In the first installment of the 2026 Zero RB Candidates Countdown, Shawn Siegele presents the backup running backs with more talent than most NFL starters and helps you find the next Bucky Irving.
The Zero RB Candidates Countdown combines an evidence-based approach to player evaluation with a contingency-based approach to future workload, emphasizing chaos and depth chart quality to help find the next wave of breakout stars.
In 2014 Shawn explained the methodology he used from 2008 to 2013 to create outsized gains in high-stakes formats. Since then the list has become part of the site’s backbone.
The Zero RB list has been helping RotoViz writers and users to high finishes in Main Events and tournament championships in best ball. A quick look at past results, and you’ll understand why.
- Our 2015 Zero RB list included the No. 1 overall RB (Devonta Freeman).
- Our 2016 list featured a breakout star and RB5 in PPG (Melvin Gordon).
- Our 2017 list included RB3 Kareem Hunt and RB4 Alvin Kamara.
- Our 2018 list featured five of the top-10 backs in win rate, including James White (18.7%), Tarik Cohen (16.8%), and Chris Carson (11.8%)
- Our 2019 list featured the 313-point scoring Austin Ekeler and rookie breakout Miles Sanders.
- Our 2020 list featured the overall RB5 in James Robinson and rookie sensation Antonio Gibson.
- Our 2021 list featured James Conner (No. 4 overall in win rate), plus the two-highest scoring backs in the fantasy playoffs, Devin Singletary and Rashaad Penny.
- Our 2022 list featured Kenneth Walker, who was an anchor for BBM3’s $1 million regular season champion, Raheem Mostert, who appeared in BBM3’s $2 million-winning lineup, Jerick McKinnon, who finished as the RB4 during the fantasy playoffs, and a late-round 1,000-yard rookie in Tyler Allgeier.
- Our 2023 list featured Miami smashes Mostert, who led the RB position with 21 TDs, and rookie De’Von Achane, who averaged 7.8 yards per attempt and 17.5 PPG despite two appearances with a snap rate below 10%. The two Dolphins ranked third and fourth in win rate and were joined on the leaderboard by Jaylen Warren (201 points, 12% win), who crushed the rest of the position with a 30% evasion rate.
- Our 2024 list featured impact hits in Tyrone Tracy and Tyjae Spears (RB5 during the fantasy playoffs), and headlining stars like Chase Brown and Bucky Irving. The latter duo were poster boys for Zero-RB wins that go beyond merely covering a position. They returned the second- and eighth-best semifinal advance rates at the RB position, while ranking as the overall RB6 and RB7 respectively from Weeks 10 to 17.
- Our 2025 list featured a back who was poised to be a top-five smash as so many before him. Cam Skattebo averaged 19.5 PPG from Week 2 through Week 7 before his crushing Week 8 injury, possibly the most disappointing in-season result in the list’s history. Zach Charbonnet suffered his own injury late, creating questions about his 2026 availability, but before that, he finished as the RB6 during the fantasy semis and finals, ranking No. 10 in evasion rate and No. 13 in total RB wins-above-replacement for the season.
The monster breakouts in each of the last two seasons are especially important when you consider that new injury trends changed everything about the RB position across 2024 and 2025. If Zero-RB hits are harder to come by, the method by which we locate those stars must be robust enough that it continues to deliver across contexts.
Today we’ll start with the Nos. 15 to 11, and identify one fun trick to beat the system in Zero-RB evaluation.
