2025 Week 1 Fantasy Football Rankings: RB

Derrick Henry readies for a Sunday night season opener, Ashton Jeanty makes his NFL debut against the Patriots, and Breece Hall spoils for a touches battle with Braelon Allen.

Other positions: Quarterback | Receiver | Tight End/Kickers/Defense

Week 1 Running Backs

RB Notes: For all the Saints’ new 2025 ideas, nothing appears to have supplanted making Alvin Kamara the engine of the offense. Although he is getting up in years and low on efficiency, Kamara should continue to monopolize the Saints’ highest-value touches. … Omarion Hampton will have to contend with Najee Harris after all. Not ideal. Also not a major concern. There is a big difference between a rookie running back and a first-round rookie running back. You get more opportunities and leeway. For all his foibles, Harris is better than Gus Edwards, but it is Edwards’ 2024 role that appears to be Harris’ ceiling. Hampton is looking very live as an RB2. … Tony Pollard escaped from Titans training camp with a clear RB2 workload. Perhaps he will share a few touches with sixth-rounder Kalel Mullings, but Pollard is looking like one of draft season’s biggest bargains. … Isiah Pacheco entered the summer vulnerable as the Chiefs’ No. 1 running back, but he exits camp back where he started last season. He is the clear lead runner, albeit one Kansas City probably isn’t itching to feature in the passing game. Seventh-rounder Brashard Smith continues to offer upside in that department. It could also be either one an underwhelming vets in Kareem Hunt or Elijah Mitchell.

If the Bears found a better running back solution than three-down D’Andre Swift, they failed to announce it. Ben Johnson, of course, is the kind of head coach who seems like he would glory in surprising the fantasy masses. There just aren’t a whole lot of reasons to expect meaningful Roschon Johnson or Kyle Monagai involvement this weekend. … Aaron Jones vs. Jordan Mason is one of the situations I’m most fascinated to see play out on the field. Jones appeared in every game for only the third time in eight NFL seasons last year, but wore down under the strain of 306 touches. The Vikings made it clear adding a 1B back was a priority before they went out and traded for Mason, who has an efficient profile and projected goal-line chops. I probably faded Jones a little too often in my summer drafts, but this is a situation where Mason could be the preferred fantasy play before the end of the month. … No backfield needs the games to get here more than Jacksonville’s. Successive Jags coaching staffs have soured on Travis Etienne, while Tank Bigsby boasts a hard ceiling as an early-down hammer. Bhayshul Tuten was the only back brought in by the new brain trust. We need data points, but the contours seem somewhat obvious (famous last words).

Given a two-year contract extension than labeled the team’s “featured runner” by coach Mike Tomlin, it’s safe to say Jaylen Warren’s late-summer surge was for real. By the same token, Kaleb Johnson’s buzz-kill training camp has become impossible to ignore. You are of course still rostering the young man, but first-month FLEX value is beginning to look like a stretch. … Tyrone Tracy needed a second chance. He got it in the form of Cam Skattebo’s training camp hamstring injury. That seems to have given Tracy one last opportunity as the Giants’ No. 1 back. Skattebo should be involved from the jump, though it is most likely to be as a change-of-pace option rather than true “1B” back for the time being. … J.K. Dobbins ran summer narrative circles around previously hyped second-rounder R.J. Harvey. The good news is, Dobbins can no longer run circles around anybody on the regular season gridiron. Quiet though his summer was, Harvey still projects for somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 weekly touches, with plenty of room to grow.

The Texans’ backfield is a complete mess. Nick Chubb has last-gasp FLEX appeal, but you’re in big trouble if you are already starting him in 12-team leagues. Dameon Pierce is waiting in the wings for a third chance, and fourth-round rookie Woody Marks has a complementary pass-catching profile. Even with his unknown return timeline, stashing Joe Mixon on injured reserve is the percentage play in this messed up backfield. … One of my funny summer feelings was Zach Charbonnet would end up out-pointing Kenneth Walker. It’s in play as an outcome, but there has been nothing concrete to suggest that is prepared to manifest in Week 1. Charbonnet is probably the highest-upside insurance back in all of fantasy football, and provides some last-ditch standalone value as a FLEX. … The Jets badly want Braelon Allen to serve as a legitimate 1B back to Breece Hall. They are certainly going to have touches for the taking. It is simply unclear what Allen is supposed to do better than Hall right now. Hall maintains low-end RB1 upside. Allen is an uncertain FLEX.

Quinshon Judkins is supposedly going to sign his rookie contract any day now. Good for him, but today it is Jerome Ford getting the start backed up by fourth-round rookie Dylan Sampson. Ford is a freebie FLEX. Sampson offers PPR upside, if also a zero-point floor. … Jaydon Blue’s summer hamstring injury removed the drama from the Cowboys’ backfield. Javonte Williams has defaulted into starting duties, and it’s unclear if he even has a true change-of-pace complement to begin the year. Blue could be reduced to rotating breather touches with Miles Sanders until he pops a big play or two. … Was Brian Robinson Jr.’s trade about himself or Jacory Croskey-Merritt? Hell, was it about Chris Rodrirguez Jr.? We don’t know. We are thankfully about to find out. Personally, the arrival of JCM coinciding with the immediate mothballing of B-Rob in camp is difficult to ignore. JCM/”Bill” has been hyped then faded then faded some more, but this is still a young player deserving of cautious optimism. … The Dolphins want a 1B complement to De’Von Achane. Rookie Ollie Gordon II could prove to be one of the summer’s more pivotal final-round fliers.