One of the most difficult - and sometimes impossible - tasks for any fantasy owner during the offseason is figuring out what players have league-winning upside. Certainly, the Christian McCaffrey's and Dalvin Cook's of the world come immediately to mind, but we need some pretty good luck in a traditional snake draft to land either one of those players.

To answer this "league-winner" question better, I decided to take a position-by-position look at each player that enjoyed rarified air over the last six seasons. By using the best of the best in each position group over a six-year period as the basis for what is great versus elite, we should be able to create realistic parameters for what it takes to be a true fantasy difference-maker.

There will invariably be repeat entries (as in certain players appearing multiple times on the list). It is also OK to view this series of articles as something of a correlational study or a series of interesting facts, but there's more value in this kind of analysis than that. My top priority is trying to establish what benchmarks fantasy owners need to shoot for at each position, especially considering the different styles of players that exist in the game.

Each position during this four-part series will be divided into multiple groups for the express purpose of challenging how you currently think about the position (and its upside). The "Rk" column to the left of each player's name is where he finished among his peers over the six years of this study. (For example, Cook's 2020 season ranked 10th among all running backs in the last six years.) Running backs were split into the following groups:

Workhorse - At least 220 carries and/or 300-plus total touches
Run-heavy - More than 220 carries AND 48 or fewer targets
Tweener - Fewer than 220 carries a run-heavy back AND fewer than 275 touches
Satellite - Fewer than 160 carries AND more than 48 targets

Take note that a particular running back may appear in multiple tables. While that is not ideal, running backs are not necessarily asked to do the same things or take on the same role in an offense year after year. Sometimes they need to assume more of the rushing workload in some years more than they do others. Workhorses may get hurt or demoted, tweeners may be asked to take on more of a satellite role and so on. I also acknowledge that while some of the observations I will make over the next two weeks are somewhat obvious, they often bear repeating.

Below each table will be another table that summarizes the averages of each group as well as the group minimum and maximum. The cutoff at running back for this study was 200 fantasy points (top 87 performances in the last six years).

* The top five fantasy running back performances, six of the first seven and seven of the first nine from 2015-20 fall into this group. In fact, 29 of the top 48 efforts over the last six years are by running backs in this group.

* The average age of this group is 24.4. Unsurprisingly, 27 of the 34 entries were 25 or younger. None of them was 30 or older and only four were at least 28.

* The first seven running back entries in this group were targeted at least 81 times.

* Only four of the 34 workhorses above scored fewer than eight total touchdowns. When we look at each of the cases more closely, it is not hard to understand why those particular four failed to do so.

Observations

Note: The players above do not quite qualify for any of the other groups because it is difficult to consider a back with fewer than 220 carries a run-heavy back or fewer than 275 touches a workhorse. Similarly, backs with 200-plus touches are not satellites. It is also important to note that 13 players in this group missed multiple games, so there a few players that could have been considered workhorses. Thus, it may be difficult to draw many strong conclusions from this collection of misfit toys.

* Not surprisingly, players in this group need to be masters of efficiency. Twenty-one of the 26 instances above averaged at least 4.5 yards per carry. Seventeen of the 26 averaged at least eight yards per reception. Thirteen of those 17 did both.

* Kamara owns both of the top 25 overall entries from this group - an accomplishment made possible by his 18 total touchdowns in 2018 and 21 total touchdowns in 2020. He also went over 1,500 total yards each season.

* While Kamara's aforementioned banner seasons drive up the total TD average of this group (from 10 without him included to 10.7 with those seasons included), tweeners must be efficient here as well. Surprisingly, high-performing tweeners averaged only 1.1 fewer touchdowns (10.7 to the workhorses' 11.8).

Observations

* Interestingly enough, this is the section where we find five of the seven 30-year-olds over the last six years to top 200 fantasy points.

* Thanks in large part to Henry, this group accounts for three of the top four rushing TD efforts over the last six seasons.

* If a back is locked into a heavy rushing workload but isn't much of a factor for whatever reason in the passing game (reminder: 48 or fewer targets for the sake of this study), he will likely need at least 278 carries, 1,200 rushing yards and 11 total touchdowns to even be in the conversation as a potential league-winner.

* Even the "run-heavy" backs can be projected for a decent amount of volume in the passing game. This group features the 11 lowest reception totals from the 87 backs in this study. However, only five of them finished with fewer than 20 receptions and all but one had at least 15. Those are not encouraging numbers, but it should be slightly comforting that we can expect at least an additional 20 PPR fantasy points each year - even when we typically know these backs will not be a big part of the passing game. It is also mildly surprising (and encouraging) that the receiving yardage average from this group is 227.7 yards.

Observations

* Only two of the top 28 fantasy performances by a running back in the last six seasons occurred when that running back logged fewer than 170 carries. Even then, Kamara (2017) and Ekeler (2019) still reached 200 touches and used their 80-plus catches to top 1,500 total yards.

* Take note that seven of the 10 backs in this group finished 44th or lower among all fantasy backs across the last six years. The three that placed higher all scored at least 11 touchdowns. All three of those backs also had at least 80 catches.

* White (2019) might have just made the 200-point cut, but his presence on this list is a reminder that a back can be very relevant on as few as 139 touches. In fact, eight of the 87 backs in this study (reminder: at least 200 fantasy points) hit that mark despite finishing with less than 200 touches.

How can this help us for moving forward?

Volume is king.

Shocking, I know. Among the top 12 finishers at running back from 2015-20, the fewest touches any of those 12 had was Kamara in 2018 (275) and 2020 (270). The average of this group is 349.8 touches. The lowest fantasy finish by any running back with at least 325 touches in this study was by Chubb in 2019 (36th). It is also comforting to know that the average TD total for backs with at least 315 touches in this study was 13.

Practice age discrimination.

This one is about as obvious as the preceding paragraph. The highest finish by a running back over the age of 26 in the last six seasons combined is 20th (McCoy, 2016). Again, to reinforce that point, the 19 highest-scoring running backs from 2015-20 were 26 years of age or younger.

Fantasy managers need to set the floor for elite RB1s at around 1,500 total yards and nine total touchdowns in a given year.

Running backs who achieved both benchmarks occupy the first 26 spots of top fantasy performances at their position over the last six seasons. Only two backs scored as few as nine touchdowns, and both of them (2016 Bell, 2018 Elliott) amassed at least 1,884 total yards. Conner's 2018 season (No. 27 overall) is the first instance of a back accumulating less than 1,500 total yards.

All of the top-10 backs amassed at least 54 targets and 44 catches.

Furthermore, the top nine entries turned those opportunities in the passing game into at least 580 receiving yards. Eight of those nine scored at least four receiving TDs.