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Where do NFL experts rank the Washington Commanders' running back room? The answer may or may not surprise you. Kevin Sheehan looks at a ranking of position groups for all 32 NFL teams and discusses the Commanders’ ranks for their running back room and if the lack of high end talent will be a problem during the season.
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00:00So, Warren Sharp from Sharp Football Analysis.
00:02We've had Warren on the show several times in the past.
00:05He's got his position unit rankings out.
00:12Quarterbacks, wide receiver, tight ends, running backs, O-line, front seven, secondary, and head coach.
00:18So, he's got seven different areas of NFL units.
00:24The front seven is obviously D-line and linebackers combined.
00:28Then he's got the secondary, he's got the head coach.
00:31Offensively, quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends as one group.
00:35Running backs as one group. O-line as one group.
00:39I'm going to take you through some of this, and maybe we'll save some of it for tomorrow as well.
00:47But if Warren Sharp's positional unit rankings for Washington are any indication of what kind of season Washington's going to
00:56have,
00:57it's going to be a long year because the highest ranked unit is quarterbacks.
01:05And it's the quarterback room in combination.
01:08And it's only ranked 14th.
01:11Everything else is much below 14th.
01:14And I'll start with the position group that's ranked last in the NFL.
01:21Last in the NFL are Washington's running backs.
01:27Warren Sharp writes,
01:29Washington's running backs ranked dead last at 32nd this year.
01:34By the way, this is for the upcoming season only.
01:37Does not consider beyond this upcoming season and does not consider anything previous to this upcoming season.
01:45This is a projection of where Washington's running backs will rank in the NFL this year.
01:52He's got them at 32nd.
01:55Washington's running backs ranked dead last at 32nd this year.
02:00Ja'Cory Krosky-Meritt finished as the team's leading rusher in 2025.
02:05But he'll split time with Rashad White, who was signed in free agency.
02:10White adds a receiving threat in the backfield that Washington did not have last year.
02:14He has over 200 total receptions in his four years in the NFL.
02:19That's all he writes.
02:20Ranked 32nd.
02:21Now, there were several people that voted on these rankings.
02:28Several NFL insiders that voted part of his staff.
02:34Washington's running backs ranked last in the NFL.
02:37This was, for me, like before I opened it up, I was trying to guess where they would be.
02:42I did not guess 32nd.
02:43I definitely thought, well, it's going to be in the bottom third of the league.
02:49And it was.
02:50But I was also trying to guess who number one would be.
02:54And I immediately thought of the back that I think is the best back in the NFL.
02:58And that's B. John Robinson in Atlanta.
03:01I think he's the best running back in the NFL.
03:03I think his near 2,300 all-purpose yards reflect that.
03:09I think he's got a style that's totally unique.
03:12I think he's a devastating offensive playmaker.
03:17But they lost Tyler Algier.
03:19Tyler Algier signed in Arizona.
03:22So, the running back room, I was like, Atlanta might be number one.
03:26But they also might have fallen without Algier back there.
03:29Because it's the entire running back room.
03:31No, Atlanta was ranked number one.
03:33Number one overall.
03:34With, by the way, do you know who B. John Robinson's backup in Atlanta is, Max?
03:40Don't look it up.
03:41No, I do know.
03:43I do know who it is.
03:43You do know?
03:44Yes.
03:44Okay, so go ahead.
03:46Tell me.
03:46Brian Robinson.
03:47Brian Robinson.
03:48They've got two B. Robs in the backfield.
03:51B. John Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr.
03:55Brian Robinson Jr. is nowhere near as good as Tyler Algier.
03:58Tyler Algier is a legit number one back.
04:01A legit number one back.
04:03Now, you know, he goes to Arizona where they just drafted Jeremiah Love.
04:12That was unfortunate for him.
04:14And I think they still have James Conner back there.
04:16But he writes about the Falcons.
04:18Running back is the clear standout for the Falcons.
04:21Ranking first overall.
04:22B. John Robinson delivered a monster 2025 campaign.
04:26Topping 1,400 rushing yards for the second consecutive season.
04:29And leading the NFL with nearly 2,300 yards from scrimmage.
04:34The Falcons also added Brian Robinson Jr.
04:37To be B. John's backup after he spent 2025 in San Francisco.
04:43Do you have the list in front of you?
04:46Sharps list?
04:47Yeah.
04:48Not presently.
04:49Okay.
04:50Because I thought that the top – I thought there were three teams for me
04:55that I immediately thought of.
04:56Atlanta, Philadelphia with Saquon, and Detroit with Jameer Gibbs.
05:02Those were the three teams I thought of immediately.
05:06Detroit is number two with Jameer Gibbs.
05:09Now, remember, they traded David Montgomery.
05:12He's gone.
05:13But Isaiah Pacheco is in Detroit.
05:15I actually didn't know that.
05:16Completely forgot about that until yesterday when Brian and I were looking at it.
05:19I said the exact same thing.
05:21I forgot he was there.
05:21Number three was Buffalo with James Cook.
05:25And they've got Ty Johnson, who does a really good job.
05:28Ray Davis as well.
05:30But Cook really did take his game to another level last year.
05:35Indy is fourth with Jonathan Taylor and that kid that they drafted a couple of years ago
05:41from K-State, DJ Giddens.
05:44And then five is Philly with Saquon Barkley.
05:48Uh, got Tank Bigsby in that backfield, uh, as well, um, as, uh, the big boy from Clemson,
05:56whose name is escaping me right now, that they drafted a few, uh, Shipley, Shipley.
06:01So those were the top five running back rooms in the NFL.
06:06Um, and Washington was 32nd.
06:10I mean, I, I don't know.
06:13Of course, this is all opinion.
06:15I don't know how you could, you know, elevate it much higher than, you know, the, the high
06:20twenties.
06:21I mean, is Carolina's back?
06:24Yeah.
06:24Carolina's backfield is better.
06:26Um, Minnesota's 28 with Aaron Jones back.
06:31Houston's got Montgomery.
06:32Montgomery, they added him, um, yeah.
06:36I'm really curious as to how we'll score based on average ranks and positional unit for all
06:4232 teams from sharp football staff voters.
06:44If all voters have won, that score would be 100.
06:47Washington scored a five.
06:50Yeah.
06:52Atlanta has a 98.
06:54Yep.
06:56Do you want to know how the voting works?
06:59A little.
07:00Yeah.
07:01Cause I'm, it's just very, a five, Kevin.
07:05They're not five.
07:06Isn't.
07:07Well, I don't, I, I, he, I've got to go back and find specifically how this, I guess all
07:13most, a majority of the voters had Washington, uh, below, uh, how many, how many voters are
07:19there and what, what are they voting on the top?
07:22I think they're just, they're doing a ranking.
07:24They all do the rankings.
07:26Yeah.
07:26And then they aggregate score based on average ranks of positional unit on a hundred point
07:31scale for 32 teams from sharp football staff voters.
07:34If all voters had a team at number one, that score would be a hundred.
07:38So 98, um, you know, means that essentially, uh, everybody, but a couple of people had the
07:46Falcons as the number one running back room in the NFL.
07:52You know, we, we get so hung up on wide receiver really, you know, offensively.
07:57Let me, let's just talk about the, the, the issue here.
07:59The issue is that as of now, I don't think any of us are overly confident about what Adam
08:07Peters and company have put around Jaden Daniels offensively.
08:11It looks like 2024 doesn't look that different from 2024, but it is a little bit different
08:18from 2024.
08:19Number one is that Terry McLaurin's two years older, you know, and coming off a season in
08:26which he was injured and wasn't great.
08:29Wasn't his fault.
08:30He didn't have a starting quarterback for more than what it was two games that he played
08:34with Jaden Daniels last year out of 17, but it's not 2024.
08:38He's a little bit older.
08:40So a little bit of a question mark there.
08:42I would actually say, I don't question that Terry McLaurin is going to come back and have
08:48a big bounce back year.
08:50He is the, the most professional wide receiver since Art Monk in terms of, you know, the best
08:58wide receivers in franchise history.
08:59He's a pro he'll be in shape.
09:02He'll be motivated by the way.
09:04This is for all intents and purposes is a contract year for him.
09:07So, you know, last year, late start, disappointed, got hurt.
09:13The whole team got hurt.
09:14I expect him to bounce, to bounce back.
09:17But for those that just say, well, look in 24, they were top three, top four offense with
09:23essentially the same type of personnel.
09:25It's not true.
09:26It's somewhat similar because some of the names are familiar.
09:31Terry McLaurin, Deami Brown, Luke McCaffrey.
09:35All right.
09:36But Terry's two years older.
09:39You have, you don't have an Austin Eckler.
09:42And I know Eckler was hurt a lot in 24, but Eckler made them much more dynamic when he was
09:48out there versus when he was not.
09:51Uh, maybe Krosky Merritt takes that, that jump.
09:55I think there's a lot of potential there.
09:57I'm not, you know, I'm not against Krosky Merritt developing into, I mean, I believe there's
10:04a chance he could develop into a really good running back in a zone run scheme.
10:11I also think Rashad White, and I've said this since they acquired him, and I know that some
10:15of you have pushed back on me.
10:16I think they've got real plans for Rashad White.
10:19I think they acquired him because A, I think Rashad White's in a, in a zone scheme in what
10:24they'll be running.
10:25I think he's a good between the tackles, cut back kind of vision runner, not explosive,
10:32but a good vision runner.
10:33He's a good pass blocker, reliable as a veteran pass blocker.
10:38And he's a good, he's a good pass catcher out of the backfield.
10:42Now, you know, if you go back to 2024 and we're talking about, you know, what they had,
10:48you know, mid season 2024, uh, you know, it was Eckler, but when he was out, it was B
10:55Rob and McNichols.
10:57Am I missing somebody from 24?
10:59I mean, Rodriguez later in the year, but not, not that.
11:03I mean, Noah Brown's not on their team, but Noah Brown, Noah Brown actually was a,
11:07a favorite, but could that be a, a Burks?
11:11Could that be a Van Jefferson?
11:13You know, could this be the step up year for McCaffrey?
11:16I'll tell you this.
11:17I'm a big Chigakonquo fan, but he's not as big.
11:20He's not exactly the same type of player that Zach Ertz is.
11:24So they don't have a supporting cast on paper that looks great.
11:31They don't, but they do have the most important position on offense, the quarterback, but to
11:38keep the quarterback upright and healthy, you'd like some people on the field that can
11:46be explosive.
11:46You know, Jay Gruden said this to me on the show yesterday.
11:50He said that, you know, explosive plays, this is one of those things that coaches have always
11:57had in their mind, but it really didn't start getting tracked until about 15 years ago and
12:02really become important, like important in the way that, you know, turnover margin, third
12:10down percentage, uh, you know, time of possession.
12:14I mean, I would say in order, turnover margins, probably the number one statistic that will
12:21tell you more about the outcome of a game than anything else.
12:26Uh, and then you get into third down percentages, you know, third down stops, third down makes
12:32very important, but over the last 15 years at all levels of football, it's been about explosive
12:38plays generated and explosive plays allowed.
12:43It's hard as Jay said to go 80 yards on 15 plays as your primary way of scoring.
12:52You've got to have someone or more than one that can just score from anywhere on the field.
12:59You know, when Quinn, uh, when I had Quinn on before the draft, whenever it was, uh, and
13:07we were talking about the previous year, he, and, and what they'd be looking for after last
13:12year, obviously good health was number one, but he said, you know, we need to rush the
13:16passer and we need players who can score from anywhere on the field.
13:22So they've gotten a lot of players that can rush the passer.
13:26They don't have as many players, at least based on what they did in the off season that can
13:32score from anywhere on the field.
13:35Not that we know of.
13:37I mean, Krosky Merritt could end up becoming somebody like that.
13:42Uh, Chigakonkwo is probably not that, but Akonkwo is explosive.
13:47Um, but not, you know, Trey McBride, the top tight ends in the league explosive.
13:54But I do, I do think Chigakonkwo, Jay disagrees.
13:57He's the expert, but I have a feeling in an offense with a real quarterback, he hasn't
14:02played with one.
14:03I think his best days in his most productive days are definitely ahead of him.
14:09Um, Antonio Williams, you know, is he a guy that's going to be able to score from anywhere
14:13on the field?
14:14I don't know.
14:15Um, Terry's been that, but not at the, at the elite levels.
14:20All due respect, uh, Deami, you know, has shown the ability to be, to be able to score
14:25from almost anywhere on the field, whether it's a deep shot or whether it's, you know,
14:29on a line of scrimmage throw.
14:31But this is not a bash Adam Peters segment because he tried, you know, they did try.
14:38They tried to sign Alec Pierce.
14:40They tried to sign Romeo Dobbs.
14:43Um, there was going to be some interest in Brandon Ayuk before the last few weeks.
14:51I, Stefan Diggs is not necessarily the player that's going to score from anywhere on the
14:56field.
14:56Like he used to be.
14:57I still think that they should pursue Stefan Diggs because I still think relative, you
15:02know, compared to what they have currently Diggs would be the guy that would be on the
15:08field with Terry and with Chig and would be a top three targeted guy in 2026.
15:16It'd probably be Terry one, Chig two, Stefan three, something like that.
15:22It might be, who knows, might be Stefan one, Terry two, Chig three.
15:28You got to get somebody that's a reliable route runner, a guy that's fearless, you know,
15:34in the, in the middle of the field, a guy that can, you know, you'd prefer a guy that
15:38can still scare defenses vertically.
15:40I don't know if Diggs is that anymore.
15:43Ayuk would be if he were the player that he was in 23, but, um, yeah, I mean, you look
15:51at their roster and I can see why people look at Washington and say they just needed to put
15:58a little bit more around Jaden Daniels with that said, I'll go back to what Adam Peters said
16:07in his, you know, season ending press conference.
16:10When he said, if we want to help Jaden, we can also help him by getting better defensively.
16:18If we want to help the offense, we got to get better defensively.
16:22And that's an area in which they did appear to deliver.
16:27We'll see how it all comes together.
16:29It's the NFL.
16:29You never know, but they're going to have six new starters on the field defensively.
16:35They're going to have a new defensive coordinator.
16:37They're probably going to have eight new players on the field that didn't play for the team
16:44last year.
16:45That will be meaningful contributors defensively.
16:51And that will help the offense because we can go back to 24 and we can say it looks like
16:5724, but there are some things that aren't the same.
17:01Terry's two years older.
17:02There's no Austin Eckler.
17:04There's no, you know, bigger guy, Noah Brown.
17:07Look, Traylon Brooks may be the big answer.
17:11The big possession answer.
17:13Deami Brown may come back chemistry with Jaden and be a guy that can really perhaps put a
17:19scare into defenses.
17:21Maybe that's Jalen Lane.
17:23I don't think it's going to be Jalen Lane.
17:25I think Jalen Lane in year two is going to be still the punt returner and a good one,
17:30a really good one.
17:31Um, but, um, but we're, so if it's not the same as 24, it's also not the same as 24
17:41on defense.
17:43And so, yeah, you may not be, you know, I think offensively they can still be successful
17:50because they've got the quarterback.
17:51I do.
17:52And they do have Terry and they do have Chig and who knows another guy that could step up.
17:59I mean, there, there are a lot of guesses, but defensively they sucked in 2024 and they
18:06have a chance to be improved from where they were the last time they were good.
18:11And that will help out the offense as much as anything else.
18:15What's interesting about, as I'm talking through this, it's like, if you had given me the choice
18:20before this off season of not having a great supporting cast around Jaden, not, you know,
18:27ultimately not being able to land on enough help for Jaden on offense.
18:33If you chose between that and being much better on defense or vice versa, give them lots of
18:42playmakers on offense, but you don't get better on defense.
18:44I would have chosen get better on defense.
18:47So where they are is preferable for me, even though I would have liked for them to have
18:53upgraded significantly on both sides of the ball.
18:57But I do think it's more important for the team's success in 2026 that they be able to
19:06stop people, which is something they couldn't do last year and they couldn't do the year
19:11before. And I don't know what it's going to look like when we see it, but it's not going
19:16to be the same as last year in terms of the personnel or the play caller.
19:21So there is hope that defensively they could take a big jump.
19:27Defense, as we've talked about year after year, is variable to begin with.
19:32There's lots of variance between one year and the next.
19:36Sometimes there's no explanation for it, but one thing is true.
19:41We knew they had to get better and better meant younger and faster and better at tackling
19:47and better at communicating.
19:50And they've addressed all of those things.
19:52No guarantees because it's the NFL and there's a chemistry and we got a new new defensive
19:58coordinator.
19:59I mean, doesn't mean he's going to be better than the old one.
20:02And if he isn't, that's going to be on Quinn.
20:04And that's the thing that he's really out on a limb on, hiring a first-time D coordinator
20:10again.
20:11But if you gave me the choice, I would have said, yeah, give me this.
20:16Give me a chance to actually stop people, force punts, get turnovers, create short fields.
20:26And I know this is asking for a lot after the last two years, but score once or twice.
20:36Yeah.
20:37Last ranked running back room in the NFL.
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