Backfield Breakdown: AFC West (Fantasy Football)

In this series of articles, I’ll be looking at the movers and shakers in every NFL backfield – division by division – and what that may mean for your best ball, dynasty, and redraft rosters as we edge ever closer to draft season! 

We’ve made it to the fourth and final division in the American Football Conference and the only one in the entire National Football League that didn’t feature a 1,000-yard rusher in 2024…the AFC West! With that knowledge bomb, it should come as no surprise that three of the top six RBs drafted in this year’s rookie class – including both first-rounders – find themselves on one of the rosters we’re about to discuss below. There’s a lot to get excited about in 2025 in this division, but when JK2L was the stand-out rusher last season…that’s maybe not saying much.

Let’s dive right in!

2024 RB Statistics

PLAYERS IN: RJ Harvey (2nd Round – pick 60), J.K. Dobbins (FA – on Chargers in 2024)

PLAYERS OUT: Javonte Williams (FA to Cowboys)

If you want the perfect summation of the Broncos’ run game from last season, just go and take a quick look at the box score from their week one loss in Seattle. In the 26-20 defeat, Denver deployed three different backs, who on 20 total attempts managed to fumble the ball twice, combining for a whopping 65 rushing yards (none of the three eclipsed the 30-yard mark), and accumulated a head-scratching one receiving yard on seven targets from debutant Bo Nix…impressive stuff. Head Coach Sean Payton clearly heard the Packers’ Matt LeFleur’s off-season rant about having a locker room full of No.1 receivers and thought to himself: “yeh, I think I’m gonna have me some of that in my backfield”…unfortunately for the second-year coach (and more importantly us fantasy managers), that approach to the run game worked out similarly to Green Bay’s passing attack, resulting in the team’s “lead” back ending the year as the overall RB31…woof.

The men from Mile High experienced a significant identity crisis when running the ball in 2024, with the lack of a clear leader emerging from the pack causing chaos for fantasy managers who had the misfortune of rostering either Javonte Williams, Jaleel McLaughlin, or the promising rookie Audric Estime. Williams ended the year as the teams’ workhorse, despite averaging a miserable 12.3 total opportunities per game, with only the Las Vegas Raiders’ Alexander Mattison (132) leading a team in carries on the year with fewer total attempts than Williams (139)…oh yeah, and Mattison missed three games with an ankle injury, Williams played the full seventeen.

With all three backs seeing a 20% share of rushing attempts over the season (a feat matched only by the Raiders and the Browns through a season-ending injury to Nick Chubb), this was a recipe for fantasy disaster. Williams ended the year with only three weekly finishes inside the top-24, while McLaughlin (RB50) and Estime (RB67) claimed one apiece.

For those looking for clarity heading into 2025, the departure of Javonte Williams to the Cowboys may have brought a glimmer of hope – however, with the addition of 2nd round rookie RJ Harvey, as well as Ol’ JK2L himself – J.K. Dobbins – we could be seeing another frustrating fantasy year on the cards in Colorado at the RB position. Early indications suggest the veteran will likely start the season as the lead ball carrier, with the former UCF Knight Harvey handling pass-catching duties out of the backfield as he is eased into the run game. Audric Estime will continue to syphon off touches, much to fantasy managers’ chagrin, but is unlikely to be fantasy relevant barring an injury. Harvey has looked explosive early in training camp (but then again, who hasn’t?), but the rookie buzz is seeing him being drafted at the end of the 5th round. If J.K. can stay healthy, even at JK1.5L, his eleventh-round ADP could be fantasy gold behind that Broncos’ O-line in the opening weeks of the season.

2024 RB Statistics

PLAYERS IN: Elijah Mitchell (FA – on 49ers in 2024), Brashard Smith (7th Round – pick 228), Elijah Young (UDFA)

PLAYERS OUT: Samaje Perine (FA to Bengals)

Despite KC’s lead rusher finishing the year just one spot higher than Javonte Williams across in Denver, Kareem Hunt’s path to RB30 in the regular season didn’t feel quite as vomit-inducing as his divisional rival’s. If you needed any further context to just how uninspiring the Bronco’s RBs were in 2024, Hunt was sitting on his couch watching the Chiefs’ week two 26-25 victory over Cincinnati as a free agent, with absolutely zero prospects of joining an NFL roster. That was until Isiah Pacheco went down with a broken fibula on the final drive of that very game, landing himself on the IR.

From relative obscurity to a fantasy RB1, Hunt’s output on 122 carries between weeks 5-12 (T-3rd with Derrick Henry) was good enough to see him sit as the overall RB12 during that time, which was not bad for a 29-year-old dude signed off the streets. Hunt dominated in Pacheco’s absence, rolling back the years to the form of his rookie season (coincidentally also in Kansas City), notching up his first 100-yard rushing game in over four years in only his second game. Despite the heroics, in the end, it was a case of “what may have been” for Kareem Hunt as Isiah Pacheco returned to action in Week 13, signaling the end of his (and all KC RBs) spell of fantasy relevance for the year. 

Given the Chiefs’ 15-2 record on the season, it’s perhaps surprising how pedestrian their run game was across the year. The 1,313 combined yards on the ground from their backfield were the third lowest in the entire AFC (behind only Cleveland and divisional rivals Las Vegas), with Hunt’s 3.64 Y/A also ranking dead last amongst the 23 backs who recorded over 200 carries. What is perhaps less surprising, however, is the lack of impact from Isiah Pacheco once he returned from injury. After missing nine games, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for the third-year twinkle-toed back to get things going, and that proved to be the case as he recorded only 175 scoreless yards on 49 carries in his final five games of an injury-stricken season.

Like Denver, entering 2025, this too feels like a backfield that is destined to be frustratingly difficult to predict just who will emerge as the rusher to own for fantasy purposes. On the same day that Samaje Perine (the team’s leading receiver at the position last season) signed a deal with his old team, Cincinnati, former San Francisco 49er Elijah Mitchell inked a one-year $2.5m contract with the AFC Champions, further murkying the waters of this RB room.

It’s likely The Missile will serve as the team’s change-of-pace back and only see any major playing time should Pacheco or Hunt succumb to injury, but with the former’s injury history and the latter turning the Big 3-0 before the season kicks off, who knows what role CMC’s former understudy could play in this offense. If you’ve purchased the UDK, you’ll know that one of The Ballers doesn’t have a single Chiefs RB ranked inside the top-36 at the position, a bold take from The Fantasy Reaper, or a savvy assessment of things to come?

2024 RB Statistics

PLAYERS IN: Ashton Jeanty (1st Round – pick 6), Raheem Mostert (FA – on Dolphins in 2024)

PLAYERS OUT: Alexander Mattison (FA to Dolphins), Ameer Abdullah (FA)

Finally, something exciting to write about, well, at least when we get to talk about the additions to this backfield in a few moments. First, however, we have to cast our eye over the somewhat disastrous 2024 season for the Las Vegas Raiders, and more specifically, the plethora of mediocre RBs in their ranks. Lead rusher on the year, Alexander Mattison, wishes he hit the giddy highs set by Kareem Hunt, or even the super-inefficient Javonte Williams, after posting a yardage total of just 420 yards on the ground (good enough for T-44th on the season with Isaac Guerendo).

Now, it may sound like we’re laying it on a bit thick as we’ve mentioned Mattison and the Raiders backfield a couple of times already in this article, but it is with good cause – they were eye-bleedingly bad. No team ran for fewer yards than Las Vegas (1,357), nor did any other franchise’s RBs fail to collectively break the 1,000-yard barrier across the entire season. The rushers on this team (and there were plenty of them) managed just 914 yards in the Raiders’ seventeen games, scoring a mere six TDs in the process, second last only to the Dallas Cowboys RBs, who had five.

After being drafted as the overall RB22, 2023 fantasy playoff darling Zamir White fell just short of expectations, finishing up as the overall *checks notes* RB88 in half-point scoring formats…yeesh. White averaged 72% of the team’s carries over the first four weeks of the season, yet despite seeing RB2-level usage, he failed to surpass 50 rushing yards in a single contest, averaging just 38 yards per game on 12 carries. This lacklustre stretch – coupled with a two-week absence with a groin injury – saw White essentially lose his starters job to former Minnesota Viking Alexander Mattison, who was freshly acquired in the off-season. There must be something in the water in Sin City, as despite seeing double-digit rushing opportunities on six occasions from week 5 onwards, Mattison only eclipsed 40 rushing yards on one occasion, and even then, it took him 23 carries to accumulate his 92 yards in week 7. I could go into great detail about the six weekly RB2 finishes of Ameer Abdullah, but the Abdullah Express appears to have officially run out of steam and remains a FA after his release…and more importantly, I want to move on to the most exciting back in this entire division, possibly even the entire AFC…rookie Ashton Jeanty.

Selected with the 6th overall pick of this year’s NFL Draft (the highest drafted RB since Saquon Barkley was selected 2nd back in 2018), Ashton Jeanty has it all. Coming off a junior year at Boise State which saw the now 21-year old rush for 2,601-yards (no, that’s not a typo) – the 2nd highest NCAA single season rushing total in history behind some guy called Barry Sanders – Jeanty has a 3-down skill-set that will see him immediately take over the majority of the RB snaps in this new look Raiders’ offense. Whilst it’s unlikely he replicates his 29 rushing TDs from his final year as a Bronco (again, that’s not a typo either), Jeanty’s highlight-reel plays, along with his draft capital, are seeing him fly off draft boards at the end of round one. Raheem Mostert has swapped places with Alexander Mattison, with the former Dolphin likely to be the primary backup to Jeanty to start the season. Sincere McCormick will see some pass-catching work with Zamir White and Dylan Laube battling it out on the roster bubble.

2024 RB Statistics

PLAYERS IN: Omarion Hampton (1st Round – pick 22), Najee Harris (FA – on Steelers in 2024), Raheim Sanders (UDFA)

PLAYERS OUT: J.K. Dobbins (FA to Broncos), Gus Edwards (FA)

We made it, FootClan…for the first time in this article, we get to talk about an RB who actually finished inside the top-24 at the position last season! We’ve mentioned his name already as a potential value pick heading into draft season as he is currently being taken in the eleventh round as the overall RB44, despite posting six weekly RB1 finishes in 2024 – yes, it’s that man again, Mr. JK2L…J.K. Dobbins. After back-to-back-to-back injury-plagued seasons in Baltimore, there were certainly question marks surrounding the former 2nd-round pick, particularly around his overall health and whether he could ever get back to the explosive form of his rookie season, which saw him finish his year with six top-20 weekly finishes. 

Clearly, his former OC didn’t share our concerns, as Greg Roman (that’s G-Ro to his friends) made signing J.K. – and his former Ravens’ teammate Gus Edwards – his top priority in his new role as offensive play caller in Los Angeles for Jim Harbaugh’s new look Chargers. G-Ro and Harbaugh had clearly stated their intentions to “establish the run” in L.A., and a one-two punch of Dobbins and Edwards was just how they planned to make it happen. Coming off a relatively productive RB20 season in Baltimore the year prior, speculation was that 29-year-old Gus Edwards would be the lead rusher for the team, with Dobbins serving as a change-of-pace back while splitting third-down work with rookie Kimani Vidal.

We were wrong.

Immediately out of the gate, Dobbins and Edwards were splitting the load 50/50 with J.K. receiving 27 carries to the Gus Bus’ 29 in the opening two weeks. Whilst the attempts may have been identical, the production was certainly not. In the victories over Las Vegas and Carolina, J.K. silenced any doubters by putting up back-to-back games of over 130-yards on the ground alongside a score in each; Edwards, however, could only plod along for a combined 85-yards in the opening fortnight, resulting in the Gus Bus firmly going back into the garage for the rest of the season. Dobbins couldn’t quite maintain the RB4 pace he set in September, but prior to an MCL sprain in week 12 which saw him miss four games, the former Buckeye was sitting as a very respectable RB14 on the year, thanks to a combo of relatively efficient running (4.8 Y/A) and his involvement in the passing game (RB18 in targets). Despite a relatively solid season, Dobbins did not see his deal renewed, and just as they had arrived 12 months earlier, the former Ravens running mates left together for pastures new.

With Dobbins and Edwards accounting for just under 80% of the team’s rushing attempts last season, the Chargers are second behind only the Dallas Cowboys (89.3%) in vacated opportunities at the RB position heading into 2025. The two men looking to step into the somewhat average-sized shoes of J.K. and the Gus Bus are former Pittsburgh Steeler Najee Harris, and the 22nd overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, Omarion Hampton. Despite never replicating the successes of his rookie season, Najee was as consistent as they come during his four years in the Black and Gold, posting four consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons, becoming the very definition of an RB2 in the process. It wasn’t always pretty, but Harris was a lock every season for around 250 carries, 1,000-yards and half a dozen TDs – and after his third consecutive top-20 finish – appeared to be the ready-made replacement for Greg Roman’s ground-and-pound offense, that was until the Chargers selected highly touted rookie Omarion Hampton with their first selection at Lambeau in April.

Hampton was the consensus number two back in this year’s class behind Ashton Jeanty, and with a three-down skill set often compared to Joe Mixon, will be the future leader of this backfield if he’s not there already. While this tandem certainly doesn’t track to have the disparity of Dobbins and Edwards, Najee’s relatively frugal $5.25 million one-year deal, coupled with his recent 4th of July incident (and subsequent addition to the NFI list), seems to point to Hampton being the guy straight out of the gates. Sophomore Kimani Vidal Sassoon and fourth-year JAG Hassan Haskins seem likely to enter the season as the other backs on this roster.