Week 2 Fantasy Football Running Back Rankings: Can you trust AJ Dillon, Joshua Kelley, Roschon Johnson?

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As we turn our attention to Week 2 of the Fantasy Football season, I've got some significant questions for the running back position. As of Sunday morning, Austin Ekeler and Aaron Jones aren't expected to play this week. Attrition is always an issue at running back, but between those injuries and some teams that unexpectedly used committees or just used different guys than expect as their lead backs, it's already a position that is kind of a mess.

Here are my thoughts on five of the most pressing questions before we get to my Week 2 rankings:

Can you start Joshua Kelley and AJ Dillon this week?

Yes, and you should! I've got both as top-12 backs this week, which is partially about how high expectations should be for those two, as well as a commentary on how little faith I have in the Dameon Pierce/Rachaad White/Rhamondre Stevenson tier of RB2s.

Dillon hasn't played often without Aaron Jones, but we just saw the Packers RBs combine for 27 carries and seven targets, and the only other RB on the roster for Week 2 is practice squad guy Patrick Taylor. Dillon won't just get all of those touches, of course, but he's going to get a lot of them, and he should play a fairly big role in the passing game as the Packers look to simplify the passing game for Jordan Love, who is also playing without Christian Watson. With the Packers missing their two biggest offensive weapons, this could end up being a relatively low-scoring, slow-paced game, but Dillon seems like a good bet for 15-20 touches and has goal-line equity, so I'm starting him with confidence.

I'm slightly less confident in Kelley, but I'm still rolling with him ahead of most running backs. The Chargers run the ball incredibly well against a tough Dolphins defensive line last week, with Kelley amassing 91 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown. I don't think he's just going to step into Ekeler's passing game role, but 15-ish carries seems like a pretty good bet, and he should get a few dump offs when he's out there in passing situations, too. Kellen Moore's offense was terrific for running backs in Dallas, and I think it'll continue to be very good in L.A. Kelley probably isn't as good a player as Dillon, but the situation might be even better.

Can you trust anyone in the Bears backfield?

In Week 1, Khalil Herbert had nine carries and five targets; D'Onta Foreman had five and three, and Roschon Johnson had five and seven. So, it's a full-blown committee, right? Maybe not. Johnson's touches came primarily in the fourth quarter of a multi-score game, but he apparently impressed the Bears coaching staff enough that Sunday morning reports indicate D'Onta Foreman is likely to be a healthy scratch for Sunday. I don't think that necessarily means Johnson has been elevated to a starting role, but hey, a two-man committee is a lot better than a three-man one. I don't think I want to start either back here, but in a pinch, I feel better about them than I did before learning that about Foreman.

Is Bijan Robinson really in a committee?

I don't want to complain too much about a game where Robinson scored 20.3 PPR points in his NFL debut, but how can we not complain about Tyler Allgeier having five more carries and two more touches than Robinson? Allgeier is a solid player, but Robinson is an elite prospect who the Falcons invested a No. 8 overall pick in, and he watched as Allgeier scored two touchdowns. It's worth noting that one of those touchdowns came after Robinson ripped off a 21-yard gain to put the Falcons inside the 5-yard line, but it's still frustrating that he came out for Allgeier immediately after that. It's just Week 1, and Robinson still ran routes on 17 of 22 dropbacks, so it's not time to panic yet. But the case for Robinson being a top-three RB was that he might rush for 1,400 yards and have a big role in the passing game to go along with it. If Allgeier is going to play this prominent of a role, it might make it tough for Robinson to hit his ultimate ceiling. I want to have faith that Arthur Smith will eventually realize that giving Allgeier carries at Robinson's expense is holding his offense back, but … well, just look at how Smith has used Kyle Pitts and Drake London and you realize you can't just make that assumption.

How will the Ravens backfield operate without JK Dobbins?

I'd guess they're going to add another running back, first of all. It'll likely be Melvin Gordon, who is on the team's practice squad, but it could very well be Leonard Fournette or Kareem Hunt in free agency. Either way, at least in the short term, Gus Edwards will likely be the lead runner here, with Justice Hill being more of a complementary piece despite his two touchdowns Sunday. Edwards started three of the four drives after Dobbins' injury, and I'm projecting him as an RB3 for Week 2, one who likely needs a touchdown to score double-digit points in PPR formats; Hill is more like an RB4, especially since I don't expect him to be used much in the passing game.

Is Cam Akers really the RB2 for the Rams?

The Rams RB usage was weird Sunday. Akers got the start and was on the field for four of the first eight snaps before Kyren Williams played 22 straight snaps to close out the first half. It was a bit more of an even split in the second half, but Williams is the clear passing downs back, and I don't think we can expect the Rams to be nursing double-digit leads in the fourth quarter every week. Even worse for Akers was that Williams played more snaps inside the 10-yard line (four to three) and got two short touchdowns. The Akers-Sean McVay relationship has been weird for a while, and Akers was even sent home from the team at one point last season, so I'm not sure we can just assume this was a fluke. Either way, Akers' only path to being a must-start Fantasy RB was through dominating touches, and that didn't happen in Week 1. He's a touchdown-or-bust RB3 for me in Week 2.

Do you play in a deeper full-point PPR league? Over at Sportsline, Jacob Gibbs has you covered with full-point PPR position-by-position rankings for Week 1.