PlayerProfiler is home to award-winning dynasty rankings and tools. Our Dynasty Deluxe package includes complete Dynasty Rankings, Rookie Rankings, Trade Analyzer, Draft Planner, Mock Drafts, and more. Check it out. Here, Dan Williamson previews the top Dynasty Football running back trade targets to acquire early.
Dynasty Football: Finding Running Back Sleepers and Values
What’s the hottest position in dynasty football for 2025? Arguably it’s all about the RBs. 2024 was the year of the RB and now comes a draft class that’s simply loaded with tantalizing RB prospects. All those great prospects are fun for us dynasty gamers to dream about, but until the NFL draft has come and gone, many of the RBs already in the league are facing the specter of a talented rookie shaking up their depth chart.
Additionally, free agency kicks off on March 10th when the tampering window opens. While it’s not a stellar crop of free agents, there will be some upheaval over the next couple of weeks as these players get signed.
Many will argue that this makes this a perfect time for dynasty managers to sit on their hands and wait for the dust to settle from free agency. But uncertainty brings opportunity and profit to the bold. There are players that we can and should be targeting that may be flying under the radar.
I’m not advising that you buy these players at any price but rather that you kick the tires on how easily you can bring them onto your team. If the price is right, it’s time to pounce before their value rises! Not all of them will be sexy buys and in fact, most of them will feel a little underwhelming. All of them though, have some sort of a path to achieving much better value within the next season than their current cost.
Let’s identify a few of these players.
Najee Harris
Few players have been kicked around and disparaged more than the Steelers lead RB over the past four years. All any fantasy managers talk about is what Najee Harris CAN’T do. Nobody’s paying attention to what he CAN do. The simple fact is that he’s likely to be one of the most coveted free-agent RBs by many NFL teams. You worry about his lack of explosive plays. NFL teams are much less concerned about that.
NFL GMs value the way Harris keeps an offense on schedule with tough runs, converts goal-line opportunities, and his skills in the passing game. They also value his availability He’s played in every game since being drafted. For all that, KeepTradeCut has his value way down at RB32, just ahead of Tank Bigsby. That’s a huge opportunity to lock in an RB2 for cheap if you can get that price. If it helps, just think of him as Discount David Montgomery.
Javonte Williams
The logic here is virtually identical to Najee Harris, though Williams is probably more of a poor man’s (or poor team’s) Harris. Javonte has the same 3-down skill set as Harris. However, it won’t cost nearly as much for an NFL team to sign him. Williams is a nice fit for a team looking for a two–down banger who can stay on the field on passing downs.
If he lands on the right team in the right situation he could go back to being an RB2 in fantasy. But more likely, he will be in a timeshare situation where he’s more of a flex fill-in for our dynasty squads. You could probably pick him up for an early third. It’s not a bad price for a player who could wind up on a team like the Bengals.
Christian McCaffrey
Dynasty championships aren’t won by playing it safe. Yes, CMC is entering his ninth year in the league. But he’s only six months older than Saquon Barkley and has only four more touches over his career. Yes, CMC has missed 36 games over the past five years. But almost all of those missed games came during three seasons.
During the other five seasons of his career, McCaffrey missed only one game. Since his rookie campaign, he’s finished as the overall RB1 or RB2 except for those three lost seasons. Over all 95 of the games he’s played in his career, he’s scored an average of 22.0 PPR points per game. If he’s healthy, you’re playing him in your lineup and he’s a massive hammer for your team.
Sure, trading for him is risky. But there’s almost no other RB, WR, or TE in the league who can deliver weekly like a healthy CMC. Make some creative offers and see what you can do. Just browsing through Player Profiler’s Dynasty Trade Finder, I’m seeing trades where it only took a pair of seconds, or just a second and a third to acquire him.
Isaac Guerendo
This is the other side of the Christian McCaffrey coin. What if he DOES break down again? In that case, steer away from Juiceless Jordan Mason and steer into Guerendo. Everyone remembers Mason’s September sprint last year. But he was a drain on starting lineups after the first four weeks because he’s slow and he doesn’t earn targets. Once Guerendo got healthy though, he was the superior option anytime McCaffrey was out.
Gurrendo not only has electric speed, burst, and agility but the 49ers weren’t afraid to deploy him in the passing game. Try to get him as a throw-in on a larger deal rather than come after him as your main target in a trade. He’ll likely come cheaper that way.
Tony Pollard
Pollard seems likely to remain the lead running back for a Titans offense that has nowhere to go but up. Cutting him would only net minimal cap savings while his experience and passing game chops will be an asset to whoever the team brings in to play QB. Best of all, he’s quite inexpensive in dynasty formats as you can probably get him for a future second-rounder.
Expect RB2 performance out of him for the upcoming season and he seems very likely to stick in the league for multiple years as an Aaron Jones type of talent.
Sean Tucker
In shallower dynasty formats such as FFPC, Tucker is probably a free agent, just waiting to be scooped up at the end of the rookie draft. In most leagues though, he’ll be languishing at the end of someone’s bench, available as part of any trade as just a cheap throw-in. So why should we even bother? After all, the Buccaneers are infatuated with Bucky Irving, right? And Rachaad White is his backup, so Tucker is just a 3rd string RB, right?
All of this is true, yet there are some other facts we’ll want to remember. At the combine, Matthew Berry reported that the Bucs believe Tucker “has the talent to be a No. 1 RB in this league”. Another fact: Rachaad White isn’t a good RB. And another: Bucky Irving is undersized and undoubtedly the Bucs will look to keep him fresh in 2025.
Finally, with their RB room well-stocked and many needs elsewhere on the roster, the risk of a rookie RB coming in and upsetting the status quo is low. This is exactly the sort of low-cost bet with a potentially big reward that winning dynasty managers make.
Devin Singletary
Here’s another low-budget acquisition that could pay off nicely if anything happens to Tyrone Tracy Jr. The Giants have lots of problems to solve in free agency and the draft. But running back should rank pretty low on that list. Head coach Brian Daboll loves “Motor” (his pet name for Singletary) who thrived in this offense in Buffalo for years.
Salary-cap-wise, it would make no sense for the Giants to cut Singletary, either. He’s the locked-in backup on an offense that almost can’t help but be better than last year’s debacle. Toss out an offer of a 4th-rounder and you’ll likely be in business.
Rookies
As noted above, this draft class is quite deep at the RB position so picking up additional late 2nd or early 3rd round picks will put you in a zone where you can keep collecting lottery-ticket RBs. They’ll likely have a better chance at achieving relevance later this year or in 2026 than most other rookie classes.
Just remain patient with these players until they get an opportunity to get on the field and you may find yourself holding the next Bucky Irving or Tyrone Tracy Jr.
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