It’s early July, which means we’re in the one part of the NFL calendar where nothing much is happening. The season runs from September through February, free agency opens in March, the draft happens in April, minicamps and OTAs take place in May and June and training camp opens toward the end of July and runs through August. These few weeks before camp starts are the only dead period the football world really has.
Around this time of year, we (the football media) usually get into the types of stories that don’t need a specific type of news peg to run. There was one such story at ESPN on Monday that caught my eye: their annual ranking of the league’s top players at specific positions, as determined by a poll of coaches, executives and scouts from around the league. They started with the running backs, and a few things immediately jumped out as worthy of examination.
First is that Saquon Barkley checked in at No. 1, and didn’t receive a single vote that ranked him lower than No. 2. Given the season he just had, wherein he ran for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns and led the NFL in yards from scrimmage, it’s not very surprising that he topped the list. It’s not even all that surprising that he was rated as a consensus top-two back, considering his prodigious talent, which we already knew he had while he was toiling on some brutally bad Giants teams before signing with the Eagles last year.
But even that just hammers home how contextual these lists are. When ESPN did this exercise a year ago, Barkley ranked No. 4 but didn’t get a single first-place vote and received votes as low as No. 10. Change his situation and put him behind arguably the best offensive line in football instead of one of the worst, and suddenly he’s not just a talented back, but arguably the single best back and unanimously in the top two.
The same applies to Derrick Henry. He leapt way up the board from No. 9 last season to No. 2 this year after rushing for 1,921 yards and a league-high 16 touchdowns during his first season with the Ravens. He went from averaging 4.4 yards per carry or worse during his final three years with the Titans to a career-high 5.9 per carry while playing behind the Ravens’ offensive line and alongside Lamar Jackson.
Again, what changed most of all was his situation, and that lifted him from a guy who was viewed as the ninth-best back in the league (with zero votes higher than third-place and at least one that placed him outside the top 10) to someone who was voted second-best (with at least one first-place vote and none lower than No. 6).
It also works in reverse. Breece Hall finished second in last year’s poll after coming on strong down the stretch of his second season upon return from his torn ACL. He received votes as high as No. 2, though he did go unranked by at least one voter. Fast forward a year later and, after putting up similar numbers overall in 2024 to those he posted in 2023 (his yards per carry average went down but his success rate went up), he’s out of the top 10 entirely.
The Jets‘ offensive infrastructure last season was so bad that Hall couldn’t carry over the late-season success he had in Year 2, and now he’s viewed almost entirely differently by the league than he was this time a year ago.
All of which brings me to the guy who was No. 1 on last year’s list: Christian McCaffrey. CMC last summer was coming off a season in which he led the league in rushing for the first time, totaled over 2,000 yards from scrimmage and scored a league-best 21 touchdowns while winning NFL Offensive Player of the Year for the San Francisco 49ers. He was ranked No. 1 overall and didn’t receive a vote lower than fourth place.
A year later, McCaffrey is ranked No. 4, got zero first-place votes and didn’t get any higher than No. 3 and even went unranked on at least one ballot.
Of course, we know what happened in between. He dealt with bilateral Achilles tendonitis last summer and ultimately missed the first eight games of the year. He didn’t look like himself upon return and lasted only three-plus games before suffering a season-ending PCL injury.
But we should remember the situations of Barkley and Henry this time a year ago. They were each coming off arguably the worst seasons of their respective careers as rushers. Barkley had averaged just 3.9 yards per carry in 2023 and posted a terrible 40.1% success rate. Henry tied a career-low with 4.2 yards per carry and was out-snapped by Tyjae Spears. They change teams and suddenly they’re the two best backs in the league.
The curious Fantasy Football case of Christian McCaffrey in 2025: We might be waiting too long to draft him
Dan Schneier
McCaffrey is still going to be in Kyle Shanahan’s offense, and he might have an even bigger role in it than when we last saw him healthy thanks to the departure of Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk’s torn ACL. He’s reportedly healthy now and, while he will be 29 years old this season, Henry was 30 for most of last year and we saw what he did. McCaffrey has dealt with injury issues during his career before (he’s played 16-plus games five times in eight years, but seven or fewer in the other three, including four or fewer twice), but based on his level of talent it’s really hard to see how he garners no first-place votes and even goes unranked by at least one voter.
Only time will tell what McCaffrey still has left in the tank, but it sure seems like we’ve seen this movie before, where a player who is very obviously among the true class at his position goes at least somewhat undervalued for reasons having little to do with his talent.
