Shawn Siegele makes the case for a dark horse back to take down overall RB1 honors and dominate tournament leaderboards in 2025.
In Week 14 of the 2013 season, Jamaal Charles scored 59 fantasy points even though he rushed only eight times for 20 yards. Instead, he gained 195 yards on eight receptions, scoring on receptions of 49, 39, 16, and 71 yards. He added a 1-yard TD run.
For Charles, it was the perfect bow on a season where he averaged 25.4 PPG. He wasn’t the only fantasy star with elite overall numbers and a massive playoff impact. Alvin Kamara averaged 25.2 PPG in 2020 and topped it off with 56 points in Week 15. Christian McCaffrey generated the biggest fantasy season in recent history, hitting a whopping 471 points overall. He went over 30 in both the fantasy semis and finals. That didn’t come close to Todd Gurley, who scored 387 overall in 2017 but hit for 45 or more on the penultimate and championship weekends.
In this article I’m going to explore the anatomy of a league-crushing and tournament-winning RB, including . . .
- The history of league-breaking 350-point seasons.
- The importance of profile: how rushing volume, receiving proficiency, and explosive upside interact to create the uber-back
- Why it’s getting harder to produce huge seasons: how big-play ability is replacing receiving workload as the key to league-winning performances
And after we’ve worked our way through the process, we’ll break down the Jamaal Charles throwback option who is poised to turn the RB position on its head.
