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Which running backs became fantasy stars during the 2024 season? Andrew Ball discusses the running back breakouts of the past season.
Whether they showed potential before or the stars aligned to give them an opportunity, these running backs became fantasy football darlings in 2024.
Chase Brown, Chuba Hubbard, Bucky Irving, and Rico Dowdle saw a significant increase in production, despite obstacles that stood in their way. Fantasy managers who had one (or more) of the quartet on their roster likely made the postseason.
Below, we look at the journeys these running backs took to become fantasy football stars and what next season could look like.
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Chase Brown, Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati backfield was a heated offseason debate. Would the speedy, second-year back Chase Brown dominate the workload, or would free-agent acquisition Zack Moss? Or, even worse for fantasy football, would it be a committee?
Unfortunately, it was the latter to begin the season, and not in the roles one would anticipate. Moss was the leader while also being more impactful through the air. Brown was a change of pace.
The tides began to turn in Week 5 when Brown outtouched his counterpart. The gap widened for the next three weeks until Moss' season-ending injury. Then, Brown became a must-start RB1.
From Week 9 on, Brown was the RB4 in PPR points per game (20.6). He did it all. Did you need a big rushing day? He did it (120 yards versus Las Vegas). What about a PPR machine? That too (nine receptions at Baltimore). Touchdowns? Six of his 11 were scored in the final stretch, including a pair against Tennessee.
This was reviewed and it's now a @Bengals TD for Chase Brown!
📺: #CINvsDAL on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus & ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/RsIIJ9EumD— NFL (@NFL) December 10, 2024
A reminder that Brown was found in the triple digits during drafts in August. That won't happen again. He'll turn 25 during the offseason and appears to have a stranglehold over the backfield of the high-powered Cincinnati offense.
Chuba Hubbard, Carolina Panthers
You could make the case that Chuba Hubbard broke out in 2023. He was the RB14 in the final six weeks of last season. However, he did it on 3.71 yards per carry and few scores as the Carolina offense didn't find the endzone in four of those contests.
The former Oklahoma State Cowboy was a late-round pick in the 2024 drafts because of the continued low confidence in the offense and belief he was a placeholder until second-round pick Jonathon Brooks was fully healthy. Any optimism for Hubbard faded even more when he totaled 14 yards in Week 1.
After that, his YPC drastically increased (4.78 for the season), he scored double-digit touchdowns and was active in the passing game (at least four catches in nine games). He ended with 1,195 rushing yards and 43 receptions in 15 games for an RB13 finish in fantasy points per game (16.1).
CHUBA HUBBARD WALK OFF TD IN OVERTIME 😤 pic.twitter.com/2ReW254iqL
— NFL Fantasy Football (@NFLFantasy) December 22, 2024
Hubbard will enter the 2025 season as the lead running back. Carolina signed the 25-year-old to a four-year, $33.2 million extension in November. A month later, Brooks tore his ACL for the second time in just over a calendar year. We may not see Brooks play until 2026.
The do-it-all back should be selected in the first three rounds of 2025 fantasy drafts. Moving from a 10th-round pick to the third-round defines a breakout running back.
Bucky Irving, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The fourth-round rookie may be undersized but he ran like a power back in his debut campaign. Bucky Irving averaged 2.6 yards after contact per attempt (tied with Derrick Henry) and improved Tampa Bay's rushing attack to one of the league's best (149.2 yards per game).
Early on, the former Oregon Duck split opportunities with Rachaad White. The latter was phased out late in the season with a playoff berth hanging in the balance. Irving saw 55 carries in the last stretch of the regular season. White was handed nine, including zero in the win-and-get-in Week 18 affair against New Orleans.
Bucky Irving and Alvin Kamara (in 2017) are the only two RB to top 1,500 scrimmage yards with a snap rate below 50%:
(2007-2024 data -- Source: @TruMediaSports) pic.twitter.com/5ooxiZtPZc
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) January 8, 2025
Irving was fantasy football's RB8 (RB10 in points per game) from Week 6 through the regular-season finale. Irving is almost a lock to go in the late first or second round in fantasy drafts next summer.
Rico Dowdle, Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff really didn't want Rico Dowdle to succeed.
After Dallas whiffed on running back targets in the 2024 NFL Draft, Dowdle entered training camp as the backfield incumbent. His primary competition was 29-year-old Ezekiel Elliott, who the Cowboys had previously cut ties with because there wasn't any juice left in his legs. Still, Elliott started and got more touches than Dowdle in Week 1.
When it became painfully obvious Elliott wouldn't do anything except run two yards and fall, the Cowboys dabbled with Dalvin Cook (despite Dowdle totaling 114 yards and a touchdown in Pittsburgh).
Finally, after Dallas experimented with running backs on and off the roster, Dowdle was handed the reigns. The 26-year-old averaged over 20 carries per game from Week 12 through the end of the season. He rushed for over 100 yards in four of those contests, including back-to-back-to-back games setting a rushing yards career high.
#Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle averaged 95.1 yards per game from Week 7 on this season.
4.73 yards per carry.
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) January 6, 2025
He was also steadily involved in the passing game, catching 39 passes for 249 yards. While the touchdown total was on the lower end (five), the Dallas offense had inconsistent stretches (under both Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush) and Mike McCarthy still had an affinity toward Elliott on the goal line.
Unfortunately, Dowdle's explosive campaign may have been more about circumstance than talent and he's older than the typical breakout age. It would shock nobody to see the front office select Ashton Jeanty or another top running back in the draft (or sign free agent Najee Harris) and prevent the undrafted Dowdle from replicating his lone 1,000-yard campaign.
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