Hello, and happy gardening season to all you autumn turf sickos! Since we’ve last hit a round of the Fantasy Football Five Lists of Five, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, Rory McIlroy got his career Grand Slam, and the 2025 NFL Draft has come and gone! I worked with my wonderful senior editorial colleague Meghan Townsley on covering and evaluating the draft in live fashion; feel free to check out my grades and analyses here. Having said that, the live-grading exercise was but a broader introduction to what many of us really care about: which rookies are worth drafting for 2025 fantasy football? Are there any poised to be fantasy superstars right away? Is it likely that the overall trend of rookie wide receivers breaking out in year one can continue with this class? Will those who seem like fantasy contributors actually be ones to fade? Just how high should we be drafting Ashton Jeanty? etc.
So many questions! So here we are with your bridge episode Five Lists of Five, in which we’ll focus solely on rookie contributions to our forthcoming fantasy football season. We obviously have zero regulation data on any of these players, so I’ll be referencing a variety of projection models, independent film study, and NCAA stats to hype these guys up.
If you’re a follower of the program, you know that my typical bellwether for this five-of-five content is: byte-size. Smoke-break length stuff. Quick-hitters to give you a weekly advantage over your friends. Who, as you know, I want nothing more than for you to demolish. We’re going a bit—not much—more longform this time, seeing as it’s a bridge episode. Stylistic freedom, auteurial flourishes, experimental angles. All the necessary bells and whistles to get us fired up for prime drafting season, which’ll start in just about two weeks’ time.
Let’s get to it. This column will focus on my top five rookie running backs poised for fantasy football breakout seasons in 2025.
Top five rookie running backs I’m high on going into 2025
Note: I’m obviously high on Ashton Jeanty; I just covered him in the surefire column I link below.
Omarion Hampton, Los Angeles Chargers (ADP 48.5)
I covered all his stats in my Top five surefire NFL rookies to target in 2025 fantasy football drafts, so check them out there. I spend this time going into my gut feel about Hampton in this 2025 Los Angeles Chargers Greg Roman offense.
I’m surprised how much of a hypothetical hit Hampton’s redraft stock took when the Chargers nabbed him in the first round. There’s a lot going around about Greg Roman’s offenses limiting PPR-scoring floors (true!), LA’s signing of Najee Harris a potential revitalization situation for a player who might just have needed a change of scenery, and all the ways these might limit Hampton’s ceiling as a receiver out of the backfield.
And, well, that’s potentially true! You’ll forgive me, however, if I’m not running scared from drafting Hampton just because Najee Harris is the 1A on the roster. Also worth noting that Justin Herbert is not nearly as mobile—not to discredit the wheels we saw him develop last year!—as Roman’s quarterbacks of yore. We’re talking about Lamar Jackson, here. A running back’s entire ceiling gets limited by quarterbacks with those sorts of skillsets, even if they’re not as superhuman as Lamar’s.
We’re not yet in redraft league season, so it’s hard to know exactly where Hampton will settle after OTAs, preseason, etc. But I am certain you will have to pay up for Hampton; he’ll likely be more expensive than Treyveon Henderson, even though Henderson’s pedigree and potential as a pass-catcher are better set, on paper, for fantasy production in New England. He’ll likely be a full tier or two below Jeanty. Something like a fourth-to-fifth round reach on Hampton in a 12-team league isn’t out of the question, depending on what we hear about the depth chart throughout the summer.
The Najee Harris of it all will be frustrating. It always is. But, at the very least, Hampton sets up as one of fantasy football’s best handcuffs already without ever having played a regulation NFL snap. The raw athleticism and breakout metrics throughout his college career are as pearlescent as it gets, and they suggest potential exponential return on investment on draft day.
We spoke—you and I—so much last year about catching lightning in a bottle. Did we not? We did. It’s the secret sauce to winning a fantasy championship. It’s the fruit that poisons your leaguemates. And, really, what’s more lightning-in-a-bottle, conceptually, than the Chargers’ first-round rookie running back? Draft Hampton with a joyous heart.
Quinshon Judkins, Cleveland Browns (ADP 75.0)
You hate to see one of your favorite college prospects go to the Browns. You just do. It’s the reality of the NFL era in which we operate. The asinine and outrageous waywardness of that organization is total and top-down; many Browns fans believe the current ownership group’s focus is on moving the team to a new stadium, not winning with any degree of urgency. We all saw the picture of Cleveland’s draft room upon drafting Shedeur Sanders. It looked like they were all watching Manchester by the Sea, not staring at a Big Board with any great hope.
Enter Quinshon Judkins, who, to me, represents a flicker of hope not altogether unlike the one Nick Chubb brought to this franchise, at least in terms of skillset. One of the constant fantasy knocks on Chubb—really, the only one, other than injury—was the lack of passing production in his game. Judkins never sniffed a 10% target share in any one of his seasons at either Ole Miss or Ohio State. In snatching Judkins early on Day 2, the Browns indicated they intend to approach the run game in 2025 under Stefanski & co. just as they did during the vintage Nick Chubb days. Q can handle that sort of responsibility; he scored multiple touchdowns in every one of Ohio State’s title-winning CFP run earlier this year. Every one from within the 12-yard line. He can bruise. He can also hang. By which I mean, he handle bellcow workload. 15-18 carries a game is not whatsoever out of the question, here.
To say QJ4’s ceiling is as high as Chubb’s is folly, but it’s not as outlandish as you’d think. To say he’s likely to reach it in his first year would having you teetering territories on the border to the outlands. There are big personnel ambiguities for this offense—they, also, feel total and top-down; the biggest problem to solve is at quarterback. The Browns sure have options—Pickett, Flacco, Gabriel, Sanders, Partridge from Pear Tree, USA—but to none of those names guarantee offensive stability in 2025.
Quinshon Judkins checks every box you wanted from today’s Browns pick. He’s a powerful downhill runner with rare burst (4.48-second 40, 38.5” vertical, 11’ broad jump) and a three-year track record of dominance. As a true freshman at Ole Miss he piled up 1,567 yards at 120.5 per game with a 90.7 PFF rushing grade. He repeated at 89.2 yards per game in Year 2, then stepped into a committee at Ohio State and still averaged 66.2 yards on 12.1 carries per contest, earning a 90.0 grade. Over 42 college games he forced 199 missed tackles—third most in the FBS—and fumbled only three times.
Cleveland waited until pick No. 36 to grab him, but that’s perfect. We expect him to lead the team in carries, and barring injury, to log 250+ touches. He profiles as a classic Stefanski back: pound the rock, sustain drives, flip the field.
Yes, his receiving profile is thin—career target share never topped 11.3% and his Breakout Score sits at 46.5. But nobody drafted him for split-zone snaps. He’ll catch over 20 passes enough to outscore most early-down specialists. The real limiter is Cleveland’s offensive line. Bitonio, Teller, Conklin and Pocic are all trending down, and Jenkins/Lucas look like backup upgrades at best. That caps his upside, but volume trumps line quality more often than not. Judkins is a plug-and-play Pro Bowl candidate as a runner, and in a crowded field of mid-round backs, he’s fantasy’s safest bell-cow.
Cam Skattebo, New York Giants (ADP 103.0)
Cam Skattebo is the kind of grinder you dream of landing on Day 3. He’s a bowl-blocking brawler at 5’10”, 219 pounds, yet his burst score (128.7, 89th percentile) and athleticism (102.3, 24th percentile all-time) betray a playmaker’s profile. At Arizona State he ripped off 131.7 rushing yards per game in 2024, forcing 120 missed tackles (second in the FBS) and breaking tackles at an elite clip. His 0.37 avoided-tackles per carry and 94.6 PFF rushing grade rank him among this class’s best pure runners.
Combine disappointments (4.71 forty, 17 bench reps) dented his speed score, but that raw speed lives on tape: he ranked in the 85th percentile on non-perfectly blocked runs, turning broken plays into 4.5 yards per carry. And don’t overlook his receiving upside—he ran 20.5 routes per game in college, posting a 1.62 yards per route run (tied for class lead) and earning a 79.8 receiving grade in 2024. For a back his size, that’s rare versatility.
Landing in New York with Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary sets up the perfect three-headed committee. Tracy’s home-run ability and pass-down chops complement Skattebo’s punishing early-down work and red-zone prowess. Expect Skattebo to seize goal-line snaps and early-down opportunities, riding a Giants offensive line that graded in the bottom 10 for run blocking last season. His knack for converting first downs (33.6% first-downs-per-carry in college, best among top-round prospects) suits Brian Daboll’s high-pace scheme, which averaged over 66 plays per game under his watch.
Skattebo might not light the scoreboard with highlight-reel races, but volume and efficiency will make him a fantasy darling. In a backfield desperate for a bell-cow, he’ll handle 200+ touches, punch in double-digit TDs, and overdeliver on his fourth-round ADP. If Tracy falters or suffers an injury, Skattebo’s role shifts from complementary cog to feature grinder—making him an early waiver priority or a draft-day steal.
RJ Harvey, Denver Broncos (ADP 58.5)
I covered a lot of this in my Top five surefire NFL rookies to target in 2025 fantasy football drafts column, as well. But here’s more on Harvey, because I’m just so dang excited about him.
RJ Harvey dominated the FBS in missed tackles (86 on the ground at UCF), showing a rare blend of contact balance and power that immediately translates to the NFL trenches. At 5’11”, 215 pounds, he consistently turned routine runs into explosive gains—nearly half his carries saw defenders miss on first contact. That physicality gave him a 4.9 yards-per-carry mark last season, and his 15.3-percent carry rate of 15-plus yards ranks him among the most dangerous big-play backs in this class.
Passing game chops aren’t an afterthought, either. Harvey flashed reliable hands with an 11.2-percent college target share, turning catchable throws into 5.8 yards per route run. He ran more routes than any other UCF back, and his 68.4 PFF receiving grade belies the “two-down” label scouts sometimes attach to his profile. Coaches love that he’s willing in blitz pickup and consistently cleans up screen-game chaos—skills that earned him a 72.1 pass-blocking grade in college.
Landing in Denver checks every box. Sean Payton’s outside-zone scheme gives Harvey an offensive line built for cutback lanes and second-level creasing, exactly where his 0.34 avoided-tackles-per-attempt really shines. The Broncos boast one of football’s highest RB target rates under Payton, and with Javonte Williams in free agency, the door is wide open for a rookie to assume 60–70 percent of backfield snaps. Courtland Sutton’s exit for more draft capital further cements that backfield touches and goal-line looks will gravitate to the next bell-cow.
On a team projected to lean on the run early—Denver led the league in first-down rush rate last year—Harvey’s downhill style and sudden burst promise 200-plus carries and double-digit red-zone opportunities right out of the gate. In a backfield thanks to shakeups at receiver and a high-volume OL, he’s in prime position to rack up yards, punches in the paint and consistent PPR work. At a mid-round cost, RJ Harvey in Denver is the blueprint for a rookie break-out.
TreVeyon Henderson, New England Patriots (ADP 64.5)
TreVeyon Henderson’s college résumé reads like a highlight reel: a 94.2 career PFF grade, zero fumbles over 34 games, 4.4 yards after contact per carry and a breakout rate north of 14 percent. He capped his Ohio State career by averaging 7.0 yards per tote in 2024—fourth-best among FBS workhorses—and forced 0.28 missed tackles per attempt, a mark only Josh Jacobs and Nick Chubb eclipsed in recent draft classes.
Landing in New England under Josh McDaniels and Drake Maye couldn’t be more tailor-made. McDaniels punts committee work only in theory; his Patriots offenses have pushed feature backs into high-leverage roles on third downs and in space. Henderson’s elite 1.07 yards per route run—second among this rookie class—paired with his 75.1 receiving grade, make him the safest bet for early-down grind and passing-down production.
Rhamondre Stevenson’s 86.1 rushing grade last year masks six fumbles and a 0.9 YPRR; he’s firmly secured goal-line work but not the three-down duties. Antonio Gibson handles change-of-pace snaps, but his 77.2 rushing grade and middling 1.32 YPRR leave a void Henderson instantly fills. New England averaged the third-highest RB target rate under McDaniels; with Will Campbell bolstering the line’s 79.7 run-block grade, Henderson’s 12.6 percent career target share should climb into the mid-teens.
Patriots offenses have ranked top-5 in early-down rush rate under McDaniels, and Henderson’s 48.4 early-down snap rate at Ohio State—despite Judkins siphoning carries—signals he’ll immediately see 55–60 percent of backfield reps. In Week 1, expect him as the primary change-of-pace back; by midseason, he’ll own third-down and red-zone snaps.
At a mid-second-round price, Henderson brings 700 rush yards, 350 receiving yards and double-digit TD upside. His blend of contact balance, hands and explosiveness transforms New England’s backfield into a fantasy cornerstone—one that evolves alongside Drake Maye’s ascending passing attack.
