Ranking The Top 30 Running Backs For Fantasy Football

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Ranking The Top 30 Running Backs For Fantasy Football

let’s rank the top 30 running backs as of right now in fantasy football so you know exactly who you should be taking in drafts and we’ll start with Christian mcaffrey because here’s the deal we don’t have to be cute here now maybe you are a cute person that’s fine whoever says that to you perfect nothing wrong with them but Christian mcaffry this channel we not being cute right now Christian mcaffry is the running back one there’s not much to argue about this fell is still just 27 years old by the way and let me remind you that last year yeah sure he led the Russ NFL and rushing yards second and receiving yards but the combination of this rushing and receiving right here these two stats was over 2,000 totally and now he remains in the same offense just got a contract extension has the same great coach and a nice quality team and now in 27 regular season games with the 49ers mcaffrey is averaging 118 yards 23 and a half fantasy points per game on 20 touches per game and no other running back has averaged 23 and a half fantasy points or more over that stretch of game since 2019 to 2020 when mcaffrey did it himself again now in my opinion this is where the real debate starts to begin at the running back two and three spot me personally it’s Bree hall and then bejan Robinson for me but I can see why a lot of people right now are pushing Bean Robinson to the running back two in drafts and maybe even the running back one and look this is happening for a few reasons the first reason is Bean himself came out and said that the team wants to use him like Christian mcaffrey and then his head coach backed him up and said get the ball into Bean’s hands as much as we can in ideal situations as possibly as much as you possibly can he also said yeah kind of similar to Christian mcaffrey now that news is great but it really hasn’t changed much for us we were already drafting as bejon Robinson is like a top five pick in fantasy the fact that they want to use him a lot we already expected now another reason why bejan is rising a little bit over Bree hall right now in drafts or some people are preferring him is because of this right here Bree Hall has a clear backup running back and it’s brilin Allen who already looks to be the top backup running back in Camp look this is a guy you can see right here he always had the ability to pass protect he’s a massive young player a fourth round pick out of Wisconsin in college but he’s also flashed as a receiver which he didn’t get a lot of chances to do in college that’s just kind of how Wisconsin uses their running backs so now there’s this athletic monster productive back from college who’s a real maybe not a super threat to Bree Hall but at least he’s becoming the clear rb2 but then I would say well Tyler air is still in Atlanta and Tyler air had a th000 yards as a rookie and then last year he was used just as much snaps wise as bejon Robinson sure maybe part of that was Arthur Smith but air is talented too so I personally think you’re splitting hairs between these two players but I’m going to be taking bejan Robinson who had 93 yards per game last season despite coming off of a torn ACL and not having Aaron roggers and playing in a bottom five run blocking team and not to mention the final 10 games of the year he was averaging over a 100 yards per game and now Aaron Rogers will return in the offensive line is taking a huge step forward sure they got rid of Makai beckon and lak Robinson Lake lak and Tomlinson I’m not really too concerned about that they drafted a first round tackle Olu fanu great pick right there top 10 pick then they get John Simpson a guard now he’s going to probably start for this team from the Bengals they get Tyron Smith going to start as well as long as he’s healthy and trade for Mogan mes Mo Morgan Moses to get back onto the team I need to take a sip of coffee the man can’t even talk right now but he was on the team a couple years ago he was good then he kind of left now they got him back so those are a couple reasons I like Bree Hall more we actually just seen him have that ability in the breakout year last year despite coming off injury but that does not mean that bejon Robinson is not a great pick and if you want to take him as the first or second overall running back just be my guest because he does have an upgraded offense this year Arthur Smith is no longer there the offensive coordinator is Zach Robinson from the Rams this team should be more efficient they have KK cousins under Center as well and I completely agree with the sentiment that Arthur Smith used his players weird last year but I also can say that I think he could be a good offensive coordinator now that he’s not a head coach anymore with the Steelers this year but that said he only gave bejon Robinson their top five overall pick last year in the draft one of the best pro ects we’ve ever seen at the running back position only gave this dude 12 carries per game despite him ranking top 10 in yards per touch as a rookie and then doing every single thing he did in college in the NFL his rookie year bejan ranked seventh in broken tackles 15th in Breakaway runs and had the third most running back targets and now his opportunity share should go up like I said he split the Back Field basically evenly with Tyler Al’s year last year and some other running backs at times he only saw 52% of the opportunities that is for a running back your targets and your carries meanwhile guys like Bree Hall we seeing 70% or more guys like you know saquon Barkley k Williams are seeing 75 80% or more so I’m expecting some of the coach speak that’s in Atlanta right now to actually come true for be to see more of an opportunity here he just has to he’s that talented of a player he has to average more than 12 carries per game and that’s why he’s a top three back now a lot of people would stop there for their tier one running backs but I’m adding one more guy in there because I think he’s going underrated and that is Jonathan Taylor who is going overlooked and I do believe if he’s in my tier one I think he has the ability to finish as the running back one overall because he started 2023 last year in the pup list because of an injury in Camp and then kind of some contract issues but when he actually got going he averaged 19 touches per game and 90 yards per game and this is despite you can see right here on player profiler his injuries last year him battling basically right when he got back ankle sorness from the injury that he had in Camp and then he has a torn Thug thumb ligament which keeps him out for three games and on the injury report for four weeks so like five to six weeks of the season this dude’s on the injury report last year even after coming back and he had a play in an offense that had Gardner mchu and struggled to get to the Red Zone because mchu was like number three in the NFL and turnover worthy place but now he gets Anthony Richardson back still has is great coach heading into year two and Shane Steen and look at his backfield competition Zach Moss is gone he’s now the running back one on the Bengals and this is his main competition right now in Camp it seems like a battle between Evan Hull a seconde player who had like just I think two total touches last year as a rookie and Trey Surman who’s on his second year didn’t pan out for San Francisco which is like the most running back friendly area because they didn’t really like his work ethic they didn’t like the way that he fit in maybe obviously those things can change for a younger player but the none of these guys the point is none of these guys even if Tyler Goodson who’s been on a couple different teams the Packers as well none of these guys are threatening Jonathan tlor especially now that he’s healthy and that’s the big thing finger crossed he can stay healthy the last time we saw him healthy the dude was putting over 2100 yards was an MVP candidate just two years ago and still he’s only 25 now now we’ll start tier two off and I’m going to start with my running back number five saquan Barkley who he is now a Philadelphia Eagle and there’s some concerns that bland him in tier two for me and not tier one and he’s kind of a reason why I’m passing on him in the second round for some other wide receivers and players there now let’s start with some of the good things he joins the Philadelphia Eagles who have one of the best offensive lines in the league even after losing some players will have a top 10 unit definitely an upgrade from saquon’s former team the Giants and so is this Eagles offense and another positive is this right here saquon Barkley reportedly got $26 million guaranteed at signing which ranks number two in the NFL only behind Christian mcaffrey at the time of the signing and I believe it still holds up for running back contracts and it’s crazy because it was the Philadelphia Eagles who signed him who are known for not spending money all their quotes after this from hoe Roseman of the general manager and then also we come out and the head coach Nick Serana basically saying Squam was undervalued we had to get him so if the team that doesn’t historically value running is saying that about saquon Barkley an elite and special talent one of the best prospects he was too when he was coming out of the draft obviously there’s something to be said here about how they’re going to use him but there are some concerns and they mostly stem around the fact that what is his pass catching upside going to be with a mobile quarterback in Jaylen Herz and also Jaylen Herz Red Zone rushing stealing some of the upside from saquon Barkley because as you can see right here Jaylen Herz this is his stats on player profile you see his passing touchdowns but his rushing touchdowns are in the parenthesis here he’s had 10 plus touchdowns on the ground the last three years and specifically these last two years 13 and then 15 last year that’s 28 over the last two seasons probably not sustainable to that extent especially now that you got this bigger reliable running back in saquon Barkley but you’re still probably going to get your quarterback seeing 10 plus rushing touchdowns and that’s definitely going to be a difference than what Daniel Jones and the backup quarterbacks were doing in the Giants now that team didn’t get to the red zone as much so that’s kind of your ying and your yang you’re weighing that this team will get to the Red Zone more giving saquin overall should have more opportunities now I do respect all that but the mobile quarterback is giving me some pause puts him in tier two and also in tier two my running back six now is going to be jir Gab who a lot of people were panicked on this guy early last year because in his first NFL game he only had nine Touches for 60 yards let me say that again people were worried because he only averaged like seven yards per touch in his first NFL game ever in week one against the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football patience people patience but he would quickly go on to earn more snaps touches and usage and towards the end of the year he started to become dominant Gibbs finished his rookie season ranking eighth in yards per touch second in Breakaway runs and Ninth in broken tackles per attempt the dude is just a stud and now he heads into this year with the same good offensive line at top five unit from last year lost Jonah Jackson okay arguably maybe the weakest Peaks on the offensive line of guard then they signed Kevin zeitler from the uh Baltimore Ravens a center but they can move some pieces around their offensive line it’s still going to be a stud offensive line They’re bringing back Ben Johnson their awesome offensive coordinator who didn’t get poached away to another team because this Line’s team made it to the NFC Championship so all the other coaching hires are basically done so now heading into year two he’s another year older apparently he’s put on like five pounds of muscle which is important for a guy who came out of the draft to like 200 lb yeah he’s going to be one of the better running backs in fantasy now we get to my running back seven in here to and it’s Kym Williams and there’s been a lot of talk this offseason due to Kym Williams foot injury that kept him out completely of OTAs he did some sideline work with the trainers during OTAs but he didn’t actually participate and I’ve already been on the record about my take on this yes some of it is important to note because he’s had foot injuries every year of his NFL career but then some of it isn’t because the Rams are historically a cautious team with their players in the preseason and camp now one of the concerns for Kym Williams is that the team went out and signed or drafted one of the most stud running backs in the NFL draft Blake cor one of the best running backs in college football the last three seasons in Michigan against competition and I would say that yeah this is somewhat of a note we have to talk about this this is a talented player but we should also talk about the fact that kyen Williams was great last year on high volume my friend Jared SMA right here you could see he posts on Twitter and he says look Kym Williams last year eth and Miss tackles Force per time so you could break tackles second in yards created after contact he can create on his own 12th in PFF russan or third in PFF Russian grade and 12th in elusiveness all these are nice things for Kym and I bring that up because yeah Blake km there does matter for Kym Williams role but also Kym Williams being great year and being productive probably matters a little more because Kym lames led the NFL in snaps last year at 84% with Blake Corin there an actual probably reliable running back behind him this is going to go down but maybe it only goes down to 70 72% korm can still have a significant role playing 30 to 35% of the snaps but look Kym Williams playing 70% of the snaps is still fine because we’re not drafting him to be the rb2 which you can see right here on player profiler last year he finishes the rb2 well now he’s going as like the RB eight or nine in draft seven depending on the site you’re looking at that’s completely fine for where his price tag is and right now I have Kym Williams as Camp has started and he’s starting to take back part in it as my 17th overall ranked player he currently goes 23rd overall so we’re not that far off I think he’s kind of a half round too late this would be a guy that I’d rather probably in the second round start to take over some of those wide receivers that go there like alve and jayen wad who will’ll talk about in a future wide receiver rankings video this is on the fantasy blueprint by the way my top 250 rankings just like 1% of what you get in the blueprint throughout the year but don’t let that 1% fuel you it is extremely important it is the thing that I draft all of my Underdog drafts on which right now I’m at like 30 or 40 overall drafts and best ball across all Sites next up is my running back eight we’re still in tier 2 here and it’s Derk Henry the brand new Baltimore Ravens Workhorse running back in my opinion and we’re getting all the positive news out of Camp about him I mean I think as of right now there’s been at least three or four quotes that are very similar to this this is just the most recent as of this recording from head coach John Harbaugh when somebody asked will it be the same workload that Henry saw in Tennessee which by the way for that same workload he led the NFL in rushing last year basically just means is he going to see you know 16 18 20 plus carries a game and he says we do we do imp plan we do intend to do that I mean I watched him wear and tear that he put on defenses including hours over the years and I can’t wait to see him in action so look these are just some coach Peak things but when it’s like the third or fourth time he’s saying and saying it confidently the same exact way it starts to add up and then you factor in that his biggest competition is going to be second-year player Keat and Mitchell but Keat and Mitchell if you remember we scrolled down here to player profilers injury stuff he tore his ACL in week 14 late season last year and it looked like just a clean ACL tear clean ACL tear until the fact that now John hobo is coming out and saying that Mitchell’s basically nowhere close to being ready they’re not expecting him to be ready one which leads me to believe he’ll be put on the pup list and miss four weeks of the Season at least and then it kind of takes you a couple weeks to get your explosiveness back this guy might not be ready full steam ahead into like week eight or 10 for his usual workload and that usual workload can now expected to be kind of cut in half or just drawn all the way back to like a 30% roll just some of these satellite snaps with Derrick Henry there and this is where it becomes hard not to get excited about Derrick Henry because if Mitchell is out of the picture for at least four to six weeks who’s going to threaten him Justice Hill who can catch some passes on third down sure okay rashan Ali who is a later round rookie that a lot of people are getting excited about because he had 13 total 1300 total yards last year in college caught 28 balls but for me I’m not all that excited I think he’s actually just trying to battle for a roster spot not actually significant rv1 touches so right now Derrik Henry goes in drafts as you can see on the blueprint which is where I compare my top 250 players my rankings versus ADP so when you’re in a draft you know exactly where the best and worst values are he goes as the 32nd overall player in round three he’s my 18th overall player 14 spots ahead of him if you can’t get Kym Williams or honestly if you want to wait a little bit longer just for Value a couple picks later into the second maybe even the third round you can get Derrik Henry in the third round that’s a really good way to start your drafts especially if he’s your rb1 and you got a couple of stud receivers early on now let’s move to our running back nine and we’ll stay in the AFC and now we kick off tier three of our rankings with our running back nine Devon aain who he led every single running back in the NFL and one of the best seasons of all time averaging 7.7 yards per touch last season if this dude can stay healthy in this offense with his speed and talent yeah he’s going to be a top 10 back but I have to admit I am a tad worried just because last year for a smaller Siz running back he was on the injury report 11 weeks that was almost 70% of his season on the injury report now that’s not ideal for a second round running back it’s neither is this competition right now I mean aain only averaged nine carries per game last year and it’s going to be hard to see him getting more than that this year when they resign Raheem Mo start to a two-year deal although there’s an out after this year still going to be on the team and then they traded up to draft Jaylen Wright who led all of college football in explosive runs of 15 plus yards last year has 43 speed fits into this offense well I don’t think he’s going to be a major factor right away but maybe later in the season the point being is I don’t see where Devon aan is going to be seeing 12 to 14 touches so he has to to keep up that historic efficiency of six plus yards per touch per season which we’ve really never seen all that many guys be able to do that consistently year after year maybe five yards per touch like y ALS neckers and Aaron Jones six plus seven plus like aan did last year kind of hard to see just to kind of show you both how good he was last year and how hard that is going to be to remain he only had 10 or more carries in 36% of his games last season we stay in tier three now with my running back 10 it’s Travis etan who’s had somewhat of a quieter offseason really the only time that we’ve seen him being talked about is when his coach Doug Peterson is talking about the backup running back now Peterson has said he wants to give tank bsby the second year running back more touches this year but it’s not just because like oh Travis etn it isn’t good no he actually just wants to take a workload off of etn who was averaging 20 opportunities per game last year and look I think this makes sense etn last season was six in running back snaps six in Opportunity share out of nowhere after a rookie year where he was kind of splitting the Back Field this is a really big workload if he just drops to like number 10 he’s still going to be a quality back maybe even keeps him healthier and fresher and look I’m not worried about t bsby because here’s the deal last year tank bsby averages 2.6 yard per carry he only had four targets and dropped three of them four targets dropped three of them and fumbled the ball twice on his very limited sample of carries which on his carries specifically let’s see his overall carries last year oh he only had 50 carries and fumbled the ball two times not great and if you think that doesn’t sound all that bad that’s like fumbling the ball for a starting running back every other game you’re going to get benched eventually doing that now the one piece for etn that I am concerned about is the offensive line this unit ranked 31st in run blocking last year and what did they do in free agency well they added a center in Mitch Morris okay that’s nice they added Javon Foster in the NFL draft not an early round pick so a little bit of sketchiness there can they develop this guy they haven’t really been able to do that the last couple years on this run blocking unit and offensive line so I’m concerned here this is a major concern we can’t hide from this their offensive line is going to stink that’s going to affect the running game now we’ll head out of the top 10 running backs our running back 11 but we’re still in tier three and we go to a guy that I’ve been talking about all off season long and look I like talk about him every single day at this point because he’s still getting drafted in the fourth round when I have a second round value on him and that man’s name is Isaiah Pacho my running back 11 from the Kansas City Chiefs because this former seventh round pick last season finished the year 14th in fantasy points per game and eighth yeah that’s eight fingers in overall running back usage but it got better over the second half of the season because from week 10 on Pacho averaged 20 touches per game and ranked fourth in fantasy points per game now that fourth in fantasy points per game is amongst running backs of course but look at his competition right now Clyde abair resigned in a one-year deal K keante Ingram right here he has like what 60 career carries I’m not concerned about him not concerned about ree zamit who is coming over as a former rugby player never played NFL theic Pierce was getting a lot of hypee last camp in preseason what did he do in the NFL regular season zero carries so Peko right now is somebody I have a great grade on he’s my 23rd overall player currently goes as of this recording 40th overall in the fourth round of drafts that’s a 17 spot difference and this is the fantasy blueprint like I said it’s going to show you exactly where the best values are just one little tool that you get and while we’re on the point if you don’t make your fantasy playoffs you can sign up with the blueprint with a click with a link in the description below right now join the thousands of people who are already using it if you don’t make your fantasy playoffs it becomes absolutely risk great it’s a minimum deposit of just $10 $10 for the entire year not just for your draft it every single week during the season thousands of people use it last year to great success you just click this link right here and it’ll take you to this page where there’s a couple options to get it if these two options don’t work for you don’t worry there’s an option right here for people if those two options don’t work for you on the off chance it takes overall like a minute to sign up you can join the thousands of people currently using the blueprint with the QR code right now on the screen or the link in the description below any questions just let me know this is completely risk-free now to our running back 12 as we stay in tier three here and it’s Josh Jacobs the brand new Green Bay Packers running back signed a four-year deal this off off season although it’s really like a one-year deal with not a ton of overall money it might only be worth like4 or5 million which isn’t a lot at the end of the day and that’s leading a lot of people to believe in the third round rookie the Packers drafted Marshon Lloyd who has great size and speed and ability to break tackles they’re kind of gaining some hype right now that he could actually take significant work away from Jacobs and look I understand this it’s the preseason it’s OTAs we’re coming off of rookie Camp so a lot of people have rookie fever if you want to call it that and get all excited about these rookie running backs AJ Dylan’s still there they’re not going to cut him the contract’s not significant enough for them to cut him I know AJ Dylan hasn’t been great L should beat him out but we say that a lot of times about rookies and sometimes they don’t I just kind of want to put a little bit of cooling off on this because Josh Jacobs to me is still a talented running back is still just 26 years old it’s not like he’s 28 29 and this new rookie is coming in this guy we’ll see what happens with Marshon Lloyd but this guy has been proven in the NFL and now I personally believe a lot of people are taking this quote from Matt laflor out of context meaning they’re not looking at the whole quote he basically said about his running backs typically we like to platon those guys whether it’s giving two or three guys some usage we know this he did this in Tennessee with Derrick Henry and their back backfield of different guys Deion Lewis at times he did this with the Packers as well with Aaron Jones and AJ Dylan over the years but here’s the thing that people forgot to miss he started out before saying that by thinking that I do think Josh Jacobs he said is very capable of being a high volume feature back where he’s getting the bulk of the carries but we’ll see how it plays out he’s also touched this off season on Jacobs being able to catch the ball so when people leave out that context he started out by saying this dude’s a Workhorse back but yeah we also like to get other guys involved right it wasn’t just oh we like to use multiple guys and some people will say Jacob stunk last year and I’d agree with you but look at this right here according to player profile he led the NFL with an average of 7.2 defenders in the Box there’s 11 guys on defense on average when Jacobs ran the ball 7.2 Defenders were in the box that’s stacked fronts because they weren’t scared of the quarterback Aden oconnell or Jimmy G but it’s not going to be the case this year with Jordan Love in This Packers offense and maybe I shouldn’t be as definite in saying it’s not going to be the case but it’s unlikely to be the case we sure saw last year Jordan love was good to great and assuming that he continues to be like that or even just average it’ll be a better situation for Jacobs now let’s start off tier four with my running back 13 and it’s James Cook who was one of the most efficient running backs in all of football last year averaging 5.6 yards per touch and in the postseason this dude was leaned on seeing 22 touches a game and he had one of the best stretches we’ve seen in fantasy football in quite some time last year from weeks 10 to 15 during that time he averaged 20 touches per contest and had over a 100 yards in every single game and now his main competition this year isn’t all that daunting or threatening you can see here Tai Johnson had some success with the team last year but you know it was on like four or five touches a game they drafted a third round pick in Ray Davis we’ll see what happens with actually a fourth round pick and Ray Davis out of Kentucky he’s kind of a complete package not a a super athletic player but he good in short areas kind of like a David Montgomery can breaks some tackles a bigger back maybe he sees some more Red Zone usage but overall not the type of threat that James Cook is dynamic ability now I do question the Red Zone role when there is a bigger back now and Ray Davis on the team and Josh alon’s still going to run the ball but I kind of just view James Cook as like a discount version of Devon aain that you can take like a round later because right now as you can see in the fantasy blueprint cook goes as the 47th overall player late fourth round early fifth round he’s currently my 3 second overall player so I’m about around the round and a half 15 spots you can see right here ahead of him in the fantasy blueprint now we’re going to stay in tier four and go back to the NFC for a guy who was an absolute Workhorse back last year but now the question becomes will it happen this year for Rashad white my running back 14 from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after last year seeing over 300 total touches I mean overall he set up to do pretty well this year they only brought in one running back not in free agency so not a veteran to compete with all they did was bring in Bucky Irving you can see right here right next to my uh my tongue right there kind of weird but okay pause okay we’re back to normal here Buy Irving out of Oregon a fourth round pick some people like him I think he’s undersized and slow which doesn’t really pan out in the NFL and when I say slow all the Oregon fans out there I’m visiting Oregon probably by the time you’re watching this I’ll be there please do not attack me when you see me out there when I say so I mean relative to other backs his overall speed of the combine and GPS speed is slower compared to his peers so if anything Rashad White had actually a good offseason because there’s not a ton of new competition brought in with Bucky Irving and he got a first round Center who can play a couple of different positions out of Duke and grah Barton very athletic offensive lineman which is going to help this offensive line that wasn’t as great last year at run blocking and don’t let me downplay that they actually ranked 29th in the NFL at run blocking very bad so here’s what we get we get Rashad white who can see is second on this list for overall total running back touches last year he had 336 just three behind Christian mcaffrey for the NFL lead that’s how good this guy’s role was last year finishing second in overall touches just by three but I have to admit I am concerned because he has a new offensive coordinator Dave Canales who has been great is gone and is now getting a head coaching job with the Panthers and Liam con comes in who spent time with the Rams to be the new OC and I’m not doubting con’s ability but it’s just a change in philosophy they have no ties to giving Rashad white a lot of usage but Rashad white does profile out as a guy who can handle that he’s good size can catch passes and athletic and this is just a crazy stat that I like to remind people of but Rashad white in his final year of college LED his team in both rushing yards with a thousand in only 11 games at Arizona State and then also receiving yards with 456 in that season had like, 1500 total yards was an absolute monster catching over 40 passes so I do think Rashad white is still a fine pick if you’re getting him out of value in like the fourth or fifth or six round depending on your league size but a guy who is rising for me and maybe will even overpass Rashad white and James Cook and maybe find himself in tier three is Joe Mixon the veteran who right now at his current cost and drafts I really like him and here’s why for starters you just know what you’re getting out of Mixon over the past years now past performance isn’t indicative of future returns like they say in the stock market but look at this for Mixon the veteran is reliable top 12 finishes in four straight season just scroll a little bit more okay A 19th Place finish and a Ninth Place finish this guy’s always been able to get you there whether it’s touchdowns rushing efficiency or ability to catch the ball and now he joins an offense as he’s now a member of the Texans who not only traded for him but then instantly signed him to a decent three-year contract showing their commitment and interest in getting him on the team he’s on another good offense where there’s not a lot of competition his biggest competition being Damen Pierce who couldn’t even average three yards per carry last year in his second season for a guy who’s supposed to be this broken tackles KN or monster he really wasn’t that last year got beat out by Deon single ter then a an undrafted pick in joar Jordan wasn’t even the best player on his team last year in college at Louisville and then just a couple other guys that I’m not really concerned about a fullback British Brooks I mean there’s no competition here my one main concern would be the offensive line because it rang 20th in run blocking last year and they really honestly didn’t address the offensive line this offseason like they lost three dudes in free agency and for the most part kind of signed some guys but really only added two players in the draft so that’s kind of suspect not only for the Run game but the passing game as well which in my opinion is going under the radar but I do think that Mixon will have enough enough volume and ability to catch the ball in Red Zone usage so touchdowns to overcome that he’s my 36th 37th overall player right now in the blueprint goes 54th overall so I’m 17 spots ahead of him just an absolute screaming value right now in drafts according to the fantasy blueprint that again you can get linked down below now we’re going to close up tier four with my running back 16 and that’ll be Kenneth Walker who has had basically a really quiet offseason kind of going under the radar right now look I think both of these Seattle backs I’ve talked about Zack shanet and a previous video I think both of these guys are really good values heading into 2024 so the biggest change in Seattle was that they changed their offensive coordinators and head coaches but for the offens in fantasy they don’t have Shane wal anymore they now have Ryan grub from college he spent time with Washington known for throwing the ball downfield throwing the ball a lot with three wide receiver sets now it’s yet to be seen how this will translate to the NFL if you’re going to use a lot of three wide receiver sets and throw the ball down field teams are going to put two high safeties against you which means it would invite more runs in the Run game for Kenneth Walker and I do believe it’s easy to forget how good walker is because Seattle’s known a lot for their wide receivers and Zack shanet last year but Walker as a rookie had over a th000 yards with his receiving yards he had over 1,200 and then last year while splitting a backfield at times not really splitting it but you know giving more carries away to Zach shanet than the previous year’s backs had 900 rushing yards to 250 receiving yards so that’s one thing that went up he was better after the catch but each year he’s averaged over 12200 yards and each year he’s been a top 20 running back so yes I do think Zach shanet he’s going to also be a potential breakout player like we’ve talked about in previous videos but that doesn’t have to come at the expense of Kenneth Walker because it’s a b it’s based on where they both go in drafts right now and Kenneth Walker this is still going to be his backfield I mean this guy last year was second in broken tackles per touch I expect him to still see 14 to 15 to 16 carries per game but that doesn’t mean shanet can’t come alive in the passing game with this new pass first offense and he can also get there to pay off his ADP and maybe he can push towards a top 30 finish now we start tier five with my running back 17 and it starts with Alvin kamaro who I can’t decide for 2024 whether I think that he is somebody I want to go back to or not because on one hand he’s dropping an efficiency in back-to-back seasons and is now 29 years old but on the other hand he was the running back three in Fantasy last year because he had 87 targets just a bunch of checkdown passes from Derek Carr number two in the NFL and the Saints are basically bringing back the exact same pass catching core and the only thing that changed is going to be the fact that they have a new offensive course coordinator and clink kubak which maybe kubak coming over from the San Francisco 49ers means a lot of Zone outside running schemes the Shanahan system and that could benefit second year player kendre Miller who’s just younger more explosive and faster right now than the other running backs Jamal Williams and Alvin Kamar on on are on this team that’s where the issue can come in for kamaro who hasn’t shown the ability to run the ball efficiently the past two seasons so right now Alvin kamaro has a fifth round pick he goes 57th overall he’s my 51st overall player he’s kind of like a slight value in the blueprint but I would just rather wait one or two or three more rounds and we’ll talk about those guys shortly and just take those guys and in this range instead look for an elite quarterback like an Anthony Richardson look for an elite tight end maybe a Dalton concade or a wide receiver now let’s go to my running back 18 and we’re going to go to a veteran player who’s on a new team that’s kind of the theme of this tier five is a lot of Veteran aging players and that man’s name is Aaron Jones the newest member of the Minnesota Vikings let me just say this if Aaron Jones stays healthy this year he is going to smash his ADP as a sixth round pick because Jones was still good last year in some departments he averaged over 5 yards per touch but there were parts of his game that took a major step back he did struggle to break tackles ing 30th in that department and rank just 38th in explosive runs which was a clear step back from previous seasons and then the other concerns are that he’s on a brand new team that doesn’t have an established quarterback he’s now turning 30 years old this year and has a dynamic young running back behind him in Tai Chandler and now similar to Zack sharet and Kenneth Walker I think both these guys can coexist I think they can both pay off their ADP and drafts doesn’t mean I want to draft both of them but I do think that Tai Chandler going so late can pay that off but I think Ty Chandler can also push Jones the Aging back for like a 50/50 split I don’t think that Aaron Jones is locked in any ways I mean he got a decent contract but it’s only one year to be like this 70% snap guy he’s never been that in his career and also there are health concerns missed six games last year was on the injury report for 10 plus games as well so Jones at running back 18 right now for me if he stays healthy that’s the risk you’re taking an okay pick now my running back 19 might feel gross and it’s Nai Harris this is to close out this veteran tier right these aging backs although he’s a little bit younger and look I bet you didn’t know that he was kind of sneaky good last year Nai was ninth in total touches and finished 12th in broken tackles and fourth in Breakaway runs despite seeing the 10th most stack boxes so there was a lot of guys in the box and he was still putting up production he’s never missed the game in his NFL career and now Arthur Smith is his offensive coordinator rooll your eyes if you want but when Arthur Smith was an offensive coordinator with the Titans he led a great offense that had great running backs a top five wide receiver in AJ Brown and here’s what Arthur Smith said he said we’re going to run 1100 plays 550 of them are going to be carries meaning that that’s a 50% run rate which the Steelers led the NFL last year with the 50% run rate this helps this team and so does the fact that they drafted a couple of offensive linemen didn’t really bring any running back threats and now here’s the deal they didn’t pick up Naji har 50 option which is like the only downside for Naji entering the year but I don’t know what to make of it is it a downside because I really think you could twist it either way it’s an upside because now they have no use for him after this year load him up with carries or it’s a downside because they don’t want to commit to him they’ll give Warren more touches you could probably tell yourself either side of the story which for me just means that it doesn’t really mean anything Nai goes to the 70th overall player right now I’m around ahead of him on drafts he’s my 58th overall player so I’m 12 spots ahead I think that he’s a fine pick right now kind of a gross pick not the exciting pick but I do think he’s a fine pick now we’re going to get into tiered six and and honestly this tier I’m not drafting a lot it has nothing to do with the players some of these players we’ll talk about are great values right now I just prefer other positions in that range and I also prefer just guys later on and we’ll start with my running back 20 to start tier six David Montgomery who look he goes later or very similar to where he did last year he’s going in round seven right now despite averaging 15 or more touches in 10 out of 14 games last year not averaging he had those touches in those games and that was while playing next to a highly productive running back in jir gibes and look Jamir Gibbs is the exciting back I get it but Montgomery is still just 27 years old and he does what he needs to do a big back who picks up yards and scores touchdowns and like I mentioned earlier with Gibbs this team was able to retain Ben Johnson and one more thing the lions running backs lead the NFL in Red Zone touches the past two seasons obviously that’s going to help David Montgomery so he’s a fine pick but right here in this range I’m usually trying to get like Anthony Richardson or Kyler Murray or a wide receiver now fellas I was digging into the stats and believe it or not right now only 40% of people who watch these videos are subscribed nearly 60% don’t subscribe and I have a goal to get that number down to about 5050 so if you are not subscribed Take 2 seconds to check and hit that button it truly helps the channel out more than you know and now similar things could be said for my running back 21 Tony Pard and look if there’s one guy on this entire list these 30 running backs that we’re going to talk about it is going to be Tony par that I need to draft more of because right now in the fantasy blueprint he is my 63rd overall player goes 91st overall look I get it Tony Po’s on a new team struggled last year albe it I think partially due to injury now he has to compete with Taj Spears maybe the quarterback in will Lis isn’t good 91st overall is extremely late though in my opinion still for how good have this guy’s been for most of his career I’m 28 spots ahead ahead of him I need to be drafting more of him look he’s fallen enough in drafts on an improved team that I’m willing to take more chances they have a new center in Lloyd cushenberry they drafted JC leum a tackle at a top 10 pick so the offensive line is improving there’s no longer Derrik Henry there their all wide receivers are improving getting uh Calvin Ridley they also recently signs Tyler boy they have we know DeAndre Hopkins there so this team might be good as long as will Lis is decent now that is the risk that you are going to have to determine is this enough to make will Levis good or not they have a new offensive coach a new coach as well I think it’s enough to make this offense good to doable but Le can really bring that all down that’s the risk you take now the next player in tier six for me is going to be ra Andre Stevenson who look I’m I’m being honest I’m just really not getting him I’m preferring other positions I’m preferring other running backs overall right now but I would say rre Steven had a couple of beneficial things happen to him this offseason you can see my tweet right here if you’re not following me be sure to do so join the 170,000 or so people who do it I put out a bunch of information over there and there’s a new offensive coordinator and head coach dad Mayo with the program and Alex Van Pelt comes over and here’s the deal van pelt’s offenses have ranked top 10 in rushing the majority of his career he spent some time with the Browns as well so you can expect the patriots who were top 10 in pass rate last season for some reason under ma Jones out there and bayy zappy and all these other quarterbacks I think that this change is going to benefit ra Andre Stevenson the most because they’re going to become a run first team but the downsides are that he actually has more competition it’s not the older eeko Elliott it’s Antonio Gibson who is a younger back a more explosive back than ra Andre and probably the better pass catcher since Antonio Gibson has experience in college as a wide receiver now ra Andre dealt with a high ankle sprain and a bruise last year so maybe that’s why he struggled last season seon and he had a bad offense but here’s the thing I don’t think that bad offense is about to change because yes they did a lot to Patriots to kind of get younger and get a lot more rookies they drafted Drake May with a top five overall pick they got a second round receiver and then a fourth round receiver who I actually like these guys in Jaylen PK and Javon Baker but they’re a young team they’re rookies it might be jacobe Brett to start the season I’m not really seeing this team as oh this is amazing their biggest wide receiver signing was KJ Osborne like are we getting pumped up here for this team probably not so I prefer to just wait on the running back position at this point in draft specifically for this next guy and that’ll be my running back 23 and that is Jaylen Warren because look the Steelers really didn’t add any competition for Warren it’s just the same as last year with Naji Harris in fact the team only signed Cordell Patterson but probably mostly to be a special teams returner for this new special teams rules is the hints that we’ve gotten out of camp and then the only other thing they did was get a first round guard in Troy fanu a second round Center and Zack Fraser in increased and improved their offensive line that was already quality last year and like I mentioned earlier new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is there who last year with the Falcons led the NFL in running the ball when trailing by seven or more points this is going to benefit this back field and sure Naji Harris is still on this team and I get it Naji Harris hasn’t missed a game in the last two seasons but now he is getting or actually never in three seasons now he’s getting a little bit older maybe you see him miss a game or two which if he missed like two or three games this year which most aging running backs do then Jaylen Warren just automatically becomes like this top 12 running back for those weeks which gives him a good chance to finish that alone plus his role that he already had last year as a top 24 back onto my running back 24 it’s a rookie Jonathan Brooks who the Panthers traded up for in the second round giving away two additional picks in the fifth round to get him and I think he’s a true three down back because of his size speed vision pass protection pass catching ability you name it the only reason he’s not going earlier in my opinion is because he tore his ACL in November a late season injury although he is on Pace not to be ready for training camp but partially could be ready for a part of that training camp but definitely ready by August is what everything is saying right now and as of right now his main competition is chuba hubber who I actually believe is a quality back had a 2,000 yard rushing season in college a very fast running back but this is the final year of his deal I don’t think he’s in the future plans maybe that doesn’t mean anything maybe it does but everything that they’re saying right now and they’re actions by trading up and all this stuff coming out in Camp by their head coach Dave Canalis is that Jonathan Brooks is the guy that they’re looking at to lead this backfield and traditionally this would be a gross team to want to go after but it is an improving team with the new offensive coordinator with Brooks himself and then they get two offensive lineman and Damen Lewis and Robert hunt and even Yash Neiman a tackle out there they get a couple of wide receivers and Deontay Johnson and Xavier Legette so we’re hoping the offense they’re giving the similar to Tennessee with Will Levis they’re giving Bryce young everything this seconde quarterback could need to succeed now we’re going to go to my running back 25 and honestly this guy is moving up my rankings quick because everything coming out about zamir white my running back 25 right now only continues to get better and look more positive by the day his offensive coordinator recently said that he’s a different cat that speed not many guys have and again paired with that size that he has which we saw in college the speed and size combination for sure we’re going to take off or he’s going to take off when we get the training camp and then you can only imagine once the season starts and right now he has no competition with Josh Jacobs gone you’re looking at like a a 30-year-old Amir Abdullah Alexander Madison who stunk last year lost his job to Tai Chandler even lost his job at times to cam Acres when he was healthy a six round rookie in Dylan lob there’s no competition here for a guy in zamir white who in college was great but two knee injuries led to him falling later on in the NFL draft a couple years back but when he had the chance to start last year he produced he averaged 23 touches in 114 yards per game and four starts last season an expect head coach Antonio Pierce who wants to win the old school way a defense and running the ball to absolutely ride pause zamir white this season now we’ll head into tier seven my running back 26 and this guy’s dropping for me because I believe a lot in the rookie running back behind him is James Connor I like Trey Benson the second round rookie right now which is making James Connor fall and look as Jared SMA points out here don’t get a twisted James Conor was good last year fifth in PFF rushing grade fourth in nextg stats rushing yards ere expectation fourth in rushing yards per game towards the end of the season look at this one week 13 on the number one running back all this stuff is good but Conor is also 29 years old now often on the injury report I mean the guys average four Miss games per year which takes us to my running back 27 which is DeAndre Swift who is the first running back signed in free agency to a rather large contract more than you’d think which shows his new team the cares how much they like him but my concern is that he’s still in a three-headed backfield second-year player Roshan Johnson who knows how to pass protect and catch passes C Herbert maybe the best overall runner on this team and now DeAndre Swift I think that investment and the urgency to get him makes him the running back one to start the year but he’s no longer behind the top five offensive line how does that play out with the with the Bears now that’s my concern my running back 28’s not a sexy pick in Devon single ter but he’s the running back one one right now for the New York Giants and honestly he’s coming off of a career high year in usage and is reunited with Brian da who he was with with the bills for three years when Deon single ter started started his career averaging a th000 yards per season and then you look at the backfield competition and yeah Tyron Tracy is a fifth round rookie who a lot of people including myself are excited about but apparently Eric gray the seconde player is winning a former fifth round pick is winning I think fifth maybe sixth is winning the rb2 job right now which for me maybe that threatens Deon single ter he’s not an exciting player but coaches just trust single ter especially dble does speaking of former Buffalo Bills my running back 29 is Zach Moss also speaking of guys who are not all that exciting he’s currently the running back one for the Cincinnati Bengals although I do believe Chase Brown the second year player is going to factor in here but the veteran and Zach Moss should start the year as the running back one because he’s just going to be more trusted to pass protect for Joe burrow who has started literally every year of his career outside of this one right now knock on wood injured and it close up my top 30 running backs I will say that one guy who’s an honorable mention is Trey Benson who we talked about when we talked about James Connor but to close out my top 30 running backs we’re going to get Taj Spears in there I would say again Trey Benson just missed the cut Taj Spears is a second-year player who was one of the only guys to be able to take significant snaps over 50% of them away from Derek Henry last season at times 60% and Spears averaged 5 and a half yards per carry his rookie year and like like we showed earlier when we were talking about his teammate Tony per look at this the offensive line has improved the new center in Lloyd chrisenberry and a top 10 pick in JC Le them if the overall offense improves that helps both of these running backs and again I do believe both of these guys have the ability to both finish in the top 24 backs so there you go the top 30 running backs as of right now for Fantasy Football use this as a nice little rubric to help you win your league now if you want to get access to my top 25 overall ranked players updated throughout the offseason totally for free you can check out the link in the description to join our free newsletter now these are the top 30 running backs but who are the must have players for this year well this video right here will show you exactly who you need to have the 10 players in fantasy this year