Fantasy 2026 Second-Year Running Back Breakouts: The Sophomore Backs to Target

The 2025 rookie running back class arrived deep and productive. A year later, several of these backs are the exact mid- and late-round values that win fantasy drafts, if you can tell the ones ascending into a lead role from the ones still splitting a backfield. This board ranks the class by the rushing yards each earned as a rookie, then reads each situation honestly.

The leaderboard above sorts the group by 2025 rushing yards. The tiers below separate the true lead backs from the committee members and the injury-shortened darts.

The lead backs: Jeanty and Judkins

Ashton Jeanty was the class headliner and pretty much the whole Las Vegas backfield, running for 975 yards and five scores on 266 carries with a 77% snap share and no meaningful challenger behind him. He is priced like it, at an RB11 cost. Quinshon Judkins carried Cleveland's ground game with 827 yards and seven touchdowns on 230 carries in 14 games, and with Dylan Sampson on injured reserve the lead role is his. Judkins goes at an RB22 price, the cheapest of the true bell-cow options here.

The value to target: TreVeyon Henderson

TreVeyon Henderson posted the second-most rushing yards in the class, 911 on 180 carries with nine rushing touchdowns, and did it on just a 45% snap share. That efficiency, better than five yards a carry with real goal-line work at nine goal-line touches, is the ascending-talent signal. The honest caveat is the committee: Rhamondre Stevenson is still in New England and took 130 carries with ten goal-line touches of his own in 2025, so this is a timeshare, not a coronation. But at an RB27 price for a back with this kind of rookie efficiency and a path to more volume, Henderson is the value the board points to.

The committee sleepers: Croskey-Merritt, Monangai, Marks

Three more backs earned real workloads without a clear grip on the job. Jacory Croskey-Merritt ran for 805 yards and eight touchdowns on 175 carries with a class-high 12 goal-line touches in Washington, but the team added Rachaad White (132 carries, eight goal-line touches) to the room, so the scoring role is contested. Kyle Monangai turned 169 carries into 783 yards but sits behind D'Andre Swift, who owned Chicago's backfield with 223 carries and 14 goal-line touches. Woody Marks handled 196 carries for Houston, yet David Montgomery (158 carries, 14 goal-line touches) is the goal-line back there, which capped Marks at two rushing scores. Each is a cheap dart, RB39 to RB42, and each is one injury from a lead role.

The injury-shortened darts: Hampton, Skattebo, Tuten

Omarion Hampton flashed lead-back ability for the Chargers, 545 yards on 124 carries in only nine games at a 63% snap share, and he carries an RB10 price on that upside. Cam Skattebo was productive in an eight-game rookie sample for the Giants (410 yards, five touchdowns) but shares a crowded backfield with Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary. Bhayshul Tuten ran for 307 yards and five scores as a deep committee back in Jacksonville. All three come cheap, and all three depend on either health or a role change to matter.