2024 was a unique year for running backs in fantasy football. The vast majority of them stayed healthy, and we had some serious hits early in the draft ADP, including all-time great seasons from guys like Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry and even some of the ‘boring’ veteran picks like Alvin Kamara and James Conner were awesome picks for where they were going. In fact, we had 17 (!!) RBs with an ADP inside the top-90 last year, that produced an advance rate above expectation. If you were a zero RB drafter last year, there’s a good chance you did not have a successful best ball season.
For context, in the previous two seasons when looking at RBs going inside the top-90 on Underdog, we had 13 RBs eclipse a 16% advance rate in 2023 and in 2022, we had 14 hit that threshold. Last year, we also saw on outlier year in terms of the number of backs who were able to hit that 10+ rushing TD threshold:
Number of RBs by season with 10+ rushing scores:
2024: 11
2023: 8
2022: 8
2021: 7
2020: 10
2019: 7
2018: 6
— Matthew Betz (@TheFantasyPT) May 14, 2025
After years of data suggesting zero RB was a strong approach in best ball formats, 2024 was a great reminder that best ball data is not meant to be prescriptive, but rather descriptive. In other words, just doing what worked last year is obviously not always going to work out the following season.
Even though zero RB largely was not as successful a season ago, we did have some amazing hits from the later rounds with guys like Chase Brown (27% advance rate at 111.0 ADP), Chuba Hubbard (31.5% at 158.1), J.K. Dobbins (25.3%, 160.0) and Bucky Irving (23.7%, 169.8) all produce league-winning upside at their respective costs. No matter where you stand on the early RB vs. zero RB debate, there will absolutely be hits in the later rounds of drafts, just like there are every season. Let’s see if we can find some of them.
In this article, which is exclusively part of the Ultimate Draft Kit+, we’ll highlight our favorite later-round RB targets for 2025 that are going outside the top-120 on Underdog’s ADP. The article will be continuously updated throughout the summer as news breaks and ADPs change. For more best ball content, be sure to subscribe to the DFS & Betting Podcast and check out our 2025 Best Ball Rankings.
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