Who are the most talented RBs in the NFL right now?

[ImaRounder]

I answered the OP by giving gurley and shady. Im defending my opinion against statistics. I have no statistics to back it up because theyre mostly biased and done by either nerds or average joes who have no idea what theyre talking about*. My reasons for picking those two are completely subjective, which is what the op was looking for. If he wanted PFFs #1 RB I'm sure he could have looked it up.

*anyone can go be a data monkey for any site. Just apply.

[Water Buffalo]

Still Jamaal Charles.

I haven't posted here much in the past few years, but I had to comment when I saw Charles get brought up so soon in this thread because it makes me happy.

There's injury concern to be sure, but I still think Charles is an elite talent. Fat, slow CJA has put up a couple decent stat lines so far, but he looks incredibly mediocre out there to my eyes. I still think Charles is ABSOLUTELY the best RB on that team, and if he was capable of handling a workload similar to his past, I think he'd put up fantastic numbers. He's not THAT old, and he doesn't have that much wear on him for his age. Charles was one of my absolute favorite players of the past decade, and watching him run out there he still looks like the same guy to me. I've never seen a RB avoid tackles so seamlessly and effortlessly. The dude always dives forward for 5 yards, it's incredible.

[Reljac]

I answered the OP by giving gurley and shady. Im defending my opinion against statistics. I have no statistics to back it up because theyre mostly biased and done by either nerds or average joes who have no idea what theyre talking about*. My reasons for picking those two are completely subjective, which is what the op was looking for. If he wanted PFFs #1 RB I'm sure he could have looked it up.

*anyone can go be a data monkey for any site. Just apply.

agreed

[Water Buffalo]

Also, just to throw some more names out there of guys I think are supremely talented and could be expected to reasonably outperform their competition given equal circumstances:

David Johnson, Shady, Lynch as some of the top end guys. Sproles, Kamara, Jalen Richard, CMAC are some young guys and/or under utilized guys that I think could greatly outperform what people expect from them given the right opportunity (or, in Sproles case, already has).

That's just a short list off the top of my head and by no means comprehensive.

[AussieMate]

Wow, there is alot of "you don't like my player... I don't like yours then" hopefully we can bring this discussion back to it's original purpose.
I'll throw out a quick one ( might be missing a player or 2 that I'm not thinking of)
David Johnson
Leveon bell
Lesean McCoy
---
Zeke
Kareem hunt (I know only 2 games and not athletic but seems to just get the game)
Joe Mixon(I think he has more talent than most below him, just my feeling, could be very wrong)
Gordon
Gurley
Jay ajayi
Fournette
Henry
Ingram
Charles (would be near top a few years ago)
Caff
---
Alot will disagree and I'm probably forgetting something players. Almost had Zeke lower but I find it hard to workout how much is his talent and how much is o-line so I've left him up near the top)

[lukkynumber13]

I would like to see RBs ranked assuming everyone gets to run behind the Dallas Oline. I think guys like Bell and Zeke have been very fortunate to run behind such great talent.

For sure it would be awesome to see the Melly Gordons and the Fournettes and Lynch's behind an elite line. I do think Bell is an elite talent himself tho, he does amazing things even (and sometimes especially) when the defense is collapsing on him.

[lukkynumber13]

I looked at this thread title and immediately thought this would end up another Gurley thread.

This place is too predictable.

Honestly this post was born more out of my love for Ajayi's talent than anything else haha

[ColdZealDonkeyStrike]

I'm too lazy to rank them all, but Hyde would be pretty high on my list of talented RBs. I don't have him many places because I was avoiding the 49ers, but I've always thought he could be a superstar in a few other places.

[lukkynumber13]

I'm too lazy to rank them all, but Hyde would be pretty high on my list of talented RBs. I don't have him many places because I was avoiding the 49ers, but I've always thought he could be a superstar in a few other places.

Totally agree, I think he's very talented. On Oakland's offense, for instance, or as the main guy for the Pats, he could seriously run for 1500 and 15

[Valhalla]

Valhalla, when is the last Gurley game you studied?

Honestly, last year. And yeah I'm aware of how bad Fisher was and how bad he can make players look. Just check my long rambling post history, as I was ranting about Fisher (and Norv) for the last 3-4 years.
Maybe I need to be fair and give Gurley a fresh look.

[Valhalla]

I would like to see RBs ranked assuming everyone gets to run behind the Dallas Oline. I think guys like Bell and Zeke have been very fortunate to run behind such great talent.

For sure it would be awesome to see the Melly Gordons and the Fournettes and Lynch's behind an elite line. I do think Bell is an elite talent himself tho, he does amazing things even (and sometimes especially) when the defense is collapsing on him.

Agreed. Bell has benefited but he is a pretty stellar talent. Just like AB has benefited but he's a stellar talent. Maybe smart teams find a way to make best use of their elite talents...not jamming a rigid, minimally changing system down the throats of whatever talent the team currently has.

[operwapitsai]

Just based on talent alone

Gurley
Bell
DJ

Zeke
Leo

McCoy
Gordon
Freeman
Henry

kinda murky after this

[84Hammer]

Man, 3 pages in and no one has mentioned the right answers yet? Let me help yall out...

Jerrick McKinnon
Christine Michael
The Flash

DJ
Bell
Gordon
Gurley
Freeman

the rest

[Seventy5]

I don't think a lot of casual football viewers or 95% of fantasy footballers fully understand how much more 'talented' a great situation and opportunity can make a player LOOK. Sure, a Running Back looks good when he's nearly at full speed by the time he hits the LOS, goes 5 yards without being touched, and then only has to make the safety miss or lower his shoulder and run him over with 8 yards of steam. Fantasy owners also see their guy gaining 0.1 point every yard downfield the player goes and the emotions probably go something like 'There you go!...I knew he was good, I knew it!' which then gets them excited/happy with he player. The reality is, the o-line should be credited for creating a hole a jumbo freaking jet could have driven through and the safety who got trucked and will be on ESPN highlights the next three days was at a disadvantage because the RB had 6-8 yards of steam to build up and was just trying to make the tackle/stop. Conversely, Leonard Fournette had a highlight worthy run week 2...but it won't make highlight reels because it only resulted in a 3 yard gain. Not all yards are equal, and stat box scouts continually ignore this (even some fantasy football websites do as well, and you can clearly tell when the writer has actually watched the game or if he is just trying to make his article sound fancy with statistics to push content out there with numbers that are easy to digest for readers...most people don't have time to sit there and read through a Waldman style full breakdown of what is ACTUALLY happening on the field). Context - don't dismiss it.

Having said all that--off the top of my head while I drink my afternoon coffee--I'll go with:

LeVeon Bell
David Johnson
Leonard Fournette
LeSean McCoy
Todd Gurley
Jay Ajayi
Ezekiel Elliot
Joe Mixon
Dalvin Cook
Melvin Gordon

Hyde, McCaffery, Freeman, and possibly Montgomery are knocking on the door for me. I think guys like DeMarco are probably rated fairly (RB12-24 range) then I think these guys are probably underrated due to bad situations, injuries, competition for touches, etc:

Isaiah Crowell
Jamaal Charles
Doug Martin
Adrian Peterson (what would we be thinking of him if he were playing for Dallas right now and Zeek was suspended?)
Frank Gore
Giovani Bernard
Ryan Mathews

[lukkynumber13]

I don't think a lot of casual football viewers or 95% of fantasy footballers fully understand how much more 'talented' a great situation and opportunity can make a player LOOK. Sure, a Running Back looks good when he's nearly at full speed by the time he hits the LOS, goes 5 yards without being touched, and then only has to make the safety miss or lower his shoulder and run him over with 8 yards of steam. Fantasy owners also see their guy gaining 0.1 point every yard downfield the player goes and the emotions probably go something like 'There you go!...I knew he was good, I knew it!' which then gets them excited/happy with he player. The reality is, the o-line should be credited for creating a hole a jumbo freaking jet could have driven through and the safety who got trucked and will be on ESPN highlights the next three days was at a disadvantage because the RB had 6-8 yards of steam to build up and was just trying to make the tackle/stop. Conversely, Leonard Fournette had a highlight worthy run week 2...but it won't make highlight reels because it only resulted in a 3 yard gain. Not all yards are equal, and stat box scouts continually ignore this (even some fantasy football websites do as well, and you can clearly tell when the writer has actually watched the game or if he is just trying to make his article sound fancy with statistics to push content out there with numbers that are easy to digest for readers...most people don't have time to sit there and read through a Waldman style full breakdown of what is ACTUALLY happening on the field). Context - don't dismiss it.

Having said all that--off the top of my head while I drink my afternoon coffee--I'll go with:

LeVeon Bell
David Johnson
Leonard Fournette
LeSean McCoy
Todd Gurley
Jay Ajayi
Ezekiel Elliot
Joe Mixon
Dalvin Cook
Melvin Gordon

Hyde, McCaffery, Freeman, and possibly Montgomery are knocking on the door for me. I think guys like DeMarco are probably rated fairly (RB12-24 range) then I think these guys are probably underrated due to bad situations, injuries, competition for touches, etc:

Isaiah Crowell
Jamaal Charles
Doug Martin
Adrian Peterson (what would we be thinking of him if he were playing for Dallas right now and Zeek was suspended?)
Frank Gore
Giovani Bernard
Ryan Mathews

Surprised no Hyde, Lynch or Ingram