Wouldn’t it be nice if every team had one player guaranteed the majority of the workload, with no guesswork involved? Sadly, that’s not the case in this day and age. Running back committees are nothing new, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating for fantasy football.
Two-man backfields? That’s fine; they can still produce fantasy assets while splitting work. Three-headed committees? That’s where things get messy. Several teams enter the season with unclear distributions. Below, I highlight five running back position battles fantasy managers need to pay attention to as we head closer to draft season.
Fantasy Football Running Back Position Battles to Watch
Denver Broncos: RJ Harvey vs. J.K. Dobbins vs. Jonah Coleman
This backfield has the potential to get messy, folks.
Second-year back RJ Harvey is the most expensive of the bunch, currently with an average draft position (ADP) of RB31. That surprises me. Harvey barely saw the field when J.K. Dobbins was healthy in 2025. Harvey topped a 30% snap share only twice and had more than eight touches only once, while Dobbins operated as the clear bell-cow back. While he scored 12 touchdowns as a rookie, Harvey struggled on the ground, averaging just 3.7 yards per carry. He’ll probably slide right back into that change-of-pace role, making him more valuable in PPR formats.
Dobbins, meanwhile, is currently RB37 in ADP and feels like one of the best clicks you can make later in drafts. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry last season and showed plenty of juice, ripping off 12 runs of 15+ yards in just 10 games. I expect Dobbins to once again be the early-down grinder for this offense in 2026.
Rookie Jonah Coleman (RB51 ADP) is the one who could muddle up this rotation. Denver took the 5-foot-8-inch bowling ball in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft. He’s a tackle-breaking monster with a three-down profile. What we need to find out is whether Denver views him as insurance in case Dobbins suffers another injury. Or will Sean Payton continue frustrating fantasy managers and turn this into a three-headed backfield?
We can work with two running backs splitting most of the work. However, a three-man committee would lower the ceiling of each and make it a weekly headache better left to your league mates than to you.
Washington Commanders: Rachaad White vs. Jacory Croskey-Merritt vs. Kaytron Allen
Cue the Spider-Man pointing meme, because this Washington backfield looks a lot like Denver’s. There’s a 27-year-old veteran, an older second-year back and a Day 3 rookie all vying for touches.
Rachaad White, currently the RB38 in ADP, is a hot name. He joined the team this offseason after four years with Tampa Bay and now reunites with friend and former college teammate Jayden Daniels. White is one of the best receiving backs in the game, so he’ll handle most of the passing-down work. But we also know he can produce if given volume. In 2023, White finished as the RB4 overall on 336 touches. He won’t get that much work this year, but there’s a non-zero chance he just takes hold of the lead back duties and becomes this year’s Javonte Williams.
White’s main threat on early downs is Jacory Croskey-Merritt. A seventh-round selection, Croskey-Merritt topped 800 rushing yards and scored eight touchdowns during his rookie campaign. He averaged a respectable 4.6 yards per carry and ranked seventh among all running backs with a 26.5% juke rate. Coming off the board as the RB41, the man known as “Bill” could be a good value pick if he gets the bulk of the running back carries this season.
Rookie Kaytron Allen is a player you can’t ignore given his pedigree. While he fell all the way to round six of the draft, he left Penn State as the program’s all-time leading rusher. Last season, Allen rushed for over 1,300 yards, averaged 6.2 yards per carry and scored 15 total touchdowns. At RB56 in ADP, Allen’s an intriguing dart-throw late in drafts who could pay off if he carves out a larger role than expected.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Jaylen Warren vs. Rico Dowdle
How the touches get split between this duo could have some major fantasy ramifications. Last season, both Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell were RB2s on a per-game basis, averaging 13.6 and 13 fantasy points, respectively. With Gainwell gone, the most likely scenario is Rico Dowdle dominating the early-down work while Jaylen Warren gets sprinkled in as the primary receiving back.
If you want Warren, he’s currently the RB27 in ADP. Not bad for someone who rushed for nearly 1,000 yards, caught 40 passes and scored eight times in 2025. If he does soak up most of the targets left behind by Gainwell, Warren will be a high-end RB2.
With Dowdle, you know what you’re getting — a bruising, punishing runner who has consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He’s not quite the pass-catcher Warren is, but he’s capable, with 39 receptions each of the last two years. Dowdle played with head coach Mike McCarthy in Dallas, so that connection could make Dowdle a tremendous value at RB33.
I do want to take a second to mention Kaleb Johnson, Pittsburgh’s third-round pick last year. He barely saw the field as a rookie, registering just 29 touches for 78 scoreless yards. But the coaching staff that drafted him is no longer there. There’s a world where Johnson improves in Year 2 enough to earn some playing time. He also possesses some contingent upside should Dowdle miss any time.
Carolina Panthers: Chuba Hubbard vs. Jonathon Brooks
When Rico Dowdle didn’t re-sign with Carolina this offseason, he left 275 vacated touches. Many of those will go to Chuba Hubbard, the team’s bell-cow back in 2023 and 2024. However, Jonathon Brooks will also get his fair share of opportunities now that he’s seemingly healthy for the first time since entering the league.
Hubbard, the RB29 in ADP, figures to start the year off as the Panthers’ lead back. It was a job he held last season until an ankle injury in Week 4 sidelined him for two games. In his absence, Dowdle went nuclear, racking up over 200 total yards in back-to-back games. Hubbard fought hard to return and tried to reclaim his starting role, but you could tell his ankle was never really right. As a result, Hubbard posted his worst season since 2022, finishing with just 511 rushing yards, 223 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
Down at RB36 sits Brooks, but he’s been getting steamed up a ton lately. In some high-stakes redraft formats, he’s actually passed Hubbard in ADP. The vibes have been strong this offseason for Brooks as he works his way back from two ACL tears. Head coach Dave Canales has talked about getting Brooks involved in the passing game and creating some packages to get his former second-round pick the ball.
Brooks might start slowly since he hasn’t played any meaningful football in years, but he could pop as the season goes on. His fantasy football ADP will continue to rise if we keep getting positive reports out of training camp.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Bhayshul Tuten vs. Chris Rodriguez Jr.
Based on ADP alone, you wouldn’t think this is much of a competition. Bhayshul Tuten (RB24) is nearly 20 spots higher than Chris Rodriguez Jr. (RB43). But the split between the two could end up being much closer on the actual football field.
Tuten was Jacksonville’s fourth-round pick a year ago. The speedster didn’t have a memorable rookie season, averaging 3.7 yards per carry and finishing with 307 rushing yards. He also chipped in 10 catches for 79 yards through the air. But he did score seven touchdowns, many of those near the goal line, showing he could punch it in when close. At RB2 prices, the fantasy community clearly expects Tuten to take a big leap in 2026 and absorb much of the work that Travis Etienne left behind. If that happens, he could pay off, but right now, it feels like he’s being drafted near his ceiling.
On the other hand, Rodriguez signed this offseason and seemed destined to be the between-the-20s hammer in this Liam Coen offense. However, he had a foot injury that required surgery this offseason and wasn’t available for minicamp. We’ll see if that causes him to fall behind Tuten in the pecking order. If his ADP starts to slip, Rodriguez might become a major value in standard or half-PPR formats.
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Wolf Trelles-Heard is a fantasy football analyst for FantasyPros. Find him on X at @DynastyFFWolf.