15 Running Backs the Experts Draft (2024 Fantasy Football)

When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football players below.

2024 Fantasy Football Draft Advice

PLAYER NAME TEAM POSITION RANK ECR RANK OVERALL ADP ECR VS. ADP
Derrick Henry BAL RB7 17 32 15
Travis Etienne Jr. JAC RB8 18 26 8
Rachaad White TB RB11 34 42 8
Joe Mixon HOU RB13 38 54 16
Kenneth Walker III SEA RB16 45 55 10
Alvin Kamara NO RB17 52 59 7
Rhamondre Stevenson NE RB19 61 68 7
David Montgomery DET RB20 62 78 16
Zamir White LV RB21 65 80 15
James Conner ARI RB22 67 81 14
Tony Pollard TEN RB24 71 92 21
Brian Robinson Jr. WAS RB26 75 107 32
Raheem Mostert MIA RB27 77 90 13
Chase Brown CIN RB37 107 120 13
Gus Edwards LAC RB38 110 127 17

Fantasy Football Draft Outlook

Joe Mixon (HOU)

Joe Mixon and Rachaad White were the Spiderman GIF last season. Both were exceptionally inefficient runners who survived on volume and passing game work. Mixon was the RB11 last season, ranking eighth in snap share, third in opportunity share, and seventh in weighted opportunities. He was whopping fifth in carries and 13th in targets as Cincinnati worked in Chase Brown only sparingly. He has the opportunity to reprise that same workload in Houston. With only Dameon Pierce, Dare Ogunbowale, Jawhar Jordan, and J.J. Taylor behind Mixon, he should be the unquestioned bellcow for the Texans in 2024. Last season, Mixon’s per-touch efficiency was horrendous. He was 36th in yards per touch, 35th in yards created per touch, and 41st in breakaway run rate. That didn’t stop him from being an RB1 last year, and it likely won’t this season.
– Derek Brown

Alvin Kamara (NO)

Alvin Kamara retained his every-down role last year despite the team drafting Kendre Miller. Miller spent most of his rookie season on the injury report, so we’ll see if Kamara can hold him off in 2024, but at least expect Kamara to be a workhorse (maybe not a bellcow). Last year, Kamara was tenth in opportunity share, eighth in weighed opportunities, and ninth in red zone touches. While Karmara’s rushing prowess took another massive hit (40th out of 49 qualifying backs in missed tackles forced per attempt per Fantasy Points Data), his receiving chops remained strong. Last year, out of 60 qualifying backs, he ranked first in target share (18.1%) and sixth in yards per route run. Kamara might not have the same bounce in his step as he did during the Drew Brees era, but his pass game and high-leverage usage in 2024 should keep him firmly planted in the RB1 ranks.
– Derek Brown

Chase Brown (CIN)

Chase Brown remains a high-end handcuff bet for 2024 that could offer some stand-alone value if he can eat into Zach Moss’s workload. Brown was impressive on a per-touch basis last season, although the sample size is pretty limited (44 carries). Among 77 backs with at least 40 carries, Brown ranked 12th in yards after contact per attempt and 16th in missed tackles forced per attempt (per Fantasy Points Data). Brown is a player to get exposure with during draft season because the upside is there for him to outkick his ADP.
– Derek Brown

Fantasy Football Draft Rankings

Check out the consensus 2024 fantasy football draft rankings from our experts.