RB Rankings

Much like Christian McCaffrey going from Carolina to San Francisco or Derrick Henry swapping Tennessee for Baltimore, the switch from the Giants to the Eagles last season made a huge difference in Barkley's output. He's always been a high-volume RB, but efficiency was an impossible task at times in New York while dealing with lousy blocking and poor QBs. It turns out Barkley is a lot harder to tackle when he has an elite offensive line and competent passing game giving the defense something additional to worry about. He improved from 3.9 YPC in his last year with the Giants to 5.8 in 2024, propelled by a sharp increase in big plays. Barkley's carries of 20-plus and 40-plus yards, respectively, rose from seven and zero in 2023 to 17 and seven last year. It's likely not sustainable for Barkley to average a 40-plus carry every two or three weeks the way he did in his first season with Philadelphia, but the conditions that made him so productive remain intact, as it will always be profoundly difficult for defenses to show a proper amount of respect to Barkley, QB Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia wide receivers at the same time.

Almost everything about Henry is implausible, and while other running backs might have been subjected to rules of physical decline by now, Henry showed no signs of slowing down even after turning 30 last year. Indeed, Henry's 2024 season was the most explosive yet in his Hall of Fame career, featuring career highs for carries of 20-plus yards (19) and 40-plus yards (five). With Lamar Jackson serving as a lightning rod on the edge, defenses found themselves spread too thin to account for Henry as an inside runner. When defenses sold out to slow the resulting damage from Henry, they found themselves lacking personnel to deal with the contain-breaking threat posed by Jackson. Perhaps defenses come up with some kind of solution, but it generally appears to be an issue of insufficient resources – namely, it may require more than 11 defenders to control the space that Jackson and Henry combine to threaten before any given snap. As always, the main limitation with Henry is that he won't play much in passing situations and won't catch many passes relative to the other running backs taken early in fantasy drafts.

Robinson was a rock in 2024 and demonstrated league-leading fantasy upside, crossing the rare combined threshold of 300 carries and 60 receptions, with plus efficiency both as a runner and receiver. That he accomplished this even in a somewhat dysfunctional Atlanta offense makes it worth pondering what Robinson might do if the Falcons were to improve. Even if things don't get better with Michael Penix at quarterback, Robinson already demonstrated in 2024 that he doesn't need good luck to compete for the RB1 distinction in fantasy. Robinson has produced with uncommon efficiency and elusiveness despite facing crowded boxes, pushing for 5.0 YPC even while having just five carries of more than 20 yards. Robinson has yet to log a 40-yard carry in the NFL — a trend that seems unlikely to persist given the abundance of other explosive indicators. He has the speed to split safeties (4.46 40) and the size (5-foot-11, 215 pounds) to run them over, and he's already shown a volume ceiling that few backs can match. Adding a few more big plays on similar volume might be enough to make Robinson the top scorer for fantasy in any given year.

Gibbs' rookie season was already excellent and set him up for even higher expectations in 2024, yet it's safe to say Gibbs exceeded those expectations. He held up for all 17 weeks, including a three-game span in the fantasy playoffs when Gibbs took on a workhorse role while David Montgomery (knee) sat out. It's true that Gibbs wouldn't have had quite as many touches in 2024 if not for Montgomery's injury -- and in general the Lions prefer dividing touches between the two RBs -- but Gibbs was so dominant in Montgomery's absence that it may impact the workload split for 2025 under new offensive coordinator John Morton. As much as Gibbs' carry count might decline if Montgomery stays healthy, it's worth remembering that (A) Gibbs will likely always be among the league leaders in yards and touchdowns per carry, slightly offsetting any volume limitations, and (B) Gibbs showed a new level of pass-catching upside in 2024 and might push for 60-plus catches after logging 52 in both of his NFL seasons.

Between his high-ankle sprains and the sprawling dysfunction of the Colts offense the last two years, it's been a while since Taylor demonstrated what he's truly capable of. Unfortunately for him, Taylor isn't eligible for the change-of-scenery glow-up that Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry all benefited from in recent years. Whatever Taylor accomplishes will likely need to be done in spite of the Colts offense. The high-ankle injuries he suffered both of the last two years are a legitimate, mounting concern, and it makes sense that Taylor would be subjected to more leg stress given how he forces defenders to pile on to bring him down. Meanwhile, it'll be easy for defenses to key on Taylor if the Colts continue to get terrible QB play from Anthony Richardson (and/or Daniel Jones). The good news is that Taylor really is a compelling threat from scrimmage, similar to guys like McCaffrey, Barkley and Henry, so if the Colts turn out better than expected so should Taylor's fantasy fortunes. It's just difficult to give Indianapolis much benefit of the doubt on that front, especially when defenses know their weekly mission is to sell out to stop Taylor.