Dynasty Fantasy Football RB Tiers: Christian McCaffrey, Austin Ekeler and Derrick Henry top win-now tier

Updated Dynasty running back tiers after the NFL Draft

The May version of Dynasty Tiers is going to look a little bit different. You can thank recent podcast guest Rich Hribar for that. On  Tuesday's episode of Fantasy Football Today, Rich talked about his tiers over at Sharp Football Analysis and how they are somewhat tethered to his rankings, but only loosely. Instead, he tiers more by archetype. I told him that sounded like a more fun way to do it, and I'm trying it out here. You can let me know what you think.

• Dynasty Tiers: RB | QB | WR | TE

One thing that didn't change at running back is Jonathan Taylor alone in Tier 1. I could have stretched and used athletic testing to put Breece Hall in the same tier, but until Hall's theoretical upside shows up in the NFL, that seems presumptuous.

Where the new tiering does show up is in Tier 3, with Christian McCaffrey, Austin Ekeler, and Derrick Henry. While Henry is clearly different stylistically, all three backs have a legitimate claim at a top-three redraft ranking. At the same time, all three could be one major injury away from falling into Tier 6 or lower.

Tier 5 is probably the messiest tier because it includes veterans like Josh Jacobs as well as rookie Kenneth Walker. In this tier I legitimately believe these guys could be high-end RB2s for the next three to five seasons, but beyond 2022 they all have a floor that is more in the flex range. Jacobs, Antonio Gibson, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire all face big seasons in terms of their long-term future while J.K. Dobbins, Travis Etienne, and Cam Akers need to prove that they've fully recovered from 2021 injuries. 

From Tier 5, I could legitimately see Dobbins, Akers or Walker with the potential to jump into Tier 2 as early as midseason. At the same time, half of this tier could fall to Tier 7 as early as October. 

Tier 6 is the tier that looks undervalued if you're a 2022 contender. All five of those backs could finish in the top 12 this season and we would have little reason to be surprised. But like Tier 3, it's hard to envision the same is true three years from now. Those Tier 3 backs I said could fall into this range, the floor is much lower for this group, even if the community doesn't necessarily see it that way. 

People are totally ready to give up on Ezekiel Elliott and pass the torch to Tony Pollard, and I'm not sure there would be many complaints if the same thing happened in Green Bay. But Nick Chubb is just about six months younger than Elliott and the arrival of Deshaun Watson could signal a shift in offensive priority that only hurts Chubb's Fantasy value. I certainly don't think Kareem Hunt is any less of a threat than Pollard.

Here are my updated post-draft Dynasty tiers at running back: