6 Running Backs to Avoid (2026 Fantasy Football)

When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and which to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few running backs experts avoid this fantasy football draft season.

2026 Fantasy Football Draft Advice: Running Backs Experts Avoid

Here are players the expert consensus avoids compared to current fantasy football ADP.

RJ Harvey (DEN)

R.J. Harvey’s rookie season was a tale of two seasons centered around J.K. Dobbins being in the lineup and out of it. In Weeks 1-10, Harvey was the RB29 in fantasy points per game, averaging 29.1% of the snaps played with 7.5 touches and 38.9 total yards per game. In Weeks 11-18, with Dobbins out, he was the RB13 in fantasy points per game with 16.8 touches and 72.5 total yards per game while averaging 60.7% of the snaps played. With Dobbins back and Denver drafting Jonah Coleman, Harvey’s role is up in the air. He could easily fall back into last year’s early-season role as passing down partner with Dobbins, or this backfield could get messy with all three backs playing and the production getting divided up. Harvey was awesome overall last season as a receiving option, but he struggled on early downs. As a pass catcher, he ranked sixth in target per route run rate and first downs per route run and tenth in yards per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). As a rusher, among 49 qualifying backs, he was 21st in missed tackle rate but 42nd in explosive run rate and 44th in yards after contact per attempt. Harvey is a decent selection in fantasy drafts this season, but in 2026, I won’t go out of my way to get him on all my teams like last year.
– Derek Brown

Bucky Irving (TB)

Bucky Irving has dealt with a number of injuries in his short career with a foot sprain and a shoulder/ AC joint sprain last year. Rewinding to 2024, he also dealt with hip, back, toe, and hamstring issues. When he was on the field last year, he averaged 20.3 touches and 86.5 total yards as the RB17 in fantasy points per game. His efficiency suffered massively from the injuries last year after being a wonderous per-touch monster in 2024. Last year, among 49 qualifying backs, he was 43rd in explosive run rate, 35th in missed tackle rate, and 46th in yards after contact per attempt (per Fantasy Points Data). Those dips are explainable, but they are still concerning for a back that is on the smaller side and has been banged up quite often over the last two seasons. Yes, Rachaad White is gone, but Irving will still have to contend with Kenneth Gainwell and Sean Tucker this season on early downs and in the passing game. Irving could be a nice bounce-back candidate in 2026 or a massive disappointment that loses work to Gainwell and Tucker all year. I’ll buy the dip if he slips in some drafts, but I won’t go out of my way to draft him this season.
– Derek Brown

Zach Charbonnet (SEA)

Zach Charbonnet enters 2026 with an unknown timetable for when he’ll be available for Seattle or when he’ll be 100% after he tore his ACL in last year’s playoffs. With Jadarian Price, Emanuel Wilson, and George Holani on the depth chart, I doubt that Seattle rushes him back into duty and tasks him with a hefty workload before he’s ready. This unknown/moving timeline has me shying away from Charbonnet for 2026. Last year, he was the RB27 in fantasy points per game, while ranking seventh in missed tackle rate and yards after contact per attempt (per Fantasy Points Data). Take those numbers with a grain of salt for this season, with Charbonnet’s health likely not 100% for most of the season. Charbonnet could be a decent flex play this season at some point.
– Derek Brown

TreVeyon Henderson (NE)

TreVeyon Henderson finished his rookie season as the RB24 in fantasy points per game, but it wasn’t nearly that productive for fantasy managers when you look at the full breakdown of how it unfolded. In Weeks 10-11, Rhamondre Stevenson wasn’t active, and Henderson feasted with 60.3 combined PPR points, which accounted for 29.2% of his overall fantasy production for the season. If you take those two monster games out of the equation, Henderson would have averaged 9.8 PPR points per game, which would have made him the RB33 in fantasy points per game. Without Stevenson in the lineup in Weeks 9-11, Henderson averaged 19 touches and 110 total yards. With Stevenson active, Henderson had 11.2 touches and 57.2 total yards per game. This isn’t to shade Henderson, but I’m trying to give context to his rookie season that will be overlooked at first glance. I don’t know how Henderson overtakes Stevenson in 2026 if both of these players continue to post per-touch efficiency metrics like they did last season. Last year, Henderson was bested by Stevenson in every metric that I care about, namely explosive run rate, missed tackle rate, yards after contact per attempt, yards per route run, and pass protection stats. Among 49 qualifying backs, Henderson ranked 12th in explosive run rate, but he was also 32nd in missed tackle rate and 42nd in yards after contact per attempt (per Fantasy Points Data). Henderson could eat into Stevenson’s workload more in 2026 if he can take another step and payoff as an RB2, but he ‘s best viewed as an upside RB3.
– Derek Brown

Quinshon Judkins (CLE)

I just want to preface the intro for Quinshon Judkins with some analysis from Fantasy Points’ Ryan Heath. Per Heath:

“The four most recent players to return from fibula fractures — with Cam Skattebo‘s and Quinshon Judkins‘ outlooks in mind — averaged -6.7 fantasy football PPG fewer than they did the year prior upon returning.”

The process says you just blindly fade these RBs.

And given that the Browns open the year on the road against two of the best run defenses in the NFL – at Jacksonville and at Tampa Bay, I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if Dylan Sampson straight-up out-scores Judkins through the first two weeks of the season as the Browns’ preferred pass-catcher out of the backfield.

Sampson is a very capable RB in his own right. Todd Monken took Derrick MFN Henry off the field for Justice Hill in Baltimore, so yeah, I think Judkins is very much at risk of being regulated to early downs and TD dependency (in a bad offense, no less).

The Browns RB is facing a MAJOR uphill climb out of the gates behind an overhauled offensive line that might take some time to gel. It’s a brand-new starting five that has never played together – and we know that bad offensive lines don’t travel well. They will improve as the season progresses – but man, I want to fade this offense hard to start the year.

Judkins screams to me as a volume-driven fantasy football RB2. To me, that profiles as replaceable production that isn’t necessarily built to last.

He also wasn’t efficient at all last season.

Last year, Judkins ranked 38th in juke rate, 55th in yards per touch, 52nd in yards created per touch, 27th in breakaway runs, and second-to-last in rushing success rate (33%).

Now, a lot of this can be attributed to Judkins’ situation: 62.2% of his rushing yards came after first contact, and he had the fourth-fewest yards before contact per attempt, with only Cam Skattebo, Ashton Jeanty, and Zach Charbonnet seeing less runway with the ball in their hands.

He was averaging nearly 19 touches per game and could barely scratch top-24 fantasy football RB production.

I just don’t see how the situation is so dramatically improved for an RB who is coming off a brutal season-ending injury to thrive. Give me Sampson 100 picks later.
– Andrew Erickson

Josh Jacobs (GB)

Weeks 1-10: Jacobs was the RB5 in PPG (18.1) with 11 rushing TDs. Then he suffered a knee injury in Week 11. Once he returned in Week 13, he was clearly not himself. RB23 in PPG (10.5). 12 PPG (RB21) from Week 7 onward after hurting his calf. Ended the season as RB11 in PPG (14.3).

The Packers RB fell just shy of 1,000 rushing yards despite 254 carries, taking a step back in his second season with Green Bay. If healthy, Jacobs has a top-5 fantasy ceiling. But as the 28-year-old continues to pile up volume and small injuries, fantasy managers should be wary of the production tapering off.
– Andrew Erickson

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