It remains to be seen (at least at the time of this writing) whether Ollie Gordon will enter the transfer portal or not, but there are several running backs looking for greener pastures that I think are interesting even outside him. From positional converts and JUCO transfers to small school producers and former devy RB1s, here are the fourteen transfer portal runners whose situations I think are the most compelling from a fantasy football perspective (whether that be CFF, devy, or dynasty):
Marcus Carroll is heading to Missouri. With Cody Schrader off to the NFL Draft, I would imagine the plan is for Carroll -- a 1300-yard rusher who I recently named to the second team of my fake All-Sun Belt squad -- to step into the same role and duplicate as much of what Schrader accomplished as possible. I love that the current transfer portal environment gives small school runners the opportunity to proactively answer the level-of-competition questions in their pro scouting reports, and an impressive 2024 season in the SEC could vault Carroll -- who posted really nice team-relative efficiency and through-contact numbers but averaged fewer than five raw yards per carry this season -- from UDFA to day-three pick status. He may have a harder time than Schrader has had, however, as Carroll will be without the services of Javon Taylor, a sixth-year left tackle who was named first-team All-SEC and third-team All-America after anchoring Pro Football Focus’ fifth-ranked run-blocking unit and helping Schrader gain 63% of his total yards on runs to the left side of the offensive line (according to PFF). Starting left guard Xavier Delgado is also draft-eligible.
Pete Nakas of On3 reports that Mario Anderson is down to Oklahoma, USC, and Memphis. I don’t see anybody talking about this guy, but I think there’s a chance that he’s kinda good. He ran for over 3300 yards in three post-redshirt seasons and was named a first-team Division-II All-American during his final year at Newberry, and then he ran for over five yards per carry in the best conference in the country this season despite playing with an offensive line that PFF rates as the nation’s eighth-worst run-blocking group (and that paved the way for the other South Carolina running backs to collectively average 2.24 yards on a sample of 95 carries). I’d like Carroll to avoid the mutual cannibalization situation that would be created by his joining Gavin Sawchuk in the Oklahoma backfield. Pairing with Quinten Joyner at USC or replacing Blake Watson at Memphis both represent high-upside outcomes that don’t involve a touch squeeze with other draft-eligible runners.
Nate Noel got his lunch stolen by Kanye Roberts in the Appalachian State backfield this season, but he averaged over six yards per carry during the 2020-2022 stretch that saw him lead the Sun Belt with 1126 yards in 2021 and post quality Box-Adjusted Efficiency Ratings in each season. Hopefully he’ll be able to regain that groove somewhere else, but his transferring out could also mean a workhorse opportunity for a guy in Roberts who has been excellent through two years (and who will be eligible for the 2025 draft).
John Lee Eldridge is transferring after three seasons’ worth of 7.35-yard per-carry output at Air Force. He’s listed at just 200 pounds but has been pretty good throughout his career: he currently ranks ninth in the country in yards after contact per attempt among backs with 50+ carries, and his BAE Rating in both of the last two seasons has been over the 115.0% mark.
Following two straight seasons of efficient play in a timeshare with the less-effective Montrell Johnson, Trevor Etienne is getting the hell out of Florida. The expectation seems to be that he’ll end up at Georgia, where he’d probably be sharing time with Branson and Roderick Robinson. I don’t have a strong take on how that hypothetical committee would shake out, but those guys strike me as more substantial barriers to playing time than Johnson has been. Nonetheless, Etienne is perhaps the best and most prominent running back in the portal, and it wouldn’t take much more than a quality season of 100+ carries on a nationally-contending Georgia squad to give a meaningful boost to the prospect profile of such a name-brand guy.
Having previously been widely considered the RB1 in devy, Raheim Sanders is certainly also a name-brand player. His stock has taken a big hit after a disastrous 2023 season that saw him miss six games with injury and average 3.37 yards per carry when active, but he was good enough in 2022 that I’d think he’d be one of the most highly sought-after backs in the portal. There’s some smoke linking Sanders to South Carolina, a move that would puzzle me considering that the Gamecocks were even worse on offense this year than the Razorbacks.
Both of North Texas’ top running backs have entered the transfer portal. Ayo Adeyi was excellent in all three of his seasons with the Mean Green (he was my American Conference honorable mention this year), and I think he’s one of the better backs in this entire group. Oscar Adaway is more of a wild card: his raw efficiency and through-contact numbers are good, but he hasn’t posted higher than a 93.3% BAE Rating or a -9.5% RSR in either of the last two years. Is he good but overshadowed by Adeyi, or is he a JAG getting propped up by a cushy situation? He’s probably not a hugely relevant NFL prospect regardless, but I lean toward the former with the 219-pound Adaway, and it seems like he could transfer up and contribute well at an SEC school like South Carolina (where he’s already visited).
One transfer who might be underrated is Myles Montgomery. He’s been awesome at Cincinnati, with more than five of his 6.48 yards per carry coming after contact (the fourth-highest mark among all 50+ attempt backs in the country), a combined 18-193-3 line in back-to-back games versus Baylor and Oklahoma State (he made Reel Analytics’ weekly top-ten speeds lists via a long touchdown in each of those games: 1, 2), and a 116.2% BAE Rating to go with a 12.5% RSR while playing in a backfield led by 1000-yard rusher and former four-star recruit Corey Kiner. The 205-pounder will be in his fourth season in 2024.
Chip Trayanum has committed to Kentucky, where he will presumably follow Chris Rodriguez Jr. and Ray Davis as fifth-year backs looking to leverage final seasons of strong production in the SEC into draft capital. Trayanum barely has more touches in his career than Davis received this season, but he’s always been a high-RSR guy (despite playing with NFL talents like TreVeyon Henderson and Rachaad White) and seems capable of handling more work.
One of my favorite players in the portal is former Bowling Green runner Ta’Ron Keith, who I named honorable mention All-MAC after he finished third in the country among running backs in receiving yards and posted marks above the 90th percentiles in both yards after contact and missed tackles forced per attempt. He seems poised for a transfer within the Group of Five conferences, as he has received offers from Utah State, South Alabama, Toledo, Tulsa, and Arkansas State, the last of which is the favorite (according to On3) and had PFF’s 12th-ranked run-blocking offensive line this season.
1000-yard rusher Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams is transferring out of UMass, perhaps opening the door for Gregory Desrosiers Jr. -- an explosive player who returned kicks and gained nearly ten yards per touch this season -- to step into a larger role. Lynch-Adams breaks a decent amount of tackles but will be entering his sixth season while never having posted an above-baseline BAE Rating on more than 35 attempts at either UMass or Rutgers.
I’m still not sure what to make of Sieh Bangura’s low yards after contact and missed tackles forced per attempt numbers, but 1889 yards and back-to-back BAE Ratings over the 125.0% mark and RSRs over the 10.0% mark in the last two years at Ohio show him to be a productive and effective runner regardless. I think his lack of through-contact success limits my interest in him as a devy asset, but Bangura should be a good player at his next destination.
The back I’m most interested in following through the portal and over the course of next year is Tawee Walker. The rising senior gained over 1000 yards from scrimmage in his only season at Palomar Junior College before contributing well at Oklahoma in 2023. While Gavin Sawchuk pulled away with the starting job over the second half of the schedule, Walker notched two 100-yard rushing games (against two quality teams in 8-4 Kansas and 17th-ranked SMU) and finished the year with an average of 0.34 missed tackles forced per attempt to go with a 117.6% BAE Rating and an 18.8% RSR. At 215 pounds, he could garner legitimate draft capital in next year’s class with a productive 2024 season.