2026 Fantasy Football RB Tiers: Rich Hribar’s Draft Guide

Welcome to my 2026 fantasy football running back tiers, the deepest dive into the running back position you will find this draft season.

If you are unfamiliar with my tiers pieces, then let me lay out some groundwork.

These positional-tier posts are designed to serve as a top-down almanac for you to come back to all summer long.

If long-form content is not your thing, no worries.

I also have abbreviated player blurbs on the rankings page for each position, and we have linear tables for those who are here just for a ranked list of players.

How My Fantasy Football RB Tiers Work

While there is a structure to the order here, these are not rankings.

They are meant to serve as more complete player profiles grouped around player archetypes.

An underappreciated element we still face in the fantasy community, for content providers and consumers alike, is that rankings, projections, tiers, and average draft position are fundamentally different.

They all serve different purposes and are not interchangeable, even though they may share overlap.

Projections give us a median range of season-long production and have implications for listing players in a linear format (rankings).

Even when those full-season numbers are accurate, they fail to capture the overall weekly impact and the pockets of production relevant to our weekly fantasy football game.

There is a finite number of players at each position who smash weekly throughout the fantasy season at the highest level.

If you do not land one of those weekly juggernauts, you are hoping to counter them with players when they are at their hottest.

Many player tiers are simply rankings divided into sections.

While the rankings are more focused on a probable tally of season-long output for a week-to-week game, I prefer to structure my tiers based on how similarly players accrue fantasy points and on the archetypes they represent.

By doing this, we can identify actionable gaps in player pricing per tier, which in turn allows for arbitrage in fantasy drafts.

This approach also highlights some longer-odds players who have more potential than initially perceived.

Arbitrage in fantasy football is strongly driven by how production is accrued, and the order of players (rankings) reflects the opportunities (at the player and team levels) each player receives.

Our projections are often wrong about those projected opportunities.

A multitude of factors influence team situations: game script, injuries to a player or his teammates, ineffective play, player breakouts, and so on.

Understanding how a player is used enables us to buy into the variance in his performance across opportunities.

If we are wrong about the opportunity projection, a lower-tier player could present an arbitrage opportunity.

While there is no direct overlap with the individual player rankings, the order of these tiers reflects how I prioritize drafting positions from an archetypal stance.

While that may be confusing for a player ranked highly on a linear list versus the specific tier he is in, I will do my best to incorporate detailed thoughts regarding draft capital in those events throughout the player breakdowns.

One final note: I will be updating and adding analysis to these tiers throughout the summer.

With that introduction to the methodology used, let's proceed to the actual player analysis.

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Tier 1 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Jahmyr Gibbs
• Bijan Robinson

The running back position opens as a clear 1A/1B race this summer.

Both Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson are in the archetype of running backs who win fantasy football leagues.

These are players on the front end of the age curve who are ascending and capable of contributing across every component of their offense.

Marshall Faulk, LaDainian Tomlinson, Priest Holmes, Le’Veon Bell, Todd Gurley, David Johnson, Christian McCaffrey: This is the level of do-it-all running back production that these players can achieve in an apex outcome.

These are players who have 400-point PPR seasons in the high end of their outcomes.

That is why this season feels so advantageous to have a top pick in drafts.

These types of players only come around so often with everything lining up to this degree.

I am edging slightly towards Gibbs, given the greater top-down confidence in his offense, but that is strictly splitting hairs.

Ultimately, aside from injury, I believe the deciding factor between these backs in terms of impact on winning leagues will come down to who runs hotter in delivering spike weeks during the fantasy postseason.

Two years ago, that was Gibbs.

Last year, it was Robinson.

Jahmyr Gibbs

Bye: Week 6

Gibbs produced 1,839 yards from scrimmage and 18 touchdowns on an early-career-high 320 touches last season.

Gibbs has seen his workload increase each year in the NFL, going from 234 touches as a rookie to 302 in 2024, and then to that high last year.

After accounting for 25.8% of his team's touches as a rookie, Gibbs handled 32.4% of the Detroit touches in 2024 and then climbed to 38.3% last season.

He played 737 snaps (67%) after 596 snaps (57%) and 639 snaps (56%) in his first two years.

With Detroit moving on from David Montgomery this offseason, Gibbs should be expected to keep raising his opportunity share in the offense.

In the 25 career games in which Gibbs has played 60% or more of the team snaps, he has averaged 20.3 PPR points per game.

Montgomery’s presence near the end zone is particularly appealing for raising the tide of Gibbs even further.

Gibbs has opened his career ranking fourth, second, and seventh in fantasy points scored inside the red zone playing alongside Monty.

Since entering the league in 2023, only Bijan Robinson (5,648) and Derrick Henry (5,240) have produced more yardage than Gibbs (5,029) at his position.

Gibbs has caught at least 3.0 passes per game in all three seasons of his career.

He has been targeted on 22.8% of his career routes.

Only Alvin Kamara (26.3%) and Christian McCaffrey (22.9%) have higher rates than Gibbs with as many targets since he entered the league.

Gibbs has our easiest-ranked rushing schedule this season.

The Lions are favored in 14 games entering the season, which is tied for third in the league.

They open the season with games against the Saints, Bills, Jets, Panthers, and Cardinals.

They play only four outdoor games during the fantasy season, with one of those coming in Week 17 against the Bears.

Their outdoor games before that are in Buffalo (Week 2, so little temperature concerns), the Panthers in Week 4 (ditto), and Miami in Week 9.

The Lions are currently projected to score the third-most points in the league based on Vegas line, while the Falcons are 25th.

That is why I ultimately side with Gibbs when holding the first pick in drafts.

If there is one potential obstacle here, it is that his offensive line is in flux.

This was an issue at the end of last season, when the Detroit offensive line fell apart.

Over the final 10 weeks outside of the Washington and Giants games (who everyone smashed last year), Gibbs only rushed for 3.1 yards per carry, had a 25.7% success rate, and rushed for 0.85 yards before contact.

Without dual-purpose efficiency, that made Gibbs a boom-or-bust fantasy play to end last year.

He was the RB26 or lower in three of his final six games, with two weeks as the RB30 or lower in the fantasy playoffs.

The Lions were 22nd in success rate on running back runs (37.8%) after ranking third in 2024 (44.6%).

Frank Ragnow’s retirement in June was a surprise, and Detroit never replaced him in the season.

Graham Glasgow moved to center in the wake of Ragnow’s retirement and struggled while missing three games.

Glasgow was released at the start of the offseason.

Injuries were a major thorn for this unit, as the starters played only 32.4% of snaps together, ranking 22nd in the league.

Tate Ratledge was the only starter who did not miss multiple games.

Left guard was a mess for the offense most of the season.

Christian Mahogany is still an expected starter this season.

Detroit signed Cade Mays from Carolina to take over at center.

At the same time, they added Juice Scruggs in the Montgomery trade to potentially compete for snaps with Mahogany and provide depth on the inside.

Ben Bartch also came over from San Francisco as depth inside should Mahogany fail to make a jump in year three or miss time again.

Mays has had trouble staying on the field, missing 11 games the past two seasons with the Panthers.

Penei Sewell is expected to move over to left tackle following the release of Taylor Decker.

Sewell did not slide over there last year when Decker missed time, but he has played 683 career snaps at left tackle so far.

First-round pick Blake Miller, out of Clemson, will take over at right tackle.

Bijan Robinson

Bye: Week 11

Robinson was sensational in his third season, racking up a league-high 2,298 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns on 366 touches.

He saved his best for fantasy gamers to end the season, going bonkers in the fantasy postseason.

In Week 15, Robinson racked up 175 total yards and a score on 27 touches.

In Week 16, he had 168 yards and a score on 23 touches.

In Week 17, he posted 229 yards and 2 touchdowns on 27 touches.

After playing 68% of the offensive snaps as a rookie, Robinson raised that total to 75% in 2024 and then to 79% last season.

Robinson has had a higher workload than Gibbs these past three seasons, accounting for 32% of the offensive touches as a rookie, 42.5% in 2024, and 45.2% last season, but there is still more opportunity out there.

Robinson had plenty of touches, but that was only 68.8% of the backfield opportunities in 2025, which was 10th in the league.

Since being drafted in 2023, Robinson leads all running backs in total yards (5,648) and touches (1,003) while sharing a backfield with Tyler Allgeier.

How much more can he gain with Allgeier leaving in free agency?

Robinson has averaged 20.7 PPR points per game when he has reached 15 touches.

The Falcons did add Brian Robinson Jr. as insurance and a complement after he backed up another high-volume back in Christian McCaffrey last season.

Robinson had 100 touches behind CMC, while Allgeier handled 157 touches last year in Atlanta.

The main area of increased usage we are looking for, as Bijan expands his game, is garnering more work near the end zone.

Whereas Gibbs has been a top-10 scorer in fantasy points inside the red zone every year to start his career, Robinson has been 13th, 6th, and 23rd in that department to open his career.

Over his first three years in the league, Robinson has had 23 rushes from inside the 5-yard line.

That ranks 20th at the position and is 56.1% of Atlanta’s backfield total.

Allgeier had 16 of those attempts.

In 2025, they split in that area of the field 50/50, with 7 runs each.

Robinson has been good at converting those runs, too, so any increase is significant.

He has produced a touchdown every 1.9 runs inside the 5-yard line.

The only backs with a better rate and as many attempts as Robinson over that period are Kyren Williams (1.8) and Josh Jacobs (1.8).

Since he entered the league, Robinson has led all running backs with 16.7% of his team’s targets in the passing game.

He has been on the field for a position-high 69.7% of the dropbacks over the past three years.

We have already seen him work with Michael Penix, while Tua Tagovailoa could even raise those totals (see below for De’Von Achane’s splits with and without Tagovailoa).

Tagovailoa has targeted running backs at a league-high 26.3% rate the past two seasons.

The receiving game is where Robinson made huge strides last season.

After 487 and 431 yards receiving to open his career, Robinson accrued 820 yards through the air last season.

The Falcons used Bijan more as a receiver than as a checkdown target.

After 24 air yards in 2023 and -21 air yards in 2024, Robinson had 101 air yards last season.

He played 7.7% of his snaps out wide (RB6) and 12.9% from the slot (RB7).

There is a new regime in Atlanta, but we did see Kevin Stefanski utilize Dylan Sampson as a pass-game asset.

Sampson played 8% of his snaps out wide and 8.4% in the slot.

The Lions project to be a better team and score more points than Atlanta, but that has been true every year since both entered the league.

This year, the Falcons are only favored in two games.

The Lions are favored in 14.

In losses, Robinson has still averaged 17.7 PPR points per game, which is third in the league.

In wins, that spikes to 20.2 points per game.

Atlanta does have more stability on the offensive line.

They are returning four starters from 2025.

Although Jawaan Taylor comes with his own set of baggage, you can make a case that he is still an upgrade over Elijah Wilkinson, who played every snap at right tackle last season.

Tier 2 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Christian McCaffrey

McCaffrey is in a tier of his own because no player at the position has so much upside paired with red flags.

Christian McCaffrey

Bye: Week 8

McCaffrey is not as easy a selection as he was last year, but he still represents high upside and a high floor while he is on the field.

When McCaffrey plays, he delivers fantasy points.

The past five times that McCaffrey has appeared in double-digit games, he has been the RB1 or RB2 in overall scoring in both full-PPR and standard formats.

McCaffrey carried the San Francisco offense through all of the injuries last season.

He is coming off handling 76.6% of the backfield touches in 2025, which ranked third among running backs.

He had a league-high 47% of his team's offensive touches.

He led the NFL with 413 touches, producing 2,126 yards from scrimmage and 17 touchdowns.

He was not a hyper-efficient runner but accumulated 1,202 yards and 10 scores on the ground while catching 102 passes for 924 yards and 7 touchdowns through the air.

With that, McCaffrey became the first player to ever have 2,000 yards and 100-plus receptions in multiple seasons (LaDainian Tomlinson is the only other player to do it once).

It was McCaffrey’s third season with at least 100 receptions.

All other NFL running backs in history have done it four times.

Now, let’s get into the underbelly that raises some concern.

McCaffrey will turn 30 this June.

Including the postseason, McCaffrey handled 450 touches.

Since 2010, only three backs have touched the ball more in a season: DeMarco Murray in 2014 (497 touches), Saquon Barkley in 2024 (482), and Arian Foster in 2012 (460).

All three of those players ahead of CMC on that list came back the following season and not only underperformed fantasy ADP, but also handled fewer touches.

Foster had 143 touches in 2013, playing in only eight games.

He went from 18.9 fantasy points per game in 2012 down to 13.6 per game in 2013.

Murray then had 237 touches over 15 games in 2015.

He went from 21.9 points per game down to 12.3 per game.

Barkley was the one back of the three to stay healthy and rack up a bunch of touches, but he still suffered a dropoff.

Saquon had 346 touches last year, including the postseason (still over a hundred fewer than 2024), going from 22.2 points per game to 14.5 per game.

Murray and Foster were both 26 in their seasons. Barkley was 27.

Only three players in league history have had more touches than McCaffrey last season at the same age or older.

In 1984, Walter Payton had 476 touches at age 31.

John Riggins in 1983 had 468 touches at age 34.

Curtis Martin in 2004 had 457 touches at age 31.

Payton came back with 448 touches in 1985.

Riggins had 334 in 1984.

Martin was closer to this era, dropping to 244 touches and only 3.5 yards per touch in 2005, his final season.

It was the third time in his career that McCaffrey hit the arbitrary 400-touch mark.

He also had 417 touches in 2023 and 403 touches in 2019.

In 2020, he then only played three games.

In 2024, he played four games.

Kyle Shanahan is once again saying that he will alleviate McCaffrey’s workload this offseason.

Still, we have heard that before while McCaffrey racks up late touches in already-decided games.

McCaffrey had 40 touches in the fourth quarter with San Francisco ahead by 8 or more points last season, which was second in the NFL behind Zach Charbonnet (43).

The 49ers are still thin in terms of experienced depth at running back.

Kaelon Black is a third-round rookie.

Jordan James played 3 offensive snaps last season.

Isaac Guerendo did not play a single snap on offense last year and is dealing with a torn pec.

Patrick Taylor missed all of 2025 with a fractured shoulder.

We still know McCaffrey will be involved as a receiver at a high rate compared to his peers, but even if McCaffrey does buck the trend and stay on the field, will he be needed in the passing game to the same degree as last season?

He was on the field for a league-high 81.1% of the San Francisco dropbacks, running a league-high 511 routes.

Bijan Robinson was second with 431 routes run.

McCaffrey had a position-high 23.5% of the targets.

That was his highest target share in a season since 2019.

2025 was another injury-plagued season for San Francisco pass catchers.

Jauan Jennings led the wide receivers with a route run on 73.1% of the dropbacks, followed by Kendrick Bourne at 60.9%.

No other player was on the field for 50% of the dropbacks.

The area of concern for McCaffrey, given his high-touch count and age profile, is his decline in rushing efficiency.

Out of 49 running backs to run the ball 100-plus times last year, McCaffrey ranked:

• 39th in yards per carry (3.9)
• 31st in success rate (38.3%)
• 37th in rate of runs to gain 10 or more yards (8.7%)
• 32nd in rate of runs that failed to gain yardage (18.6%)
• 36th in yards after contact per rush (2.76)

He also averaged a career-low 1.10 yards before contact per rush.

That is affected by the dip in the 49ers' offensive line performance, but when paired with his after-contact production and lack of big gains, it is a troubling combination.

He rushed for more yards than expected on 34.4% of his runs, which was the fourth-lowest rate in the league.

When McCaffrey was hit beyond the line of scrimmage last year, he averaged 5.9 yards per rush.

That ranked 39th on that same list, while the base rate for those 49 backs was 6.6 YPC when hit beyond the line.

If looking for a hall pass for CMC running the ball, he did have stark splits with and without George Kittle.

McCaffrey ran the ball 151 times without Kittle on the field, averaging 3.6 YPC, a 33.8% success rate, and a 6.6% explosive run rate with 0.81 yards before contact per rush.

On 160 runs with Kittle on the field, McCaffrey averaged 4.1 YPC, a 42.5% success rate, a 10.6% explosive run rate, and 1.38 yards before contact per rush.

How soon Kittle can return from his Achilles injury, and how quickly he becomes a full-time player after his return, are important variables for keeping the candle lit that McCaffrey’s efficiency can bounce back overall on the ground.

The back half of this section casts an ominous cloud in paying a similar price for CMC as we did a year ago, making him the largest risk-versus-reward selection in the first round this summer.

Tier 3 Fantasy Football RBs:

• James Cook
• Saquon Barkley
• Jonathan Taylor
• Omarion Hampton
• Chase Brown
• Kenneth Walker
• Derrick Henry
• Josh Jacobs

This is our first large tier at the position.

All of these backs have weekly RB1 upside, but just have a blemish or two on the surface that can be picked at.

Most of this tier has some question marks in their receiving usage, but all have high-end touchdown output to make up ground in full-PPR formats and elevate their performance in non-PPR formats.

You can make a strong case here for every back in this pool having double-digit touchdown output near their median outcomes.

James Cook

Bye: Week 7

Cook got a new contract last offseason, which was well-earned on the field.

He had the best season of his early career, setting career highs in rushing attempts (309), rushing yards (1,621), touches (342), and yards from scrimmage (1,912) to go along with 14 touchdowns.

The league leader in rushing yards, here is where Cook ranked among the 49 running backs last season with 100 or more attempts:

• 2nd in yards per rush (5.2)
• 9th in success rate (45%)
• 8th in rate of runs for 10-plus yards (12.6%)
• 2nd in rate of runs failed to gain yards (10.7%)

That came while facing eight or more defenders in the box on 56% of his attempts, the second-highest rate in the league.

Cook faced a light box (6 or fewer defenders) on only 11.3% of his runs, the third-lowest rate in the league.

The Buffalo offensive line was excellent, but Cook was not given many free squares.

Unlike Saquon Barkley, who also plays with a quarterback used heavily near the end zone, the Bills do mix in Cook near the end zone, instead of strictly relying on Josh Allen moving the pile.

Cook had 14 rushing attempts inside the 5-yard line in 2025 (tied for 8th in the NFL) with 6 touchdowns on those runs.

In 2024, he handled 13 runs from that area of the field with 6 scores.

With 18 and 14 touchdowns in the past two seasons, Cook has established himself as a high-floor/high-upside fantasy back.

Even in full-PPR formats, Cook has been a top-13 scorer in 20 of his 33 games the past two seasons.

Only Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs have more.

Cook has 10 top-six scoring weeks.

Only Robinson, Gibbs, and De’Von Achane have more.

He has finished outside of the top-30 scorers in just five of those weeks.

I mention his stability in full-PPR formats because, if there is one nit to pick, it is that Cook is underused in the passing game.

Cook is a capable pass catcher.

He has averaged 9.0 yards per catch over his career, but only 2.0 receptions per game.

Cook was on the field for 43.9% of the Buffalo dropbacks in 2025, which ranked 15th at the position.

That has shown up when Buffalo has trailed and lost games.

Cook has averaged 19.9 fantasy points per game in Buffalo wins over the past two seasons (6th at the position) compared to 10.3 points per game in losses (RB26).

Buffalo still has one of the highest win totals in the league and is favored in 14 games (tied for third) entering the season to alleviate some of those pitfalls.

Cook is coming off 385 total touches, including the postseason, which was second behind Christian McCaffrey.

It is tough to say there is more work to be had here, but there have been whispers this offseason that Buffalo wants to increase his role in the passing game.

The Bills hired Pete Carmichael as offensive coordinator under Joe Brady.

Carmichael has a history of getting his backs involved in the passing game, with so much of his time spent working under Sean Payton in New Orleans and Denver.

Saquon Barkley

Bye: Week 10

Given the season he had in 2024 and the expectations created for gamers, Barkley may have produced the most disappointing 1,413-yard, 9-touchdown season in history.

Regression was certainly expected coming off his historic run the year before, and a lot went wrong for this offense.

Saquon Barkley Rushing Efficiency, 2024 vs. 2025

*Among all RBs with 100+ attempts

The offensive line was banged up, and the offense overall was not dynamic.

After averaging 2.64 yards before contact per rush in 2024, Barkley averaged 1.36 yards before contact per rush last season.

That would have been his third-lowest rate during his Giants tenure.

The Philadelphia offensive line was less dominant in 2025 than in previous seasons.

They ended the year ranking 16th in run block win rate per ESPN (71%).

Their starting offensive line played 41.9% of the offensive snaps together last year.

Tyler Steen was the only lineman to play in every game.

Cam Jurgens (3 games missed), Landon Dickerson (2), and Lane Johnson (8) all missed multiple weeks over the season.

Longtime offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland stepped away this offseason after his role was diminished late last season, when Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo took over run-game planning and altered the designs.

Chris Kuper was brought in for that role this season, while new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion is expected to instill more runs under center this season.

When Barkley was not hit at or behind the line of scrimmage last year, he still averaged 6.6 yards per rush, in line with his career output before his outlier 2024 season and a perfect storm of explosive runs.

With those explosive runs not coming at the same rate as in 2024, the overall numbers dropped.

Barkley still had 5 touchdowns of 10 or more yards last season, but he once again lacked the usage near the end zone.

The “Tush Push” was not as successful in 2025 as in previous seasons, but it still impacted Barkley’s scoring output.

After only 6 carries from the 1- or 2-yard line in 2024, Barkley only had 4 carries from that area of the field last season.

Jalen Hurts still had 8 of those attempts last season and has out-rushed Barkley 26 to 10 from those yard lines the past two seasons.

Over the past two seasons, Barkley has converted just 6 of 48 (12.5%) of his runs from inside the 10-yard line for touchdowns.

Outside of the offensive line being healthier and looking like it's about to get a fresh coat of paint, the Eagles also draw a fantastic layout…until it matters most.

Philadelphia has our fourth-easiest rushing schedule this season to iron out this new run game.

While the Eagles have a strong layout overall, they open the fantasy playoffs with games against Seattle and Houston, which could be landmines.

Gamers are playing to get to that point of the season, and things are always fluid for NFL defenses, but it is something to keep in mind for large-field tournaments and events where Barkley could have a high advance rate and then potentially let down in the pivotal weeks.

We saw that last season from Jonathan Taylor and Jahmyr Gibbs.

There is one additional element here that can aid Barkley down the line: the new passing game.

We do not know how heavily Barkley will be used out of the backfield under Mannion, but the threshold for more receiving work is not high.

Over the past two seasons, Barkley has received 10.5% of the team’s targets (RB10) with 2.1 and 2.3 receptions per game. Those are the two lowest rates of his career.

The absence of A.J. Brown could facilitate more opportunities outside of the scheme change.

Barkley has been targeted on 17.3% of his routes (110) with Brown off the field the past two seasons, compared to a 14.7% rate with Brown on the field.

Jonathan Taylor

Bye: Week 13

Taylor was the catalyst for the Indianapolis offense last season, turning 369 touches into 1,963 yards from scrimmage and a league-high 20 touchdowns.

Taylor led the NFL in rushing attempts (323), rushing scores (18), and first downs on the ground (84).

He also handled a league-high 84.4% of Indy’s backfield touches.

Taylor was a beast again on the ground, but he also had a spike in receiving output, posting career highs in receptions (46) and receiving yards (378) with 2 added scores.

He led all running backs in standard scoring, while finishing as the RB4 in points per game in full-PPR formats.

Taylor has now finished as an RB1 scorer in four of his six seasons.

The only blemish was that Taylor slowed down as the Colts stalled out as a team.

Over the final seven games, Taylor averaged 3.3 yards per rush with a 35.8% success rate after leading the league with 6.0 YPC and posting a 47.6% success rate (4th) before the season fell apart.

That has been a thorn for Taylor to this point in his career.

Taylor has averaged 22.7 PPR points per game for his career in wins, the most of any active running back.

In losses, he has averaged 13.8 per game, which drops to RB15.

In 2025, Taylor posted a massive 31.5 points per game in Indianapolis wins compared to 12.3 per game in the losses.

That is not all due to the loss of Daniel Jones.

In the four losses in which Jones played in full, Taylor finished those weeks as the RB21, RB29, RB28, and RB18.

That is noteworthy for 2026.

If the real version of this offense is similar to the one we saw at the front of 2025, then Taylor is set up strongly again.

However, the Colts are entering 2026 after several changes that add some volatility.

Jones is returning from an Achilles injury.

Michael Pittman has been traded.

Braden Smith is no longer on the roster.

The defense has some question marks after ranking 22nd in points allowed per drive and 27th in scoring rate per drive while playing an easier schedule.

Right now, the Colts are only favored in six games on their schedule, which is 21st in the league.

They open the season with a tough gauntlet of Baltimore, Kansas City, Houston, an international game against Washington, and then a trip to Pittsburgh, with no bye after that game.

Taylor has a high ceiling.

It is not all doom and gloom.

But with his current cost spike this offseason, he is a back who gives me pause at his sticker price.

Omarion Hampton

Bye: Week 7

Hampton’s rookie year was largely incomplete and limited to nine games due to an ankle injury.

He was starting to find his footing (no pun intended) just before his season came off the rails.

After Najee Harris was injured in Week 3, Hampton followed that up with an RB4 scoring week against the Broncos, turning 25 touches into 129 total yards and a touchdown.

He then torched the Giants for 165 yards and a score on 17 touches in Week 4.

In Week 5, he posted 70 yards on 17 touches on just 58% of the snaps before fracturing his ankle.

Hampton was then sidelined until Week 14.

Returning to an anemic offense plagued by injuries, Hampton only played 31%, 36%, and 55% of the snaps in his three games off injured reserve before playing 81% of the snaps in Week 17, when he injured his other ankle.

Hampton then sat out Week 18 and only played 2 offensive snaps in the playoff loss to the Patriots.

When active, Hampton turned 156 touches into 737 total yards (4.7 yards per touch) and 5 touchdowns.

His rookie sample was highlighted by an average of 3.35 yards after contact per rush, which ranked 11th among 49 running backs with 100 or more attempts.

He had a run of 10 or more yards on 11.3% of attempts (14th).

That was with an injury-plagued offensive line.

Hampton averaged 1.04 yards before contact per rush, which ranked 38th on that same list.

When Hampton was not hit at or behind the line of scrimmage last season, we received a glimpse of explosiveness.

On 52 runs hit beyond the line, Hampton averaged 7.4 yards per rush, which was seventh in the league out of 49 qualifying backs.

He had a run of 10 or more yards on 19.2% of those runs, which was ninth.

Hampton was hit at or behind the line on 58.1% of his attempts.

But even on those runs, he averaged 2.2 YPC (8th) with a run of 10 or more yards on 5.6% (3rd).

Hampton rushed for more yardage than expected on 45.2% of his runs, which was seventh in the league.

The Charger offensive line was a disaster last season.

Rashawn Slater ruptured his patellar tendon in August and missed the entire year.

Joe Alt played in six games due to an ankle injury.

The most-used offensive line combination for the Chargers was on the field for only 16.5% of the offensive snaps, the lowest rate in the NFL.

Bradley Bozeman and Zion Johnson were the only starters to play in every game.

Neither remains on the team.

Mekhi Becton was a bust in free agency last season and was let go, giving the Chargers an entirely new interior line heading into the draft.

The team added Tyler Biadasz in free agency to replace Bozeman.

Bozeman ranked 40th in overall grade per Pro Football Focus among centers last season, while Biadasz was 13th with Washington.

The guards are still a question mark, with rookie second-rounder Jake Slaughter and Cole Strange expected to be the favorites to start.

Strange was with Mike McDaniel last season in Miami, which leads us into the major point of emphasis for Hampton coming back strong in his second season.

Not only can his own health and a healthier offensive line boost his output in year two, but arguably, no player here could benefit more from a coaching addition.

Over his time with Miami, McDaniel’s offenses ranked fifth in yards per rush for running backs (4.7), fifth in success rate (40.9%), and first in explosive run rate (12.7%).

Over his tenure, Miami running backs scored 59 rushing touchdowns, which was third in the league.

Those teams ran outside zone on 43.3% of their running-back runs, ranking third in the league during that period.

As a rookie, Hampton only averaged 0.21 yards before contact on outside zone runs, 45th in the league.

But when contacted beyond the line of scrimmage on those runs, he averaged 7.9 YPC with a 22.2% explosive run rate.

Hampton also showed his chops as a pass catcher as a rookie after catching 29 and 38 passes his final two seasons in college.

Hampton caught 5 or more passes in four of his games played.

As a three-down back with his physical profile, strong team attachment, and upgrade in play caller, Hampton has a high-end fantasy ceiling in his range of outcomes.

If there is a potential fly in the ointment here, McDaniel’s presence will be needed.

The Chargers have the hardest-ranked rushing schedule by our metrics coming into the season.

Chase Brown

Bye: Week 6

Things got off to a rocky start for Brown in 2025.

He averaged only 50.7 total yards per game with 1 touchdown through six weeks while the offense floundered.

He was looking like one of the larger fantasy busts with zero top-20 scoring weeks.

He was the RB30 in fantasy scoring overall.

He had only played one full game with Joe Burrow over that span, however.

Moving on from Jake Browning after Week 5 and acquiring Joe Flacco, this offense and Brown found new life.

Brown then averaged 104.7 yards from scrimmage per game over the final 11 weeks (8th among running backs), reaching at least 90 total yards in nine of those games.

He was inside the top-20 scorers in all 11 games with eight top-12 scoring weeks.

After Burrow returned in Week 13, Brown was the RB2 in overall scoring for the remainder of the season while ranking third in expected points scored.

Brown is an interesting player at his cost because gamers are arguably drafting his opportunity and environment more so than the player himself.

You can make a case that he belongs with the Tier 5 backs by definition, but the ceiling here has been so high that I am pushing him into this bucket.

Brown has been hit-or-miss in terms of efficiency, but he has handled a heavy workload as the starter in a high-scoring offense each of the past two seasons while showing ability as a pass catcher.

His 35.8% success rate as a runner last year ranked 37th among 49 backs with 100 or more rushes.

Since entering the league, Brown’s 35.6% success rate as a runner ranks 31st out of 41 running backs with 300 or more runs.

As a receiver, Brown has only averaged 6.7 and 6.3 yards per catch the past two seasons, which is 75th at his position.

But the guy just has a great role in an offense that, when Burrow plays, produces buckets of points.

Since taking over as the starter in 2024, Brown has averaged 20.2 PPR points per game in Burrow’s full games.

You do not have to be hyper-efficient as a runner or receiver with Brown’s opportunities.

Only De’Von Achane (145), Bijan Robinson (140), and Jahmyr Gibbs (129) have more receptions than Brown (123) among running backs the past two years.

If anything, Brown is even scarier should he run hot in the efficiency department.

Brown did concede some more work to Samaje Perine last season, but this is still a depth chart that Brown should dominate.

Even with Perine stealing long down and distance snaps, Brown still ran a pass route on 57.7% of the Cincinnati dropbacks, which was RB7.

He accounted for 14.5% of the targets, also RB7.

The Bengals still have a weak depth chart in terms of a third pass catcher behind Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, so it is hard to expect a wholesale change.

If there is one area to keep an eye on moving forward with Perine, he had 4 rushes inside the 5-yard line compared to 7 for Brown.

But Brown out-rushed Perine 5 to 2 from the 1- and 2-yard lines, so we are likely looking at happenstance there.

Brown played 73.9% of the snaps in the red zone, which was RB5 on the season.

The Bengals have sneakily drawn a favorable outlook heading into the year.

They are currently favored in 15 games this season, which is the second-most in the league behind the Rams.

Kenneth Walker

Bye: Week 5

Joining Kansas City with a huge payday, Walker should be thrust into one of the largest workloads of his career.

Walker’s rushing usage per game trickled down over his rookie contract with Seattle.

This past season, he was in a timeshare with Zach Charbonnet, who cut his workload, specifically near the goal line and in passing situations.

Walker set career lows with 29.7% of the snaps inside the 5-yard line with only 7 touches from that area of the field.

Charbonnet played 74.3% of those snaps with 17 touches.

Walker played over 60% of the offensive snaps in just one game during the regular season last year before being thrust into a larger role after Charbonnet suffered a knee injury in the playoffs.

Walker immediately showcased his upside when given the keys to the backfield, reeling off 417 yards from scrimmage and 4 touchdowns on his way to a Super Bowl MVP over the three postseason games.

Walker played 62.3%, 62.7%, and 65.3% of the snaps in those games.

For his career, Walker has averaged 17.5 fantasy points per game over the 26 games he has reached the 60% snap mark.

Those are mid-range RB1 totals at face value.

Even though the Chiefs have not had a productive backfield since Walker entered the NFL, their backs have averaged 15.5 fantasy points per game when reaching the 60% snap mark (the same 26 games).

Walker is still a volatile rusher, but it is no secret that Kansas City needed to inject upside-per-touch into a backfield that has produced the lowest rate of explosive plays over the past two seasons.

Chiefs RBs Advanced Stats

Since Walker entered the NFL in 2022, he has rushed for 10 or more yards on 12.1% of his rushes.

The only running back with a higher rate on as many rushes over that same span is James Cook (12.5%).

In 2025, Walker ran for 10 or more yards on 14.9% of his runs, which was third in the NFL behind De’Von Achane (16.8%) and Blake Corum (15.9%).

Since Walker entered the league, Kansas City running backs have been last in the NFL in the rate of runs for 10 or more yards (6.8%).

Walker has 32 runs of 20 or more yards for his career (4th) with 7 touchdowns on those longer gains.

Kansas City running backs have 17 runs of 20-plus yards (2 touchdowns) over that stretch, which is 31st in the league.

On his runs hit beyond the line of scrimmage last season, Walker posted 8.1 yards per rush, which trailed only Achane (8.7).

Walker’s insertion into the Kansas City ecosystem should create the most advantageous layout he has worked with for explosive runs.

Since Walker entered the league, he has faced a light box (6 or fewer defenders) on just 23.9% of his runs (46th) and loaded boxes (8 or more defenders) on 43.2% (13th).

Walker had a 17.2% light box rate last season (38th) and faced a heavy box on 49.3% of his runs (11th).

Facing all those heavy boxes has contributed to Walker forcing the third-most missed tackles since entering the league (82), behind Derrick Henry (114) and Josh Jacobs (101).

Walker has forced a missed tackle once every 11.0 rushes for his career.

Kansas City is last in the league in forced tackles over that span (66) in the running game, forcing a missed tackle once every 26.0 rushes (31st).

In the Patrick Mahomes era, Kansas City running backs have the league’s best light box rate (35.9%) and the lowest heavy box rate (29.2%).

When given daylight, Walker is as explosive as they come.

That setup should help Walker transition from one of the run-heaviest offenses to the Chiefs' pass-heavy climate.

Last season, the Seahawks ranked last in the NFL in dropback rate (51.3%), while the Chiefs ranked third (64.8%).

The Chiefs have been first in dropback rate (65.1%) since Mahomes entered the league.

I do believe we will see Kansas City run more with the addition of Walker, paired with the possibility that Mahomes could return slowly from a torn ACL to close last season.

This move pushes Walker into the mid-range RB1 field.

Walker has missed multiple games in three of his four seasons, but more than two games only once.

If there are any true nits to pick with Walker pushing the front-end of the RB1 landscape, it will be with his usage in the passing game.

Walker only ran a pass route on 37.4% of the dropbacks in his games played last season.

His career rate is 40.9%, with a career high of 49% in 2024.

Pass protection has been a thorn in his side.

In 2025, he ranked 51st in pass-blocking grade per Pro Football Focus.

Walker was even coming off the field for George Holani in pass spots after Charbonnet’s injury.

Getting Walker to three-down functionality is an early emphasis for Eric Bieniemy and the Chiefs this offseason.

Kansas City has not thrown the ball to its backs a ton in recent seasons.

Mahomes is 22nd in running back target rate (16.3%) over the past two years, as their wide receiver room and Travis Kelce have gobbled up those shorter targets.

Derrick Henry

Bye: Week 13

Henry was still a behemoth in his age-31 season, turning 322 touches into 1,745 yards and 16 touchdowns.

It was the seventh-most total yards gained by a running back 31 years or older in league history and the most since 2006 for a player of that age.

Henry was a league-winner in the fantasy championship in Week 17 last year, posting 216 yards and 4 touchdowns.

2025 was Henry’s eighth straight season with double-digit touchdowns.

Only nine other players in league history have as many seasons with double-digit touchdowns.

And he did that all in a row.

If he does it again this season, he will join Jerry Rice (10), LaDainian Tomlinson, Emmitt Smith, and Randy Moss as the only players with nine such seasons.

Over that span, Henry has scored 25 more touchdowns than the next closest players (Davante Adams and Christian McCaffrey).

This was the sixth time in seven seasons that Henry cleared 300 touches.

Since 2018, Henry has had 357 more touches than the next closest running back (Saquon Barkley).

Henry averaged 3.59 yards after contact per rush in 2025, which was fourth in the league.

All of that production was while running up against a light box for 16.3% of his runs (42nd).

Henry turned 32 in January.

Father Time eventually catches up with everyone, but Henry is still performing at a high level.

Outside the age cliff, Henry still plays no role in the passing game, which does give him more top-down appeal in non-PPR formats.

He caught 1 or fewer passes in 13 games last season.

The Ravens ran the ball on 64% of Henry’s snaps last year, the highest rate for any running back.

That can create some wonky moments that force Henry to live on rushing efficiency, like in Weeks 11 and 15 last year, when Henry had only 10 and 11 runs in those games.

When tied or ahead, Henry was on the field for 57.3% of the offensive snaps with 49.6% of the team’s touches.

When trailing, he dipped to a 53.3% snap share and 42.7% of the touches.

The good news is that the Ravens are expected to rebound this season.

Baltimore is currently favored in 14 games this season, tied for third in the league.

Josh Jacobs

Bye: Week 11

Jacobs handled 270 touches for 1,211 total yards and 14 touchdowns last season.

That has raised his touchdown total to 30 over the past two seasons, fifth in the NFL.

Even with all of the ups and downs to close last season, Jacobs had a prominent role near the end zone.

He was fifth in fantasy points scored inside the red zone after finishing fifth in that department in his first season with Green Bay in 2024.

Jacobs dealt with his own set of injuries while running behind a battered offensive line.

Jacobs dealt with a lingering knee issue that he suffered in Week 11 and was never quite the same to close the season.

He missed two games outright due to the injury. He played just 21.8%, 38.9%, and 27.7% of the snaps in three others.

Through nine games, Jacobs had 845 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Before that injury, Jacobs was averaging 93.9 total yards per game (RB9), 21.1 touches per game (RB4), and was seeing a spike in receiving usage, running a route on 51.1% of the dropbacks (RB13) with 3.1 receptions per game (RB7).

He then posted 366 total yards and 3 touchdowns over the remainder of the season.

His route rate plummeted to 26.5% while averaging 1.3 receptions per game.

As alluded to, the offensive line did not aid Jacobs.

He averaged 0.91 yards before contact per rush, which ranked 44th out of 49 running backs with 100 or more rushes on the year.

Emanuel Wilson was also at 0.91 yards before contact per rush, while Jacobs was averaging 3.06 yards after contact per run (23rd), suggesting that the lack of yardage gained on the ground was a byproduct of the state of the line.

This offensive line was decimated in 2025.

The starting offensive line was on the field together for only 17.6% of the offensive snaps last season, 30th in the league.

The only lineman to play in all 17 games was Rasheed Walker, who left the team in free agency.

Zach Tom (12 games), Elgton Jenkins (9 games), and Aaron Banks (15 games) all missed multiple games, with Tom’s injury having the largest impact.

On 140 attempts with Tom on the field, Jacobs averaged 4.2 YPC with a run of 10 or more yards on 11.4% of those attempts.

With Tom off the field, Jacobs had 94 runs, averaging 3.6 YPC with a run of 10 or more yards on 7.4% of those runs.

With high touchdown equity and a healthier offensive line, the front half of 2025 still showcases Jacobs as a workhorse RB1.

Jacobs still has control of his depth chart, and the movement at wide receiver this offseason can keep those early-season receiving totals in play this season.

The one thing keeping his current draft cost down is the non-zero chance that Jacobs could face disciplinary action from the league surrounding a domestic dispute in May.

Jacobs was released from custody without criminal charges, but an ongoing legal investigation remains unresolved.

We have examples of this going both ways, with and without criminal charges, but we know the league will typically wait for the judicial system to complete its due diligence before reaching an outcome.

Jacobs has fallen more to the turn of the third and fourth rounds in drafts while things remain unclear.

That is still a fair cost for a six-game suspension, while offering an outcome that would return value if he were not suspended. He would be a full round higher near the second and third round turn without a suspension.

Tier 4 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Ashton Jeanty
• De’Von Achane
• Breece Hall
• Jeremiyah Love

These backs are tight and could be included with the previous tier from a talent perspective.

The reason they are in a tier below is that their top-down team environments raise some concerns for overall upside.

The top-three scorers at the running back position every season since 1990 have played for teams that average 9.9 wins per season.

Just 17 of those backs (16.7%) played for teams that won fewer than eight games.

The top-six scorers at the running back position since 1990 have played for teams that average 9.6 wins per season.

Over that same period, only 18.8% of all RB1 scorers (top 12) have been on teams with six or fewer wins.

All of these backs play for teams that have a win total of 5.5 or worse.

That said, if any of the teams are better than expected, these are all talented, young backs with upside and should be a part of that outcome when punching up in class.

Ashton Jeanty

Bye: Week 13

Selected with the No. 6 pick overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, Jeanty accumulated 1,321 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns as a rookie.

The counting stats were solid, but the underlying production and efficiency were disappointments for gamers and the Raiders.

Jeanty posted only five top-12 scoring weeks, reaching 100 total yards in four games.

Rushing efficiency was the largest issue.

Jeanty rushed for:

• 3.7 YPC (44th)
• 30.8% success rate (49th)
• 9% of runs went for 10 or more yards (35th)
• 26.7% of runs failed to gain yardage (49th)
• 16.5% of runs resulted in a first down or touchdown (46th)

As lousy as all of that looks on the surface, there are reasons to keep the lights on for Jeanty.

He did manage 3.06 yards after contact per rush, which was more in the middle of the pack for high-volume running backs than completely at the bottom.

That ranked 24th out of 49 backs with 100-plus attempts.

His 0.60 yards before contact per rush was 48th on that list, ahead of only Quinshon Judkins.

Jeanty was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 144 of his runs, the most in the NFL.

He had 122 runs hit beyond the line of scrimmage.

For some context, that was one spot ahead of Kyle Monangai (116).

We talked about Christian McCaffrey in a similar context of having little room to run.

McCaffrey was second with 142 of those runs hit at or behind the line.

But unlike McCaffrey, Jeanty, when given daylight, showcased his explosiveness.

On his runs hit beyond the line of scrimmage, Jeanty averaged 6.8 YPC (16th).

The 2025 Raiders were a disaster up front.

They were 31st in yards before contact in the running game (0.50).

The Raiders' approach up front last season was questionable entering the year, given limited personnel and the decision to let Brennan Carroll lead things as the offensive line coach.

There were reports after the season that the linemen were meeting with Geno Smith and Ashton Jeanty without coaches to resolve blocking issues.

On top of that, the Raiders were completely decimated up front with injuries.

Their most frequently used offensive line combination was on the field together for 23.5% of their offensive snaps (27th).

Kolton Miller did not play a snap after Week 4 due to an ankle injury.

Jackson Powers-Johnson only played in eight games.

Right tackle DJ Glaze was the only player to play in all 17 games.

In the transition to Klint Kubiak, the Raiders hired Rick Dennison to coach the offensive line.

Dennison is a 30-year NFL coach who was the run game coordinator with Kubiak in Seattle last season.

There is better infrastructure in place here this season, at a minimum.

Coming off their up-front failures a year ago, paired with a rookie quarterback coming at pick No. 1, the Raiders immediately splurged on Tyler Linderbaum when free agency opened.

Linderbaum was the fifth-highest graded center last year per Pro Football Focus.

He was fourth in run-blocking grade at the position and only allowed 5 sacks over his four seasons with Baltimore.

Adding Linderbaum as an interior anchor and getting Miller and Powers-Johnson back on the field gives the Raiders a boost.

Jeanty also still demonstrated he could handle a high workload, as he did in college.

Jeanty racked up 321 touches and handled 84.3% of the backfield touches, which was second in the league behind Jonathan Taylor (84.4%).

We had a taste of the real talent level Jeanty has when he totaled 188 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Houston defense.

In a year when they could do nothing running the ball, Jeanty showed out of the box that he can be a viable pass catcher.

He was on the field for 59.5% of the Las Vegas dropbacks (RB5), accounting for 14.8% of the team’s targets (RB6).

These were largely dump-offs, however.

61.6% of his targets were at or behind the line of scrimmage.

No running back among the 10 others to clear 50 targets last season had a higher rate.

The silver lining there is that the Raiders did not add much to the wide receiver room.

The Raiders have an extremely low bar to clear in finding an improved quarterback this season, given the combination of Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza.

In 2025, their passers combined to rank 28th in the league in rating (81.5), throwing for 6.4 yards per pass attempt (27th), 9.8 yards per completion (30th), a 3.9% touchdown rate (26th), and a 3.7% interception rate (30th).

While all of those are paths for Jeanty to be better with his opportunities in 2026, the Raiders do still draw a rough layout on paper.

They have our 30th-ranked rushing schedule.

They are favored in three games.

The Raiders open the year with a winnable game against the Dolphins, but then they also have the Chargers, Chiefs, Patriots, Bills, and Rams on the schedule through Week 7.

If we do see Mendoza at or before that break, the Raiders also have the 49ers, Seahawks, and Broncos before their Week 13 bye.

De’Von Achane

Bye: Week 6

Achane was an anchor for the Miami offense in 2025, turning in his best season to date and building on a strong start to his career.

Achane handled a career-high 305 touches for 1,838 yards from scrimmage while reaching the end zone 12 times.

Achane has scored double-digit touchdowns in all three of his years in the league.

Since entering the league, no running back has averaged more yards per carry than Achane (5.6) with as many attempts as he has.

He also has the fifth-most receptions of any running back (172) over the past three seasons.

Achane is clearly the best player Miami has on offense at the moment, so it is easy to expect him to be the centerpiece of the offense, but we still need to price in some fragility here with all of the moving parts.

The loss of Mike McDaniel and the transition away from Tua Tagovailoa could reduce Achane's gaudy efficiency and receiving numbers.

Miami is also expected to compete for the worst record in the league this season.

New offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik comes from a similar coaching tree as McDaniel, but his first time running as a play caller with Houston did not inspire as much confidence.

Achane is coming off an RB5 season in fantasy points per game (20.2).

Since entering the league, Achane is the RB3 in receptions per game (3.9), the RB7 in receiving yards per game (29.0), and has 13 receiving touchdowns, which is second at the position.

But those familiar with Achane for fantasy have always been cognizant of his splits with and without Tagovailoa.

Achane with and Without Tagovailoa

Achane has played in eight games without Tagovailoa over the past two seasons.

In those games, he averages 10.5 PPR points with one RB1 scoring week.

In his starts with Tagovailoa, Achane has posted 20.3 PPR points per game.

Last season, things did not bottom out to the degree they did in 2024 without Tagovailoa, but Achane still saw a significant dip in output.

He was the RB14 (18 touches for 90 yards) and RB17 (21 touches for 112 yards) in his two games without Tagovailoa while playing with Quinn Ewers.

Miami has always been run-heavy since Achane arrived in the NFL, but the transition to Malik Willis further reduces the passing upside here.

With Willis on the field over his NFL career, his offenses have dropped back to pass only 40% of the time.

With Green Bay, that rate was 38.7%.

We talk about this all the time, but we have to be wary of receiving backs who play alongside mobile passers.

Even when Miami drops back to throw, Willis is a threat to run rather than take a checkdown.

That was not true with Tagovailoa.

Willis had a 14.5% scramble rate with Green Bay, which was the highest in the league.

Willis only targeted his running backs 10.2% of the time with Green Bay.

The only quarterbacks with a lower target rate to running backs over that span were Riley Leonard (9.4%) and Anthony Richardson (8%) among 74 passers with 50-plus attempts.

The Packers did not have Achane and other more capable pass catchers to influence that rate, but I would bet Achane’s target rate will be lower without Tagovailoa.

When Achane played with Tyler Huntley in Miami, he was only targeted on 6 of his 85 routes (7.1%).

I do not expect Achane to bottom out.

His upside per touch will remain intact, but the transition from Tagovailoa to Willis does ding Achane as a volatile RB2 for me.

Miami is currently favored in only one game and is projected for 19.3 points per game in Vegas lines (29th).

That is not the be-all and end-all, but we have lived this life with Breece Hall over the past few seasons.

Achane was already 24th among running backs last season in fantasy points scored inside the red zone, and that was on a 7-win team with a stationary quarterback who was not pilfering any rushing opportunities near the paint.

Breece Hall

Bye: Week 13

Speaking of Hall, he is the poster boy for producing solid counting stats in poor offensive environments.

Hall is coming off 1,415 yards from scrimmage and 5 touchdowns on 279 touches in 2025.

He rushed for a career-high 1,065 yards, adding 36 catches for 350 yards as a pass catcher.

Hall has seen his efficiency dip since his rookie season, when he posted 6.9 yards per touch, but he remains a reliable contributor in a bad offense, putting up at least 1,300 total yards in each of the past three seasons.

On the other side of the coin, Hall is also an example of how volatile a talented back can be in poor offensive climates.

After finishing as the RB6 in points per game in 2023, Hall has been the RB17 and the RB19 in points per game the past two seasons.

Hall has 11 RB1 scoring weeks the past two years to go along with 14 games as a weekly RB3 or lower.

That is where the touchdown upside comes into play.

Over the past two years, Hall has had only 10 rushing attempts from inside the 5-yard line.

Kyle Monangai had 10 last year as a seventh-round rookie.

The Jets are favored in four games entering the season and are projected to finish 31st in scoring output based on current line totals.

That said, I do believe there is a case to be made for them being better than that.

The Jets do have some young talent here that can make an impact in year one, and a good offensive line.

Hall, Garrett Wilson, Kenyon Sadiq, Omar Cooper, Adonai Mitchell, and Mason Taylor are all players with upside.

Olu Fashanu, Armand Membou, and Joe Tippmann are three quality starters up front.

Geno Smith at least has a low bar to clear to improve the quarterback play here, but the Jets just have to win games to guarantee he keeps starting rather than exploring Cade Klubnik at some point late in the season, when fantasy gamers will be counting on production the most.

Jeremiyah Love

Bye: Week 14

Love was the crown jewel at the running back position in the 2026 NFL Draft.

At age 20 this past season at Notre Dame, he produced 1,652 yards and 21 scores on 226 touches (7.3 yards per touch).

Love led this running back class with 4.2 yards after contact per rush.

This past season, Love did that with only 35.2% of his rushes coming against light boxes (6 or fewer defenders), the lowest rate in the class.

In turn, 25.1% of Love’s runs came against heavy boxes (the 2nd-highest in this class) because everyone knew he was getting the ball.

When Love gets into space, he is electric.

He averaged a robust 10.0 yards per rush when he was contacted beyond the line of scrimmage.

Not only did that lead all running backs in this class, but that was also the highest yards per rush on runs hit beyond the line of scrimmage for a back with 100-plus attempts over the past 10 years.

In 2025, Love was targeted on 22.2% of his routes (2nd in the class) and posted 1.83 yards per route run (3rd).

No prospect is without odds to fail in the NFL, but Love truly checks every box.

He is young, athletic, and hyper-productive.

If there is anything to really try and tear down with Love, he has a leaner build and has not yet handled a massive workload.

That may be the case for him in Year 1, given Tyler Allgeier and James Conner are on the roster as backs capable of operating as clashers.

We saw Allgeier be a nuisance for gamers with Bijan Robinson, particularly near the end zone.

In Robinson’s rookie year, Allgeier handled 4 runs inside the 5-yard line while Robinson had only 2.

We do not have great feelings about Arizona having a plethora of scoring chances to begin with, even if Love does control the scoring opportunities.

Arizona only had 13 runs inside the 5-yard line last season, when they were 24th in offensive points scored per game (19.9).

The Cardinals are the only team not favored in any game entering the season and are projected to score the fewest points in the NFL based on current game lines.

Arizona got hammered by scheduling this season.

Arizona opens the season against the Chargers, Seahawks, 49ers, Giants, Lions, Rams, Broncos, Cowboys, Seahawks, Rams, Chiefs, Commanders, and Eagles before their Week 14 bye.

Those were known opponents they could not avoid, but not only are they front-loaded, but, to compound matters, the Cardinals play only four home games through the opening 11 weeks, and they are against the Seahawks, Lions, Broncos, and Rams.

I do expect Love teams to have a low advance rate in large-field contests, but if you do get a team with him through to the money weeks, the Cardinals do come up for some air to close the season with games against the Jets, Saints, and Raiders in the fantasy playoffs.

I do expect Arizona to run the ball more, even if they are lousy in the winning department.

Every move Arizona has made this offseason has signaled that they will be slower and run the football more, even though they are expected to have a poor win-loss record.

They hired Mike LaFleur as head coach and Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator.

When free agency opened, they signed four offensive linemen: Isaac Seumalo, Elijah Wilkinson, Matt Pryor, and Oli Udoh.

They also signed Allgeir.

After taking Love, they then used pick No. 34 on guard Chase Bisontis.

With Love landing in Arizona following a year in which Ashton Jeanty let down fantasy gamers at his draft cost on a bad football team, there will surely be some pause with Love on a roster projected to compete for the No. 1 pick in 2027.

Since 2010, here are the rookie running backs who have been selected as the RB15 or higher.

I do believe Love is still ready to be used out of the box in a Bijan Robinson-esque fashion.

Like Robinson, I expect him to be used enough to deliver fantasy points that look better overall than they do week to week, with the runway to offer a higher ceiling via a larger workload than median projections suggest.

Tier 5 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Kyren Williams
• Travis Etienne
• Javonte Williams
• D’Andre Swift
• David Montgomery
• Tony Pollard

Moving down another tier, these are not the sexiest picks gamers can make at the position, but all of these backs have already had pockets of production during their careers, have clear opportunity in front of them, and the majority play in offensive ecosystems that we believe in.

They will carry the moniker of RB2 picks, but all of these players have weekly RB1 upside and touchdown equity.

This is a strong pocket of players for gamers going WR-heavy early in drafts.

Kyren Williams

Bye: Week 11

Williams is a rock-steady producer with at least 1,300 total yards and double-digit touchdowns in each of the past three seasons.

He is coming off 295 touches for a career-high 1,533 total yards and 13 touchdowns.

The Rams operated with a more split backfield to close this season than we have seen from them in recent years.

Over the final 12 games of the season, Williams tallied 197 touches (59.3% of the backfield touches) for 1,047 yards and 9 touchdowns.

Blake Corum handled 126 touches (37.9%) for 640 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Williams (and the Los Angeles offense) must remain efficient if a similar backfield split is in store for 2026.

Williams only had 59.3% of the backfield touches over the final 12 games (RB18).

The Rams are favored in a league-high 16 games and are the top projected scoring offense based on current game lines, so game scripts and scoring chances are anticipated.

We should see natural regression towards more rushing scores making up their touchdown totals, whether they score more or not.

73% of the Rams' touchdowns last season were passing, the fourth-highest rate in the league.

That was the second-highest rate for a Sean McVay team.

The last time it was that high was in 2021, when 80.4% of the Rams' touchdowns were passing.

The following year, that dropped to 51.6%, with the team adding 5 rushing touchdowns to their previous output.

Matthew Stafford posted a career-high 7.7% touchdown rate.

His previous high was 6.8% in 2021.

He threw the ball 54 times into the end zone, completing 48.1% of those for touchdowns.

The league rate on end zone passes converted to touchdowns was 37.4%.

His previous touchdown rates on end zone throws with the Rams were 41.8% in 2021, 26.1% in 2022, 35.1% in 2023, and 28.6% in 2024.

There have been 55 times in which a passer has posted a 7% TD rate on 200-plus throws since 1990.

49 of those players threw fewer touchdowns the following season.

If we do see some natural regression and balance in passing to rushing scores, Williams should be the bet to benefit.

Williams played 69.2% of the snaps in the red zone and out-touched Corum 58 to 26 in that area.

He is trusted with a significant role in that area of the field.

Over the past three seasons, Williams has finished second, first, and third in fantasy points scored in the red zone.

If by chance the Rams do underachieve or trail at a higher rate than expected, Williams has an added edge over Corum.

Williams was still the back the Rams used when trailing by a wide gap.

The Rams ran the ball on 47.5% of Corum’s snaps, compared to 38.3% for Williams.

Corum ran a pass route on 18.6% of the team dropbacks, compared to 56% for Williams.

Williams played 75.2% of snaps with the Rams tied or trailing, while Corum played 24.4%.

If the Rams are expected to regress in any fashion, Williams is the primary beneficiary.

Travis Etienne

Bye: Week 8

Etienne rebounded from a down 2024 season that featured career lows in several areas, turning 296 touches into 1,399 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns with Jacksonville a year ago.

The counting stats were in place for Etienne, but he was more of a touchdown-based producer for his spike weeks.

He did not rush for 100 yards in a game after Week 4.

After the Jacksonville Week 8 bye, Etienne rushed for 3.6 YPC (24th out of 32 backs with 100-plus attempts) with a 31.9% success rate (30th).

He failed to gain any yardage on a league-high 25.8% of his attempts over that span.

But Etienne had at least 15 touches in 10 straight games to close the year, which is why sustaining a high workload is of the utmost importance.

This is where Alvin Kamara‘s availability comes into play.

Etienne has been more of an accumulator than a hyper-efficient standalone piece, even in the strong Jacksonville offense last season.

We need him to get as many touches as possible, given his career output.

The Saints are on the upswing, but can they reach the heights that the Jaguars crested over the back half of 2025?

After their Week 8 bye, the Jaguars went 9-1, winning eight straight games with a league-best +153 point differential over that winning streak.

Jacksonville scored 2.83 points per drive over that period, fourth in the league.

Etienne joins a New Orleans roster that was in desperate need of shaking up their backfield.

Year 1 of Kellen Moore provided several positives, but the backfield production was not one of them.

New Orleans running backs combined for:

• 3.7 YPC (29th)
• 34% success rate (30th)
• 6.7% rate of runs for 10+ yards (31st)
• 0.96 yards before contact per rush (28th)
• 2.76 yards after contact per rush (29th)

Even if Etienne has not been the most hyper-efficient back, he is a clear upgrade on what New Orleans fielded a season ago.

Kamara, Kendre Miller, and Devin Neal all picked up injuries that cost them games.

In the final game of the season last year, the Saints handed the ball off 21 times to Audric Estime.

Not only was New Orleans down deep on free agents joining the roster and forced into touches, but the offensive line was once again one of the league’s most beleaguered units.

The Saints ranked 31st in run blocking grade per Pro Football Focus and ranked 23rd in ESPN’s run block win rate (70%).

Jacksonville was 15th in run blocking grade at PFF and sixth in ESPN's run block win rate (73%).

The Saints were ravaged up front.

Their most frequently used offensive line combination was on the field for only 16.9% of their plays in 2025.

Only the Chargers had a lower rate (16.5%).

If the line has more fortune staying together, this is a solid unit.

In an effort to bolster their unit heading into 2026, the Saints signed guard David Edwards from the Bills.

Kelvin Banks and Taliese Fuaga are both on rookie contracts.

Cesar Ruiz and Erik McCoy are still quality starters. They just need to stay on the field.

Ruiz has not played a full season since 2021.

McCoy has only played seven games in each of the past two seasons.

Javonte Williams

Bye: Week 14

Williams had a bounce-back season with Dallas last year, turning 287 touches into 1,338 yards and 13 touchdowns.

That landed him a new three-year contract worth up to $24 million, a palatable deal for a 25-year-old running back.

Getting to work in a pass-heavy offense in jailbreak game scripts, 32.5% of his runs came against light boxes (3rd-highest rate in the league), by far the highest rate of his career.

Williams propelled that opportunity into a 44% success rate as a rusher (11th among backs with 100 more attempts).

He also averaged 3.56 yards after contact per rush, which was fifth in the league.

While Williams was one of the best values of 2025 and re-established himself as a fantasy option, there are a few things to keep in the peripheral scope when paying up this season.

As good as Williams was, he did close the year quietly for fantasy.

Williams reached 100 total yards in just one of his final nine games, and that one was 101 yards.

He did not log an RB1 scoring week in any of his final eight games, missing the final two weeks of the regular season.

The thing that kept him in check for fantasy was receiving output.

Williams only averaged 3.9 yards per reception on his 35 catches.

That is the second-lowest yards per catch for any running back with 25-plus receptions in a season in league history.

That is not a complete one-off, either.

Williams has now averaged fewer than 5.0 yards per catch in three of his past four seasons.

Dallas has plenty of receiving targets, so the ball can go elsewhere, which is not a major concern for the offense's functionality.

Still, we could see another back work into passing situations at some point.

There has already been speculation that Jaydon Blue has made growth this offseason, and Dallas is looking to work him into a potential role as a pass catcher.

Blue was a decorated pass catcher coming into the league.

That said, Blue logged only 78 snaps over five appearances as a rookie and was a healthy inactive from Week 9 to Week 17.

Even if Williams does shed passing work this season, he is only 26 years old and with no immediate threat to his touchdown upside in a high-scoring offense.

Williams played 82.4% of the offensive snaps inside the 10-yard line, a rate only bested by Ashton Jeanty (95%), Christian McCaffrey (90.8%), Saquon Barkley (90.2%), and Jonathan Taylor (85.1%).

Williams handled 29 of 36 backfield opportunities in that area of the field, with 18 of 23 backfield touches inside the 5-yard line.

Lastly, the Dallas offensive line can run into better fortune this season.

Every starter for Dallas up front is back. They need them all to stay on the field at a higher rate this season.

The starting Dallas offensive line played together for only 24.6% of offensive snaps, ranking 25th in the league.

Terence Steele was the only lineman to play the full season, with Tyler Guyton (10 games played), Cooper Beebe (11), and Tyler Booker (14) all missing multiple games at varying stretches.

D’Andre Swift

Bye: Week 10

Swift ended the 2025 season handling 257 touches for 1,386 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns.

Ben Johnson’s impact was immediately felt with the Chicago run game.

Chicago running backs combined for:

• 4.8 yards per rush (6th)
• 40.8% success rate (2nd)
• 26.3% of runs resulted in a first down or touchdown (2nd)
• 11.8% rate of runs that gained 10 or more yards (7th)

If there was any shade to throw here, the Chicago backs averaged 1.79 yards before contact per rush (3rd) while ranking 21st in yards after contact per rush (3.01), but it was an excellent season for this running game.

We could see the yards before contact come down a degree since Drew Dalman unexpectedly retired this offseason and left tackle Ozzy Trapilo could miss the entire season, but we are still placing our faith in Johnson to max out his offense.

This was primarily a split backfield over the back half of the season.

Over the final nine games, Swift had 139 touches (55.6%) compared to 110 touches (44%) for Kyle Monangai.

Swift was more effective over that period with 730 yards and 5 touchdowns, compared to 502 yards and 4 touchdowns for the rookie.

The yards and touchdowns were career highs, although Swift and Monangai did have the same number of touches inside the 5-yard line (10).

Inside the 5-yard line, this was a direct 50/50 split.

Swift played 52.9% of the snaps while Monangai was at 52.6%.

Swift’s 5.4 yards per touch were his best rate since 2022.

Swift produced a run of 10 or more yards on 13.5% of his runs, which ranked sixth in the league.

He led the league in runs that gained more yards than expected (48.6%).

That also came while Swift was playing banged up.

Over the back two-thirds of the season, Swift was dealing with a chronic groin/adductor strain, a hip injury, and a quad injury.

We have a strong idea that Johnson wants to use a split backfield and is familiar with preserving Swift, going back to their time together in Detroit, but there is still a path for Swift to be healthier and garner more of the split than where Chicago closed last season.

If Chicago takes any step back, Swift also benefits.

Swift played 62.1% of the snaps with 58.6% of the backfield touches while trailing compared to a 39.9% snap rate and 41.4% touch rate for Monangai in those spots.

David Montgomery

Bye: Week 8

The Houston running game was a weak spot for the offense in 2025.

Texans running backs combined for:

• 3.8 yards per rush (27th)
• 34.1% success rate (29th)
• 8.3% rate of runs for 10 or more yards (27th)
• 20.3% rate of runs that failed to gain yardage (27th)
• 18.5% of runs resulted in a first down or touchdown (30th)
• 2.76 yards after contact per rush (28th)

Looking to recalibrate things, the Texans made a trade for Montgomery.

Montgomery will turn 29 in June and is coming off a year in which he was bypassed in favor of Jahmyr Gibbs.

Montgomery had career lows in touches (182) and yards from scrimmage (908) with Detroit in 2025.

Over the final eight games of the season, Montgomery played only 32.6% of the offensive snaps in Detroit, finishing with 336 yards.

Before that, he had played 41.3% of the snaps with 572 yards.

Montgomery was still a solid back, averaging 4.5 yards per rush (21st out of 49 backs with 100-plus attempts), a 39.9% success rate (24th), and 3.17 yards after contact per rush (17th).

For better or worse, the real appeal of getting Montgomery for Houston was his ability to use man/gap concepts.

In Nick Caley’s first season with the Texans, he brought over that same rushing scheme from the Rams.

Houston was second in the league in man/gap run rate (38.8%), trailing only the Rams.

45.9% of Nick Chubb’s runs in 2025 were man/gap runs, the second-highest rate in the league.

Woody Marks was at 38.3%, which ranked sixth.

On man/gap runs, Montgomery had a 50% success rate (10th) and led all backs in EPA per rush (.034).

Marks took control of this backfield midseason, averaging 17.5 touches per game with 63.1% of the backfield touches over his final eight games.

Unfortunately, that did not lead to great results.

He averaged only 63.1 yards per game over that span.

Marks averaged 3.6 yards per attempt, 48th out of 49 running backs with 100 or more rushes last season.

He had a run of 10 or more yards on 7.7% of his runs (41st) while failing to gain yards on 23% of his runs (45th).

His 2.59 yards after contact per rush ranked 45th.

With Montgomery coming in, Marks can serve more of a complementary role in year two.

Houston has made the postseason every year with C.J. Stroud and has an elite defense, accentuating Montgomery’s archetype as an early-down grinder and touchdown-based RB2.

The Texans are also throwing more at their offensive line in 2026 (and recall that the Detroit offensive line was poor to end last season).

Houston moved on from Tytus Howard (who led the offensive line in snaps last year) and Juice Scruggs (351 snaps), as they did not fit their man-blocking scheme.

Houston added veterans Wyatt Teller and Braden Smith to the roster.

They used a first-round pick on center Keylan Rutledge, who was regarded as one of the best man/gap blockers in this class.

Houston has some added versatility since it brought back Ed Ingram on a three-year extension.

Ingram had bounced around the league before having his best season last year in Houston.

Ingram ranked 13th among guards in overall grade per PFF in 2025.

Houston has a lot of pieces to throw at the wall here that could work out if veterans like Teller and Smith can bounce back and stay healthy.

They also used a second-round pick on run-blocking tight end Marlin Klein.

Tony Pollard

Bye: Week 9

Pollard has a bit more fragility than the other players in this tier due to a worse team environment, but I am tacking him on at the end here because he fits this grouping the best compared to the subsequent tiers.

That is also encouraging for him as a potential arbitrage pick for gamers waiting at the position since he is priced nowhere near these other backs.

Pollard turned 275 touches into 1,288 yards and 5 touchdowns in his second season with the Titans.

It was Pollard’s fifth year in a row topping 1,000 total yards and fourth in a row accumulating at least 1,200 yards.

The only other players with five straight seasons of 1,000 total yards at the position are Derrick Henry and Josh Jacobs.

The only players with four straight years of 1,200 yards are Henry and Saquon Barkley.

Still, that has more to say about Pollard’s floor than ceiling.

Even with the counting production, he has only been the RB23, RB21, and RB31 in points per game the past three seasons because he has scored 6 or fewer touchdowns in each of those seasons.

We did see some upside to close last year.

Pollard had three 100-yard rushing games over the final five weeks of the year.

Tennessee is a contender to make a jump on offense, given its changes on the sidelines and on the field.

Tier 6 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Cam Skattebo
• Quinshon Judkins
• Bhayshul Tuten
• Jadarian Price

Another tier of potential up-and-coming backs.

These backs are trendier picks than the tier above, having youth and upside on their side.

But each comes with potential red flags regarding usage, return from a significant injury, and the team environment.

Cam Skattebo

Bye: Week 8

Skattebo was a highlight from the group of New York backs, turning 125 touches into 617 yards and 7 touchdowns in his eight appearances.

Skattebo had the best rushing success rate (39.6%) of the backs, compared to a 37% rate for Devin Singletary and a 31.8% rate for Tyrone Tracy.

He averaged 3.04 yards after contact per rush (27th out of 49 backs with 100 or more runs in 2025) compared to 2.66 yards after contact for Tracy (42nd) and 2.42 yards after contact per rush for Singletary (47th).

He gained more yards than expected on 46% of his runs, which was third in the league behind D’Andre Swift (48.6%) and James Cook (46.9%).

Skattebo made five starts, with games of 90, 104, 110, and 94 total yards in his four full games before suffering a gruesome injury in Week 8 against the Eagles that ended his season.

He dislocated his right ankle, fractured his fibula, and ruptured his deltoid ligament.

The latest reports indicate that Skattebo is still expected to be available for training camp and on track to open the season, but the severity of his injury could lead to a dip in production, especially for a player with a limited physical profile.

If Skattebo is anywhere near where we left off last year, he is easily the most exciting pick in this group because he offers the most three-down ability paired with production near the end zone.

In the four games before his injury, Skattebo handled 73.3% of the backfield touches (RB8), running a route on 56.6% of the dropbacks (RB9) with 14.4% of the targets (RB8).

He played 86.4% of the red zone snaps in those games (RB4) with 17 red zone touches (RB4).

The Giants still have a wide-open passing game to open the year with Malik Nabers returning from injury.

While Skattebo can contribute in all phases, the Giants have signaled that they want to pound the football.

John Harbaugh brought in Matt Nagy as offensive coordinator and Greg Roman as an offensive assistant, both of whom come from backgrounds in heavy multiple-TE sets.

Roman’s offenses have been in 12 personnel 34.8% of the time across his stops.

The Chiefs were second in the league in 12-personnel rate over the past three seasons (30.1%) with Nagy there, and fourth in 13-personnel rate (7.9%).

It does not stop there.

The Giants also added fullback Patrick Ricard, who is familiar with Harbaugh and Roman, and they selected Francis Mauigoa in the first round.

If Mauigoa is good out of the box as a rookie, this is an offensive line that has some strong spots on paper with Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eluemunor at the tackles.

Quinshon Judkins

Bye: Week 11

Judkins handled 256 touches for 998 yards and 7 touchdowns as a rookie.

As a rusher, Judkins averaged 3.6 yards per attempt (45th out of 49 backs with 100-plus attempts) with a 32.2% success rate (44th).

His inefficiency was limited by the offensive environment.

Judkins was 14th out of those 49 backs in yards after contact per rush (3.20), but he was dead last on that list in yards before contact per rush (0.40).

Judkins was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 55.2% of his rushing attempts.

Judkins was not trusted to do much of anything in the passing game as a rookie.

The team ran the ball 57.1% of the time with Judkins on the field, while he ran a route on only 30.4% of the team's dropbacks during his games.

Those are two elements still in limbo for Judkins heading into Year 2.

The new regime can use Judkins more in the passing game, but scoring upside remains a potential thorn for his ceiling.

The Browns are favored in only two games on the schedule and are 30th in projected scoring based on current lines.

The Browns have overhauled their offensive line in an effort to give Judkins more room.

This offensive line was ransacked in 2025.

The Browns' most frequent offensive line combination last season played 226 snaps (21.9%), which ranked 28th in the league.

Joel Bitonio was the only offensive lineman to play in all 17 games, while Teven Jenkins (16 games) was the only other lineman to appear in more than 14 games.

Bitonio has retired, forcing Cleveland to go with four new starters on the line surrounding Jenkins.

Tytus Howard, Elgton Jenkins, and Zion Johnson were added in the offseason, while Cleveland selected Spencer Fano in the first round.

To top it off, Judkins also closed the season with a significant ankle injury, dislocating his right ankle and fracturing his fibula in Week 16.

The team is expecting him to be a full participant in training camp, but he is another player to price in some volatility given the severity of the injury.

Bhayshul Tuten

Bye: Week 7

Tuten is going to have an expanded role in 2026 versus his rookie year, regardless of how this backfield shakes out.

Tuten was selected in the fourth round last spring.

There were moments during his rookie season when Tuten was pushing Travis Etienne for a backfield split, but they were always fleeting.

He played 21% of the offensive snaps as a rookie, turning 93 touches into 386 yards (4.2 yards per touch) and 7 touchdowns.

Out of 65 running backs with 50-plus rushing attempts last year, Tuten’s 3.7 yards per rush ranked 52nd.

He had a run of 10 or more yards on 6% of those runs (58th).

Despite the lack of chunk-gain runs, Tuten turned 27.7% of his runs into a first down or touchdown (12th) with a 47% success rate (8th).

That disparity in efficiency metrics was due to his role, as he was used as a short-yardage clasher for the majority of his rookie season.

26 of Tuten’s touches (27.9%) were inside the red zone.

Only Chris Rodriguez had a higher red-zone touch rate (28.7%) and as many overall touches as Tuten last season.

Tuten faced eight or more defenders in the box on 39.8% of his runs compared to a 31.2% rate for Etienne.

Tuten was an explosive back out of college, so opening up his role outside of the red zone should lead to more explosive runs.

He flashed in the postseason loss to the Bills, rushing 4 times for 51 yards, with runs of 20, 14, and 13 yards on his opportunities.

The Jaguars added Rodriguez to the roster, who was used similarly to Tuten, giving Jacksonville a potential combo for the power-back role.

But Rodriguez is dealing with a foot injury this summer, opening the initial door for Tuten to get out in front here.

There are still question marks here not only for Tuten as a player, but also for just how good this rushing game actually is.

The Jacksonville running game produced counting stats in 2025 but little efficiency.

Jacksonville running backs combined for 20 touchdowns (7th in the league), but only 114.9 yards from scrimmage per game (22nd).

Their backfield averaged 4.1 yards per rush (22nd) with a 37.3% success rate (23rd), producing a run of 10 or more yards on 9.1% of runs (22nd).

Etienne took the crux of the work, handling 69.7% of the backfield touches, a rate that was ninth in the NFL.

That opportunity share in a high-scoring offense is what carried Etienne for fantasy.

Even in an expanded role, Tuten will need significant growth in his complete game to get near top-10 usage rates at the position.

Tuten entered the NFL as a raw player in the passing game and had issues with ball security as a prospect, two problem areas for him as a rookie.

Tuten ran a route on only 15.4% of the dropbacks in his games played and logged only 21 snaps in pass protection.

He also lost 2 fumbles on 93 touches.

Jadarian Price

Bye: Week 11

Price was electric per touch in college at Notre Dame, averaging over 6.0 yards per touch in all three of his college seasons.

He forced a missed tackle on a class-high 26.9% of his touches.

Price had just 295 touches on his college resume.

On one hand, there are far worse things than saying “well, Price was just not as good as Jeremiyah Love,” and that’s why he was limited.

On the other hand, it still leaves us with some guesswork, since we do not see many backs with such light collegiate workloads selected highly in the NFL.

That is the fewest number of touches any first-round running back has had in the 2000s.

With Price, the steps of faith we must take are in areas we have not yet seen.

The first is something with variance: ball security.

Price fumbled 4 times on his light workload, the third-highest rate in this class.

The second is in the passing game.

Price had 15 career college receptions.

He was targeted on 9.9% of his routes, the second-lowest rate in this class.

This was not a Notre Dame thing, as Love was targeted on 22.2% of his routes, the second-highest rate in this class.

The last area ties into the former, specifically pass protection.

We have a small sample, but it could signal why Price was not working into the passing game to begin with.

Price had the second-lowest pass-protection grade in this draft class, per Pro Football Focus.

Price is 203 pounds, which could also signal workload and pass-protection limitations he faced in college.

The early word from Seattle is that they are expecting him to be in a “Kenneth Walker-type” role and want Price to earn his opportunities.

That tracks since it ties into where Price has his largest concerns entering the NFL and allows him to focus on doing one thing well as he works on rounding out his portfolio.

Walker was also a rushing-dependent player last year, limited by his lack of trust in the passing game.

When Walker was on the field for the Seahawks, they were running the ball.

Seattle ran the ball 51.5% of the time when Walker was on the field, which was 9th among running backs.

In the postseason, that rate was 58.5%.

After Zach Charbonnet was injured, Walker still conceded passing snaps to George Holani.

Seattle ran the ball only 12.8% of the time while Holani was on the field.

Holani should push Price for passing snaps early in the season.

That leaves goal-line usage in the air.

Walker set career lows with 29.7% of the snaps inside the 5-yard line with only 7 touches from that area of the field.

Charbonnet played 74.3% of those snaps with 17 touches.

This is where Emanuel Wilson can factor in until Charbonnet returns.

Wilson is 226 pounds, while Price was 203 at the Combine.

On top of that last point, we also have to factor in the return of Charbonnet at some point.

Charbonnet’s timeline to return from injury is late November, in the area of Week 12.

Seattle has a Week 11 bye, so that would give him seven games to work into the lineup during the period that is most critical for fantasy gamers.

Charbonnet was a major factor near the goal line last season, so even with minimal usage returning from his knee injury, he can be incorporated into short-yardage scoring chances over Price.

Charbonnet was eighth in fantasy scoring inside the 5-yard line last season.

Seattle was fourth in overall backfield fantasy points last season, so there is still an upside outcome here if Price can seize this backfield early on.

Neither Holani nor Wilson has a tremendous track record of success, so it is well within the range for those players to fail in either role.

But there is also an outcome where Price is a between-the-20s rushing-dependent asset, which can be a limited fantasy role.

On top of sorting this all out, the Seahawks are a team that will likely regress in efficiency after a stellar 2025.

They lost Klint Kubiak and face a tougher schedule.

The Seahawks are still favored in 14 games currently on the schedule, but last year, they led for 50.8% of their offensive snaps (2nd in the league) and led by double-digit points for a league-high 29.8% of their snaps.

Tier 7 Fantasy Football RBs:

• TreVeyon Henderson
• Rhamondre Stevenson
• Jaylen Warren
• Rico Dowdle
• Chuba Hubbard
• Jonathon Brooks
• Bucky Irving
• Kenneth Gainwell

Our ambiguous backfield tier.

These backfields project as a committee that is not entirely split by archetype, but rather as potentially interchangeable pieces for their offenses.

That can make us prone to weekly volatility and “hot hand” situations, but that is being priced into the backs here.

I do want to take shots at several backs in this tier.

There is significant contingency upside for each back in this tier if their running mate misses any action, while these crowded backfields on the surface have provided gamers with value over the years.

TreVeyon Henderson & Rhamondre Stevenson

Bye: Week 11

The Patriots found a run game to close last season, making them a more complete offense.

Over the final nine games of the regular season, New England running backs had a 41% success rate (9th), averaged a league-high 5.5 yards per rush, and had a run of 10 or more yards on 11.8% of their attempts (5th).

Before that, New England backs had a 36.3% success rate (25th), averaged 3.8 YPC (26th), and had a run of 10 or more yards on 8.8% of attempts (23rd).

With both Stevenson and Henderson working in unison, their backfield averaged 138.7 yards from scrimmage per game with 15 touchdowns over the back half of the season, compared to 116.8 yards per game and 7 touchdowns over the front half of the season.

Their backs faced eight or more defenders in the box on 57.9% of their runs over that stretch, the second-highest rate in the league.

That surge in production overlaps with Henderson's rise to a larger role in the offense and Stevenson's strong finish.

Stevenson averaged over 5.0 yards per carry in each of his final four games of the regular season and then dominated the backfield in the postseason.

Stevenson played 70.3% of the postseason snaps, out-touching Henderson 70 to 35.

In their games played together last season, Stevenson played 62.2% of the snaps in the red zone to Henderson’s 30.8%, out-touching him 36 to 25.

Inside the 5-yard line, Stevenson out-touched Henderson 11 to 4 in those games.

Stevenson ended the year with 948 yards and 9 touchdowns on 162 touches, averaging a career-high 5.9 yards per touch.

Despite a limited playoff run with only 35 touches for 109 yards, Henderson posted 1,132 total yards and 10 touchdowns on 215 touches during the regular season as a rookie.

Henderson had 4 touchdown runs of 50 or more yards, the most in the NFL.

That is the most 50-yard touchdown runs by a rookie in a season since Saquon Barkley in 2018.

He had two games with multiple 50-yard touchdown runs.

The last player to do that multiple times in a season was Chris Johnson in 2009.

The Patriots will be looking for Henderson to round out his game, be a more consistent runner, and improve in pass protection in Year 2.

Including the postseason, Henderson was asked to pass block on 48 snaps as a rookie compared to 112 for Stevenson.

On those snaps, Henderson allowed 3 sacks and 11 pressures with 3 penalties, while Stevenson allowed 0 sacks and 6 pressures with 1 penalty.

On the surface, there is little reason to believe that the Patriots will change things up, given those questions and Stevenson’s strong play to close the year.

I do believe the cost for Henderson under that umbrella is too high, but he is also a player who is scary on other rosters in the event of an apex runout, even if that is a lower-percentile occurrence.

There are not many players going outside of the opening three rounds who have the ceiling potential of Henderson in those rare cases where the season plays out in his favor.

This is not a situation completely dissimilar to what we just experienced with Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery.

Gibbs had 1,261 yards and 11 touchdowns on 234 touches as a rookie, while Montgomery had 1,132 yards and 13 touchdowns on 235 touches that season.

In his rookie year, Gibbs was also rough in pass protection.

He was in pass protection for 44 snaps as a rookie, allowing 10 pressures.

The difference between Gibbs and Henderson as rookies was that Gibbs was still featured in the passing game (52 receptions) while Henderson caught 35 passes.

Gibbs kept pushing for more work, though in all avenues of the offense.

The following season, Gibbs climbed to 302 touches for 1,929 yards and 20 scores while Monty still produced 1,116 yards and 12 touchdowns on 221 touches.

You are also paying a much different cost, even if Henderson appears overvalued in terms of median outcome.

In his second season, Gibbs was being drafted as the RB6.

Now, that is an extreme outcome that is unlikely to fully replicate here, but there are plenty of parallels in player archetypes, while the New England offense is still a front-end unit we want attached to.

The Patriots also have an improved offensive line.

With Garrett Bradbury traded and the addition of Alijah Vera-Tucker, Jared Wilson can now slide into the center spot for his second season.

If Will Campbell struggles as he did during the playoff run, the Patriots have the ability to move him inside for Vera-Tucker or potentially look to first-round pick Caleb Lomu to step in at one of the tackle spots, while Morgan Moses can play on the left or right side.

Even Mike Onwenu has played everywhere on the offensive line during his career, adding flexibility.

Both backs have strong contingency value if the other misses time, but Henderson still showcased a larger ceiling in that event in 2025.

We did not see Henderson miss a full game as a rookie, but he played fewer than 25% of the snaps in three different games.

In those weeks, Stevenson was the RB13, RB35, and RB15.

Stevenson had three other games with 50% of the backfield touches, finishing as the RB6, RB60, and RB31.

But when Stevenson missed three games last year, Henderson was the RB15, RB4, and RB3 in weekly scoring.

Stevenson has played just one full season over five seasons, missing multiple games in three of those years.

Stevenson had the highest scoring fantasy game between the two (35.3 points in Week 18 against Miami), but Henderson had the next three with two 30-point outings of his own.

Henderson also had the highest yardage total for either back in a game last season, which came in a game with Stevenson active (161 yards against Buffalo in Week 15).

Henderson accounted for seven of the top 11 yardage totals for these two backs last year, although Stevenson had three of the top five.

Jaylen Warren & Rico Dowdle

Bye: Week 9

The Pittsburgh backfield was productive in 2025, with Warren (1,291 total yards) and Kenneth Gainwell (1,023 yards) both reaching 1,000 yards on the season.

Pittsburgh running backs combined for 65.1% of the team touches, which was third in the NFL behind Atlanta (69.5%) and Miami (65.5%).

Warren handled 53.8% of those backfield touches (251 touches) for 1,291 yards and 8 touchdowns.

For the first time in his career, Warren served as the leading rusher, posting career highs in rushing attempts (211), yardage (958), and touchdowns (6) on the ground.

He added 40 receptions for 333 yards and 2 scores through the air.

Warren has averaged over 5.0 yards per touch in each of his four seasons in the league.

With Gainwell leaving in free agency, the Steelers added Dowdle.

He was with Mike McCarthy in Dallas in 2024, when Dowdle had his breakout season.

Dowdle is coming off 1,373 total yards and 7 touchdowns on 275 touches with the Panthers.

With Dallas in 2024, Dowdle posted 1,328 yards and 5 scores on 274 touches.

Dowdle also has 39 receptions in each of the past two seasons.

The addition of Dowdle could push Warren back into a more complementary rushing role.

Over his first three seasons in the NFL, Warren’s offenses only ran the ball 35.4% of the time on his snaps.

This is a new offense not directed by Arthur Smith, but I would anticipate it being more balanced with this duo.

I do believe the most likely outcome is that Pittsburgh will use these backs as interchangeable options across all facets.

That means we could be in for a bit of a “hot hand” scenario.

Both backs have shown that they can get hot in spurts, but both backs have also let other running backs wiggle their way back into competition with them.

Neither back has a full-season sample of owning a backfield to themselves, and I doubt we have that here for as long as both are healthy.

Each has upside in terms of contingency, but that can lead to a potentially frustrating situation for gamers in managed leagues.

While this offense will have a new scheme and play-caller, I also believe that at this stage of his career, Aaron Rodgers wants to get the ball out of his hands quickly and near the line of scrimmage.

Rodgers threw the ball to running backs 25.2% of the time in 2025 (4th).

In 2024, he was ninth in that department (19.9%), and in 2022 (he missed all but a few snaps in 2023), he was also ninth (21.5%).

Even with the additions of Michael Pittman and Germie Bernard, I expect the backs to be active in the passing game.

Chuba Hubbard & Jonathon Brooks

Bye: Week 5

The Panthers are another team expected to open the year with a tandem backfield, which is where we left them in 2025 when Hubbard and Rico Dowdle were sharing opportunities.

While this was a split backfield, we received little production to latch onto for fantasy purposes.

Over the opening nine games, Carolina running backs had a 43.8% success rate (7th) with 4.8 yards per rush (9th).

Then over the final nine games, their backfield combined for a 32.1% success rate (30th) and 3.6 yards per rush (29th).

Their backs had a 6.4% rate of runs of 10 or more yards over the back half of the year (29th), down from 10.6% over the first half (14th).

From Week 10 on, the Carolina backfield produced one week in which one of Hubbard or Dowdle was a top-20 scorer and just two weeks (one from each) as an RB2 or better.

Are we heading toward a similar outcome with Hubbard and Brooks?

This is an offense where we need a clear guy for fantasy.

The Panthers are favored in three games entering the season and are 27th in projected points scored.

Carolina also has fantasy playoff games at Pittsburgh in Week 16 and against Seattle in Week 17 that are not appealing for ceiling production.

Dave Canales is saying positive things about Brooks and his expectations for 2026, but he is a mystery box at this point, having played only 14 games of football over the past three years due to knee injuries.

When Brooks was returning from his first ACL injury as a rookie, he immediately carved into Hubbard’s workload in a season in which Hubbard was healthy and playing well.

We only had a brief glimpse of Brooks as a rookie in 2024, handling 12 touches for 45 yards.

In just his second game active as a rookie, Brooks handled 9 touches to 12 for Hubbard.

Coming off two strong seasons in 2023 and 2024 that earned him a contract extension, Hubbard took a step back last season.

He turned 164 touches into 734 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Hubbard suffered a calf injury in Week 4 that caused him to miss two games.

He said he forced himself to return too soon, which impacted his performance.

Hubbard lost his starting job at one point in the year before forcing himself back into a backfield split to end the season.

With Dowdle leaving in free agency, Hubbard has a runway to bounce back and take the lead in the backfield.

If there were a back to emerge as a true lead option, I would still give Hubbard an edge in those odds, but they are not astronomically in his favor.

One, we have already seen him deliver in that role, and two, even if Brooks does force his way into a larger opportunity, how much will Carolina actually put on his plate following two ACL injuries over the past three years?

I can see Brooks being a spike-week candidate in season and worth a speculation add on benches, but a runout with him just pushing 300 touches feels like a flimsy outcome.

The median expectation is that Brooks is not thrust into assignments in the passing game and as a protector, which should fall on Hubbard.

The goal-line touches will be the focus we want to track in training camp and the preseason.

Bucky Irving & Kenneth Gainwell

Bye: Week 10

The Bucs have talked up this being a tandem backfield all offseason.

This was not a good running game last season.

In 2025, Tampa Bay backs combined for:

• 3.8 yards per attempt (28th)
• 36.9% success rate (25th)
• 7.8% rate of runs for 10 or more yards (29th)
• 18.3% of runs failed to gain yardage (22nd)
• 21.6% of runs resulted in a first down or touchdown (25th)
• 2.55 yards after contact per attempt (32nd)

The offensive line was battered, and so was Irving.

After a breakout rookie season in which he produced 1,514 total yards and 6.0 yards per touch, Irving only managed 865 yards and 4.3 yards per touch in his second season.

He declined across the board in the run game from his rookie season.

After a 43% success rate (9th), 5.4 YPC (5th), a 13% explosive rate (10th), and a league-best 4.03 yards after contact per rush in 2024, Irving posted a 31.2% success rate (47th), 3.4 YPC (49th), a 6.4% explosive run rate (45th), and 2.33 yards after contact (49th) last season.

He suffered foot and shoulder injuries in Week 4 that sidelined him for nearly two months.

Returning to the lineup in Week 13, he ended the season averaging 3.8 yards per touch with 1 touchdown over his final six games.

Irving operated as a between-the-20s banger to end the year, conceding passing-down work to Rachaad White and short-yardage work to Sean Tucker.

Irving had 0 touches inside the 5-yard line last season and played just 2 snaps in that area of the field.

We need Irving to find a runway back to touches in the passing game and near the goal line, both of which are up in the air.

New offensive coordinator Zac Robinson may shuffle that rotation this season, but the Bucs have a similar layout with Tucker retained on a restricted tender and Gainwell added as a replacement for White, who left in free agency.

Gainwell had his best NFL season in Pittsburgh last year, posting career highs in every significant category.

He ended up with 1,023 yards from scrimmage and 8 touchdowns on 187 touches.

Gainwell rushed 114 times for 537 yards and 5 touchdowns as a complement to Jaylen Warren, but made a major dent in the passing game.

He caught 73 passes, fourth at his position.

Gainwell could slide into the role vacated by White with the potential for more rushing work should Irving fail to recapture his rookie-year production.

Gainwell has been a solid rusher over his career when given the opportunity, but has not had more than the 114 attempts he had last year.

Since he entered the league, Gainwell has averaged 4.4 yards per rush (29th out of 65 backs with 300-plus attempts) with a 40.6% success rate (20th) and a first down or touchdown on 25.6% of his runs (10th).

Only 29.2% of his runs have come against light boxes (22nd), since he has been in such a change-of-pace role for his career to this point.

The wild card here is Tucker, who could prevent either of these backs from handling goal-line touches.

Tucker was originally going to be a free agent before the Bucs decided to place a restricted tender on him.

That came after the signing of Gainwell.

Tucker only averaged 3.7 yards per rush last year, but he was largely used as a short-yardage maven outside of his monster game against Buffalo.

Tucker led the team with 7 rushing scores.

He also led the team with 9 touches and 14 snaps inside the 5-yard line.

Robinson did shuffle Tyler Allgeier into the mix in short-yardage opportunities near the end zone with Bijan Robinson, so that does exist in the range of outcomes here.

As of now, I have not been drafting much of this backfield at cost, given the potential for this to be a completely compartmentalized situation, but Irving has shown ceiling potential at a depressed cost.

If I were buying anyone here, it would be him.

I do expect this offensive line to be improved this year.

The Tampa Bay offensive line was beaten up for most of 2025.

Tristan Wirfs (12 games played), Luke Goedeke (11), and Ben Bredeson (11) all missed five or more games.

Cody Mauch suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2.

The only Bucs starter to play in every game was center Graham Barton.

Tier 8 Fantasy Football RBs:

• RJ Harvey
• Rachaad White

A small tier of backs with dual-purpose ability in muddy backfields.

They project to open the year as primary pass-catching options in their backfield at worst to create a FLEX-worthy floor but also have a pipeline for rushing production every week, with the outcome of taking on a larger share of the split in their backfield.

RJ Harvey

Bye: Week 10

The Broncos used a second-round pick (60th overall) on Harvey last season.

Harvey finished his rookie season with 896 yards from scrimmage and 12 touchdowns on 193 touches.

Top down, things were positive in Year 1, although he was a mixed bag for fantasy gamers at his draft cost if they made it to the end of the year in contention with him.

Harvey delivered four RB1 scoring weeks over the final five weeks of the fantasy season.

On the surface, he had solid counting stats and came through when needed, but his underbelly of production (especially as a runner) left a lot to be desired.

Out of 49 running backs with 100 or more attempts last season, Harvey posted:

• 3.7 YPC (42nd)
• 34.9% success rate (41st)
• 5.5% rate of runs for 10 or more yards (47th)
• 21.2% rate of runs to gain no yardage (39th)
• 2.66 yards after contact per rush (42nd)

Harvey rushed for more yards than expected on only 31.2% of his runs, ahead of only Michael Carter (28.9%) and Alvin Kamara (30%).

After the loss of J.K. Dobbins, Harvey rushed 96 times for 326 yards (3.4 YPC).

In the playoffs, he rushed 19 times for 57 yards (3.0 YPC).

Harvey rushed for more than 50 yards in two of those seven games.

Harvey was out-touched 164 to 75 by Dobbins when the latter was healthy.

He only had 2 rushing touchdowns prior to Dobbins going down in Week 10.

The most damning element to Harvey’s production as a runner was that Denver went from a pass rate 4% over expectations before the injury to Dobbins up to 7.6% over expectations afterward.

That allowed Harvey to make a dent in fantasy as a pass catcher.

Harvey caught 47 passes (RB8) for 356 yards (RB8) and 5 touchdowns (RB3).

He was targeted on 22.8% of his routes (RB11) for 1.40 yards per route.

We have seen inefficient rookie runners buck the trend and improve in Year 2, so I do not want to overweigh his rookie struggles.

The problem there is that this was also in Harvey’s rookie profile, which we covered when he entered the league, which raises some concern.

Denver appears to share at least some of those concerns, as Jonah Coleman was added to the roster this spring.

Coleman is the inverse of Harvey as a runner, a back who operates more on a high success rate and does not give his team many failed runs.

If this backfield were just Harvey and Dobbins again, Harvey would still carry the same contingent upside for fantasy, paired with receiving work that we saw last year.

But the addition of Coleman is a likely roadblock to Harvey completely taking over the backfield should Dobbins continue to miss games.

Denver could be in play to still add a back with early-down ability as insurance, but they are primarily looking for Harvey to take a step forward as a more complete player in his second season.

Rachaad White

Bye: Week 7

At minimum, White is a strong bet to handle all of the passing work in the Washington backfield.

White was 12th in pass blocking grade among running backs in 2025, per Pro Football Focus, and he has at least 40 receptions in each of the past four seasons.

That said, the value of that role in isolation is in question, as he will have that role paired with a mobile passer.

Jayden Daniels has thrown to running backs only 16% of the time, which is 23rd in the league over the past two seasons and below the league rate (17.5%) over that period.

Daniels has scrambled on 13% of his dropbacks, the highest rate in the league.

For fantasy upside, we will need White to work his way into the rushing rotation and make a push for goal-line work.

After back-to-back seasons hitting 1,000 total yards in 2023 and 2024, White totaled 172 touches for 790 yards with 4 touchdowns in 2025 in Tampa Bay.

White’s efficiency as a rusher has declined, and that cost him rushing volume the past two seasons to Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker.

Those are two backs with lower-end draft investment, so we just cannot discount Jacory Croskey-Merritt and Kaytron Allen based on capital.

Out of 63 running backs with 250 or more attempts since White entered the league, he ranks 54th in yards per rush (4.0 YPC), 54th in success rate (35.4%), and 52nd in yards after contact per rush (2.75).

White’s inability to keep his offenses on schedule is a potential mismatch with the Washington offensive line, which has not made wholesale changes.

Last year, Washington averaged only 1.02 yards before contact per rush, which was 27th in the league.

Croskey-Merritt and Chris Rodriguez created a lot of their own yards, something we have not seen from White.

Last year, Croskey-Merritt was seventh in yards after contact (3.50 per rush), and Rodriguez was eighth (3.46).

White was 32nd (2.95).

White rushed for more yards than expected on 32.5% of his runs, which was the sixth-lowest rate in the league.

The wild card is that new offensive coordinator David Blough may just prefer the insulation of White’s pass protection, which opens the door for White to open the year as the lead back.

Blough was there last year when Croskey-Merritt was getting uneven usage.

Tier 9 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Jacory Croskey-Merritt
• Kyle Monangai
• Blake Corum
• Jordan Mason
• J.K. Dobbins
• Keaton Mitchell
• Chris Rodriguez
• Tyler Allgeier
• Zach Charbonnet

The inverse of the previous tier.

This tier does not provide much weekly receiving insulation, making these backs more rushing and touchdown-dependent for weekly viability.

There are a few backs here who do have the opportunity for larger contingency value (particularly Corum and Monangai), but a number of these backs will be primarily in a similar role, even if the receiving back that they share their backfields with goes down.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt

Bye: Week 7

Croskey-Merritt led the Washington backfield in touches (184), yards from scrimmage (873), and touchdowns (8) as a seventh-round rookie.

Croskey-Merritt averaged 4.6 YPC (16th out of 49 running backs with 100 or more runs last season) with a 40.6% success rate (18th) and a run of 10 or more yards on 12% of his attempts (10th).

Any time we got to see Croskey-Merritt in an extended role, he did well for fantasy.

While his rookie season was successful, given his offensive team environment and draft investment, Croskey-Merritt had inconsistent usage and never seized control of the backfield outside of necessity at the end of the year.

He lost work to Chris Rodriguez over the back half of the year due to ball- and pass-protection issues.

He fumbled 4 times and caught only 9 passes all season.

He ran a route on only 24.6% of the team dropbacks in his games played and allowed a 15.4% pressure rate on his small sample size of pass protection (39 snaps).

Through 10 weeks, Croskey-Merritt accounted for 53.3% of the backfield touches, but then dropped to 40.6% the rest of the way out.

The Commanders brought in Rachaad White, who is a direct threat to Croskey-Merritt’s growth in the passing game at a minimum.

The team also added Kaytron Allen late in the draft, who is a better prospect than Rodriguez and can threaten the early-down role.

Kyle Monangai

Bye: Week 10

I believe Monangai has the best marriage of standalone value paired with contingency upside (in the event of an injury to D’Andre Swift) in this tier.

Monangai was a hit as a seventh-round pick in Year 1.

He turned 187 touches into 947 yards and 5 scores as a rookie.

That was the most touches for a seventh-round rookie running back since 2019.

Over the final nine games, D’Andre Swift had 139 touches (55.6%) compared to 110 touches (44%) for Monangai.

Swift was more effective over that period with 730 yards and 5 touchdowns, compared to 502 yards and 4 touchdowns for the rookie, so we are still working in a world where Monangai needs to get into the end zone to have weekly value while Swift is playing.

Monangai did have a better red-zone role, though, than someone like Blake Corum.

Swift and Monangai had the same number of touches inside the 5-yard line (10).

Swift played 52.9% of the snaps while Monangai was at 52.6%.

Monangai got to play one game without Swift active, and although it was against the Bengals, he understood the assignment and throttled them, totaling 198 yards.

Blake Corum

Bye: Week 11

After only 65 touches for 265 yards and no touchdowns as a rookie, Corum handled 153 touches for 782 yards and 6 touchdowns in his second season.

As the season wore on, Corum handled more work.

Over the final 12 games of the season, Kyren Williams tallied 197 touches (59.3% of the backfield touches) while Corum handled 126 touches (37.9%).

Out of 49 running backs with 100 or more attempts last season, Corum ranked second in success rate (48.3%), which was only behind Williams (49.8%).

Corum produced a first down or touchdown on 30.3% of his runs (2nd) while Williams was at 28.6% (4th).

The Rams also played heavier personnel this past season, which led to the backs running more against stacked boxes.

52.4% of Corum’s runs came with eight or more defenders in the box, fourth in the league.

Williams was at 45.9%, which was 16th.

Corum was a bit more efficiency-based than Williams, since he was more sensitive to game scripts, but he made up for that with a 15.8% rate of runs of 10 or more yards, second in the league.

That said, Corum still barely held onto fringe FLEX value through all of that efficiency, which still makes him more of a contingency bet over a player to count on as a starter.

Corum had only two top-20 scoring weeks and six weeks as a top-36 scorer.

Should Williams miss any time, Corum is as strong as any backup in terms of upside, but we are fully pricing in that outcome for him.

Typically, a team RB2 with good draft capital at the position is a player in a clear 1A/1B situation or split role in the offense.

There aren't a ton of examples of clear contingency picks going this high and paying off.

The best example I can give is Ben Tate, who was a top-36 draft pick every year while he was in Houston behind Arian Foster.

Williams played 69.2% of the snaps in the red zone and out-touched Corum 58 to 26 in that area.

If by chance the Rams do underachieve or trail at a higher rate than expected, Williams has an added edge over Corum.

Williams was still the back the Rams used when trailing by a wide gap.

The Rams ran the ball on 47.5% of Corum’s snaps, compared to 38.3% for Williams.

Corum ran a pass route on 18.6% of the team dropbacks, compared to 56% for Williams.

Williams played 75.2% of snaps with the Rams tied or trailing, while Corum played 24.4%.

Jordan Mason

Bye: Week 6

Mason added 809 yards from scrimmage and 6 touchdowns on 173 touches as a complement and fill-in for Aaron Jones last season.

He averaged 4.8 yards per rush (12th) with 3.41 yards after contact per rush (10th).

He had a 47.2% success rate (5th) as a rusher.

He also handled 6 of 11 backfield runs inside the 5-yard line, while no other back on the team had more than two.

While Mason has been an effective rusher over the past two years with the Vikings and 49ers, he remains a limited offensive asset who has not contributed to the passing game.

Mason only ran a route on 28.9% of the dropbacks in his games played, which was 42nd at his position.

He caught only 14 passes and has 28 receptions over four NFL seasons.

We also could see that Mason takes some hits in contingency upside with the addition of Demond Claiborne.

J.K. Dobbins

Bye: Week 10

Dobbins was again effective when available last season.

He rushed for 5.0 YPC (7th among backs with 100-plus runs) with a 42.5% success rate (14th).

13.7% of his runs went for 10 or more yards (5th) while 14.4% failed to gain yardage (14th).

Dobbins averaged 3.18 yards after contact per rush (16th).

Denver ran the ball 55.7% of the time with him on the field, which made him a one-way fantasy asset.

Dobbins was not a factor in the passing game, catching 11 passes for 37 yards.

He only had one RB2 or better scoring week in a game without a touchdown.

On top of that, we once again dealt with Dobbins missing significant time.

Dobbins missed the final seven games of the regular season and the entire postseason with a foot injury.

He has not played a full season in the league yet, missing four or more games each year.

Keaton Mitchell

Bye: Week 7

Mike McDaniel loves a speed back, and that is exactly what Mitchell is.

Mitchell only has 140 career touches through 26 games played, but he has averaged a robust 6.3 yards per rush when he has received opportunities.

While a small sample size, 18.2% of Mitchell’s career runs have gained 10 or more yards, the highest rate in the league over the past three seasons.

Interestingly, for this marriage, Mitchell struggled on his small sample of outside zone runs with Baltimore, rushing for only 3.9 YPC on 37 attempts, which ranks 55th in the league.

That makes up 30.6% of his runs, which has been his highest run type.

Over his time with Miami, McDaniel’s offenses ran outside zone on 43.3% of their running-back runs, ranking third in the league during that period.

Mitchell has cracked the explosives on inside zone runs (20.6% of his career runs), rushing for 6.7 YPC with a run of 10-plus yards on 20.7% of those attempts.

That is small-sample-size stuff that is not overly worrisome.

The real potential thorns for Mitchell are whether he has high-end contingency upside or whether he will be typecast as a change-of-pace runner, even if Omarion Hampton misses time.

Mitchell is 5-foot-8 and 190 pounds with minimal pass-game experience.

He has 19 receptions through three seasons, running a pass route on only 13% of the dropbacks in his games played with Baltimore.

The scheme change could allow for an increased receiving role, but the hang-up for his size will be whether he is trusted in pass protection at all.

Mitchell only has 19 career snaps in pass protection, allowing a sack and 3 pressures on that small sample.

Should something happen to Hampton, the Chargers still have Kimani Vidal as a backup who stepped in effectively for Hampton last year amid poor offensive line play.

Chris Rodriguez

Bye: Week 7

The Jaguars added Rodriguez to the roster, who, to this point in his career, has been used similarly to the way Bhayshul Tuten was in Year 1.

Over three years in Washington, Rodriguez produced 974 yards and 10 touchdowns on 204 touches.

He is coming off his best season, rushing for 500 yards with 6 touchdowns.

Last year, Rodriguez rushed for 3.46 yards after contact per rush, which ranked eighth out of 49 running backs with 100 or more runs.

He posted a 48.2% success rate (3rd) with a run of 10 or more yards on 11.6% of his attempts (12th).

28.6% of his runs resulted in a first down or touchdown (4th).

That was while 59.8% of his runs came against eight or more defenders in the box, the highest rate in the league among backs with 100-plus attempts.

Front offices usually talk up a player they just signed, but Coen’s praise for Rodriguez comes from experience.

In 2021 at Kentucky with Coen as the offensive coordinator, Rodriguez popped for 1,440 total yards and 12 touchdowns.

Tuten can have an extended workload in 2026, while the Jaguars could view him and Rodriguez as interchangeable power-back options.

Rodriguez has 6 receptions in the NFL, so there is not much to latch onto here in the passing game, which can limit the overall fantasy ceiling.

In just one year as a part-time player, Tuten already has matched Rodriguez with three RB2 scoring weeks.

I believe Rodriguez’s most likely outcome is just serving as a thorn to Tuten’s upside rather than offering a wealth of fantasy upside himself outside of injury.

An added variable is that Rodriguez has missed this offseason due to an undisclosed foot injury with no designated timetable to return, already giving Tuten an early opportunity to establish footing in the competition.

Tyler Allgeier

Bye: Week 14

Allgeier must be experiencing déjà vu after the Cardinals selected Jeremiyah Love, something that happened to him when the Falcons selected Bijan Robinson No. 8 overall following Allgeier's 1,174 yards as a rookie.

Allgeier has been one of the league’s most effective early down backs since he entered the league.

Among 56 running backs with 300-plus attempts since he was drafted, Allgeier’s 42% success rate ranks seventh.

He has a first down or touchdown on 25.3% of his runs over that span, also seventh.

We could see him pushing for work in the red zone still, if Arizona can get there.

We saw Allgeier being a nuisance to gamers at times with Robinson, particularly near the end zone.

In Robinson’s rookie year, Allgeier handled 4 runs inside the 5-yard line while Robinson had only 2.

Arizona only had 13 runs inside the 5-yard line last season, when they were 24th in offensive points scored per game (19.9).

The top-down limitations for Allgeier are that he has not been overly explosive (his 9.8% explosive run rate ranks 37th) and that he has not played much in the passing game.

Allgeier played 27.7% of the passing snaps on his rookie deal with Atlanta, with no more than 18 receptions in any season.

The addition of Love makes Allgeier a touchdown-or-bust weekly bet with lowered contingency upside given his offense compared to other backs in this tier.

Zach Charbonnet

Bye: Week 11

Charbonnet is recovering from an ACL injury that he suffered in the postseason.

Charbonnet had his surgery on February 20.

An on-time return of nine months would be right around Week 12.

Seattle has a bye in Week 11, with Week 12 coming on November 29.

That would give Charbonnet seven games (six fantasy weeks).

With a ramp-up involved, that is a tough bet to make, even in leagues that have IR spots.

With Jadarian Price added, Charbonnet will likely be a short-yardage and goal-line threat even when he returns.

That is more of a hindrance to Price’s ceiling outcome than something to pursue with draft investment outside of RB-needy gamers in best-ball formats with no pickups.

Charbonnet played 74.3% of the snaps with 17 touches inside the 5-yard line last year.

39.7% of his fantasy points came via touchdowns, which was fourth at his position.

Tier 10 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Aaron Jones
• Tyrone Tracy
• Alvin Kamara
• Dylan Sampson
• Woody Marks
• Tyjae Spears
• Jaydon Blue

This tier is a stone’s throw from Tier 8.

It is made up of players who have a path to a role in the passing game that can lead to larger upside and contingency outcomes, but also more fragility as weekly producers and are players who could still concede short-yardage and touchdown opportunities if the early-down back they are attached to goes down.

Aaron Jones

Bye: Week 6

Jones is coming off a down year, turning 160 touches into 747 yards and 3 touchdowns.

At age 31, Jones averaged a career-low 4.2 yards per rush.

He had career lows in yards after contact per rush (2.67), success rate (39.4%), and explosive run rate (9.1%).

His 4.7 yards per touch marked the first time he was below 5.0 in his career.

To give Jones a hall pass to a degree, he missed five games due to hip, shoulder, toe, and hamstring issues.

Still, we have to price in where he is on the age spectrum and the fact that he's sharing a backfield as a runner.

Touchdown upside is the question here.

Playing with Jordan Mason, Jones only handled 2 of 11 team rushing attempts inside the 5-yard line.

The Vikings added Demond Claiborne to potentially block a contingency path as well, should something happen to Mason.

As a pass catcher, however, the only obstacle Jones has is Zavier Scott.

When Jones played last year, he ran a route on 50% of the dropbacks, which was RB12 on the season.

Kyler Murray has thrown to his backfield right at league rate since he entered the league (18.8%).

Tyrone Tracy

Bye: Week 8

After 1,123 yards and 6 touchdowns from scrimmage as a rookie in 2024, Tracy accumulated 1,028 total yards and 4 touchdowns last season.

The severity of Cam Skattebo’s injury keeps the door open for a backfield split here, but Tracy has been a subpar rusher over his early career and was run down by Skattebo quickly last season.

Tracy ranks 65th out of 69 running backs in success rate (31.3%) over the past two seasons.

Out of 49 backs with 100 or more runs in 2025, Skattebo averaged 3.04 yards after contact per rush (27th) compared to 2.66 yards after contact for Tracy (42nd).

Skattebo gained more yards than expected on 46% of his runs (3rd) compared to a 38.8% rate for Tracy (28th).

But Tracy has made an impact in the passing game, catching 74 passes for 572 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Alvin Kamara

Bye: Week 8

Kamara turns 31 this July with one year remaining on his current contract.

There have been rumors surrounding Kamara’s exit from New Orleans all spring, but he remains on the roster as we hit summertime.

The team added Travis Etienne as a clear lead back, even if Kamara is involved.

In 2024, Kamara did have 1,493 total yards and 8 touchdowns, so we cannot completely close the book, but last season was rough.

Kamara is coming off a career-low 4.0 yards per touch, turning 164 opportunities into 657 yards and 1 touchdown.

30% of his runs last season gained more yards than expected, ahead of only Michael Carter (28.9%).

As a pass catcher, he averaged a career-low 5.6 yards per catch and only 3.0 receptions per game.

Dylan Sampson

Bye: Week 11

Sampson had 98 touches for 446 yards and 2 touchdowns as a rookie.

Sampson rushed for 2.7 yards per carry, which ranked last among 65 running backs with 50 or more attempts.

Sampson fell victim to poor offensive line play, averaging a measly 0.25 yards before contact per rush.

But Sampson also had issues when given space.

He ranked last in the league in yards per rush when contacted beyond the line of scrimmage (5.0 YPC).

Where Sampson made an impact on offense as a rookie was in the passing game, catching 33 passes for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Sampson was targeted on 28% of his routes (2nd among running backs with 100-plus routes) with 1.90 yards per route run (2nd), but did not have a full-time role with Jerome Ford cutting into some of that work.

With Ford leaving in free agency, Sampson should be in line to take over the full-time receiving back.

Woody Marks

Bye: Week 8

Marks took a major hit this offseason with Houston bringing in David Montgomery.

That move pushes Marks down the board as a complementary piece in the offense and a contingency bet.

Marks ended up being the lead back for Houston last year, handling 220 touches for 911 yards from scrimmage with 5 touchdowns.

He took control of this backfield midseason, averaging 17.5 touches per game with 63.1% of the backfield touches over his final eight games.

Unfortunately, that did not lead to great results.

He only averaged 63.1 total yards per game over that span.

Marks averaged 3.6 yards per attempt, 48th out of 49 running backs with 100 or more rushes last season.

He had a run of 10 or more yards on 7.7% of his runs (41st) while failing to gain yards on 23% (45th).

His 2.59 yards after contact per rush ranked 45th.

If looking at Marks as an active receiver, that role has lowered value here.

C.J. Stroud targeted his running backs only 15.2% of the time (23rd), so Marks never got active in the passing game.

He did not have more than 2 receptions in a game after Week 8.

Tyjae Spears

Bye: Week 9

Spears has been snakebit by injuries the past two seasons.

After missing five games in 2024, he missed another four games last season.

After 152 touches for 5.5 yards per touch as a rookie in 2023, Spears has rushed for 3.7 and 3.9 yards per rushing attempt the past two seasons.

Despite lackluster output as a runner over the past two years, we have seen Spears remain active in the passing game.

He has averaged 3.0 receptions per game for his career.

Spears was targeted on 23.6% of his routes last season (RB9).

The addition of Nicholas Singleton can have an impact on that role and the contingency upside should Tony Pollard miss time.

Jaydon Blue

Bye: Week 14

Blue was selected in the fifth round last season and struggled to get on the field due to injuries and alleged motivational issues.

Blue only logged 78 snaps over five appearances as a rookie and was a healthy inactive Week 9 through Week 17.

Dallas did give him some run in the season finale, rushing 16 times for 64 yards and a touchdown.

The early word this summer has been that Blue has his head in the right place and that Dallas is looking to incorporate him as a pass-game complement.

That would make sense given how Javonte Williams has struggled in that department, and the strength of Blue’s collegiate profile was as a pass catcher.

Williams only averaged 3.9 yards per reception on his 35 catches.

That is the second-lowest yards per catch for any running back with 25-plus receptions in a season in league history.

That is not a complete one-off, either.

Williams has now averaged fewer than 5.0 yards per catch in three of his past four seasons.

The rub for that role is that Dallas has plenty of receiving targets, so the ball can go elsewhere.

We also do not know if Blue’s role would alter greatly should Williams miss any time, or if Malik Davis or Phil Mafah would step in as a threat for early-down rushing work.

Tier 11 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Ray Davis
• Tank Bigsby
• Isiah Pacheco
• Brian Robinson
• Mike Washington
• Samaje Perine

We have reached the outright handcuff portion of the program.

The Bills did not use Ray Davis as much last year as they did in his first season.

After 130 touches for 631 yards and 6 touchdowns in 2024, Davis handled 68 touches for 361 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2025.

He played 15% of the offensive snaps after 24% as a rookie.

Davis still averaged 5.3 yards per touch. The offense just ran through James Cook, who handled 385 touches last year.

We have seen Davis play two games without Cook, and in those games, he has had 174 yards and a touchdown on 23 touches and 152 yards on 23 touches.

Tank Bigsby was a distant backup to Saquon Barkley in 2025, handling 61 touches for 376 yards and 2 touchdowns, but in his lone start last year to close the year, Bigsby handled 17 touches for 106 yards and a touchdown.

The Lions added Isiah Pacheco to a one-year deal (at only $1.8 million) after trading David Montgomery.

Looking for a fresh start, Pacheco has not been the same player since suffering a broken leg two years ago.

Out of 44 running backs with at least 200 attempts the past two seasons, Pacheco has averaged 3.8 yards per rush (39th), a 35.3% success rate (33rd), with a 6.5% rate of runs for 10 or more yards (42nd).

His 2.60 yards after contact per rush is 42nd on that list.

Brian Robinson Jr. is in high-end handcuff territory again, this time attached to Bijan Robinson.

Playing behind Christian McCaffrey last year, Robinson only handled 100 touches for 425 yards and 2 scores.

Mike Washington has taken a journey to reach the NFL, playing three seasons at Buffalo, one at New Mexico State, and then closing his college career at Arkansas this past season, his best.

Washington turned 195 touches into 1,296 yards and 9 touchdowns this past year in college.

When Washington was given room to run, he delivered chunk gains.

He posted 9.6 yards per attempt on runs when he was contacted beyond the line of scrimmage, which was second in this class behind Jeremiyah Love.

48.3% of his rushing yards this past season came on runs of 15 or more yards, which was the third-highest rate in this class.

That explosion showed up in his athletic profile as Washington elevated his stock at the NFL Combine with a 99th-percentile physical profile.

At 6-foot-1 and 223 pounds, Washington ran a 4.33 40-yard dash (99th-percentile adjusted for weight) and posted a 95th-percentile explosion score (vertical plus broad jump).

At his Pro Day, he posted an 84th-percentile agility score.

The questions for Washington come from his down-to-down play, and if his measured athleticism at an older age was a trump card he exploited in his final season.

While Washington created plenty of explosive plays when given room to use his athleticism, 21.4% of his runs failed to gain any yardage, the highest rate in this class.

He turned 14.5% of his runs when hit at or behind the line of scrimmage into a first down or touchdown (11th in class) compared to a 42.4% rate when hit beyond the line of scrimmage (5th).

He averaged 1.7 YPC when hit at the line of scrimmage (10th).

Samaje Perine was a serviceable complement and contributor for the Bengals last season.

Perine handled 101 touches for 469 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Perine will turn 31 this September, and we could see Tahj Brooks take on an expanded role should something happen to Brown, but Perine is an experienced player with size and pass-catching chops and is attached to a high-end offense.

Tier 12 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Kaytron Allen
• Jonah Coleman
• Demond Claiborne
• Isaiah Davis
• Braelon Allen
• LeQuint Allen
• Sean Tucker
• Emanuel Wilson
• George Holani

These backs do not have clear usage to latch onto early in the season, but carry some value at the end of drafts as calculated darts.

We have a handful of Day 3 rookies.

My favorite player from this group is Kaytron Allen, given how wide open the Washington backfield appears with Rachaad White and Jacory Croskey–Merritt having question marks to their games.

One of my comps for Nicholas Singleton was Rachaad White, whom Allen surpassed last year at Penn State.

Allen completely overtook Singleton this past season, nearly doubling him in touches and yardage.

At 5-foot-11 and 216 pounds, Allen has plenty of size to reinforce his workload and utilization in college.

He was used as a power runner, with a class-high 66.2% of his runs coming on man/gap runs.

27.1% of his rushing attempts this past season were against heavy boxes (8 or more defenders), the highest rate in this class.

Against those heavy boxes, Allen rushed for 4.8 YPC (5th).

While facing heavy boxes in a downhill offense, Allen only failed to gain yardage on just 11.4% of his runs (the 3rd-lowest rate in this class).

He forced a missed tackle on 25% of his touches, which was second in this class.

When Allen did get to face light boxes (38.6% of his runs, the 3rd-lowest rate), he punished those looks for 7.0 YPC (4th-highest rate).

Allen also had the third-highest grade in pass protection in this draft class.

A back that is going to keep the offense on schedule and can pass protect is someone who is going to find the field and earn the favor of his coaching staff.

Jonah Coleman is caught in the muddy backfield with RJ Harvey and J.K. Dobbins in designated roles, but Coleman’s three-down profile makes him a contingency bet for both backs, while we could outright see this backfield use all three players.

Coleman is coming off three straight seasons clearing 1,100 yards with double-digit touchdowns in each of the past two seasons at Washington after transferring from Arizona.

At 5-foot-8 and 220 pounds, Coleman is a bowling ball.

71.2% of Coleman’s rushing yards in 2025 came after contact, the highest in this class.

He was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 42.9% of his attempts, the third-highest rate in the class.

Despite that, he still produced a first down or touchdown on 35.3% of his runs, the highest rate in this class in 2025.

On those rushes where he was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage, Coleman produced a first down or touchdown on a class-high 25.4% of those runs.

He averaged 2.6 YPC on runs hit at or behind the line of scrimmage, which led the class.

As a pass catcher, Coleman caught over 20 passes in each of the past three seasons.

Coleman was also excellent in pass protection, something he has said is a signal for getting on the field.

Coleman was also credited with just 1 drop on 123 career targets and had 1 fumble on 639 career touches.

Demond Claiborne needs some rounding out, but he lands in a Minnesota backfield that could have some doors open.

Aaron Jones will be 31 this season, and Jordan Mason has been a rushing-only back to date.

Claiborne is a slasher who can turn in splash plays with his speed.

42.5% of his rushing yards came on runs of 15 or more yards, the fifth-highest rate in this class.

This also shows up in the return game.

Claiborne only trailed Nicholas Singleton and Jadarian Price in career kickoff return yardage in this class, averaging 26.3 yards per kick return with 2 career touchdowns on special teams.

That speed component of his game was reinforced by a 4.37 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, the third-fastest time at his position in Indianapolis.

That speed will get him on the field.

Claiborne has to be fast because at 5-foot-10 and 188 pounds, his frame likely played a role in the overall pounding he could take, limiting his overall touches and impacting all of the bumps and bruises he left games with.

Behind Breece Hall on the depth chart, Braelon Allen missed the final 13 games of 2025 with an MCL injury.

The Jets also still have Isaiah Davis with two years left on his rookie contract.

Davis has been a solid contributor when called upon, averaging 6.4 yards and 6.6 yards per touch over his first two seasons.

You can make the case that he has been underused.

In five career games playing 40% of the snaps, Davis has averaged 53.4 total yards per game and 6.9 yards per touch.

Neither Bhayshul Tuten nor Chris Rodriguez has much experience as a pass catcher, which leaves the door open for LeQuint Allen to carve out a role.

Rodriguez has 6 receptions in the NFL.

Tuten ran a route on only 15.4% of the dropbacks in his games played and logged only 21 snaps in pass protection.

Allen managed only 33 touches for 148 yards as a rookie, but he was an excellent pass protector in college and was already used in that regard over Tuten last season.

Allen played 61 pass blocking snaps as a rookie (Travis Etienne was at 83).

Seattle could run a compartmentalized backfield to open the year as they look to get Price up to speed and wait on Zach Charbonnet.

There is an outcome where Price is the between-the-20’s runner, George Holani is the receiving back, and Emanuel Wilson is the goal-line back.

The early word from Seattle is that they expect Price to be in a “Kenneth Walker-type” role, which tracks.

Seattle ran the ball 51.5% of the time when Walker was on the field, which was ninth among running backs.

In the postseason, that rate was 58.5%.

After Charbonnet was injured, Walker still conceded passing snaps to Holani.

Seattle ran the ball only 12.8% of the time while Holani was on the field.

Walker set career lows with 29.7% of the snaps inside the 5-yard line with only 7 touches from that area of the field.

Charbonnet played 74.3% of those snaps with 17 touches.

This is where Wilson can factor in.

Wilson is 226 pounds, while Price was 203 at the Combine.

Tier 13 Fantasy Football RBs:

• Jaylen Wright
• Kimani Vidal
• Ty Johnson
• Kaelon Black
• Jordan James
• Nicholas Singleton
• Ollie Gordon
• Justice Hill
• Adam Randall
• MarShawn Lloyd
• Chris Brooks
• Emmett Johnson

Wrapping things up with the tail end of the dart throws at the position.

Kaelon Black and Jordan James are the primary backups behind Christian McCaffrey, who is coming off 450 touches.

Adam Randall is an intriguing shot in the dark behind a 32-year-old Derrick Henry.

He is a big body (6-foot-3 and 232 pounds) and a good athlete, transitioning from wide receiver to running back the past two seasons.

The Packers do not have much behind Josh Jacobs, should he face discipline this summer.

Chris Brooks has averaged 5.2 yards per touch through three seasons, but he has only had 106 career touches.

MarShawn Lloyd has been snakebitten over two NFL seasons, playing in only one game with 10 snaps since entering the league.