Top 5 Running Backs To Avoid In 2015

                      Yes it is finally that time of the year, football season is rearing up we are about a week away from preseason and the beginning of most fantasy drafts. If you are looking to get the most out of your fantasy draft this season, and try to avoid being the guy that picks a bust with your top 5 pick in your draft here is some advice on some of the higher ranked running backs in the league you may want to avoid.



5. ADRIAN PETERSON - ADP 2.0

              Now do not get me wrong I think AP is a beast, but with an ADP (Average Draft Position) of 2.0 is not what you want to pay for him right now. In 2014 Mr. Peterson had the very same ADP and yours truly ended up taking him 2nd overall in my draft going against my gut feeling to draft Demarco Murray, and after 1 mediocre game from AP i found myself without a RB 1 for the rest of the season after he was not allowed to play after child abuse allegations. Now not saying he will have some kind of allegations come up again preventing him to be relevant, but after a year off and being another year older and with the 24th ranked offensive line blocking for him you got to wonder how he is still projected as the 2nd overall pick. Given the choice at 2nd overall again this year i would skip right over him and go with Eddie Lacy. I would expect AP to be a round 2 pick ALL DAY.



4. ARIAN FOSTER - ADP 7.0

              Looking at Foster's career, He has been quite consistent. Getting 1200+ yards 4 times out of his 6 years in the league. But this is now his 7th year in the league and 3rd year with the dreaded Hammy issue. We have seen some amazingly great and consistent players lose it all when the Hammy issue comes up. So with him battling this injury i would expect a bit of a drop in his work load from last year (260 attempts in 13 games) and become a candidate for splitting a bit more with Alfred Blue. I would suggest passing on Arian for CJ Anderson....and if for some reason Lynch is still there ...you got yourself a steal.



3. MATT FORTE - ADP 7.5 

       Now the avoidance of  Forte is not fully his fault. He is probably the most constant active RB in the league right now . He has run for just about 1000 yards every year of his 7 year career. Two things about him personally about him is what worries me, his age and workload. Hate to say it but hes due for an injury not saying its a guarantee he just has history against him right now. But if he is somehow able to avoid injury 2 other things worry me his 22nd ranked offensive line and his terrible quarterback. So would say "good their QB stinks, so they will run more." But that is not the case in Chicago they seem to give Cutler the ball more and more allowing him to put them in huge holes and then abandoning the running game and then giving all the work to the Garbage Time King. This year I would avoid forte and maybe take a shot with Lesean McCoy in Rex's Bills.




2. JEREMY HILL - ADP 10.5

         Jeremy is a 2nd year guy who looks like he has a promising future with some quick feet expect big things from him .... Sound familiar? Well its the same exact thing they were saying about Gio Bernard not a year ago. Granted Gio got hurt and Jeremy made his most of his shot but don't expect the Bengals to not include Gio at all in this offense. I SMELL COMMITTEE. Most likely a 50/50 split here. So if you are looking for a starting RB Cincinnati is not the place to look. I would suggest looking at the rookie Gordon at this draft position. Me personally i traded Hill in my dynasty league.




1. DEMARCO MURRAY - ADP 8.8 


       Last season everyone wanted to blame the refs or Bryant for losing against the Packers in the divisional round, But in all reality the loss stemmed from yet another fumble from Murray. Murray caught a case of the fumbles in his career best season in 2014. Murray fumbled a total of 6 times, worse he lost all 6 of the fumbles. He fumbled one less time last season than he did the rest of his career. With that being said he also had a career high 392 attempts in the regular season plus another 44 in the post season. There have been only 5 other running backs to have 400 plus attempts in a season and only one who continued with good production the following year, Eric Dickerson. Demarco has a few other things against him as well heading in to the 2015 season. He no longer has the cowboys offensive line. Not saying the Eagle's line is bad, but I am saying they are not the Dallas O-line. He also has competition Ryan Mathews is just like Murray he has been battling injuries his  whole career but both can be productive when healthy so a committee here is very likely.

Lastly Chip Kelly lets face it this is the NFL and the NFL has prove to Chip this is not college and Murray and Mathews have both proven to not be able to stay healthy in regular offenses so an upbeat faster offense may be detrimental to both. I would suggest skipping right over Murray and aiming for McCoy or even Gordon








Good luck to all you Fantasy owners and hopefully the advice given here today will prevent you from being that guy that the rest of the owners ridicule over your terrible first round pick.