Think of your fantasy team as a steakhouse restaurant. Sure, you likely will offer dishes beyond the red-meat variety, but steak is your specialty. It’s what your establishment is established upon. Regardless of how tasty and trendy your seafood choices may be, you can’t build a good steakhouse without good steak.
This is a notion you should keep in mind when drafting your fantasy football team. Running backs are your steak, wide receivers are the seafood, and quarterbacks are your bar.
Your seafood might be outstanding, but it won’t keep your steakhouse in business. And you certainly want a bar, but it’s not the foundation of your establishment.
So come draft time, put the pass-happy stat trends aside and get a couple of choice running back before the good ones get 86’d.
House specials
If your draft menu selection includes LeSean McCoy, Jamaal Charles, Adrian Peterson, Matt Forte, Marshawn Lynch or Eddie Lacy, you stand a good chance of feasting at the RB1 spot this season, though all easily could be gone by pick No. 7.
Menu favorites
Doug Martin, Arian Foster, Zac Stacy, DeMarco Murray, Le’Veon Bell and Alfred Morris make for safe selections. If you are able to snag one of them as your RB2, then you’re off to a delectable start.
You still have a tasty plate of RBs if you’re able to snag Frank Gore or, one of the Madman’s favorites, Andre Ellington in the 35-45 range .
We can live with Giovani Bernard, Reggie Bush, Ben Tate, C.J. Spiller or Ryan Mathews as our second choice. But we prefer Rashad Jennings, Chris Johnson, Trent Richardson or Ray Rice best as flex options rather than RB2.
Questionable ingredients
Sometimes the recipe of success includes some risky decisions. Not everyone likes curry dishes or an abundance of horseradish in his or her meal.
Montee Ball is the horseradish of this draft. He has the potential to spice up your squad as the primary back on the best offense in the league. But he comes with a pungent aroma — he recently had an appendectomy, plus his draft position is higher than the Madman prefers.
The Broncos reportedly expect him ready for Week 1, but for a second-year RB who had difficulties picking up blocks in his rookie season, missing nearly all of training camp is not a good way to inspire confidence he has corrected this issue.
His average draft position has slipped into the 30s on news of his emergency surgery, which is where we would have preferred landing him before this news. We’re not confident we can ride Bell as an RB2, particularly early in the season. We like the spice his potential adds to our roster, but he serves up a little too much horseradish for us to ingest unless he slips to the fifth round in a 12-team draft.
Toby Gerhart is the curry. The Jaguars new feature back is a Mike Alstott-type who doesn’t get to play behind an offensive line as stout as A-Train’s early-2000s Buccaneers.
Formerly Adrian Peterson’s backup with the Vikings, this burly backfield beast isn’t going to wow with fleet feet, he is a bruiser who must batter his way through opponents. That’s easier to do when you get a head of steam before hitting the line. We’re not convinced the Jags — whose rushing attack ranked 31st last season, ahead of only the Falcons — can open those holes for him.
When he was going in the 70-80 range, we were fine — he was often the last true feature back on the board. But in the past few weeks, he has been taken more often in the 40s, leapfrogging more worthy options. And that was before we learned he is still being bothered by a hip flexor.
Nice garnishes
Deep in the draft, turn your eyes to Giants rookie Andre Williams. He easily could steal TDs from Jennings, and we would not be surprised if he earned his way into a time-share later in the season.
Another late rookie the Madman likes is Atlanta’s Devonta Freeman. With Jackson’s recent production and injury history, this shifty option could see increased opportunities.
Insanity insider
The Madman’s DVQ looks at the top RBs, listed in order of average draft pick:
DVQ — player’s value at specific spot in the draft in relation to points, position, and ADP
PPT — projected points
ADP — average draft position
Adrian Peterson
DVQ: 5.44, PPT: 252, ADP: 2.15
LeSean McCoy
DVQ: 5.81, PPT: 260, ADP: 2.30
Jamaal Charles
DVQ: 5.44, PPT: 251, ADP: 2.56
Matt Forte
DVQ: 5.52, PPT: 248, ADP: 4.70
Marshawn Lynch
DVQ: 4.96, PPT: 232, ADP: 6.15
Eddie Lacy
DVQ: 4.96, PPT: 230, ADP: 7.15
Doug Martin
DVQ: 4.57, PPT: 212, ADP: 11.75
Arian Foster
DVQ: 3.49, PPT: 185, ADP: 12.04
DeMarco Murray
DVQ: 4.00, PPT: 191, ADP: 16.44
Zac Stacy
DVQ: 4.22, PPT: 195, ADP: 17.30
Le’Veon Bell
DVQ: 4.12, PPT: 192, ADP: 17.67
Alfred Morris
DVQ: 3.88, PPT: 181, ADP: 21.44
Montee Ball
DVQ: 3.22, PPT: 163, ADP: 22.81
Giovani Bernard
DVQ: 3.90, PPT: 175, ADP: 26.11
Reggie Bush
DVQ: 3.83, PPT: 168, ADP: 30.56
C.J. Spiller
DVQ: 3.78, PPT: 160, ADP: 36.52
Frank Gore
DVQ: 4.40, PPT: 172, ADP: 37.00
Ben Tate
DVQ: 4.10, PPT: 165, ADP: 3.78
Ryan Mathews
DVQ: 3.69, PPT: 155, ADP: 39.33
Andre Ellington
DVQ: 4.75, PPT: 175, ADP: 40.04
Chris Johnson
DVQ: 3.35, PPT: 140, ADP: 47.26
Trent Richardson
DVQ: 4.29, PPT: 157, ADP: 48.81
Ray Rice
DVQ: 3.81, PPT: 142, ADP: 55.33
Rashad Jennings
DVQ: 3.62, PPT: 138, ADP: 55.92
Bishop Sankey
DVQ: 3.03, PPT: 125, ADP: 57.41