January 14th of 2020 I updated my Dynasty running back rankings for the first time after the 2019 season. Back then I didn’t do in-season rankings updates, so it was the first time Christian McCaffrey was listed as my No. 1 Dynasty running back (he was RB4 heading into 2019). And until today, he hadn’t moved once. 21 months is a pretty good run, but–for now– McCaffrey is giving up the crown to Jonathan Taylor.
At first, after I updated all the numbers, I thought it might be a bit hasty to remove McCaffrey from the No. 1 spot. After all, he could return in three weeks and be the best running back in football again. So, I ran a Twitter poll with my top-three running backs in the updated rankings below and it turns out I’m higher than the public on McCaffrey, not lower.
I’m not ready to drop McCaffrey out of my top-two yet but I do think there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about whether the flurry of injuries he’s experienced the past two years will impact his explosiveness or his coach’s intentions. I wouldn’t rule out a 20% decrease in workload, which would probably drop McCaffrey out of the top-five in Dynasty.
Of course, this isn’t all about McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor is still just 22 years old and he’s produced 1,500 total yards and 13 touchdowns in his last 12 games. He’s been much better in the passing game than I expected and he’s flashed in the running game exactly how I expected. With the nature of this game, it would be surprising if he lasted atop these rankings as long as McCaffrey did, but he’s by far the most likely candidate to be ranked No. 1 in January of next year.
Here are my complete Dynasty running back rankings:
