2008 Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet – Running Backs

Our 2008 Quarterback Rankings are off and running but despite the fact that in real football quarterbacks are most important, we all know that Running Backs rule fantasy football. We spend our first couple rounds drafting backs so you need to choose wisely if you want to win your fantasy football league. Lets take a look at the 2008 Fantasy Football Running Back Rankings.

1. Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings
2. LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers
3. Brian Westbrook, Philadelphia Eagles
4. Steven Jackson, St. Louis Rams
5. Joseph Addai, Indianapolis Colts

Call it an upset but after a simply amazing rookie season, the Vikings Adrian Peterson tops our fantasy football cheat sheets by a nose over the Chargers LaDainian Tomlinson. If you were to argue that Tomlinson should be number one we wouldn’t lose any sleep over it, but if Peterson didn’t miss two games he would have outperformed LT in all categories… with less carries. If you get a chance to draft in the top five this season you wont be disappointed, we rank Eagles’ back Brian Westbrook slightly ahead of Steven Jackson, with Joseph Addai trailing only because of the possibility of a committee situation with Dominick Rhodes returning to Indy.

6. Marion Barber, Dallas Cowboys
7. Clinton Portis, Washington Redskins
8. Frank Gore, San Francisco 49ers
9. Larry Johnson, Kansas City Chiefs
10. Marshawn Lynch, Buffalo Bills

After the top five running backs there is a huge drop off in this year’s fantasy football cheat sheets, so if you can trade in to the top five picks… do it! If you can’t trade in the Cowboys Marion Barber has a nose for the end zone and should be the full time featured back in Big D. The Redskins’ Clinton Portis is a much better fantasy running back than people like to give him credit for, and could be on the board much longer than he should. The 49ers’ Frank Gore will look to bounce back from a disappointing 2007 and PPR leaguers should note that new 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz will see to it that Gore catches his share of passes out of the backfield.

11. Ronnie Brown, Miami Dolphins
12. Ryan Grant, Green Bay Packers
13. Willis McGahee, Baltimore Ravens
14. Reggie Bush, New Orleans Saints
15. Laurence Maroney, New England Patriots
16. Brandon Jacobs, New York Giants
17. Edgerrin James, Arizona Cardinals
18. Jamal Lewis, Cleveland Browns
19. Willie Parker, Pittsburgh Steelers
20. Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville Jaguars

Dolphins back Ronnie Brown was the best back in football for the first half of the season before a knee injury ended his season. With Jake Long added to an already decent offensive line, Brown could return to dominance if can stay healthy. If you can steal him in the second, (or better yet, the third round!) you may have the steal of the draft. The Patriots Laurence Maroney disappointed fantasy owners early on but came on strong at the end of the year posting two 100-yard games in the final two weeks and adding two more in the playoffs. Most fantasy owners wont remember that Jamal Lewis finished fifth in the league in rushing yards last season, but he falls to the middle of the draft with durability concerns.

21. Rudi Johnson, Cincinnati Bengals
22. Thomas Jones, New York Jets
23. Earnest Graham, Tampa Bay Bucs
24. Jonathan Stewart, Carolina Panthers
25. Michael Turner, Atlanta Falcons
26. LenDale White, Tennessee Titans
27. Darren McFadden, Oakland Raiders
28. Matt Forte, Chicago Bears
29. Fred Taylor, Jacksonville Jaguars
30. Kevin Smith, Detroit Lions

The final group in our top 30 is choc full of rookies with Panthers back Jonathan Stewart leading the list. Stewart is a big bruising back who should be able to work his way to the featured back role despite splitting carries with DeAngelo Williams. The Raiders’ Darren McFadden, Bears’ Matt Forte and Lions’ Kevin Smith all make their first appearance in our fantasy football cheat sheets and should all get the chance to start as rookies for their respective teams. All of these rookie running backs make good third running backs for your fantasy team in 2008.

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