With Week 8 of the fantasy football season officially in the books, we move our attention to Week 9. In what is a make or break week for many fantasy owners, Pro Football Network has made your job easier by creating our Week 9 fantasy RB rankings. With some important names heading to IR and others being activated, start ’em or sit ’em questions have fantasy owners scratching their heads. Who is the best fantasy football running back to roster this week? Are there some sleepers and must-starts that we need to have in our lineups, and who are the potential busts we should avoid?
What to keep in mind heading into Week 9 and searching for the best fantasy football running back
Make sure to check out PFN’s fantasy bye week schedule to keep up to date on who you will need to replace in your lineups. For Week 9, the four teams that are on a bye are the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams, Cleveland Browns, and the Cincinnati Bengals. At first glance, that doesn’t seem to be too bad. However, there are some key depth players that have been performing well in fantasy this season that will be out this week.
With those four teams being on bye, we will be missing out on guys like Joe Mixon/Gio Bernard, Kareem Hunt, Miles Sanders/Boston Scott, and Darrell Henderson/Malcolm Brown. While most of these backs have been part of timeshares, they have all still contributed in big ways this season.
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Besides the byes, there are also quite a few names that won’t be playing due to injury. The RBs we know will not play are Jeff Wilson (ankle), Raheem Mostert (ankle), Austin Ekeler (hamstring), AJ Dillon, and Jamaal Williams. There are also a couple of guys that we will monitor but could be out this week as well: Tevin Coleman (knee), Mark Ingram (ankle), Kenyan Drake (ankle), and Carlos Hyde (hamstring).
However, there is some relief on the way if you have a good waiver wire position or enough FAAB left at this point in the year. The most important return of the season for fantasy football is Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey has been sidelined since suffering a high ankle sprain in a Week 2 loss to the Buccaneers.
There is also a chance that we see the return of Chris Carson, Aaron Jones, and Devonta Freeman.
These fantasy RB rankings should help cover all the sleepers you should be targeting to help win your week, as well as the must-starts and potential busts you should avoid.
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Please keep in mind that these are full point PPR RB rankings. PPR means that RBs get an additional full point for each reception. This can play a big factor when deciding on which guys to get into your lineups and makes volume all that much more important.
Note: Check back throughout the week, as we’ll continue to update our RB rankings up until kickoff based on the injuries, news updates, and the potential impact of the NFL trade deadline.