If you’re using a Zero-RB approach to your fantasy football drafts, the hardest part of most drafts is the sweet spot when to start drafting running backs. But you can’t just draft any running backs to make up your roster and call it a day. The running backs you choose need to have intention behind it with what you’re drafting and looking to get from it. If you’re looking for how to construct the rest of your Zero RB roster as well, check out my article here too.

If you’re looking for how to construct your running back room using a Zero-RB build in fantasy football, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s dive into what we should be aiming for when putting together a group of running backs.

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Constructing your RB Room Using a Zero RB Strategy

2023’s Late-Round Running Backs and How They Fared

Different running backs offer you different things in fantasy. The best running backs are the ones that have an elite rushing and receiving profile. That’s why Christian McCaffrey has been one of the first running backs drafted year after year and also why Bijan Robinson and Breece Hall round out this season’s top-three backs by consensus ADP and FantasyPros’ Expert Consensus Rankings. You can still get those types of players who offer receiving and rushing upside later in your draft, but they’re down in ADP for a reason. It doesn’t always have to be a particularly valid reason either.

Sometimes, it’s the mystery box of simply being a rookie and we haven’t seen what they can do at the NFL level. Other times, it’s an uncertain backfield that depressed one (or both) back’s ADP. Across the board though, no matter the running back, running backs are being pushed down because of wide receivers being pushed up draft boards.

You can get a lot of value at running back later on the draft, and later than ever compared to previous seasons. Just from the seventh round and later in last season’s ADP, here are the hits at running back and where they finished in PPR formats:

• Rachaad White (RB – TB): RB4
• Raheem Mostert (RB – MIA): RB5
• Kyren Williams (RB – LAR): RB7
• James Cook (RB – BUF): RB12
• Isiah Pacheco (RB – KC): RB15
• Jerome Ford (RB – CLE): RB16
• David Montgomery (RB – DET): RB17
• James Conner (RB – ARI): RB18
• D’Andre Swift (RB – CHI): RB20
• Brian Robinson (RB – WAS): RB21
• Jaylen Warren (RB – PIT): RB22
• De’Von Achane (RB – MIA): RB24

HALF of the top 24 running backs from 2023 could have been drafted in the seventh round or later in most fantasy drafts last season. That doesn’t count the number of running backs that finished as an RB1 in a given week that you could have added from free agency or waivers.

With a ton of running backs available to draft in the mid-to-late rounds plus the ability to add backs that earn a workload via displacing a back ahead of them, injury or by other means, it’s pretty easy to find startable running backs while you draft receivers, an elite tight end and quarterback. If you get massive league-winning backs like White, Mostert and Williams like last season? Even better!

Running Back Archetypes

Drafting an intentional and purposeful running back room is like coloring in a coloring book. We have the outline; we know what the picture is supposed to be. But we want to add colors to the page. Certain colors are better for certain pictures. We don’t want to take black and blue crayons to color everything on the picture and then call it done.

I separate groupings of running backs into what I call the CARS system; with four archetypes of mid-to-late-round running backs that comprise the Zero RB tiers. These include:

Contingent-value backs

• A running back who stands to benefit if a backfield mate is removed, injured, etc.
  • Examples: Blake Corum, Trey Benson

Ambiguous-backfield backs

• A backfield with two or more running backs where roles or workload splits are generally uncertain
  • Examples: Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears, Zack Moss and Chase Brown

Standalone-value backs

• A running back who has a defined role within an offense but not a three-down bellcow role
  • Examples: Raheem Mostert, Austin Ekeler, Zach Charbonnet

Receiving backs

• A running back with a defined receiving role in their team’s offense
  • Examples: Austin Ekeler, Antonio Gibson

Some of these running backs fit multiple archetypes, but knowing these archetypes will help you make better choices with the running backs you select in your draft. Pairing a couple of the standalone or receiving backs to get you a needed points floor early in the season with some of the ambiguous or contingent-value backs that have late-season upside to help propel your team to a championship.

Executing a Purposeful Zero-RB Room

Talking about constructing a Zero RB room is one thing, but putting that talk into action is another beast in and of itself. Building your stable of running backs is entirely context-dependent. The earlier you take a running back, the more you can sit back to an extent and potentially use your next pick or two on other positions then coming back to running back like this running back room:

• Javonte Williams (RB – DEN): Round 6
• Blake Corum (RB – LAR): Round 9
• Ty Chandler (RB – MIN): Round 10
• Chuba Hubbard (RB – CAR): Round 11
• Antonio Gibson (RB – NE): Round 13
• Tyrone Tracy Jr. (RB – NYG): Round 14

On the flip side, if you wait a little longer in your draft to grab your first running back, you’ll probably have to grab running backs in volume, like in this team:

• Chase Brown (RB – CIN): Round 8
• Ezekiel Elliott (RB – DAL): Round 9
• Zach Charbonnet (RB – SEA): Round 10
• Jaleel McLaughlin (RB – DEN): Round 11
• Ray Davis (RB – BUF): Round 12
• Bucky Irving (RB – TB): Round 13

As with every position, you’ll have to use your judgment and navigate pockets of the draft to create your running back room. The specific draft you’re in will also dictate how to create your running back room when using the Zero RB strategy, but as long as you don’t get locked out of your first running back, who should have some standalone value at the very least, your drafts should provide a ton of flexibility towards building a coherent, logical and dynamic running back room for 2024.

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Kevin Tompkins is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Kevin, check out his profile and follow him @ktompkinsii.