2026 NFL Draft Prospects: Running Backs (RB)
Identifying the most consistent college RBs with "above-the-line" scouting grades in the 2026 NFL Draft class.
The Top 300 Players in the 2026 NFL Draft
Caleb Downs, Jeremiyah Love, and Sonny Styles headline a deep 2026 NFL Draft class.
Brad Beatson
True 3-Down Skill Set
- 🐎 Workhorse
- Total Rushing Attempts ≥150 Consistently available and reliable
- Total Targets ≥30 Has to be respected as a receiving threat
- Pass Protection Reps per Game ≥3.0 Trusted to pick up the blitz
Injury Concerns
- ⛑️ Availability — Injury history collected from SIS and The Athletic
- 🧰 Production Component
- Source: PFF Weekly Grades — Stresses the importance of game-to-game, play-to-play consistency while adjusting for variance. Accounts for every game played during the back's final two seasons in college.
- Apply Critical Minimum — Weekly grades below 60.0 cannot be smoothed over by two-year average. Instead, once the acceptable threshold for "below-the-line" grades has been crossed, the prospect's production grade is capped and trends toward more of a boom-bust profile.
- 🔬 Film Component
- Source: SIS Scouting Reports — Watch a minimum of 3-5 games per prospect and assign a grade, from 1 (reject) to 9 (rare), to each of their three critical traits and half-dozen or so positional factors. Assign a final grade that projects how the prospect will stack up at their position by the beginning of their second season in the NFL.
- Apply Critical Minimum — Mediocre traits cannot be smoothed over by average. Instead, once the acceptable threshold for "below-the-line" grades has been crossed, the prospect's scouting grade is capped and trends toward more of a boom-bust profile.
- ⚖️ Weighting the Two: 80% Prospect Score
- Position Specific — Some positions have stronger signal in production than film or vice versa and so they are individually weighted to reflect that.
- 55/25 Film — Running Back production tends to be a little noisier and more dependent on the offensive line, run scheme, and competition. More often than not, film provides a more realistic prospect signal.
Prospect Chips
- 🔵 Blue Chip Potential 75+ production & 75+ film
- 🟢 Solid Contributor — 75+ in prod. or film & 68+ in the other
- ⚪ Situation Dependent — Everyone else
- 🏅 Athleticism
- Source: Next Gen Stats — Assigns a 1-10 grade on athletic profile for every player at the Combine. In some cases, NGS estimates the scores if the prospect didn't test in Indianapolis or at their college pro day.
- RAS, MockDraftable, Football Sheets — I've added these sources to my database for future use. Many prospects had incomplete scores due to lack of testing numbers, so it made more sense to use NGS in this iteration of the model because every prospect ended up with a data point.
- 📊 Positional Value
- Source: Spotrac — Analyzing the rookie contract scale and how much guaranteed money each pick receives against the Top 100 cap hits in the NFL by position over the next three seasons. Takes into account the Top 10 highest paid players at their position and the relative cost savings a rookie contract could provide.
- Additive Bonus — Each player was scored on a 1-10 scale using the consensus big board as a guide for projected savings. Fernando Mendoza was the only player to receive a 10 because starting QBs make anywhere from $30-50 million per season. Other positions, like RB, TE, LB, and S were capped at a maximum 5 points.
- RB Positional Value
- 1st Rd: Top 15 pick — 5
- 1st Rd: Pro Bowl upside — 4
- 1st Rd: Reliable starter — 3
- 1st Rd: Situation dependent — 2
- 2nd Rounder — 2
- 3rd Rounder — 1
- Projected Day 3 Pick — 0
- 🌹🥀 Intangibles
- Source: Dane Brugler — The Beast prospect guide includes strengths and weaknesses for every player on the big board. Includes off-the-field concerns, quotes from scouts and coaches, and non-negotiable traits for the position.
- My Judgment — Each player was evaluated based on the additional information, including: injury history, work ethic, football iq, off-field concerns, and non-negotiables for their position. For running back, my non-negotiable is contact balance.
Badges
- 💰 Positional Value — Prospect earned a 5.0 or higher based on the potential value of their rookie contract.
- 💎 Strong Character — Prospect assigned a 5.0 or higher in their intangible score.
- ⚠️ Investigate Further — Prospect assigned a -5.0 or worse in their intangible score.
Player Athleticism POS Value Intangibles Badges Jeremiyah Love 9.0 5.0 0.0 💰 Jonah Coleman 6.9 1.0 2.5 Jadarian Price 7.1 2.0 0.0 Nicholas Singleton 9.8 1.0 -1.0 Emmett Johnson 6.2 1.0 1.0 Mike Washington Jr. 9.5 1.0 -1.0 Eli Heidenreich 8.2 0.0 3.0 Jam Miller 8.1 0.0 3.0 Roman Hemby 6.5 0.0 5.0 💎 Adam Randall 8.0 0.0 3.0 Le'Veon Moss 6.2 0.0 0.0 Seth McGowan 7.9 0.0 -13.0 ⚠️ Kaytron Allen 6.9 1.0 -2.0 Noah Whittington 7.3 0.0 -2.0 Desmond Reid 5.8 0.0 -2.0 C.J. Donaldson Inc. Inc. Inc. J'Mari Taylor Inc. Inc. Inc. Demond Claiborne 7.4 0.0 -5.0 ⚠️ Rahsul Faison Inc. Inc. Inc. Robert Henry Jr. 5.0 0.0 0.0
Head back to the Big Board:
The Top 300 Players in the 2026 NFL DraftCaleb Downs, Jeremiyah Love, and Sonny Styles headline a deep 2026 NFL Draft class.Brad Beatson
Jeremiyah Love should keep opposing defensive coordinators and fantasy football opponents up at night. (His own training staff might have nightmares about those hurdles, too.)
Top Running Back Prospects
POS RK Player Grade Achetype Badges RB1 Jeremiyah Love 86 Passing 🐎 RB2 Jonah Coleman 72 Passing 🐎 RB3 Jadarian Price 69 Committee ⛑️ RB4 Nicholas Singleton 63 Passing ⛑️ RB5 Emmett Johnson 62 Passing 🐎 RB6 Mike Washington Jr. 62 Passing 🐎 RB7 Eli Heidenreich 62 Passing RB8 Jam Miller 62 Passing ⛑️ RB9 Roman Hemby 61 Committee ⛑️ RB10 Adam Randall 60 Passing 🐎 · ⛑️ RB11 Le'Veon Moss 56 Committee ⛑️ RB12 Seth McGowan 53 Early RB13 Kaytron Allen 48 Early RB14 Noah Whittington 48 Committee ⛑️ RB15 Desmond Reid 46 Passing ⛑️ RB16 C.J. Donaldson 46 Early Down RB17 J'Mari Taylor 46 Committee RB18 Demond Claiborne 43 Passing 🐎 · ⛑️ RB19 Rahsul Faison 43 Change of Pace RB20 Robert Henry Jr. 25 Committee
Running back archetypes are tied to 2025 usage rates, with a passing down role meaning the back showed some receiving chops.
Some of these rushers will end up playing a meaningfully different role in the league, which could impact how quickly they earn consistent snaps on offense.
Raw Prospect Scores
Player Production Film Chip Jeremiyah Love 90.0 86.0 🔵 Jonah Coleman 83.3 71.8 🟢 Jadarian Price 81.1 72.1 🟢 Nicholas Singleton 76.1 61.9 ⚪ Emmett Johnson 80.0 58.9 ⚪ Mike Washington Jr. 76.4 57.0 ⚪ Eli Heidenreich 81.2 54.5 ⚪ Jam Miller 72.3 58.9 ⚪ Roman Hemby 76.6 56.2 ⚪ Adam Randall 75.6 54.5 ⚪ Le'Veon Moss ⚪ Seth McGowan 78.6 65.5 ⚪ Kaytron Allen 80.2 37.5 ⚪ Noah Whittington 77.2 39.4 ⚪ Desmond Reid 77.3 42.9 ⚪ C.J. Donaldson Inc. Inc. ⚪ J'Mari Taylor Inc. Inc. ⚪ Demond Claiborne 75.0 36.7 ⚪ Rahsul Faison Inc. Inc. ⚪ Robert Henry Jr. 24.9 26.9 ⚪
🦺Players with incomplete scores had missing data points and will be revisited after the draft. Bandit Football regrets the error.
Athleticism, Positional Value, Intagibles
