Who are the RBs we would be happy building our team around in the hero RB build? As a baseline, your hero RB is a player who has to be dependable and who will give you RB1 numbers week-in and week-out – and preferably be a high-end RB1. This is a running back that you grab very early in your draft (think first or second round) so that you’re able to focus on other positions in the next 4 or 5 rounds to start your draft
An easy way for this to happen to you is if your pick winds up being inside the top-7 or 8 in the first round of your fantasy draft. There are obvious big names at all the positions (WR and RB being the most popular in non-superflex formats), but for the most part the big three at running back this year includes Christian McCaffrey, Breece Hall, and Bijan Robinson. Insert tier break. Those three are the running backs that I would be most comfortable with implementing a hero-RB strategy with; all of them have their workloads locked in while operating on presumably high-end offenses.
For what it’s worth, I’d also personally add Kyren Williams to that list – but there are a lot of people out there who seem to think Blake Corum ends up being more of a 1B than a breather back for Kyren. Sean McVay loves Kyren, and he was also super efficient last year, too.
There’s also a case for these guys as your hero RB too, but each of them has at least one or two things working against them that the guys above don’t:
Jahmyr Gibbs, DET
Jonathan Taylor, IND
Saquon Barkley, NYG
Derrick Henry, BAL (maybe…)
The good thing about hero RB as opposed to zero RB is that you’re not just leaving your hopes up to shaky RBs - if you grab your first RB in round 5 or 6, there’s a reason why they’re going that late; their upside isn’t guaranteed like a hero RB’s is. The only negative around hero RB is that you are taking the risk that an early asset has a higher chance of getting hurt because they’re a RB. Lose your first pick of the draft, and you’re immediately in the hole each week at running back. It’s a great strategy when players stay healthy, but be prepared to ride the rollercoaster if your running back is the lucky winner who gets injured often.