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 running back sleepers and 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 Sleepers
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
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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