Are we in the midst of a running back renaissance? The money would seem to suggest that we are. A recent wave of running back extensions set records at the position. Bijan Robinson, Jonathan Taylor and Jahmyr Gibbs each signed contracts worth over $20 million per year earlier in August. Robinson briefly held the record for the highest-paid running back in NFL history before Gibbs surpassed that mark just days later. But is that an indication that Gibbs is better than Robinson? We ranked the top 10 running backs in the NFL ahead of the 2026 season, and as you could imagine, Robinson and Gibbs were among those vying for the top spot. Here is our full list of the top 10 running backs entering the regular season. Eric D. Williams: The Super Bowl MVP for the Seattle Seahawks led the league in rushing during the postseason and had one of his best seasons as a pro last year. Walker led Seattle in rushing in each of his four seasons with the team, rushing for over 1,000 yards as a pro for the second time in his career in 2025. However, the Seahawks allowed the Memphis native to walk away in free agency, as Walker signed a three-year, $45 million deal to join the Kansas City Chiefs. The expectation for Walker is that he will serve as the bell-cow back, helping to reignite the running game for Patrick Mahomes as he returns from a season-ending knee injury. Williams: Williams had another strong season, finishing sixth in the NFL in rushing yards (1,252) and ninth in rushing touchdowns (10). His 44 scrimmage touchdowns are the second-most in the NFL since the start of the 2023 season. Williams has rushed for over 1,000 yards in three of his first four years as a pro, earning Pro Bowl invitations in two of those seasons. However, Williams could have his workload cut with the emergence of Michigan product Blake Corum, who came on during the second half of last season and has looked good in training camp. Greg Auman: Can a team that\u2019s constantly trailing have a bellcow running back? Miami has as low an expectation for 2026 as any team, but new coach Jeff Hafley says he could give Achane 40 touches a game or more, which is wild. Achane was one of the best all-around backs in the NFL last year, averaging six yards a touch with 1,838 yards from scrimmage. Only Atlanta Falcons star Bijan Robinson averaged more per touch. Can Achane sustain that when there\u2019s even less of a supporting cast in the passing game to draw defensive attention away from him? Mike McDaniel\u2019s creativity is gone, but watch to see how Bobby Slowik can find ways to utilize Achane in the screen\/passing game. He\u2019s had 145 receptions in the last two years, five more than Robinson for the most among all NFL running backs. Ralph Vacchiano: As the Buffalo Bills’ passing game sagged a bit the last two years, Cook made sure their running game didn\u2019t miss a beat. And he established himself as one of the NFL\u2019s best and most powerful last season with a league-leading 1,621 yards, making him the first Bills player to lead the NFL in rushing since O.J. Simpson nearly 50 years ago. Cook is a bowling ball through the middle of the defense, able to bounce off contact and explode onto the second level, despite being just 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds. Cook would probably rank higher on this list if he contributed more in the passing game (33-291-2). But he\u2019s so strong running the ball, it\u2019s hard to be disappointed. He ran for 28 touchdowns over the last two years. He\u2019s the perfect weapon to wear down defenses late in games, and especially when the weather turns in Western New York late in the year. Ben Arthur: We\u2019re at the point in Henry\u2019s career where, every year, we\u2019re wondering if this is going to be the year in which he\u00a0finally\u00a0slows down. But he\u2019s done such an incredible job taking care of his body that it almost assuredly won\u2019t be 2026. The 32-year-old Henry is coming off his eighth straight double-digit rushing touchdown season. The five-time Pro Bowler has also posted 1,000-plus rushing yards in seven of the last eight years, including the last four. Henry climbed into 10th on the NFL\u2019s all-time rushing list in 2025, and could jump into the top six with 1,083 rushing yards in the coming season. Bucky Brooks: The ultimate offensive weapon is nearing the twilight of his career, but few defensive coordinators have cracked the code on how to slow down the three-time All-Pro. CMC has totaled 2,000-plus scrimmage yards three times, while also earning exclusive memberships into the “1,000\/1,000” Club (1,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving yards) and “100\/1,000” Clubs (100 catches and 1,000 receiving yards). With few playmakers displaying RB1 and WR2 skills from the backfield, McCaffrey remains the gold standard as the NFL\u2019s top multi-purpose back. Arthur: Before the Colts\u2019 collapse late last season, Taylor was a front-running MVP candidate. He ended 2025 leading the league in carries (323), rushing touchdowns (18), scrimmage touchdowns (20) and rushing first downs (84) for the second time in his career, earning a two-year, $44 million extension earlier this month. Taylor isn\u2019t the receiving threat that the likes of McCaffrey, Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson are, but he is a dependable catcher out of the backfield. He had career highs in receptions (46) and receiving yards (378) last season. Taylor\u2019s 1,963 scrimmage yards in 2025 also ranked third in the NFL. Vacchiano: This is how great the 29-year-old Barkley is: He ran for 1,140 yards and seven touchdowns last season, averaging 4.1 yards per carry, and he caught 37 passes for 273 yards \u2026 and his season was considered a profound disappointment. That\u2019s how high he set the bar, especially after he ran for 2,005 yards one year earlier. Those days are probably over. The Eagles\u2019 offensive line isn\u2019t what it used to be and that season \u2014 in which he totaled 482 touches in the regular season and playoffs \u2014 clearly wore Barkley down. He\u2019s still got breakaway speed, though, and moves unlike most backs in the league. He can be a nightmare to drag down in the open field. For all those reasons, most people in the NFL expect a bounce-back season from him, even if he\u2019s very unlikely to ever threaten to break 2,000 rushing yards again. McKenna: It\u2019s fun to imagine what will happen in 2026 with Gibbs taking over the backfield as the Lions\u2019 bellcow back. In a timeshare last year, he had 1,223 rushing yards, 616 receiving yards and 18 total touchdowns. That was in a timeshare. What happens when he\u2019s the guy?! Gibbs has never needed much in the way of touches to make a huge impact on each game. But as the Lions hope to return to the playoffs, it actually probably reassures Detroit fans that Gibbs will be a bigger part of the offense. Because when he gets the ball, magic happens. He\u2019s as explosive in the rushing game as he is in the passing game. There\u2019s no good way to stop him, and when the blocking is good, there really isn\u2019t a way to stop him. Auman: How quietly great was Robinson\u2019s 2025 season? He led the NFL with 2,298 yards from scrimmage, while still giving up some red-zone and late-game carries to Tyler Allgeier. There have been 26 seasons in NFL history with 2,200-plus yards from scrimmage, but only two had fewer touches than Robinson last year \u2014 Marshall Faulk in 1999 and O.J. Simpson in 1975. Does Robinson take on a larger share with Allgeier gone and unsure play at quarterback? The NFL record for yards from scrimmage is 2,509, which came from Chris Johnson in 2009, and it feels like it\u2019s within reach. As a counterpoint, the Falcons just invested $67 million in Robinson through the 2030 season, so they might want to keep an eye on his mileage so he still has something left in a few years. Atlanta would have to win many more games for him to have serious MVP consideration, and they might not be quite there yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Are we in the midst of a running back renaissance? The money would seem to suggest that we are. A recent wave of running back extensions set records at the position. Bijan Robinson, Jonathan Taylor and Jahmyr Gibbs each signed contracts worth over $20 million per year earlier in August. Robinson briefly held the record<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}