Fantasy Football Week 14 Running Back Rankings: Is Austin Ekeler still a must-start RB?

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Fantasy Football draft season is in the distant past at this point, but I still think it's interesting to look back as we get ready for Week 14.

Back in August and September, we were drafting six running backs in the first round on average: Christian McCaffrey, Austin Ekeler, Bijan Robinson, Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, and Saquon Barkley, with Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard also going inside of the first 15 picks in CBS Fantasy Average Draft Position data. Of those six, Chubb has been out for the season for a while, but the rest have managed to stay pretty healthy – Barkley and Ekeler missed time early on, but both are on track to play more than a dozen games. So it's kind of shocking how few of them are true must-start options as the Fantasy Football playoffs loom.

McCaffrey obviously is; he's arguably the best player in Fantasy at this point. And Robinson belongs in your lineup every week, despite some frustrating usage along the way; he has at least 19 touches in three straight games, while playing basically 70% of the snaps every week and maintaining his efficiency. If Robinson hasn't been everything we hoped he would be, that's only because expectations were so high for his rookie season.

Beyond those two? Yeah, you might have some decisions to make about the rest of them. Okay, probably not with Pollard, who has been the beneficiary of some well-timed touchdown regression over the past few weeks that has reminded us once again of how good he can be in this offense. It's not an ideal matchup for him in Week 14 against the Eagles, who held him to just 9.3 PPR points in their previous matchup. However, this Cowboys offense is firing on all cylinders right now, and the Eagles defense just isn't the fearsome unit they were last season. There's no guarantee Pollard extends his scoring streak to four games, but I just don't think you can sit him when he's finally rolling.

And you're probably starting Barkley and Jacobs, but they're definitely not no-doubt-about-it guys anymore. Barkley is getting good, but not elite usage of late, with 12, 14, 13, and 16 carries over his past four games, while averaging fewer than three catches per game in that stretch. Add in that the Giants offense just isn't very good (and he has just two touchdowns in his past five games as a result) and he's very much a volume-based RB2. Jacobs seems like a safer bet for volume in the running game, with at least 20 carries in three of four games since Josh McDaniels' firing, though that's come with a drawback, too, as Jacobs has just seven catches in those four games. McDaniels' offense created a lot of early-down opportunities for running backs in the passing game, and that hasn't been there for Jacobs lately.

You're probably still starting both, but you'll have decision to make, with the likes of Kyren Williams, Zack Moss, Rachaad White, and Isiah Pacheco emerging over the course of the season as better bets. And I actually feel better about both than I do Ekeler or Henry, though for slightly different reasons. Henry left Sunday's game to be checked for a concussion,and though he wasn't in the protocol as of Monday, there's still some concern here in the coming days. Add in a matchup against Miami that figures to see the Titans chasing points, and this could be one of those weeks where Tyjae Spears out-snaps Henry, something that was unthinkable before this season, but has happened five times already.

As for Ekeler … he just doesn't look right. Maybe he's just lost it at 28, or we're seeing the lingering effects of that early-season high-ankle sprain, but he just doesn't look explosive as a runner. And the Chargers are using him less as a receiver than ever in Kellen Moore's offense, despite significant injury issues across their receiving corps. Add it all up, and Ekeler is averaging just 7.0 PPR points per game over his past three. He has a great matchup against the Broncos, who have been gashed for more rushing yards per game than any team in the league, and that's probably enough to keep Ekeler in your starting lineup. But I just can't view him as the must-start guy we've gotten used to him being, especially with the Chargers talking about using more of a committee approach at running back.

That group of running backs has dominated the top of Fantasy drafts for the better part of the past half-decade, if not longer, and we've been wondering when the changing of the guard might happen. It seems we're in the middle of it, and it's raising some fascinating questions about how the first round of Fantasy drafts are going to look next year. These players are all mostly still useful, but only McCaffrey looks like he might carry you to a championship. It's been quite a fall off for this group.

Here are my full rankings for Week 14 at running back for PPR leagues: