In a year marred by injury, the RB position suffered its most crushing loss yet in Week 8. Fantasy's commanding RB1, Derrick Henry, is likely set to miss the rest of the regular season after suffering a Week 8 foot injury, and the only apparent early-downs replacement in Tennessee is the 36-year-old Adrian Peterson.

Fortunately, Henry's injury was the only serious one sustained at the RB position in a weird Week 8 that saw rookies Michael Carter and Eli Mitchell both rank inside the top five in Fantasy scoring. You can catch up on how the volume was dispersed among every backfield in the Week 8 RB Usage Report.

Carter was of the biggest rankings climbers in Week 8. After providing their talented rookie with a boost in playing time and targets in Week 7, the Jets took a step further in Week 8. For the first time all season, Carter out-snapped Ty Johnson on obvious passing downs, and he ended Week 8's game with an unbelievable 14 targets. The rookie joins Eli Mitchell, Antonio Gibson, Khalil Herbert, Jeremy McNichols, and Boston Scott as the running backs who saw their rest of season rank change the most from Week 8 to Week 9.

After evaluating the data and sharing What We Learned in Week 8, I'm ready to lay out my rest-of-season rankings at the running back position heading into Week 9. Here's where I'm ranking each RB going forward, given the data we have through eight weeks.

Tiered rest of season RB rankings

Tier 1

1. Christian McCaffrey 
2. Dalvin Cook
3. Austin Ekeler (+1)
4. Alvin Kamara

Notable changes:

It's worth noting that Austin Ekeler's usage (find the full Week 8 Usage Report here) was excellent in the first game out of L.A.'s bye. The Chargers have taken opportunities to rest him when presented with them, and Ekeler has been on and off of the injury report all season. He looked healthy in Week 8, and the Chargers treated him as such.

Ekeler's snap rate was up to 76 percent, he played 88 percent of the red zone snaps and dominated the goal line touches, and he finished with 10 targets. He could easily rank as the RB1 from this point on with good health.

I'm not ready to move Alvin Kamara into Tier 2 quite yet, but that does seem to be his most likely destination if Taysom Hill is the answer for the Saints at QB in 2021.

Tier 2

5. Aaron Jones (+1)
6. D'Andre Swift
7. Ezekiel Elliott
8. Jonathan Taylor (+1)
9. Najee Harris
10. Darrell Henderson

Notable changes:

Jonathan Taylor appears to have earned more of an every-down role. This speculation is based on just a three-game sample size, during which the Colts have yet to see a negative game script. But, it has seemed as if Indy is moving toward a backfield split that involves Taylor as the clear lead in all situations other than the two-minute offense, where Nyheim Hines still is the clear preference. If Taylor truly has worked his way into a larger share of the passing downs, he brings massive upside. If we can expect a route involvement that is around 65 percent each week, Taylor absolutely belongs in the conversation for RB2 behind Christian McCaffrey.

I'm not quite there with Taylor yet, but he does continue to push his way up the rankings. If we are treated to convincing evidence that he is now game script independent, Taylor will likely make the leap into Tier 1.

Which RBs are on the rise after eight weeks? And which running back has dropped significantly? ... Join SportsLine here to see Jacob Gibbs' rest of season Fantasy Football Rankings, all from one of the nation's most accurate experts as graded by FantasyPros!