There were no running backs drafted in the first round of the 2024 draft and only one drafted in the second round, Jonathan Brooks by the Panthers with the 46th pick.
Then Saquon Barkley rampaged for 2,000 yards and a Super Bowl championship, and Derrick Henry helped him carry the banner for the Devalued Running Back, and NFL teams remembered in April that running backs were people, too. Two were drafted in the first round, two more in the first six picks of the second round, and another later in the second.
“I kind of predicted this rebirth of the running back,” Tiki Barber, former Giants RB and co-host of “Evan and Tiki” on WFAN, told The Post, “only because teams are so terrified of giving up big plays because they’re playing with two safeties. You heard that all last year, these two-deep safeties, you’re seeing more zone, it just makes it easier to run the football. So if you have a dynamic runner, it’s just so much easier. If you find that guy, it can change your offense very quickly.”
Serby Says picked the brains of an expert panel — Barber, Brian Baldinger, Emory Hunt Jr. and Greg Cosell — for their astute evaluations of the Rookie RB Class of 2025:
