No, working backs have been taken within the first spherical of the 2024 NFL Draft — so it is a problem to type which runners would be the simplest as rookies.
In what was principally deemed a “dangerous” working again class, the 2024 assortment collectively featured a various assortment of proficient runners who simply did not carry immense hype into the draft in April.
These are the 5 working backs who’ll be best in 12 months 1.
Honorable Point out: Jonathan Brooks, Panthers
I wasn’t fairly as excessive on Brooks as most others however touchdown solely behind Chuba Hubbard who did have 900-plus yards in 2023 but averaged fewer than 4.0 yards per rush, is sort of favorable for the previous Texas runner who noticed his last season in Austin reduce quick attributable to a knee-ligament tear.
There’s an opportunity Carolina sluggish performs Brooks to start his NFL profession, due to the harm and the actual fact he is solely 21 years previous, the latter of which bodes nicely for his long-term future with the Panthers. I like Brooks. I did not adore him as a prospect, and he is working behind a retooled offensive line than could take time to gel earlier than it begins paving giant lanes for Carolina’s ball-carriers.
The Packers made one of many stranger working again choices of the offseason, permitting Aaron Jones to depart in free company — and finally signal with the Vikings — as an alternative paying Josh Jacobs two years faraway from his 340-attempt, 1,653-yard season (each of which led the league and instantly following his 2023 through which he averaged 3.5 yards per rush. Now, Jacobs is simply 26 years previous, and enjoying on a deal price $14 million per yr, you possibly can write him in everlasting marker as Inexperienced Bay’s lead again to begin the season.
I do not consider, although, that cash will make him the everlasting prime canine within the Packers backfield in 2024. Lloyd is a uncommon cat. He is about as thick as they arrive on the working again spot — underneath 5-foot-9 and 220 kilos on the mix, but, curiously, the previous South Carolina and USC again does not have a sport predicated on pure energy. The truth is, final yr with the Trojans, his forced-missed sort out charge was a whopping 40.8% on 115 carries. Because the season progresses, watch how Lloyd begins to earn extra of a share of the carries in what must be a incredible Packers offense.
4. Tyrone Tracy, Giants
In 2021, Tracy was a middling wideout at Iowa. Now he is an thrilling Day 3 choice on the working again spot on a Giants workforce that has Devin Singletary because it’s lead runner getting into the 2024 marketing campaign. Do not get me improper with that sentence — I like Singletary. He was my RB1 within the 2019 class and has quietly averaged 4.6 yards per carry in his NFL profession thus far with not less than 150 rushes in all of his first 5 skilled seasons.
However I perceive he is not a real function again at this stage of his profession, though he’s recent off a 216 carry season in Houston in 2023. Tracy has the dynamic linear athleticism Singletary doesn’t, as evidenced by his 4.48 pace and 40-inch vertical on the mix in March. The truth is, Tracy’s dynamic bodily expertise and Singletary’s lateral brilliance will make for a enjoyable running-back tandem within the GMen’s backfield *if* the Giants can really block for his or her floor sport.
Irving was a type of backs — or prospects usually — who appeared considerably extra athletic on the sector than his mix exercise indicated. And whereas a 29.5-inch vertical at 5-9 and 192 kilos is regarding, he did run a really respectable 4.55 with a 1.54 10-yard cut up that positioned him within the 68th percentile on the place over the past 25 years on the mix.
And I like his similarity to Rachaad White, Tampa Bay’s No. 1 again. As an alternative of Irving performing as a real complement to White, he can step in to spell White and supply the identical pass-catching speciality for Baker Mayfield and Co.
Not solely was Irving simply some of the purely elusive runners within the 2024 class, he was a significant stat compiler as a receiver with 87 receptions for 712 yards and 5 scores by way of the air in his last two seasons with the Geese. So he cannot soar very excessive and is a tick smaller than groups have historically needed their backs. High-quality. However Irving is sort of unimaginable to corral in area and, much like White in 2023 when he caught 64 passes, the rookie could be a helpful pass-catch component in Tampa Bay.
Selecting Vidal in Spherical 6 was such a prudent, Ravens-esque draft choice by former Baltimore assistant GM and present Chargers GM Joe Hortiz.
Vidal had no enterprise being out there at decide No. 181 given how scintillating he was at Troy and the way he examined earlier than the draft. Throughout 869 carries for the Trojans, Vidal had a pressured missed sort out charge simply north of 26%, spectacular for such excessive quantity. In 2024, he pressured 94 missed tackles on 295 carries — 31.8%.
He is a hair underneath 5-8 and a compact 217 kilos with 4.46 pace, and NFL-starter caliber 37.5-inch vertical explosion. He runs with excellent imaginative and prescient between the tackles, requisite contact stability, and nifty lateral chopping abilities. And, shortly, off the highest of your head, inform me who the incumbent, veteran again is with the Chargers now that Austin Ekeler performs for the Commanders? Precisely. Vidal will win loads of fantasy championships in 2024 as a late-round choice who items collectively a incredible rookie season in Los Angeles in a fancy, run-heavy offense.
When you’re asking me, Benson was criminally underrated throughout the pre-draft course of, and my guess as to why — he wasn’t ever the clear-cut workhorse again at Florida State, which, ought to’ve been a clear-cut plus on his draft profile. Benson was by no means the highly-hyped, 250-plus carry surprise like, say, Breece Corridor at Iowa State a number of years in the past. However after all, his lower-than-normal mileage is a constructive as he enters the NFL.
What can’t be debated about Benson — his elusiveness. In his last 300 collegiate carries, throughout these two seasons with the Seminoles, the pre-transfer Oregon Duck pressured 124 missed tackles, which equates to a seismic 41.3% pressured missed sort out charge. Utilizing Corridor as a reference once more, he pressured 139 missed tackles on his last 531 totes within the Large 12.
Plus, Benson has feature-back measurement at 6-foot and 214 kilos and home-run hitting 4.39 pace. He joins a Cardinals backfield led by fellow criminally underrated runner James Conner, and never a lot else. For nearly as good as Conner was in Arizona a season in the past — over 1,000 yards at 5.0 yards per pop — he’s now 29 with 1,125 NFL carries to his title. Benson is a freakishly balanced, moderately highly effective, and deceptively quick, upright runner who’ll be the most efficient rookie ball service in 2024.