Fantasy Football Draft Targets: Rhamondre Stevenson & Jonathon Brooks (2024)

For those that are fans of zero and hero running back builds this fantasy football draft season, middle-round running backs will be key. Let’s dive into a few middle-round running backs that could be fantasy football league winners in 2024.

Mid-Round RBs That Can Win Leagues

A lot of articles have been written about the running back dead zone and the pitfalls that can be found between rounds 3-6, but a little further down in ADP, there’s an area of the draft board that has been certified gold when it comes to running backs over the last few years. In this article, we’ll take a look at where that area is and the best running backs to draft in that area of average draft position (ADP).

In 2020, 18 running backs were drafted between pick 73 and 150, which represented the RB30 to RB50 that year, of those RBs 38.9% finished more than five spots higher among their position than they were drafted with the RB12 and 17 in total points coming from this range. But it wasn’t a classic year for this theory as 62.5% in this range finished five or more spots behind their positional ADP.

But leap forward to 2021 and things started to shift dramatically.

In 2021, picks 73-150 served up 16 different running backs, the RB29 to RB44. A massive 56.2% of these backs outperformed their positional ADP by five spots or more, compared to only five who failed to be within five spots of where they were drafted.

We got the RB5 (Leonard Fournette), RB7 (James Conner), RB20 (Melvin Gordon), RB21 (AJ Dillon), and RB23 (Devin Singletary) amongst others.

In 2022, as wide receiver thirst kicked into full effect in drafts, the RB24 now appeared in this range, and altogether there were 26 different backs here, from RB24 to RB49. With this increase in numbers, there was a dip in hit rate, but 42.3% still finished 5 or more spots above their positional ADP. This includes nine of the first 15 drafted in this range.

Then in 2023, with even more backs in this range, 28 in total, RB23 to RB50, the hit rate stayed consistent with 42.8%, a slight increase from 2022’s 42.3%.

Again though, the top end of this was lucrative with six of the first eight outperforming their positional ADP by at least five spots.

If we reduce the sample size down to picks 73 through 110 we can see how after 2020, which admittedly was a bad year with 11%, this range has hit at 60%, 58%, and 56%. This is the area of drafts we have to be drafting running backs in, and these are the best options for 2024, where we get the RB18-33.

Rhamondre Stevenson (RB – NE)

It was a slow start for Rhamondre Stevenson in 2023, dropping from 61 rushing yards per game in 2022 to 51 in the Patriots’ anemic offense and seeing his receptions per game drop from 4.1 to 3.1. However, it seemed he was just getting going when he got injured after finishing as the RB2, RB20, and RB7 between weeks 9-12, before missing the rest of the season. With Drake Maye at quarterback, there’s hope that this offense could be a little more fantasy-friendly in 2024.

#Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson running a nasty route.

(IG: jackson.tolliver) pic.twitter.com/a3TQmbL83P

— New England Sports Fellow (@NESportsFellow) July 28, 2024

Jonathon Brooks (RB – CAR)

Brooks is currently still on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list due to his torn ACL suffered in November. Thankfully for Brooks, it was a clean tear with no additional damage, very different from those that have hampered JK Dobbins and Javonte Williams‘ careers. The Panthers seem content to take their time with Brooks who could have verged on the first round of the draft if it wasn’t for the injury. Ultimately though, this Panthers team needs wins and to restore some good vibes around their quarterback and offense before bigger questions emerge about Bryce Young‘s future. Brooks isn’t a player to draft expecting immediate returns, but we know rookies tend to come on as the season progresses and Brooks could be a league-winner down the stretch.