Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- Our 2026 NFL running back rankings are out, capturing the league's resurgence at the position after a standout 2025 season.
- Saquon Barkley cracks the top five, but might be lower than most people think.
- Three historic RB talents are at the top of our list.
The NFL is going through a little bit of a running back resurgence right now. In 2024, the Eagles made it to the postseason on Saquon Barkley’s gigantic legs, and the best offensive player in the entire 2025 postseason was Kenneth Walker III. Offenses are taking advantage of the lighter, quicker players in Nickel defenses and slaughtering them with their Clydesdales… and it’s incredibly fun to watch.
The honorable mentions are: Kenneth Walker III, Javonte Williams, Ashton Jeanty, and D’Andre Swift. Those guys have all put together some rock-solid seasons, but they don’t quite have the resume to break into the top 10. It's offseason ranking time, baby! And we're into the best running backs in the league now.
10. Breece Hall, Jets
- Contract: Three years, $45.7 million (through 2029)
- 2025 Stats: 243 carries, 1,065 yards, 4 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Best player on the Jets
If it weren’t for him being the third-highest-paid running back in the NFL, you’d almost have to feel bad for Breece Hall. It’s looking a whole lot like he’s going to be just another one of those running backs who waste their careers with a bad team.
He’s probably never going to put up the biggest numbers or do the most impressive things as a Jet, but you have to give the guy his props for being the most consistent and effective guy on that offense.
He’s running behind a bottom-tier offensive line, on an offense that is allergic to success, and there’s never been a consistent passing game to give him any kind of a reprieve… But he still rocks.
9. Kyren Williams, Rams
- Contract: Three years, $33 million (through 2028)
- 2025 Stats: 259 carries, 1,252 yards, 10 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Highest success rate in 2025
It’s kind of easy to overlook Kyren Williams. Sean McVay runs one of the most prolific passing offenses that we’ve ever seen, and it feels like he wants to have a running back by committee… but Williams has been undeniable.
He’s had some very different workloads in each of the past three seasons. In 2023, he had 55.1% of the running back carries. In 2024, it was 79.6%, and in 2025, it was 62.7%.
Those numbers don’t really matter because each season he rushed for over 1,000 yards and had double-digit touchdowns. If he gets the ball, good things are going to happen. They might not be the most explosive runs or the coolest runs, but he’s unbelievably good at getting the yards that he needs to keep the offense moving. That’s what matters most in a running game like McVay’s.
8. De’Von Achane, Dolphins
- Contract: Rookie contract
- 2025 Stats: 238 carries, 1,350 yards, 8 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Most Yards After Contact (per run)
If you recall, the Dolphins' season started terribly, but there was a second where it looked like they might be turning things around. That's because they stopped letting Tua Tagovailoa be the centerpiece of their offense and instead let De’Von Achane run the show.
If you have a problem with him being in the top 10, just know that he made Miami's offense watchable… and that’s the biggest compliment you can give a person.
7. James Cook, Bills
- Contract: Four years, $46 million (through 2029)
- 2025 Stats: 309 carries, 1,621 yards, 12 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: 2025 rushing title
You wouldn’t think that the running back on a Josh Allen offense was the most dynamic playmaker, but sure enough, James Cook was.
In hindsight, he made a really bad decision when he held out during the beginning of training camp last season. He ended up signing a contract that pays him $11.5 million per year… and then he went on to have the most rushing yards of any running back in the NFL.
That means instead of being paid top-five running back money, he’s now the 11th-highest-paid guy. That’s rough, because he’s awesome.
6. Jonathan Taylor, Colts
- Contract: Three years, $42 million (through 2026)
- 2025 Stats: 323 carries. 1,585 yards, 18 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Four three-rushing-touchdown games in 2025
Consider yourself lucky: There was a good chunk of the 2025 season where Jonathan Taylor was outpacing Saquon Barkley’s 2024 season. If he had kept that up, there would have been a lot of chatter this offseason about which one of those two guys is better.
That doesn’t stop Taylor from being an absolute menace. The guy had the most multi-touchdown games this season of any running back, and a lot of that was due to him being able to score from anywhere on the field.
He had six touchdowns that were more than 10 yards. Three of them were more than 30 yards, and two of those were 80+ yards. Getting explosive runs is impressive; getting explosive runs consistently is season-changing.
5. Derrick Henry, Ravens
- Contract: Two years, $30 million (through 2027)
- 2025 Stats: 307 carries, 1,595 yards, 16 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: 10th most career rushing yards in NFL history (13,018)
If you’re one of the nine people in the history of football who have rushed for over 2,000 yards, you’re going to be considered one of the best running backs in the NFL for as long as you’re playing.
Every single year, someone tries to say that it’s going to be the year Derrick Henry falls off, and every single year, that person ends up looking like a ding-dong. He’s 32 years old, and he’s another one of those freaks of nature that you’d be smart to bet on until two years after he decides to retire.
I’m not going to let a rough 2025 season keep the most dominant running back of the past decade out of the top five. By the way, a rough season for Henry was the second-most rushing yards and the second-most rushing touchdowns. That’s one hell of a floor.
4. Jahmyr Gibbs, Lions
- Contract: Rookie contract + fifth-year option
- 2025 Stats: 243 carries, 1,223 yards, 13 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: The most fun player in the NFL.
It’s a tight race between the second, third, and fourth-best running backs. Jahmyr Gibbs ended up going fourth, but it’s more about the other guys ahead of him rather than Gibbs not doing enough.
When you think about players in the NFL with the highest approval rating, Gibbs is one of the first five people that you have to think of. He goes out there, handles business, runs incredibly fast, makes guys miss… and then sometimes he doesn’t score, and David Montgomery comes in and gets the short-yardage touchdown.
But you never hear Gibbs moan and complain about it. Instead, it seemed like he bought into the ‘Sonic and Knuckles’ thing that they had going on and cultivated immaculate vibes.
Now, Montgomery is gone, and Gibbs is going to have (or should have) the backfield to himself, more or less. That’s a good thing for everyone because football is infinitely more fun when Jahmyr Gibbs has the ball in his hands.
3. Saquon Barkley, Eagles
- Contract: Two years, $41.2 million (through 2028)
- 2025 Stats: 280 carries, 1,140 yards, 7 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Rushed for the most yards in a complete season in NFL history
Of all of these top-10 guys, Saquon Barkley had the worst 2025, but it really didn’t seem like it was all his fault.
The thing that worked for him when he was with the Giants was that he was able to make something out of nothing… And he got a whole lot of nothing because his offensive lines were terrible. Then he went to Philadelphia in 2024 and played behind one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. He didn’t have to make plays by himself anymore. Instead, he was able to stay behind his blocks and only worry about making linebackers and defensive backs miss.
He did just that at a lethal level and rushed for 2,000 yards in the regular season, and rushed for the most yards that anyone has ever rushed for in a complete season (2,504), was the Offensive Player of the Year, and he won a Super Bowl. Then 2025 came...
The Eagles' O-Line had some big-time injuries that they tried to play through (probably because they run-blocked over 430 times the year prior), and it just wasn’t working. The blocks that Barkley followed in 2024 weren’t there, and he kept on getting hit behind the line of scrimmage. Every once in a while, we’d see him freelance like he did in New York, but it really seemed like he was trying to trust the run scheme, and he held back.
Regardless, he’s got the resume to be a top-three running back, and he’s got the upside of being the best running back… because we’ve seen him have the best season that a running back has ever had.
2. Bijan Robinson, Falcons
- Contract: Rookie contract + fifth-year option
- 2025 Stats: 287 carries, 1,478 yards, 7 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Most scrimmage yards in 2025 (2,298 yards)
The common theme in almost every single Bijan Robinson highlight (of which there are almost infinite) is that he embarrasses people. Multiple times in a game, someone will have him dead to rights, and then he’ll make a move that makes them look like a baby giraffe learning to walk… And then he turns on the burners and goes for another 15 yards.
Kevin Stefanski is his new head coach, and when he’s had those elite-tier running backs in the past (like Nick Chubb), he kind of lets them just run rampant. Hopefully, that’s what he does with Robinson this year, because the more of him, the better.
1. Christian McCaffrey, 49ers
- Contract: Two years, $38 million (through 2027)
- 2025 Stats: 311 carries, 1,202 yards, 10 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Pro-Bowl, All-Pro, Rushing Title Winner, Offensive Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Demi-God.
There isn’t a non-quarterback who is more important to their team than Christian McCaffrey. Hell, if he were on probably 16 other teams, he would be the most important player on their team.
When he’s healthy, there’s a good chance that you’ll be talking about him as one of the top five football players on the planet. In 2023, he was a first-team All-Pro, third in MVP voting, and the offensive player of the year. In 2025, he was an All-Pro, fourth in MVP voting, second in OPOY voting, and he was the Comeback Player of the Year.
He’s going to play until the wheels fall off, then he’ll slap them on and play two more years. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being a punter at some point… and then forcing a fumble on that punt. He’s so awesome.
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