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Shuffle Up: Running back and tight end values, rest of season

Shuffle Up: Running back and tight end values, rest of season

The Shuffle Up series is all about value to come. What's happened to this point is merely an audition. How would you rank the players if you were starting from fresh today? (These are not Week 8 ranks.)

The dollar values are merely comparison tools; they're not assembled in any scientific way. Players at the same position are considered even. We're aiming to illustrate tiers, show where the pockets of value are.

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You'll disagree with some things (perhaps many things) because that's why we have a game in the first place. Share your respectful disagreement in the comments. (Quarterbacks and wideouts are shuffled in the odd weeks.)

And remember the golden rule, a player doesn't gain (or lose) 15-20 percent of bonus value simply because you roster him.

$33 DeMarco Murray
$32 Matt Forte
$30 Marshawn Lynch
$30 LeVeon Bell
$29 Jamaal Charles
$27 Arian Foster
$25 LeSean McCoy
$23 Giovani Bernard
$23 Lamar Miller
$22 Andre Ellington

The big point of Murray's season is the high floor. Weekly Yahoo rank: 4, 5, 8, 3, 9, 4, 5. Consistency is lovely . . . Forte had a dreadful first three games, in part because of a schedule from hell (Buffalo, San Francisco, NY Jets). He's been a monster since then, largely because of his chops in the passing game. He's on pace for 119 catches (a record for a running back) and 997 receiving yards . . . If you scored backs only on their receiving stats (non-PPR), here are your top 10 players: Bradshaw, Forte, Bell, Smith (you're killing us, Falcons), Lynch, Jackson, Ellington, Vereen, Thomas, Helu. Travaris Cadet is 16th. Murray slides to 27th, in part because he doesn't have any receiving touchdowns. Of course with the rushing volume he's handling, no one cares . . . Forte's overall winning percentage in all Yahoo leagues is 61.3 percent, per our friends at Automated Insights. That's not far behind Murray's 62.9 percent. Foster (59.1 percent) and Bell (56.0 percent) have also been major profit players.

$18 Ahmad Bradshaw
$18 Eddie Lacy
$17 Ben Tate
$17 Shane Vereen
$14 Ronnie Hillman
$15 Justin Forsett
$15 Jerick McKinnon
$15 Rashad Jennings
$14 Chris Ivory
$13 Mark Ingram
$12 Ryan Mathews
$12 Darren McFadden
$12 Tre Mason
$12 Joique Bell
$11 Alfred Morris
$11 Frank Gore
$11 Reggie Bush
$10 Trent Richardson
$10 Branden Oliver
$8 Darren Sproles

Two plusses for Ivory: the Jets schedule gets much easier in the second half of the year, and the club has finally accepted that Johnson isn't very good. Ivory also runs like he doesn't care if the carry is his last, but maybe that's not a bad thing. It hasn't held Marshawn Lynch back at all . . . Richardson is an embarrassing player from an efficiency standpoint, but the value of his touches can't be ignored. He's tied for seventh in that category, and it's coming with an offense that moves into scoring position easily and often. The Colts are also the runaway leader in scrimmage plays per game (76.9); no other team is over 70 . . . I know Oliver went nowhere against Denver, but I think that was more about what the Broncos did right than what Oliver did wrong. I expect him to retain a sizable role in the offense even after Mathews returns - and we know from past experience, you can't make any hard assumptions about Mathews's future durability (though he did hold up in 2013).

$8 Jeremy Hill
$7 Bryce Brown
$7 Doug Martin
$7 Bishop Sankey
$7 Fred Jackson
$6 Isaiah Crowell
$6 Denard Robinson
$6 Anthony Dixon
$5 Jonathan Stewart
$5 Bobby Rainey
$5 James Starks
$5 Carlos Hyde
$5 LeGarrette Blount
$4 Steven Jackson
$4 Chris Johnson
$4 Knile Davis
$4 Joseph Randle
$4 Lance Dunbar
$4 Alfred Blue
$4 Juwan Thompson
$4 Zac Stacy
$4 Charles Sims
$3 Khiry Robinson
$3 Stepfan Taylor
$3 Bernard Pierce
$3 Travaris Cadet
$3 Robert Turbin
$3 KaDeem Carey
$3 Lorenzo Taliaferro
$3 Montee Ball
$3 Toby Gerhart

I hope you already moved Ball for something, because you surely won't get much now. Hillman is better between the 20s, and Thompson looks fine as the sledgehammer short-yardage back. Ball wasn't doing anything well before he got hurt. Why should the Broncos go back to him? They know they don't need him. Even if Ball were a free agent in my primary leagues, I wouldn't bother adding him . . . I'm still something of a Rainey sympathizer - and I have no faith in Martin at all - but maybe Sims will be healthy enough to make a second-half impact . . . Starks is worth a little more than most handcuffs because he's actually playable in some of his change-of-pace weeks.

$2 Pierre Thomas
$2 Benny Cunningham
$2 Roy Helu Jr.
$2 Jonas Gray
$2 Andre Williams
$2 DeAngelo Williams
$2 Matt Asiata
$1 Antone Smith
$1 Daniel Thomas
$1 Devonta Freeman
$1 Shonn Greene
$1 Terrance West
$1 DeAnthony Thomas
$1 Maurice Jones-Drew
$1 Dexter McCluster
$1 Brandon Bolden
$1 Christine Michael
$0 Mike Tolbert
$0 Dri Archer

Prolific Panther (AP)
Prolific Panther (AP)

And here are your tight ends.

$25 Rob Gronkowski
$23 Greg Olsen
$23 Jimmy Graham
$22 Julius Thomas
$22 Antonio Gates
$16 Martellus Bennett
$15 Dwayne Allen
$13 Delanie Walker
$13 Travis Kelce
$13 Vernon Davis
$12 Jordan Reed
$12 Zach Ertz
$12 Jordan Cameron

The "just use him already" angle is constantly playing for Kelce, but Allen deserves it, too. Other than T.Y. Hilton, the primary Indianapolis wideouts have not done much. Allen is seventh in fantasy scoring at tight end despite a paltry 33 targets (and a mere 11 percent target share on his own club). You hate to keep counting on Allen's heavy TD/catch ratio, but you also wonder if, at some point, the Colts will start steering more snaps and targets for a dynamic player like this. Then again, we had to sit through Richardson 2013, didn't we? . . . You expect pass catchers to have a large degree of variance, but that hasn't been an issue with Olsen. His weekly Yahoo final rank among tight ends: 3, 13, 2, 26, 1, 5, 8 . . . I don't feel like this is an overly-optimistic Cameron price, and yet I was tempted to go lower. He's scored just once, and he's only topped 50 yards in that one game. And it's not like the Browns are going out of their way to feature him. Look at the weekly target count: 5-3-7-5-6. Cameron's been overrated for a solid 12 months now.

$10 Larry Donnell
$8 Charles Clay
$7 Jason Witten
$6 Jermaine Gresham
$5 Heath Miller
$5 Jared Cook
$5 Coby Fleener
$4 Austin Seferian-Jenkins
$4 Clay Harbor
$4 Jace Amaro
$4 Kyle Rudolph
$4 Tyler Eifert

With Le'Veon Bell on pace to smash his rookie receiving numbers, Miller isn't getting many of the cheap dump-offs that we're used to. He's also needed for regular blocking, of course. I had dreams of a sneaky comeback season two months ago; I've long since given up that mirage . . . Harbor is tied for ninth in PPR scoring over the last month, showing a nifty rapport with rookie quarterback Blake Bortles . . . I had Owen Daniels as a $9 player before the knee-scope news came out. He's certainly not good enough to wait on in a standard league; dump city . . . Amaro seems to make a soul-crushing drop every week, but at least he's shown an ability to get open consistently on intermediate routes. I still think the Jets passing game might surprise some people in the second half. When Eric Decker has been on the field and healthy, Geno Smith has been competent.

$3 Scott Chandler
$3 Tim Wright
$2 Andrew Quarless
$2 Gavin Escobar
$1 Owen Daniels
$1 Eric Ebron
$1 Lance Kendricks
$1 Garrett Graham
$1 John Carlson
$1 Ladarius Green
$1 Jeff Cumberland
$1 Niles Paul
$0 Mychal Rivera