The highly-touted rookie running back is one of most sought after units of any fantasy football league, as he holds mountains of promise… and a possibly muted Average Draft Position. One might not get a chance to draft said rookie running back this low again until he nears retirement or returns from a major injury.
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The problem, though, is this player’s draft stock is muted because he remains an unknown until he plays his first game as a professional.
Over the past few years, we have seen some amazing fantasy rookies enter the league, especially from the running back position, and that continues to inflate the stock of incoming rookie RBs. The successes of first-year backs like Saquon Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott, Leonard Fournette, Todd Gurley, Kareem Hunt, David Johnson, Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey probably have the fantasy stock of Josh Jacobs higher than normal.
Last week, we reviewed the 12 best fantasy rookie quarterbacks since 1990, and we’re continuing that series this week. Let’s take a look back at some of the all-time best rookie running backs to help us get an idea of the type of freshmen we’re dreaming about on Draft Day.
Top 12 Rookie Fantasy Running Backs Ever… (Or At Least Since 1990)
Below are the top 12 rookie running backs in fantasy football history – or dating back about 30 years!
James’ rookie season was amazing, no doubt, and any Miami Hurricanes fan would tell you it was expected and unsurprising. However, let’s take a quick look back at how James ended up with the Colts – a team that had stud running back Marshall Faulk in the same backfield with rookie quarterback Peyton Manning in 1998.
The veteran RB wanted to renegotiate his contract, and the Colts chose to ship him off to St. Louis instead, in exchange for a couple draft picks. This opened the door for the Colts to take Heisman winner Ricky Williams from Texas with the fourth overall pick (remember, three quarterbacks were drafted with the first three picks for the first time ever). But the Colts zagged, drafting James, with Ricky still available, and the rest is fantasy history (Williams ended up as the 27th-best RB that year). From a fantasy perspective, James nearly became the first rookie to lead all running backs in fantasy scoring since Eric Dickerson did it with the Rams in 1983. Had James rushed for 17 more yards, he would have landed the No. 1 spot in 1999, instead of – wait for it! — Marshall Faulk.
Tabbed as a once-in-a-generation talent coming out of Penn State, fantasy owners were drooling over Barkley like no other rookie in fantasy football history. I warned people against drafting Barkley because I’m realy smart. (In my defense, very few rookie running backs have been both the first rookie drafted and the highest scoring rookie in a season.) Barkley exceeded my expectations – and everyone else’s – outside of Mr. Nando DiFino, who correctly told everyone to draft Barkley with the second overall pick in August.
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Barkley capitalized on his opportunity with the G-Men, who leaned heavily on the rookie. That paid off, as he scored five 50-plus-yard touchdowns from scrimmage – joining Randy Moss as the only rookies to accomplish that feat (The Giants had just three 50-yard TD rushes in their previous 10 seasons). Finally, Barkley was just the third rookie to eclipse 2,000 yards from scrimmage, and his 91 receptions broke Reggie Bush’s previous record total by a rookie RB.
Elliott was the first rookie running back to win the NFL rushing title since Edgerrin James did it a little over 15 years earlier (Zeke led the NFL in 2018, too!). Once again, I wasn’t a believer in the summer of 2016, as he was the first rookie running back to post a first-round ADP since James! That’s a huge risk for a rookie player who has never seen NFL action, but those owners who rolled the dice on him came up with big numbers. Zeke posted these numbers with fellow rookie Dak Prescott (third-best fantasy rookie QB ever) under center, and many are drafting him first overall entering the 2019 summer draft season.
When Mike Shanahan and his Broncos staff selected Hurricanes RB Clinton Portis in the second round, there was a mixture of excitement and despair filling the fantasy air. Shanahan’s offense had already created several superstar rookie running backs, including Terrell Davis, Olandis Gary and Mike Anderson, all within the few years before Portis’ selection.
But injuries affected those players almost immediately, and Shanahan would eventually become known as a fantasy player’s worst nightmare – a coach who doesn’t do what we hope/expect. For instance, once Portis exploded into the fourth-best running back in 2002, behind just Priest Holmes, Ricky Williams and LaDainian Tomlinson, Shanahan would keep him just one more season before trading him to Washington, where he’d reel off four more 1,200-rushing yard seasons.
Once Portis left, the Broncos had a different running back lead them in rushing each year for the next six years, until Knowshon Moreno came to town. (Remember Browns RB William Green? He was the rookie RB everyone was after in 2002, over Portis. Yoiks.)
A stud at Pitt, Martin was a third-round pick by the Patriots, and he was a double-digit round pick in fantasy drafts that year, despite him stepping into a wide-open backfield managed by Bill Parcells.
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Concerns over Martin’s durability dropped his draft stock in the NFL and in fantasy, but he would go on to beat all fantasy RBs in 1995 not named Emmitt, and Cu-Mart would also finish his career as the fourth-leading rusher all-time! In ’95, he managed to out-fantasy fellow rookie Terrell Davis, who would go on to become a No. 1 fantasy pick for a few years in the late ‘90s.
The year 1998 was pretty magical from a rookie fantasy perspective in general. The top rookie at each of the main positions were Peyton Manning at QB, Taylor at RB, and Randy Moss at WR. But fantasy writers (we’re awesome!) were pitching Ryan Leaf as the best rookie QB that season, along with Curtis Enis as the best rookie RB to own, and Tennessee’s Kevin Dyson as the top wideout.
Needless to say, fantasy writers were wrong (mark down that date!).
We should have known better with Taylor, who was a top-10 pick in the NFL Draft, as he was being coached by Tom Coughlin, a Bill Parcells protégé.
Coming out of Boise State, the Muscle Hamster was the second running back drafted after Trent Richardson. Martin was a little frustrating for owners because he would have massive games over a stretch, only to disappear for a few more. He also joined the previously mentioned Mike Anderson as the only players to run for over 250 yards and four touchdowns in a game.
That rookie season would end up being Martin’s greatest season to date; seven seasons later, and as he enters his age-30 season, it’s doubtful there are big seasons left in him.
We mentioned Anderson earlier, but this is one of the more exciting and unexpected stories on this entire list. Nearly every player on this list was a first-round tailback – or at least an early rounder.
Let’s first look back six seasons earlier, when the Broncos chose Georgia tailback Terrell Davis in the sixth round. He would go on to be one of the greatest fantasy backs of the decade, being chosen first overall several times. After Davis was injured, Shanahan tabbed a 1999 fourth-round rookie tailback named Olandis Gary to replace his starter.
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In 2000, Anderson was drafted in Round 6 as a fullback, meant to make holes for Davis and Gary. But Davis wasn’t ready to return, and Gary was out with a knee injury of his own, so Shanahan moved Anderson into the lead role. The 27-year-old rookie and former Marine bulled his way to 1,487 rushing yards and an Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. He’s the only rookie in NFL history to rush for over 175 yards in three games.
Faulk is mostly known for his days with The Greatest Show On Turf with Kurt Warner and the Rams in St. Louis. But he was no secret coming out of San Diego State, as the Colts chose him with the second overall pick (the Bengals liked DT Dan Wilkinson more). This was back in an age when NFL executives didn’t believe in waiting on running backs, like most of them do now. (Then again, the most recent second overall RB pick ended up doing pretty well, too! Right, Saquon?)
Faulk joined a Colts team in disarray, but that didn’t stop Jim Harbaugh from handing off to Faulk as much as possible. Faulk had 314 carries (just seventh among RBs that season amazingly), but he added 52 catches, and he became a first-round fantasy pick for years to come. Who would you rather have in their prime, Marshall Faulk or Edgerrin James? Despite this list’s results, most of us would take Faulk all day.
The 2008 NFL Draft class of running backs is considered one of the all-time greatest in fantasy history. That draft class churned out guys like Forte — the best of those rookies that year — along with Jamaal Charles, Darren McFadden, Peyton Hillis, Chris Johnson, Ray Rice, Steve Slaton and Jonathan Stewart.
While McFadden was the first running back chosen, it was Tulane’s Forte who proved to be the perfect 21st-century running back, mixing great rushing skills with soft hands and superb pass-catching talent with Jay Cutler under center.
Forte would lead all running backs that season with 64 receptions, and he would even post a 102-catch season in 2014.
How crazy is it that Hunt was the third-best overall running back in 2017, yet he still landed outside our top 10 rookies here? Hunt’s ascension to the top of Andy Reid’s depth chart came on the heels of Spencer Ware getting injured in the preseason, which made it especially fruitful for those who drafted Hunt (not Ware) in July instead of August.
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As a rookie, Hunt led the NFL in rushing, following Ezekiel Elliott who did it as a rookie in 2016. Hunt followed up with another great season in 2018, until a video was released showing him assault a woman, ending his season – and tenure in Kansas City – early. He’ll work with Nick Chubb and the Browns in 2019, which should frustrate fantasy owners all season!
From Taylor to Martin to Faulk, this list is littered with some of the greatest fantasy backs ever – not just rookies. So it stands to reason we find A.P. on this list, as his arrival from Oklahoma marked the first of a few great draft classes for running backs.
Peterson had 1,036 rushing yards in his first eight games, an NFL record for a rookie and 268 more yards than any other RB, and he led all non-QBs in fantasy points halfway through the season. He’d miss a couple games with a knee injury, but at season’s end, only LaDainian Tomlinson and Brian Westbrook ranked ahead of him in fantasy points for a running back.
Don’t forget to check out our Top 12 Greatest Rookie Quarterbacks in Fantasy, and check back for our Top 12 Greatest Rookie Wide Receivers coming soon!
What are some of your favorite rookie running back fantasy memories? Which rookie running back do you love for 2019? Let’s hear them in the comments below!
(Top photo: Henny Ray Abrams/AFP/Getty Images)
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