2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Brian Robinson
Brian Robinson is simply a very bad prospect with very bad rushing efficiency numbers, even compared to other guys who had to compete with other talented players in the same program that he did. If you’re latching on to him as some sort of sleeper in this year’s RB class, you may as well as just light a taxi squad spot on fire. He’s not good.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Dameon Pierce
Dameon Pierce is an interesting prospect in that he’s very solidly built, was a fine runner at a big-time school, and is supposedly athletic, but he’s simply closer to Tony Jones or David Williams than he is to Ezekiel Elliott. He’s essentially a broke man’s Derrius Guice, and while I don’t think he’s a bad player, I do think he’s just a guy at the next level.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Jerome Ford
It’s tough for guys like Jerome Ford to latch on as something more than a committee member in the NFL, and that’s where I would anticipate him landing if he were to hit the high end of his range of outcomes. He’s a fine talent, but I’m not particularly excited about the prospect of landing him in even the second round of rookie drafts.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Tyler Goodson
If you like Kyren Williams, I simply don’t see how you can not like Tyler Goodson. There’s reason to believe that both Williams and Goodson could be undersized all-purpose backs somewhere on the Dion Lewis-Austin Ekeler spectrum. It’ll probably cost you a late first round rookie pick to hop on the Williams bandwagon, but it certainly won’t be that expensive to get a seat on the Goodson express.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Sincere McCormick
Sincere McCormick was productive from an early age and that certainly counts for something, but unless it’s absolutely free, I don’t take shots on undersized running backs from small schools who weren’t dominant on the ground and who didn’t command a sizable role in their team’s passing game.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Rachaad White
Rachaad White is a good runner, and his total skillset (his receiving profile is pretty nice) makes him a candidate for three-down work at the next level. The range of outcomes for a guy like this is pretty wide, and, barring something astonishing happening at the Combine, I see Kenyan Drake or James Starks as hopeful projections toward the top of it.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Abram Smith
Admittedly, late-bloomer one-hit wonders from non-powerhouse programs are generally JAGs at the next level, and that’s probably Abram Smith’s most likely career outcome. But if there’s an out-of-nowhere RB2-level producer in this draft class, Smith has as good a shot to be that guy as anybody.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: James Cook
Given his wide receiver-like slight frame, I don’t anticipate James Cook handling enough work on the ground to be very consistent for fantasy purposes. But his overall skillset is probably conducive to an interesting role as a hybrid runner-receiver with upside in the right offensive system.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Keaontay Ingram
It’s obviously a hard ask for any given player to have an Alvin Kamara-like impact in the NFL or in fantasy football, and I’m certainly not projecting that for Keaontay Ingram. What I do think is that Ingram is a badass runner of the football with workhorse size and a three-down skillset, which combine to make him my favorite under-the-radar running back in the 2022 class.
2022 Rookie Running Back Efficiency: Tyler Allgeier
I think Tyler Allgeier is a good and well-rounded player who would produce if given work, but something about his profile feels a little bit JAG-y to me. And while he was good at a non-powerhouse program, I wish he had been awesome so I could just be all in.