The biggest names in the NFL all play for winning teams; lifting the Lombardi Trophy is, after all, every team’s ultimate goal at the start of the season.
However, in fantasy football, the league-winners are often unsung heroes from teams whose seasons end in early January, as singularly great running backs and wide receivers find success on rosters with limited talent.
Last season, De’Von Achane was that guy; the Miami Dolphins went just 7-10, but Achane racked up 1,838 yards from scrimmage and 12 total touchdowns, leading the league in yards per attempt and finishing as RB5 overall. This season, it could be Ashton Jeanty, who’s widely expected to make a second-season breakout after a difficult rookie campaign with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Achane had a rough first two weeks of the season, while Jeanty excelled in Week 1 before struggling in Week 2. Because of their slow starts, their trade value in fantasy could’ve dipped a bit, although both are still rostered in 100% of Yahoo Sports leagues and started in 97%.
Results and Usage
Jeanty was one of the least efficient backs in football as a rookie, turning 266 carries into just 975 yards and five scores, but he was much more effective as a receiver and finished as RB11 overall. He got his 2026 season off to a much better start, totaling 147 yards and two touchdowns in the Raiders’ season-opening win over the Dolphins, but he managed just 63 total yards in Las Vegas’ Week 2 win over the Los Angeles Chargers while battling an ankle injury, dropping him to RB6.
Achane, on the other hand, is currently RB21 after not topping 100 scrimmage yards in either of his games, failing to find the back of the end zone. After he was supremely efficient in 2025, he’s managed just 3.5 yards per carry so far this season, and he ranks 16th-to-last in rushing yards over expectation per attempt after ranking fifth in that stat last season. He was slightly better in Week 2, turning 20 carries into 74 yards in a blowout loss against the San Francisco 49ers, but he still didn’t look like the game-wrecker that he was in 2025.
By Pro Football Focus’ grades, both players are trending in the wrong direction, as Achane finished second of 59 qualified running backs in 2025 and has slipped back to 17th among 60 backs so far in 2026 and Jeanty has fallen from 35th to 46th. It’s still early, but one of the keys of fantasy football is predicting future production.
Future Outlook
Both players set a fairly high bar for themselves last season, and despite iffy performances in Week 2, both players should be held (if owned) or traded for. If neither player had a significant track record of success, their Week 2 performances would be enough to warrant skepticism, but Achane was one of the best dual-threat backs in football last season and Jeanty finished third in the league in broken tackles after nearly becoming the first running back to win the Heisman Trophy since Derrick Henry in 2015.
Unless Jeanty’s latest ankle tweak causes him to miss time, he should continue to be worth starting. His powerful style paid dividends in Week 1, and just like last season, he ranks among the league leaders in broken tackles while improving in rush yards over expectation per attempt from negative-0.18 in 2025 to negative-0.01 so far. The Raiders’ offensive line won’t do him any favors, as they rank sixth-to-last by PFF’s run-blocking grades, but that represents an improvement relative to 2025. Jeanty proved himself to be a capable receiver in 2025 despite it not being a major part of his game at Boise State, and while Kirk Cousins hasn’t exactly been elite, he ranks a respectable 12th in on-target pass percentage, allowing him to deliver the ball to Jeanty in space. Later in the season, Jeanty will also have the opportunity to play with first overall pick Fernando Mendoza, who excels on the short, well-timed sideline passes that Jeanty was effective on as a rookie.
Las Vegas’ upcoming schedule is friendly to Jeanty. In Week 3, the Raiders will travel to face the New Orleans Saints, who have allowed the fifth-most FPTS per game to opposing running backs so far this season, and later in the season, he’ll also get to face the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns, both of whom have been inexplicably poor on the ground so far. I expect Jeanty to thrive against New Orleans as long as his ankle holds up, and in the long term, Las Vegas’ surprising competitiveness should allow it to keep running the ball through Jeanty instead of forcing Cousins and Mendoza to pass.
Achane still offers reasons for optimism as well. He ranks sixth-to-last in time behind the line of scrimmage, giving him a high floor on a play-by-play basis, and that decisiveness is critical given Miami’s below-average offensive line. As is, that unit has been better than it was last season, and it should improve further as rookie guard Kadyn Proctor gets used to NFL speed. Furthermore, given the Dolphins’ exceptionally weak wide receiver corps, Malik Willis might soon realize he has no better options than to hand it off or throw passes to Achane, who isn’t yet facing stacked boxes like Jeanty is. Willis hasn’t looked the part of a long-term franchise starter, but he’s been comparatively solid on intermediate passes and Achane has consistently been among the best running backs on throws of 10-to-19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
Miami’s schedule is tough in the short term, as it’ll face the elite Minnesota Vikings defense in Week 5 and the surprisingly stout New York Jets in Week 7, but after that, the schedule should lighten up. A Week 10 road clash against the Indianapolis Colts, who have had the worst defense in football so far, should be an opportunity for Achane to thrive, as should a road matchup the following week against the Buffalo Bills. By then, Willis and new offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik should have settled in more, allowing them to optimize Achane in his role.
