Fantasy Football: Final Pre-Draft Rookie RB Ranks -

These fantasy football rankings are the final Pre-Draft Rookie RB Ranks, featuring the top 25 at the position.

Here are the final pre-draft rookie running back rankings. There will of course be a final update once we know the draft capital and landing spots for these players. These particular rankings include my tape evaluations for each of these prospects. You can view the details in my Fantasy Football: Rookie RB Film Grades article. Furthermore, they include some production metrics which I incorporated into my previous Fantasy Football: Rookie RB Pre-Draft Ranks.

For this third version of the rankings, the only difference is the inclusion of the Relative Athletic Score. The (RAS) Relative Athletic Scores compile prospects’ testing metrics from combine and pro day drills. This is a rating system from 0 to 10.0, with ten being the best possible grade.

Pre-Draft Rookie RB Ranks

Rk	RB	School	Film Score	ScrYrd / Season	Rec (1S)	RAS
1	Bijan Robinson	Texas	273	1405	26	9.83
2	Zach Charbonnet	UCLA	243	984	37	9.42
3	Kendre Miller	TCU	259	880	16
4	Evan Hull	Northwestern	249	817	55	9.33
5	Jahmyr Gibbs	Alabama	240	1115	44	8.04
6	Devon Achane	Texas A&M	251	977	36	7.04
7	Chase Brown	Illinois	239	816	27	9.79
8	Keaton Mitchell	East Carolina	235	1202	27	8.69
9	Roschon Johnson	Texas	250	653	23	8.69
10	Tyjae Spears	Tulane	248	869	22	7.46
11	Zach Evans	Ole Miss	248	775	12	7.85
12	Xazavian Valladay	Arizona St.	231	1068	37	9.45
13	Eric Gray	Oklahoma	237	979	33	4.73
14	Mohamed Ibrahim	Minnesota	247	963	8
15	Israel Abanikanda	Pittsburgh	237	844	24	9.61
16	Deuce Vaughn	Kansas St.	215	1628	49
17	Sean Tucker	Syracuse	217	1268	36
18	Tank Bigsby	Auburn	223	1117	30	8.31
19	Chris Rodriguez	Kentucky	236	752	20	7.69
20	Khalan Laborn	Marshall	225	676	16	8.46
21	Kenny McIntosh	Georgia	246	611	43	4.08
22	Hunter Luepke	North Dakota St.	235	539	14
23	DeWayne McBride	UAB	220	1184	3
24	Camerun Peoples	Appalachian St.	212	581	6	8.21
25	Tiyon Evans	Louisville	204	538	6	7.49

Charbonnet Charging

Chargining up the ranking all the way to rookie RB #2 is Zach Charbonnet. He has been steadily climbing with each version of the ranks, as he started 10th in film score and then 6th once production metrics were added. Finally, Charbonnet had an excellent combine with an RAS score of 9.42. For reference sake, that is 5th among the running backs listed here. All of this gives him a well-rounded profile that should translate well to the NFL.

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I anticipate Charbonnet could gain a full three-down workhorse role at the next level. In dynasty rookie drafts that occur before the NFL Draft, I would easily spend a mid-1st round selection on him. While Charbonnet is now at #2, there is still a significant gap between Bijan Robinson and everyone else in this class.

Kendre Complications

There is quite the complicated case with Kendre Miller. Other than the great Mr. Robinson himself, no RB had a better film grade than Miller. However, with one one college season of significant production, his overall profile may not shine as well as others. Then there is the knee injury he suffered during the NCAA playoffs. That has kept Miller of the field during the combine and pro-days. Therefore, we don’t actually have any RAS data for him.

All of this begs the question of where to rank him among his peers. In the two previous versions of my rankings, Miller has been in the top 3. And without athletic testing number to change things, that is where he remains in my final pre-draft ranks.

As you probably noticed in the table above, Miller is not the only RB without an RAS score. That adds some complications to tiering these players, but we work with what we’ve got.

Chasing The Top Tiers

Looking at the very top of the RAS scores, it comes as little surprise that Robinson had the highest among these 25 running backs. This once again solidified his place at the very top of the rankings. However, the 2nd best combine results belonged to Chase Brown.

Going back to the film breakdowns, Brown had the best footwork score in the class. While almost everything else about his profile underwhelms, excellent footwork and athletic metrics can propel a prospect. Having great scores in those two aspects showcases a technical floor with an athletic ceiling. Quite the enticing combo.

In my current rankings, I consider RB #2 through RB #6 to be it’s own enclosed tier. After that, the spot of lucky #7 was wide open for Brown to grab. I would argue that Brown kicks off the next tier which goes from RB #7 to RB #10.

Athletic Excellence

Xazavian Valladay and Israel Abanikanda both enter the top 15, after being outside that threshold in the previous rankings. Both players owe that to impressive athletic testing numbers. Among the top 25 running backs in these ranks, Abanikanda and Valladay have the 3rd and 4th best RAS scores respectively.

Below Abanikanda at RB #15, you will no longer find any RAS scores above 8.5. Partially because there are several players for which that data is unavailable. But also because all the prospects with excellent RAS scores have risen in the rankings.

Thank you for reading my Pre-Draft Rookie RB Ranks. Be sure to check out all of the great NFL Draft content available on Full Press Coverage.