With the NFL season in full swing, fantasy football has also begun. If you are at all decent at fantasy football, you likely keep up with a lot of the rankings that go on. SB Nation's Fake Teams dedicates itself to fantasy sports of all kids. In fact, one of the latest articles contains the Week 2 NFL fantasy rankings for the running back position.
As a Cardinals fan, I found these rankings interesting because of where Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower are ranked with relationship to one another.
I'm not so concerned about where the two of them are ranked overall, but I find it interesting that Tim Hightower is ranked 14th overall while Beanie Wells is 21st.
If you look at production in Week 1, Beanie had 18 carries for 90 yards, a TD and four receptions. Hightower had 25 carries for 72 yards and a TD with one reception.
Both players have a reputation of fumbling. According to the stat sheet, neither had a fumble (although we know that the fumbled pitch that was credited to Kevin Kolb should be considered Beanie's mistake).
If you consider the defenses that each will face in Week 2 (each other), Arizona held two very good running backs to a combined 56 yards. Washington allowed 75 yards to the New York Giants.
Beanie is definitely more talented back between the two, even though he has yet to show his full potential.
So why is Hightower ranked above him? I'm not sure.
I would take Beanie before Hightower, but then again, I am a big Beanie fan and a Cardinals fan.
So what would you do? If you had to pick between the two running backs in a fantasy league, would you go for one or the other..and why?