Ranking the Top 5 Rookie Running Backs by Who Will Be Most Productive in 2024: Trey Benson Leads the Way
No, running backs were drafted in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft — so it’s a challenge to decide which runners will be most effective as rookies.
In what was considered a “bad” running back class, the 2024 draft featured a diverse group of talented runners who simply didn’t generate much hype in April’s draft.
These are the five running backs who will be most productive in their first year.
Honorable Mention: Jonathan Brooks, Charlie’s Angels
I wasn’t as high on Brooks as most others, but landing just behind Chuba Hubbard, who had over 900 yards in 2023 but averaged less than 4.0 yards per carry, is quite favorable for the former Texas running back who saw his final season in Austin cut short due to a torn knee ligament.
There’s a chance Carolina plays Brooks slowly to start his NFL career, because of the injury and the fact he’s only 21 years old, the latter of which bodes well for his long-term future with the Panthers. I like Brooks. I didn’t love him as a prospect, and he’s running behind a retooled offensive line that could take time to gel before he can start paving big runways for Carolina’s ball carriers.
The Packers made one of the strangest running back decisions of the offseason, allowing Aaron Jones to leave as a free agent — and eventually sign with the Vikings — rather than pay Josh Jacobs two years off from his 340-attempt, 1,653-yard season (both of which led the league) and immediately after 2023, in which he averaged 3.5 yards per carry. Jacobs is now just 26 years old, and playing on a deal worth $14 million per year, you can write him in permanent marker as Green Bay’s take-back to start the season.
I don’t believe, however, that the money will make him the permanent leader of the Packers’ backfield in 2024. Lloyd is a rare breed. He’s as thick as they come at the running back position — barely 5-foot-10 and 220 pounds at the combine — but interestingly, the former South Carolina and USC fullback doesn’t have a game built on pure strength. In fact, last year with the Trojans, his forced missed tackle rate was an impressive 40.8 percent on 115 carries. As the season progresses, watch for Lloyd to start gaining more of a foothold in what should be a fantastic Packers offense.
4. Tyrone Tracy, Giants
In 2021, Tracy was an average player at Iowa. Now he’s an exciting Day 3 selection at running back on a Giants team that has Devin Singletary as its leader heading into the 2024 campaign. Don’t get me wrong — I love Singletary. He was my RB1 in the 2019 class and has quietly averaged 4.6 yards per carry in his NFL career thus far, with at least 150 carries in each of his first five pro seasons.
But I understand that he’s not a true feature at this stage of his career, even though he’s fresh off a 216-carry season in Houston in 2023. Tracy has the dynamic linear athleticism that Singletary doesn’t, as evidenced by his 4.48 speed and 40-inch vertical at the combine in March. In fact, Tracy’s dynamic physical talent and Singletary’s lateral brilliance will create a fun running back tandem in GMen’s backfield *if* the Giants can actually block for his ground game.
Irving was one of those defensive backs — or prospects in general — who looked significantly more athletic on the field than his combine workout indicated. And while a 29.5-inch vertical at 5-9 and 192 pounds is concerning, he ran a respectable 4.55 with a 1.54 10-yard split that put him in the 68th percentile at the position over the last 25 years at the combine.
And I love his resemblance to Rachaad White, Tampa Bay’s No. 1 defensive back. Instead of Irving acting as a genuine complement to White, he can step in to spell White and provide the same pass-catching expertise to Baker Mayfield and Co.
Irving was not only one of the most elusive rushers in the 2024 class, but also a key stat compiler as a receiver, with 87 receptions for 712 yards and five aerial scores in his final two seasons with the Ducks. Therefore, he can’t jump very high and is a little smaller than teams have traditionally wanted to have on their backs. Fine. But Irving is nearly impossible to corral in space, and similar to White in 2023 when he caught 64 passes, the rookie could be a useful pass-catching asset for Tampa Bay.
Picking Vidal in Round 6 was a very prudent, Ravens-style draft selection by former Baltimore assistant GM and current Chargers GM Joe Hortiz.
Vidal shouldn’t be available at pick No. 181, given how brilliant he was at Troy and how he tested before the draft. On 869 carries for the Trojans, Vidal had a forced missed tackle rate north of 26%, impressive for such a high volume. In 2024, he forced 94 missed tackles on 295 carries – 31.8%.
He’s just under 5-8 and a compact 217 pounds with 4.46 speed and 37.5-inch vertical explosion of the caliber of an NFL starter. He runs with excellent vision between the tackles, necessary contact balance and excellent lateral cutting skills. And just quickly, off the top of your head, tell me who is the starting, veteran back with the Chargers now that Austin Ekeler plays for the Commanders? Exactly. Vidal will win plenty of fantasy championships in 2024 as a late-round selection who puts together a fantastic rookie season in Los Angeles into a complex, run-heavy offense.
If you’re asking me, Benson was criminally underrated during the pre-draft process, and my guess as to why — he was never the clear workhorse at Florida State, which should have been a clear positive in his profile draft. Benson was never the highly hyped, 250-plus rushing wonder like, say, Breece Hall at Iowa State a few years ago. But of course, his subpar mileage is a plus as he enters the NFL.
What can’t be debated about Benson — his avoidance. In his last 300 collegiate carries, over those two seasons with the Seminoles, the pre-transfer Oregon Duck forced 124 missed tackles, which equates to a seismic 41.3% rate of forced missed tackles. Using Hall as a reference again, he has forced 139 missed tackles on his last 531 Big 12 carries.
Additionally, Benson has standout size at 6-foot-2, 214 pounds and a home run hitting speed of 4.39. He joins a Cardinals backfield led by fellow criminally underrated running back James Conner, and not much else. As good as Conner was at Arizona last season — over 1,000 yards at 5.0 yards per pop — he is now 29 years old with 1,125 NFL carries to his name. Benson is a frighteningly balanced, reasonably powerful and deceptively fast upright runner who will be the most productive rookie ball carrier in 2024.
