The 2026 NFL Draft running back class follows up a 2025 group that boasted one of the best RB prospects in recent memory in Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty. As running backs once again become relevant in the modern NFL, could the 2026 cycle fuel the position’s ongoing rise?
Already, even in the early summer months, the 2026 NFL Draft RB class looks intriguing, and the rankings are flush with upside and potential. Jeremiyah Love leads the way along with a well-known Penn State duo, but that’s just scratching the surface for this crop.
10) Jaydn Ott, Oklahoma
Jaydn Ott first broke onto the scene as a true freshman in 2022. He accrued 130 yards from scrimmage in his first career game and amassed 1,242 total yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns on the year.
In 2023, Ott upped his totals to 1,315 yards and 12 TDs on the ground, while adding 169 yards and two scores through the air. But early in 2024, he suffered a high ankle sprain and never recovered. His efficiency suffered greatly as a result, and he’s been forgotten.
This past offseason, the 6’0″, 200-pound Ott transferred to Oklahoma late, forming an exciting backfield with John Mateer. When he’s healthy, Ott excels as an explosive north-south runner with fast feet and vertical speed, and he flashes legitimate receiving upside.
9) Jonah Coleman, Washington
Jonah Coleman’s mold of RB is one that plays well at the professional level. Low centers of gravity matter in contact situations, and at 5’9″, 229 pounds, Coleman has some of the best natural running leverage and play strength in the 2026 class.
He followed Jedd Fisch from Arizona to Washington in the 2024 offseason and achieved career-high numbers with the Huskies, accumulating 1,053 yards and 10 TDs on 193 carries, at a strong 5.5 yards per attempt. In doing so, he put himself on the map.
At his size, Coleman moves with good twitch and lateral energy, which he can use to enter and exit cuts and transitions freely. He weaponizes that quickness with expertly weaved patience and decisiveness — a composite blend that should earn him an NFL future.
8) Darius Taylor, Minnesota
Hailing from Detroit, Darius Taylor wasn’t a highly touted recruit, but that didn’t dissuade him from making teams regret their oversight. As a true freshman in 2023, Taylor ran for 799 yards in just six games, eclipsing 190+ yards on three different occasions.
In 2024, Taylor took over the lead back role for the Golden Gophers and acquitted himself well, putting up 205 carries for 986 yards and 10 scores, as well as 54 receptions for 350 yards and two additional touchdowns. Now NFL Draft eligible, he’ll be on the hunt for more.
At 6’0″, 215 pounds, Taylor has good size and mass, and while he’s undoubtedly physical, he makes his mark as a smooth operator with age-defying spatial instincts and lower body action. Taylor knows how to play proactively and flow upfield, and that’s translatable.
7) Roman Hemby, Indiana
Roman Hemby was a near-immediate star with the Maryland Terrapins as a redshirt freshman, accruing 989 rushing yards and 10 rushing TDs in his first season as a full-time contributor. While his next two seasons were less efficient, he’s still very much a player.
At 6’0″, 208 pounds, Hemby profiles as a compact, energized runner with a full bag of moves — from lateral one-cuts and shakes to second-nature spins inside gaps. He’s a capable space reader, explosive through creases, and can be tough to run down.
Joining fellow transfer and 2026 NFL Draft prospect Fernando Mendoza in Indiana’s backfield, Hemby has a chance to attain career-high numbers in 2025. He’ll be a 24-year-old rookie, but his complete running profile and dutiful receiving production bode well.
6) Quintrevion Wisner, Texas
Steve Sarkisian has a true conveyor belt at the RB position in Austin, Texas — and Quintrevion Wisner is the next man up after Jonathon Brooks and Jaydon Blue. In 2024, taking the volume left by CJ Baxter’s injury, Wisner eclipsed 1,300 total yards.
At around 6’0″, 200 pounds, Wisner isn’t the biggest or most imposing back, but he’s one of the most natural and fluid creators in the 2026 NFL Draft class. He’s an effortless processor who can employ reactive athleticism to swim through congested areas.
As smooth as his evasion ability is, Wisner isn’t just all flash. He has a strong understanding of how to press, play patient, and commit, as well as get skinny through lanes. And in the receiving game, he’s shown to take on volume and be an outlet.
5) Makhi Hughes, Oregon
If production is your preferred indicator of choice for running backs, then you’d be hard-pressed to find one more productive than Makhi Hughes over the past two seasons. Over that stretch, Hughes amassed 2,779 rushing yards and 22 TDs leading the charge at Tulane.
The 5’11”, 210-pound primary back transferred to Oregon this offseason, where he’ll have a chance to catalyze his 2026 NFL Draft rise. Hughes is well-leveraged, explosive, and energized as a runner, with the short-area amperage and angle IQ to create for himself.
Makhi Hughes with a little chip and then a catch-and-run to reduce down distance.
I just love the energy he plays with. From what I’ve seen so far, he doesn’t take roles or moments off. pic.twitter.com/sYBjseTOya
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) May 1, 2025
Hughes can challenge for a top-three spot in the 2026 NFL Draft RB class, but he needs to prove it against a higher level of competition first. He hasn’t been tested to the fullest, and his efficiency dipped in certain games against Power Four opponents in 2023 and 2024.
4) Nicholas Singleton, Penn State
Pound-for-pound, Nicholas Singleton might be the best athlete at RB in the 2026 NFL Draft. At 6’0″, 227 pounds, he’s been rumored to have a 4.35 40-yard dash time and on-field speed of up to almost 24 miles per hour.
Singleton is a power keg waiting to blow on every play. His athleticism is an asset that he interweaves into his game. As a runner, he’s a wide-zone specialist with home-run ability in open space. As a receiver, he has exciting role and motion versatility, as well as RAC utility, which Penn State indulged heavily last season.
Singleton is talented and productive, but the rest of his game is still coming along. He’s not the fastest processor on gap fluctuations, nor is he the most imaginative creator. He has a strong rotational skill set already, but Singleton’s ceiling will be defined by his intangible growth.
3) Jamarion Miller, Alabama
Alabama’s adherence to deep RB rotations can sometimes slow the breakouts for NFL prospects. For instance, Jamarion Miller has had to share touches with Jahmyr Gibbs, Jase McClellan, and Jalen Milroe. But as a senior in 2025, he’ll at last be the well-deserving lead back.
As the Crimson Tide turn back to a more traditional RB-led running offense in 2025, Miller could be primed to emerge. His production (668 yards and seven TDs) paled in Milroe’s shadow in 2024, but Miller’s tape quietly has an abundance of positive indicators.
At 5’10”, 220 pounds, Miller is “high cut” but “low to the ground,” with elite explosive capacity and lateral range. He can get vertical in a flash or offset defenders with ease and press behind blocks and use tempo modulations. To top it off, he’s an absolute tone-setter.
2) Kaytron Allen, Penn State
Coming into this exercise, Singleton was ranked higher than Kaytron Allen on PFSN’s early Big Board. A more thorough grading has changed that, though.
Singleton is the superior athlete and receiver, but Allen is a better runner — both in terms of creation and applied physicality. At 5’11”, 221 pounds, Allen is a thick and well-leveraged ball carrier who seems built to rumble on the surface. But the glimpses of cutting flexibility, stacked cuts in rapid succession, and lateral range are eye-popping — and he’s savvy and intelligent with his use.
Allen isn’t the most explosive when it comes to getting upfield, and his versatility as a receiving threat is capped. Nevertheless, he profiles extremely well as a potential volume back with his size, applied physicality, elusiveness, vision, and spatial instincts.
1) Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame
Some classes have a battle for RB1 heading in, but this isn’t one of them. Everything is subjective, of course, but heading into the 2026 NFL Draft cycle, Notre Dame’s Love is my preliminary RB1 by a wide margin.
There’s no athlete in the 2026 RB class that matches Love’s blend of turbocharged acceleration, stop-and-start, cutting flexibility, angle freedom, and home-run speed. On top of that, he’s a high-level creator with spatial instincts, patience, and decisiveness.
Listed at 6’0″, 212 pounds, Jeremiyah Love isn’t built like a brawler. He’s more of a lean long-strider, but he plays above his weight class with his physicality.
Recollects his feet through arm tackles, and can deliver brutal stiff-arms that make you perk up in your seat. pic.twitter.com/y0PNvnZOeI
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) June 13, 2025
At 6’0″, 212 pounds, Love is more lean than mean, but he nevertheless plays far above his weight class with his gnawing physicality. He has the dynamism and temperament to be a lead back at the NFL level, and there’s a sense we haven’t seen all he can do.
