Best Running Backs Available For Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft: Fantasy Gold Still On The Board

One day left of the NFL Draft!

This is notoriously a big one for fantasy football as there is still plenty of talent on the board and a lot of skill players are expected to go off. Running backs are no exception, which is why we are rounding up the best RB available in the NFL Draft heading into the final day. Below you will see a table of their rank of all RBs remaining, their big board ranking, and which school they attended. These rankings are derived directly from our NFL Draft big board.

For the full list, look at our best players available for Day 2 of the draft.

Top RBs Available in the NFL Draft Headed Into Tonight

Rank	Players	School
36	Mike Washington	Arkansas
69	Jonah Coleman	Washington
74	Emmett Johnson	Nebraska
89	Nick Singleton	Penn State
108	Kaytron Allen	Penn State
122	Demond Claiborne	Wake Forest
129	Eli Heidenreich	Navy
165	Adam Randall	Clemson
166	Seth McGowan	Kentucky
167	J'Mari Taylor	Virginia
196	Le'Veon Moss	Texas A&M
197	Robert Henry	UTSA
199	Jaydn Ott	Oklahoma
200	Jam Miller	Alabama
215	Roman Hemby	Indiana
223	Desmond Reid	Pittsburgh

Three Running Backs To Watch: Expected To Come Off The Board Early

Three running backs to take a look at ahead of tonight's draft that will be important for you to know for fantasy purposes are Mike Washington Jr, Jonah Coleman, and Emmett Johnson. Below are excerpts from Gene Clemons, who broke down each back a month ago.

Mike Washington Jr, Arkansas

Washington took the long road, three years in a committee at Buffalo, a pit stop at New Mexico State (725 yards, 8 TDs), then a final-year leap to Arkansas where he absolutely ate in the SEC: 1,070 yards and 8 TDs on just 167 carries. That's 6.4 YPC against the best defenses in college football. This isn't MAC-inflated production anymore, the dude is legit.

What separates him? The motor. He's a big back who runs with the same intensity every snap, and that grinds defenses down in a hurry. Washington doesn't wait for contact or read and react, he's the aggressor. Think Smoking Joe Frazier, leading with the hook every rep. When you've earned your way from the MAC to the SEC, every carry probably does feel like you've got something to prove.

The 2026 wrinkle: he flashed real pass-catching chops at Arkansas (28 catches, 226 yards, 1 TD). If he keeps sharpening the receiving game through the pre-draft circuit, that's the thing that takes his NFL ceiling from "useful" to something more.

For more on the analytical side, take a look at our Mike Washington scouting report, from Dwain McFarland.

Jonah Coleman, Washington

Don't let the 5-foot-9 listing fool you. Coleman is a tightly wound ball of explosives in a running back's body, and he detonates on contact. Arm tackles? Forget it. He runs through defenders like a bowling ball through pins, and in an NFL that's running out of true power backs, that archetype is very much in demand. This dude has every-down battering ram written all over him.

The contact balance is the real separator. Built like a fire hydrant on wide-profile wheels, Coleman has spent two seasons bouncing off would-be tacklers and still falling forward. Mediocre QB play meant he saw loaded boxes all year with defenses keying on him alone, and he just kept ricocheting through traffic. Against Ohio State, even in a 24-6 loss, he ripped off 13 carries for 70 yards. Illinois? Same story. Colorado State? He was straight-up trucking dudes like a Tecmo Bowl character, finishing with 149 of his 177 yards after contact.

BYOB. Bring. Your. Own. Block. Coleman has done that plenty this year, but here's the thing that makes him more than just a bruiser: he's patient. He sets up blocks, burrows through the lane, and has a real feel for the cutback. In the LA Bowl against Boise State, he was running inside zone right, saw the C-gap defender duck inside the block, bounced it outside, and took it to the house. That's vision.

The one thing to monitor: top-end speed. Coleman has solid short-area burst, but he's not breaking away from NFL DBs anytime soon. He's more of a singles and doubles guy than a home run hitter, which honestly works for what he is. He stays above the line of scrimmage, he keeps the offense on schedule, and he makes defenses earn every tackle. You can absolutely win with that.

Dwain McFarland broke down more with his Jonah Coleman scouting report, diving deeper into the numbers.

Emmett Johnson, Nebraska

Johnson didn't take a step forward in 2025. He took a full-on leap. His 251 carries more than doubled his 2024 workload, and his 1,451 rushing yards were nearly 2.5 times his total from the year before. Oh, and the yards per carry? Went UP, from 5.1 to 5.8. That's the profile of a back who wins with vision, explosiveness and competitive juice, and he's got all three in spades. The cherry on top: Big Ten rushing leader AND Big Ten Running Back of the Year, beating out a handful of guys who will hear their names called in this draft.

He's a zone scheme wizard, and the numbers tell you why. Johnson isn't going to make guys miss in a phone booth, but he's a master at picking up chunks. He positions his body to avoid the clean hit, keeps his feet churning through contact, and is always, always falling forward. That's the stuff coaches love. That's the stuff that extends drives.

Johnson is not just a grinder between the tackles either. His UCLA game this season was a full-on showcase: 129 yards and a score on the ground, plus three catches for 103 yards and two more touchdowns in the passing game. The headliner was a 56-yard screen where he plucked it out of the air, turned to set up his blockers, stiff-armed a defender while keeping his feet in bounds, and took off for the end zone. That is an all-around back. Teams are going to love what he can bring to an offense on all three downs.

Want to learn more about Johnson? Dwain McFarland breaks it down in his Emmett Johnson scouting report as he dives into the Rookie Super Model.