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Come Fan with UsSunday, June 21, 2026

Fantasy Football Running Back Rankings Week 1: Jamaal Charles No. 1, Frank Gore No. 2

Fantasy football is just about to start. This year, SB Nation has hooked up with numberFire.com to bring you player projections each week. Enjoy the Top 25 runningback rankings.

Week One: Top 25 Fantasy Football Running backs

SB Nation has partnered with numberFire.com this year to bring you a new set of fantasy football player projections. For more details on the algorithmic modeling and analysis that helps create these weekly projections, head over to numberFire.com. But, they’ve shown to be accurate in 2010, so we’ll take look at 2011.

Running backs are the solid workhorses of your fantasy team. They’re the ones you depend on week-in and week-out to fill up the fantasy boxscore with yards and touchdowns. Some may even throw in some receiving help. So who is going to bust out in week one?

Jamaal Charles, who had his own bust out season last year, looks to chew up what is seen as a weak Bills defense. Based on that, he holds the top spot among the ball carriers. Familiar names follow, studs like Frank Gore, Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson.

Arian Foster is unranked at this point based on his injury situation. If he plays, you got to start him, but keep an eye out for his status, it could come down to game-time on Sunday.

Projections based on a standard scoring league.

Running Backs
Player Fantasy Points
Jamaal Charles (RB, KC) 17.66
Frank Gore (RB, SF) 15.90
Chris Johnson (RB, TEN) 15.77
Adrian Peterson (RB, MIN) 15.61
Darren McFadden (RB, OAK) 15.31
Ray Rice (RB, BAL) 15.06
Peyton Hillis (RB, CLE) 14.11
Steven Jackson (RB, STL) 14.11
Michael Turner (RB, ATL) 12.76
Ahmad Bradshaw (RB, NYG) 12.55
Felix Jones (RB, DAL) 12.45
Lesean McCoy (RB, PHI) 12.30
Fred Jackson (RB, BUF) 11.90
Matt Forte (RB, CHI) 11.87
Cedric Benson (RB, CIN) 11.65
Maurice Jones-Drew (RB, JAX) 11.07
LeGarrette Blount (RB, TB) 10.65
Jahvid Best (RB, DET) 10.54
Mark Ingram (RB, NO) 10.45
Rashard Mendenhall (RB, PIT) 10.23
Ryan Grant (RB, GB) 10.15
Shonn Greene (RB, NYJ) 10.04
BenJarvus Green-Ellis (RB, NE) 10.00
Deangelo Williams (RB, CAR) 9.85
Knowshon Moreno (RB, DEN) 9.42
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