Best Running Backs in the NFL 2020 – #10 Leonard Fournette
#10 – Leonard Fournette
The bell cow running back is a dying bread. Most teams have their in between the tackles runner, and their pass catching back. Leonard Fournette is that guy who can do both and proved it this season.
Have you seen how massive he is? There is no way he should also be able to move and catch the way he does. I think people are sleeping how capable he was, and nobody would have predicted his 76 receptions this season.
This season he saw the 4th most defenders in the box against him and still managed to finish with the 5th most yards from scrimmage. When you see his big plays, he earns every yard instead of others who have the luxury of a massive hole. His offensive line does not do him many favors.
That being said, the Jaguars were dedicated to feeding him the ball, and with a better supporting cast I think he can rise to the elite category in terms of production.
Best Running Backs in the NFL 2020 – #9 Josh Jacobs
#9 – Josh Jacobs
I don’t think anyone was expecting the Raiders to win as many games as they did. I believe the main reason they outproduced expectations was because of the emergence of rookie Josh Jacobs.
A strong case can be made for him as the offensive rookie of the year over Kyler Murray including his PFF grading. He graded out as the 4th best running back and to me the eye test checks out.
He is an elusive back who runs hard and makes tacklers miss. We didn’t see much of his use in the passing game this season, but I think that is more of a system issue and not actually him not being able to catch passes. He was your do it all back in college and nothing we have seen yet would make me think he would be anything different at the pro level.
Best Running Backs in the NFL 2020 – #8 Joe Mixon
#8 – Joe Mixon
Joe Mixon is elite. I’m all in on his talent and I think if you put Joe Mixon behind a solid offensive line and he becomes a unanimous top 5 running back. This season the Bengals had arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL, but Joe Mixon was talented enough to make it work.
He still managed to rush for over 1000 yards for the 2nd straight season and had some very impressive performances against far superior teams on route to a 2-14 finish. It’s tough for a running back when your team plays the majority of their games behind in negative game scripts.
Even so, the Bengals were aware that Mixon was by far the best player on their offense and gave him a career high 278 carries. All signs point to them drafting Joe Burrow which I think would benefit Mixon tremendously in terms of offensive efficiency. I would not be shocked at all if Mixon has a breakout year next season.
