Two Notre Dame running backs went in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, and the Offensive Rookie of the Year conversation at the position basically starts and ends with them. Jeremiyah Love landed third overall in Arizona. Jadarian Price closed the round at No. 32 in Seattle. So PFSN’s Football Debate Club asked the harder question: if a rookie back wins the award and it isn’t Love or Price, who is it?
Ian Cummings and Jacob Infante split on the answer. The way they split says everything about how you want to bet.
Why Jonah Coleman Has the Clearest Rookie of the Year Path
Cummings took Jonah Coleman, the Washington product Denver grabbed in the fourth round at No. 108. His case rests on opportunity Coleman can seize for himself.
“I’m going to go with Jonah Coleman out of Washington,” Cummings said.
“We forget, in 2024 he was near elite with an over-89 PFSN CFB RB impact rating. He enters a Broncos offense where the highest performer at running back was J.K. Dobbins, with an RB impact of just 57.6, which was 33rd in the league last year. They’re returning all five starters on the offensive line. So I think the situation is very good for him. And I do think the competition, looking at them compared to him, I think Coleman can win that job and win it long term.”
That last line is the whole argument. Coleman does not need anyone to get hurt. He needs to beat out Dobbins, who carries his own durability questions, and 2025 second-rounder RJ Harvey.
Denver spent a fourth-round pick on the position even after re-signing Dobbins, and Payton framed the choice around fit, saying the staff felt strongly Coleman was the best runner for what they do. Coleman is a 220-pound bowling ball who fumbled once on 552 college carries and holds up as a pass protector. The runway is there.
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The PFSN impact figures Cummings cited are proprietary, so treat the exact numbers as the show’s internal grades rather than public stats. The structural point survives anyway. Denver’s ground game cratered whenever Dobbins missed time last season, and the line comes back intact.
Kaelon Black’s Rookie Year Hinges on Christian McCaffrey’s Health
Infante went the other way, backing San Francisco’s Kaelon Black, the Indiana back the 49ers took at No. 90. His pick comes with a condition attached to it.
“I’m going to go [Kaelon] Black here, actually,” Infante said.
“A lot of that is dependent on if Christian McCaffrey gets hurt, which is tough to predict. But since 2020, in the last six seasons, there have been three years where he’s played fewer than eight games. In 2024, McCaffrey missed most of the year. Jordan Mason stepped up. He averaged 5.2 yards per [carry] and 65.8 rushing yards per game. You’re looking at a potentially big opportunity for [Kaelon] Black if McCaffrey gets hurt.”
The history is accurate. McCaffrey played three games in 2020, seven in 2021 and four in 2024. When Mason filled in that 2024 season, he ranked seventh in the NFL at 5.2 yards per carry, and coach Kyle Shanahan has openly said he wants to lighten McCaffrey’s workload in 2026. The opening is plausible.
Here is the catch. McCaffrey just played all 17 games in 2025, led the NFL with 413 touches and won the AP Comeback Player of the Year. Betting on the back behind him means betting against the player who answered every health question he had this past season. The workload could catch up to him in his age-30 year, and it also might not, which leaves Black needing a healthy McCaffrey to break down before his own number gets called.
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That is the cleanest way to separate these picks. Cummings chose a back who controls his own outcome, while Infante chose one who needs someone else to fall. Host Cam Mellor scored the round 3-2 for Coleman, and that verdict holds. If you are staking a rookie award on anyone behind the Notre Dame pair, take the bet that doesn’t require an injury to cash.
