In my post yesterday about Quinshon Judkins, a reader asked how common it is that running backs on bad teams with bad quarterbacks finish with top numbers. I decided to look into it further, since it also applies to guys like Breece Hall (pictured).
Using the search tools at pro-football-reference.com, I looked at running backs from the last 10 years who averaged over 15 points per week in PPR leagues while playing in a minimum of 12 games, on teams that finished 6-11 or worse. (Or 6-10, for the 16-game seasons in the past decade.)
Quarterbacks aren't listed ("bad" is subjective), but looking at the teams and years we can pretty much see the caliber of quarterbacks we're talking about. Chargers running backs show up a couple of times and they've usually had capable quarterbacks; the Lions show up once. But the vast majority of these losing teams had lesser quarterbacks: Browns, Raiders, Cardinals, Giants, Jets, Panthers, Bears, Saints.
In the last 10 years, we've got 23 running backs who played on lousy teams and averaged over 15 points per week in PPR leagues (while starting most of the season). Most -- not all -- had poor quarterbacks. But let's call it two running backs per season who fit the profile of excelling despite a bad situation.
| RBS AVERAGING 15+ PPR PTS ON BAD TEAMS, 2016-2025 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | W-L | G | Run | Rec | TD | PPR/G |
| 2025 | Chase Brown, Cin. | 6-11 | 17 | 1019 | 437 | 11 | 16.6 |
| 2024 | Chuba Hubbard, Car. | 5-12 | 15 | 1195 | 171 | 11 | 16.1 |
| 2024 | Alvin Kamara, N.O. | 5-12 | 14 | 950 | 543 | 8 | 19.0 |
| 2024 | Breece Hall, NYJ | 5-12 | 16 | 876 | 483 | 8 | 15.1 |
| 2023 | James Conner, Ari. | 4-13 | 13 | 1040 | 165 | 9 | 15.5 |
| 2023 | Saquon Barkley, NYG | 6-11 | 14 | 962 | 280 | 10 | 15.9 |
| 2022 | James Conner, Ari. | 4-13 | 13 | 782 | 300 | 8 | 15.4 |
| 2022 | Josh Jacobs, L.V. | 6-11 | 17 | 1653 | 400 | 12 | 19.3 |
| 2021 | David Montgomery, Chi. | 6-11 | 13 | 849 | 301 | 7 | 15.0 |
| 2021 | D'Andre Swift, Det. | 3-13-1 | 13 | 617 | 452 | 7 | 16.1 |
| 2020 | James Robinson, Jac. | 1-15 | 14 | 1070 | 344 | 10 | 17.9 |
| 2019 | Kenyan Drake, Ari.-Mia. | 5-11 | 14 | 817 | 345 | 8 | 15.3 |
| 2019 | Christian McCaffrey, Car. | 5-11 | 16 | 1387 | 1005 | 19 | 29.5 |
| 2019 | Nick Chubb, Cle. | 6-10 | 16 | 1494 | 278 | 8 | 16.0 |
| 2019 | Leonard Fournette, Jac. | 6-10 | 15 | 1152 | 522 | 3 | 17.3 |
| 2019 | Austin Ekeler, LAC | 5-11 | 16 | 557 | 993 | 11 | 19.3 |
| 2019 | Melvin Gordon, LAC | 5-11 | 12 | 612 | 296 | 9 | 15.1 |
| 2019 | Saquon Barkley, NYG | 4-12 | 13 | 1003 | 438 | 8 | 18.8 |
| 2018 | David Johnson, Ari. | 3-13 | 16 | 940 | 446 | 10 | 15.4 |
| 2018 | Joe Mixon, Cin. | 6-10 | 14 | 1168 | 296 | 9 | 17.4 |
| 2018 | Saquon Barkley, NYG | 5-11 | 16 | 1307 | 721 | 15 | 24.1 |
| 2016 | Jordan Howard, Chi. | 3-13 | 15 | 1313 | 298 | 7 | 15.3 |
| 2016 | Melvin Gordon, S.D. | 5-11 | 13 | 997 | 419 | 12 | 19.3 |
As I suspected in my comment yesterday, about half of these backs were big factors as receivers -- 400-plus yards in that area. Judkins won't be doing that. But the other half put up modest receiving numbers, but still fared well in fantasy. There were six 1000-yard rushers from those lesser receivers, and nine that managed to score 8-plus touchdowns.
In general, nice when running backs have more going well around them, but I think we'll generally get a couple of guys per year who excel in fantasy leagues despite not getting a lot of support, either with great quarterbacking or team wins (which is probably what Judkins, Hall and others will be working to overcome this season).
--Andy Richardson
