If you missed ESPN's ADP) finished in the top-48 in half-PPR scoring (25%). That's pretty good! But what about consistency? Forsett was the only back inside the top 20 in consistency. As for fantasy points per game, only Forsett (eighth) and Hillman (15th) were inside the top 20.

What about the guys drafted 120th or later (after the 10th round in 12-teamers)? They were better but not necessarily great.

Ahmad Bradshaw was solid this year, posting at least 15.0 half-PPR points in his 10 games. That was a mark Jonathan Stewart hit just twice this year, Week 14 (21.5) and Week 16 (19.9). If you held onto him all year or picked him up for the playoff push, you were rewarded with some good games, but with a 68% ceiling of just 16.2, he was far from a week-winner.

C.J. Anderson and Jeremy Hill were great examples of late-round picks (or undrafted if nobody took Anderson) who panned out, but they were more the exception than the rule. Of the top-11 backs (there was a tie for 10th) in terms of half-PPR points per game during the back half of the fantasy season (Weeks 9-16), only Forsett was undrafted, and only Hill and Anderson had ADPs outside 120 overall. Seven of the 11 had ADPs lower than 20: Marshawn Lynch (5.3), Jamaal Charles (5.3), Matt Forte (7.2), Eddie Lacy (11.7), Arian Foster (13.0), DeMarco Murray (18.1), and Le'Veon Bell (18.7).

Daily Fantasy Applications

So, streaming isn't a viable option for running backs because it's not as though there are guys who will get a full allotment of work just waiting out there (like an Alex Smith each week). But how does this information apply to daily fantasy football?

Well, it depends on you, to be honest. In terms of cash games (head-to-heads and 50/50s and the like) paying up for the guys in the first table -- who have the higher floors and highest ceilings -- can be very beneficial, as they are the most likely to receive heavy carries and put fantasy points on the board. But, the thing with daily fantasy is that a guy like Forsett can be deployed, too, in any week for a lower asking price -- altogether different than in your traditional leagues where if he's rostered, you can't touch him. In the last half of the season, both Forsett and Forte had five double-digit half-PPR games, and Forsett (15.24) averaged just shy of a point fewer than Forte (16.29).

What about GPPs? It stands to reason that saving money at quarterback, when guys have similar ceilings, is likely helpful in building the highest-scoring lineup you can, but as the first table shows us, only 14 players had a likelihood of scoring 20-plus points in 68% of their games (or roughly 11 of the 16 games, a good majority of the season), and finding a back who can do that in a given week might be tricky.

Or it might be obvious, which is why it's no surprise to see discount backs heavily owned in a certain week. Remember the Jeremy Hill debacle in Week 10? I'm all for saving salary at running back, but I just know that that decision comes with a low floor and an elusive ceiling.

What It Means for the Position

To me, the numbers indicate that investing heavily in running backs -- whether season-long or daily -- is the way to go because their floors are unmatched and so are their ceilings (because big running back games from value aren't as foreseeable as big quarterback games and often follow and are followed by single-digit games -- like Oliver's).

I'll provide a visual for the discrepancy between the top-tier backs and the rest of the pack when I conclude the series, but this complex topic has already generated a lot of words. But, this season, the few workhorse backs left in the NFL offered significant benefits above the rest of the field in terms of consistency and ceiling (and floor).

The numbers indicate that it's very difficult to replicate the production from the guys drafted inside the top 20, but it's not impossible to come across a C.J. Anderson or a Justin Forsett -- and it's not a lock that backs drafted early pan out. But if you're playing the odds, you might want to reconsider just how likely it is to find solid running back production from the wire.

But in terms outside the position and in the context of your whole lineup, can you get away with it if you own the league's best wide receivers? We examine that in the next entry in the series.