Identifying Kansas City's No. 2 running back could be valuable. It's possible Kenneth Walker won't be a full-time back, and also possible he deals with injuries. The candidates, though, are modest.
There's Emari Demercado, the former Cardinal who was originally undrafted and never made much of an impact in Arizona. And there's a couple of Kansas City's own late-round picks the last two years, seventh-rounder Brashard Smith and this year's fifth-rounder Emmett Johnson (pictured).
Smith was serviceable as a passing-downs back a year ago and has been in the offense, so maybe, but he also averaged just 3.4 yards per attempt as a runner. Demercado averages 6.5 yards per attempt for his career, but he couldn't hang onto a sizable role a year ago even with the Cardinals losing their top 2 backs to injury early on.
Johnson was a three-down back at Nebraska last year and has the advantage of not being shown to be flawed at the NFL level yet. If you're throwing a late-round pick at a youngster looking for unknown upside, he's my current favorite of the three. But the track record for later-round running backs in their rookie seasons is pretty modest.
In the last 10 years, there have been 106 running backs selected in the last three rounds of the draft (5th through 7th). It's a tough area from which to make a rookie impact.
There's been just a single top-25 performer in the last decade: Jordan Howard. Just six of those backs have finished in the top 35 at the position in PPR leagues. And just 20 out of 106 have even snuck into the top 70. So somewhere between 5-10 percent of those selections the last decade have been actually useful in fantasy leagues. Those are the odds working against Johnson.
That being said, two of the better late-rounders were selected a year ago: Kyle Monangai and Jacory Croskey-Merritt. And another of the better ones was drafted four years ago by Kansas City (Isiah Pacheco). Looked at in those terms, it's reasonable to put the odds of Johnson (or another late-rounder, say Nicholas Singleton in Tennessee or Kaytron Allen in Washington) making an impact a little bit higher.
Table shows running backs drafted in the fifth through seventh rounds the last 10 years who put up top-70 numbers as rookies, sorted by rank. The 2025 guys who made the list are in bold.
| LATE-ROUND ROOKIE RBS IN THE TOP 70, 2016-2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Run | No | Rec | TD | Rk |
| 2016 | Jordan Howard, Chi. | 1313 | 29 | 298 | 7 | 10 |
| 2024 | Tyrone Tracy, NYG | 839 | 38 | 284 | 6 | 26 |
| 2021 | Elijah Mitchell, S.F. | 963 | 19 | 137 | 6 | 26 |
| 2022 | Tyler Allgeier, Atl. | 1035 | 16 | 139 | 4 | 30 |
| 2025 | Kyle Monangai, Chi. | 783 | 18 | 164 | 5 | 31 |
| 2025 | Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Was. | 805 | 9 | 68 | 8 | 32 |
| 2022 | Isiah Pacheco, K.C. | 830 | 13 | 130 | 5 | 37 |
| 2021 | Kenneth Gainwell, Phil. | 291 | 33 | 253 | 6 | 40 |
| 2016 | DeAndre Washington, Oak. | 467 | 17 | 115 | 2 | 56 |
| 2018 | Jaylen Samuels, Pitt. | 256 | 26 | 199 | 3 | 58 |
| 2016 | Paul Perkins, NYG | 456 | 15 | 162 | 0 | 60 |
| 2025 | Brashard Smith, K.C. | 151 | 25 | 172 | 1 | 62 |
| 2017 | Elijah McGuire, NYJ | 315 | 17 | 177 | 2 | 62 |
| 2023 | Chase Brown, Cin. | 179 | 14 | 156 | 1 | 63 |
| 2021 | Khalil Herbert, Chi. | 433 | 14 | 96 | 2 | 63 |
| 2017 | Aaron Jones, G.B. | 448 | 9 | 22 | 4 | 63 |
| 2025 | Devin Neal, N.O. | 206 | 17 | 104 | 2 | 65 |
| 2019 | Ty Johnson, Det. | 273 | 24 | 109 | 0 | 66 |
| 2025 | Ollie Gordon, Mia. | 199 | 7 | 32 | 4 | 68 |
| 2024 | Audric Estime, Den. | 310 | 5 | 27 | 2 | 68 |
The odds have actually been a little better for running backs not drafted at all. In the last decade, two undrafted rookie running backs have finished in the top 20 at the position: James Robinson in Jacksonville (2020) and Phillip Lindsay in Denver (2018).
I'm willing to use a late-round pick on Johnson (also Allen in Washington, who need only push aside another late-rounder, Croskey-Merritt, to have a sizable role), but best to keep expectations in check.
--Andy Richardson
