RB Committee? You’re Kidding Me! – RB Timeshares After Week 2

There’s no worse situation than a running back committee in fantasy football. They put us in an impossible position where we have to guess between two players who both have fewer opportunities, thanks to the other eating into it. It’s the worst. It happens every season. All we want to do is pull our hair out when we draft a player who should have the reins, only to see them splitting time with the alleged backup.

To avoid potential pitfalls, it’s important to monitor any emerging trends, whether they are positive or negative. These let us take a more educated guess at who is the more reliable back. Of course, there are times when a backfield is just a mess. It’s time to recap and review some crowded backfields in this new series, in hopes of gaining more clarity in these RB committees.

(Snap counts provided by PFF)

Running Back Time Shares to Monitor After Two Weeks

Houston Texans: We Miss Joe Mixon A Ton

The vibes surrounding the Houston run game were in shambles even before the first snap of the season. Joe Mixon, last year’s lead back, missed time throughout training camp with some mystery foot injury that the coaching staff kept incredibly hush-hush. It wasn’t until a vague social media post that we learned Mixon would be heading onto the PUP. With Mixon gone, it was up to rookie Woody Marks, the ghost of Nick Chubb, and special teams ace Dare Ogunbowale to pick up the slack.

That left us fantasy managers in quite a pickle. Who, if anyone, will succeed behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league?

As it turns out, Chubb was the clear leader in this backfield. Not a wild surprise, seeing as Chubb is the most reliable of the options available. Chubb was on the field for 51% of the snaps, nearly doubling Ogunbowale’s snap percentage. Marks was barely involved in his NFL debut. It was rather disappointing to see Marks not receive a single target, seeing as it was one of his main skills coming out of school.

In Week 2, we saw a little bit more of a split between the backs. The key point of intrigue is the increase in snaps for the rookie. Marks went from 7 to 13 snaps between Week 1 and Week 2. In his lone target, Marks hauled in a 37-yard strike from C.J. Stroud.

Chubb is still the lead back in this RB room, but we, as fantasy managers, need to track the usage of Woody Marks moving forward. If we continue to see a slow and steady increase in snaps, Marks could be a second-half contributor for fantasy rosters.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Warren is Finally in Charge

For the past three seasons, it’s felt like we’ve all been waiting for the Jaylen Warren breakout. He’s been trapped in a timeshare with Najee Harris all this time, and we’ve never seen what he can do with a full workload. Warren now finally has a chance to showcase talent with Najee Harris out of the building. All he needs to do is beat out third-round rookie Kaleb Johnson.

And apparently, Kenneth Gainwell?

Gainwell, inexplicably, had led all Steelers’ backs in snaps in Week 1 (29 to Warren’s 25). Warren led the backfield in carries while Gainwell led the group in targets. Meanwhile, Johnson was barely used on the offensive side of the ball. Arthur Smith has created another mess.

In Week 2 however, the roles reversed a bit. Gainwell took a back seat to Warren in terms of snaps, but still outpaced him in receiving targets. Warren does appear to be the clear frontrunner of the group after racking up 18 opportunities against the Seahawks. For the first time in fantasy, it looks like Warren will be the major player on this offense at the RB position.

Kaleb Johnson is, unfortunately, buried on this depth chart. A crucial special teams blunder cemented his spot on the bench.

Seattle Seahawks: A True, Headache-Inducing Timeshare

Well, here we go. Last year, the Charbonnet/Walker tandem was a pairing that had a very predictable playbook. Kenneth Walker was the true starter when healthy. Zach Charbonnet was a fantastic backup for when Walker missed time. They played in harmony, and fantasy football managers loved seeing a situation so clean.

The 2025 Seattle offensive game plan decided that we aren’t allowed to have clarity in this backfield.

Week 1 showed us that Charbonnet was the more effective back and that Walker was only getting mixed in, rather than being a featured piece of the offense. Of course, just a week later, and despite leading the duo in snaps, Charbonnet couldn’t get anything going on the ground. Walker was easily the better runner of the two as he put up over 100 yards rushing to help secure that win over Pittsburgh.

The snaps tell us one thing, while the play on the field tells us another. Walker owners are understandably frustrated with this type of usage through the first couple of weeks. It makes predicting fantasy consistency all the more difficult. If you drafted Walker, it may be in your best interest to keep him in your starting lineup. You never know when he will break off that big run and save your fantasy day.

New England Patriots: Gotta Earn it, Rook

It appears as though seven fumbles in 2024, a new head coach, and a second-round running back are not enough to keep Rhamondre Stevenson off the field. It has become very apparent that the Patriots want to lean on the veteran running back in these early weeks, rather than the rookie, Treveyon Henderson. It’s not what we fantasy drafters had hoped for, but this is what is happening up in New England.

We might not be able to call this a timeshare either. Stevenson has commanded over 60% of the snaps in both weeks. He’s led the backfield in carries (18) and has seen as many targets as Henderson (8). It could simply be familiarity with the McDaniels system. It could be the old-timey mentality of new Head Coach Mike Vrabel. We can also add to the equation a pair of penalties against Henderson that most likely sent him to the doghouse.

Whatever the reason, Stevenson remains the top back in this offense. Henderson’s eventual breakout will have to wait a few more weeks.

Denver Broncos: Clear Leader, Muddy Support Group

Another rookie running back with a lot of excitement, and another veteran running back bearing most of the workload. And also a third running back who’s here to eat into everyone’s opportunity. It’s always the third wheel causing the headache.

J.K. Dobbins joined the Broncos mid-way through June, after they had drafted R.J. Harvey in the second round, and muscled his way to the top of the depth chart. Folks believed that the highlight-reel explosiveness of Harvey would elevate him to RB1 status in the Sean Payton offense. But it turns out, the Broncos needed a veteran presence to help this offense hum.

Dobbins was on the field for 52% of the snaps in Week 1 and 45% of the snaps in Week 2. He is their early down back and frontrunner for most short-yardage situations. Surprisingly, he has more targets than Harvey (3 vs 2), and both players are trailing Tyler Badie in that metric (8). Dobbins owners can rest easy knowing for the next few weeks, they’ll have a starting running back on their roster.

Harvey owners, however, are going to lose sleep over the split work between Harvey and Badie. Harvey did see the field more than Badie in both weeks, so that’s at least a positive. We just have to wait and see if Harvey sees more than 30% of the snaps on any given week before trusting him as an every-week start.

Kansas City Chiefs

Gross. Just gross.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense is broken at the moment. No Rashee Rice, no Xavier worthy – plenty of problems, as I always say. The passing game seems to be in shambles, which then impacts the effectiveness of the run game. Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt are in a true 1A/1B situation, and no one is benefiting from this. They have near identical carries (Pacheco with 15 and Hunt with 13), near identical targets (5 vs 4), and far too much shared play time (66 snaps vs 47 across two games). Not to mention the effort to get rookie Brashard Smith involved, which is cutting into both players’ time.

It’s the Kansas City Chiefs, and it’s hard to assume this team will stay like this all season. They are sitting dead in the middle at 18th in terms of yards per game. They are 24th in points per game, and are 0-2, which is good enough for last in the division.

We don’t know what an offensive shift will do to this running back room. The best we can do is hold onto one of the backs and hope they end up being the beneficiary.

Jacksonville Jaguars: ETN SZN

It’s funny what a new, offensive-minded coach can do for a team. The Jacksonville Jaguars look like a much more promising team than what we saw in 2024. The biggest winner from the addition of new HC Liam Coen appears to be Travis Etienne Jr. As a player most fantasy managers cast aside as a bust, Etienne has produced back-to-back RB1 performances.

Meanwhile, Tank Bigsby owners have been punching air after seeing their champion traded to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Though it’s going to be interesting to watch the rise of rookie RB Bhayshul Tuten. With Bigsby gone, Tuten saw a noticeable uptick in snaps. Unfortunately for those hoping Tuten will emerge as the clear backup behind Etienne, LeQuint Allen (the other rookie running back) also saw an increase in snaps in Week 2. It was a back-and-forth game with plenty of offensive drives, so it’s certainly no cause for alarm on the Tuten hyper train. Just something to monitor as this Jacksonville team tries to figure itself out with an ailing Brian Thomas Jr. on the sideline.

New York Giants: The Script has Flipped on Tracy

The New York Giants saw something in their Week 1 film that had them re-thinking their approach to the running back room. After seeing just 12% of the snaps in Week 1, Cam Skattebo’s usage rocketed past Tyrone Tracy Jr. to 52% of the snaps. Skattebo would go on to lead the backfield in carries, even finding the endzone for the first time in his NFL career.

Though Tracy didn’t disappear completely. With 43% of the snaps and commanding the majority of the running back targets, Tracy is more likely than not sticking around for quite some time. The Giants’ offense is finding its feet with Russell Wilson at QB, and there couldn’t be a bigger contrast between Week 1 and Week 2 for this team. We don’t really know what’s real or not quite yet. What we do know is that Cam Skattebo is in a great position to lead this backfield going forward.