2017 Fantasy Running Backs in Review: The best value, rookie, biggest bust and MVP of the 2017 fantasy football season.
Above Photo: Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons
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BEST DRAFT VALUE: Alvin Kamara (NO)
The season’s outlook was a bit obscured by the shadow of future HOF running back Adrian Peterson. Luckily, for all parties involved, the Saints broke up the trio and shipped AP to the Cards and all three players involved flourished. None like Kamara, though, drafted at RB #56 (one pick ahead of Dion Lewis, also an immense value) and finished the year as the RB #3.
The fact that we had a rookie running back operating in a split backfield outshining everyone but the likes of stud workhorses Todd Gurley and Le’veon Bell is really something to behold. He finished the year with 13 total TDs, 8 on the ground and 5 more through the air, and his yardage totals read 728 on the ground and 826 by way of the pass.
Biggest Bust: David Johnson (ARI)
You really hate to see this happen to one of the truly great young players in the league. This guy was probably picked with either the first or second pick in your draft and contributed 11 carries to the cause. Now I understand that he got hurt had he been healthy he most likely would have been a top option at RB through the season. Next year will be different and I’m projecting his and Gurley’s ADP from this year will swap in 2018, so be alert if he’s available in the 2nd round.
MVP: Todd Gurley (LAR)
The number one scoring fantasy player this year was drafted 10 spots lower than David Johnson and produced a whopping 383.3 fantasy points. The entire Rams offense woke up under the tutelage of Sean Mcvay, but none more then Gurley, with 19 total TDs (13 with the legs and 9 more with the hands) and compiling over 2000 total yards.
Best Rookie: Alvin Kamara (NO)
As I said in the best draft value segment he’s the #3 RB and hands down the best rookie back this year, and that’s saying something with the likes of Kareem Hunt and Leonard Fournette having banner first seasons as well. Kamara’s numbers through the season show he’s more of a receiver then the other two, but don’t let that fool you: he’s a three-down back as well who the Saints love and who will find ways to get the football in his hands.
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HOW WERE OUR PRESEASON PREDICTIONS?
By Justin Sablich
I stuck by Mark Ingram last summer while much of the fantasy world was hyping Alvin Kamara. Turns out we were both right.
Ingram had an ADP of RB24 (according to fantasyfootballcalculator.com) and finished as the RB6, averaging 13.8 standard fantasy points per game. Kamara was even better, as was documented earlier in this article. Everyone wins!
I also stuck by Paul Perkins, which is now highly regrettable. To be fair, it’s not like I expected him to break out, but I thought he was being drafted way too low for what appeared to be a clear starting back for the Giants. It turned out that the Giants offensive line was even worse than I had imagined.
As far as who I didn’t like, C.J. Anderson performed at about where I thought he would, while Lamar Miller was a little better, but at RB14 wasn’t someone to build a team around.
Carlos Hyde played 16 games, and I did not see that coming, so my bad on avoiding him last season. But I also warned against the Joe Mixon hype and he finished as the RB32, and topped 12 standard fantasy points just once all season.
During the season, if you trust fantasypros.com to grade weekly rankings, we were 35th out of the 111 experts who submitted rankings to the site.
