Running back rankings for XFL Week 2

Welcome to the Week 2 XFL rankings. Thankfully we have some snap and usage numbers to help guide us this week, so if there isn’t a ton of turnover, we should be a little more honed in for Saturday and Sunday’s games.

Running backs were fairly useless in Week 1, with only two topping 15 touches and two scoring from the ground. We deal with DraftKings scoring around here, so we also saw some value backs helped out by receptions, but no receiving back really broke out.

For now, we probably need to stick with the backs that saw the most snaps and touches, even if they didn’t put up good numbers. We do just have one game worth of data for each player, and opportunity is king in fantasy. A player like James Butler gets a big bump after scoring two touchdowns and leading the backfield in Week 1, but he still had just 11 touches in a pass-first offense.

De’Veon Smith had one of the better games in Week 1 despite not putting up many fantasy points. He rushed 16 times for 79 yards and caught one pass for eight yards, giving him the second-most touches and most yards for any running back in Week 1. If Aaron Murray and Nick Truesdell hadn’t sabotaged their scoring opportunities, he would have had more chances around the goal line as well.

Jhurell Pressley saw the third-most touches with 15, including three targets. The Defenders take on the Guardians who held the Vipers to three points, but they also allowed 150 rushing yards and 5 yards per carry.

Matt Jones saw 21 carries to lead the league, but we still need to worry about Christine Michael getting work and this week St. Louis plays the Roughnecks, who should be able to score more than the Phillip Nelson led Renegades. I expect St. Louis to still ru plenty, but they may be forced to pass more than last week.

Lance Dunbar led the league in running back receptions and had 11 touches despite not being listed on the depth chart. He ended up with more touches than starter Cameron Artis-Payne and in Bob Stoops pass-first offense, that could continue.

We saw quite a bit of Darius Victor in Week 1, as he had nine carries and three receptions to Tim Cook’s five touches. He split snaps, but appears to be the favorite for touches moving forward.

On DraftKings, Roughnecks wide receiver Nick Holley is considered a running back. His four receptions for 50 yards last week made him a Top-10 running back last week. He could be a consistent source of DraftKings running back points in Houston’s Run N’ Shoot.