Fantasy Football Divisional Round Running Back Rankings: Does Jahmyr Gibbs, Derrick Henry, or Saquon Barkley Claim the Top Spot?

Welcome back to this weekly playoff breakdown of which running backs to start in your fantasy football contests. Last week, I went two for three on my Start/Sit picks: James Cook managed to outpace a good game from Joe Mixon and Austin Ekeler easily cleared Rachaad White, but I predicted the Broncos’ backfield wrong for the 18th time in a row. Thankfully, the Broncos are now eliminated — good riddance, from a fantasy perspective. 

In fact, as we are now down to just six teams, I am going to pivot from a traditional X vs. Y Start/Sit format to ranking the fantasy-relevant running backs. There simply aren’t that many of them, so this shouldn’t take too long. Let’s get started!

Can’t find your own tough decision here? Use the NFL Start/Sit Tool for yourself to see what choice is recommended by experts, projections, and other managers!

Tier 1: Gods Among Men

1. Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagles

Saquon has absolutely everything going for him this week. He has the Eagles’ backfield on lock, and they are favored six points against a Rams team that can absolutely be beaten on the ground. He's also one of the best backs in the league behind at worst the second-best offensive line. There’s not much else to say. 

2. Jahmyr Gibbs, Detroit Lions

Gibbs would have given Barkley a run for his money (and probably earned the top spot), but the return of David Montgomery calls his volume slightly into question. Even still, Gibbs is an elite weapon who should see solid usage on a team with a truly absurd 33.5-point team total. He’s a smash option in all formats. 

3. Derrick Henry, Baltimore Ravens

It may be treasonous for me to doubt the King like this, but I almost bumped Henry down to the next tier. For as incredible as his season has been, he is still a one-dimensional back with a negligible role in the Ravens’ passing game. In games where Baltimore fails to establish their will, which is certainly possible this week, his role is reduced. However, we saw him gash this same Bills team, which does have issues in run defense, for 199 yards on the ground back in Week 4, and he obviously has massive TD equity in Baltimore’s offense. Henry is still a great play this week, even if he isn’t quite as strong as Gibbs and Barkley — maybe he deserves his own Tier 1.5? 

Tier 2: Bad Offense Workhorses & Elite Offense Committee Members

4. James Cook, Buffalo Bills

If I did create a Tier 1.5 for Henry, Cook would probably also find his way into it. In many ways, the two lead RBs in the game of the week this week are very similar. Like Henry, Cook hovers around the 50% snap share mark and doesn’t see true bell-cow volume (Henry sees elite rushing usage but hardly any work in the passing game, while Cook is a dual-threat back but averaged just 12.9 carries per game). Again like Henry, Cook has overcome his non-ideal usage with truly elite efficiency. Even while playing alongside Josh Allen, he tied for second in the league in touchdowns (with Henry, of course) at 18. Even in a tough matchup with the Ravens, Cook is a solid bet to rack up some fantasy points. 

5. Kyren Williams, Los Angeles Rams

With Blake Corum done for the season, Kyren Williams is the Rams’ backfield. He came off the field for just six snaps in the Wild Card Round. Ronnie Rivers did record three carries in those six snaps, but all three came on the Rams’ final drive of the game after the Vikings had waved the white flag. As long as this game is close, we can expect Kyren to get every single touch Sean McVay’s offense has to offer. The issue is that he will be getting those touches against the Eagles’ elite defense, which ranked as the second-worst schedule-adjusted opponent for running backs this season. Kyren should still have the volume to have at least a decent day, but there are plenty of potential game scripts where he doesn’t get much more. 

6. Joe Mixon, Houston Texans

Take everything I just said about Kyren and repeat it for Mixon. He saw 27 of the Texans’ 30 RB opportunities in the Wild Card round, and we can expect more of the same this week. But where Kyren faces the second-worst schedule-adjusted matchup, Mixon faces the first in the Kansas City Chiefs. I also have less faith overall in the Texans’ offense than in the Rams’. Vegas agrees, giving Houston an embarrassingly low 16.5-point team total. Volume is king, so Mixon is still a top-six option … but it might be ugly. 

7. David Montgomery, Detroit Lions

Just a month after straining his MCL in what initially seemed to be a season-ending injury, David Montgomery is back for the Lions. He practiced in full multiple times this week and isn’t even on Detroit’s injury report heading into their Saturday matchup with the Commanders. This implies that he is 100% healthy and should see his usual workload, and I’m inclined to believe it. That workload on this elite Detroit offense allowed Montgomery to average 15.2 Half-PPR points in his healthy games. If anything, that number implies he should land higher on this list. But I’ll leave him at the bottom of Tier 2, as there are some reasons for caution. Maybe he isn’t his usual self, maybe he’s pulled early if the Lions get a big lead, or maybe Detroit leans more on Gibbs in a must-win playoff game. If none of those things happen, "Knuckles" could easily outperform this spot. 

Tier 3: The Chiefs

8. Isiah Pacheco, Kansas City Chiefs

9. Kareem Hunt, Kansas City Chiefs

Kansas City’s two lead running backs get a tier to themselves, and they are very similar options. They settled into a perfect 50/50 split following Isiah Pacheco’s return from injury, seeing equal workloads in essentially every way. I would have expected Pacheco to eventually crowd out Hunt, who was inefficient in his time as KC’s starter, but the third-year RB hasn’t been particularly efficient himself in recent weeks. With that said, there’s a chance that two weeks off was enough time for Pacheco to return to his more explosive self, which is why he gets the nod ahead of Hunt within this tier. Both are valid options, though, as the Chiefs are huge 8.5-point favorites against the Texans.

Tier 4: The Commanders & Third-Down RBs

10. Austin Ekeler, Washington Commanders

11. Brian Robinson Jr., Washington Commanders

This duo of Commanders backs is very comparable to the Chiefs’ pairing. They are also in a near-perfect 50/50 split, with Ekeler seeing slightly more receiving work and Robinson leading the way on the ground. And, just like in Kansas City, the younger, theoretically more explosive back has been struggling in recent weeks: Robinson has averaged less than three yards per carry over his last five games, including just 16 yards on 10 attempts last week against the Buccaneers. With both recent efficiency and game script (the Commanders are big underdogs on the road in Detroit) favoring him, Ekeler gets the nod above his backfield counterpart. 

12. Justice Hill, Baltimore Ravens

Honestly, I wanted to rank Hill higher than this. He is a legitimately real part of the Ravens’ offense, coming off a 19% target share in the Wild Card game. And his usage only gets better in competitive matchups, which this absolutely should be. Even better, the Bills give up the most receiving yards per game to opposing running backs in the league, a perfect setup for Hill’s role. With that said, Hill is still clearly a part-time player, usually seeing just a few carries and a few targets per game, so I’m not able to justify ranking him any higher … but I want to.

13. Ty Johnson, Buffalo Bills

Johnson is essentially just like Hill, although he doesn’t have the same juicy matchup (the Ravens were weak against receiving backs, but not league-worst like the Bills). But, especially with rookie RB Ray Davis looking likely to miss this game with a concussion, Johnson has a meaningful role in the Bills’ offense. He made arguably the play of the week last week with a sliding TD catch in the back of the end zone, which was one of his 11 opportunities (nine carries and two targets) on the day. Like Hill, Johnson can be expected to see a handful of carries and a few targets, and he has been successful of late at turning that usage into decent fantasy outings.

14. Samaje Perine, Kansas City Chiefs

I would like to start by emphasizing that Perine is not the same level of play as Johnson and Hill this week. Yes, he is also the primary passing-down back for one of the big three AFC teams, but his overall role is much smaller. I debated both giving him his own fifth tier and leaving him off this list entirely, but he is just involved enough to deserve mention over the remaining backs on this slate. With that said, he scored double-digit Half-PPR points just once all season and scored fewer than 4.0 points in seven of the Chiefs’ final eight games. He is only in play if you are absolutely desperate or trying to get weird in a DFS contest. 

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasySP. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.