Position Breakdown: Schedules Factor Into Running Back Rankings

After examining four factors that affect the stock of running backs in fantasy football, we have just one more factor to analyze. Some fantasy owners dismiss the affect of a player's schedule, but it's actually one of the best ways to break a tie.

Say you're completely undecided on who you'd take between Packers back Ryan Grant and rookie back Ryan Mathews. Grant seems like a pretty safe pick at the end of the second round or early in the third, while Mathews represents upside but plays in an offense that had trouble rushing the ball in 2009. Here's where the schedules come in handy.

According to the great resource FFToolbox, the Chargers have the second easiest regular-season (Weeks 1-13) schedule for running backs in the league. Green Bay comes in next to last, meaning Grant could have a tough time racking up fantasy points during your regular season. Clearly, when looking at the schedule, Mathews is the easy choice.

When calculating each team's strength of schedule, we gave the fantasy playoffs (Weeks 14-16) more weight than they would normally have. The fantasy regular season still accounts for 60 percent of a running back's score, but the playoffs are counting for 40 percent. How did the big dogs stack up?

Tens

San Francisco - The 49ers have the fourth-best regular season schedule, but expect Frank Gore to turn it up in the post-season, when the 49ers face Seattle, San Diego and St. Louis. That playoff schedule is tops in the league.

Kansas City - Lookie here -- Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones have a slightly rougher regular season (fifth) and postseason (second) than the 49ers, facing San Diego, St. Louis and Tennessee in Weeks 14-16. Charles makes for a great third-round pick, and Jones should be among the first backup RBs off the board.

Nines

St. Louis - Steven Jackson has the sixth-best regular season and postseason, so if he can stay healthy throughout he's primed for a big year.

San Diego - Mathews has the second easiest regular season in the league, which gives him a big leg-up for the fantasy Rookie of the Year award. His postseason is just average though.

Seattle - Three NFC West teams are now off the board (with another coming up next). It must be nice to face each other twice in the regular season.

Eights

Arizona - Chris Wells has the easiest regular season schedule in the league, as he gets his six intra-division games out of the way before the playoffs start.

Jacksonville - Maurice Jones-Drew has a pretty easy schedule the whole way through, ranking seventh early on and 11th in the post season.

Denver - Much like the Jaguars, this team has an easy path to fantasy stardom. They're in the top ten both in the regular season and the postseason.

Sevens

Tampa Bay - They have a top-ten playoff schedule, making Buccaneers backs a nice late-round game for your fantasy playoffs.

Baltimore - Ray Rice has just an ordinary regular season schedule, but his playoff schedule is the fourth-easiest in the league.

Atlanta - Michael Turner has a very similar schedule to Ray Rice: mediocre in the regular season, and fifth in the playoffs.

Sixes

Oakland - The Raiders sneak in to the top ten during the regular season, so Darren McFadden and/or Michael Bush could have a nice start to the season.

Cincinnati - Cedric Benson has a pretty mediocre schedule throughout the season. I'm leaning toward taking Jamaal Charles over him as a result.

Fives

Carolina - The Panthers should have an easy time performing in the regular season, but they'll have to battle Atlanta, Arizona and Pittsburgh in the postseason.

Indianapolis - Indy has almost the exact opposite schedule as the Panthers -- very easy in the postseason, very hard in the early going.

Pittsburgh - The Steelers' schedule gets tough in December, but they have the 11th best schedule in the regular season.

Houston - The Texans will have a slightly harder time than the Steelers in the regular season but a slightly easier time in the postseason.

Fours

Miami - They'll get a bad score thanks to the fifth-hardest regular season schedule in the league, but their playoff schedule qualifies as the third-easiest of all teams.

Tennessee - Chris Johnson closed out the season strong last year, and he should do the same against this year, having the seventh-easiest playoff schedule in the league.

New Orleans - The world champion Saints (that still feels weird to say, doesn't it?) have a tougher-than-average schedule throughout the year.

Threes

Chicago - Mike Martz may have to take to the air in December, as the Bears are up against the second-toughest playoff schedule in the league.

Washington - The Redskins have the 22nd ranked schedule in both the regular season and postseason, but you didn't want their backs anyway, right?

New York Giants - The Giants are up against the toughest playoff schedule in the league. Think about that before you pull the trigger on Brandon Jacobs.

Dallas - The Cowboys have a tough time throughout the year, culminating in the sixth-troughest playoff schedule in the league.

New England - The Patriots have a hard schedule early and a mediocre schedule late, but good luck juggling Patriot backs in December.

Green Bay - Ryan Grant will have the second-toughest regular-season schedule of all backs, but his playoff schedule ranks as the 12th easiest.

Cleveland - The Browns have a schedule nearly identical to Washington, despite ranking this far behind them. That's the reason for so many threes here.

Twos

Philadelphia - This pass-happy team faces the third-hardest schedule in the playoffs, and the regular season doesn't promise to be much easier.

Buffalo - The Bills backs will have to run the gauntlet this season, as their Weeks 1-13 schedule is the toughest in the league.

Minnesota - Adrian Peterson is good enough to run wild against any schedule, so don't worry about the 29th-ranked regular season or the 21st-ranked playoffs.

Ones

New York Jets - Shonn Greene will have to face the fourth-hardest playoff schedule after battling the eighth-hardest regular season schedule. I'm rethinking that early-second round grade.

Detroit - The Lions seem to rank last in everything, and here it's well-deserved, as they sport the 30th-ranked regular season and 24-ranked postseason.

Now that we have five sets of ratings for our running backs, we'll compile them into one master sheet, crunch the numbers, and post the results soon.