Occasionally when I'm going through the rankings update process, things come out of it that I don't really like, and I'll look for a reason to change it. That was definitely the case when Christian McCaffrey found his way back to RB2 overall in this month's Dynasty running back rankings. But instead of changing it, let's talk about why.
Essentially, there's a five-man tier of McCaffrey, Breece Hall, D'Andre Swift, Javonte Williams, and Najee Harris for me. They've all ranked as high as No. 3 over the past nine months, and McCaffrey was the clear No. 1 before the start of the 2021 season. It's probably a good idea to remember why. A good way to do that is to look at the best PPR PPG leader at running back over the past three seasons:
2019 Christian McCaffrey 29.3 PPG
2020 Christian McCaffrey 30.1 PPG
2021 Jonathan Taylor 22.2 PPG
There is simply a massive difference between the best we've seen from McCaffrey and the best we've seen from literally anyone else. Alvin Kamara has the second-best season of the past three years at 25.2 FPPG.
As you might guess, this is another one of those areas where your status as a Fantasy manager determines the ranking. A rebuilding team should be dealing McCaffrey the first chance they get (at market value). But there's simply no way to expect Hall, Swift. Williams, or Harris to help you as much in 2022, or even 2023. And it's not like those other guys don't have floor concerns as well.
Harris was almost entirely dependent on volume last year and now he's talking about taking more plays off. Swift has had pretty rotten injury luck himself and his targets are far from guaranteed with a new offensive coordinator. Hall hasn't played a down in the NFL and will start the year sharing with Michael Carter. And Williams was a committee back in college who is heading into his second year sharing with Melvin Gordon.
If all this makes you want to prioritize wide receiver, I don't blame you. It's a volatile time at running back with so many aging superstars. We should expect continued turnover at the top until someone clearly claims the No. 2 spot behind Taylor. If McCaffrey starts off like he's played the past four years, there may be a crowd of people with McCaffrey at No. 2 again.
Here are my updated Dynasty Fantasy Football running back rankings:
