Top 10 week 1 fantasy football running backs, including Leonard Fournette

The lone bright spot on the Giants last season was rookie Saquon Barkley. The talented Giant had the 2nd highest number of fantasy points among all running backs in 2018 and scored less than ten fantasy points just twice all season. He’ll be the main focal point of the Giants offense again this season and enters week 1 as the top option at the position.

Mark Ingram is gone, which means Kamara will now take on a bigger role in the Saints offense, even with Latavius Murray in the lineup. In the first four games last season (without Ingram), Kamara averaged a whopping 24 fantasy points per game. Kamara starts with a good matchup at home against the Texans.

Now that the Cardinals have a real quarterback in Kyler Murray, it’s time to take David Johnson seriously again. New head coach Kliff Kingsbury has an offensive mind and will look to get Johnson more involved in what should be a far more productive Cardinals offense. Johnson has a good matchup against the Lions in week 1.

The Panthers are clearly in love with the talented running back, as he received 10 carries in almost every game last season. In addition, the Panthers running back caught a whopping 107 passes for 867 receiving yards, so he has huge involvement in the passing game as well. McCaffrey’s massive usage rate makes him a top ten play every week.

After week 12 last season, Dalvin Cook averaged the 7th most fantasy points among all running backs, proving that he can be a great performer when healthy. The dual threat running back has a great matchup in week 1 against a Falcons defense that struggled to stop the run in 2018.

With Bell gone, Conner becomes the number one option in Pittsburgh’s backfield. Conner was one of the highest scoring fantasy running backs in 2018 until he got hurt in week 13. Now he’ll come into the 2019 season healthy prior to a week 1 matchup against the Patriots. Conner will likely need to produce in the passing game, as he did last season, to have an effective day against New England.

Carlos Hyde entered the 2018 season as the feature back in Cleveland, but Chubb ended it as the feature one. From week 9 to week 16, Chubb scored at least 10 fantasy points in every game. Now he’ll enter the 2019 season as the clear main option in a much-improved offense, which will result in higher fantasy outputs. He’ll start the year against a tough Titans defense.

Nick Foles has entered Jacksonville as the new quarterback. With Foles at the helm, expect Jacksonville’s offense to take a small leap forward. That should help Leonard Fournette, who routinely sees eight men in the box on every play. The Jaguars will still lean on Fournette, especially to keep the ball away from the Chiefs, which should help him turn in an impressive week 1 fantasy performance.

It’s hard to predict what will happen with Gurley in 2019, as injuries plagued the end of his season. He will likely be healthy entering week 1, but there are still lingering injury concerns. Even if he is a little dinged up, he is certainly a top 10 running back in week 1 against the Panthers.

The New York Jets went out and signed Bell after he held out from the Steelers. Now he’ll have a chance to prove that he wasn’t just a product of the Steelers system against a tough defense in the Buffalo Bills. It’s going to be tough to move the ball against this team, so Bell owners will need a touchdown for a start to be worth it.