5 underrated running backs entering the 2026 NFL season

Small sample sizes are sometimes all we have to work with in football analysis. We don’t have data from 800 pitches or 500 jumpshots or 300 shots on goal. Would it be nice if we had massive samples for every single player in the NFL? Yes, it would.

But we don’t, and that includes second and third string running backs who show out on limited opportunities. Some of those limited-sample stats are skewed by a big run or two, but hiding in that data are hints as to who might excel if given the chance at a real backfield workload.

Below are five running backs who over the past couple NFL seasons have impressed on the spreadsheets (and for some, on the field as well). I used four metrics to evaluate these rushers: Success rate, explosive rush rate, missed tackles forced, and yards after contact. These metrics, I think, offer a good look at which runners have made the most of their limited chances in the league.

Blake Corum (LAR)

• Yards after contact per rush: 2.25 (37th)
• Missed tackles forced per rush: 0.18 (18th)
• Explosive rush rate: 7% (9th)
• Rushing success rate: 59.7% (3rd)

The caveat with Corum is straightforward enough: Kyren Williams is better or about equal in every key rushing metric mentioned above. Kyren in 2025 was one of the two backs with a better rushing success rate than Corum. He was slightly better at forcing missed tackles too.

I’m highlighting Corum for two reasons: His ADP is lower than Williams by a long shot and Corum showed great improvement on the spreadsheets in 2025. Pro Football Focus in 2024 graded Corum as the league’s 42nd best rusher out of 77 qualifying backs. In 2025, he finished sixth in PFF grading. Corum, naturally, was tied with his backfield mate.

Corum can certainly do everything Williams can do if Williams were to miss time in 2026. Sean McVay’s rushing scheme plus Corum’s efficiency would make him something close to a top-5 weekly fantasy option in such a scenario. It won’t hurt that Corum is running behind an LA offensive line that created the second highest rate of rush yards before contact in 2025.

Blake Corum! Rams making a statement

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Keaton Mitchell (LAC)

• Yards after contact per rush: 1.31 (73rd)
• Missed tackles forced per rush: 0.12 (50th)
• Explosive rush rate: 10.2% (2nd)
• Rushing success rate: 52.5% (24th)

I didn’t mean to become a Keaton Mitchell truther, but here I am, five months into the offseason, truthing Mitchell. I really had no choice after the Chargers pursued Mitchell aggressively in free agency after he spent three tantalizing seasons with the Ravens.

▶ RELATED: What Mike McDaniel’s offense means for the Chargers

You might notice Mitchell doesn’t exactly check the missed tackles and yards after contact boxes. That’s OK. Speedy backs like Mitchell are often underwhelming on the after-contact stuff because they tend to gain a lot of yards before contact. Last season in Baltimore, Mitchell led all backs in yards before contact per rush (4.47), a hallmark of lightning fast rushers who regularly blow by the first wave of defenders.

In this way — gaining consistent yards before contact — Mitchell is not unlike De’Von Achane, who you may remember as the centerpiece of Mike McDaniel’s Dolphins offense. McDaniel, as you surely know, is now LA’s offensive coordinator, and he’s making me rather bullish on the fourth-year runner. When a play caller puts a free agent’s face on a Wanted poster — like McDaniel did with Mitchell — I pay attention.

Keaton Mitchell getting shifty on his way to the end zone

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Then there’s The Athletic’s Daniel Popper, a longtime Bolts beat writer, said in March that Mitchell’s “acceleration and threatening speed to the edge will thrive” in the Chargers offense.

I’m not projecting Mitchell to be a 15-touch-per-game guy in the Chargers offense. I do think Mitchell is the kind of back who can do a lot with 8-10 weekly touches on well-designed rushes and screens in the running back-friendly McDaniel (Shanny) scheme.

▶ Check out three under-the-radar NFL team stacks for DraftKings best ball!

Tank Bigsby (PHI)

• Yards after contact per rush: 3.16 (3rd)
• Missed tackles forced per rush: 0.27 (3rd)
• Explosive rush rate: 8% (5th)
• Rushing success rate: 54% (20th)

It remains unclear why the Jaguars were in such a hurry to dump Bigsby last season. If they had held on to Bigsby he would be — by far — the best back in the Jacksonville backfield today. So it goes.

Bigsby was explosive in limited work last year as the Eagles’ distant RB2 behind Saquon Barkley. At times he was effective enough to prompt questions as to why the Eagles weren’t giving him a few more touches as a complement to the struggling Barkley. Bigbsy had 104 yards on nine carries against the Giants in Week 8; he had 75 yards on 15 rushes in Week 18 against Washington. To use a nice normie stat, Bigsby ripped off runs at 5.7 yards per carry in 2025.

Efficiency and explosiveness aren’t exactly new for Bigsby, who in 2024 ranked third among all running backs in yards after contact per carry and 22nd in missed tackles forced per rush. He might just be good.

Certainly Barkley — expected to be more involved in the pass game this season — will be the team’s locked-in No. 1 back in 2026. Bigsby, however, makes for an intriguing No. 2 back who would have a bunch of weekly big-play upside if Barkley were to miss any time this season.

Jeremy McNichols (WAS)

• Yards after contact per rush: 3.7 (1st)
• Missed tackles forced per rush: 0.25 (7th)
• Explosive rush rate: 6.8% (12th)
• Rushing success rate: 45.5% (59th)

McNichols, like backfield mate Jacory Croskey-Merritt, was quietly solid in 2025 on his 44 carries, gaining five yards a pop and bullying his way through would-be tacklers at an elite clip.

He wasn’t just a between-the-tackles grinder who would get the Commanders three or four yards and a cloud of dust. There was much more than a cloud of dust on a handful of his 44 rushing attempts, as evidenced by his explosive rush rate of nearly 7 percent. The spreadsheet knowers are fully aware that McNichols also popped in 2024; only four running backs averaged more yards after contact per rush. McNichols’ PFF rushing grade in ’24 was on par with Bucky Irving and Josh Jacobs.

Though he’s in a crowded, uncertain backfield, McNichols is someone to monitor in deeper fantasy formats.

Jawhar Jordan (HOU)

• Yards after contact per rush: 3.3 (2nd)
• Missed tackles forced per rush: 0.21 (9th)
• Explosive rush rate: 5.7% (16th)
• Rushing success rate: 35% (72nd)

Jordan wasn’t half bad in two games as Houston’s lead back last season. He gained 154 yards on 30 carries while catching all seven of his targets. His yards after contact metric was inflated by a couple big runs against a beatable Arizona front seven. I try not to remove a player’s best plays when evaluating him though.

Jordan entered the NFL with a profile that probably should have gotten more attention. He had a 60th percentile running back target share and an 80th percentile yards per carry. In college Jordan was a boom-or-bust rusher. That bled into his rookie year with the Texans. Zero RB drafters should look powerfully into Jordan as a stash in deeper formats this summer.