Last week I ran an item on Buffalo running backs, showing how they haven't had an elite fantasy performer at the position in the last five years (also known as the Josh Allen era). They're not the only team that's underperformed in this regard.
There was a question as to whether any other team had a less impactful running back the past five years than Buffalo, whose top performer was Devin Singletary. He was 89th overall (in PPR scoring) across those seasons.
Turns out there is one team who had a lower-performing player. And also that the AFC East as a whole has been remarkably bad at producing top running backs in those seasons.
The one team that was worse than Buffalo is the Houston Texans. Their best PPR back the last five years is David Johnson, who was the 21st-best fantasy back in 2020, and checked in at 111th overall since 2018.
Two other teams that were nearly as bad as Buffalo are the Jets and Dolphins. LeVeon Bell (2019) and Kenyan Drake (2018) were those teams' best backs the last five years, finishing slightly higher in the overall rankings than Singletary. The AFC's fourth team, the Patriots, was the only team to put a running back in the top 60 overall, and fittingly it's a guy best known for his receiving rather than his running. James White rushed for only 425 yards in 2018, but he caught 87 passes and scored 12 TDs, finishing 7th at the position that season. Receiving production and PPR scoring count for a lot.
Table shows each team's best fantasy back in the last five seasons, sorted by their overall ranking. (Their ranking at the position in those big seasons is also shown.) Two guys (Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette) were the best backs for two different teams in that time period. McCaffrey started the year for Carolina, but played a majority of the season in San Francisco, and would have made this list even if I removed his Panthers stats. San Francico's 2nd-best back in those years was 2019 Raheem Mostert.
BEST FANTASY BACKS BY TEAM, 2018-2022 | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | Run | No | Rec | TD | PPR | Rk | Ov |
2019 | Christian McCaffrey, Car. | 1387 | 116 | 1005 | 19 | 471.2 | 1 | 1 |
2018 | Saquon Barkley, NYG | 1307 | 91 | 721 | 15 | 385.8 | 2 | 3 |
2022 | Austin Ekeler, LAC | 915 | 107 | 722 | 18 | 378.7 | 1 | 4 |
2020 | Alvin Kamara, N.O. | 932 | 83 | 756 | 21 | 377.8 | 1 | 5 |
2021 | Jonathan Taylor, Ind. | 1811 | 40 | 360 | 20 | 377.1 | 1 | 6 |
2018 | Todd Gurley, LAR | 1251 | 59 | 580 | 21 | 374.1 | 3 | 7 |
2022 | Christian McCaffrey, S.F. | 1139 | 85 | 741 | 13 | 356.7 | 2 | 8 |
2020 | Dalvin Cook, Min. | 1557 | 44 | 361 | 17 | 343.8 | 2 | 11 |
2020 | Derrick Henry, Ten. | 2027 | 19 | 114 | 17 | 337.1 | 3 | 12 |
2018 | Ezekiel Elliott, Dall. | 1434 | 77 | 567 | 9 | 331.1 | 5 | 13 |
2022 | Josh Jacobs, L.V. | 1653 | 53 | 400 | 12 | 330.3 | 3 | 14 |
2019 | Aaron Jones, G.B. | 1084 | 49 | 474 | 19 | 318.8 | 2 | 15 |
2021 | Najee Harris, Pitt. | 1200 | 74 | 467 | 10 | 300.7 | 3 | 19 |
2021 | Joe Mixon, Cin. | 1205 | 42 | 314 | 16 | 289.9 | 4 | 22 |
2022 | Nick Chubb, Cle. | 1525 | 27 | 239 | 13 | 283.4 | 6 | 25 |
2018 | James White, N.E. | 425 | 87 | 751 | 12 | 276.6 | 7 | 26 |
2020 | David Montgomery, Chi. | 1070 | 54 | 438 | 10 | 266.8 | 4 | 28 |
2019 | Leonard Fournette, Jac. | 1152 | 76 | 522 | 3 | 261.4 | 7 | 29 |
2021 | James Conner, Ariz. | 752 | 37 | 375 | 18 | 257.7 | 5 | 32 |
2021 | Leonard Fournette, T.B. | 812 | 69 | 454 | 10 | 255.6 | 6 | 33 |
2019 | Mark Ingram, Balt. | 1018 | 26 | 247 | 15 | 246.5 | 10 | 42 |
2019 | Chris Carson, Sea. | 1230 | 37 | 266 | 9 | 240.6 | 12 | 46 |
2021 | Antonio Gibson, Was. | 1037 | 42 | 294 | 10 | 237.1 | 8 | 49 |
2021 | Cordarrelle Patterson, Atl. | 618 | 52 | 548 | 11 | 234.6 | 10 | 52 |
2018 | Kareem Hunt, K.C. | 824 | 26 | 378 | 14 | 230.2 | 12 | 55 |
2022 | Jamaal Williams, Det. | 1066 | 12 | 73 | 17 | 229.9 | 12 | 57 |
2018 | Phillip Lindsay, Den. | 1037 | 35 | 241 | 10 | 222.8 | 13 | 62 |
2022 | Miles Sanders, Phil. | 1269 | 20 | 78 | 11 | 220.7 | 15 | 63 |
2019 | LeVeon Bell, NYJ | 789 | 66 | 461 | 4 | 217.0 | 16 | 68 |
2018 | Kenyan Drake, Mia. | 535 | 53 | 477 | 9 | 208.2 | 14 | 76 |
2021 | Devin Singletary, Buff. | 870 | 40 | 228 | 8 | 197.8 | 20 | 89 |
2020 | David Johnson, Hou. | 691 | 33 | 314 | 8 | 181.5 | 21 | 111 |
--Andy Richardson