- Ashton Jeanty has a legitimate shot to finish as RB1 in his rookie year: Jeanty’s talent and opportunity in Year 1 are an ideal combination to project for an RB1 season.
- The 2023 rookie draft class takes over the top two spots: Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs have been all they were cracked up to be heading into the NFL through two seasons, and more of the same is expected in 2025.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Breaking fantasy football rankings down into tiers helps fantasy managers better understand what separates each group and how to value each player at the position for this coming season.
TIER 1: The fantastic four
This top tier at the position consists of four players expected to perform at an elite level on the best workloads in the league for their positions.
Bijan Robinson leads the way heading into this season after finishing as the overall RB3 in 2024, and there are plenty of reasons for optimism why he can not only repeat but exceed those expectations in 2025. Starting with his overall workload, Robinson operated as the clear top option in the run game for Atlanta, seeing ideal opportunities on early downs, passing downs, two-minute drills and around the goal line. This resulted in an elite 21.3 opportunities (carries plus targets) per game while delivering top-five grades for his position both as a runner and a receiver. The expectation shouldn’t be any lower for Robinson in 2025, which should have him in contention as the top fantasy player at his position.
Editor’s note: ADP Battle: Saquon Barkley versus Bijan Robinson
While Saquon Barkley was the RB1 in 2024, there’s reason to expect at least some regression in 2025, which puts his overall expectation for fantasy finish slightly lower than last season, though not too much, as he should still be very good. Barkley repeating a 2,000-rushing-yard season would be an achievement never before done in the history of the NFL, which, when considering his competition for rushing touchdowns around the goal line (Jalen Hurts), it’s only fair to lower the bar for Barkley at least slightly heading into 2025. He remains in this top tier because he still performs at a high level and his overall workload should be among the best in the league after leading the position with 24.0 opportunities per game last season.
Jahmyr Gibbs is firmly in the overall RB1 conversation after continuously making the most of his opportunities as one of the league’s most efficient running backs. Gibbs, without David Montgomery last season, delivered at an elite pace, ranking as the overall RB1 in the three games that Montgomery missed at the end of last season. Expecting a larger workload for Gibbs as he’s proven to be more effective than Montgomery in key situations that Montgomery previously dominated (short yardage, goal-to-go) is a big part of his RB2 ranking heading into 2025.
The expectations that Ashton Jeanty brings with him coming out of the 2025 NFL Draft are nothing short of this RB4 overall ranking after being the clear 1.01 in rookie drafts. Even landing on a below-average offense like the Las Vegas Raiders, nothing is standing in Jeanty’s way of performing at an elite level with as ideal of a workload out of the backfield as any player is set up for heading into 2025. As one of the best running back prospects in recent years, there aren’t any concerning weaknesses in Jeanty’s game to say that he can’t continue to operate at a top-tier level even in the NFL, immediately thrusting him into this RB1 conversation.
Editor’s note: ADP Battle: Jahmyr Gibbs versus Ashton Jeanty
TIER 2: The veterans and youth with overall RB1 upside
This tier presents fantasy drafters with a couple of different options depending on how they want to approach the position. There are the established veterans with a history of elite production, like Derrick Henry or Christian McCaffrey. And for those who might want to avoid possible decline from those backs and target youth and upside, Bucky Irving and De’Von Achane are the best young options going outside the top tier.
Editor’s note: ADP Battle: Christian McCaffrey versus Derrick Henry
McCaffrey still offers elite upside if he’s able to get healthy and resume his high-end workload that allowed him to finish no worse than the overall RB2 four times in his NFL career. However, that question of health becomes greater as he gets older and the team might want to scale back that workload to ensure he’s healthy for a playoff run as well. Still, a healthy McCaffrey’s upside offers an ideal fantasy profile that would allow him to push for weekly RB1 finishes consistently as long as he’s in the lineup. Even with a lighter workload coming off injury, there’s room for McCaffrey to compile a ton of carries and targets in Kyle Shanahan’s offense and keep him firmly in RB1 territory.
Bucky Irving’s ranking of RB7 is slightly higher than consensus with the expectation that he takes on a larger workload in Year 2 and continues to play as well as he did as a rookie, if not better. Irving owned a top-10 rushing grade for his position last season as he took over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers backfield and increased his opportunities per game from 11.9 through the first nine weeks of the season to 18.9 in the latter half. Even as a smaller back, that usage translated to his work around the goal line, where he took 20 carries on the year and converted eight rushing touchdowns in those situations. Projecting Irving’s workload from the second half of last season across all of 2025 should result in his best fantasy season so far as a legitimate RB1 contender.
TIER 3: High-end workloads to consider for RB1
Each of the backs in this tier averaged no worse than 18.6 opportunities per game last season (Walker), while the other three all average more than 20 per game. Heading into 2025, expectations shouldn’t vary too much for this group and allow them to push for RB1 production.
With Kenneth Walker, specifically, he missed time in 2024 due to injury but that didn’t stop him from delivering a career year in terms of PFF rushing grade (91.3) – the fourth-best mark – as well as a new career high in missed tackles forced per attempt (0.40), the best mark in the league (min. 40 carries). Walker also took on a much larger role as a receiver last season, which he had previously ceded to Zach Charbonnet in 2023, resulting in a career high in total targets (52) as well. With Walker healthy and firmly atop the Seattle Seahawks depth chart, including on passing downs, he has the opportunity to push for his first-ever top-12 fantasy finish.
Jonathan Taylor comes in ranked lower than the consensus, as the concerns with his injury history remain a constant concern. Taylor has finished outside of the top-12 fantasy running backs in each of the past three seasons since finishing as the overall RB1 in 2021 in large part due to missed time. Even coming off a 300-plus-carry season in 2024, many of Taylor’s rushing metrics hit career lows, including rushing grade (64.1), yards after contact per attempt (2.68) and missed tackles forced per attempt (0.12). Taylor still has a chance to push for RB1 thanks to his workload and lesser competition out of the backfield, but the risk of injury and below-average play have RB1 expectations tempered for 2025.
TIER 4: RB2 territory
Several strong options at running back within this tier can potentially operate as a fantasy manager’s RB1 if they were waiting on the position and are no worse than reliable starting options as the best RB2 candidates this season.
Editor’s note: ADP Battle: Breece Hall versus James Cook
Breece Hall’s lower ranking is fueled by concerns of a more shared workload as this new coaching staff comes in looking to maximize the potential out of this backfield. Hall has not quite been able to bounce back to his pre-injury rookie form, and that includes this past season, where he delivered just a 68.7 rushing grade on the year. With Braelon Allen looking better on his limited opportunities as a rookie, it would not be a surprise to see this former Detroit Lions coaching staff show similar tendencies to the Gibbs and Montgomery deployment of these past two seasons. With Allen being a more effective runner overall last year and in goal-to-go and short-yardage situations, Hall losing out on those touches could ultimately limit his RB1 potential.
The Chicago Bears are set up to find high-end success in the run game with significant upgrades along the offensive line and Ben Johnson taking over as head coach. As a result, the Bears were expected to address the running back position early in the NFL draft, though they waited until the seventh round to select their first back, making D’Andre Swift one of the biggest veteran winners coming out of the NFL draft. Swift has experience as a high-volume runner these past two seasons, and while he has not been the most efficient back, he’s still the favorite to lead the backfield in Chicago this season, which should allow him to operate as a weekly fantasy starter as long as that’s the case.
TIER 5: Starting running back candidates with tempered expectations
Each of the backs within this tier has a legitimate shot to lead their respective team’s backfield in touches, though not necessarily at a high enough rate to push them into weekly RB1-2 territory.
The Pittsburgh Steelers offer an intriguing duo for fantasy, as they are expected to be one of the more run-heavy offenses in the league, so one of either Jaylen Warren or Kaleb Johnson emerging with the bulk of the carries could result in a much better fantasy season than this ranking would suggest. However, it’s looking more likely that there will be a split between the two, while Warren earns more looks on passing downs, which ultimately served as the tie-breaker between the two. With Aaron Rodgers stepping in at quarterback, this is significant as he has typically been among the league leaders in running back targets, including his past two full seasons where he’s ranked no worse than fourth in that regard, which would allow for a boost in Warren’s value should that continue to hold true.
The New England Patriots present a similar situation with a rookie running back and an established veteran who may have to share time, though in this case, the opportunity for early-down carries being in Rhamondre Stevenson’s favor gives him the likely edge over TreVeyon Henderson in 2025. In an offense run by Josh McDaniels, which has primarily split work on early downs and passing downs between two backs, Stevenson is in a better position to touch the ball, especially around the goal line, which he’s led the team in each of the past three seasons. Even with Henderson’s second-round capital, there’s also a four-year contract investment in Stevenson to contend with that isn’t likely to relegate him to a small role in 2025.
TIER 6: Backups with a path to snaps
None of the running backs within this tier are expected to be starters come Week 1, but they act as handcuffs to our clear starters. Some also have the potential to take over as the top back in certain situations for their respective teams but not enough of a role that they’ll be in weekly starter conversations.
Bhayshul Tuten is an intriguing rookie in this range as a new regime takes over in Jacksonville, where Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby weren’t overly effective last season, though Bigsby was at least better than Etienne last season. However, this new regime spent an early Day 3 pick on Tuten, who comes out of college with a strong profile for the position, which includes a 93.3 career rushing grade and 0.36 career forced missed tackles per attempt. After Liam Coen made a star out of fourth-rounder Bucky Irving last season, there is reason for optimism that he can find similar success with Tuten in Jacksonville.
TIER 7: Active on gameday but with limited opportunities
This news was originally published on this post .
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