Fantasy football rankings 2015: Running backs for standard leagues, Week 5

Remember Week 3? Eight different running backs put up 20-plus points in standard fantasy leagues that week, ranging from Devonta Freeman at 37 to Frank Gore at 20. It was a high-scoring week all around, leading to some epic production in regular leagues and some insane winning scores in the weekly games.

Well, Week 4 quieted all that. The number of 20-plus scorers was cut in half in Week 4, with only Le’Veon Bell, Chris Ivory, Jeremy Hill and Freeman (yes, him again) pulling the trick. Scoring went down around the league as well, with teams averaging 24.5 points a game in Week 3 down to 21.8 in Week 4.

Eight guys scoring 20-plus is rare. In the last two seasons, Week 3 was only the second time it has happened in the last two seasons, joining Week 14 of last year, when nine guys did it (including Bell at 41, because that was the middle of his god-among-men phase).

In short, you aren’t looking for guys who put up 20-plus every week. If you get it, neat, but heck, Jonas Gray, Andre Ellington, Matt Asiata and Lamar Miller were some of those producers last year. It can be pretty unpredictable.

No, what you’re targeting each week is two-digit numbers that start with “1.” If you get that from both your running backs each week, you’ll win more than you’ll lose. It’s why I’ve been periodically tracking on Twitter, the performers who have repeatedly put up such games over the season. Double digits are key. I’ll recreate it here.

We’re now four weeks into the season. Only one player, Jamaal Charles, has reached double digits in four games, with an asterisk for Dion Lewis, who has done it in every game he’s played but had a Week 4 bye. So let’s look at the players who have put up double-digit fantasy numbers in at least three games so far:

Jamaal Charles, Chiefs: What is there to say? Seventeen fantasy points a game. Totally justifying every pick used on him.

Matt Forte, Bears: He’s Matt Forte. He’s great. If he gets traded, he gets traded. You can’t plan on that, but if it happens, he’ll go somewhere where he’ll be Matt Forte, and he’ll be great.

Devonta Freeman, Falcons: ESPN reported he was the first running back to ever score three TDs in each of his first two starts, which is misleading, since Freeman didn’t get his first start until Week 3 of his second season. Regardless, the dude has a nice total of 69 fantasy points the last two weeks. Tevin Coleman’s return will matter, but only so much.

Mark Ingram, Saints: Ingram was actually the inspiration for this. He’s not crushing people. His maximum score has been 15 points. But he’s had at least nine every week, and if you could fill your RB and flex spots with a bunch of Mark Ingrams, you’d win far more than you’d lose.

David Johnson, Cardinals: The rookie has only reached 10 touches in a game once, and it was the one game he didn’t reach 10. His performance reads as so fluky, and the impending return of Andre Ellington could end this string here.

Dion Lewis, Patriots: Week 1: No LeGarrette Blount. Week 2: Facing the Bills, who could solve LeGarrette Blount more easily than Lewis. Week 3: Yardage cut almost in half, but scored a touchdown. The trend isn’t great for Lewis, who will have his moments but will share with Blount.

Adrian Peterson, Vikings: Bye in Week 5, but has justified a lot of his draft picks. He’s still not getting targeted like many say, but I’ll accept that (so far, at least) I was wrong to label him a bust.

Karlos Williams, Bills: He was the only running back to have a rushing TD in each of the first three weeks, and added another in Week 4. If he’s healthy and LeSean McCoy isn’t, he’s a sure start every week. Big if, but still.

Honorable mention goes to Le’Veon Bell, who has played two games since his suspension and had 19 and 20 in the two.

Now, onto our Week 5 running backs for standard leagues. The wild card in this week’s rankings is the aforementioned Karlos Williams. It came out on Tuesday that Williams is dealing with a concussion, bringing his Week 5 status into question. Concussions are more binary than other injuries. If Williams is cleared, he’s playing and he’s probably fine, and if he isn’t, he won’t play at all. There’s no “he’s playing, but at less than full strength” there. And there’s no way from here for us to guess at his concussion recovery. So our approach is to go at the rankings as though he’s playing. Obviously, if it comes out later in the week that Williams isn’t playing ... don’t use him.

(DK: Daniel Kelley; AM: Andrew Miller; JD: John Daigle; SK: Scott Kaliska; Dan Ciarrocchi has the week off. Carolina, Miami, Minnesota and the New York Jets are on bye)

SB Nation presents: NFL Week 5 sit/start fantasy football advice