Transcription
These are the best running backs in fantasy football for 2026. Let's start the S tier. You've got Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs. A lot of people are going to flip-flop whether, you know, Bijan should go 101 or Gibbs should go 101. I think most people would agree that these are the two best picks in fantasy football this year, so they're going to be the 101 and the 102.
Now, which one goes first is going to be dependent on, I guess, what you think of their situations and their schedules this year. Because a lot of people will favor Jahmyr Gibbs this year, 'cuz he does have a pretty easy schedule, one of the easier schedules in the league for any running back on this list. Bijan Robinson, however, you know, these guys scored at the exact same clip last year on a points per game basis: 21.8 versus 21.58.
The big discourse with Jahmyr Gibbs is, of course, that David Montgomery is gone. And so, most people assume that, okay, well, because David Montgomery's gone, Jahmyr Gibbs is now going to get 100% of the snaps. He, obviously, last year got about 67% of the snaps in that offense. Now, that goes to 100 because, because David Montgomery's gone. Every, every running back, every backfield in the NFL is a running back by committee. Every single one. There are no exceptions. You know, you do have guys like Jonathan Taylor who get 88% of the snaps in offenses like that, but even Jonathan Taylor was splitting snaps at times last year. It's just a matter of how much they're going to split.
Jahmyr Gibbs, I don't see his snap share going up a lot. I see it going up a little bit, right? He could creep over 70%, maybe. Bijan Robinson, for example, is at 79% last year. I could see Jahmyr Gibbs jumping up 5 to 10%, and that would be reasonable. I don't think it means that Jahmyr Gibbs' production is going to jump up all that much. Going from 25, 21.6 points per game, you know, maybe he jumps up and he is in the 22-23s on his best season. Uh, we'll see, but I think between Bijan and Gibbs is basically just what's your flavor, right?
Jahmyr Gibbs averages more touchdowns. Bijan Robinson averages more rushing yards. In my opinion, Bijan Robinson, the way he gets his production, is a little bit more sticky than Jahmyr Gibbs. And so, I feel like he's a little bit of a safer, a tiny bit safer than Jahmyr Gibbs. But at the same time, again, you are absolutely splitting hairs trying to decide between these two guys. Pick whoever you think is the best between Bijan and Gibbs this year. I have no real preference. I'll take either one of them at the beginning of the drafts. In fact, if I have two 101s this year, I'll take one Bijan and one Gibbs, and I'll call it a day because both of these guys are set up to be the top two running backs in fantasy football pretty easily this year.
A tier is going to be CMC and Jonathan Taylor. I don't think anybody can deny what their production upside is. It is to the level of Bijan and Gibbs. The reason they're a tier below those two guys is, obviously, they both have a significant amount of injury risk with their age and just injury history throughout their career. And the question of, are they going to be able to maintain the level of production that they had in 2025 after they were very touchdown heavy, not the most like ultra-efficient at times? They are significant regression candidates this year.
However, regression candidates at 25 and 22 points per game, respectively, means what? That they're going to score 18, 19, 20 points per game instead of 25 and 22? Like, you're still talking about a top four running back finish for both of these guys, barring injury, which is why they're going to belong together ahead of the guys that we'll talk about in the B tier as well.
But, I think CMC and JT, both given their situation, the fact that they kind of run the offenses that they're a part of, you can only fade them so much. And I think even compared to a guy like Saquon Barkley last year, who everybody was projecting he was going to be a regression candidate, Saquon Barkley wasn't necessarily essential to the Eagles offense like CMC and Jonathan Taylor are for their respective offenses. And their offensive line situations, I would wager, are quite a bit better heading into this season than what the Eagles were facing last year with all the injuries and how predictable that offense from a play-calling perspective was in Philadelphia, as opposed to Shanahan and Steichen, who are two of the more creative play-callers in the NFL.
Expect them to again find creative ways to get CMC and JT the ball and to be productive this season. If and when they regress, you tell me how much they're going to regress by. Like, is it really going to be a 10-point per game regression to a point where they're a low-end running back one? I just don't see that happening. The best argument against both of these guys is they're going to get injured, and we're just not in the market of predicting if and when these guys are going to get hurt. We take upside shots in fantasy football, which is why they belong in this 80/20 below Bijan and Jahmyr Gibbs.
The next tier starts with Devon Achane, and a lot of people are going to be talking about Achane because you have Mike McDaniel leaving as the head coach. You have Tua Tagovailoa leaving as the quarterback. And so, you bring in Malik Willis from the Green Bay Packers as the quarterback. You bring in Jeff Hafley from the Green Bay Packers, a defensive guy, to be head coach, which doesn't necessarily help Devon Achane. Then you bring in Bobby Slowik, formerly from the Houston Texans, 2023-2024. He was the offensive coordinator there. He's the offensive coordinator now in Miami.
Now, Joe Mixon did have a pretty good season under Bobby Slowik in Houston. I don't think that means anything for Devon Achane. When you're looking situationally here for Devon Achane, they don't have Waddle anymore either. And so, you have no Waddle. You have Malik Willis, who's probably going to need those easy check-down passes. Chris Bell, they drafted in the NFL draft. Caleb Douglas, they drafted in the NFL draft. That wide receiver room is wide open.
And this is a Devon Achane who, when you're looking at how he's gotten his points throughout his career, he has historically been a very good receiving back, right? Receiving targets each of the last three years: 37 in his rookie year, and then 87 and 85 each of the last two years. That's really good, obviously. He gets a lot of targets. Last year he had a 19.8% target share. People are worried that because the situation's so bad, that Devon Achane's going to be a serious regression candidate, and a lot of people are going to rank him a lot lower.
The thing with Devon Achane is, last year, more than any year, you saw his rushing take a big step up. He had 1,350 rushing yards last year on 238 attempts. So, he was quite efficient there. That's 5.7 yards per carry. Devon Achane's a good running back, and even though that situation's going to be one of the worst situations in the NFL, I think there's a good chance because there are no receiving weapons in Miami that they actually end up force-feeding Achane the ball more from a receiving standpoint, as well as give him all the carries in the red zone, all the important touches.
When you think about it, sure, it's a bad offense, but he's going to get every single valuable touch, including his fair share of all the receiving touches as well. That's typically going to translate to fantasy football points, especially for a talent like Devon Achane. So, I'll be in on Devon Achane this year. We're not going to rank him any lower than this. We are going to be pretty aggressive with our ranking.
By the way, look at the consistency last year over his game log. Like, when he wasn't scoring 30, 40 points a game, he was consistently at least 17 points a game. He's one of the most consistent running backs in fantasy football last year and ended up averaging 20.2 points per game last year. So, you love to see that.
James Cook we also have in this tier. James Cook, each of the last two years on a points per game basis, 16.7 and then 17.7 points per game in each of the last years as well. People have been waiting for the touchdown regression to come, and they never ended up coming. 12, or sorry, 12 last year and then 16 in 2024. So, technically, even on regression, you saw him rush for 600 more yards on 100 more carries.
This is a guy whose snap share last year went up quite a bit, and he ended up getting the lion's share of that work. He had 57% snap share for James Cook. You actually really like to see that in an offense where they have historically used three or four backs there in Buffalo. Okay? Obviously, new head coach in Buffalo. I would expect James Cook to continue to get the same workload that he's gotten in prior years, right? The dude's on a big contract.
The Bills' offensive system, while I think there are going to be wrinkles that help some of the passing game guys become more productive, it is going to be a very familiar offense for them. And I think that James Cook is going to continue to be one of the center points of that offense. I think they're going to want to run the ball and win on the ground. He averaged 95 rushing yards a game last year. That was more than Jonathan Taylor, Derrick Henry, any of the top guys. And so, again, 1,600 rushing yards, James Cook coming off of one of his best seasons.
Not a guy that's going to get you a lot of receiving work, so his floor is going to be naturally a little bit lower. You see that in his game log: games of 5, 8, 10, 11, 8, 1. But then games of 26, 31, 33, 26, 21, 22, 21, 20. Like, there are going to be floor games, but his ceiling games are high. And on average, he is getting you around 18 points a game, which is what you like to see. So, you have to be, look, no touchdown regression here.
Flag plant for Ashton Jeanty, ladies and gentlemen! Ashton Jeanty last year, in one of the worst situations in the NFL, averaged 14.4 points per game. On the Raiders last year. Did you watch the Raiders? They were so incredibly bad. The offensive line was so incredibly bad. Chip Kelly was calling plays for like 10 games. So incredibly bad.
Huge head coaching upgrade. Huge offensive upgrade. Huge offensive line upgrades. Huge quarterback upgrades. Geno was terrible last year. Even Kirk Cousins is an upgrade, but Mendoza's going to be great for Jeanty as well. Bowers is back healthy. Everything about that situation for Ashton Jeanty is better. Everything.
He got 78% of the snaps in that offense last year. I'd expect that to maintain. And this is a guy that only averaged 57 rushing yards a game last year. I am all in on that going way up this year. Last year he did have 73 targets, 55 receptions, and five touchdowns. He had a 15% target share in that offense. And I think he could run that back.
Who did the Raiders bring in to catch the ball? Like, obviously, Brock Bowers is back, but outside of that, who's catching the ball there? Jakobi Meyers is gone. He was gone last year. Trey Tucker is still there. Okay. Ashton Jeanty's going to get a lot of receptions, especially if you've got an old quarterback in Kirk Cousins or a young quarterback in Mendoza. Again, going to be looking for those checkdowns a lot. Going to be looking for those easy targets, those screen plays, those gimmies, a lot.
So, Jeanty's going to continue to get receiving work, but I'd bet my bottom dollar that he rushes for more than 975 yards this year. Jeanty probably can be a top five running back in fantasy football this year. It would not shock me if he was a top five. It wouldn't shock me if he was a top three running back. This dude has unlimited ceiling, in my opinion. And again, averaging 14 and a half points per game his rookie year in that situation, when the situation's going to be that much better this year, and the offense is going to be, I mean, that much better.
And people, real quick, people want to point to, "Oh, Kenneth Walker and Charbonnet." Not applicable. Jeanty is not Walker. Jeanty's not Charbonnet. Okay, Kubiak knows what he has in Asim Jeanty. That is a non-argument. That is not a discussion starter here. Asim Jeanty is not those guys. He's not going to be treated like those guys. You'll see it on the field this year. He's going to get elite snap share, and I think he's going to have elite production this year, too.
I think Omarion Hampton at the top of the season here is going to have a pretty solid year as well. Again, you'll see a lot of people that are really low on A.J. because the situation got so much worse. There are going to be the same people that are low on Omarion Hampton just because they want to be. And yet, Mike McDaniel is now the one calling plays in that offense, not Greg Roman. It's going to be a lot more creative of offensive play-calling in general. And Omarion Hampton is going to be fully healthy heading into this season.
I don't think you can have it both ways here. I think if you're low on A.J., you have to be high on Omarion Hampton, who's getting the play-caller that made A.J. so productive in Miami since he came into the league. I think it's wheels up for Hampton this season. Avery's obviously a huge fan of him as well. Hampton had a lot of things go wrong for him last year outside of just the injury. That offensive line didn't exist because they were all injured as well. And you, I mean, that you can pretty much just stop there. Like, really, their offensive line, once it fell apart, they couldn't do what they wanted to offensively. They looked the best at the beginning of the year when all those guys were good to go. And actually, Slater wasn't even good to go. Slater didn't even start the season. He got hurt in training camp. So, they were never 100%. And Hampton actually looked best at the beginning of the year after Najee went down with the injury, and he was getting a bulk of the carries. He's going to get all the carries this year, or a majority of them.
Jeremiah Love also going to be in this tier. Jeremiah Love, from a production perspective, could be this year's Asim Achim Jeanty, or this year's rookie Bijan Robinson. That's very possible for Jeremiah Love. I think his floor is a low-end running back one, like those guys were. And I think his ceiling is, you know, obviously much higher than this because it's Jeremiah Love, who was a top four pick in the NFL draft. And I think as a prospect, I mean, he is at the level that Jeanty and Bijan were at. I mean, Bijan finished like the RB what? Six or seven his first year, even with Algier taking all of those carries. I think a lot of people are being nine.
I think a lot of people are going to put way too much stock into what Love just said to the media recently about how he's just really glad that he's not going to have to carry the ball 30 times and that they can give the ball to some other running backs in that room. Guys, every running back room does this in the NFL now. I mean, you're as high on Jahmyr Gibbs as you are, putting him in the S tier, and Jahmyr Gibbs, just like last year and the year before, is probably going to get like 65% to 70% snap share while Isaiah Pacheco gets some work, just like Monty did and Jamaal Williams did before that. And that's just the reality. Like, you see this with every star running back in the league, with the exception of pretty much Jonathan Taylor and CMC, is that they're not getting 95% of the workload. They're getting like 70 to 80% of it, and there are going to be other guys that are going to be decently productive there every once in a while if they get a touchdown. That's just going to happen. Don't freak out too much about Jeremiah Love this year. I do think he deserves to be in this tier. Though, I do believe that he probably has the second, let's say, I think he has the second to third lowest floor of any running back in this tier.
We'll talk about Walker later here, but Saquon Barkley, coming off a disappointing season where he had like 14 points per game, a big drop-off from what you saw in 2024. Expect that to improve this year as well. I think their offense is going to look a bit better and probably a little, hopefully, less predictable than it did last season. Honestly, a lot of that is kind of riding on what can Jalen Hurts do as a passer. They lose A.J. Brown. Quez Watkins is now there. Maybe Quez Watkins can open it up a little bit more, since I think he could be like a pretty versatile route runner more than people give him credit for, and hopefully that opens up the field for Saquon Barkley. Again, makes it less predictable when they're going to run the ball with him. Barkley is still going to get a lot of carries and a lot of work. One of the few guys where nobody else behind him is going to be competing with any workload that he's going to get in that offense. If he gets close-ish to the touchdown level that he had in 2024, he's going to be back to like a mid-running back one.
Chase Brown probably has, he's probably one of the safest picks, I would say, in this tier, as long as Joe Burrow stays healthy. And that is a big ask. But honestly, as long as Chase Brown is in that situation, and as long as Joe Burrow is throwing the football, he's going to get so many dump-downs from Burrow because they're going to be in so many shootouts. Because they just decided that defense doesn't matter in Cincinnati, and they're going to try and win shootouts every single week because they can score 40 plus points a week. And that can mean that Chase and Higgins and Chase Brown can all be very productive in that offense. Chase Brown can be a threat in the air. He's a threat on the ground. He's just a product of that situation, and even as the technical third option there, he's still ultra productive, really high floor.
Derrick Henry, the ageless wonder, the unicorn of all unicorns. You can predict regression every single year if you would like to. We will continue to draft him where he deserves to be drafted. And based off his showing last year, in one of the worst offensive outputs for Baltimore that we've seen in a while, with Lamar being hurt for a good chunk of the season and that offense just not looking like it has in years past, he was still the running back eight, still had almost 1,600 rushing yards, still had 16 touchdowns. Like, this guy just is not stopping. Still over 5 yards per carry. He had a really, really rough start to the season, and then after the bye week, he pretty much took off, and he never had a single-digit performance from then on out. You didn't see the big boom weeks that we're used to seeing from Henry last year, but again, still as a low-end running back one. It's Derrick Henry. You've got to keep taking him until he just doesn't exist anymore in fantasy football.
Kenneth Walker, pure projection. He's one of really three guys here in this tier who you're projecting is going to take a big jump this season in production. It's Hampton, Love, and Kenneth Walker. The difference is Walker is older. He's more of a seasoned veteran heading into the fifth year of his NFL career in a way better situation than we've seen in years past for him, 'cuz he's not going to be in a running back committee, we think. He's not going to be splitting carries 50/50 down the middle with Zach Charbonnet, and we don't expect anybody to take away red zone carries from him, either. So, look, there's a lot of positives with Kenneth Walker and his situation. The biggest question is, can he stay healthy? Because he never has been able to in his career, and he's super duper streaky when he does get a lot of opportunities. So, he can have a really amazing four to six-week run, and then the next few weeks can be like really, really, really bad. So, hopefully he can bring it all together this year in Kansas City. You will see him go as high as the mid-second in some of your drafts, and some people might reach on him at the 1-2 turn.
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All right. The D tier here. We're going to start with Javonte Williams. Javonte had a really good year last year. Javonte, if you drafted him last year, you got him in the seventh, eighth round, and he absolutely returned on value for you last year. He was one of the better picks in fantasy football, period.
When you're looking at what he was able to do last year on about 68% of the snaps last year, he averaged 15 points per game. I will say his first eight weeks were better than his last like nine. He did miss, I think, actually no, he played, he did play all 17 games last year, I think. He played, yeah, he or 16 games. So, he missed one game, I think. He finished as the running back 12 again on 69% snap share, which is nice. Average 4.8 yards per carry. Didn't have hardly any receiving uses last year. I think you'll see that kind of continue this year again.
But what you did see from Javonte Williams was 1,200 rushing yards last year on 250 carries. He was getting all the volume you could imagine and had 11 rushing touchdowns as well, including 20 carries inside the five-yard line, which is where he was getting a lot of his points from those touchdowns. He was getting all of the valuable touches in the offense. He did have 51 targets last year. I guess that's not nothing, and 35 receptions and two touchdowns. But at the same time, it's an 8.7% target share. So, not a very big percentage of the targets in that offense. As you know, they've got some pretty good receivers in that offense as well.
I would expect Javonte to do something very similar to what he did last year. And where we're having him ranked right now, I mean, we're having him ranked as like a high-end running back two. So, we're kind of drafting him here, ranking him conservatively, but I think he could absolutely outperform this ranking. And so, Javonte is in an offense that's going to score a lot of points again this year, and that's the number one thing. A guy getting that many red zone carries in an offense that gets to the red zone that often, it's hard not to take that guy when you're getting to like third, fourth round of your fantasy football draft. So, Javonte's going to be there.
Breece Hall obviously returns to a situation that we don't love. And fact of the matter is, Breece was not productive last year, not as productive, I guess, as we want him to be. 12.9 points per game, so 13 points a game. And averaged 64% of the snaps in that offense. But, I mean, this dude, like his floor is five points. Yeah, of all of his four games here: five points, nine points, six points, seven points, eight points, five points, five points, eight points. Then he had games of 16, 16, 17, 19, 13. So, it's like he's either scoring you five or he's scoring you 15, and then occasionally last year he had a 133-point game. And I think this is just the nature of the Jets offense. And I don't think the Jets situation is going to be all that much better this year, and he averaged 13 points a game last year.
Now, could he average more this year? I would say, yeah, it's Breece Hall, he's really good. Of course, he could average more points. But I think you're talking 14, 15 points a game, and he's not getting anywhere near the Breece Hall ceiling that we'd see if he were on another team. The Jets situation's really going to hinder Breece this year, and we're kind of ranking him accordingly. You do have to rank him here, though, just because anybody else in that Jets situation wouldn't even be scoring that many points. It's Breece Hall and his talent that kind of elevates him there.
Kyren Williams, people are freaking out about Blake Corum last year. Kyren still got 70% of the snaps across the entire year last year in that offense and was still the running back nine. When you're looking especially at weeks nine through 17 here, a really good stretch for him where he was scoring in double digits all but one game, and was consistently scoring around 16, 17 points per game. He ended the season averaging about 15 and a half points per game. And I think when you's looking at his whole body of work last year, you don't have to be that concerned about Blake Corum taking that much snap share from him. And even if he does, you know Kyren's going to see through that.
No, Kyren is not getting the 20 carries a game that we saw even in 2024, but especially at the end of 2023 as well. He was getting more like 13 to 15 carries for the majority of the year last year. But, the fact that when you're looking at his carries from week nine and on last year, he got, you know, in the early teens carries and was still scoring that many fantasy points on a week-to-week basis: 17, 22, 16, 13, 17, 21, 16. Floor is about 11, by the way. You can't help but be encouraged by that. This is a dude that, you know, also got some targets in that offense, especially towards the end of the year, is again on an offense that's scoring a ton of points, and he's getting, I mean, still pretty much all the receiving work there. Blake Corum didn't get hardly any receiving work last year. And even on limited snap share, limited or reduced snap share, he's still by far the most fantasy productive running back in that offense. And so, you like that from Kyren. I think people will be scared to draft him this year. I think he could end up being a pretty good value, actually, where he's being drafted at. I say that as somebody who drafted Kyren Williams at the 2.03 for me last year in the Flock League, but I think he could end up being a good value this year.
Travis Etienne goes to an offense, again, that's going to score a lot of points. They're going to run a lot of plays. They're also going to pass the ball a lot. And Etienne had a really good year last year, where you saw a pretty consistent floor of about 10 points from him, but he was consistently at about 15 points a game. That's where he ended up on the season. Now, last year you did see three to five targets a game for most of the games that he played, and I think that's the number one thing I'm going to be watching when he's in New Orleans. Like, how much does he split snaps still with Alvin Kamara, who's still there? I don't think Alvin Kamara's going to affect Travis Etienne that much, but I think it could have some tiny effect, and if it did, it might be in the receiving game. You do have Devin Neal there as well. There are still a couple guys lingering in New Orleans that could take something away from Travis Etienne.
But, he just got paid, and he's on a big contract now. And so, I don't know why they wouldn't give him the ball. I think he'll end up getting more receptions this year than he had last year. And I also think he's going to be the lead back for rushing purposes as well. Alvin Kamara really couldn't get it going on the ground last year, and I think that's why they decided they needed somebody else there. Alvin Kamara is just retiring, saying, I think it's what's happening here. And so, that's a good offense. It's going to run a lot of plays and score a lot of points, and I think Etienne will be, you know, looking to kind of repeat like a 15, around a 15-point per game season, what we saw from him last year.
When Kames Scarbrough was healthy, he was averaging like 16 points a game. He was insane last year when he was healthy. And the thing was, you know, we only saw eight weeks of Scarbrough, and we only really saw like six weeks of 13, 24, 13, 14, 31, and 18 points. His first week he didn't do anything 'cuz he was hurt, and his last week he got hurt as well. The main thing with Scarbrough at 24 and a half years old is, can he stay healthy? I think if he does, though, I think you like the situation for him. I think you like the John Harbaugh system. I think you will take the Greg Roman system as well for a running back. And so, it's a pretty good situation for Scarbrough.
A guy who, when you're looking at how he was actually scoring his points last year, he had games of six, seven, eight targets. He was pretty inconsistent with his targets, but when he was getting them, he was also getting a lot of receiving yards. On a per touch basis in fantasy football, he scores a lot of fantasy points per touch. When he gets opportunities, he might not be the most efficient rusher in terms of like yards per attempt, but he will score points. He had a game of three rushing touchdowns last year. He had two games with receiving touchdowns last year as well. I think that's going to continue in this year's offense, especially if Malik Nabers doesn't end up being full strength or starting the season. I think Kames Scarbrough could come out really, really scoring points at the beginning of the year.
By the way, not a ton of volume as well. He was averaging about 50% of the snaps there last year with Tyron Tracy still getting snaps. And he was still scoring 16 points a game on limited touches. So, you have to be excited about the situation. It's better. The offensive line is better. The quarterback play is going to be better. The weapons, you know, hopefully Malik Nabers comes back, and that's better as well. And then the coaching staff and the offense as a whole is going to be better. The scheme is going to be better. And so, with Scarbrough, with what he was able to do last year on a per touch basis, you have to be excited about him.
Josh Jacobs obviously has off-the-field issues that are going to, you know, lead us to be pretty conservative with how we rank him. But last year he still was averaging 16 points a game when he was healthy. And I don't think the off-field stuff comes into play until probably after this NFL season. And so, you could end up getting some pretty sneaky discounts on Josh Jacobs, who is in an offense where I think they're going to continue to run the ball a fair amount. And I think that Josh Jacobs is going to still be the guy there. I still think he's going to get the lion's share of the work there. Last year he averaged 60% of the snaps. But again, was getting almost all of the fantasy points and all of the red zone touches as well. And I think that's the number one thing when you're looking for Josh Jacobs last year.
And so, you know, I will gladly buy the dip on a guy who's gotten 20 plus carries inside the 5-yard line each of the last two years. It's an offense that does get to the red zone a lot, and they tend to like to give it to their running backs when they get there, and I really like that. Also had 36 receptions each of the last two years last year in only 15 games. Look, Josh Jacobs has not shown, "Oh, okay. Like, I'm falling off. I'm done. Like, I'm old." Maybe that happens this year. But I think more of the discounts are coming 'cuz of the off-field stuff. I'm not super worried about that. I'm going to continue to draft Josh Jacobs this year. In fact, I think he could be a sneaky running back one candidate that's going to go a little bit cheaper than a lot of these guys. Again, because of the off-field stuff, which I'm not sure comes into play this year.
The F tier is going to start with David Montgomery. Look, there's a lot of really promising, high-upside running backs in this tier still, this deep into the running back rankings video. But Montgomery's situation, I think, is the most straightforward of anybody in this tier, which is why he's going to be at the top of it.
Look, Monty has been pretty much his entire career a running back two, not just from a production perspective. But like, a good chunk of his career in Detroit, obviously, is playing second fiddle to Jahmyr Gibbs and was still productive there. His best season ever was a running back four overall for Chicago back in, I think, his second year. We're not expecting that to happen again for Montgomery, but I do think you're going to have a really high floor outlook for Montgomery just when it comes to the volume he's going to get. Nobody really in that running back room is going to be contending for a butt ton of touches. Woody Marks is going to be the biggest name there.
But, I think what we've seen historically from Houston and the way they like to operate now under DeMeco Ryans is punish you defensively and slow the game down and have a good run game so that you can slow the game down, have long sustained possessions, not be super explosive, lower scoring games. And again, that bodes really, really well for David Montgomery and the opportunities and the touches that he's going to get. Think Joe Mixon back in 2024. They were missing that last season, which is why I think it was a big reason that their offense was so lackluster because C.J. Stroud has his limitations as a passer. And if they have an established run game, it really elevates the rest of the offense and the way that it functions there. So, Monty, I think, is a pretty decent outlook this season. Look, he can end up finishing as running back two. Again, I do think his floor is one of the highest of anybody in this group in the F tier.
De'Andre Swift, everybody knows what De'Andre Swift is at this point, six years into his career. He had the second most, no, he had the most productive season that he's had since his second year in the league in 2021 at 14.3 points per game, which was 16th among running backs from a points per game perspective. I don't think much of this is going to change this year. Situationally, they haven't added any weapons. They only lost D.J. Moore in the receiving game, but he's still going to be, you know, contending for touches with Monangai. Even with Monangai in that offense last year, he had 223 rushing attempts, over 1,000 rushing yards. He's not the highest, most efficient runner, but he does have a lot of explosive upside. He does have a lot of touchdown opportunity. Had 10 total touchdowns last year, which was tied for the most amount of touchdowns he's ever had in his career in a single season.
And you're talking about one of the best offenses, just one of the most productive offenses with one of the better play-callers in the league that you're going to see. So, situationally, this is, I think, really good for Swift. He's kind of underrated every single year because his ceiling is almost just inherently capped because of the way that he is, right? Every single year, but he ends up just being a really, really solid option every season, and people don't realize it until you're in the middle of the year, and you're like, "Dude, this guy's productive. He has a lot of really good big games. He's a nice RB2 option if you only get one guy up top, and then wait until like the sixth or seventh round to get De'Andre Swift." So, we like him this season.
Then, we're going to go with Kendre Miller Price here in this tier. I think he has the highest, one of the highest upside picks in this tier. Kendre Miller Price, first-round pick, going to Seattle to replace Kenneth Walker. Just to replace Kenneth Walker. Zach Charbonnet coming off an ACL tear that happened in the playoffs last season. I think in the divisional round. And he had his surgery in February, which means by the time the season starts, he's only like, what, what is that math? Like, seven months removed from his surgery. Dude's not going to play for half the season. Like, legit, he's not going to be ready until the middle of the season, and then they're going to have to work up, you know, his workload.
You're really mostly worried about Emmanuel Wilson here in this offense than you are Zach Charbonnet taking away from Kendre Miller Price, because I think there's a heck of an avenue for Price if he shows up in training camp to get a lot of work pretty quickly as early as this season. It's not like we haven't seen this happen. We just saw it with Jaylen Wright Jenkins last year in Cleveland, where Jaylen Wright Jenkins came in essentially off the street, because they were like, he didn't do anything in training camp. He wasn't available with all of his legal stuff, and then they just dropped him in the offense, and he was productive. Like, that's very possible for Price this season just because of that situation and Charbonnet coming off the ACL tear. And Emmanuel Wilson, like we've seen him before. He's not anything special. Price could easily take over and get a majority of that workload pretty immediately.
Bucky Irving has his shoulder injury questions. They're expecting him to be ready sometime this fall. Does that mean training camp? I think they're hoping it will be training camp that he's going to be ready to go. But this is a shoulder injury he's been battling since the beginning of last season, and he seems to still be struggling with it. So, big question mark from the injury standpoint for Bucky. And they added Kenneth Gainwell to a significant deal this season. You saw how productive Gainwell was alongside Jalen Warren last year. That's going to be a concern for us. Is Bucky going to get the level of workload that he got in the second half of his rookie season? We have never seen it over the course of an entire year of him just staying healthy. A lot of question marks there. Obviously, a lot of upside because when he is healthy and he is at his best, he is ultra, ultra productive.
Quinshon Judkins, worst situation by far of anybody in this tier. We like Judkins a lot. His floor is really, really low on a week-to-week basis because he does not have receiving chops. That injury that he suffered last season, he looks to be fully recovered from. He's already doing like pretty much all the drills and all the stuff in mini camp. He's going to be full go in training camp as well. He looks great, so we're not worried on that side. It's more just like, what is this offense going to look like with now Todd Monken calling plays as the head coach? I just, I'm not quite sure. I don't know how much of an upgrade from an opportunity perspective it's going to be going from Stefanski to Todd Monken. It could be, it could be better. That's very possible, but you could see Judkins finish as like a high-end running back two. That could definitely be what you see from him this season with the low floor of like, "Hey, he can get 15 carries every single game." If he doesn't get a touchdown, you could see a five to seven-point game from him because he gets like no receptions.
Trayveon Henderson is like in a 50/50 split backfield between him and Rhamondre. Rhamondre's going to be in the tier right below this. Henderson's upside is much higher. His big play ability is amazing. Is it really going to change from last year to this year where you see Henderson's workload increase when he didn't seem to be any more of an impactful option than Rhamondre did at the end of last season? I don't know if it's going to be this year for Trayveon Henderson. There's just a lot of questions there, and the way that Josh McDaniels likes to run his offense is very, very, it's not like friendly to Henderson or Zamandre. They're both like schematically kind of as efficient as the other. You don't really have an advantage for one guy versus another. Henderson has to get better on pass pro. He has to be a more impactful receiving option, notably better than Zamandre, if he wants to get like a lot more opportunities there.
Chuba Hubbard is back to being the running back one question mark in Carolina. Rico Dowdle moves on to Pittsburgh. Jonathan Brooks might take a good amount of workload this season if he's fully healthy from the ACL. We'll see what happens there with him. I think they're going to want to integrate him in this offense. They're not going to give 100% of the work to Chuba, but you could see a decent amount of production go back Chuba's way. They ended up reintegrating him in the offense after he came back from the injury at the end of last season, which took away from Rico Dowdle. That could mean that they do want to continue to keep Chuba involved in this offense to a point where he's a running back two again this year.
Raishad Tuten, pure upside play. We know legitimately nothing about Raishad Tuten. He is fun to watch when he has a really impressive, like, flashy play. He has not shown that he's efficient on the ground. He has not shown what he can do with a ridiculous amount of workload because we have never seen it with Tuten. He is a pure upside play that could totally pay off or could look like a total idiot if you draft him in the same conversation as all the guys in this tier. So, he kind of settles at the tail end of this tier. Chris Rodriguez could legitimately be the running back one in that offense when it's all said and done. In reality, we're probably projecting it's going to be an even split between the two.
All right, and then I'll go over the last couple tiers here. We've got to start with Jaylen Warren. Look, they
have Rico Dowdle in that offense as well. We have both of these guys in this tier. I'm not sure how they're going to split the snaps there this year.
Part of this was that last year Jaylen Warren was getting a lot of the rushing work in that offense, and then Kenneth Gainwell was the receiving back. But, you bring in Rico Dowdle, who's more of a rushing back than back himself. So, how are they going to Who's going to get the receiving work? It's probably going to be Jaylen Warren. But then, is D'Onta Foreman going to I don't know how they're going to split this the snaps there this year. The offense isn't projected to be that high-scoring of an offense, to be honest with you, anyways. So, I think you just have to take both these guys and put them in this G tier.
RJ RJ Harvey and JK Dobbins will both be in this tier as well. Uh Harvey did have surgery, I think on his shoulder, and it was released recently that he uh was rehabbing from that. And so, he might be a little bit banged up to start the year. JK Dobbins was this close to going to Jacksonville, actually. He ends up coming back. I think what you saw last year is you saw RJ Harvey in that offense be the receiving back, JK Dobbins be the rushing back. And when you have offenses where you have this very clear split of one guy's the receiving back and one guy's going to get the majority of the carries, it severely caps both of their ceilings. It just does. And especially when they're splitting snaps here almost as evenly as RJ Harvey and JK Dobbins did last year. And so, you have to put them both in this tier.
And then, Rhamondre Stevenson. Look for where we have TreVeyon Henderson ranked in the F tier, which a lot of people are going to be upset with. Consistent logic says that Rhamondre has to be underrated if we have TreVeyon Henderson ranked that low. And I think Rhamondre Stevenson is that underrated. Again, you're looking at last year, he averaged 12 points a game. He averaged the same amount of points per game as TreVeyon Henderson did. And I don't think there's any signs that they're going to back off of Rhamondre Stevenson in terms of using him in in in that rushing game. Like, there were times last year he was better than TreVeyon Henderson. There was times he was worse, as well. Which is Which the funny thing is, like, why did TreVeyon Henderson not continue to get more and more carries in that offense. But, consistent logic says if we're going to have TreVeyon Henderson ranked conservatively, you're going to have to have Rhamondre Stevenson ranked up here as well. They're going to have to be pretty close. We do give TreVeyon the nod over Rhamondre Stevenson, though, just cuz of the upside and cuz I think TreVeyon's a better player.
Now, in the H tier, you're going to have Tony Pollard here. You don't know what his share is going to look like this year. He's ran for 1,000 yards each of his last four seasons. But, is Nick Singleton, the rookie, going to cut into that at all? We'll see. Kenneth Gainwell goes to Tampa Bay. Obviously, we have Bucky ranked higher. He'll get a lot of receiving work there, I think. Aaron Jones in an offense that he wasn't productive in last year. I don't think he between him and Jordan Mason, we've got Jordan Mason ranked here in the next tier. I don't think either of them will be super productive in the running game of that offense. We do have Rashad White here. People have Rashad White ranked a lot higher than us. Um but I honestly think between Rashad White and JCM, those guys could cap each other's ceiling, so we're going to be conservative with both of them. Blake Corum, we already talked about. I think Kyren Williams is the guy there pretty clearly. And Cam Akers, I think D'Andre Swift is the guy there pretty clearly. When they were both on the field last year, D'Andre Swift was by far the more fantasy productive guy. And so you have to consider that when you're making Cam Akers.
The IT guy, again, Jordan Mason, Tyjae Spears, Zamir White, both in committees. Roschon Johnson is now the backup for David Montgomery. It's just a matter of like how much of the line share does David Montgomery actually take. Tyron Tracy, he was playing still a lot of snaps last year, but Scott is way more productive than the guy. Tyjae Spears, again, we talk about Tony Pollard. And Nick Singleton's also there, so you put him in here. Jonathan Brooks potentially is a sleeper this year. Chuba Hubbard, it looks like he's going to be the uh the guy in that offense this year from the rushing game, but if Jonathan Brooks can stay healthy, look out for him this year as a sleeper. And then of course Chris Rodriguez Jr., we talk about we're a little bit lower on Tyjae Spears cuz we think Chris Rodriguez could have, you know, nine fantasy points a game this year, and that would not be shocking to us at all.
And so all of these guys here though in the GH and IT are guys that are parts of really either really heavy committees, they're both in these tiers, or their running back one is ranked above and their ceiling is going to be severely capped. They're essentially just a handcuff, or they're just insurance to where it's like, you know, if the guy in front of them goes down, maybe you get a couple startable weeks out of these guys. But either way, they're not guys you're drafting to start, they're guys who are going to be on your bench. And so there you go. Those are our first crack at our running back rankings for fantasy football. Let us know who you think we have too high and too low. Let me guess. Tyjae Spears too low. Henderson too low. Fact of the matter is, our rankings are not going to look like ADP. They're not going to look like everybody's consensus We're going to have takes, and our takes are we're trying to be conservative with guys, especially guys who have never produced. And everybody's trying to project the breakout or guess the breakout. Most of the time the breakouts actually don't even end up happening and so we're going to be conservative here with our own rankings. But if you enjoyed the video, drop a like. Make sure you subscribe if you play fantasy football as well. We're going to have fantasy content for you now and all year long. We appreciate you guys. Thanks for watching. We've got another video for you this week. See you then.