Fantasy Football Dynasty Sleepers - Undervalued Running Backs For 2025

John breaks down his biggest dynasty fantasy football sleepers at running back for the 2025 season. Which RBs are sleepers who you should make moves for?

Getting ahead of the game is the name of the game in any game, especially if that game happens to be dynasty fantasy football and you want to find underrated running backs to add to your rosters.

The shelf life for many RBs isn't very long in the NFL, so it's a position you want to stay on top of each season. Most backfields look drastically different from versions of themselves three years prior, so it's better not to get complacent.

Let's break down four RBs who should outperform their current dynasty values and who you should make moves for in your leagues before the 2025 season.

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Tank Bigsby, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

Bigsby flashed plenty of talent in 2024. But being stuck on a terrible offense takes a toll on players' production. It's not possible to overcome difficulties after a point, and Bigsby was a victim of basically everything that could go wrong around him going wrong around him.

Jacksonville had a weak offensive line for starters, so he was often not given gaps to run through, and contacted at or near the line of scrimmage often. The offense also got destroyed by injuries -- wide receivers Christian Kirk and Gabe Davis and tight end Evan Engram all eventually suffered season-ending injuries. You can see the Jags in the bottom 10 of run-block composite rankings below.

Run block and pass block composite ratings pic.twitter.com/JKR8xH99Wr

— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) January 7, 2025

And without a good passing offense to support the run game, defenses were able to focus more on stopping the backs. WR Brian Thomas Jr. had a great season, but you can't run an entire pass offense through one pass-catcher, and the Jaguars also ranked bottom-10 in passing yards per game. It didn't help that starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence only played significant snaps in nine games.

Most teams' offenses collapse without their starting quarterback even if their other players stay healthy. To say Bigsby faced immense challenges is an understatement, especially when you consider how bad his former offensive coordinator, Press Taylor, was. It was a joke of a year for the Jaguars.

Now, Taylor and former head coach Doug Pederson are both gone and have been replaced with one of the brightest offensive minds in the game. Liam Coen, the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2024, was the architect of the most productive backfield in the league. RBs Bucky Irving and Rachaad White were both highly prolific, both in the running and passing games.

The Genius of Liam Coen offense 🎥

This is from 3 straight weeks.

•Knowing the defense have scouted this TE cheat motion.

•Makes it look identical, but runs 3 totally different unique plays to confuse the defense.

•3 Touchdowns.

Jax has missed this type of creativity ‼️ pic.twitter.com/jI7aVge8pg

— N F L (@DTWD904) January 30, 2025

I can't exactly give a full film breakdown on how great Coen's offense is, but he's one of the most respected OCs in the league (and now a highly respected head coach). Anyways, like I said, Bigsby flashed major talent.

On a team that doesn't get destroyed by injuries and has great blocking schemes, he could have a big year. He's one player I guarantee will have a breakout season, if he doesn't have bad luck with injuries.

To 10 RBs in Missed/Broken Tackles:

1. James Conner (49)
2. Josh Jacobs (39)
3. Najee Harris (36)
4. Bijan Robinson (36)
5. Jordan Mason (35)
6. Derrick Henry (32)
7. Rhamondre Stevenson (32)
8. Alvin Kamara (31)
9. Joe Mixon (30)
10. Tank Bigsby (29) pic.twitter.com/lAQEky6aW4

— Steven Patton (@PattonAnalytics) November 7, 2024

He was a yards-after-contact monster last year when the offense was still somewhat competent. His fall-off toward the end of the season was largely the result of the team being forced to pass the ball heavily and abandon the run game due to having one of the worst pass defenses in the last few decades.

An actual coaching upgrade and high draft picks should make this offense far better than it was last season. So, you should buy in on Bigsby.

Travis Etienne Jr., RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

If the aforementioned Rachaad White, who is not a good running back, could have a solid season in a committee in Coen's offense, then the much better Etienne can also beat expectations. He struggled through a season marred by injuries and Jacksonville's poor run-blocking and offensive coaching, as described in the previous section.

TRAVIS!!!! Etienne picks up 49 on the first play of the second half and he already has a career high 92 on the day.

pic.twitter.com/ElvjFM0AAi

— Austin Pendergist (@apthirteen) October 23, 2022

It's interesting how one poor season can cause most people to do a complete 180 on a certain player and write them off as trash. Etienne didn't look like his usual self in 2024. Usually, when the tape between two consecutive seasons is starkly different for a young player, underreported injuries are to blame. Players play through ailments that don't show up on the injury report all the time.

The most intriguing part of Etienne's upside comes from his pass-catching ability. Bigsby was used very sparingly as a receiver last season, and that's not a strength of his. We should expect plenty of targets for Etienne, though, who was targeted 52 times in 15 games last season, over four times as many as Bigsby, who only caught five passes on his 12 targets.

So, in PPR leagues (the vast majority of leagues), you would be well served at making a move for Etienne at his current value. He should be able to return to his 2022 and 2023 form, and with a much better offensive coordinator than he's ever had, he could return to RB1 status.

Jaylen Wright, RB, Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins running back Jaylen Wright probably won't have a 2023 Raheem Mostert-esque year in 2025, but he could take on a much bigger role in the Miami backfield. The lead back will remain De'Von Achane, but he wasn't particularly great in goal-line situations last season, and the workhorse role he had probably wasn't what head coach Mike McDaniel envisioned before the season.

Back in 2023, McDaniel was able to run his committee backfield, and while Achane's touches were restricted, likely since he was a rookie and dealt with injury issues, a 50/50 split would have been reasonable. In 2024, the offensive line took a major step back as a run-blocking unit after the departure of two of the best run-blockers in the league, Robert Hunt and Connor Williams.

Hard for me to complain about the #Panthers lack of passing yardage production when your OL and RBs doing this lol

Watch Cade Mays, Robert Hunt And Chuba Hubbard on this play. This is how you impose your will. pic.twitter.com/zjs3bNa5JH

— Unnecessary Bluntness Owner/Coach/QB (@DuncOnDemand) November 11, 2024

Hunt alone was an absolute wrecking ball in the run game. He's a huge reason why Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard had such a good season. If Miami can find another good guard that's reminiscent of him, its running game should improve as a whole.

Wright was selected in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, so the Dolphins didn't use insignificant draft capital on him. And he'll be just 22 years old to start the 2025 season. He was raw as a prospect but averaged a ridiculous 7.4 yards per carry in his final season at Tennessee against SEC competition.

Jaylen Wright will make his NFL debut tonight against the Bills. pic.twitter.com/zprzKx3ARM

— Kerry Williams (@kerrywilliams_) September 12, 2024

Wright ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash, so just like Achane, he has some major jets. That, in turn, gives him a big upside. If Miami can figure out the blocking situation, or even if he just gets substantially more volume than he got last year, he'll have been a great value pick if you decide to trade for him this offseason.

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