2026 NFL Rookie Running Back Dynasty Rankings: Jeremiyah Love runs away with the RB1 crown
My 2026 NFL Draft tight end and quarterback rankings are already in the books. We’re on to running back. As always, these rankings are geared toward dynasty fantasy football formats, though I don’t have many differences between how I value players for real-life purposes and fantasy football.
Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame
No surprise here as Love is the runaway RB1 and a candidate to be selected in the first five picks of the NFL Draft. That alone makes him the clear 1.01 in dynasty drafts, including Superflex formats. The nine running backs who went top-10 since 2010 averaged 274 touches and 244 PPR points as rookies. Love’s profile falls in the back half of that cohort, but it’s good enough. Pure breakaway speed is his calling card. He ran for 1,372 yards in 2025 and 726 of them came on carries of 15+ yards. Love averaged 6.9 YPC in back-to-back seasons and then melted the turf at the NFL Combine with a 4.36 40-yard dash at 6’/212. He doesn’t have Alvin Kamara levels of agility, but Love makes defenses pay when they fail to bring him down.
He averaged 4.5 yards after contact per carry in 2025, which will likely be the best mark for any running back drafted this year. Love is a natural pass-catcher, but Notre Dame didn’t feed him through the air and he amassed just 280 yards on 27 grabs in 2025.
My concerns with Love from a fantasy perspective are two-fold. He didn’t dominate his backfield and he doesn’t have a special receiving profile. Love’s alibi for peaking at 199 touches is close to air-tight: He was playing alongside likely second-round pick Jadarian Price. Love out-carried an early Day Two running back —possibly even a Day 1 back if the Seahawks are feeling frisky — by over 80. Still, it’s hard to look past the fact that Love will be the first top-10 pick since Ronnie Brown to not hit 200 carries in a season. A player’s cut of their team’s touches correlates well with NFL success and Love doesn’t have that feather in his cap, even if his excuse is strong. Jahmyr Gibbs — a player Love is often compared to — overcame this via receiving production. Gibbs had a career receiving yardage share of 17 percent with a 2.5 yards per route run. Love only accounted for six percent of his team’s receiving yards at 1.6 YPRR.
Love doesn’t hold a candle to Ashton Jeanty or Bijan Robinson as a prospect for me. For fantasy purposes, that doesn’t matter all that much. He’s a good prospect who could have been a great one in a different situation and the NFL is valuing him as such. Jam him in your rookie drafts. Load up on him in Best Ball. At worst, sell him when he’s going as the 1.01 in dynasty startups down the road.
Emmet Johnson, Nebraska
Possibly the only true bellcow of the class, Johnson ranked top-five in the country in rush attempts (251) and yards (1,451) in 2025. He also added 46 catches for 370 yards and three scores. To find someone with more receptions than him, you need to scroll all the way down to Eli Heidenreich, who ranked 300th in the nation in carries. To no one’s surprise, Johnson’s 83 rushing yardage share is the best mark in the class (at least among FBS running backs in their final season). A 14 percent receiving yardage share is not bad either. For fantasy purposes, if we can pick out players who get the rock, we’re on the right path. Johnson is the best of this class in that regard.
His efficiency numbers are…not good. Johnson barely cracked the top 200 running backs in yards after contact at 2.95. The same is true of his 27.9 percent breakaway rate. He did rank top-50 in missed tackles forced per attempt, though the fact that he was forcing so many defenders to miss and still struggled to break long runs probably pencils him in for Njaee Harris-like NFL efficiency. He all but confirmed this with a 4.56 Forty at just 5’10/202.
The “coaches just love giving this guy the ball” archetype isn’t the most fun bet to make, but it’s one with a strong track record. Kyren Williams is the poster boy, but Sean Tucker and Zack Moss all come up as comparable players to Johnson in my writhing mass of spreadsheets.
Johnson’s tape shows an ‘underrated playmaker’
Connor Rogers breaks down the film on Nebraska’s star RB Emmett Johnson, who is able to make a play any way you want.
Jonah Coleman, Washington
Coleman is in the work-horse adjacent category. He peaked at 193 carries for 1,053 yards in 2024, good for a 71 percent yardage share. He got banged up late in the 2025 season and his numbers cratered to 156 carries for 758 yards, albeit with a whopping 15 touchdowns. Coleman was on pace for 205 carries, 1,044 yards, and 21 touchdowns before suffering an ankle injury in his ninth game of the year. He was also barreling toward 500 receiving yards and still finished with 354.
Coleman’s efficiency marks on the ground all hit three-year lows in 2025. Despite this, his 3.6 YAC per attempt and 33.4 percent breakaway rate both easily cleared Emmet Johnson’s numbers. Coleman was all the way up at 4.3 YAC in 2024 and he topped five in 2023, albeit on just 127 carries. Over half of his yards came on gains of 15+ in 2023, when he was still at Arizona.
At 5’8/220, Coleman doesn’t have the build of any current NFL back. That would be fine if we had athletic testing for him, but he opted against all measurements at the NFL Combine and his Pro Day. That leads me to believe he is a below-average athlete. Coleman won’t be drafted to compete for a starting role right away, but his flashes of efficiency and potential for earning volume are strong enough for me to bet on him as the RB3 of this class.
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The Fantasy Football Happy Hour crew break down Kenyon Sadiq and Jonah Coleman’s fantasy football potential ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Mike Washington, Arkansas
The rising star of the class, Washington bounced around multiple collegiate programs before posting his first and only 1,000-yard season at Arkansas in 2025. It was his fifth collegiate season. He averaged 3.9 yards after contact per attempt, good for 47th among all running backs, but his rate of .2 missed tackles forced per attempt leaves a lot ot be desired. He notched 17 carries of 15+ yards and ranked 30th in the nation in breakaway rate. Washington was also responsible for 72 percent of his team’s rushing yards and even added an extra 226 yards on 28 grabs.
Washington was an interesting flyer of a prospect before the combine. He changed that narrative at Indy with absurd testing numbers. Washington ripped off a 4.33 Forty at 6’1/223. That is the fastest time ever recorded at the modern NFL Combine for a player at or above Washington’s weight. A 39” vert and a 10’8” broad jump are also elite marks for a player as big as him.
His athletic measurables alone have secured him a spot on the second day of the draft. His production profile is underwhelming largely because of how long it took him to produce, but fantasy managers can take comfort in knowing that when he finally broke out, it was with solid efficiency against SEC competition. I think there’s more safety in the proven producers ranked ahead of him, but Washington could land on a team willing to give him a shot at a committee role right away, meaning there’s more room for him to rise in my post-draft rankings.
Jadarian Price, Notre Dame
Look, my hands are tied here. I view prospects via the numbers, spreadsheets, graphs, charts, so on, and so forth. There’s nuance to these things and I give myself leeway to inject the film analysis of ball-watchers into my own evaluations of prospects. But, with all that being said, it’s hard for me to get on board with Price as even a Day Two pick. Because he was playing second-fiddle to Jeremiyah Love, Price peaked at a 29 percent yardage share. He never saw more than 15 carries in a game and won’t play on passing downs in the pros. Price averaged .8 yards per route during his career and was graded outside of the top 250 running backs in pass blocking last year. His efficiency numbers on the ground are good, but not elite. He posted over 4.5 YAC per carry in each of his first two seasons but that dropped to 3.9 in 2025. His .26 missed tackles forced per attempt is underwhelming for a player who is occasionally mocked in the first round of the draft.
Like his Notre Dame teammate, Price will be drafted for his ability to hit the big play. A 45 percent breakaway rate in 2025 is solid and his 58.3 percent mark in 2024 nearly led the country. He took two kickoffs to the house in his final season and scored another return touchdown in 2023. While I think fantasy managers (and NFL teams) tend to overvalue athletic testing, it wasn’t ideal for him to run a 4.49 at 5’11/203. That’s far from slow, but it’s not blazing either. Without an otherworldly athletic profile to fall back on, you have to squint to see a high-level fantasy producer. It will be much easier to buy the hype if he locks in early second-round or even first-round draft capital. Until then, consider me skeptical.
Simms’ RB draft rankings: No. 2 Jadarian Price
Chris Simms and Connor Rogers break down why Notre Dame’s Jadarian Price has the vision and speed to make him a highly sought-after running back for the 2026 NFL Draft.
Kaytron Allen, Penn State
Allen was an underdog to lead the Nittany Lions in carries at basically any point in his career when he first joined the program. Allen was a highly recruited prospect, but he was brought in alongside five-star back and RB1 of the class Nick Singleton. Despite this, Allen quickly took over lead-back duties and never let go, running for a school record 4,180 yards over four seasons. His workload slowly grew every year before making a big leap in 2025, when he averaged 17.5 carries per game while setting a career-high in YPC at 6.2. He also punched in 15 scores on the ground. His 40 percent breakaway rate and 3.8 YAC per attempt in 2025 were both strong marks, albeit not elite.
Allen is also a non-factor in the passing game, meaning his rushing production is all we’re getting in the pros. That bet is more shaky after he opted out of athletic testing at the combine or Penn State’s Pro Day. A minor consolation prize is that Allen’s 5’11/216 frame is more than enough for high-volume duties in the NFL. The lack of receiving work or elite speed will be limiting factors for him in the pros, but Allen strikes me as the type of physical, well-rounded runner that coaches love to give the ball to. This is a Tyler Allgeier or Gus Edwards bet, in a complementary way.
Eli Heidenriech, Navy
I don’t know what to do with Heidenreich. I doubt the NFL does either. Heidenreich isn’t big for an NFL back, but he’s big enough, especially given his straight-line speed and incredible agility. This, plus his receiving profile, has naturally garnered a singular NFL comparison.
McCaffrey, of course, was lightyears ahead of Heidenreich as a prospect, but the athletic profile is there. Playing fullback at Navy, Heidenreich split his time almost evenly between receiver and running back or fullback. He ran 77 times for 499 yards and three scores in 2025. On top of that, Heidenreich caught 51 passes for 941 yards and six touchdowns. He went for 671 receiving yards in the previous season with a similar rushing line. Heidenreich posted 6.8 career yards per carry, but his mark of 3.5 YAC per attempt isn’t awfully impressive. A 40.1 percent breakaway is strong, but becomes less notable when you consider how weak Navy’s competition is. As a pass-catcher, his metrics are off the charts, even for a wide receiver. He averaged 4.7 yards per route run in 2025. That mark would have led all wideouts. The gap between him and the No. 2 player is the same as the gap between the No. 2 and No. 26 players. His 7.1 YAC per catch would have ranked top-50 in the country. Heidenreich accounted for 56 percent of the Midshipmen’s receiving yards, a mark none of the top wideouts in this class even came close to.
Tony Pollard entered the NFL with a similar profile and ultimately found a role as true running back, though it took some time. That would be a great outcome for Heidenreich, and it’s more likely that he goes the way of fellow Navy legend Keenan Reynolds, who never gained traction in the NFL. Heidenreich could also convert to wide receiver, where he would look like Curtis Samuel, making him far less appealing for fantasy purposes.
Nick Singleton, Penn State
As previously mentioned, Singleton never escaped the shadow of Kaytron Allen, but he did carve out a role as Penn State’s change-of-pace back and their primary option on passing downs. He topped 1,000 yards at over six yards per carry in two different seasons and went for 308 receiving yards as a sophomore, followed by 375 as a junior. Singleton also scored five receiving touchdowns in 2024 and returned kicks in all four seasons as a Nittany Lion. He left Penn State with career marks of 9.5 yards after the catch per reception and 1.3 yards per route run, which was largely weighed down by an inefficient freshman season. On the ground, Allen averaged a strong 4.2 YAC per carry with a 56.5 percent breakaway rate in his first season. He never came close to matching those numbers again and his final two seasons were dreadfully inefficient.
Allen didn’t test at the NFL Combine or Penn State’s Pro Day, but not because he wouldn’t have done well. Singleton made Bruce Feldman’s Freak List last fall. For reference, these were the top skill position players of the 2026 draft class on his list:
- Kenyon Sadiq – 9.52
- Eli Stowers – 9.42
- Nick Singleton – NA
- Bryce Lance – 9.95
- Marlin Klein – 9.04
Feldman knows his stuff and it’s safe to assume Singleton would have also put up phenomenal testing numbers. At 6’/219, Singleton’s blend of size, athleticism, and pass-catching production should be extremely intriguing for fantasy managers. However, his modest rushing production and recent efficiency downswing point toward him being a committee back in the pros.
Adam Randall, Clemson
Another HB/WR hybrid, Randall only made the switch to full-time running back in the last game of the 2024 season. He took over the backfield in 2025, running for 814 yards and 10 scores on 168 attempts. Randall wasn’t particularly efficient, averaging 4.8 YPC with just 3.2 YAC per attempt. The struggling Clemson offense is partially at fault for that. Randall flashed his kick returner’s speed as a runner, but he came away from the year with just eight carries of 15+ yards. He also averaged under one yard per route despite his receiver background.
At 6’3/232, Randal is built like a throwback runner. A 4.5 Forty is impressive for that size, but it seems like he’ll need a year or more to learn the nuances of the position, namely pass pro and vision. Though he’s a much larger player, those were the same hurdles Tyrone Tracy faced coming into the NFL. After being usurped by Cam Skattebo after one year and a few weeks, it’s safe to say the success of the Tracy experiment was short-lived.
Seth McGowan, Kentucky
McGowan’s career started at Oklahoma but was almost immediately derailed when he was arrested on charges of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He later pled guilty to a felony charge of larceny of a person at nighttime and was dismissed from the football team. McGowan spent three months in prison and then returned to football for two years at the JUCO level. He saw 58 carries as a freshman in 2020 and didn’t see another carry at the FBS level until 2024, when he joined New Mexico State. McGowan ran for 823 yards and was then called up to the SEC at Kentucky, where he added another 725 yards to his resume.
McGowan showed a lot of promise at New Mexico State, averaging .31 missed tackles forced per attempt with 3.8 YAC per carry. He also posted 1.8 yards per route run and accounted for 16 percent of the Aggies’ passing output. All of those numbers cratered at Kentucky. He did save face at the combine with a 4.49 Forty at 6/223. He also jumped out of the building with a 42.5” vert and a 10’11” broad, both of which led all running backs in the class. McGowan is the rare age-24 prospect who still needs to get more reps. He is a great athlete who has shown flashes of potential, but I’m likely going to be out on him in rookie drafts based on his age and weak production profile.
