Ranking The Top 36 Running Backs for Fantasy Football

If you're in a fantasy football league, you know that the running back position these last few years has been the most important position that you can't afford to mess up. Which is why, if you found this video, you're in good hands because we are going to be ranking the top 36 running backs for fantasy football this year. So, you make sure you get the right guys.

And we'll start in tier one. I have three running backs in tier one. Some people might have two. I have three. Jam Gibbs, Bejian Robinson, Christian McAffrey. In that order, we could start with my RB1, Jir Gibbs. It's basically a neck-and-neck tie with Bejian Robinson. Like a tiebreaker is basically just quarterback situation and overall offensive floor. And I give that to Jir Gibbs. You can see Gibbs last year was already becoming a workhorse running back. 14.3 carries per game, five and a half targets per game. This was a back averaging 20 opportunities per game. And now David Montgomery is gone. And now we already have reports Isaiah Pacheco is going to be his new backup. But we already have reports that Dan Campbell has already said Jir Gibbs is going to be the workhorse back. Second half of the season when Dan Campbell took over play calling last year, Jir Gibbs was the workhorse back. Now, obviously Campbell isn't the play caller heading into this year, but it's still his team. He's still the head coach. Expect that to be the case. Dan Campbell has been trustworthy.

Next up, we get Bejian Robinson. I mean, not a lot to say here. He's in this tier one for a reason. He was number two in weighted opportunities last year. Uh, this is a player profiler stat that's factoring in your red zone opportunities, goal line, your targets, your pass catching, all that. So, he was already number two in that area last year. And now his biggest competition, Tyler Algier, who scored seven plus touchdowns last year, is averaging like five or six touchdowns per season since he's been in the back field with Bejon Robinson, he's now gone. The replacement is another solid veteran backup in Brian Robinson Jr., but Brian Robinson Jr. is coming into a new offense. Now, it's not the team that he was like drafted to be in compared to Tyler Algier when he was with the Falcons. So, I don't expect his role to be seeing as large as a Tyler Algier as long as Van is healthy.

Then, we get to my running back three. As I mentioned, it's going to be Christian McCaffrey. Some people might only have these two running backs in the tier one. I get it. They're younger. They're coming into like their primes right now. And Christian McAffrey is a 30-year-old running back. But let's not forget that Christian McAffrey was the RB1 in fantasy last year. Let's not forget that every single year that Christian McCaffrey in his career has been healthy, he's been an RB1 or RB2, RB1 back in 2024, RB2 in 2023. You can keep scrolling. 30 points per game. RB1, RB2, right? Only his rookie year when he was a still a top 12 running back as a part-time player. Did he not finish RB1 or RB2 in his healthy seasons? Let me also remind you that there's still no competition here for him. This was still a running back that went out there, was running the most routes in the NFL, was going out there averaging over five yards per touch despite the rushing efficiency being down. I get it. Mike Evans is here. KD will be back healthy. Pier Jennings, oh well, Jennings is gone. Pierce will be back healthy. They added Christian Kirk, right? The offense at least week one should be healthy. Maybe that reduces the workload for Christian McCaffrey, but as long as he's healthy, you're looking at like 18 to 20 points per game.

Now, we go into tier two, and it's going to start off with these three running backs. My RB4 Jonathan Taylor, my RB5 James Cook, and my RB6 Saquon Barkley. I'll be starting with Jonathan Taylor here. Um, look, the biggest stat that I could point to is Jonathan Taylor became a legit receiving back last year in the Colts offense under Shane Styen with Daniel Jones as his quarterback. He ranked third in the NFL in routes run, over 25 routes per game. Christian McCaffrey levels of routes run production third in route participation meaning that on 74% of the Colts drop backs Jonathan Taylor was running a route this was not the case in previous seasons Jonathan Taylor would come off the field on third down and longs third down and five or seven two minute and four-minute offense wasn't the case last year he was a true three down back which allowed him to stay on the field more get more targets have more opportunities see more plays all that led to him being the RB1 until his injury or until Daniel Daniel Jones's injury because when Daniel Jones was actually healthy up until week 13 Jonathan Taylor was averaging 23.3 fantasy points per game. He was the RB1 and he was on pace for over 1,800 yards and 24 touchdowns. And once again, this year is only competition in the back field is going to be DJ Giddon. So, I'm not expecting much even if Daniel Jones coming off the Achilles isn't isn't 100%. That should only lead to more checkdown targets.

Also, I just want to apologize for my voice. I basically have not had my voice for two weeks now due to an illness, a sore throat, and it's just lingering. But, we're going to battle through this. And also, cuz I talk for a living, and that doesn't really help it heal, we'll battle through this.

Next up, my RB5 is James Cook, the man that led the NFL in rushing last year with over 1,600 yards. He finished top five in rushing touchdowns again with four uh teen. Despite, you know, seeing Josh Allen be the best goal line quarterback in terms of rushing in the NFL, James Cook is still getting him. We saw James Cook actually be efficient, really efficient despite a bigger workload last year. And he took on more red zone carries, which some people said he might not ever do. And if we look at the Bills offense here, no new competition was brought in, none in free agency. This is according to the team changes tracker in my fantasy blueprint. You can check it out at joinbooprint.com. Limited spots available this year if you want to win your fantasy league. That will help you do just that. Uh, and in the draft, no running back staken. So, he's gonna have the same running back competition as he did last year when he already led the NFL in rushing and had 14 touchdowns. The one thing that they did add was DJ Moore, potentially a wide receiver one for Josh Allen. If anything, that should help the offense get to the red zone more. Sustain drives, helps James Cook to more plays, more red zone drives, all that.

And my RB6 is going to be Saquon Barkley. Arguably probably was the biggest bust at the running back position last year as a top five pick in many drafts. He was not good, but the one thing he did unquestioned was still be the workhorse on his team. He was third in running back snapshare last year, fourth in opportunity, seeing over 80% of the Eagles backfield opportunities. So, this is good, right? This is coming off of a year before that where he had over 2,000 yards was offensive player of the year back in 2024. Now, he's going to get a new offensive coordinator in Shawn Manion. We don't know how this is going to go. He's a first-time coordinator and coach Shawn Manion, but you can see right here, some beat reporters are saying that they believe it's not a stretch to speculate that Saquon could have a larger a greater pass catching role this season. So, I mean, Todd Gurley, right, in a similar scheme, ended up averaging 84 targets in 2017 and 2018. Uh, Saquon Barkley has been on record to say that he was on calls with Todd Gurley to see how he would fit into this scheme and pass catching came up in that. So, if you get Saquon Barkley back to like somewhat near those rookie year numbers and you're going to get a 60 to 70 catch season, he's a great pick now in round two of fantasy drafts.

Now, we're going to start off my third tier with Chase Brown, my RB7, Devon HM, my RB8, and Kenneth Walker, my RB9. We could start with Chase Brown because when Joe Burrow was actually healthy last year, Chase Brown yet again had a great season. He was top 10 in opportunity share, running back catches, targets, he had 11 more touchdowns. And oh yeah, by the way, once Joe Flacco took over and then Joe Burrow came back, hence they had good quarterback play. From week six on, Chase Brown averaged 17.3 fantasy points per game. And now he's in the exact same offense, same staff, same quarterback, and the same competition. Samaji Pine, once again, just like last year. Taj Brooks, once again, just like last year. Wheels up for Chase Brown.

We can keep it moving here with my number eight running back Devon Han. I'm a little bit concerned about Devon Han in my opinion. Like there's no doubt he's one of the most explosive players in the NFL. When you look at it last year, 12 more touchdowns, over 1300 more yards. The guy caught had 85 targets, 60 plus more catches. But that was with Tua. That was with Mike McDaniel. Now the quarterback's different, more mobile quarterback Malik Willis. Now the offensive coordinator and coach is different, more defensive-minded coaching staff. I'm just concerned that we're not going to see these numbers like the last two years like he had with McDaniel and Tua. 12 touchdowns a season, 67, 78 catches, averaging over 500 receiving yards per game these last two years. When you factor in that Malik Willis is now your quarterback who's going to run more, especially in the red zone, stealing touchdowns, especially on third downs where you're going to check it down under pressure. He'll just take off and run. So, a little bit skeptical around Devon Chan a little bit lower than market.

My RB9 though, Kenneth Walker, I like Kenneth Walker this year. I'm around market maybe slightly ahead on him, but look, he's going to be the Kansas City Chiefs clear workhorse back. This is a guy who's coming off of a down season last year despite that. Like it was a split backfield more than people expected with Zack Charbanet with coach Clint Kubak despite that still almost 1300 total yards went off in the playoffs with Charbanet hurt super bowl MVP you know all that but we're already seeing great reports you can see right here Zayn Dani a beat reporter out of the Kansas City Chiefs says that on Kenneth Walker's role this is from OTAs the Chiefs are hoping Walker's impact is similar to what happened to Saquon Barkley joining the Eagles in 2024 and what does that mean it just means that a clear obvious in your prime running back who can be the workhorse and just take the run game and handle the entire thing. I think that's what we're getting. I think we're going to be getting a Kenneth Walker 270 carry season with the upside of 50 plus catches.

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We'll close up my third tier with my RB10, Amaran Hampton, my RB11, Derk Henry, and my RB12, Ashen Genty. Let's start with Hampton, who only played nine games last year, but early on in the season when he was healthy and Naji Harris went down with Achilles Achilles injury, we saw him on Hampton like he was in college at UNCC, be a workhorse stud. You can see in the player profiler game logs here. Week one on that like Friday night game against the Chiefs. Didn't do good. Week two, not good. Then he starts to break out when Naji Harris gets injured in this game. In week three, 25 fantasy points, 129 yards and a touchdown. Week four, 165 yards in his first game as a starter and a touchdown, 27.5 fantasy points per game. And then he gets 13 fantasy points per game. He's catching five plus balls in all these games. He's averaging over 100 yards per game. Obviously, we can't just rinse and repeat this because it's a brand new coaching staff or at least offensive coordinator. There's other pieces now on this offense with Naja Harris gone and Katon Mitchell in, but this is a first round running back. Jim Harbaugh still there. They're going to use Hampton. He's built like a three down back and I think we're going to see that under now Mike McDaniel.

Next up is Mr. Inevitable. It's Derk Henry. Derrick Henry, my RB11 because I mean, what's not to like? Oh yeah, Dererick Henry and what was looking like a down season last year, 1,600 more rushing yards, 94 per game, second in the NFL. You add in his receiving yards and oh yeah, he went for once again almost 1,800 total yards. Oh yeah, he had 16 touchdowns, top five in the NFL. Last time I checked, sure, John Harbaugh's gone. That could definitely affect some things in play calling. But last time I checked, Lamar Jackson's still a quarterback. That's still going to create a ton of deception in the run game for Derrick Henry to have success. And I get it, he's older. That's going to be the biggest question mark. But there was no signs of regression last year. So, it's rinse and repeat with Derrick Henry.

Then we get to my RB12. It's Ashton Genty. And look, he's going to have a brand new situation. Clint Kubak coming over as his play caller and head coach who just won a Super Bowl last year with a top five rush offense with the Seahawks. No matter which stat you look at. And you're getting Genty off of a down rookie year, even though he still had like almost 1,400 yards and 10 touchdowns and he ranked number one in opportunity share and top five in snap share. Like, this is still going to be a top 10 first round pick running back who is going to have a massive workload in this offense. And you can see right here, Clint Kubak is already saying amazing things. He said, "We want to put a lot of pressure on Genty. It's important to have a a quality second back, but the best player, he's got to get the ball." Those great backs, they don't come off the field often. There's been comparables already in terms of like how Clint Kubak's gonna use Genty in this system to like a Christian McCaffrey, which would be strange since the Seahawks split their backfield last year under Kubak. But in terms of the skill sets, it's basically Genty and nobody else in this backfield.

All right, now we're going to go to tier four and it's going to be these four running backs. Starting with my RB13, Jeremiah Love, my RB14, Josh Jacobs, my RB15, Javvante Williams with the Cowboys, and my RB16 is going to be Kyron Williams with the Rams. We're going to start with Jeremiah Love. I mean, a Heisman finalist last year. Dulk Walker a winner for best running back in the country. And you already know this about Jeremiah Love if you follow the NFL draft at all. The guy's an absolute monster. Last two years in college, averaged 6.9 yards per carry, had 19 and 21 touchdowns. Oh yeah, over 1300 rushing yards last year. You factor in the receiving game where they didn't ask him to do it a lot, but when he did, he was strong. 27 plus catches in back-to-back years, over a 10% target share last year. He's an early declare, top five draft capital. Uh everything looks really good except the fact that he's going to come into a backfield that has legitimate competition. I mean, you look at this back deal, then as of this recording, they signed Tyler Agira this offseason, who's somebody who could definitely steal goal line work. They still have James Connor, who is adamant he wants to stay with the team and restructure his deal, although I wouldn't be shocked if he's traded or is a cut candidate. But as of this recording, if you were to draft today, this is how I have to analyze this. Uh Jeremiah Love, yes, he's highly talented. He should be the workhorse here. But if Tyler Alier is going to be getting some goal line work and James Connor is coming in because he's trusted more in third downs and in the two-minute offense, it starts to water down the role of Jeremiah Love. He still might RB13, but it's just harder to get him into that top 10.

Now, at RB14, we have Josh Jacobs. Obviously, there's a lot of disclaimers. As of this recording, he's kind of in this legal battle. Some charges were dropped, but there's still stuff some stuff going on for very serious charges, domestic violence, all that. I have to just record this as if your draft was today. With the information that we have as of right now, he's practicing. He's not currently suspended. These situations just from past precedent can usually take a long time and maybe even get pushed to the following season. So, if you were to draft today when you're watching this, or at least when I'm recording this, uh Josh Jacobs would be my RB14. And I mean, it's hard not to just like the situation for Jacobs. Like the Packers tried to do like the addition by subtraction this offseason in terms of getting better. I'm not really sure they did that. This is a running back last year who dealt with injuries, still had 15.6 carries per game, three targets per game, an absolute workhorse. And when you look at his backfield competition, Emanuel Wilson is gone. They didn't replace him. It's Chris Brooks. It's Marshon Lloyd who hasn't been able to stay healthy in the NFL. Maybe he does this year. Maybe he cuts into Josh Jacob's workloads, but those are some big maybes for a guy who hasn't proved it yet. If Josh Jacobs stays healthy, I think we do see what we saw a year prior to that with the Packers where he had over 300 carries, where he had over 1300 rushing yards, getting all the red zone work, and is just a clear workhorse back.

At RB15, it's Javvante Williams, and he's just kind of like the safe pick here. Like, it would be kind of weird for me to put Javante Williams in my top 10. It doesn't feel right. RB15 just feels right. I mean, Dallas last year had the seventh most touchdowns in the league, or at least Javvante did with Dallas in the run game. And then you see what he ends up doing in that season, and everything starts to look really good. Javvante Williams has his breakout year, like a second breakout year. Top 10 in carries last year, top 10 in rushing yards. He had 62 red zone touches that was top five. He had 13 touchdowns. Like all this starts to look really good. So much so that the Cowboys extended him early on in the offseason. They ended up getting a three-year deal done for $24 million. So, he's going to stay with the Cowboys this year. I mean, a workhorse last year, playing nearly 70% of the snaps, a top 10 rush EPA. A lot of that had to do with Javvante Williams. I expect similar this year, especially when you consider the Cowboys did not invest in any other running back. They're bringing in Jaden Blue for a second uh for the second year out of Texas. Didn't do much in his rookie year. And same thing with Malik Davis. Had a couple of nice flash plays, explosive plays last year, but for the most part, this was all Javvante's backfield.

If you look at it here, we go on now to my RB16. It's Kyum Williams. For two straight years, people have been saying Kyum Williams is a bad pick. And for two straight years, he keeps proving them wrong, including last year where he averaged over five yards per carry. at one of his most efficient years of his career uh averaging or or he ended up putting up between his rushing and receiving yards over 1500 yards, 36 catches, 13 touchdowns as well. Like sure, Blake Horm was starting to cut into his workload in the second half of the season. And because of that, Blake Horm is definitely a very strong later round running back pick, who we'll talk about later in this video, but in like the workhorse role, the high moment situations, the playoffs last year, McVey trust Kairen the most.

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All right, we are getting into tier five now with my running back 17 Travis Etienne, 18 Breece Hall, and 19 DeAndre Swift. This starts off our tier five. Let's start with Travis Etienne, who had about 1,400 yards last year. Um, was like a top 12 running back in all categories that really matter. Really started to break out from week nine on when the Jaguars offense kind of went more towards the run game because Travis Hunter was hurt and Brian Thomas was struggling and they didn't really have Parker Washington and Jacobe Myers going and getting rolling yet. But in that second half of the season, an ETN broke out. He was a top 10 running back during that time. He was averaging 6.4 fantasy points per game. He was an absolute monster. And now he's had a thousand rushing yards in three of his last four seasons. And you can see where that breakout starts to take place right here. You start getting, you know, 16, 15, 19, 20, 21, 31, right? 16 fantasy points per game. All in the second half of the season. My one concern would be now that he's on the Saints, a new offense. He did get a bag. Maybe a little bit questionable. Have that offenses last year. Was it just dominating down the stretch against bad teams? Is Alvin Kamara going to be on the team? Is he going to be the passing down back? All that could limit him.

18. Next up, my RB18. It's going to be Breece Hall. I'll zoom in a little bit here. Uh Breece Hall. Look, he would be the guy like in this range that I wouldn't be shocked if he finishes as a top 10, maybe even a top five running back because last year he had like one of the quietest 1400 yard seasons you're ever going to see. He ranked top five in opportunity share at the position despite having a terrible offense. You still saw him go out there and have over 1,000 rushing yards, 350 receiving yards, only five touchdowns. But that's the area that could improve this year, especially when you come in and you have Gino Smith now taking the reins. You're going to get Garrett Wilson back healthy. They ended up getting some rookies in the draft. If either of those guys, let alone both of them or multiple of them produce, the offense should be a lot more efficient. Move the ball. Breece Hall is my RB18, but not shocked if he finishes much higher than that. He does have a big ceiling. We saw it just a couple years ago.

My RB19, who I just like continue to like more and more every day and every time I do a best draft or a mock draft because he's just not going early, is DeAndre Swift. I mean, this is a guy who's never finished worse than the RB24. He's been an RB1 or RB2 every single season of his career despite being in three different offenses. He's quietly very productive. I mean, he did it last year once again with top 12 in rushing yards, almost at 1,000 rushing yards, 300 receiving yards. I mean, this was a guy who went for over 1300 total yards, 10 touchdowns last year, had another 250 plus touch season. And I get it, like Kyle Manungi was a great seventh round running back. He'll definitely be involved this year, but the offense is improving. Ben Johnson wants to run the ball. He's always used two running backs dating back to Detroit with uh DeAndre Swift himself and Montgomery or Montgomery and Jamir Gibbs. I think Swift once again is set up to be a top 20 running back.

Now, let's finish off my tier five with my RB20, Cam Akers, 21 Bucky Irving, and 22 David Montgomery. We could start with Cam Akers. I mean, last year he was a starter for about six games. He was the RB1 for the team and he produced like an RB1 in fantasy until injury because during that time he averaged 17.4 fantasy points per game, 16 carries per game, and he had six touchdowns in those six games. He also was averaging nearly five targets per game during that time. And now you have John Harbaugh, an adult in the room at head coach. He's always been like a run first coach in terms of like the teams that he runs. It's also a similar setup when you had last year Lamar Jackson, a mobile quarterback with a workhorse in Derrick Henry. You have a workhorse in Cam Akers with a mobile quarterback in Jackson D. And for what it's worth, Cam Akers is coming off of a broken or fractured ankle. He's already running through drills eight months later and this is months before the season even starts. He should be good to go for week one.

Somebody who might not be good to go for week one as of this recording is my RB1 uh RB21 Bucky Irving. He was a true RB1 talent back in 2024 with Lean Conn. After the bye-week, the guy was averaging like over 17 points per game on less than 50% of the snaps. He was putting up 1500 yards. He looked like a monster breakout last year until injury and then some mental health stuff. And the problem now for Bucky Irving, the biggest thing is the fact that he ended up having offseason shoulder surgery and he's not expected to participate in mini camp, which is going on right now. And we've also gotten reports from his own coach and team that says, "We're just hoping to have him back sometime in the summer or fall, meaning that we might not even get him for training camp. Is Bucky Irving going to start the season healthy?" What is going on with Bucky Irving? Not to mention, the Bucks did this offseason. They lost Rashad White, but they brought in Kenneth Gwell, who's probably an upgrade at the RB2 spot, a very good pass catching running back who could take away work there. They still have Shawn Tucker on this team who could take away red zone work like he was towards the end of last year for Bucky Irving, especially if Bucky Irving isn't healthy. Just a lot of concerning things here for Bucky Irving.

Then we finish off my tier five with my RB22 and that is going to be David Montgomery. He struggled for most of the 2025 season, but he's still able to dominate when he gets the ball. Like Jir Gibbs was just getting the workload last year because he's clearly the better running back in that offense and Dan Campbell knew it. But in his six games last year where he saw at least 12 or more touches, David Montgomery did this. He averaged 13 fantasy points per game and he scored four touchdowns in those six contests. This is also a running back that the Texans went out and traded for. They wanted him overtaking somebody in a weaker draft class. He's the clear workhorse here. I mean, you have Woody Marks, you have Jawar Jordan in this backfield on the depth chart for the Texans. You're not concerned about either of those guys. And we're already getting reports that he's going to be a three down back in this offense with an offensive line that should be improved. And if CJ Stroud can actually improve himself this year, it only gets better.

We are now all the way down in tier six. And we're starting with my RB23, the rookie first round pick out of Seattle, Jadarian Price, or out of Notre Dame. Now with Seattle, Jadarian Price, my RB24, second-year player, Trevian Henderson, and my RB25, another second-year player, B Shaune. We'll start with Jadarian Price. This was a guy who over the last two seasons racked up a lot of yards for Notre Dame. Despite playing next to and behind Jeremiah Love, obviously a stud running back we talked about. You still saw Price averaging a lot of production. So much so that over the last two years in college, he averaged over six yards per touch. He averaged 10 touchdowns per season. He was able himself to get 110 carries per game alone. Obviously, the biggest downsides are going to be the fact that like doesn't catch a lot of passes. Clint Kubak's now gone in this Seattle offense who should naturally already skew to be more pass happy this year compared to last year. Um, but the good news for Jadarian Price, Kenneth Walker's gone. Zack Charbanet is injured. He injured into his ACL in the postseason. He might not be ready till like November. So, Price should be the RB1 week one. Now, I know like OTAA reports in mini camp said George Hani has been operating as the RB1. I'm not concerned about this. This is a rookie price. He'll earn his stripes based on the Vegas betting markets. Price has projected for way more rushing yards this season. I don't think George Alani is going to be the guy. Could he be? Sure. I'm not going to bet on that when you have a first round running back talent in your backfield.

That takes us to my RB24 and Trevon Henderson. I mean, the guy very quietly, I get it. He was like, if you ended up buying into the hype after like the big big preseason game and for some reason you drafted him in round three or four of your draft, you shouldn't have. We told you that. But if for some reason you did, yeah, you were let down. But overall, he had 10 touchdowns. He had 1100 plus yards as a rookie. Like, that's still pretty solid. And when Stevenson was banged up, Henderson was a stud. From week nine on, he was the RB7 in fantasy, averaging 16 points per game. He had nine touchdowns during that stretch, including four multi-touchdown games. But the problem was in the playoffs, Reandre Stevenson took back over. But Raandre is another year older. This is still a very good offense under Drake May. That should only get better now with legitimate wide receivers there like AJ Brown, Romeo Dobs as well. That's some big upgrades. So I think Trayvon Henderson, we saw the flashes last year. He takes another step forward this year.

And similar things could be said on a lesser scale for B Shaune, my RB25, who we saw some flashes last year, although they were very limited. I mean, the guy only had 83 carries. He only had 14 o 14 targets. In total, he only had 97 opportunities. But despite that, they trusted this guy in the red zone. 27 red zone touches. I mean, the guy was seeing like 30% of his opportunities last year were in the red zone. That's how much they trusted him. I think we see a similar role this year despite Chris Rodriguez coming in with Travis ETN now gone. And if you get a role anywhere near that, I mean, there's just so much opportunity here. The Jaguars, according to 44 here, have the second most running back carries available this offseason. In terms of overall opportunities between your carries and targets, the Jaguars also rank second with 307. They're giving away 70% of their backfield opportunities. Will Chris Rodriguez come in and take some of those? Yes, he will definitely. He has a history with coach Le and Conn during their time in college together at Kentucky. Who's the more explosive back and better back and younger back, B Shaune? He has every opportunity to seize this backfield.

We'll keep going with my tier six with my RB26 Chuba Hubbard and my RB27 the other Patriots running back Andre Stevenson. For Chuba Hubbard, I mean last year this was a guy who was just wrecked by injuries, but we already know that he has a proven workhorse capability as recent as 2024. That's why the Panthers extended him at the end of that year. You can see right here in 2024 he was a workhorse. 250 carries, 1,200 rushing yards, was strong, wildly efficient, 4.8 yards per carry. Also in that season, he caught 43 balls. I don't think he's the best pass catcher by the fact that I mean on 43 catches he only had 171 yards, a lot of checkdowns, not a lot of yards after the catch, but in general, this is still a guy who has a lot of upside. And we're already getting reports out of camp that they believe he's probably going to take the lion's share of the carries. Jonathan Brooks should be used similar to how Rico Do was the first two games of last year. Mostly a backup running back. So, Chuba Hubbard looks like he's going to be the guy yet again in this offense. Am I jumping up and down to draft him based on these quotes? No, he's my RB26. But those are encouraging quotes to see.

And my RB27, it is Raandre Stevenson. I mean, this is a guy who quietly had nine touchdowns and earned all of the playoff trust last year from Mike Rabel in the Patriots coaching staff. By the way, when he finally got healthy from week 13 on last year in the Patriots backfield alongside the explosive rookie and Trayvon Henderson, Raandre was averaging 18.9 fantasy points per game and he out touched Henderson 58 to 30 in the playoffs. He's nothing flashy, but he's going to be out there. He's going to be trusted. Even though he fumbled a bunch last year, the coaches still trusted him. So, expect Roandre to have a top 30 season.

Finishing off my tier six, we have my RB28 Quinton Johnston and my RB29 Tony Pollard. For RB29, Quinton Johnston, I mean, we saw what happens when he gets a real workload last year. In the seven games when he was healthy, when he was actually up to speed with the workload and he saw at least 55% of the snaps, he averaged 19.9 carries and 15 fantasy points per game in those contests. And as of right now, based on the OTAA reports, he's moving completely fine off of his ankle injury and will be good to go week one. You can see one of those reports right here from Scott Petra. He says the Browns running back Quinton Johnston is in team drills as he continues to return from his leg injury. So, he's not only doing individual drills, but also team drills. Obviously, the downside is the Browns offense. Your quarterbacks are Deshaun Watson, who reports are that he's going to start this year. And then Chador Sanders and Dylan Gabriel. So, like the offense might not be the greatest for a guy who doesn't catch passes. He's going to rely heavily on touchdowns and in an offense that doesn't project out to score a lot of touchdowns and win a lot of games. That's a concern. That's why he's barely a top 30 running back.

And then there's Tony Pollard, my RB29 all the way down here. I mean, this was a guy who once again quietly last year logged another 275 touch season. And I mean, he closed out the season strong, dealt with nagging injuries again, dealt with an offense that went through a bunch of injuries in a rookie season that was up and down for Cam Ward. But towards the end of the year, from weeks 14 to 17, Tony Pollard averaged over a 100 rushing yards per game and 16.6 fantasy points per game. And now he has his play caller offensive coordinator being Brian Dable whose Giants last year ranked top five in rush attempts in rushing yards and Dable has always produced fantasy friendly environments.

Now we'll go to tier seven and we'll start with my RB30 Jaylen Warren. I mean this is a guy who maybe we always say it. Maybe this is the year that Jaylen Warren gets a lead role. I'm not really sure we see that but I do think we see a strong role out of him because I mean this was a guy last year when he was battling with Kenneth Gainwell who's no longer there was able to put up 958 uh rushing yards and 333 receiving yards. I mean, the guy was going out there getting over 80 total yards per game. He put up almost 1,300 yards on the season. Um, had 40 catches and now there's no no more Kenneth Gall. Aaron Rogers is back. Jaylen Warren in this backfield where Rico Donald's now in it projects out as the better pass catching back. I think we see a lot of checkdown targets. Probably another 40 or 50 catches from Aaron Rogers to Jaylen Warren.

My RB31 is going to be R.J. Harvey. I didn't think I'd really like him, but based on how late he's currently going in drafts, I think it's fine. I mean, he found the end zone consistently as a rookie. And more importantly, down the stretch, he started to take over uh to the tune, especially when JK Dobbins was hurt of 14.7 fantasy points per game from week seven on. He finished the season with 47 catches and 12 touchdowns. Now, the Broncos did draft the running back Jonah Coleman, who I think is actually a talented running back. They did resign JK Dobbins, but in terms of this, I think R.J. Harvey is still like your best pass catching running back, your best explosive running back. If something happened to Dobbins, you probably see Jonah Coleman take on that role. But Harvey all season long should have a pretty solid role around the RB31 I think is completely fine.

My RB32 now is going to be Blake Corum. We talked about him earlier. He's probably the most premium uh premium handcuff in the entire NFL right now in my opinion. Not in terms of guys who split backfields. No, I'm talking about if the guy in front of him went down. Uh Blake Corum probably steps up immediately as like a week in and week out easily top 10 running back. I mean from week 13 on last year the backfield was literally a 50/50 snap split. He was averaging 12.4 fantasy points per game. And if anything ever happened to Kyum Williams, we know that Corum is going to be a monster. We saw him do it in college. We know that Kyum Williams has an amazing role in this offense. What is going to be a very good offense, a Super Bowl favorite offense, at least out of the NFC. So Blake Corum solid back in in terms of like a tier seven running back.

We'll close out tier seven with my running back 33 Kungai and 34 Rico. I mean, not much to say here. Kungai was a great seventh round running back last year. Uh from week seven on when DeAndre Swift dealt with some injuries, Manungai did shine a little bit more. He averaged 10.2 fantasy points per game during this time, including a 176-yard gain and his only start for 21.3 fantasy points. And as we mentioned earlier, this is a Ben Johnson offense that wants to use multiple running backs. So, it looks like common guys should remain involved. That RB34, we talked about Rico D. He's now on the Steelers. He's had 1300 yards in back-to-back seasons despite being on two different teams. And now he's reunited with Mike McCarthy, who actually started off this breakout campaign for Rico D back in 2024 with the Cowboys. In that season, D had over a 1,000 rushing yards. He had 250 receiving yards. He caught 39 balls. This was all while not really being the full-on starter until the second half of the year as he was battling Ezekiel Elliott. So, it looks like Rico D uh based on the Vegas odds right now is projected for more more rushing yards this year than Jaylen Warren. I think Warren will be the more active pass catcher. I think both guys project out as top 35 backs.

All right, we'll close out the rankings with my tier eight. My RB35 Jordan Mason and my RB36 Rashad White. To be transparent, there would be like another four, four, five or six running backs in this tier that you could really just move them all around. I mean, Jordan Mason, we've seen at least in the past with the 49ers, he's shown real workhorse upside, just not a pass catcher. That's why he's this low. You have Aaron Jones coming back to the team. He's aging. You have the rookie Dean Claybourne who's getting raving reviews out of OTAs. So, we'll see if he ends up staying this high. Jordan Mason.

And for 36, I do think Rashad White has a lot of upside to move up this draft board. I mean, we've seen him have like pretty solid years in the NFL. You date back to 2023 when he had 990 uh rushing yards. When you factor in his 549 receiving yards, like this was a 1500 yard running back, believe it or not, back in 2023. Now, he's reunited with his college quarterback at one point and Jaylen Daniels on the Commanders, a Commander team that, by the way, doesn't have a full-on workhorse RB1. Like, Jakori Krosky Merritt led the team last year with 175 carries, but you had plenty. Whoops. You had plenty of running backs last year. You're talking uh three different running backs or two different running backs had over 100 carries. Four different running backs had at least 40 carries last year for the Commanders. And by the way, JaKoy Kroski Merritt in the betting markets is projected for barely 500 rushing yards this year. That's the same as most backup running backs or like a lot of backup running backs. So, I think Rashad White might be way more involved, especially as a pass catcher in this offense.

So, there you go. My top 36 running backs. I somehow still have a voice. It's definitely not helping the voice, but I appreciate you all tuning in. Be sure to hit the subscribe button before you go. And if you want to see my top 24 overall players across all positions so you can nail the first two rounds of your drafts, you can check out this video right here. I think it's going to help you out a ton.