Fantasy Football Week 14 Running Back Rankings: Sunday rankings updates

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We still have one week left until the Fantasy playoffs begin for most leagues, and there's no question, it's a big week. And it's one we're going to be facing without some pretty big names at the running back position: Jonathan Taylor, Aaron Jones, Alvin Kamara, AJ Dillon, David Montgomery, Brian Robinson, Antonio Gibson, and Cordarrelle Patterson are all on bye weeks, while Kenneth Walker, Joe Mixon and others are dealing with injuries.

That's going to be tough to account for, and it's going to force you into using some players you might otherwise try to avoid. It's the kind of week that tends to render words like "start" or "sit" moot – in one league, I'm missing Kamara, Montgomery, and Gibson; the two best active running backs on my roster before waivers run are Jaylen Warren and Zamir White. Yikes.

Of course, once we get past this week, bye weeks will be in the rearview mirror for good. Injuries, of course, won't be, and they'll surely shape countless Fantasy championships, and that's one thing I want to focus on this week. You'll find my Week 14 rankings for running back below, but first, let's take a look at some rough tiers for the RB position with an eye on the playoffs. I'm going to break things up into four tiers:

I'm starting them every week: Christian McCaffrey, Austin Ekeler, Rhamondre Stevenson, Joe Mixon/Samaje Perine, Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs,Saquon Barkley, Dalvin Cook, Aaron Jones
I'm probably starting them every week: Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott, Kenneth Walker, James Conner, Travis Etienne, Dameon Pierce, Najee Harris, Miles Sanders, D'Andre Swift, Jamaal Williams, David Montgomery
If I have to start them, I'm praying for a touchdown: Alvin Kamara, Rachaad White, Leonard Fournette, Devin Singletary, Brian Robinson, A.J. Dillon, Cordarrelle Patterson, D'Onta Foreman, Gus Edwards, Isiah Pacheco, Jerick McKinnon, Latavius Murray, Antonio Gibson
I'm hopefully not starting them, but I want to roster them just in case: Joshua Kelley, Zamir White, James Cook, Jeff Wilson, Raheem Mostert, Michael Carter, Zonovan Knight, Damien Harris, Kenyan Drake, Kareem Hunt, Jaylen Warren, Kenneth Gainwell, Tyler Allgeier, Chuba Hubbard, Mark Ingram, Jordan Mason, Deon Jackson

And this last tier might be the most important one to keep in mind when thinking about your bench. You hopefully won't need to start too many of those players, but I think every single one of them should probably be rostered in most of your 12-team leagues, for the simple reason that, in most of those cases, if something happens to the starter, any one of them would be a must-start player – and would likely rank ahead of any of the guys in the third tier at this point. That probably isn't the case for, say, Mike Boone or Keaontay Ingram or Kyren Williams, who aren't as much a priority.

Hopefully we won't need the likes of Mason or Harris or Kelley in the Fantasy playoffs; that would mean bad things for some of the players who got us here. But injuries happen and you need to be prepared.

Here are my initial rankings for Week 14: