Updated 2025 RB preview … It still waits to be seen whether any RBs are selected in the opening round of the upcoming draft, but on first blush it certainly appears that 2025 could in fact be a very good year at the position with at least several backs with first-round grades at this time. That group is headed by Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon, an instinctive slasher who led the country in rushing last fall with over 1,700 yards and 21 TDs, despite not playing much the first month of the season. Gordon, though, is hardly a lock to be the top-rated RB this year as Quinshon Judkins, now at Ohio State after transferring north from Mississippi, wasn’t quite as productive working in an offence that also threw the ball very well, but may be the more explosive prospect. In fact, the Buckeyes may have the very best RB room in the country as Judkins will pair with veteran Treveyon Henderson, who surprisingly returned to school for another year at Columbus and has some first-round props of his own. Meanwhile, North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton, who ran over 1,500 yards last fall, could ultimately be the best of the bunch.
And those four are just the tip of the iceberg of what looks to be a very deep RB class for 2025 which also includes Michigan’s Donovan Edwards, Tajh Brooks of Texas Tech, California’s underrated Jadyn Ott, Devin Neal of Kansas, Rocket Sanders of South Carolina, Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, Trevor Etienne of Georgia and the Penn State duo of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. In fact, we could go on and also include the names of Kyle Monagai of Rutgers, Jarquez Hunter of Auburn, Woody Marks of Southern Cal and 245-pound Peny Boone of UCF, all of which should have NFL teams looking at some pretty good options at the position next April including well into the third day. Here is our preliminary ranking of the top RBs for the upcoming draft.
Previous position previews: QBs
