One of the great values in keeping track of past rankings is to see just how much the rankings have changed over a period of time. At running back, it's particularly instructive for knowing when to hold on to players at the running back position when you are not competing.
When looking at the rankings from one year ago this month, you'll see that more than half of the top 15 running backs from February of 2023 are no longer in the top 15 as of February 2024. Saquon Barkley, D'Andre Swift, Dameon Pierce, Austin Ekeler, Najee Harris, Nick Chubb, Joe Mixon, and Rhamondre Stevenson have all lost value, to varying degrees. Pierce, Ekeler, Chubb, and Mixon have fallen outside of my top 30. Depending on how free agency goes a couple of them may not be done falling.
That sounds bad, but contrast it with the other positions and it gets worse. Cooper Kupp and Stefon Diggs are the only wide receivers I had in my top 15 a year ago who now rank outside of my top 20. Darren Waller and Dawson Knox are the only tight ends to fall more than five spots outside of my top 15 from one year ago. Three quarterbacks have fallen that far. And this is not something new.
Running back is the most volatile position in Dynasty Fantasy Football because of how short their shelf life is and how opportunity-dependent their Fantasy value is. For that reason, I suggest carrying as few running backs as possible in the early stages of a rebuild. Your big investments should be at wide receiver and quarterback, then tight end, and finally running back when you are ready to compete. That's especially helpful in 2024 because this rookie running back class looks on paper to be the worst since I started producing Fantasy content at CBS.
All of this factors into my trade charts -- both for SuperFlex/2QB and 1QB leagues -- and you can find those trade charts here. If you're familiar with Dave Richard's in-season trade chart, the Dynasty trade chart is the same but factors in the complexities of Dynasty trade value.
What makes the running back market even more volatile is that we have so many high-end running back free agents this offseason. I had Joey Wright from Footballguys on Fantasy Football Today Dynasty this week to talk about the 2024 free agent class. Check it out:
Here are my updated Dynasty running back rankings:
