Playoff fantasy football RB rankings for conference championships: Christian McCaffrey in a difficult matchup

Playoff fantasy football leagues have reached their halfway point as the conference championships are set to kick off this weekend. The major catch with these types of leagues is that as each round passes, it becomes increasingly more difficult to set legitimate lineups. This comes as a result of the available player pool shrinking each week as teams are eliminated from the NFL playoffs.

This challenge is present in traditional playoff fantasy football leagues, as well as in survival formats.

With just four teams remaining, if managers didn't draft successfully in traditional formats for the right teams still being around for this week, they may have extremely weak lineup options. The same can be said for survival formats if their previous two lineups included too many players from the four remaining teams.

Running backs have always been among the most important players in any fantasy football format. Many of them are capable of posting massive weekly scores when playing in the right matchups, but will also carry bust potential into the wrong situations. This makes it extremely important to analyze all potential options before finalizing any lineups.

This is magnified even further for playoff fantasy football leagues when the available options are at much more of a premium. Just four teams remain for the conference championships, so managers must plan accordingly for their lineups this week as well as take their Super Bowl strategy into consideration as well. This is especially true for survival formats as managers want to make sure they still have relevant running backs available for the final round.

Christian McCaffrey represents the best available running back option this week as he is for just about every week of any season. He will have a challenging matchup against one of the NFL's best overall rushing defenses, but his receiving contributions should help him overcome it. The fact that all four remaining teams are strong against the run also helps decrease the lost value from his specific matchup.

Isiah Pacheco and Jahmyr Gibbs round out the top three in the rankings this week. Both of them have seen their offensive roles increase during the playoffs and have responded by turning in strong performances relative to the field.

Taking all of this into careful consideration, here are the full running back rankings for the conference championship round of playoff fantasy football. They can be useful in all postseason formats, as well as for DFS players this week.

RB rankings for playoff fantasy football in conference championships

1. Christian McCaffrey
2. Jahmyr Gibbs
3. Isiah Pacheco
4. David Montgomery
5. Gus Edwards
6. Justice Hill
7. Clyde Edwards-Helaire
8. Dalvin Cook
9. Elijah Mitchell
10. Craig Reynolds