• Chase Brown thrives in the Joe Mixon role: Brown’s ADP created a significant return on investment after taking over the lead-back role in Cincinnati.
• Travis Etienne was arguably the biggest non-injury-related bust for the position: Drafted as a top-10 PPR running back, Etienne couldn’t deliver a single weekly finish among the top-20 PPR scorers at the position.
• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF's best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025's top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
Every NFL season is full of surprises, both good and bad, and 2024 was no exception. Plenty of fantasy assets emerged seemingly out of nowhere to become quality starting options, and others let us down, either due to injury, poor play and inefficiency or getting benched. In this article, we’ll look at some of the pleasant surprises and surprise disappointments at running back from 2024, leaving out players who missed significant chunks of time due to injury.
NOTE: Fantasy points/rankings are from Weeks 1-17
Pleasant surprise: Chase Brown, Cincinnati Bengals
- Finish: RB10
- ADP: RB40
Brown taking over the Joe Mixon role in the Bengals offense was always a possibility this offseason, and that is why he made his way into players to target at their ADP back in early August. Considering that ADP and where he finished the year, he should still qualify as a pleasant surprise from 2024.
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