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Tiers

Todd Gurley, Le'Veon Bell, David Johnson and Ezekiel Elliott are consistently taken within the first five picks, which puts them at the elite tier of RB1s. The next group of high-end RB1s would be Alvin Kamara, Kareem Hunt and Saquon Barkley. Leonard Fournette, Melvin Gordon, Christian McCaffrey and Dalvin Cook make up what should be the last three legit RB1 options in PPR formats.

After that, more questions pop up with Devonta Freeman (presence of Tevin Coleman), Jerick McKinnon (handling his biggest workload ever), Joe Mixon (bouncing back from a disappointing rookie season), LeSean McCoy (horrible team, off-field issues) and Jordan Howard (bad receiver, limited upside). This is a group of good RB2s with potential RB1 upside in Freeman, Mixon and possibly McKinnon.

Mark Ingram is in the middle of this mess. With a four-game suspension, he can't be back in the RB1 conversation for the entire season like he was in 2017. However, you could argue he'll get back into the RB1 conversation once he returns to action. He'll likely cost you a fourth-round pick, which is fine, if you plan accordingly for his absence.

The rest of the RB2 grouping is a mix of lead backs who don't play big enough roles to have a consistently high ceiling and pass-catching backs with high upside but low floors because they lack a big enough presence on the ground. The former group includes Alex Collins, Jay Ajayi, Kenyan Drake and Lamar Miller. Players like Chris Thompson and Dion Lewis represent the latter group.

Rookies

If anyone tells you not to trust rookies because they are unproven at the NFL level, tell them their lazy analysis cost them the No. 1 and 2 rushers from 2016 (Ezekiel Elliott and Jordan Howard) and the lead rusher in 2017, Kareem Hunt. This year provides another group of potential immediate contributors and/or starters. Besides the obvious stud in Saquon Barkley for the New York Giants at the top, Derrius Guice looks to be the next best rookie with a clear opening atop the depth chart for the Washington Redskins.

The next group would include Sony Michel of the New England Patriots, Rashaad Penny of the Seattle Seahawks, Ronald Jones of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Royce Freeman with the Denver Broncos. Michel will likely have to share the backfield with Rex Burkhead and James White all season. Even though he's a first-round pick, Penny could battle Chris Carson for touches throughout the season. Jones was drafted to be the starter in Tampa Bay, but Peyton Barber could stay in the mix, at least early in the season. The same could be said for Freeman as he attempts to hold off Devontae Booker.

Kerryon Johnson and Nick Chubb don't have clear paths in Detroit and Cleveland, respectively, but are arguably the most talented players in those backfields. Even if it takes longer for them to contribute, they will have fantasy value this season.

Breakout

Once again, Barkley is the obvious name to discuss here, yet with a first-round ADP, clearly no one needs convincing that he will be great from the jump. Because the rest of the rookies were covered as potential breakouts, my breakout is a second-year player who was misused as a rookie.

Tarik Cohen may have seen 15.1 percent of the target share for the Chicago Bears last season, but you could make the argument that wasn't high enough considering the lack of talent in the team's receiving corps. Cohen opened last season with four games of at least four targets and four receptions. He matched those same totals just four times the rest of the season. Eight of his 16 games resulted in one or two receptions.

Under new head coach Matt Nagy, Cohen should play a much more important role in the offense. Back in June, Nagy said of Cohen, per Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times, "You may look like you can run routes, but can you really run routes? He's able to run routes. Sometimes that can be a disadvantage to a defense because they've got to cover him all over the field. You can't just put him in the backfield and say to the middle linebacker, 'Cover him.' So we'll try to do some things there. He's an athletic kid who does a lot of things well. We'll have some fun with him."

The receiving corps in Chicago is far better than it was last season, yet based off Nagy's comments and the talent Cohen has, there is still a big role waiting for him in 2018. With an ADP of 76.2/RB28, you can take Cohen as an RB3 with the idea he can turn into an RB2.

Bust

The Tennessee Titans backfield was covered in the Big Board with Derrick Henry landing in the overvalued category, while Dion Lewis is a target based on value.

The presence of Lewis is more than enough reason to question why Henry has an ADP of 41.2 as RB19, especially since Lewis is going off the board with an ADP of 62/RB26. Last season, Henry was RB37 in PPR formats. Even though he should have had more carries than DeMarco Murray, Murray held just a 184-176 edge. Even if Henry sees an increase from his 39.7 percent target share last year, you shouldn't expect him to see much of an increase, if any, on the 17 targets he had in 2017.

The lack of presence in the passing game and addition of Lewis don't give Henry much margin for error. To take him as a fourth-round pick and consider him a reliable RB2 is asking a lot of a player who doesn't have a high ceiling. Henry will be useful, but he won't live up to his current draft value.

Targets

As discussed in the strategy section, your RB group will vary based on when you pick and how many RBs you come away with in the first round. Picking in the first half of the first round should afford you one of the players in the elite RB1 tier, but really anywhere in the first round should give you a chance to get a top back you feel good about to lead your team. Try to come away with at least one RB in the first three rounds who is a legit threat to get 100 total yards every week, preferably one who has a constant presence as a runner and a receiver.

From a cost standpoint, Ingram, Lewis and Cohen have a good chance of outplaying their current value. If you believe in going after the best situations, players outside of the first two rounds who get a boost from being on good teams include Jay Ajayi, Sony Michel and Tevin Coleman.