5 Rookie Running Back Sleepers: Undervalued RBs to Target and Draft

Mitch Blatt's fantasy football rookie running back sleepers for the 2025 season. His top undervalued RBs for dynasty fantasy football drafts, redraft leagues, and best ball.

Sleeper running backs can make a big impact in fantasy football even if they lack draft capital. Last season, fourth-round pick Bucky Irving and fifth-rounder Tyrone Tracy Jr. both finished as top-26 running backs.

Twenty-five running backs were drafted in this year’s extremely strong draft class. While the big names are getting the most attention, here are five running backs being drafted in the 16th round or later of fantasy drafts who could unexpectedly break out in their rookie seasons.

These under-the-radar rookies could end up being steals for your 2025 fantasy squad.

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Brashard Smith, RB, Kansas City Chiefs

FFPC Championship Average Draft Position (ADP)- 183

The Chiefs' future situation at running back is uncertain as Isiah Pacheco enters the final year of his rookie contract. Pacheco was just a seventh-round draft pick, and despite him producing relatively well, the Chiefs don’t need him. There has been talk that they could focus more on the downfield pass this season.

Pacheco was disappointing after suffering a leg injury in Week 2. He only averaged 3.7 yards per carry, including 1.5 after contact, both career lows.

Like Tracy, Smith transitioned from WR to RB. After three seasons at Miami, in which Smith accumulated 770 receiving yards, he transferred to SMU and ran for 1,332 yards on 235 carries.

Woody Marks, RB, Houston Texans

FFPC Championship ADP- 193

Marks is a skilled receiving back who joins a strong offensive team that lacks a quality RB2. During his five-year career, he caught 214 passes and set a record with catches in 45 straight games.

Dameon Pierce has been phased out after averaging just 3.7 yards per carry in his first two seasons. Pierce only carried the ball 40 times last season, and his success rate was a dismal 42.5%.

Joe Mixon has been a workhorse for most of his career, but do the Texans want him to carry the ball 250 times again when he’s 29 years old?

Jordan James, RB, San Francisco 49ers

FFPC Championship ADP- 218

Jordan James was an agile runner who could find space in tight quarters. He hits the hole hard for his 205-pound size. His highlight tape shows him knocking down defenders trying to tackle him.

In three years at Oregon, James ran for 2,215 yards and scored 31 touchdowns. As a sophomore, he averaged 7.1 yards per attempt, which was the most in the Pac-12 that year.

The Niners traded with the Commanders to move up to draft James early in the fifth round. Christian McCaffrey is 28 years old, and he has suffered many leg injuries. After missing the first eight games of last season with an Achilles sprain, he was back for just four games before a torn PCL ended his season.

Since 2020, McCaffrey has only played 16 or more games in a season twice. When he was on the field, CMC was not his usual self; he only averaged 4.0 yards per carry. James could get an opportunity.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt, RB, Washington Commanders

FFPC Championship ADP- 256

Croskey-Merritt was only drafted in the seventh round, but he was the first running back that new general manager Adam Peters ever picked. Returning running backs Austin Ekeler and Brian Robinson Jr. are both in the last years of their contracts.

Ekeler is 30 years old and has had durability issues. Robinson is known for being a plodding back who hasn’t improved since his rookie season.

Croskey-Merritt performed well at the combine, topping 83% of all running backs in the 40-yard dash and the broad jump and hitting the 99th percentile in the vertical jump.

He played for the Division I-AA Alabama State Hornets before transferring to New Mexico in 2023, his only full season of FBS football. That year, he rushed for 1,190 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2023 at New Mexico.

He missed all but one game last season because of an investigation into his eligibility stemming from his FCS playing time. Still, he was graded by PFF as the second-best running back (behind RJ Harvey) at the East-West Shrine Bowl and named MVP after rushing for 97 yards and two touchdowns.

Phil Mafah, RB, Dallas Cowboys

FFPC Championship ADP- 333

What Mafah lacks in breakaway speed, he makes up for in raw power. He stands at a towering 6-foot-1 and weighs 234 pounds.

As good as his production was at Clemson (1,115 yards and eight touchdowns on 216 carries), those numbers could have been better if he had not been playing for half the season with a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery.

Former Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle left for the Panthers, and he was replaced by just Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders. But Sanders played so poorly last season that he lost his backup job to Raheem Blackshear and Mike Boone. Williams gets worse with each passing year.

The Cowboys also drafted Jaydon Blue in the fifth round, two rounds ahead of Mafah. Both are potential sleepers who could have big opportunities as rookies because of the wide-open nature of the Dallas running back room. They have different skill sets, and they could complement each other as Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard did.

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