RB Dead Zone Strategy For 2026: David Montgomery Leads Backs To Target

Fantasy football (and the NFL, in general) has experienced a renaissance over the last couple of seasons at the running back position. Teams are shifting to run-heavy approaches and more 13-personnel usage on offense as Cover 2 defenses limit the ceiling of passing attacks.

This has led to running backs getting pushed further up the board, and it’s glaringly obvious how important it is to get an early jump at the position in 2026.

13 of the first 24 picks in fantasy football ADP (Underdog) are running backs (54.2%), and another five running backs go off the board with third-round ADPs (Breece Hall, Josh Jacobs, Kyren Williams, Javonte Williams, Travis Etienne).

With so many running backs off the board within the first three rounds, it leaves a gaping hole in the middle rounds of your draft—The RB Dead Zone.

Navigating these waters is treacherous, so let’s dive into how to do it in 2026.

What Is The RB Dead Zone In Fantasy Football?

Simply put, the RB Dead Zone is made up of the middle rounds of your fantasy football drafts—usually between Rounds 3/4 and Rounds 7/8. This is an area of the draft, especially in 2026, where the wide receiver upside is immense. So immense that it can be difficult to justify a running back selection to fill a positional need while bypassing this upside.

I mean, seriously, look at these names available at WR (and Colston Loveland) just in Round 4 alone:

By this point in the draft, my optimal strategy is to have at least one of my starting RB positions filled. And, more often than not through my first 35 drafts of the summer, I’ve had both my RB1 and RB2 slots occupied.

Why?

Because I’m much more comfortable building around two elite RBs and having someone like Emeka Egbuka or Jaylen Waddle as my WR1/2 than going WR-heavy early in the draft and relying on a Dead Zone RB as my RB1.

That said, it’s important to identify who to draft in the 2026 RB Dead Zone, and who to avoid as possible land mines, because you’ll more than likely find yourself in a position of need at RB during this point in the draft at some point this offseason. Plus, if you’re taking a BPA (best player available) approach early in your drafts, you could simply land on pass catchers more often than running backs based on how the board falls relative to where you’re picking from.

Running Backs To Target In The 2026 RB Dead Zone

Below are my three favorite running backs to target between Round 4 and Round 7 of 2026 drafts, listed in order of preference, not ADP.

David Montgomery | Texans

ADP: 47.9 (RB20)

All of the offseason attention surrounding Montgomery’s departure from Detroit has centered around the upgrade it provides for Jahmyr Gibbs. But what about the fact that it now cements Montgomery as a standalone RB1—for the first time since his Bears days—in a run-first offense coupled with an elite defense?

Our current fantasy football projections have Montgomery pegged for 12.3 half-PPR points per game on the back of 14.8 carries per game. His RB20 projection is in line with his RB20 ADP on Underdog, but that’s simply his mean outcome. Looking at the last three seasons in Detroit, Montgomery logged at least 15 carries in 15 games (per the TruMedia database):

	Rushes/Game	Yards/Game	YPC	TDs/Game
2025 (2)	16.5	68.0	4.12	0.50
2024 (5)	18.6	86.4	4.65	0.80
2023 (8)	19.4	79.8	4.12	1.13

The game-by-game breakdown of these averages is below.

2023 (8 games)

Week 4 @ GB: 32 rushes, 121 yards (3.8 ypc), 3 TD
Week 1 @ KC: 21 rushes, 74 yards (3.5 ypc), 1 TD
Week 5 vs CAR: 19 rushes, 109 yards (5.7 ypc), 1 TD
Week 13 @ NO: 18 rushes, 56 yards (3.1 ypc), 1 TD
Week 15 vs DEN: 17 rushes, 85 yards (5.0 ypc)
Week 16 @ MIN: 17 rushes, 55 yards (3.2 ypc), 1 TD
Week 2 vs SEA: 16 rushes, 67 yards (4.2 ypc), 1 TD
Week 12 vs GB: 15 rushes, 71 yards (4.7 ypc), 1 TD

2024 (5 games)

Week 3 @ ARI: 23 rushes, 105 yards (4.6 ypc), 1 TD
Week 13 vs CHI: 21 rushes, 88 yards (4.2 ypc)
Week 1 vs LAR: 17 rushes, 91 yards (5.4 ypc), 1 TD
Week 9 @ GB: 17 rushes, 73 yards (4.3 ypc)
Week 11 vs JAX: 15 rushes, 75 yards (5.0 ypc), 2 TDs

2025 (2 games)

Week 5 @ CIN: 18 rushes, 65 yards (3.6 ypc), 1 TD
Week 10 @ WAS: 15 rushes, 71 yards (4.7 ypc)

The point being, Montgomery is no stranger to a heavy workload, and his workload tapered off year over year as stud RB Jahmyr Gibbs continued to take over more of the backfield.

The Texans adding Montgomery shows low confidence in Woody Marks as a needle mover at the position, and the addition of Foster Moreau, return of Cade Stover and addition of Marlon Klein in April’s draft signal more heavy personnel—a run-game staple. Don’t be surprised if we get 2023 production out of Montgomery in 2026 at a massive discount.

Bhayshul Tuten | Jaguars

ADP: 56.1 (RB25)

Tuten has been getting all the buzz this offseason and rightfully so. The departure of Travis Etienne leaves a massive void in the Jaguars’ backfield, and while the addition of Chris Rodriguez provides competition for touches with Tuten, he’s mainly been a between-the-20s and short-yardage back so far in his career. That should allow Tuten to soak up the high-value touches in the passing game, assuming he doesn’t lose that work to LeQuint Allen.

While Tuten’s work was limited in 2025, he’s underlying metrics impressed. He ranked 3rd in rushing success rate (48.3%), 10th in avoided tackles per carry and 12th in yards after contact per carry (3.3) among 55 running backs with at least 75 carries.

In a high-octane offense like the Jags (top-10 scoring unit in 2025), we don’t need 300+ touches for Tuten to return value; we just need him to fend off Allen in the pass game and siphon some (not all) of the short-yardage work from Rodriguez. He feels like a strong home-run click as your RB2 in the dead zone with the opportunity to pull away in this backfield, but he’s better served as just that and not as an RB1 in Zero-RB strategy builds (that’s where Montgomery is more appealing).

Tony Pollard | Titans

ADP: 72.5 (RB27)

Listen, if anyone understands what it’s like to be burned by Tony Pollard, it’s me. He was my most-rostered player ahead of the 2023 Best Ball season when he was supposed to dominate as the Cowboys RB1.

He did not, as he barely squeaked past 1,000 yards (1,005) on 4.0 yards per carry as a second-round fantasy pick.

Oof.

I’ve largely avoided Pollard as a Titan since, but I’m willing to get back on board ahead of 2026.

While it hasn’t been pretty, Pollard has quietly been one of only two running backs to top 1,000 rushing yards in each of the last four seasons. The other? Former Titan Derrick Henry. Plus, he showed he still has plenty of juice left to squeeze towards the end of last season, rattling off three stellar games to finish the 2025 season:

Week 14: 25 carries, 161 yards, 2 TD
Week 15: 14 carries, 104 yards, 1 TD
Week 16: 21 carries, 102 yards

He still has to fend off Tyjae Spears in the passing game, and the Titans did invest at RB in April, drafting Nicholas Singleton, but all reports from the summer indicate their commitment to Pollard in the backfield. New HC Robert Saleh has praised Pollard throughout the offseason, noting that Pollard “does everything the right way, brings a lot of juice and energy”.

Plus, after operating in one of the league’s worst offenses last season, Pollard will have a chance to work with an improved unit in 2026. Adding Carnell Tate and Wan’Dale Robinson to the passing game should take pressure off of the run game. New interior offensive linemen Austin Schlottman, Andre James and Cordell Volson should provide more rushing lanes and keep second-year QB Cam Ward upright more than last season. Brian Daboll also comes in as the new offensive coordinator and brings a track record of helping offenses improve (hello, Buffalo).

I’m buying into a Year 2 leap for Cam Ward and the offense as a whole, and Pollard is my favorite way to do so as an RB2 with a decent workload floor in 2026.