB2 upside.

Surprise of the Week: Salvon Ahmed 21.2 fantasy points

Ahmed rolled to a surprising 100-yard performance in Week 15, and if you took a chance on him in any format, it’s likely you won your matchup.

If you’re looking for a heartwarming story, Ahmed apparently promised the big game to his ill grandmother. If he gets the starting nod in Week 16, Ahmed should be a top-15 play against a bottom-of-the-barrel Raiders defense.

Surprises

There were plenty of surprises this season, but none were as shocking as these guys:

James Robinson
The undrafted rookie has racked up a massive 1,414 scrimmage yards and 10 total touchdowns through 15 games. He sits as the RB4 in half-PPR scoring at this point in the season, and his production has been remarkable. Even more remarkable is the fact that he was on waiver wires through the first week of the season. If you were able to scoop him up, there’s a great chance you’re in title contention. With 1,070 rushing yards to his credit, J-Rob is one of just three backs (Derrick Henry, Dalvin Cook) with over 1,000 rushing yards.

Mike Davis
When the season began, Davis was far from the thoughts of fantasy managers, but boy has that changed! He’s the RB10 on the year thanks to excellent performances while filling in for the injured Christian McCaffrey. Davis should finish out the season as the Panthers’ lead back, as bringing CMC back wouldn’t make sense with Carolina out of playoff contention. Davis has racked up career highs in rushing yards (614), receiving yards (373), receptions (59), scrimmage yards (987), and total touchdowns (7), and he’ll get a chance to add to those totals in Weeks 16-17.

Wayne Gallman
He’s the RB9 since Week 7, thanks to 581 total yards and six touchdowns across eight games in that span. With Saquon Barkley and then Devonta Freeman out of action, Gallman seized the lead job in the backfield and has been one of the most surprisingly productive backs in all of fantasy football for the second half of the season.

Studs and Duds

Studs

Derrick Henry
Stats: 1,679 rushing yards, 15 TDs

This is the second year in a row with at least 1,500 yards and 15 scores for King Henry, and he’ll look to close out the year as the NFL’s back-to-back rushing champ. He should be an easy top-3 fantasy pick in 2020 drafts.

Dalvin Cook
Stats: 1,484 rushing yards, 42 receptions, 349 receiving yards, 16 total TDs

Cook leads all RBs in total fantasy points and total touchdowns this season. He only needs 167 scrimmage yards across his next two games to hit 2,000 for the season.

Alvin Kamara
Stats: 777 rushing yards, 80 receptions, 739 receiving yards, 15 total TDs

Kamara bounced back in the scoring department from last season’s letdown, and he currently sits behind only Dalvin Cook for the most at his position. Kamara has secured at least 80 receptions for the fourth straight season, and he’s set to finish the season with a new career high in scrimmage yards.

Duds

Miles Sanders
Stats: 810 rushing yards, 170 receiving yards, five total TDs

It’s easy to dismiss Sanders’ disappointing season as injury-related, but he’s 18th among backs in fantasy points per game. Philly’s offensive line has been terrible, Carson Wentz has been worse, and health certainly played a role. Sanders is currently the RB22, and while he’s been a respectable low-end RB2, he was drafted with RB1 expectations.

Leonard Fournette
Stats: 320 rushing yards, 187 receiving yards, five total TDs

Oh, Lenny Fourney, what happened? When he was picked up by the Bucs, it seemed inevitable that the former Jaguar would run roughshod through the NFC South and become best buds with Tom Brady. While I can’t speak on the friendship, I can say for certain that Fournette was a true dud this season, while Ronald Jones unexpectedly provided some big games. Fournette will try to end the regular season on a high note with Jones banged up, but this isn’t what fantasy managers were looking for when they drafted him.

Takeaways

Disparity and Zero RB

If you went Zero RB this year, it likely cost you any sort of competitiveness in your leagues. While there were plenty of notable injuries among the top-12 running backs drafted, the studs proved to be studly, and later-round guys… didn’t quite pan out. Kareem Hunt was a great add for Zero RB truthers, and David Montgomery has come on as of late, but as a whole, this was not a year to fade the elite backs.

Injuries, injuries, injuries

Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, and Joe Mixon headline this year’s group of injured backs, as this trio missed significant time and cost fantasy managers an early pick in the process. As of this writing, seven of the top-12 preseason running backs (based on consensus ADP) have missed (or will miss) multiple games in 2020. That’s a pretty sickening figure, and it highlights the importance of training camp and offseason workouts, that were unfortunately cut short or eliminated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to these early-rounders, we missed out on full seasons from promising backs Raheem Mostert, Myles Gaskin, and Cam Akers. Fantasy managers will keep their fingers crossed for a healthier 2021.

Rookies

It may seem hard to believe, but six of the seven of Antonio Gibson, D’Andre Swift, Cam Akers, Jonathan Taylor, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, J.K. Dobbins, and James Robinson rank inside the top-30 fantasy running backs through Week 15. This has proven to be one of the best classes in recent memory, and all of these players have a bright future in the league. The depth and success of these first-year studs has been yet another pleasant surprise.

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Zachary Hanshew is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Zachary, check out his archive and follow him @zakthemonster.

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