Fantasy Football Week 16 RB rankings: Austin Ekeler continues to plummet

Modified Dec 21, 2023 21:04 GMT

Los Angeles Chargers v Las Vegas Raiders — Fantasy Football Week 16 RB rankings

Week 16 of the 2023 fantasy football season marks the second round of the playoffs in most league formats. The last team standing at the end of the postseason tournament will be crowned their league's champion. Every fantasy matchup from this point forward is in a win-or-go-home situation, so managers will need to make sure their lineups are fully maximized this week.

Managers who have made it to this point in the fantasy season, including qualifying for the playoffs, are likely well aware of how important running backs are to overall roster construction. In the right matchups, many options are capable of posting massive fantasy scores. Those same players also carry legitimate bust potential when playing in the wrong ones.

This concept demonstrates just how important matchups are when making weekly fantasy football rankings. It's important to rank players according to their overall situation in a specific week, rather than making lineup decisions based on season-long fantasy projections. This is especially true for the fantasy football playoffs as managers should focus on going all in for one week only.

Another of the most important factors in relation to weekly rankings is recent individual performances. It's essential to pay closer attention to how a player has performed in their most recent games as opposed to their overall statistics in a season. Matchups and trends can go a long way in determining which players to target in fantasy football each week.

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Austin Ekeler is a prime example of a player with a ton of upside and a proven history of success, but his recent production has been extremely disappointing. Despite entering the year ranked as the consensus RB2 in fantasy football, he has finished outside of the top 30 running backs in four of his past five games. He also set a season-low with just nine touches last week.

Rachaad White is an excellent example of a player trending in a positive direction. He has finished among the top ten running backs in PPR leagues in six of his past eight games after doing so just once in the first seven weeks of the 2023 fantasy football season. He has caught fire just in time for the fantasy playoffs.

Taking these types of situations into account for every running back option in Week 16 helps to determine the weekly running back rankings. Here's how the top 50 stack up for this crucial matchup for managers looking to advance in the playoffs.