Appetizing Young Love for Sale: 2026 NFL Draft Running Backs

Welcome to the 2026 edition of the Too Deep 96: draft coverage for folks who despise draft coverage!

We’ll be going position-by-position this year, with the final rankings arriving a few days before the draft. This should make it easier for fans interested in particular position groups to find players they care about. It also provides me with some fudge factor when I change my mind about 20 prospects at the last minute.

Jeremiyah Love, RB, Notre Dame

Dwelling too long on Love’s scouting details feels pedantic and trite. He’s a running back prospect in the Saquon Barkley/Bijan Robinson/Ashton Jeanty class, with broadly similar strengths to those top backs and few weaknesses. You don’t need a listing of every combo move or special attack when you choose your video game fighter: it’s safe to know that they possess all the usual combos, and that those moves are both extremely effective and fun.

Dwelling too long on the plight of top running back prospects also feels trite. Prospects of Love’s caliber churn out fine fantasy statistics but get worked like rented stump grinders for bad organizations. Nothing about their contact balance, ability to string together moves or usefulness in pass protection can change that. Saquon, Bijan and Jeanty, for example, combined for one winning season (Saquon, 2022) for the teams that drafted them. But a New York Times editor back in 2023 warned me that readers were bored with Running Backs Don’t Matter sermons. No sense preaching to a nodding choir three years later.

Love appeared poised to escape the Saquon/Bijan fate at the start of the offseason. The running back-needy Chiefs hold the ninth overall pick. Every mock drafter in the mockdraftiverse penned Mahomes/Love fanfic until the start of free agency, when the Chiefs signed Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker, forcing a shift in the ‘shipping.

The Commanders remain potential worthy suitors for Love with the seventh pick: he could help them bounce back quickly. The Bengals could attempt a Love-Burrow pairing with the 10th pick if they are content to lose games by 1980s NBA scores for the next three years. The Cowboys at 12 wouldn’t be stupid – their offense would be turbocharged, and their defense isn’t Bengals-level bad after some free agent acquisitions – but defense remains the bigger need, and the Cowboys aren’t quite as addicted to drafting the most famous guy on the board as we all pretend they are in our efforts to drive traffic.

Then there are the Rams with the 13th pick. Love running behind 13 personnel, with Puka Nacua or Davante Adams lifting the lid of the defense for Matthew Stafford … that sounds legitimately sexy.

So there is hope for Love. If he can escape the event horizon of the first six picks in the draft, there’s a chance that he won’t be selected by a rebuilding team run by a very silly person who thinks that positional value is for chumps and Poindexters.

If the top of the draft breaks right, Love could be a difference maker for a playoff team. But if the Jets or Titans think, A-ha! This lad will help us to “establish a hard-hitting offensive identity,” Love will only exist to win fantasy leagues and prop bets until he reaches free agency in 2030.

Mike Washington, RB, Arkansas

Washington played three years at Buffalo and one at New Mexico State before his breakout season at Arkansas. He’s a tall, upright 223-pounder with burst. He’s at his best on sweeps and swing passes, where he can wait for blocks to set up and just explode when he sees a crease.

Washington ran a 4.33 Combine forty, winning the 2025 Speed Score title and nearly setting the record in that metric. His speed is evident on film when he reaches a straightaway.

Washington turns 23 in July: not that old for a guy with a long collegiate career, but still old for a running back prospect. He was a committee back at Buffalo, and there’s a chance that he peaked in the SEC. His lack of mileage eases some concerns, but his upright running style could lead to injuries, and his lack of wiggly moves could limit his value in many schemes.

Washington reminds me of the sort of back Kyle Shanahan and his imitators draft in the hopes of programming them to run straight for the designed hole, then making the most of their breakaway speed. He won’t be a bad Day Two investment.

Emmett Johnson, Nebraska

Johnson’s nickname is E-Money. He got it, as most running backs do, by being great at math.

I grew up being good with math and numbers. I’ve been a math guy my whole life. I would be in class, and there would be different equations, and I would always be the first one to solve it.

So this girl in class would always call me Money Man. Everybody would call me “Money Man, Money Man, you’re so smart.” She gave me that nickname in elementary school. Then it kind of just rose with that.

If Johnson were really good at math, he’d have noticed the disparity in NFL earning potential and moved to wide receiver in 10th grade.

Johnson’s a perennial All-B1G Academic selection with an elite-character reputation. He has a rugged rushing style, good hands and receiving chops, plus vision and cutback capability. He ran a 4.56 Combine forty at 202 pounds.

Wait, a 4.56 forty at 202 pounds isn’t very good. In fact, Johnson finished last in Speed Score among backs who ran at the Combine.

What’s worse, the lack of pure size and speed is evident on tape. And Johnson is an upright runner in a draft class full of them. He gives defenders an inviting target full of strike points, and an upright rushing style also limits consistency when finishing runs.

I like Johnson – what’s not to like about a mathlete? — but he’s likely to max out as a high effort/character committee back. Think Samaje Perine, but smaller.

J’Mari Taylor, RB, Virginia

Taylor spent four seasons at North Carolina Central of the MEAC conference. He transferred to Virginia after the 2024 season. When asked in April of 2025 who he patterns his game after, Taylor told reporters: “I’m like a Jahmyr Gibbs, if people know who that is with a Jonathan Taylor mixed in.”

To be clear, Gibbs had already been to two Pro Bowls at the time of that interview. Taylor would have been rather safe in the knowledge that anyone interviewing newly-transferred ACC running backs had a passing familiarity with Jahmyr Gibbs.

Frankly, I blame the reporter for not trimming that quote to protect a lad who didn’t have very much media experience; I retained the inelegant grammar of the quote (missing comma and all) for just this reason. Taylor is a collegiate running back, not the Secretary of State. It’s OK, even preferable, to tidy up diction and eliminate extemporaneous phrases. If we didn’t, 70% of the word count of all sports articles would be “definitely,” “for sure,” or the phrase, “At the end of the day …”

Now I am at risk of getting punched by a colleague named Marty Hudtloff if we ever find ourselves face-to-face. Welp, I was bound to get punched by someone at some point.

Taylor is not Gibbs. But he is a pesky runner who combines economical jump cuts with an ability to bounce off tackles and an extra gear that he can work his way into once he reaches the open field. He caught 43 passes in 2025. But he averaged just 5.9 yards per reception with five drops, so his credentials as an all-purpose back are dubious.

Taylor’s most impressive trait may be his ability to square his shoulders and keep running north-south while making quick cuts to freeze tacklers. Taylor shifts gears and changes lanes like he’s trying to escape a bottleneck on the freeway.

I like Taylor, and he was a rock star at the FCS level, but he’s a 23-year old grinder with ordinary measurables and limited upside who may have peaked in the ACC. He could be a fun, tackle-breaking committee back given an opportunity in the right scheme.

Jadarian Price, RB, Notre Dame

Price is a career RB2 who fumbled three times in 113 touches last season and was targeted just seven times in the passing game.

Yes, Price was stuck behind Jeremiyah Love. Yes, he has a dynamic rushing style, a compact-but-powerful frame and ran a 4.49-second Combine forty. We could discuss his ability to see cutback lanes and short-area quickness if you like. We can also talk about his value as a return man (three career kickoff return touchdowns). But three fumbles in limited touches and no value as a receiver are bright flashy yellow warning signs. Show me all the film and sling all the scouting jargon you like: Price’s collegiate CV screams “RB3 and kick returner.” He’s not Tyler Allgeier, because you become Allgeier in the NFL by rushing for 1,600 yards and catching 28 passes in your final college season.

Backs like Price get drafted too early based on tools and impressive stretches of film. Then they blow some blocking assignments in training camp, fumble once in the preseason and end up deactivated for half of their rookie seasons. Price’s upside is as a Tank Bigbsy-type who can look good as fresh legs for a few series and could help out on kickoffs.

Jonah Coleman, RB, Washington

Coleman, a 5-foot-8, 220-pound curling stone of a running back, ranked second in the nation in 2024 with a broken/missed tackle rate of 30.1%. Corey Kiner (32.5%, currently bouncing around NFL practice squads) ranked first that year. Ashton Jeanty (29.7%) ranked third, Jeremiyah Love (29.6%) fourth.

Coleman suffered an ankle injury in early November against Wisconsin. He tried to play through it, rushing 18 times for 30 yards across three games. His broken/missed tackle rate slipped to a still-respectable 22.4%. Coleman can sluice off a lot of arm tackles when healthy.

There’s a lot to like about Coleman. He has a leadership reputation. He rarely fumbles, and he can be seen wrapping both arms around the football in heavy traffic. The Huskies run lots of short passing concepts where the back leaks through the middle of the offensive line to catch a short pass, and Coleman is effective at giving his quarterback a target and making something happen after the catch.

Unfortunately, Coleman runs a little like a pickup truck with a three-cylinder engine: his acceleration is ordinary-at-best, his breakaway speed not really a thing. Coleman skipped Combine workouts and Pro Day measurements (though he did perform drills), leaving pessimists like me to assume the worst about his speed profile.

Coleman’s tackle breaking, receiving chops and character rep make him a worthy third/fourth round pick. He’s the sort of back who could fill out NFL committees for several years, and he could be a low-end featured back for a team that just wants to grind. Coleman may be a little undervalued due to the injury and his lack of sizzle.

Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton, RBs, Penn State

Kaytron Allen broke the all-time Penn State rushing record late in 2025, despite the fact that he spent all four of his collegiate seasons in a platoon with Nicholas Singleton, who ranks fourth on the same list. Singleton holds the all-time Nittany Lions rushing touchdown record with 56, two more than Saquon Barkley.

For a duo who broke records held by the likes of Saquon, Curt Warner, Blair Thomas, Ki-Jana Carter, Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell, Allen and Singleton should really be better.

Allen is a squatty, swivel-hipped 215 pounder built low to the ground. He’s a powerful finisher who will leg-drive through tackles. He uses lots of head fakes and jukes to maneuver through traffic. He can catch swing passes. He’s also slower than frozen ketchup. Allen had not run an official forty at presstime and perhaps never will.

Allen is all hips and glutes. Singleton is sculpted and sleek. Allen runs like a warthog in the brush. Singleton cruises past defenders in the high-occupancy lane. Singleton returned 48 kickoffs in his college career, adding to his overall value. But Singleton broke his foot early in Senior Bowl practices, preventing him from standing out in Mobile or working out in Indy.

What a frustrating pair! Based on pure traits, Singleton should never have ceded carries to Allen. But Singleton lacks instincts and vision. After Drew Allar got hurt and James Franklin got fired, Allen became the workhorse back, relegating Singleton to a change-up role.

Based on traits and estimated measurables, Allen should be a sixth-round pick. His grungepuppy rushing style will be fun to watch in preseason games, and he could become a useful committee back, but he may be too pokey to even help on special teams. His ceiling is a career as a Sean Tucker-like plugger.

Singleton has higher upside, but he reminds me of Brian Robinson, a big thumper who can’t quite convert traits into production. Singleton’s downside is as a serviceable return specialist.

If this were a stronger draft class, or if they weren’t so successful at a huge-name program, neither Allen nor Singleton would have merited a writeup this long.

Le’Veon Moss, RB, Texas A&M

I hate this running back class.

I’m sorry. This may not be the place to bring that up. I don’t mean to be uncharitable to Moss, or to Jadarian Price earlier, or the poor souls in the upcoming writeups. But this is the worst running back class I’ve seen in at least a decade. It’s Jeremiyah Love and a bunch of NFL RB3s.

I saw Moss ranked fourth on NFL.com’s running backs list and thought, “Say, isn’t that the lad with all the injuries?” Yes, yes it is.

Moss suffered an ACL/MCL tear on November 2, 2024. He returned for the 2025 season opener on August 30, which may have been a tad ambitious. (Read those dates again, carefully.) He suffered an ankle injury in October, came back for the first round of the playoffs, rushed seven times for 15 yards against Miami and reaggravated the injury to the point where he chose not to work out at the Combine.

Well, at least Moss looked like Eric Dickerson when he was healthy, right? Nope. The tape shows a back who runs upright (which can lead to further injury) and lacks top-end speed (which can lead to not being very good). Oh, and he caught two passes for three yards in seven 2025 starts.

Moss’ calling-card trait is a sudden jump-cut, which he uses to glitch into cutback lanes at the line of scrimmage or away from defenders in the open field. It’s a nasty move, and Moss is a determined runner who will fight for yardage. He certainly pushes himself in injury rehab. But if he’s the fourth-best running back in the draft according to some experts, it explains why so many teams were eager to re-sign the likes of Kimani Vidal and Tyler Badie in free agency to fill out their benches.

The team that drafts Moss should take it very easy on him in OTAs and minicamps: the last thing he needs is to hurry onto the field if he is less than 100%. I have a feeling he’ll slip in the draft, though, because the best ability is availability, and Moss lacks it.

Roman Hemby, RB, Indiana

Hemby spent four years at Maryland, three of them as a productive featured rusher-receiver. He portalled to Indiana where he joined Kaelon Black as the 1-2 punch for the nouveau powerhouse program that won the National Championship.

Hemby has ordinary measurables but runs hard, bursts through the line when he sees a crease and slips through arm tackles. He was a productive receiver at Maryland and caught what Fernando Mendoza threw to him (17 receptions on 18 targets).

Hemby turns 24 in August. So he’s an older prospect with lots of “pretty goods” in his scouting profile who just had a career year in an ideal situation. This is more or less what replacement value now looks like in the NFL.

Demond Claiborne, RB, Wake Forest

Claiborne ran a 4.37 second forty at the Combine and was a productive rusher for the Demon Deacons for three years. He also weighs 188 pounds, fumbled six times and dropped five passes on 39 targets. Fumble-prone rookie running backs start losing playing time in late July and never get it back. I hate it here.

I hadn’t noticed until I watched some Claiborne tape that Wake Forest now has two helmet logos: the word WAKE in block capital letters, and the contraction (????) Deac’s in cursive.

WAKE sounds like the team is worried that the audience has fallen asleep, which may have been a problem for the Wake Forest football program many times in the past. Deac’s sounds like a cutback move but looks on a helmet like someone wanted to write Deacons in fancy calligraphy, realized four letters into the process that they didn’t leave themselves enough room, then pretended to coin some “cool” nickname for the team.

Didn’t Wake Forest used to have a function W-F on their helmets and the face of a chaotic-neutral Level 1 cleric as their logo?

Claiborne has some kick return experience and may be drafted for that role.

Adam Randall, RB, Clemson

A 6-foot-3, 232-pound converted wide receiver? Sure, why the hell not.

Randall entered Clemson as a four-star recruit but suffered a torn ACL in spring practice after his freshman season. He returned to play that September, because that’s apparently something college football players can do in our age of raw milk and beef tallow, but ended up catching just 10 passes in 2022.

Randall, still a wide receiver, then played through a broken hand in 2023; Dabo Sweeney definitely has the long-term health and well-being of his players at heart.

Randall suffered a stress fracture in his toe in a game against NC State on September 21, 2024. He was back on the field by October 12, but his playing time began evaporating. Apparently, the guy who rushed back from ACL and toe surgeries and played through a broken hand wasn’t meeting expectations. Who can say why? Probably a lack of grit.

Randall switched to running back in the 2024 playoffs, rushing four times for 44 yards in Clemson’s loss to Texas. He became Clemson’s featured back and primary kickoff returner in 2025.

At this point in the tale, I want to hug Randall and punch Dabo. But I don’t want to draft Randall. And I always want to punch Dabo.

You must be thinking while reading this that Randall is an injury timebomb, with a knee and a toe that were never given time to heal properly. Well, he also runs so upright, and is so tall to begin with, that it’s like watching a bookshelf on wheels. Randall allows lots of wide-open blows to his midsection, and his hips and thighs are a big strike zone.

Randall has moves and tackle-breaking ability in the open field like the heavy slot receiver that he’s supposed to be, and he can barrel straight ahead for positive yardage. But Randall isn’t instinctive about finding holes, nor does he have quick pitty-pat running back’s feet when taking a handoff. He runs like a wide receiver who lined up in the backfield for a gadget play.

My go-to comp for prospects like Randall is Jalen Hurd, a Tennessee receiver turned Baylor running back drafted by the 49ers in 2019 in their quest to create an all-Deebo offense. Hurd suffered multiple serious injuries and was buried beneath the power station. (Kidding! I hope he’s doing swell in private life.) Hurd, like Randall, had some serious college injuries, and square-peg prospects like them end up as fish-nor-foul players in the NFL. If I’m seeking a toolsy RB3 for the bench, I want one who knows the position and doesn’t arrive with his warranty already voided.

COMING IN A DAY OR TWO: The safeties, who make up a much better position group than the running backs.