NFL free company is a year-round course of, as groups scout opposing gamers in an effort to defeat them through the 12 months and maybe signal them within the offseason.
Now that we’re on the finish of the 2024-25 NFL season, the free company image is coming into focus, and groups are starting to establish potential targets to enhance their roster weaknesses.
Listed below are the highest working backs slated to hit free company in 2025. Click on right here for PFF’s full checklist of the highest 100 free brokers.
1. RB Aaron Jones, Minnesota Vikings
2025 Free Agent Rank: 20
Jones took a one-year cope with the Vikings this offseason and appears set to be one of many high working backs out there once more in 2025. His 75.8 PFF dashing grade within the common season ranked twenty second amongst working backs, and he brings constant manufacturing because the proprietor of eight straight 75.0-plus PFF total grades.
Prime free agent comparability: Mark Ingram, 2019
| Participant | Missed tackles pressured per try | Yards after contact per try | Receiving grade | Yards per route run | APY as % of Cap at signing |
| Aaron Jones | 0.18 | 3.12 | 65.4 | 1.31 | ? |
| Mark Ingram | 0.12 | 3.01 | 64.6 | 1.23 | 2.6% |
*All knowledge in tables displays two years previous to UFA contract signing
Contract projection: Obtainable in PFF’s free company rankings
2. RB Najee Harris, Pittsburgh Steelers
2025 Free Agent Rank: 45
Harris is a mannequin of consistency, and there’s worth in that even when he isn’t essentially the most explosive or shifty participant within the open discipline. His 1,097 dashing makes an attempt since he entered the league in 2021 rank second to solely Derrick Henry over the span, his 4,316 dashing yards rank fifth and his 3,203 yards after first contact place fourth. The most effective factor going for Harris could not even be his personal manufacturing, however the truth that practically each beginning working again signed final offseason — Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Henry, to call just a few — had excellent 2024 seasons.
Nevertheless, an element we reference yearly in free company work is the standard of the upcoming draft class on the place, and the 2025 NFL Draft working again group is each sturdy on the high and remarkably deep, which doesn’t assist Harris’ trigger.
Prime free agent comparability: Melvin Gordon, 2020
| Participant | Missed tackles pressured per try | Yards after contact per try | Receiving grade | Yards per route run | APY as % of Cap at signing |
| Najee Harris | 0.22 | 2.96 | 61.1 | 1.12 | ? |
| Melvin Gordon | 0.19 | 2.56 | 54.8 | 1.66 | 4.0% |
*All knowledge in tables displays two years previous to UFA contract signing
Contract projection: Obtainable in PFF’s free company rankings
3. RB J.Ok. Dobbins, Los Angeles Chargers
2025 Free Agent Rank: 62
Dobbins’ return to type in 2024 was as exceptional an NFL storyline as any throughout the league, with an avalanche of lower-body accidents plaguing him over the previous few years. The previous Baltimore Raven reunited with offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who assumed the identical position in a reunion of his personal with Jim Harbaugh. Dobbins has all the time been productive and troublesome to convey down when wholesome; it’s simply the staying wholesome half that’s the actual problem.
Prime free agent comparability: Alexander Mattison, 2023
| Participant | Missed tackles pressured per try | Yards after contact per try | Receiving grade | Yards per route run | APY as % of Cap at signing |
| J.Ok. Dobbins | 0.18 | 2.99 | 55.7 | 0.7 | ? |
| Alexander Mattison | 0.24 | 2.78 | 51.0 | 0.9 | 1.5% |
*All knowledge in tables displays two years previous to UFA contract signing
Contract projection: Obtainable in PFF’s free company rankings
4. RB Nick Chubb, Cleveland Browns
2025 Free Agent Rank: 90
The truth that Chubb suited up in any respect in 2024 after an unpleasant knee damage sustained in 2023 in opposition to the Pittsburgh Steelers speaks to his exceptional resilience, making an identical restoration from a nasty faculty knee damage to have one of the vital environment friendly begins to a profession for any working again to ever play the sport. Chubb was not his regular elusive and bruising self in 2024, ceding some work to Jerome Ford after being given a reasonably large position upon his return, however it’s fully doable he simply wants one other full offseason to get his physique proper for an NFL recreation workload.
Prime free agent comparability: Carlos Hyde, 2021
| Participant | Missed tackles pressured per try | Yards after contact per try | Receiving grade | Yards per route run | APY as % of Cap at signing |
| Nick Chubb | 0.21 | 2.98 | 44.4 | 0.51 | ? |
| Carlos Hyde | 0.17 | 2.80 | 50.5 | 0.42 | 1.2% |
*All knowledge in tables displays two years previous to UFA contract signing
Contract projection: Obtainable in PFF’s free company rankings
