Fantasy Football Rankings: DraftKings 2024 Best Ball Running Back Rankings 26-50 (2024)

It’s officially the best time of the year, as NFL Best Ball is back on DraftKings.

This format gives players a chance to draft a fantasy football team for a season-long competition that requires no active in-season management, but still provides a full season of drama and competition.

You can find all the details, scoring and rules for the format in this overview post along with links to the rest of our season preview content.

Below I continue my running back rankings for the 2024 DraftKings NFL Best Ball season.

Check back throughout draft season for more content to help get you ready for all your Best Ball contests.

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32. Austin Ekeler, Washington Commanders

This ADP feels like a massive overreaction to Ekeler’s down 2023 season. He only played 14 games due to injury, and was not particularly effective, but we are talking about a player who caught a combined 177 passes and scored 38 total touchdowns over the previous two seasons.

Ekeler was being drafted in the first round last year, sometimes as high as No. 3 overall, and you can now get him at pick 102. I get the situation has changed, as he signed with the Commanders this offseason, but his only competition right now is Brian Robinson Jr., who is really not a threat in the pass game. Antonio Gibson saw 59 targets in this exact role in 2023 and caught 48 of them on 8.1 yards per reception.

There are still both age and injury concerns with Ekeler coming into 2024, but he takes really good care of his body and is consistently in great shape, so I am not nearly as worried as other people. If he reverts back to the 2022 version of himself this season, you’re looking at an absolute league-winner in the eighth round.

There’s also a chance this Washington offense really hums with No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels at the helm — even if he’s not quite the check-down specialist that Sam Howell was.

37. 38. Ezekiel Elliott, Rico Dowdle, Dallas Cowboys

This is a pretty big part of the best ball season that not a ton of people are talking about. The Cowboys chose to let Tony Pollard walk in free-agency, and did nothing to replace him except sign back Elliott. Outside of Zeke and the rather uninspiring Dowdle, the other running backs on the Cowboys roster are 2023 sixth round pick Deuce Vaughn — who stands 5-foot-5 and weighs 175 pounds — Royce Freeman, who is guaranteed $65,000 in 2024, and Snoop Conner, who is a Jaguars castoff. Both Freeman and Conner are not even locks to make the roster.

Pollard received 252 carries and saw 67 targets in 2023, while Dowdle posted a combined 111 RB opportunities. As we sit here in late June, just four short weeks from training camp, it does not appear Dallas will add anyone else at RB. This means you’re actually able to draft a pair of running backs, on what should be one of the most efficient offenses in the league, after pick 128 on DraftKings. Truly absurd.

No matter what we think of Elliott as a player at this stage of his career, he’s going to get a ton of work in 2024, while Dowdle should also set career highs across the board in terms of usage. The Cowboys led the NFL in points per game in 2023, and while Pollard seemingly had a down year, he still finished as the RB14 in DKFP per game. Keep in mind, we were drafting Pollard in the second round of drafts last year, while Elliott and Pollard are going in the 11th and 12 round, respectively, this season.

By the way, Elliott looked more than serviceable for the Patriots last year after Rhamondre Stevenson went down in Week 13, posting 27 and 21 DKFP in two of his final five games.

43. Kendre Miller, New Orleans Saints

Alvin Kamara, who is entering his age-29 season, and who’s currently holding out for a new contract, is Miller’s only true threat to a second-year breakout in 2024. The Saints do not project to be a playoff team this season, so it’s more than likely by the time the best ball playoffs roll around, we could be looking at Miller as a potential workhorse back.

He flashed a ceiling in Week 18 last season when Kamara was out, posting 73 yards and a touchdown on just 13 carries. People forget that Miller was a monster at TCU in 2022, finishing with 1,515 yards from scrimmage and 17 touchdowns. The Saints took him in the third round of last year’s draft, and seem to trust him enough to not bring anyone new in for this upcoming year. Jamaal Williams still remains on this New Orleans roster as of now, but he was literally one of the worst running backs in football last year, and poses almost zero threat at this stage of his career.

Miller is a dream target for zero-RB builds, as his contingent upside is through the roof if something were to happen to Kamara, while he should catch enough passes this year to hold some standalone value as well.

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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is Lan1228) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.