As fantasy season rolls around, the quest for league domination revolves around one main position: the running back. It is the time of the season that my fellow nerds and I break out our VORP charts and season projections in order to find the best value at the crucial position. Needless to say, for a fantasy football player, knowledge about your targets is key.
After Tuesday’s article about Quarterbacks, Chitika Insights looked into the same time period for part 2 of this series, the Running Backs. What we found was a far more diverse pool of interest:
Apparently a lot of people are still using their 2010 magazines, as Chris Johnson was the most searched for Running Back on our list. More interestingly, though, is that Peyton Hillis exceeds the traffic of every other running back, even the much-hyped Adrian Peterson. This could be a by-product of his breakout season, where he gained 1,654 yards and scored 13 touchdowns from scrimmage. Of course, it could also be people researching the high-bust potential of the player. Ladainian Tomlinson also ranks extremely highly, despite not even being the listed starter on his team, showing the power of name recognition in search.
Also of note is the absence of LeSean McCoy on the list. Given Mike Vick was the second most searched for Quarterback, it is surprising that his highly regarded Running Back is generating such little interest, especially because he is going as high as the first pick in some Point Per Reception leagues, and is #4 on ESPN.com’s own list.
Just like in our previous article, the top of the list is made up primarily of our top flight Running Backs. However, given that the Running Back position is a bit less prominent to the casual fan, the amount of mass interest generated by certain players is far more tied to pure name recognition than we saw with the Quarterbacks.
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