Top 2022 Fantasy Football Targets and Busts: Running Backs
Fantasy football drafts are underway, and players may be targeting the wrong picks. Who will be 2022’s targets and busts for running backs in fantasy football?
Running backs are where the real money is in every fantasy draft. The right running back will make or break your year. This will be judged based on injury risk and break-out possibilities. Many things can happen to change your year in this department but the best we can do is prepare for the highest odds and hope for the best.
Targets And Busts For 2022 Fantasy Football
Christian McCaffrey – ADP 3.3 – Overvalued – I’ll start off by saying when healthy, it’s hard to find anyone with more production than McCaffrey has produced in the past four years. That being said his only healthy seasons were his first two coming out of college. That’s not a great track record for anyone to attempt to stand by and say this guy is worth a top 3 or 4 pick in a fantasy draft. If he drops in your league and you decide to snag him, make sure you get his handcuff or you might lose your entire year as many of his fantasy owners have learned the past 2 years.
Cordarrelle Patterson – ADP 9 – Overvalued – Patterson had a break out season in 2021 where he ranked no lower than sixth among running backs. The common mistake fantasy owners make however is they play the table based on last years numbers instead of what they believe he will do in the future.
At 31 years old and a young draft pick breathing down his neck in the form of Tyler Allgeier, this can go downhill really fast for fantasy owners if they’re not careful. As I stated with McCaffrey, if you decide to go this route make sure you get Allgeier with him to assure that when Patterson goes down the kid will be there to pick up the reins.
Javonte Williams – ADP 17 – Undervalued – There’s a whole laundry list of things to look at when it comes to Javonte’s fantasy value. He’s only had one minor injury his entire career including college so far. He’s considered one of the most durable backs while his counter part in the form of Melvin Gordon is 29 and has come off an injury riddled year.
There were questions of if he would even come back and only signed a one-year deal. It’s clear the team knows Javonte is the future and you should too. To make things better, Javonte excels in the passing game and got a massive upgrade to quarterback this off season. Look for Williams to break out this year.
Chase Edmonds – ADP 34 – Undervalued – The Miami Dolphins signed three running backs this off season with the intention of rebuilding its backfield and the greatest addition out of all of them was Chase Edmonds. Miami has intentions of running the ball a lot. It’s the basis of how the 49ers were designed and with Mike McDaniel being the head coach, I can only assume a lot of those plays will be used in Miami.
Look for a lot of creativity to come out of the backfield opening up gaps and tricking defensive linemen. Even if Edmonds gets a few touchdowns lost to an occasional vulture, him being picked in the late second round of fantasy drafts brings a lot of value at this point in the draft and shouldn’t be overlooked.
Travis Etienne Jr. – ADP 60.1 – Undervalued – It’s hard to believe this man is falling as far as he is after not playing last year. We forget that he was the 25th overall drafted player only a year ago and already has chemistry with his quarterback. He was considered by many the best running back out of his draft class, breaking the rushing record in Clemson by nearly 1,000 yards. Etienne has explosive play capabilities and can be a league winner if all the stars align in Jacksonville. Do not miss this opportunity.