The NFL Draft starts in less than twelve hours and we’re likely to have one or even two running backs selected and with known landing spots before the night is over. Tomorrow and Saturday will see more than a dozen additional backs taken, so by the time my next article is published on Sunday, this particular set of rankings will be like the brats I threw in the microwave after undercooking on the grill earlier this week: nuked.

The fine men, women, and non-binary friends who subscribe to this website will receive the best running back-focused post-Draft analysis and rankings updates on the planet shortly after the weekend’s festivities conclude, but the Doomsday device built into these rankings mean they serve primarily as receipts for my final, talent-driven, in-a-vacuum hierarchy of runners in this class before I’m forced to muddy those thoughts with considerations of draft capital, team fit, and their corresponding fantasy football implications. Along with links to any articles on each player, here are the (tiered!) rankings: