Fantasy NFL: 2025 Dark Horse Running Backs to Score the Most Touchdowns

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  • By Nathan Hernandez

    Last Updated on July 14, 2025 12:39 pm by Jon Mosales | Published: July 14, 2025

    In each of the last four seasons, there has been a player that came out of the woodwork to score at least 15 rushing touchdowns and sit among the elite talents that tout the rock every Sunday. Last season, it was James Cook, tying Derrick Henry and Jahmyr Gibbs atop RBs with 16 a piece in 2024. The year before that, we saw the early stages of the Mike McDaniel experience in Miami lay the pathway for a then-31-year-old Raheem Mostert to lead the league with 18 rushing scores. In 2022, Jamaal Williams gapped the competition in Detroit, scoring 17 scores on the ground, while the next-closest RBs were tied with 13 touchdowns each. Finally, in what feels like forever ago, the 2021-22 NFL season saw Damien Harris, leading the way for the Patriots, and James Conner, hitting the ground running in his first season in Arizona, both score 15 rushing touchdowns in 202 carries to tie for second among RBs, trailing only Jonathan Taylor. Another unassuming RB in the rough sifting to the surface in 2025 would make it half a decade running of a surprising TD scorer topping the charts, and here I break out the trowel and gold pan to look for the next head-scratching ball-carrier to etch their name alongside the league’s best at punching the football into the end zone on the ground.

    Chuba Hubbard – Carolina Panthers

    Current ADP 51.6 (RB16) | 2024 RB15 Overall Finish | 15.7 Half-PPR FPPG

    Chuba Hubbard has been one of my favorite running backs to draft this season, just as he was as one of my top targets in the 2024 off-season. He was essentially a workhorse after 2024 rookie first round draft choice RB Jonathon Brooks had one of the most unfortunate injury-plagued campaigns by a high-profile RB prospect. Hubbard was being drafted as the RB43 last year in best ball, and now he goes as the RB16 after a stellar 2024 season on the ground, finishing as the RB13. The Panthers were a solid offensive line in the run game, finishing the year as the 10th-best OL in run block win rate in 2025. While the team made no additions this off-season, they are able to run it back with the same starting lineup up front that helped kickstart the Dave Canales era in Carolina. Hubbard scored 10 rushing touchdowns last year, and this team illustrated a trustworthy intent of letting him punch in the rock when it came down to the nitty-gritty. He finished tied for fourth among RBs with 17 carries inside the five-yard line in 2024, among the likes of Kyren Williams, Josh Jacobs and Derrick Henry. On top of that, he was also tied for fourth among RBs with 11 red zone targets, getting the opportunities through the air, as well.

    James Conner – Arizona Cardinals

    Current ADP 62.9 (RB20) | 2024 RB11 Overall Finish | 14.4 Half-PPR FPPG

    As Conner heads into his ninth NFL season as a 30-year-old veteran RB, he’s signed with the Cardinals through the 2026 NFL season, and he didn’t seem to lose a step in 2024, finishing as an RB1 on the season. I think he’s got good football left in him, and the Cardinals should look to take a step as an offense as the young pass-catchers gel with Kyler Murray and improve on the 15th-ranked scoring offense from a season ago. Conner was 13th among all RBs in red zone carries last season, and had a respectable eight scores on the ground last season. Conner was still an above-average runner last season, finishing the year with a 4.6 YPC mark and fourth among all RBs in broken tackles with 24 on the season. After being relatively injury prone in years prior, he played in 16-of-17 games and finished as a top-10 weekly fantasy RB in six of those weeks, including 3-straight 20+ point performances from weeks 14-16 down the stretch. Any potential emergence for Trey Benson, could lead to fresher legs for the veteran Conner when deployed as the team’s likely full-time goal line back. The Cardinals were 11th in RBWR last season, and could even be improved with the return of Paris Johnson and some additional depth pieces added into the fold this off-season.


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    July 14, 2025, 12:39 pm