10 Second-Year Running Backs & Wide Receivers to Target in Fantasy Football

Aug 06, 2026

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

I’m always baffled by the roots of the term Sophomore Slump since most college freshmen party too hard their first year and make an attempt to get it together by the time their second year comes around, but maybe way back when, it was the opposite.

In the sports world and for our fantasy football purposes, this term refers to players who come into the league hot and maybe fizzle out a bit and regress in Year 2. However, this article is not about those guys, and will focus on the second-year running backs and receivers we should target in our 2025 drafts. Thanks to a talented 2025 draft class, there are plenty to choose from.

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Running Backs

The freshman RB class held their own in 2025, as four landed among the top 24 in half-PPR points per game. Those four (Ashton Jeanty, Omarion Hampton, Quinshon Judkins, and TreVeyon Henderson) won’t appear in this article as they’ve clearly broken out, and drafters don’t need convincing to select them in the first handful of rounds in 2026.

Bhayshul Tuten, Jaguars

With Travis Etienne no longer a Jaguar, the backfield in Jacksonville will be some combination of Bhayshul Tuten and Chris Rodriguez. Tuten's rookie breakout was sadly hampered due to a finger injury, but he flashed his speed and yards after contact per attempt prowess (3.22), which sat 15th among RBs. The sophomore also converted five of his 23 red-zone carries to scores, so if he gets those goal-line looks again in 2026, could return similar production to Etienne's RB13 output in half-PPR scoring on a per-game basis last season. Tuten is fairly pricey for an unknown touch distribution with an aggregate ADP of 5.06, but Rodriguez hasn't been much of a pass catcher, which helps his cause heading into 2026.