2026 Fantasy Football Rankings: Top 10 Running Backs for 2026 Drafts

January 19, 2026

Justin's early 2026 running back fantasy football rankings - his top 10 RBs for 2026 drafts. These are the top fantasy RBs who will be drafted early in 2026.

In this article we'll be looking at some early 2026 fantasy football rankings - top 10 running backs. It's never too early to speculate. Well...I guess in many cases, it is. Like, there's no use speculating on Jan. 1 what the best album of 2026 will be when you don't even know what albums are coming out that year, for example. But we do know, for the most part, what players will be in the NFL next year, and while team changes and the upcoming NFL Draft mean we don't have the full context of things, we have enough to make some educated guesses.

Today, I want to speculate not on how the 2026 season will go, but on where the fantasy community will stand right before the 2026 season starts. I'm not predicting the top 10 running backs for 2026, but instead am predicting who I expect to be the top 10 running backs in ADP once 2026 redraft leagues start drafting next summer.

Let's predict the top 10 fantasy football running backs for 2026 fantasy drafts. Will there be any surprises? Could a rookie end up breaking through and making this list? Keep reading to find out.

10. Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagles

Saquon Barkley goes down as arguably the biggest disappointment in the NFL. One year after rushing for over 2,000 yards, Barkley plummeted back to earth, rushing for 1,140 yards through the first 16 games of the season. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry last season, but is at just 4.1 yards per carry this season.

Some of this is because of the offensive scheme. Jalen Hurts has his fewest rushing attempts since his rookie season, and defenses are realizing that Philly wants Hurts to throw more. That takes away an important element that helped Barkley last season, which is the ability to confuse the defense on option plays. Add in offensive line injuries and just normal wear and tear on a veteran running back, and it adds up to a major regression.

Saquon Barkley’s last four games —

◽️400 rushing yards
◽️4.9 yards/carry
◽️3 touchdowns pic.twitter.com/kbsSdAAL4Y

— Victor Williams (@ThePhillyPod) December 30, 2025

Still, Barkley is an immense talent who happens to be ending 2025 on a strong note, and fantasy managers will talk their way back into him as a top 10 running back pick next year. It's risky because it feels like we're getting to the downslope of Barkley's NFL career, but he still carries major name recognition, which will push his ADP up among casual fantasy players.

9. Omarion Hampton, Los Angeles Chargers

Recency bias matters when it comes to determining who gets a hype train. The fact that Omarion Hampton is seeing so much usage now that he's back on the field is definitely going to factor into how fantasy managers view him next season.

It also helps that no one is going to trust any other Chargers running back. There's only one star in this draft class, and Los Angeles has plenty of things it should spend its cap space on that aren't one of the top free-agent backs, so Hampton should enter 2026 as the undisputed lead back.

8. Jeremiyah Love, TBA

This is the biggest wild card at the moment. We have a very weak 2026 rookie running back class coming up, minus Jeremiyah Love, who has star potential. That might push him up into the top 10 of the 2026 NFL Draft, where there are teams that could definitely use a running back.

Landing spot will matter, though. New Orleans, where he'll potentially share the backfield with Alvin Kamara, assuming Kamara doesn't retire? That depresses his value, and he won't have a top 10 ADP. Somewhere like Kansas City or, if he drops more than expected, Minnesota or Carolina? Then he likely has a clear runway to huge snaps, and he'll certainly have a top-10 ADP. It just depends on how the draft goes.

7. Ashton Jeanty, Las Vegas Raiders

Ashton Jeanty's disappointing rookie season means his ADP likely goes down a bit next year, but I think by the time actual drafts come around, we'll talk ourselves back into him as an early second-round pick due to his upside.

GENO TO JEANTY FOR THE 60-YARD TD!

LVvsHOU on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXnxV pic.twitter.com/k8CknFOEcy

— NFL (@NFL) December 21, 2025

Everything went wrong this year in Vegas. The moves to bring in head coach Pete Carroll and veteran quarterback Geno Smith were both utter failures, and now the team looks set for a rebuild with a rookie quarterback and a new head coach.

Change can be tough for young players, and I need to see who is coaching these Raiders before I know if I personally will want to draft Jeanty at his 2026 ADP, but I expect people will mostly say "things have to get better" and "we can't ignore the talent," and he'll be drafted around RB7.

6. James Cook, Buffalo Bills

James Cook deserves to be drafted as a top-5 running back, but it feels like he's eternally underrated when draft season arrives, so my guess is that despite rushing for over 1,600 yards this season, he ends up going around RB6.

Let James Cook 🧑‍🍳 pic.twitter.com/QRvcqHBvwk

— NFL (@NFL) December 31, 2025

I get some of the hesitancy. His numbers this year are great, but they're also a pretty big outlier from the rest of his career, so it's fair to be concerned he might not hit them again. At the same time, Cook has proven he can be an elite NFL running back, and he'll still be 26 years old when next season begins.

5. Jonathan Taylor, Indianapolis Colts

I would take Cook over Jonathan Taylor if we were drafting right now with zero hesitation, but this feels like a case where Taylor's name recognition and the fact that he's coming off a campaign where he led the NFL in rushing touchdowns will win out over Cook's productivity.

The big concern here is workload. Taylor will enter this offseason having led the NFL in carries twice in his first six seasons and with a third 300-plus carry season on his resume as well. Of the three times he didn't hit that mark, two were because he missed time with an injury. Taylor's a great player, but I worry his ADP is going to creep too high.

4. De'Von Achane, Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins are a mess, but De'Von Achane keeps producing, rushing for 60 or more yards in 11 consecutive games. He has a career-high 238 carries through the first 16 games of the season and leads the NFL in yards per attempt.

Achane is still young, and it's clear he's really starting to hit his stride, but I do think some fantasy managers will be scared off by some things, which keep him out of the top three. First, workload. Yes, he's gotten the most carries of his career, but he only ranks 12th in the NFL in rushing attempts. That's above Jahmyr Gibbs, but Gibbs has been a touchdown machine since entering the league in a way Achane hasn't been.

Then there's the situation in Miami. Who'll be the head coach? If it's not Mike McDaniel, will that new coach use Achane the way he was used this season, or will he cede some rushing attempts to someone else? Will Tua Tagovailoa be back at quarterback, or could the team make a move for a different starter? If they make a move, how will that impact Achane? There are a lot of moving parts.

3. Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers

One day, Christian McCaffrey will stop being an elite NFL running back, but that day is still in the future. McCaffrey heads into Week 18 with over 2,000 scrimmage yards for the third time in his career and the second time in the past three seasons.

Plenty of people avoided McCaffrey in the draft this past season because of concerns he wouldn't bounce back from a 2024 season where he played just four games, sandwiched in between tendonitis to start the season and a PCL sprain to end it.

It's been good to see McCaffrey play like this, and his long track history of production is going to lead fantasy managers to draft him as a top-3 fantasy running back. He's definitely the riskiest of the presumed top three, though, and the most likely to drop back by draft time if people start to worry too much that he's approaching his production cliff.

2. Jahmyr Gibbs, Detroit Lions

Jahmyr Gibbs wasn't immune to the Lions' regression after losing offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to the Bears, but he still averaged over five yards per carry for the third time in his three-year NFL career. He's also hit double-digit rushing touchdowns in each of his seasons, and he went over 500 receiving yards for the second season in a row.

Like with Achane, there are concerns about low workload not giving him enough opportunities, but as long as he keeps producing at such a high level with the touches that he does get, then I imagine fantasy managers will remain happy. He'll post a couple of stinkers along the way, but he can also single-handedly win you a week of fantasy football.

1. Bijan Robinson, Atlanta Falcons

No surprise here, as Bijan Robinson will almost certainly be the clear 1.01 in 2026 drafts, barring some kind of unforeseen circumstance.

Despite sharing a backfield with one of the league's best No. 2 backs, Tyler Allgeier, Robinson enters Week 18 with an NFL-best 2,255 scrimmage yards and 11 touchdowns. He's been virtually unstoppable, and there's good reason to think he'll have even more opportunities next season.

Bijan Robinson has been incredible this season 😤 pic.twitter.com/sclfnd2Nvj

— NFL on Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) December 31, 2025

Should you be a bit worried about long-term sustainability if his workload increases in 2026? Sure, but we're talking redraft here, not dynasty, so that worry doesn't need to impact things. Robinson is the top fantasy running back heading into next season and should be universally drafted as such.

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