In this wide receiver-heavy landscape that 2024 best ball has given us, nailing your running back picks when you do get to them matters more than ever. Once we get past pick 150 in drafts, nearly everything is a dart throw, but some fantasy football draft dart throws can be better than others. Below are seven running back dart throws you should target in best ball. Average draft position (ADP) data is from Underdog Fantasy.
- 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- 2024 Dynasty Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- 2024 Best Ball Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- Free Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator
Fantasy Football Running Back Dart Throws
Antonio Gibson | ADP: 164.6
The Patriots’ only meaningful move at running back this offseason was to bring in Antonio Gibson after Ezekiel Elliott departed having set a career-low success rate in 2023 (45%) and failed to break a single rush longer than 17 yards on 184 attempts. Gibson is younger at 26 years old and should bring a little more juice to this backfield when giving Rhamondre Stevenson a break.
2023 wasn’t incredible for Gibson with only 12.1 rush attempts per game, but he set career-highs in rushing yards after contact per attempt (3.51), yards per attempt (4.7) and success rate (51%). The Patriots have reaffirmed their commitment to Stevenson, giving him a new contract when arguably they didn’t need to. If anything should happen to Stevenson then Gibson could be looking at 15+ touches per week.
D’Onta Foreman | ADP: 204.9
The Bears seemed hesitant to use D’Onta Foreman expansively in 2023 with him only having double-digit touches in six games, but when those games came, usually because of injuries elsewhere, Foreman acquitted himself well enough to finish as a top-36 running back in five of the six games.
Foreman has rushed for at least 3.9 yards per carry in each season since his 2018 Achilles injury and now goes to Cleveland behind possibly the best offensive line he’s played with and a wide-open backfield until Nick Chubb returns. Jerome Ford had only 16 red-zone rush attempts last year with the Browns preferring Kareem Hunt in that area, giving him 35. If Foreman adopts that role, it could be consistently valuable.
The #Browns RB coach Duce Staley was very adamant about retaining D’Onta Foreman during their time together in Carolina—
Looks like Duce Staley finally got his wish granted. https://t.co/bgmsxrjjAt
— Shawn (@ShawnIyer) March 20, 2024
Clyde Edwards-Helaire | ADP: 200.5
If the Chiefs could have their 2020 first-round pick back it would be very surprising if they used it on Clyde Edwards-Helaire over Jonathan Taylor again. What Edwards-Helaire does have going for him is the trust of the team. Earlier in the offseason, the Chiefs brought in J.K. Dobbins for a visit and signs pointed towards him signing with them, only for them to pivot and bring back Edwards-Helaire the very next day.
Throughout his four-year career in Kansas City, Edwards-Helaire has seen his touches per game decrease. Without Jerick McKinnon, however, who has been the RB2 behind Isiah Pacheco, there seems to be nobody challenging Edwards-Helaire for RB2 duties.
Tank Bigsby | ADP: 210.3
Tank Bigsby stunk in 2023. Out of the four targets Bigsby got, two resulted in the opposing defense scoring touchdowns. The Jaguars gave Bigsby fewer than five touches in 13 games as he failed to impress. Organized team activities (OTA) reports have been mainly negative on Bigsby again.
However, the team still seems to believe. Doug Pederson is keen for Bigsby to earn a bigger role this year and take some of the workload off Travis Etienne who has failed to play consistently well for two years now. Bigsby’s range of outcomes is quite large. If he doesn’t improve quickly we see the Jaguars add another player, but for now, he’s the clear RB2 in a backfield we know needs a second set of legs. That is worth a last-round pick.
Tank Bigsby has been bad this season, and this play shouldn’t be construed as me saying Tank hasn’t been bad.
But unless Jesus Christ is playing RB, you can’t do anything about this pic.twitter.com/U2bzvHhNn2
— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) November 13, 2023
Jaleel McLaughlin | ADP: 153.3
The Broncos backfield is messy this year with Javonte Williams, Samaje Perine, Jaleel McLaughlin and incoming rookie Audric Estime. The expectation is Perine is cut during training camp and Estime will still have a lot of work to learn this offense.
McLaughlin, who averaged 7.3 touches per game from Week 4 onwards, also led all running backs in targets per route run as Russell Wilson checked down constantly, something Bo Nix is also expected to do frequently. Perhaps Javonte Williams finally rediscovers some form but there isn’t much evidence to suggest that so far. McLaughlin has earned a role that can be handy, particularly in full PPR formats.
Kimani Vidal | ADP: 155.5
One of fantasy football’s big traps can be using the argument ‘there’s nobody else there.’ That can certainly apply to a Chargers backfield with Dobbins coming off his second season-ending injury and Gus Edwards coming off his worst season in terms of yards per carry (4.1), which looks even worse when you consider from Week 12 onwards he averaged 3.4.
Vidal comes into the NFL fresh off 1,861 all-purpose yards in 2023. The common knock against Vidal is he did this playing for a small school (Troy), but if he gets on the field, sometimes volume is all it takes at the running back position. With this backfield, it might be one to approach with caution and not get too carried away with anyone involved.
wait till the normies find out the only two players discussed on fantasy X this summer were kimani vidal and dontayvian wicks
— Denny Carter (@CDCarter13) June 17, 2024
Keaton Mitchell | ADP: 212.3
Only two running backs saw over 30 touches in 2023 and averaged above 8.0 yards per carry — De’Von Achane and Keaton Mitchell. The Ravens were crying out for more juice in the backfield last year. Just as Mitchell’s role seemed to be expanding he tore his ACL. With such a late-season ACL injury, drafting Mitchell means carrying him on your bench for perhaps half the season before he provides a return on investment.
Mitchell was fortunate to suffer a clean tear, more akin to Breece Hall‘s injury than the career-crippling ones Dobbins and Javonte Williams suffered, so his outlook is ok. If he gets back on the field in time for the fantasy playoffs he could provide the lightning to Derrick Henry‘s thunder in this backfield.
Fantasy Football Draft Picks to Target
- Fitz’s Top Fantasy Football Draft Targets (Premium)
- Erickson’s Top Fantasy Football Draft Targets (Premium)
- DBro’s Top Fantasy Football Draft Targets (Premium)
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