Dynasty Fantasy Football: Running Backs To Buy Or Sell (2026)

March 2, 2026

Andrew's fantasy football running backs to buy or sell ahead of the 2026 dynasty season. Which RBs should you avoid and which should you target in trades?

How do you maximize dynasty fantasy football trade value in the offseason?

Things change at a much slower pace than the regular season, but there are significant calendar events that you can time out to get the best return. Free agency begins on March 11th. The NFL Draft follows on April 23rd. For some players, it makes more sense to buy before roster transactions. For others, it's best to wait and see.

Let's keep all that in mind and dive into dynasty fantasy football running back buys and sells for the 2026 season.

Buy: Tyler Allgeier, Atlanta Falcons

Tyler Allgeier's promising rookie campaign (1,035 rushing yards, 4.9 yards per carry) was derailed by the addition of a generational talent at his position. Allgeier now has the opportunity to step out of Bijan Robinson's shadow in another backfield.

The 25-year-old is a lower-cost, valuable option in this deep free-agent running back class. More money will be spent on Breece Hall, Travis Etienne Jr., and Kenneth Walker III. While he may not get a backfield to himself (unless Seattle replaces Walker with Allgeier while Zach Charbonnet recovers), he could lead a committee next season.

Of the rumored destinations, a reunion with offensive coordinator Zac Robinson in Tampa Bay would be less than ideal. He'd essentially be playing a hybrid Rachaad White-Sean Tucker role to Bucky Irving. The red-zone looks may be there, and that's something Allgeier excels at (he accounted for almost half of Atlanta's rushes inside the 10 last season and converted 19 of those attempts into six touchdowns), but he'd be, at best, a change-of-pace for Irving and a touchdown-or-bust fantasy option.

Tyler Allgeier opens up the scoring with authority 😤

BUFvsATL on ESPN
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN App pic.twitter.com/1zwXODTz1P

— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2025

Las Vegas, as a second fiddle to Ashton Jeanty, is also not the best landing spot. But what if he winds up in, say, the nation's capital? They're a running-back-needy team with a proven track record of fantasy success.

The point is, Allgeier's stock can't fall. If he returns to Atlanta (as unlikely as that may seem right now) or lands in Tampa Bay or Las Vegas, he's one of the best insurance running backs in the league. Finalizing a trade before free agency is key because he's only likely to cost more after mid-March.

Sell: Woody Marks, Houston Texans

No running back better fits the "sell" criteria than Woody Marks:

1. He's 25 years old, entering his second professional season.
2. He has Day 3 NFL draft capital.
3. Most of his rookie season success was built on volume, not efficiency.

That's not to say he won't be a contributor in the Houston backfield for next season and beyond. The Texans did, after all, spend a third-round pick in this upcoming draft to move up and select Marks in the fourth round last April, so they obviously valued him enough as a prospect to make that deal. However, the intent was, seemingly, never for Marks to be the lead runner.

Joe Mixon (it's easy to forget he exists, as he sat out the season with very few injury updates throughout) was the initial choice. Nick Chubb was brought in as the backup option. Predictably, the 30-year-old with a history of devastating injuries didn't have much left in his legs. Still, it took Marks about half of the season to overtake Chubb as the starter.

Once he did, he was in the fringe RB2/flex territory pretty much weekly. 16.1 rush attempts per game as a starter will put a player into that conversation. That would have ranked ninth among all running backs over an entire season, and second among rookies (Quinshon Judkins averaged 16.4).

Unfortunately, behind one of the worst offensive lines in football, Marks struggled to string together productive attempts. In 10 games as a starter (including the postseason), Marks topped four yards per carry in half of them. But his game logs are also littered with two- and one-yard averages.

No advanced metric in his profile points to an every-down runner. His college tape didn't really, either. He had one good season in five collegiate years (his one year with USC), and profiled as a pass-catching back entering the draft. Houston hardly utilized him in that role, however, with 1.3 receptions per game.

Marks fell into a good situation in his debut campaign, but ultimately didn't show enough flashes to evoke confidence in career-long prosperity. For every Bucky Irving, there are dozens of Zamir Whites, whose success was short-lived.

Sell: RJ Harvey, Denver Broncos

We talk a lot about windows in dynasty fantasy football and viewing your roster through a three-year lens. The initial idea of RJ Harvey was a rookie-contract, multiyear starter. J.K. Dobbins, in just 10 games, essentially took one of those seasons away.

Harvey was already an older prospect entering the league, so dynasty managers needed to hit on these early seasons right away (he's already 25, older than Hall, who has already completed his rookie contract).

That's not to say he was bad for fantasy last season; he was the RB13 in PPR leagues following Dobbins' injury. But he's due for some touchdown regression. Seven in as many games isn't sustainable for a back with his skill set.

Much of his production, other than touchdowns, came from the passing game. That's a role we love for fantasy and one he is likely to keep, regardless of whoever he shares the backfield with, because that's almost a guarantee. But that makes for inconsistent weekly production. The pure rushing efficiency wasn't up to snuff: 3.7 yards per carry compared to 5.0 for Dobbins behind one of the best offensive lines in football.

Harvey hasn't lost much value from his late-first/early second rookie selection a year ago, largely because of the late-season usage. But, again, that was out of necessity, not choice.

When the Broncos inevitably bring in an early down runner (it's a staple of a Sean Payton team), Harvey's touches will look much more similar to his early season numbers. There may be some big games here and there, but not accomplished by volume.

Buy: Chuba Hubbard, Carolina Panthers

Rico Dowdle was the hot name in the Carolina backfield last season, and former second-round pick Jonathon Brooks is returning this year. That means Chuba Hubbard will continue to slide under the radar as the Panthers lead back.

Let's start with the Dowdle vs. Hubbard argument. Dowdle had the flashier campaign. That'll happen with back-to-back 200-yard games and another one with 140+ a few weeks later. Once he earned the bulk of the touches, however, the efficiency slipped. He posted two games with over 3.2 yards per carry after Week 10, and eventually, lost out to Hubbard again.

The soon-to-be free agent expressed his frustration with his late-season role, a sign that he may move on to another team. If he stays with Carolina, he's the backup again moving forward.

Panthers RB Rico Dowdle on how his decreased reps down the stretch (5 carries on Saturday) will impact his decision on whether to return to Carolina or sign somewhere else as a free agent. pic.twitter.com/D4LAlgG23B

— Steve Reed (@SteveReedAP) January 11, 2026

Hubbard was more efficient than his counterpart, at least in that back half of the season, despite managing a calf injury. That's what caused him to sit out early season games and lose the job to Dowdle. He admitted he rushed back and wasn't playing to his full strengths. A long offseason will fix those problems.

As for Brooks, he was one of the top running back prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft and is still only 22 years old. However, consecutive ACL tears in his right knee put quite a damper on his career outlook. He's worth a speculative, cheap (and I mean CHEAP) add, but it's difficult to imagine a situation where he's dominating a backfield.

Hubbard is 26 years old and has three years remaining on a lucrative $33 million contract. The money tells us that Carolina intends for Hubbard to be, at worst, a healthy 1B in a run-heavy offensive system.

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