Key Backup Running Back Position Battles for Fantasy Football: Running Back Sleepers to Monitor

John Johnson breaks down key backup running back positions for four teams -- the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, and Jacksonville Jaguars -- for 2025 fantasy football.

In dynasty fantasy football, it's important to evaluate every position group that you have on your roster by evaluating every positional battle on each NFL team. That can be a chore, but luckily for us, a lot of the hierarchies are pretty well set.

We're not super interested in teams like the Philadelphia Eagles when it comes to backup running back positional battles. It's pretty obvious that RB Will Shipley is the clear backup to Saquon Barkley, and that the other guys are comfortably below him on the depth chart.

But that's not the case for every backfield. There are a few shake-ups every season that actually impact fantasy football leagues, and it's important to look into those and try to predict the future. Not an easy thing to do, but I'll try my best to do it here. Let's dive in!

Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs have a trio of backup running backs -- Kareem Hunt, Elijah Mitchell, and rookie Brashard Smith -- who will all be competing to take snaps from current lead back Isiah Pacheco. It's unclear what Pacheco's role will be, for starters. Even after returning from a 10-week absence due to a broken leg, he produced little.

Instead, he formed a committee backfield with Hunt, who was signed off the street in the wake of Pacheco's injury. On the surface, it might seem that Hunt performed well. But he mostly road the coattails of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid's offensive scheme and the team's run-blocking efforts.

Chiefs RB situation 🧵 (data via @FantasyPtsData)
You might think Kareem Hunt is the clear RB2 in KC. Yet in 2024, Hunt logged:

-3.64 YPC (RB43 of 46 with 100+ rushes)
-1.5% of rushes > 15+ yds (2nd-last)
-0.08 MTF/Att (dead last)
-1.99 YACon/Att (2nd-last)

(cont. below)

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) May 25, 2025

All the data suggests that Hunt was pretty terrible. It might be easy to think that Hunt had a resurgent season, and his raw stats might suggest that he's a good back. But he is not. I sincerely doubt the Chiefs would have signed Mitchell and drafted Smith if they had thought so.

But it gets interesting here because it's not even a sure thing that Pacheco maintains his role. Though he only played in two games before his injury, he wasn't particularly inspiring in those contests. Of course, it was a small sample size, but we should try to evaluate it anyway, instead of writing it off because we don't like the data.

Pacheco in Weeks 1-2:

-3.97 YPC (RB26 of 40)
-0 runs of 15+ yds
-0.12 MTF/Att (RB28)
-1.97 YACO/Att (RB29)

I think Andy Reid shifts to a committee backfield in 2025. Many might get excited about Elijah Mitchell. I'm not. It's exceedingly rare for 5th year RBs to break out.

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) May 25, 2025

Pacheco had a nice season in 2023 but looked worse in 2024. This could be for a variety of reasons, but it's important to consider that he was a late-round draft pick, and it's easy for those players to lose their backfield roles. Pacheco is not a good pass-catcher, which doesn't help.

All this gives more importance to this positional battle. And I think it's Smith who will easily ascend to the RB2 position and challenge Pacheco for his RB1 job by year's end. Early in the season, we might see more of Mitchell, as Smith gets acclimated to the NFL.

Brashard Smith (RB SMU) is a player.

Most underrated RB in the draft. Former WR ran a 4.39 at the combine.

Former WR creates matchups from empty. Has kick return prowess and led team w 1,332 rush yds (5.7 YPC) 14 TDs added 39 rec 327 4 TDs receiving. #Bears #NFLdraft #DaBears pic.twitter.com/Wup3qvAPAN

— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) March 25, 2025

Smith has the skill sets, athleticism, and experience to quickly become a playmaker on this offense, both as a runner and a receiver. I don't think Reid will want to keep him off the field too much later in the year. I think Smith wins the RB2 job easily -- and possibly RB1 later -- with Mitchell as the RB3 and Hunt possibly cut by year's end.

Los Angeles Rams

The Rams, after selecting Blake Corum in the 2024 NFL Draft, dipped into the deep 2025 running back class by selecting former Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter. Like the backup RB battle in Kansas City, I don't think this one will be particularly close. Hunter's advanced college analytics crushed Corum's.

While Corum had a big season in his senior year, and his overall production was massive, he largely coasted off high-level offensive line play. He wasn't adept at forcing missed tackles or gaining yards after contact, and those carried over into the NFL.

Jarquez Hunter career numbers (compared to other '25 prospects)

+ YPC: 6.3 (4th among 31 RBs)
+ MTF/Att: 0.31 (T-4th)
+ YACo/Att: 3.96 (4th)
+ Breakaway Run %: 10.2% (2nd)

With an 88th percentile 40 and 4 productive years in the SEC, Hunter feels severely underrated at RB23. https://t.co/qwa1s9itHG

— Dataroma (@ffdataroma) April 10, 2025

Hunter, meanwhile, went on a tear last season. All while playing in the SEC, arguably the toughest conference in college football, Hunter averaged a ridiculous yards per carry average of over six, was adept at forcing tacklers to miss, gained a lot of yards after contact, and made plenty of explosive plays.

Corum's play in 2024 seemed to indicate that he didn't have anything to offer that lead back Kyren Williams didn't already. Both backs failed to force a lot of missed tackles, had poor YPC averages, didn't create a lot of yards after contact, and were terrible at ripping off explosive runs.

Rams RBs in their 2024 seasons...

Kyren Williams❌
+ 0.13 MTF/Att (49th/70 RBs)
+ 1.9% explosive % (57th)
+ 4.65 40

Blake Corum❌
+ 0.14 MTF/Att (40th/70 RBs)
+ 0% explosive % (70th)
+ 4.53 40
---
JARQUEZ HUNTER✅
+ 0.32 MTF/Att (5th/32 RBs)
+ 12.4% explosive % (3rd)
+ 4.40 40

— Dataroma (@ffdataroma) May 2, 2025

Yes, I know, we're comparing NFL numbers to college numbers. Still, at the very least, if Hunter can even manage half the MTF/Att rate in the NFL that he had in college, he'd be an improvement over Williams. For me, the most damning thing is the explosive play rate.

Williams' 4.65-second 40-yard-dash, and all of his tape, shows the clear culprit. He just has bad top-end speed. That's not an issue for Hunter. By far, the biggest issue with the Rams' run game last season was a lack of explosive plays. It was egregiously terrible.

Kyren Williams had 316 rushing attempts last season.

He only ran for 15+ yards SIX times (1.9%)

Williams also had the second most fumbles among RBs.

(@FantasyPtsData) pic.twitter.com/a25E627HC5

— SleeperNFL (@SleeperNFL) May 2, 2025

Williams also only ran for over 20 yards two times. In 316 carries. That's 0.633 percent. Horrific stuff, really. I don't think the Rams will be re-signing him for a chunk of change, nor will they want to keep using him as their workhorse. He's just not that good at anything -- other than having a big role, of course.

Hunter will take Corum's job easily in 2025 if my analysis holds up. And this positional battle is massively important because the Rams RB1 job wins leagues. I think Hunter could take it over at some point this year.

Indianapolis Colts

The Colts are another team that tends to have a very valuable starting running back for fantasy football. In games where the lead back, Jonathan Taylor, has been injured and unable to suit up, his backups have put up impressive numbers. Indy tends to use one RB as much as possible, rather than running a committee backfield.

Because of this, and because the Colts added two new running backs after the 2024 season, this backup positional battle will be important. They signed Khalil Herbert in March of 2025 and drafted RB DJ Giddens in the 5th round of the 2025 NFL Draft. They're now 2nd and 3rd, respectively, on the team's depth chart.

DJ Giddens

Grade A-

What a steal to get a big play RB. A great change of pace back to JT that fits the orignal Marlon Mack + JT duo back plan to a tee. His pass protection & catching was up and down last year but it seems due to a wrist injury that’s now healed. Dude is shifty pic.twitter.com/OfAPUOVNDe

— Colts Thoughts #timetohope (@ThoughtsColts) May 20, 2025

The thing about Herbert is that he is not a good pass-protector. It's been a barrier his whole career in getting him on the field, and it seems that it will continue to be. Before you write off Giddens as "just a late-round pick", remember that this year's RB class was STACKED. It's hard to put into words just how deep it was.

So the Colts spending a 5th rounder on Giddens is significant. And he's a very talented player with a good pass-catching upside. After analyzing his film and advanced statistics, I have to think that Giddens will take over the RB2 role pretty quickly.

Studies show that watching DJ Giddens highlights daily significantly boosts your lifespan. Science doesn’t lie.
pic.twitter.com/jGkoNsAfC9

— SleeperColts (@SleeperColts) May 4, 2025

He's not taking over the lead role, but as a handcuff to Taylor, he has plenty of contingent upside. If you draft Taylor, who can't stay healthy, in redraft leagues, you should probably take Giddens late. And he's a very nice dynasty value, not even just as a handcuff.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Did I tell you this rookie class was stacked at RB? I think so. It's funny then that all four backfields I'm featuring drafted rookie backs. The Jaguars selected RB Bhayshul Tuten in the early 4th round of the 2025 NFL Draft. He'll join a backfield that looks like an absolute mess from the outside.

For starters, veteran back Travis Etienne Jr. was the PPR RB3 in 2023. But look a little deeper. He averaged just 3.78 yards per carry that year. Poor efficiency often leads to huge dips in volume at RB. You shouldn't ignore it. Sure, ETN was awful in fantasy last season, but his YPC average wasn't much different -- 3.72.

Travis Etienne actually averaged nearly the same yards per carry in 2024 (RB35 finish) that he did in 2023 (RB3 finish). This is why it's so dangerous to trust RBs who have terrible efficiency. You're reliant on huge volume and TDs to make up for it. pic.twitter.com/g8pCV6QV1h

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) May 25, 2025

Interestingly, this suggests his play really wasn't that different. He just didn't get as lucky with touchdowns and got a lot less volume. We can thus establish that his RB1 role isn't secure, if Tank Bigsby didn't teach us this last year. But Bigsby had a fumbling problem and wasn't a great pass-catcher.

The Jaguars have a new head coach -- Liam Coen. He was involved in drafting Tuten and 7th-round pick LeQuint Allen. He has zero attachment to ETN or Bigsby, who are unlikely to get extended, according to my analysis. So this seems like a weird combination of battles for both the RB1 and RB2 positions.

The idea that Bhayshul Tuten is just ridiculously fast and doesn't possess a deep skill set is just inaccurate. He'll have plenty of receiving upside and is very hard to bring down. The acceleration is nuts. He could become a wheel route and screen pass monster in Year 1. pic.twitter.com/AMY6RuEpu6

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 25, 2025

Tuten is the best athlete, the most explosive player, and literally faster than Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs. LeQuint Allen is an elite pass-protector -- or at least, he was in college -- for a running back. To me, these will be the top two backs by season's end. Tuten seems like the one with far more overall upside.

So I believe Tuten ends up as the RB1, with Allen challenging for the RB2 role soon enough.

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