Top 10 Fantasy RB Seasons of 2019

The complete top 10 fantasy RB seasons of 2019

The table below lists the ten highest-scoring fantasy running back seasons of 2019, ranked by total fantasy points. Every number is drawn from the final season record.

| Rank | Player | Team | Games | Points | Points per game | Best week | | 1 | Christian McCaffrey | Carolina Panthers | 16 | 469 | 29 | 48 | | 2 | Aaron Jones | Green Bay Packers | 16 | 315 | 20 | 49 | | 3 | Ezekiel Elliott | Dallas Cowboys | 16 | 312 | 19 | 31 | | 4 | Austin Ekeler | Los Angeles Chargers | 16 | 309 | 19 | 39 | | 5 | Derrick Henry | Tennessee Titans | 16 | 295 | 18 | 39 | | 6 | Dalvin Cook | Minnesota Vikings | 15 | 292 | 19 | 31 | | 7 | Leonard Fournette | Jacksonville Jaguars | 16 | 259 | 16 | 37 | | 8 | Nick Chubb | Cleveland Browns | 16 | 255 | 16 | 39 | | 9 | Alvin Kamara | New Orleans Saints | 16 | 248 | 16 | 37 | | 10 | Saquon Barkley | New York Giants | 16 | 244 | 15 | 44 |

Two shapes define this list. The first is Christian McCaffrey alone at the top: his 469 points sit well clear of Aaron Jones in second, and his 29 points per game also lead the column. The second is a compressed chase group, where second through sixth are separated by thin margins in total points, and seventh through tenth cluster again near the bottom.

Why McCaffrey's 2019 was the best running back season on the board

Christian McCaffrey scored 469 fantasy points for the Carolina Panthers, played all 16 games, and posted a best single week of 48. His per-game figure of 29 points outpaced Aaron Jones at 20 per game, the next best mark in the top ten. Saquon Barkley's best week of 44 came in a 244-point season.

What makes the season distinctive is that McCaffrey led on total points, points per game, and consistency of availability at the same time. No other back in the 2019 top ten matched his total, and none matched his per-game number.

How the middle of the 2019 running back board broke

The race from second through sixth was tight on totals but interesting on structure. Aaron Jones finished second with 315 points and the single best week of the group at 49. Ezekiel Elliott followed at 312 points with 19 per game, then Austin Ekeler at 309 with 19 per game and a best week of 39. Derrick Henry rounded out the top five with 295 points and 18 per game.

Dalvin Cook sits sixth at 292 points, but his per-game number of 19 matches Elliott and Ekeler, because Cook played 15 games rather than 16. That makes him the only back in the 2019 top ten who did not appear in every game on the schedule, and the per-game column rewards his rate of scoring even at a lower total.

The drop after sixth place is steep. Leonard Fournette placed seventh with 259 points, and every back ranked seventh through tenth finished at or below that total in 2019.

What the best-week column shows about 2019

Aaron Jones posted the largest single fantasy week of any 2019 running back at 49 points, edging Christian McCaffrey's 48. Saquon Barkley delivered the third-highest best week at 44 despite finishing tenth in total points, which shows how much of his season came in bursts rather than steady accumulation.

Leonard Fournette and Alvin Kamara each topped out at 37, while Elliott and Cook shared a best week of 31. Austin Ekeler, Derrick Henry and Nick Chubb all landed at 39, the most common best-week figure on the list.

Which teams placed a running back in the 2019 top 10

Ten different teams filled the ten spots: the Carolina Panthers, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee Titans, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and New York Giants. No club placed two backs in the top ten in 2019, so the list doubles as a map of one featured runner per offense.

The per-game column splits the ten into tiers more cleanly than the totals do. McCaffrey stands alone at 29, Jones holds 20, then Elliott, Ekeler and Cook share 19, Henry carries 18, Fournette, Chubb and Kamara sit at 16, and Barkley closes the list at 15. That spread is the clearest single picture of how running back scoring distributed itself in 2019.