Start-Up Rankings & Tiers Off-Season 2026: RBs Ranked #1-36

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This is the 2nd of a 3-4 Part series covering my Positional Start-Up Rankings for this Off-Season. Today's Rankings list out my RBs Ranked 1-36 plus a number of honorable mention, though as always keep in mind that TIERS are generally the most important. The full write-up as well as a link to this episode of the Fantasy for Real podcast can be found here: https://cjfreel.substack.com/p/176-start-up-rb-rankings-1-36-devy // Start-Up Rankings & Tiers Part 2: RB (Tier 1) Bijan Robinson Jahmyr Gibbs (Tier 2) Jeremiyah Love Ashton Jeanty Omarion Hampton (Tier 3) De’Von Achane James Cook Jonathan Taylor Kenneth Walker III Breece Hall (Tier 4) TreVeyon Henderson Quinshon Judkins Christian McCaffrey Chase Brown Saquon Barkley (Tier 5) Travis Etienne Jr. Javonte Williams Kyren Williams (Tier 6) Jadarian Price Cam Skattebo Josh Jacobs Bucky Irving Derrick Henry D’Andre Swift (Tier 7) R.J. Harvey Jaylen Warren Chuba Hubbard Bhayshul Tuten Jonah Coleman Zach Charbonnet Tony Pollard David Montgomery Kyle Monangai Nicholas Singleton Jonathon Brooks Blake Corum // Honorable Mentions: Demond Claiborne, Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Rico Dowdle, Jordan Mason, Chris Rodriguez Jr., Rhamondre Stevenson, Tyrone Tracy Jr., Rachaad White // RBs 3-12 While not necessarily off-consensus, I wanted to talk about RBs 3-10 first. Redraft Rankings come first to more naturally make some of these comparisons. While there is a risk in taking Jeremiyah Love, Ashton Jeanty, or Omarion Hampton over the players I have a half-tier below, Love, Jeanty, & Hampton are in the same redraft Tier in my rankings as Achane, Walker, & Hall. So while Achane, Walker, & Hall do have an edge in confidence and proof, being in the same tier gives Love, Jeanty, & Hampton an age advantage even over players like Achane (turning 25 this season) and Hall (25) because even 25 at RB is way closer to a value dip than it would be at any other position. James Cook & Jonathan Taylor are the only RBs in a substantially higher Tier for Redraft — but Cook is turning 27 this year and Taylor will be 27 when the season begins. At that point, we’re talking about a six year difference between Love & Taylor with Taylor approaching value cliffs. [...] TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins share many of the same youth advantages, but once again my current redraft projections clearly spell out the difference in these groups [...] To put it most simply, Love, Jeanty, & Hampton may be risky RB1s, but I do profile them as borderline RB1s. Henderson and Judkins are clear RB2 projections, and it is not certain that changes enough by next year. — Off-Consensus: Quinshon Judkins My RB12 Consensus RB9 Given his production for most of last season, RB12 feels respectable, but the consensus is a bit higher. This may not be the sole reason, but it is important to recognize that we pay the most attention to Fantasy Football at the beginning of the Season, and during the beginning of the Season, Judkins was not just good but surprisingly good given lowered expectations due to his off-season situation and how it interfered with his camp process. In the last 10 Games of the 2025 NFL Season, Judkins produced only 3.0 YPC with 158 Carries for only 480 Yards. And while there are excuses here — I just don’t see how the excuses get Judkins into the Top 10. If the argument truly is “okay well Cleveland is just that bad” — how close are we to seeing a turn around? We can blame Judkins for the lack of performance OR Cleveland for the lack…