Commanders Free Agent Fits: Running Back

Taking a look at some running backs that the Washington Commanders could potentially target in free agency

This week I’ve been previewing some potential free agent targets that the Commanders could pursue on the offensive side of the ball. On Monday, I broke down a few tight end options and on Wednesday I looked at some wide receivers. Today, it’s the turn of the running backs. The Commanders only have one running back under contract for 2026 right now and that is Jacory Croskey-Merritt, their seventh round pick from 2025. Chris Rodriguez is likely to be back as he’s a restricted rights free agent, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. I’d also be surprised if Jeremy McNichols isn’t back given his versatility and reliability over the past few years.

But as the Commanders only currently have one back on the roster, running back becomes a need. Regular readers of mine will know that I’m not necessarily one for spending a lot of resources on the running back position. I won’t argue that running backs are worthless because I think they can have great value, but I think it has become a position where it’s better off being a final piece of the offense rather than a foundational piece.

When you look at the top backs in the NFL, guys like Saquon Barkley and Christian McCaffrey, they were drafted in the top 10 to bad teams and while they were productive early in their careers, they weren’t difference makers because their respective teams were bad. But as soon as they joined good teams, they put them over the top. McCaffrey has helped the 49ers be one of the best offenses in the NFL while Barkley led the Eagles to a Super Bowl in 2024.

I’m not sure the Commanders as a team are there yet for a running back to put them over the top. Perhaps the offense is close to being a very powerful unit, but the defense needs an overhaul. So personally, I’d rather stick with cheaper backs that have been productive than spend big on a free agent back. However, the team could obviously view things differently and if they wanted to make a big splash in free agency, there’s a strong group of running backs available to pick from.

High Profile: Kenneth Walker III, Seahawks, 25

Walker was always likely to be one of the top running backs on the market going into this season but his late season explosion cemented his spot as the top back. Walker spent most of the year splitting time in a rotation for the Seahawks, but injuries late in the year meant Walker became the workhorse back and he led the offense to the Super Bowl. In the final weeks of the season he had 100 yards and a touchdown on just 10 carries against the Rams and then 97 yards on 16 carries against the 49ers. Then in the playoffs he went off with 313 yards and four touchdowns on 65 carries over the Seahawks three playoff games. He was Super Bowl MVP and has put his name front and center of the free agent class.

Walker has the ability to be a strong workhorse back that can carry a high volume workload while finding the balance between taking what is given and hunting for explosive plays. He runs with excellent patience and vision, which he uses to find lanes before then exploding through them.

Here we see Walker’s 55-yard touchdown run against the Rams. The Seahawks look to run an inside run to their left with Walker getting the ball up the middle. As he secures the hand off, you can see how patient he is behind the line of scrimmage. He doesn’t fully sprint to the line and run into the back of his lineman, instead he plays it nice and slowly, allowing his blocks to develop. By playing at this pace, Walker can scan the defense and look for lanes and also react to how the blocks develop in front of him. You can see on this play, he initially starts working to the left side, but as the blocks develop, he opts to cut the run back to the right side.

He makes his first cut just behind the left guard and then spots the blocks to the right side opening up for him. He makes one more sharp cut to get to the hole on the right side between the right guard and right tackle. That lane was initially clogged up, but because of the tempo that Walker used, the defensive lineman tried to work back inside on Walker’s initial cut. That created the lane for Walker to make his second cut and burst through. Once Walker finds his lane, he shows off his athletic ability. He bursts through it and accelerates to top speed in a flash. He outruns the entire Rams defense and takes it 55 yards for a touchdown.

By playing at a slower tempo, Walker gives himself the ability to set up blocks that a lot of other backs wouldn’t be able to get.

This run in the Super Bowl is a perfect example of setting up a block. The Seahawks call an inside zone run to the right here. Inside zone runs will typically hit in the A gap or cut back to the back side. As Walker works up to the line of scrimmage, you can see the lane emerging to the left side of the line. That’s where the ball is designed to go and that’s where most backs would have taken it. But Walker reads the center’s block on the nose tackle and makes a different decision.

As Walker secures the hand-off, the nose tackle has the leverage on the play side of the run, which should force the run to cut back to the left. But the nose tackle can see Walker beginning to cut his run back that way, so he attempts to get back across the face of the center. Walker reads that positioning and recognizes that there is a lane opening up in the initial gap he was aiming for, so he makes a cut back to the front side. This is very unorthodox and not necessarily how a zone scheme is taught to be run. Typically in the zone scheme once you’ve made your cut, you cannot go back, but Walker makes it work to great effect here. He bounces his run back to the right side and into the gap vacated by the nose tackle before bursting into the secondary and down the sideline.

Walker’s patience and vision makes him a good fit for just about any run scheme. He’s only had two career fumbles in 821 career carries, which tells you he has good ball security too. If the Commanders want to land a workhorse back that can both carry the load between the tackles and still be a threat to break one on the edge, Walker would be that guy. He won’t necessarily offer much as a receiver or blocker on third downs, but that likely wouldn’t be his role anyway.

Being the top back on the market and coming off the playoff run he just had, Walker is likely to command a top contract on the open market. I doubt he’ll top Barkley or McCaffrey, who are currently earning about $20 million per year on average, but he could come in at anywhere between $10-15 million, which would put him firmly in the top five paid running backs in the NFL.

Walker is clearly a very good runner, but I wonder if that’s the market Washington wants to be in at this point. If you compare his statistical output to Croskey-Merritt, there isn’t a huge difference. Walker had 1027 yards and five touchdowns on 221 carries. Croskey-Merrit had 805 yards on 175 carries. Both averaged 4.6 yards per carry, Walker just had about 50 more carries on the season. Croskey-Merritt is going to cost $1 million against the cap while Walker could cost anywhere from $10-15 million. I’m not sure it would be the wisest investment, but they would sure make an explosive running back pairing.

Good Value: Breece Hall, Jets, 24.

Hall is the next top back on the market and some think he could end up topping Walker due to his overall package. Hall is a similarly explosive runner that is a threat to score from anywhere on the field any time he touches the ball. He doesn’t quite offer the same consistent rushing ability that Walker does, but he does offer a lot more as a receiving option out of the backfield. Despite playing on a bad Jets team where he is often the main weapon defenses focus on, Hall has managed 1350 or more total scrimmage yards in each of the last three seasons.

His explosiveness as a runner stands out pretty quickly when watching him. He’s a legitimate home run threat that only needs a slight misstep from a defender to hit the jets and run past him.

On this play against the Bengals, the Jets run an outside zone scheme to their right. The Jets actually block the edge well and I think Hall could have just taken this run to the edge immediately. However, on the inside, a linebacker is running through and is a legitimate threat to blow up the run. Hall slows his run down like he’s looking to make a cutback, as you would on an outside zone run. However, with the edge so open I’m not sure why Hall would want to cut back. I can only guess that Hall saw the linebacker running through and felt he might have chased him down if he didn’t do something about it.

So Hall slows down and gives a little stutter that he might cut back inside. This causes the linebacker to pause his feet as he waits to see if Hall is going to cut back into him. That’s all Hall needs to suddenly burst back out to the edge and run away from the linebacker, who can’t get himself started back up quickly enough to chase him down. Hall gets to the edge where he’s met by a safety working down from deep. The safety appears to have a good angle on him, but Hall gives him a quick jab step inside and bursts to the edge once more. All he needs is a slight hesitation from the safety and he can run by him, which is exactly what he gets.

Hall runs by the safety as if he wasn’t even there and bursts down the sideline on his way to a 35-yard gain before the cornerback eventually manages to force him out of bounds. But you can see two examples on that one play of how explosive Hall is. He just needs to get a defender to stop or stutter their feet and he can accelerate by them. That makes him a huge threat that has to be accounted for every time he’s on the field.

But it’s not just as a runner that Hall can hurt a defense. He’s also a very accomplished receiving threat out of the backfield. He can line up out wide and run solid routes, is a danger on screens and he’s also a real threat on choice routes.

Choice routes are some of the hardest routes for defenses to handle. You get a shifty running back like Jahmyr Gibbs or Christian McCaffrey, or in this case Breece Hall, and you match them up against a linebacker or at best safety inside with the back having the option to break inside, outside or sit the route down. It’s a nightmare for defenders to try and pick up and Hall shows exactly why here. On fourth and five down in the red zone, the Jets motion a receiver in tight to the formation and have the two receivers to the right side both run crossing routes in order to try and create traffic for the linebacker inside matching up on Hall.

Hall lines up in the backfield and at the snap, he arcs his release outside towards the numbers. This forces the linebacker in coverage to have to work around the traffic of the shallow crossers, putting him in a bad spot already. With nothing outside, the linebacker has to be ready to run out to the flat if Hall works that way, so combine that with the traffic and he really has no chance. Hall gets to the top of his route and gives a sharp shake before cutting inside quickly. He crosses the face of the defender and beats him inside easily.

From there, Hall does a nice job adjusting to a high pass. He reaches up and makes a strong hands catch away from his body without really breaking stride. That enables him to turn up the field and burst towards the end zone. The defense manages to rally down and make the stop just shy of the end zone, but Hall picked up the fourth down conversion easily and very nearly scored too.

Hall is a natural receiver out of the backfield. You can see it when he runs routes like that, but also on simple things like checkdowns. Watch just about any checkdown over the middle for Hall and you’ll see him get the small details right. Things like opening his body on the half turn so that when he receives the pass, he’s already in a position to turn up the field and pick up yards after the catch. A lot of backs will sit down over the ball and stay square to the quarterback until the ball is in their hands, which means they then have to take extra steps to turn and get upfield. But Hall is a natural receiver and has no wasted movements even on small plays like that.

Hall is someone I’d be a little more willing to spend on because of the all-around package he offers. He can be an explosive runner but the Commanders don’t have a real legitimate receiving threat out of the backfield. They don’t have a back that they can trust to win on those choice routes. They don’t have a back that can run a wheel route down the sideline and track the ball fading over his shoulder reliably. Having that complete package to offer, as well as being so young, Hall would be the one I’d go for if I was going to spend significant money on the running back position. But because of those factors, he could well end up a similar or even bigger contract than Walker.

Under the Radar: Rachaad White, Buccaneers, 27

I’m not sure White really counts as under the radar, at least not for Commanders fans. As most of you will likely know by now. White played with Jayden Daniels at Arizona State and the pair remain friends. At the end of the season, White posted a picture of him and Daniels together in college, fueling speculation that White will end up in Washington this season. I think there are other backs that might fit the “under the radar” category better, like Tyler Allgeier, but I think Commanders fans will be more interested in a quick look at White, so I’m putting him here.

After watching White for a couple of games, I came away thinking he reminded me a lot of Jeremy McNichols. I know some will think of that as a bad thing but it’s not at all intended that way. McNichols has been a very valuable member of the Commanders backfield of the past two seasons. He’s not spectacular at any one thing, but he’s very well-rounded in a lot of areas. He’s capable of carrying the load to a decent level if the main back gets injured. He’s a very capable receiver that can catch passes out of the backfield and he’s an excellent pass protector. White is perhaps a little better as a runner and receiver than McNichols and maybe falls a bit short on the pass protection side of things, but he’s similarly well-rounded.

That makes White a good piece to have in a running back room. He might not be the star piece like a Walker or Hall would be, but he’d be a strong option to fill in when needed.

Here’s a nice example of what White can bring as a runner. The Bucs run a counter scheme to their left with one tight end motioning in to kick out the edge defender and the second tight end wrapping around for the first linebacker. White fakes a step to his right and then works back to his left on the hand off. He runs the correct path, working inside at the A gap first and then working out from there until he finds an available gap.

What I like most from White here is his patience. His tight end uses a little gallop step out of his stance which actually slows him down a bit. White slows his own run down to enable the tight end to get in front of him. By slowing down, he not only allows the tight end to get in front, but he also slows down the linebacker. Fred Warner is one of the best linebackers in the NFL and he reads the run almost immediately. He bursts down towards the line of scrimmage, knowing where the gap is, but by White slowing it down, he just has to slow down himself in case White is thinking of cutting the ball back to the right side. This enables the tight end to get to his spot and make the block.

From there, White shows his burst and cutting ability. He makes the cut and bursts through the hole away from Warner and into the second level of the defense. He’s met by a cornerback and lowers his shoulder to run over him. White isn’t a particularly powerful runner, but cornerbacks are guys that don’t typically like to tackle. White manages to run through the poor tackle attempt by the cornerback and nearly scores a touchdown, but the safety manages to make the stop near the goal line.

He’s a steady runner that won’t let you down. He can be patient but also has the burst to find and attack lanes. He won’t necessarily break a lot of tackles but he’s got a bit of wiggle to him that helps him make some guys miss, both as a runner and as a receiver. But where I think White would add most value would be as a pass protector. He’s not on McNichols level yet, but McNichols was excellent for Washington over the last two seasons as a pass protector. White is a bit below that, but you can see the understanding of blitz threats, protection schemes and the willingness to be physical and make a block is all there.

On this play, the Seahawks are blitzing a safety they have down in the box. They also give the linebacker a green light to add on if White stays in to protect, which he does. The Bucs are running a play-action pass, so White has to fake the hand-off and then immediately step up to pick up the blitzing safety. At the snap you can see White identifies the threat and he is quick to step up and close the gap.

Once the gap is closed, he sets himself for impact. Just as the safety arrives, White gets himself low and explodes up into the block, stopping the safety in his tracks and redirecting his momentum upwards. It’s a strong block from White, who not only manages to maintain the block on the safety, but he closes off the path for the linebacker that is adding on too. He effectively gets a two-for-one with this blitz pick up, which is huge for any running back in pass protection.

White still has some smaller technical details to improve on but I don’t see any reason that he couldn’t become as good or even better than McNichols as a pass protector in the next few years. The traits are all there, and that’s an underrated part of an offense. Defenses often look to blitz the back to keep him in to protect and force a mismatch, so having a back capable of picking those blitzes up can lead to big plays down the field over the top of those blitzes.

Having a guy Daniels will trust in the backfield next to him is critical when it comes to pass protection, so that makes the case for White a little more intriguing. He’d be an upgrade on the overall game of McNichols and he could develop into a better pass protector too. But he’s also likely to cost a lot more than McNichols, who is still a better pass protector right now and has never put a foot wrong in Washington as the reliable back up that can fill in for multiple roles.

I think White would be a nice player to have as a McNichols replacement that can offer something a little more than McNichols as both a runner and receiver while still being a solid pass protector in that third down back role. He’s three years younger than McNichols so he could grow into the role and make it his own too. My only concern is the price. White is projected to get as much as $8 million a year in some places. McNichols cost less than $1,5 million in each of his two seasons here. White is the better player that can offer more than McNichols, but I’m not sure he’s a lead back or a top receiving threat, despite being capable of both. So the question becomes how far is Washington willing to go on the contract and what is White willing to go down to in order to reunite with Jayden Daniels?