In every fantasy football format, running backs who catch passes are desirable assets. While it’s more pronounced in PPR, a target is worth more than a carry even in non-PPR. We’ve gone through every NFC North team to pinpoint the best pass-catching RB on each of them.
Which Running Backs Are the Best Pass-Catching Options on Each NFC North Team in 2024
Chicago Bears: Roschon Johnson
The Bears are one of the trickier teams to decipher. The only thing we can say definitively is that it won’t be Khalil Herbert. It could easily be D’Andre Swift, whose best attribute was his receiving ability coming out of college. The reason I think it will be Roschon Johnson is due to the way Swift has been used in each of the past two seasons.
In 2021, Swift earned a career-high 18.4% target share. That dropped to 15.1% in 2022. Then, in 2023 with the Eagles, Swift’s target share dropped to 10%. The Eagles were right smack in the middle in targeting running backs with a 17% target share. They chose not to throw to Swift.
Meanwhile, as a rookie, despite being limited to just 81 carries on the season (a paltry 31.3% opportunity share), Johnson garnered a 9.5% target share. Surprisingly, he was tied with Herbert for the team lead. Still, we can readily dismiss Herbert as the receiving back this season due to Swift’s addition.
If Johnson winds up operating as the passing-down back, he won’t have stand-alone value. Rather, he would merely serve to take a chunk out of Swift’s fantasy value.
Detroit Lions: Jahmyr Gibbs
This one is as easy as it gets. The Lions have a two-man committee featuring Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. The latter is a pure two-down grinder. His target share was a mere 5.3% last season. Meanwhile, Gibbs saw a 14.1% target share, ninth in the league.
Furthermore, Gibbs said to reporters that one of his primary focuses in this training camp has been working on his receiving and improving in that area. It’s not as if anyone needed more of a reason to know Gibbs would be the Lions’ best receiving back. There is zero doubt about this one.
Green Bay Packers: Josh Jacobs
Make no mistake about it, the Packers’ backfield is going to be a timeshare. Josh Jacobs will lead it, but Matt LaFleur has always used two backs.
For most teams, the running back handling passing-down work is the one on the lower end of the timeshare. In Green Bay, Jacobs still projects to lead this backfield in receptions.
Behind Jacobs will be rookie MarShawn Lloyd and veteran plodder AJ Dillon. It actually wouldn’t be a complete shock if Dillon opened the season in the passing-down role. Despite Aaron Jones being a vastly superior receiver, Dillon was playing ahead of him on third-down passing situations for much of the season.
While Lloyd should be able to beat out Dillon for the RB2 role, he’s not exactly a receiver. Lloyd’s highest college target share was just 6.7%. Jacobs saw a 13.4% target share last season. It may not be that high with the Packers, but he should be considered the heavy favorite to lead this backfield in targets.
Minnesota Vikings: Aaron Jones
I’m expecting a relatively even split between Aaron Jones and Ty Chandler in terms of snaps and total touches in the Vikings backfield. But when it comes to who is going to handle the most receiving work, I have to give a strong edge to Jones.
While Jones has never been a high-volume receiving back, he’s always been a productive pass catcher. Before last season, he caught at least 47 passes for four consecutive years.
On the other hand, Chandler doesn’t have a rich history of pass-catching. Last season, Chandler did catch at least three passes in four of his final eight games. However, that was more of a product of circumstance than a deliberate intent to utilize him as a receiver. The only thing standing in the way of Jones leading this backfield in target share is his health.
