Fantasy Football: Week 3 rest of season rankings

I’m sorry for those of you who landed a top-2 pick this year.

Has this ever happened to you? You roll up to the draft cocky because you have the best thing you could get on draft night: a sure thing, a guaranteed baller to lead your fantasy team every week of the season. Maybe you’re even in a fun league and you won some sort of competition for that top pick. You’re feeling great headed into the draft. You’ll never have to worry about one spot in your lineup; that spot is going to always outscore your opponent’s counterpart. Well, almost.

Because as awesome as it to gaze upon your CMC or Saquon Barkley-headlined lineup post-draft, there’s no such thing as a sure thing in the NFL. Your top pick goes down week 2, and to make matters worse, you picked Kenny Golladay and George Kittle at the turn, and now your team is a huge mess, to no fault of your own.

Chaos reigned in Week 2, leaving many teams in tatters. Fantasy owners are in desperation, hoping to find some waiver wire gold or at the very least, a beneficial trade to save their season. Maybe you’re one of these owners, maybe you just want to know how valuable your players are compared to in draft season. Either way, these rest of season rankings should help you figure out which players you should buy, hold or sell at this point in the season. Many teams will be looking to trade right now, and you can exploit owners who overvalue your players or undervalue their own.

I’m going to list my rest of season PPR rankings for RB, WR, QB, and TE, while highlighting certain players that I think you should keep an eye on. Next to each ranking will be a comparison to my ranking of that player during draft season, so you’ll be able to see the biggest risers and fallers of the first two weeks. At the end of this article, I’ll sum up my favorite buy/sell candidates. Let’s get it started with the top-15 rest-of-season running backs.

Running Backs 1-15

Dalvin Cook saved each of his first two games with garbage time TDs, and I am officially worried about the god-awful offense the Vikings have somehow become in 2020. However, it’s hard to imagine the Vikings playing much worse, and Cook still managed to produce RB1 numbers in those disgusting games, so I still believe that he’s the third best running back to own.

Miles Sanders, Josh Jacobs, and Aaron Jones all look like workhorses this year, but I would sell high on Jones if possible. He boom-and-busted his way to RB2 overall last year, so remember that he’s currently being valued without a bust game in recent memory.

Rookie of the Year candidate Jonathan Taylor should absolutely be seen as an RB1 for the rest of the season (ROS), as he’s got the full package: tons of talent, massive opportunity, a great offensive line, and an easy schedule. Plus, he’s being involved more than anticipated in the passing game. Buy Taylor if your league mates haven’t caught on to his value yet. By the way, his fellow rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire is still carving out his role in the Chiefs offense, and we certainly haven’t seen his full potential realised yet. He should still be valued as a top-6 option.

Speaking of buy-candidates, don’t write off Kenyan Drake just yet. He has a much easier schedule ahead of him, with the Lions, Panthers and Jets all viable opportunities to become some of his classic explosion games. If you’re looking for a running back to give up on, look no further than Joe Mixon. He still passes the eye test with flying colors, but his situation is nothing short of tragic. His offensive line is atrocious and Gio Bernard is somehow still stealing passing-down work. I don’t have faith in Mixon becoming an RB1 this season, so I would try to sell his name value if possible.