Running back rankings for CFL Fantasy Football. This is for actual fantasy football for play in head-to-head leagues that have a draft at the start of the season to prove who is the greatest football watcher in your friend group. As it stands right now this is not offered at the CFL’s website where you can only play in a Draft Kings’ style daily fantasy game.
I highly recommend CFL fans form head-to-head a fantasy football league with their friend group at 110yards.ca. The CFL head-to-head fantasy football experience has a lot of differences from that which people may be accustomed to in NFL formats but brings the CFL fan expereince to the next level as it has done for NFL fans.
CFL Fantasy Football Quarterback Rankings (May 26)
CFL Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings (May 31)
CFL Fantasy Football Rankings 2024: Top 70 PPR – Cheatsheet (June 4)
Where to Play
Most CFL fans are not aware that CFL fantasy football actually exists in the head-to-head league format that has become so popular among NFL fans. CFL.ca does offer a ‘fantasy football’ game but it is not in a head-to-head league format with a draft but rather in the format that you would see in Draft Kings daily fantasy where you choose any players you want and have to stay within a certain salary cap.
You can play with your friends in a CFL fantasy football head-to-league with a draft, schedule, and playoffs at our website newshubfantasy.com as a beta tester.
Our partners at 110yards.ca also offer a great place for you and your friends to play in what is currently a more polished user experience than our website currently with some customization options not available in our current beta state.
Roster Difference Compared to NFL Formats
There is a key difference in the format of our recommended and 110yards.ca’s recommended settings for CFL fantasy football to what you might be accustomed to in NFL formats. Due to the size of the CFL being only 9 teams and our recommended league size being 6, there are not enough of certain position groups to have backups of certain positions on your bench. In fact you will only be able to have wide receivers on your bench. Quarterbacks, running backs, and kickers can only be in your starting lineup, injured reserve, or “bye week” roster designation. This ensures that there are starting players available on the waiver wire when teams have a need to find a replacement.
Draft Strategy Note
Since teams are only able to have 1 player on their active roster for positions at quarterback, running back, and kicker, you will know that once a team has drafted a quarterback they will not draft a quarterback later in the draft. So if you’re in a draft for your league and 4 teams draft a quarterback in the first round then you can probably wait until very late in the draft to take a quarterback as there is only one other team who will be taking a QB off the board for the rest of the draft. If you are the last team to draft a quarterback then you can wait until the last round to make your selection at quarterback as no one is going to take the player you may be targeting before that point.
Runningback Rankings
RB1 Brady Oliveira – Winnipeg
2023 Season Stats: 261 carries for 1,540, 5.9 yards per carry, and 9 touchdowns. 38 receptions for 482 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Going with the reigning Most Outstanding Canadian as the top selection in this position group. He finished 1st in fantasy points among running backs last year and 2nd among all position groups. Last year he rushed more than any other running back with 261rushes over the regular season. The 2nd most rushes last year was James Butler with 235.
In fantasy football, the most valuable commodity we look for in a player is the expected volume of touches and we can expect Oliveira to once again get a lot of touches this season provided he continues to stay healthy.
RB2 James Butler – Hamilton
2023 Season Stats: 235 carries for 1,116, 4.75 yards per carry, and 7 touchdowns. 61 receptions for 527 yards and 1 touchdown.
James Butler was 2nd in fantasy points last season among running backs and also had the 2nd most rushing attempts. He also caught the most passes among runningbacks as he caught 63 passes for 535 yards and a touchdown. If Butler continues to have the same usage he did last season he is a great option at running back.
RB3 Dedrick Mills – Calgary
2023 Season Stats: 142 carries for 802, 5.65 yards per carry, and 4 touchdowns. 21 receptions for 123 yards.
Mills has been a solid running back over the last 2 seasons backing up Ka’Deem Carey. He got a lot of playing time last year and now is the expected starting with Ka’Deem Carey playing in Toronto this season. Mills had the highest rushing grade by Pro Football Focus last season among running backs just slightly above Brady Oliveira. One drawback with him from a fantasy perspective is that he does not get as many receptions or receiving yards as other running backs.
RB4 A.J. Ouellette – Saskatchewan
2023 Season Stats: 179 carries for 1,009, 5.64 yards per carry, and 8 touchdowns. 16 receptions for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Ouellette had the third-highest rushing grade from PFF last season. He’s moving to a team that did not have as good of run blocking as Toronto did for him last year but Ouellette led the league in missed tackles forced last season so we will see how he does in Saskatchewan. Perhaps he will get an opportunity to get more receptions this season. Last year Jamal Morrow had 36 receptions which was quite a bit more than Ouellette saw come his way while in Toronto.
RB5 Ka’Deem Carey – Toronto
2023 Season Stats: 89 carries for 476, 5.35 yards per carry. 21 receptions for 156 yards.
Carey moves to Toronto this season following a year that was heavily impacted by injuries and made him miss 9 games over the season. Calgary had the worst run-blocking grade last year by Pro Football Focus while Toronto had the 4th highest run-blocking. Perhaps a new setting will see a resurgence for the 2022 CFL All-Star.
RB6 Kevin Brown – Edmonton
2023 Season Stats: 186 carries for 1,141, 6.13 yards per carry, and 4 touchdowns. 28 receptions for 222 yards and 1 touchdown.
Last season Brown rushed 186 times for 1,141 yards (6.1 yards per carry) and 4 touchdowns. Edmonton is bringing in some new talent to take a look at this offseason at the offensive line. Brown could be a force this season if they are able to improve the run blocking.
RB7 Walter Fletcher – Montreal
2023 Season Stats: 58 carries for 266, 4.59 yards per carry. 23 receptions for 176 yards.
Montreal tended to stray away from the run game last year particularly early in the season. If Montreal commits to keeping a balance of run plays then Fletcher would be a great option to have as your running back as he has done a good job when called upon. However, there is a lot of uncertainty currently as to who will be the starter at the position following the departure of William Stanback. Montreal has some competition in camp for the starting position as it looks like Mike Weber Jr. or Stevie Scott III could possibly compete for the position. Canadian Jeshrun Antwi is a runningback who I believe would be capable of starting but he has seen a strong decrease in his touches in 2023 compared to 2022 despite leading the team’s running backs in yards per carry.
RB8 William Stanback – BC
2023 Season Stats: 147 carries for 800, 5.44 yards per carry, and 2 touchdowns. 27 receptions for 241 yards and 1 touchdown.
Make no mistake by the low ranking I still consider Stanback to be a good running back. Last year we frequently saw BC completely abandon the run game in multiple contests after Taquan Mizzell was stopped early in the game. Last year BC did not even hand the ball off once in the 2nd half of the West Final and proceeded to tie the record for most sacks allowed in a CFL playoff game with 7. BC had the fewest rushing attempts in the league last season at 297, 45 fewer than the next least team. Until proven otherwise I would avoid having a BC running back in fantasy due to the inconsistencies at the frequency they would attempt to rush the football.
RB9 Ronnie Brown or Kylin Hill or Ryquell Armstead – Ottawa
With Devonte Williams having recently torn his Achilles, there is an opportunity for new talent to emerge as the starter for the team while Williams is recovering. In Ottawa’s first preseason game, Ronnie Brown rushed 6 times for 31 yards and Kylin Hill rushed 5 times for 33 yards. Ryquell Armstead had the most carries in the game with 7 for 18 yards and a touchdown.
With the uncertainty of who will be the starter for Ottawa at the position and the possibility of Devonte Williams returning later in the season none of these players have fantasy draft value currently until we know who the starter will be. Ottawa did have the 2nd most rushing attempts last year so whoever is the starting running back for Ottawa in any given week could be a good waiver wire target to chase volume of touches.
@JonathanClink on Twitter
