Welcome to the "Original" Dynasty Rankings Fantasy Football Blog

This blog was born out of a Dynasty Rankings thread originally begun in October, 2006 at the Footballguys.com message boards. The rankings in that thread and the ensuing wall-to-wall discussion of player values and dynasty league strategy took on a life of its own at over 275 pages and 700,000 page views. The result is what you see in the sidebar under "Updated Positional Rankings": a comprehensive ranking of dynasty league fantasy football players by position on a tiered, weighted scale. In the tradition of the original footballguys.com Dynasty Rankings thread, intelligent debate is welcome and encouraged.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Playoffs Week 1: Updated Runningback Rankings

RUNNINGBACKS

TIER ONE
[100] Adrian Peterson® MIN 23.5
[99] LaDainian Tomlinson SD 29.2
[96] Steven Jackson STL 25.1
[94] Brian Westbrook PHI 29.0
[91] Frank Gore SF 25.2
[90] Joseph Addai IND 25.3

TIER TWO
[82] Maurice Jones-Drew JAX 23.4
[82] Marshawn Lynch® BUF 22.4
[79] Clinton Portis WAS 27.0
[76] Willis McGahee BAL 26.9
[74] Reggie Bush NO 23.5
[73] [#]Ronnie Brown MIA 26.7
[72] Marion Barber III DAL [R] 25.3

TIER THREE
[66] [#]Larry Johnson KC 28.8
[65] [#]Willie Parker PIT 27.8
[64] Laurence Maroney NE 23.5
[62] Ryan Grant GB 25.7
[60] Brandon Jacobs NYG 26.2

TIER FOUR
[52] DeAngelo Williams CAR 25.4
[51] Michael Turner SD (U) 26.5
[50] Jamal Lewis CLE (U) 29.0
[42] Ernest Graham TB 28.7
[40] LenDale White TEN 23.7
[38] Selvin Young® DEN 24.9
[35] [#]Kevin Jones DET 26.0

TIER FIVE
[27] Jerious Norwood ATL 25.1
[26] Edgerrin James ARI [x] 30.1
[25] Chester Taylor MIN 29.0
[25] Thomas Jones NYJ 30.0
[22] Fred Taylor JAX 32.6
[21] Julius Jones DAL (U) 27.0
[20] Travis Henry DEN [x] 29.8
[19] [#]Justin Fargas OAK (U) 28.6
[17] [#]Michael Bush® OAK 24.3
[17] [#]Kenny Irons® CIN 25.0

TIER SIX
[12] [#]Cedric Benson CHI 25.7
[12] [#]Cadillac Williams TB 26.4
[11] Shaun Alexander SEA [x] 31.0
[11] Rudi Johnson CIN [x] 28.9
[10] [#]Deuce McAllister NO 29.7
[10] [#]Derrick Ward NYG [R] 28.1
[10] Kenny Watson CIN 30.6
[9] Ladell Betts WAS 29.0
[8] [#]Ahman Green HOU [x] 31.5
[8] Lamont Jordan OAK [x] 29.8
[8] Chris Henry® TEN 23.3
[7] DeShaun Foster CAR 28.6
[7] Leon Washington NYJ 26.0

TIER SEVEN
[6] [#]Sammy Morris NE 31.5
[6] [#]Ricky Williams MIA [T] 31.3
[6] Najeh Davenport PIT 29.6
[6] Chris Brown TEN (U) 27.4
[6] Pierre Thomas® NO 23.7
[5] Lorenzo Booker® MIA 24.3
[5] Dominic Rhodes OAK [x] 29.6
[4] Mewelde Moore MIN (U) 26.1
[4] Adrian Peterson CHI 29.2
[4] #Kolby Smith KC 23.8
[4] Maurice Morris SEA 28.8
[4] Kenton Keith® IND 28.2
[4] Musa Smith BAL (U) 26.3
[4] Ahmad Bradshaw® NYG 22.5

TIER EIGHT
[3] Brandon Jackson® GB 22.9
[3] Andre Hall DEN 26.1
[3] J.J. Arrington ARI 25.6
[3] Fred Jackson BUF 27.6
[3] Darren Sproles SD 25.3
[3] [#]Chris Perry CIN 26.7
[3] Tatum Bell DET (U) 27.5
[3] T.J. Duckett DET (U) 27.5
[3] Ron Dayne HOU (U) 30.5
[3] Jesse Chatman MIA (U) 29.0

TIER NINE
[2] Darius Walker® HOU 23.6
[2] Gary Russell® PIT 22.0
[2] Antonio Pittman® STL 22.7
[2] Michael Robinson SF 25.5
[2] Brian Leonard® STL 24.6
[2] Jerome Harrison CLE 25.5
[2] Garrett Wolfe® CHI 24.1
[2] Correll Buckhalter PHI 29.9
[2] Tony Hunt® PHI 22.8
[2] Vernand Morency GB [R] 28.6
[2] Michael Bennett TB [x]30.0
[2] [#]DeShawn Wynn® GB 24.9
[2] Dwayne Wright® BUF 25.3
[2] Mike Bell DEN [T] 25.4

TIER TEN
[1] LaBrandon Toefield JAX (U) 28.0
[1] Warrick Dunn ATL [x] 33.7
[1] Cory Ross BAL 26.0
[1] Brian Calhoun DET 24.4
[1] Jackie Battle ® KC 24.9
[1] Michael Pittman TB 33.1
[1] Aaron Stecker NO (U) 32.8
[1] Jason Snelling ATL 23.7
[1] Reuben Droughns NYG [x] 30.0
[1] Maurice Hicks SF (U) 30.1
[1] Kevin Faulk NE 32.3
[1] Leonard Weaver SEA [R] 26.0
[1] Cecil Sapp DEN (U) 29.7
[1] Marcel Shipp ARI 30.1
[1] [#]Ryan Moats PHI 25.7
[1] Samkon Gado MIA [x] 25.8
[1] Tyson Thompson DAL [R] 27.4
[1] Jason Wright CLE 26.2
[1] [#]Anthony Thomas BUF 30.8

CHANGES:
1/4/08 - Moved Jerious Norwood, Ahman Green, and Ricky Williams up slightly
1/6/08 - Moved Maurice Jones-Drew up; moved Najeh Davenport down; moved Brandon Jacobs down

4 comments:

EdMcGon said...

Explain to me why you would rank AP (age 23 by the start of next season) over LT (age 29) based on age, but then you rank Brian Westbrook (29) over Frank Gore (25) and Joseph Addai (25)?

Chris Wesseling said...

I think you're looking for a connection that isn't there. I ranked Peterson at the top because he's not only the most talented RB I've ever seen, he's also obscenely productive and has the age advantage over a guy like Tomlinson.

I like Frank Gore a ton, but I don't see any way around docking him a little value for his offense. Both he and Westbrook have slight injury concerns, but Westbrook is much more consistently productive.

I don't think Addai is quite in their neighborhood on talent level, so he's ranked in the first tier in large part because of the Colts offense.

I think our difference is you think Peterson is a huge injury risk, and I don't. I think he's possibly the best RB to come into the NFL since Jim Brown, and you're not that high on him.

Anonymous said...

You have McGahee as a 76, in the Wr rankings you have Greg Jenning also with a 76, basically is that number good across all postitions as far as trade value or only within each position?

Chris Wesseling said...

Good question. We've discussed some of these technical type of questions over at the footballguys boards in the past year, so I added them to the FAQ section here on the sidebar.

I'll just copy & paste from the FAQ, since that's easier:

"May 6, 2007: These numbers are not intended as a trade guide across positions. If they do happen to serve that purpose for some owners who find a beneficial way to tinker with the numbers, that's a bonus. I probably wasn't all that clear in my intentions, but I think this quote sums up the problems with an overall ranking vs. a positional ranking:

"Until we all start playing by the same rules and scoring systems, I think an overall ranking with a built-in trade value scale for dynasty leagues would be next to impossible. I imagine I could take a stab at it if I had to, but there's really no incentive to put even more time and effort into something that probably wouldn't be all that useful."