Below is my personal set of 2009 Fantasy Football Running Back Tier Rankings — For those of you that have already drafted, target these players accordingly via trade. If you still have a draft or two left in the coming days, use these rankings heading into your draft. Tier-based rankings are helpful in fantasy football because it lets you know how far apart some runners are in value from other runners. For example, below I have Steven Jackson ranked #6 overall and Frank Gore #7 overall (which you will see in part 2 of this article tomorrow). At a glance on a normal set of fantasy football rankings, Jackson and Gore would look very close in value, given they are side-by-side at #6 and #7, yet Jackson is in a tier above Gore in my view. I like both, and both have huge upside, but there is a significant difference and that’s the point and upside of using a tier-based system when organizing your rankings.

Note: These rankings are based of a non-PPR format, standard scoring.

2009 Fantasy Football Running Back Tiers

TIER ONE – Running Backs 1. Adran Peterson

Adrian Peterson could arguably be in his own tier, but for now it’s tough to isolate the stud away from the strong handful of runners listed below him. Any of the running backs listed below in this first tier could crank out 15TDs this season. I’m not saying that all of them will, but two or three of the six first-tier runners should have 15+ scores and that’s why they all belong together in one tier (but ranked within). Peterson is by far …

… [ ]

Read original blog post