Lineup Fantasy Football Show - NEW Top 24 RB Rankings & Tiers | 2026 Fantasy Football

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Analysis on the Top-24 Fantasy Football RB Rankings & Tiers are here for 2026. Mitch and Mello break down every running back into definitive tiers including true RB1s, high upside picks in your fantasy draft, screaming value in the middle rounds, and even household names you might want to fade this season. 0:00 - Fantasy Football Top 24 RB Rankings & Tiers 0:36 - Jahmyr Gibbs 1:54 - Bijan Robinson 3:25 - Christian McCaffrey 5:30 - Ashton Jeanty 7:12 - James Cook III 8:45 - Jonathan Taylor 10:31 - Saquon Barkley 11:55 - Derrick Henry 13:37 - De’Von Achane 16:06 - Kenneth Walker III 18:49 - Jeremiyah Love 21:14 - Omarion Hampton 23:21 - Chase Brown 24:56 - Kyren Williams 26:53 - Breece Hall 29:07 - Javonte Williams 30:35 - Josh Jacobs 32:32 - David Montgomery 34:25 - Quinshon Judkins 36:40 - Travis Etienne Jr. 39:12 - Bhayshul Tuten 42:00 - Cam Skattebo 44:32 - D'Andre Swift 46:30 - TreVeyon Henderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus, starring Emmy Rossum. Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th, only on Hulu on Disney Plus. we are ranking and tiering the top 24 running backs for fantasy football here in 2026. We're breaking down the biggest names, plus a few sneakier running backs that have the potential to be league winners.

Let's go. Welcome into the Lion Fantasy Football Show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And Mello, we just broke down wide receivers last episode if you missed it and want to throw that in the queue next. But let's talk about some running backs and start off here with the first and second pick, two guys that you really can't go wrong with either way. I'll let you break down number one for us.

Yeah, we got Jemir Gibbs, but a spoiler alert, Bejohn Robinson is too. I'm going to steal your thunder and spoil that, Mitch. It's a coin flip really there for me. I have Gibbs buy a hair, but if I'm picking and both of these guys are still on the board, I might trade back a spot and get nothing in return just so I don't have to make the decision because I'm such a spineless flip-flopper. But right now for me it is Jermir Gibbs. I think the real tiebreaker for me is just I like.

like the lion's offense more than the falcons offense. And that's really the difference for me. And of course, it doesn't hurt that Jemir Gibbs is just phenomenally talented. And we've seen the production in a limited sample with David Montgomery not there, who will not be there the whole season now. So there is so much to like about Jemir Gibbs. The decision feels like that meme of like the guys on the bus and one's looking at the cliff and one's looking at like the sunset.

But both are just looking at the sunset. Like you're not going to go wrong with either of these guys. To paint a picture here about Jemir Gibbs without David Montgomery in his career without Deemont, averaging 111, 4.7 receptions and 1.4 touchdowns a game. Like, you really can't go wrong here. But at the current moment, if you're making me choose, I am going to go with Jemar Gibbs, too. But that's a perfect segue. Let's just quickly break down number two, Bijon Robinson.

Imagine getting stuck with this guy because Gibbs is off the board. According to Fantasy Pros, he was the most rostered player on championship teams last. season. More precisely, he was on 18.5% of them, which is bananas. Much like Jemir, Thorne on the side is gone, aka Tyler Alger. And they're actually so similar in the sense that I think they're just the whole package when it comes to fantasy football, both incredibly efficient runners. Bejohn had about 5.15 yards per carry last season. And they also have the elite receiving work. Bejohn had 857 yards after the catch. Then the cherry on top is the nose for the end zone, 11 touchdowns total

and I'm calling it now I think without Algeria there without Tyler Algear there I think he's going to get 15 Whoa whoa whoa Brian Robinson said he signed there because he knew he'd have an opportunity Mitch hold your horses

The fact that he was on that many championship teams last year despite being a top three or four pick is truly incredible I've mentioned it I think on an episode last week but the thing that would flip it for me is if two is named the starter

two was going to throw the ball to Bijan so many times you won't even be able to keep track That would put him over Gibbs for me, but we're still splitting hairs either way. I think, honestly, in my opinion, Bijon Robinson is probably the single best running back in the game in real life. So I don't see how anyone could build a reasonable case against him. He's going to be incredible again in 2026. Completely agree. Next Mitch is somebody who's been incredible many, many times.

But people aren't so sure in 2026. That's Christian McCaffrey. And I got to ask the question, Mitch. Are we cowards for putting him at three and not a hundred percent, yes. We're cowards, yeah. Well, that was the easiest question I've ever asked anyone in my life. McCaffrey was super inefficient last year on the ground, which is something we hadn't really seen since his rookie year.

But it still didn't matter. He still was so comfortably the running back one overall, just so easily the running back one overall. And he's either been the running back one overall or the running back two overall in each of the last five years where he's played at least 16 games. That's ridiculous. it's oh it's nutty like we haven't seen anything like it from the running back position in recent history it's just that he doesn't play 16 games every season a lot of seasons he's playing two or three games

to put him outside of the top two running backs feels like a half-hearted hedge that he could get hurt to me and you really should either be all in and just put him at one and accept that he's gonna potentially play every game and still be the running back one or you should just bury him and just say you're fading him entirely because you think he's going to get hurt that's probably what the right approach to McCaffrey is, but here I am being a hypocrite because I have him as my number three running back, as do you, Mitch. He's just, he's the human equivalent of going all in in a game of poker. And you're either hitting huge or you're completely missing and blowing up your entire season. That being said, like, maybe, maybe we are going to have to have a come to Jesus moment a little

bit here when it gets to later August. Because like, I'm with you. If he plays 17 games, he's my running back one. I don't need to know how the year went for Bejohn or Gibbs or McAfee. I just need to know he played 17 games. He's my running back one. And so if you have a high risk tolerance and you play for golden fantasy football, like you're not only drafting a guy with RB1 overall outside, you're drafting the guy who, like you said, just does it over and over and over again.

He did it last year with flying colors. So it's something to think about when we're closer to the season, maybe we have him jump the two other guys if we're feeling good about the workload he's going to get. We'll see how much of a coward I am a month from now. We'll stay tuned on that one. Most things don't change, and I'll probably still be a coward.

On to number four, let's talk about Ashton Genty. Mello, I already told you I would eat a crow, dead or alive, if this Raiders' offense is worse than last year. They go out, they get rid of Gino Smith, first of all. They draft Fernando Mendoza. They bring in Clint Kubiak. They make huge free agency moves on the offensive line. Last year, Ashton Genti was second to last

among all running backs with 100 or more carries in yards before contact because of how bad that offensive line was. But if you want to see how good he was, look at the stat that he was first among all running backs in tackle for loss rate. He was literally the guy that said in his letter to the NFL before the draft in a game of tackle football, draft the guy they can't tackle. And he lived up to it in year one. He's a generational talent. If you watched him last year when he got real opportunities, you could see it start translating in the NFL. And I think we see the full-on breakout here.

My expert analysis is Ashton Jentee is good at football. Good. Stamp it. He's good. You use the word breakout. We keep using that word for Ashton Genty on this show, just a breakout waiting to happen. That's what he is. That's the best way to describe it.

He's an elite prospect for so many different reasons. He now has a phenomenal play caller, improved offensive line. And for what it's worth, there's really little volume competition in Vegas in both the ground and passing games. Obviously, you have Brock Bowers, who's going to be exceptional. But outside of that, like their next best running back is probably a day three rookie in Mike Washington. the receiver room is barren and kind of depressing. So Gentie's going to be a major focal point of what this offense does. Jalen Naylor would like a word with you.

Sorry to Jalen Naylor out there. I'd be flattered if he listened. Next guy we have here, though, Mitch, has done it before in a multitude of ways. And that's James Cook. We have his running back five. He led the NFL and rushing touchdowns in 2024. He led the NFL and rushing yards in 2025.

Yet people still disrespect him, even though we've seen him put up. these elite numbers. I think from a fantasy footballer perspective, the one major knock against him is he doesn't get a ton of work in the passing game, which is a totally fair knock, especially in PPR formats. But he gets just enough that in addition to the work he gets on the ground, it makes him one of the safest picks in fantasy football to me. One of the safest picks, even at the one-two turn, which is very high. I feel very comfortable that you're going to be getting running back one production out of James Cook, even if he doesn't have a top three finish.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. The limitation to James Cook has been the receiving work, but I've talked about this. I'm super excited about the addition of their new offensive coordinator, Pete Carmichael. He was a true disciple of Sean Payton, spent 2006 to 2023 with Peyton and Breeze, and then spent the last two years in Denver back working closely with Peyton. And Joe Brady's going to be calling the plays for this team. But I do wonder if we see some of that Sean Payton influence seep in. And we all know Sean Payton loves targeting running backs.

And I think that's kind of the knock that keeps James Cook's price suppressed is that he doesn't have any passing work. And I don't know. I think there's a serious chance that they could get him more involved this year. And if he does, he's going to be a problem for fantasy football. If he even sees like a 25% uptick in targets, he has legitimate running back one overall finish upside. A thousand percent. Let's jump to number six, Jonathan Taylor. We've been on record as being very worried about Jonathan Taylor.

after coming off of such a heavy workload last season. That's why we're a bit below consensus here. In fact, you pointed out that it's eerily reminiscent of the fall of 2022 coming off of his RB1 finish when we were drafting him so high and he finished as the running back 30. Well, running backs coach DeAndre Smith for the Colts just said we definitely need to find ways to take some of that workload off of him.

If I can find another guy or two that can take some of those carries away, he's just going to be that much better. So I think we can feel relatively safe that we're not crazy, that this team is not going to give Jonathan Taylor the same volume they gave him last year. And so while we're lower than consensus, I think most people aren't recognizing how low the floor could be for Jonathan Taylor here. And we're not going to go that much lower because he's incredible. But there's risk here. Yeah, counterpoint to us, he is Jonathan Taylor. He's awesome.

Point. And I still think he's worth a second round. Like if he's falling to the late second or even the mid-second, as somebody who's been very scared of Jonathan Taylor, like, I'm probably clicking that button. It's too hard to pass it up at that point. But with where he's going, like, the late first, there's some red flags for me. I kind of get the ick. I know that's probably not the sort of hard-hitting analysis you're looking for here on the lineup that I get the ick. But I do.

It's not the analysis you want. It's the analysis you get. Yeah. Take it. Take your lineup slop. It's the touchdown regression. and the volume he got last year, and I'm very scared of this Colts offense.

So that's why we have him a little bit lower. But then again, Jonathan Taylor. Like, that's the best counterpoint is just Jonathan Taylor. Absolutely. Speaking of super talented running backs, we got Sequin Barclay here at 7. We're actually higher than him on consensus by a little bit. Mitch, give me one good damn reason

that Sequan Barclay can't give you just 80% of what he gave you in 2024. Can probably give you a reason it wouldn't be good. Thank you. I mean, I'm with you there. And to actually put like some statistical backing behind what that means, 80% of this 2024 fantasy production would have been good enough for the running back seven overall that year. That's where we have him here in 2026, the running back seven overall in our rankings. Give me this healthy offensive line that was so banged up last year. Give me this new offensive play caller who has to be an improvement just deductively because of how bad the, that play calling was last year. And give me a full off season of rest for Sequin Barclay, who had the Jonathan Taylor-esque 2024 with the carries, and we saw the toll it took on his body last year. He now gets a full off season of rest. I'm all the way back in. Yeah, you hit on everything. To put a number to it, he had 436 touches in that Super Bowl run two years ago. But this is a guy who was a top five back three separate times in fantasy football already. Burn the tape from the

Kevin Petula season. Let's move on and let's go grab Saquan Barclay at a screaming discount. I'm heating up on them big time. Let's get into one of your favorite guys, also one of my favorite guys too, but let's talk some Derek Henry. For everyone who's saying that Derek Henry is going to fall off the cliff and that he's hitting the age where I'm not drafting running backs anymore, this guy has shown no signs of slowing down top three among qualified running backs in yards per carry last season. You bring back in a healthy Lamar Jackson. You introduce Declan Doyle to this offense from the Ben Johnson coaching. We talk a lot about touchdown regression.

We just mentioned it with Jonathan Taylor. Derek Henry is an anomaly. He's had 16 touchdowns each of the last two seasons. Derek Henry is the exception to the rule in so many ways when it comes to an age cliff when it comes to touchdown regression. And I'm not going to just let him slip down my draft board because of an arbitrary age cliff that we all talk about. Yeah, people want to blame Derek Henry for the fact that Lamar Jackson was hurt last year.

Yeah. And you're right. I don't think he hit the cliff. I went from early off season, just thinking I was going to fade him because I was so scared of the cliff to he's not going to hit the cliff, but I'm not going to be the one to do it because I'm a coward, to all of a sudden I'm feeling brave, or at least I'm feeling confident in Derek Henry. And he's somebody, I'm actively drafting and I'm targeting.

And one other thing we, I mean, we've talked so much pro Derek Henry on this show. One thing we haven't really brought up is there is like no competition in this backfield. Sure, you still have Justice Hill is going to be involved in third down. But Keaton Mitchell's gone. who a lot of people said should have played more in Baltimore. And they don't, they have like a late round rookie, a late around rookie from last year or two. Like there is no one who's going to take early down work away from Derek Henry. He is still going to get a ton of usage.

All right. Next on this list, Mitch, guy. We're so hurt by the fact that we're not super excited. And that's Devon A. Chan, who is so good in real life. He cannot stress that enough. And to be honest, Mitch, I mean, we've talked some negative. we've talked negatively about him from a fantasy perspective

his ADP is actually starting to fall a little bit yeah and I'm starting to be more okay with where he's going as somebody who was fully out when he was going in like the early first or even or I'm sorry late first or early second he's starting to fall to like the back half of the second now I'm like okay I could talk myself into it but I'm still terrified

I still am very scared for Devon Achan who he's just stuck on this Miami offense which the best word to describe the Miami offense is probably disgusting more than anything. I just don't want to take a dolphin with my second round pick. I don't want to take a dolphin in the first eight rounds, honestly. It's just Devon A. Chan is so talented. He might be the exception to the rule because he is so electric.

I think Devon A. Chan is electricity. He is the most electric player in the NFL. He's Thomas Edison. He is Devon Thomas Edison, A. Chan. That is the case for him. The case against him is he plays for a team. that is equatable to a pile of shit. And I'm sorry to be so blunt,

but I just don't want Miami dolphins. Very fun fact. I just double-checked on the ADP. We're now officially above consensus on Devon A. Chan, which feels insane. It's the market is... The last like two weeks. Yeah, the market is correcting like crazy

to I think a lot of the concerns we have, which is that Devon A-chan's electric and awesome, but Malik Willis enters this offense. He boasted an extremely high scramble rate last year, the highest in the NFL, in fact. an extremely low checkdown rate as opposed to Tua who was in the top five. And so A-chan brought in almost 140 PPR points last year from his receiving work alone, and that was to get him to the RB5.

That wasn't to get like a top two fantasy running back finish. And so if he, let's say, cuts that receiving work in half, or even by 40%, he's going to just like barely be a low end running back one. And so I think we have him properly priced here at RB9 and the market falling all the way to RB 11. I'm like, watch his price closely over the next few weeks because he could end up being a value. This is a guy who's extremely talented. That's never been the issue with him.

It's the situation that we don't like. He's plummeted crazy the last few weeks. Like, insane. 100%. Let's jump into number 10 and talk about Kenneth Walker the third who I think is so interesting. We've never seen him get the production for. from a full workload, and now it feels like we're getting forced to smoke a whole pack of Ken Walker production.

Like, we get to now see him as the bell cow. There's no Zach Charbonnet. We get to see him in a high-powered chiefs offense attached to Patrick Mahomes that always pumps up fantasy prices. And then we get the buzz and the rumors that he's going to be more involved in the passing game. And so, for me, I think, part of me wonders if I'm in love with Ken Walker or if I'm in love with the idea of Ken Walker. And so I think the upside's so real.

I don't know. Have we also forgotten that Ken Walker doesn't pay off on his ADP any year that you've drafted him? The worries are there, but I also think this is a guy that could literally finish as the RB1 overall. I have a confession, Mitch. I'm starting to think he's creeping up too high. And I've been in love with Ken Walker this off season, or maybe the idea. I think I'm starting to wake up to it. Like, you know, I checked out, you know, when you go into someone's car and it's just filled with trash and you're like, that's a red flag. That's how I feel about Ken Walker, and I'm starting to wake up to it when it's like, oh, he's actually going in the early second round now, despite the fact that his best career finish in a season was his rookie year when he still wasn't even, he still didn't even finish as high as he's going right now in draft. So there's some red flags there. He's shooting up super high in rankings. He's never really been a pass catcher. Obviously, not. No one else in this Kansas City backfield is really done. It consistently throughout his career. So maybe he starts doing that. But I'm just getting a little worried about Ken.

And I do think he'll have by far the best season of his career to date. I think this will be his best fantasy finish to date. I still think he should be drafted as a running back one. Clearly, we have him here as the 11th running back here. It's just, I mean, he's going real high in drafts now. And to that, I'm like, I don't know anymore. Yeah, like you said, that finish, his best season, rookie year, running back 18, and right now he's being drafted as a running back 9 off the board. Yeah, running back 18 is best career finish.

And that was five years ago, basically now. That's a little scary. It's definitely a little scary. It's funny, though, he's being drafted in front of Derek Henry and it almost feels like he could be anything. He could even be Derek Henry, and you're dropped like three spots ahead of him. I can't get into the psyche of the fantasy community. I'm part of the problem, I'm sure, but some things just don't make sense to me. Well, Mitch, next tier at 11, I have someone I'm actually heating up on, and I'm scared.

It's Jeremiah Love. I feel like a hypocrite too. I just said I don't want dolphins. I certainly don't want cardinals either. But Jeremiah Love has a path to be. He sounds like a really uppity zoo. I don't want dolphins. I certainly don't want cardinals.

Those lame ass animals. Jeremiah Love is a cool ass animal, though. I mean, he is an. elite prospect who went third overall profiles as a three down back and catch the ball what could go wrong of course the what could go wrong is he got dropped it by the cardinals that's the elephant in the room if we're staying on this this zoo analogy um but it just sucks i mean the the the cardinals are terrible but the good news is and this is the reason i'm starting to heat up from 2015 to 2025 there were seven running backs taken top 10 in the NFL draft the worst any of the

finished in fantasy as a rookie was Ashton Jenty last year, who was the running back 11. All seven of those guys finished as running back ones. Jeremiah Love, we have him ranked as the running back 11 here. I think he's going even a little bit later in drafts. So from that lens, we're drafting him at his floor. I don't have a ton to add. That is actually exactly the point I want to make is that we are so scared by the situation that we have dropped him quite literally to his floor.

We mentioned last episode talking about Rishi Rice. that this was our in our big money league. Like, we just took Jeremiah Love because the value is just too crazy. And we don't have the NFL numbers to go off of, but a guy with top three draft capital, went for 6.9 to carry nice in college back in Notre Dame last year. Almost 1,400 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns. He was second in PFS Russian grade among the entire NCAA.

He also put 280 yards through the air, three touchdowns through the air. He's the guy that has like a skill set and a physical profile to be in every down back. And we're getting held up. in the Tyler Alger of it all. And that to me is just, no, I'm not doing that. And I think Jeremiah Love is going to continue to rise for me as we go through the summer. As somebody who cares about all of you out there, I'm not going to let you let Tyler Alger be the reason you don't draft Jeremiah Love.

If you don't draft him because he's on the Cardinals, I can live with that. But as a friend, I cannot let you talk yourself into Tyler Algeria being a reason to not draft Jeremiah Love. You're a good friend. Thank you. Let's jump into a guy that we are criminally lower than consent. on and Mello, grab your shields because the people are bringing out the pitchforks again. We're talking about Amari and Hampton.

I think you can distill our entire take on Amari and Hampton because I don't want to belabor this point anymore and why we're lower on him than consensus. Basically into the idea that as great as the situation is, we're not bought into Amari and Hampton as a talent, and we don't think he's talented enough to command the volume people are expecting or be efficient enough with that volume to pay off a top eight running back price tag right now, which is what he's at. I don't think he's going to be bad. Like, I don't think you're going to draft him. Arion Hampton. He finishes as like the running back 28. I just don't think he's as good as people think. And like an RBA price tag is crazy. I think he deserves to

be in this spot, which is the exact bottom of the running back one tier. Yeah. I, I mean, I have them, I've said this on a previous episode, too. Like, I have them as the RB13. That's still relatively high. And I love the offensive coordinator. And I love that the Oline is getting healthy. I love the the draft capital that he had, but I'm with you. Like, I'm not super bought into the talent or the involvement for that matter. And I won't get on my soapbox again like I have previously with Hampton. But I think something a lot of people point to is how many targets he got in a limited sample last year. You got to keep in mind a lot of that, which is out of necessity. Herbert's average time with the ball on his hands was super low because he was getting hit so quickly. He was dumping it down

all the time. I don't think that'll be the case. And more importantly, I'm not sure he'll be used in that capacity. People hate that we bring this up, but I mean, Keith Mitchell, didn't catch the ball a ton. People hate that. People hate when he taught Keith Mitchell. He didn't catch the ball a ton in Baltimore. He did in college. He is an electric player, a very fast player, shades of DeBan A. Chan, not saying he's even nearly that good, but Mike McDaniel, who coached A. Chan, brought him in for a reason. It's enough to scare me away from taking him at cost, especially considering we haven't really seen anything from him yet, because the injury-filled Rick a year. And, everything that happened there. So I see the upside. I don't blame people for taking the shot,

but I'll let you take that shot and I'm going to continue to fade. I'm fully with you. All right. Next up here, Mitch, we have somebody else. I think we're a little lower on. Chase Brown at 13. I think you'll agree with this. In fact, I know you will. Not a huge believer in the talent. Yeah. I just, I struggle to put him any higher because I think every running back we talk about thus far is definitely a better talent. Aside from maybe Omerian. Hampton. With that said, I'm not going to bring up Hampton again. But, like, to illustrate the other side of the argument, he was the running back two overall last year in weeks that Joe Burrow played, which is crazy to think about.

Like, that is the type of upside he has. So I'm still definitely interested to a large extent, but maybe not so much at cost. He is still going pretty high. I just don't trust him in the same way I trust some of these other running backs we talked about. I can't draft him as a running back one. That's like where I'm at and why we have him at 13. Like he said, it's another guy. We love the situation. We just don't think is all that talented. Among running backs with 50 or more carries in 2025, he ranked 30th in yards for carry, six spots behind Samagee Pryne, his teammate. By the same measure, 50 or more carries, he was 22nd in the NFL and PFF's rushing grade,

37th in rushing success rate. All of this while facing the sixth least average defenders in the box on any given run in 2025. And now you go into this 20, 26 season and according to sharp football analysis, the Bengals have the third most difficult schedule for running backs. I'm just, I'm not there with Chase Brown. And I think I might have to start moving my rankings around a little bit because I'm honestly appalled that this next guy's below him. Let's get into it. Let's talk Kyron Williams. I think we have Kyron Williams too low. He had the sixth most rushing yards in the league last year, 10 touchdowns, a league leading success rate among starting running backs all en route to an RB9 finish. I love

Kyron. I think it's the Blake quorum of it all, but I think I just don't have the balls to put him any higher. And you know what? Maybe next rankings, I'm going to have Christian McCaffrey at number one and Kyron Williams at like number 10, where I think he actually belongs if we got rid of name fatigue and boredom and looked at real production. That's very brave of you, Mitch. Thank you. It goes like firefighters and then you on the bravery scale for that. I hear you and I think Kiron Williams is so good and I'm glad you bring up how good he's been. So good. People go, oh, well, Blake Korum needs to get the ball more because Blake Korum is really good.

Blake Korum is really good. I'm not going to deny that. But so is Kyrin. I mean, this team has two really good running backs. I will admit I'm probably a little more scared of Kairn than you because down the stretch last year, the back half of the season, Korum started getting really involved. and Kyran was still fine, but he wasn't, Kyron wasn't getting workhorse treatment like he was previously.

So that does scare me. But if you want a little bit of a pro-Kyron thought here, Devonte Adams was the meanest vulture in the NFL last year. He had so many freaking touchdowns inside the two-yard line. You have to figure if the Rams offense stays really good, which I think they will. Some of those got to go to the backs and some of those got to go to Kyron, who already had 10, we could see even more next year.

That's a fantastic point. I'm really interested to see how this Rams offense, like what it looks like this season, if we see as much wide receiver involvement of the goal line. I can't imagine Devante has the same number of touchdowns. This next running back we have, though, here at 15, is someone I actually keep flipping back and forth with Kyron. I know you like Karen a lot more than him,

but that's Breece Hall. Aaron Glenn recently said he's going to have a three-headed backfield in New York this season, but I've heard that before. And I know it's about as likely of being true as it is that the Jets win the division. With that said, it's a problem that I can make that joke. That's Brees Hall's problem, is that the Jets are such a joke of a team right now and actually have been for decades at this point. But that's the downside of Brees.

The Jets just aren't good. Can they stay on the field? My hope for him, I'm not really worried about like Braylin Allen. I think Brees Hall still No, at this point. They said the same thing last year it was going to be committee and Preyce Hall was super dominant

and played so much. Part of it was some of the injuries they had with some of their other running backs and Isaiah Davis didn't really get super involved. But regardless, I think Brise is going to be involved. My hope is that the weapons have improved. We talked about it last episode with Garrett Wilson. I know they're going to be bad,

but can they stay on the field long enough to give Brise more opportunities? Can they get in the red zone? a breeze can score more touchdowns. That's what I'm betting on for someone who I still view as a very talented running back who already has a running back to overall finish under his belt. Yeah, we're a couple spots apart here on Brice. This is one of the backs that I think we're more at odds on where we're ranking them.

And I've admitted I have a Jess problem and I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Totally fair. I don't even think you should work on it. It's toxic. But you did outline the path to how this works. and that's that the offense simply just needs to take a step up. He was the RB17 last season, but you take a look at it, he had five total touchdowns.

And so I wonder how much better of a season in fantasy we could see from Brise Hall if if Gino Smith makes the most of all these new weapons of the Jets front office is given him. And let's say, Brice gets 10 total touchdowns. That's an extra 30 points. And then he's like easily paying off where we have him at the RB15. And if you look at ADP, RB14. So to me, the path is absolutely there. for him to have like a pretty big season here.

Let's jump from one of the least high-powered offenses in the NFL to one of the most high-powered offenses in the NFL. And let's talk about Javante Williams, who to me is the most classic high-floor low upside play, still attached to Dak Prescott and this Dallas Cowboys offense, still being undervalued. He had about 4.8 yards per carry and the sixth most yards after contact in the NFL.

The problem is he's just not the centerpiece of this offense, doesn't get quite as much passing work as some of the previous guys, but he gets those high value opportunities that Breece Hall doesn't get. And I don't know, I think we haven't slotted perfectly. I think he should be a high-end RB2. Yeah, I mean, he was the RB12 last year overall. And that was even, I mean, he played, but he was banged up down the stretch. And now he's going significantly later than the running by 12,

despite the situation not really changing at all. Like, it is pretty much the same exact situation. Hopefully, if anything, the defense will be. better and they'll run the ball more late in game. So, yeah, I like where Jemante is going. The upside is cap, like you mentioned. He's probably not going to have like a top eight finish or anything like that. Part of that is he's not the focal point of the offense. Part of that is he's not a super talented elite running back. But he feels safe. He's a surefire RB2 with low end RB1 upside like we saw last year. So I like where he's

going in drafts. I put it together that you said capped, but I thought you said the upside is cap. Like that's kind of wild way of putting it, but it works. That upside is cab, bro. And Tony's just. This next guy, this is a tough one, miss. This is Josh Jacobs,

we have, yeah, 17. I don't even, I don't know what to do with him. I won't even touch the off-the-field stuff. I'll just try to stick to the football stuff, but I mean,

there's so intertwined, it's hard to address one without the other. Where we have them now, it's too low. he doesn't get suspended. If he actually plays a full season, he's going to be better than the running back 17. This feels like just kind of a placeholder spot

while we wait to see what happens, which it seems like nobody knows. I think it seems more likely than not he isn't suspended at this point, but no one really knows, like, at all. You look at Packers Beat reporters and the major mainstream media. Like nobody knows what is going on

with Josh Jacobs right now. If he plays, though, he is a bell cow on a very run-heavy, offense that has no competition in the backfield. They just lost Emmanuel Wilson and free agency. He's been a top 13 running back every single year of his career that he's played at least 14 games. He is like this safest high end running back too you can get in fantasy. We'll just see how everything plays out over the next month or so. I haven't been touching him in basketball or anything like that. It's one of those like guys that you just feel like yucky like looking at.

but purely from a fantasy football lens, you're right. If he plays 17, he absolutely deserves for you ranked higher than this. One thing I'll add, like, even if he doesn't get suspended,

like, we see this a lot with these guys, like when they come back from these weird off the field issues, like, there's sometimes a mental part of it too, that they're not quite the same. And that mixed with the fact

that Josh Jacobs is getting a little bit older. I have some hesitancies, but like the data is so clear that if he plays 17, he should blow this value out of the water. So, if he doesn't get suspended, we're going to have to move him up. On to number 18, let's get to a guy I really want to talk about.

I could talk about all day long. Let's talk about David Montgomery, who all signs right now are pointing to being not only the leadback, but the bell cow in a Houston Texan's offense that has a nine and a half game win total. The team just invested a ton in the offensive line. They spent a first round pick on Kailin Rutledge. They go out and they pay Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller and free agents. and now David Montgomery has this brand new offensive line to run behind.

And if you're wondering, we talked about Jemir Gibbs and how good he's been in games without DeMont. How's DeMont been in games without Jemar Gibbs? Well, from 2023 to 2025, David Montgomery played in four games that he had 20 or more carries. In those games, he had 88 yards, 105 yards in a touchdown, 121 yards and three touchdowns, and 74 yards in a touchdown. Lordy.

Stamp it. David Montgomery is good. He's going to be in a great offense that's going to be leading in a lot of games. I think running back 18 is honestly still too low. Yeah, we're higher than consensus. I think consensus might be starting to catch up a little bit as they should because the fact of the matter is he is the Belkow on a good team with a good defense, which is probably a good thing for the Belcote running back.

And like you said, David Montgomery himself is good. We've seen it statistically. In his three years were the Lions predominantly playing second fiddle to Jemir Gibbs. he still has finished as the running back 17, 18, and 27. Now he gets a full workload, like you said, as the true clear number one. He should be going much higher in drafts than he is. You just said what? Running back 17, 18, and 27?

So playing with Jemir Gibbs, two of those years he would have paid off on his ADP. And now he doesn't have Jemir Gibbs. What are we doing? On a good team, too. That's going to be running the ball a lot. What are we doing? next up on the list here we have Quinn Sean Judkins

coming in at 19 let me start off with some negatives Mitch because I want to end on a positive note I want to be a glass half full guy so I love that I'm just going to get the negative stuff out of the way he doesn't catch a ton of passes which is obviously not great especially in formats that reward receptions

and then the second issue maybe the bigger one is he's on the Cleveland Browns which we talk about this yeah not good talk about the car Cardinals and the Jets and all these teams we don't want players on, the Browns are in that category. But now that we get that out of the way, let's acknowledge that Judkins is one of the best downhill runners in the league already. We're talking true downhill physical runners.

He is one of the best in the NFL, and he got elite usage as a rookie, which should only go up hopefully. And the Brown's coaching staff has talked about that. He's going to continue to be used as a bell cow, at least on the early downs. They give him some design screens, too, even though he's not. really a true like third down pass catching back. But the first two points I can't ignore the Browns and the fact he doesn't catch a ton of passes. So that brings him down pretty substantially for me, which is why we have him all the way down here.

But I still think he's going to be a rock solid RB too. I think I'm all in. I hate myself. I think I'm all in on Quinn Sean Junkins this year. Let's go. I think there's so much buzz already out of Cleveland that they're going to lean on him hard. I think it's similar to the breeze conversation of like, what if this offense is actually better with the investments they made in the draft and Quinshaw and gets more high value touches and like he looked so explosive

already in OTAs which was a huge concern coming off of the gruesome injury and I just I can see it already. I can I think it's the Nick Chubb in my brain of being like imagining a really talented actual pure running running back in a Cleveland Brown's offense paying off on ADP and I can just see it with Quinshawn Jenkins. There are weirdly a lot of parallels. Early second round picks coming out of colleges with two running backs that went really high. The Brown's getting the more physical in between the tackle one. I see the parallels, and I totally understand it.

Yeah. All right. On to number 20. Let's talk some Travis A. Chan, almost said E.T.N. I want to admit something, though. I think this is a guy that I could be too low on. Okay. I don't think I am, but I'm willing to admit I can see the other side.

I need to keep him where he's ranked, but here's the path. My actual stance is that I think ETN benefited a lot from a Liam Cohen offense that was just clicking on all cylinders, and they featured him heavily in the passing game. And then if you actually pop open the hood and look at the underlying metrics among running backs with 50 or more carries, he ranked 34th in yards for carry and 41st in EPA per rush. and where he actually did his damage was the seven touchdowns on the ground and six in the air. Yeah. But here's the path.

I think a lot of people are super excited about how pass heavy the Saints offense is and that Travis Echan, Travis A. Chan profiles as being able to be a high volume pass catching running back. And if they take the step that people think and they actually have a lot of opportunities in the red area, does A.Chan get the opportunity to put up. 10 plus touchdowns again. I think that's the path that he beats out this ADP, but for me, that's a lot of if this happens. And I just don't feel great about ranking him any higher. I just wanted to say it because I've mentioned him as a bust and as a sell before.

And I want to say I see everyone's point of view in their perspective, but I'm just not there on Travis A. Chan. I'm not either. And people aren't going to like this, but I just don't think he's that good. I don't think he is a good run. running back compared to other starters in the league. But there's a path.

And I'll admit that too. If he's catching a lot of passes at the Saints' offense as a whole takes a huge step forward, they stay on the field, he gets touchdowns. One thing we haven't really talked about with him very much, even though we have talked about him a lot is where Alvin Kamara fits in this whole situation. Because he's still lurking on the Saints and he's not retiring, it sounds like. It doesn't sound like he's going to get traded, although I guess that's still on the table. Alvin Kamara is to the Saints, what Keenan Thompson is to SNL.

It's going to be like 40 years from now, and Alvin Kamara is just going to be hanging out in the locker room. Oh, you're still here? Yeah. What's going on? But it is interesting because, like, I'm not projecting him to be, to get, like, a bigger workload than H-H-H-N by any means. But if he's still there, that is a problem because he's going to get some work.

Yeah, that's completely fair. All right, moving into 21 now. His former teammate, Basial Tutton in Jacksonville. Tutte. Tutte. Don't you kind of feel Mitch like he's either going to absolutely destroy his ADP or fall well short of it with no in between? 1,000% and I can't wait to tell you why I think that. Okay, I'm looking forward to it.

Maybe we're both being irrational. He'll just be the running back 21 overall and that will be the end of it. But I am a tootin believer. I believe in the talent. I believe in the scheme fit. Clearly Liam Cohen and James Blasstone believe in the scheme fit because they themselves drafted him. he is going to be, I think, very productive in 2026. He's an explosive type of player, which I like.

If he can be a true every down back, and if he can be the legitimate RB1 where Chris Rodriguez just kind of falls as the handcuff, then he's going to destroy this ADP. Otherwise, though, there's plenty of risk with this pick. I'm going to do the exact opposite I just did for Travis A-chan, where he's a guy that I'm lower than consensus on, but I gave the story of how it could work.

I am higher than consensus on Bachel Tutin, but I want to give the story of how it doesn't work. And so the first side and why I like it, and like the hype out of Jacksonville is exploding right now about how this is going to be the guy. He's truly the RB1 in this offense. And it's the same offense, like he said, the same system with Liam Cullen

that just made Travis H.N., the RB10 overall. They handpicked this guy. The other side of the story that we haven't addressed on this show is that this is a guy who averaged 3.7 yards per carry doesn't get a ton of receiving work. And he does have a talented Chris Rodriguez lurking behind him that was more efficient last season. And so I am on the Tudan hype train, but I did figure it's our fiduciary duty to point out the risk that this floor isn't as safe as people think. And I didn't even realize you were going to, but I'm so glad that you opened with that. Yeah. And we're both Tudan guys,

but when we talk about some of these guys we think are so safe, like the Jibante Williams type of players, that's not what Bachel Tootin is. Bachel Tootin is a potential league winner and a potential league loser. He also is going to get a funny name bump in real draft season when like your home league start drafting when people are like, there's a funny guy named Tootin.

It's like how Bill. If Bill's name wasn't Bill last season, I don't know if we would have propped him up as much. Who would have thought that we'd obsess over the fun name of Bill over Jacori Kroski Merritt. His actual government name. Bill is way funnier. Because then you can post the I'm just a Bill video.

He's just Bill. All right. On to number 22, a guy that we have been critical of and then we've seen the light and then I think we're back to being critical of and we're a little bit below consensus. Let's talk about Camp Scatibu. I think what I just said illustrates

how difficult he is to rank. My biggest concern with Scadaboo is that I have questions. around the efficiency. And maybe I'm just like trying to hold on to something that's so 2024. But I don't think Tyrone Tracy, who had a higher yards per carry than Scadaboo last year, is going to entirely disappear. I think he's going to have a role.

And even if Scataboo is the starter, I think this is closer to a 1A, 1B situation, which in a Giants offense that I don't think either of us is projecting to like light the league on fire, I don't necessarily want a piece of as my RB2. And this is a great stat that you pointed out months and months ago, but you look at the production that came out of his rookie year and you're like, how did he have a lower yards per carry than Tyrone Tracy? So much of his production came from one game. The game against the Eagles on Thursday night football in week six, he totaled 110 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns, prime time against arrival, against the defending Super Bowl champions. And that was when the

character of Camp Scadaboo took over the fancy football world. When you actually pop open the hood again and look at what the real numbers were, I don't think he was as impressive as people think. And that Thursday night game against me and the league we're in together, Mitch, God damn it. Oh, that's why you hate him. That's the real reason I hate him. No, I've warmed up to him compared to where I was mostly

because they didn't draft anyone, they didn't bring anyone in free agency. But my biases are starting to show themselves to me again because all of a sudden I noticed Tyrone Tracy is one of the highest exposure players in basketball. Me too. And I didn't feel like I was super high on Tyrone Tracy, but you're right because Tyrone Tracy has been pretty productive with Scataboo not there.

And part of it is too, I just don't know how healthy Scataboo is. And that's the question I really want the answer to. Because sure, he's doing backflips, but he clearly has no regard for his well-being whatsoever. For all I know, he literally does not feel pain. He seems like the type of guy who can beat you in arm wrestling with a torn rotator cuff. And you'd never even know he had a torn rotator cuff because he just doesn't feel pain. he's also somewhat like tooting to me because I like tooting more but he's going to need workhorse treatment to really hit on his ADP in a major way

and he's going to have to fend off Tyrone Tracy and if he can do that he'll be a smash but if he can't do that all of a sudden you're looking at a really bad deck yeah I'm completely with you all right last couple guys here Mitch 23 we have a guy we do like and that's D'Andre Swift people just got to start putting more respect on DeAndre Swift's name. So disrespected. He's so disrespected. I think the NFL coaches have disrespected him.

And in turn, the fantasy community and NFL fans at large have. His worst finish through six years of his career is the RB21 overall. And here we are. We're a part of the problem. We have him at RB 23. That'd be two spots lower than his worst finish ever. It's just ridiculous how people aren't bought in. I think people like Kyle Menangai, like sure he'll get worked in.

I mean, we've seen Ben Johnson have Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery. Both have phenomenal seasons together in his offense. I think D'Andre Swift is still the lead guy over Monong guy. He's still in his Ben Johnson offense. And he's a surefire RB too to me. He's going to be somewhere between the RB 12 and 24. And I feel so confident in that. I think it's so funny that both of us are like he's so disrespected and we're below consensus on it.

I know. I feel so guilty. It's because I just, I think you, we both have high convictions on Bachel Tutton and we jump him with Tutin. and I have such high convictions on Quinshawn Judkins, and so he jumps over Swift 2 and just leaves him in this weird spot. But like, this guy is such a safe pick

if you're looking for a rock solid RB2. He finished last year as PFF's eighth highest grade of rusher. He was fourth in rushing success rate, third and total EPA, third in EPA per rush, and 10th in yards per carry. Incredibly efficient. Like you said, Ben Johnson offense, like they love to establish the run.

He's just a really solid pick that I think is just too boring of a button to click for a lot of people. Yeah, we talk about these boring guys all the time. DeAndre Swift just fits that category so well. 100%. On to our final player, this is a guy that is like, oh, this just feels like he should be higher. And I just don't know where to put him.

The running back landscape is so weird this year. I almost want to drop Travis A. Chan down like the running back 30. But that is Trevion Henderson of the New England Patriots. This is like in any baseball video game where you select the option to hit for power, and it makes it so it's like way less likely that you get contact. But if you hit, you hit like an absolute like bomb home run. It was feast or famine last year. But at the end of the day, this is a guy who finished eighth in the NFL in yards per carry as a rookie with 10 touchdowns.

And Mello, he finishes the RB21. I feel like we might be underrating him as a community just because of the weird timeshare in New England backfield, like during the playoffs. but I think he's getting like so, so criminally underrated for the upside you could get with him. Agreed. I certainly hope he hits on that upside. I just traded for him and Adisili. We're both in together. So I wanted to hit. He's the first guy on this list, though, that we have that is not the top running back on his team. If you look at like a depth chart and he's getting drafted higher than Ramadre as he should because of the upside. But he's feast famine, boom, bust like you said. And that's not only on like a season long. basis, that's like a play-by-play basis. So it makes it, he's very volatile, he's hard to project

what's going to happen. Something that scares me to some extent, though, is that the Patriots were one of the most run-heavy teams in the league last year, which I think is partially why both from Andre and Trevion were able to be so productive in fantasy. Yeah. That is not going to continue to be the case for multiple reasons. One being just the Patriots are going to have a much harder schedule. They're not going to be winning and blowouts and running the clock out late. Right. And two, this revamp receiving room, like they're going to have a lot more confidence in their receivers to throw the ball more than they did last year. So some of that volume in the backfield is going to go away. So for Trayvion to truly hit, I think he's going to have to do it in the passing game, which is something he can do.

We saw it a lot at Ohio State especially. If Trayvion's going to hit, though, he's going to have to be a high volume pass catcher out of the backfield. He can't just do it with carries. He's going to have to catch a ton of passes. Will he? I don't know. I'm a little uncertain, but that's his path to success. I think that's a fantastic point. And those were our top 24 running backs for the fantasy football season here in 2026. Please let us know down below who your favorite running back is in the top 24. And if we didn't leave them in there, let us know down below and give your argument for why your guy deserves me in the top 24 and we will try to talk about them in a future video. But Mello, before we get out of here, do we miss anything? Just a big thank you to the audience for

sticking with us and listening to my boys for this long. This is a long one. All right, well, you guys next episode.