Fantasy Football Week 3 Running Back Rankings: How to handle J.K. Dobbins in his return?

Chris Towers unveils his Week 3 running back rankings

By Chris Towers

Sep 25, 2022 at 11:21 am ET • 2 min read

Joshua Bessex / Getty Images

It's exciting to see J.K. Dobbins is going to make his debut in Week 3 against the Patriots, and he's come a long way since suffering a pretty gruesome injury last preseason that required reconstructive surgery. He's worked hard to return and the Ravens have been patient with him, playing the long game by keeping him off the field for the first few weeks even while he pushed to be cleared.

But I'm not quite ready to throw him in my Fantasy Football lineup just yet. I'm not saying Dobbins is a must-sit, or anything, but I'm also not ready to treat him like the RB2 you might have drafted him as. Robbins is RB30 for me in his debut, and that mostly represents my faith in him getting some goal-line work. I expect him to be on a snap count, and a 20-carry debut seems exceedingly unlikely.

More likely, you're going to get about a dozen carries, and you hope he shows enough juice to break a long run or two and get into the end zone. It's a tough matchup against a very good Patriots defense, but the Ravens should be able to move the ball well enough to get him some opportunities. If Dobbins does get into the end zone, he should be good enough to justify his spot in your lineup -- if not, he'll probably be pretty underwhelming. That makes him an RB3 if I've ever heard of one.

Here are my RB rankings for Week 3.