There seems to be some general agreement in the Fantasy Football community that tiers are more useful than rankings. I believe this is especially true in Dynasty Fantasy Football. What we have less agreement on is how you should tier players. Some prefer archetypes, some prefer age or upside. As a rule, I prefer to tier players by Dynasty value. That's how you end up with Christian McCaffrey and De'Vona Achane in the same tier below. But I do recognize the value of archetype tiering, and you'll find just that in Tier 7 of the tiers below.
Austin Ekeler, Raheem Mostert, Derrick Henry, Aaron Jones, Nick Chubb, Joe Mixon, and James Conner all fall into Tier 7 below. All have shown league-winning upside in the past, with Mostert showing it most recently. All are also at the stage of their career where they may already be done producing starter Fantasy points. In other words, the one-year ceiling is sky high and the Dynasty floor is absolutely zero.
Ekeler and Henry are free agents and generally we see at least one veteran back who doesn't find a new home as a starter. Conner, Mixon, Mostert, Chubb, and Jones could be cap casualties and could have a hard time finding another starting job. Chubb, in particular, is coming off another major knee injury and feels especially risky. Another thing to keep in mind is that any of these guys could start Week 1 of 2024 and still not be of much value to your Fantasy team. Father Time remains undefeated and when running backs hit the cliff it's generally a fast, hard fall. While this can be a cheap time of year to buy veterans, these are the types of guys who could be dropped during the 2024 season, so I wouldn't give up much for them.
There are a couple of guys in Tier 6, who you may think belong in Tier 7. Saquon Barkley is also a free agent and will turn 27 in February. Most of the backs above are at least a year older than him, and I feel pretty confident that if Barkley can't find a multi-year deal he loves, he'll have a deal he can live with back in New York. Alvin Kamara is already 28 years old, but he still has two years left on his contract and his dead cap number is $17 million dollars. Certainly, he could get hurt or fall off a cliff, but the Saints have every motivation to feature Kamara for at least the next year.
Here are my updated Dynasty running back tiers:
