The running back position could be back in vogue at this year’s NFL Draft, but exactly where the multiple options at the position will be selected in Green Bay in April remains open to question.

Such is the depth of the class emerging from the 2024 college football season, teams in need of rushing help but also seeking to fill other positions could face the dilemma of exactly when to make their move for a backfield gamechanger.

“It’s really good that, man, if you have multiple needs, maybe you could see a scenario where teams are going to punt on running backs early and then just know that [they’ve] still got some options there on day two,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah noted in his traditional pre-Combine media availability. “And that’s with full appreciation that there is more love for running backs around the league after this last season [when] all the leading rushers in the league were all free agents that showed their value — and then we’ve seen [what] some of the young backs in the league have done, led by Jahmyr Gibbs.”

Ashton Jeanty is Jeremiah’s number one RB prospect entering draft season and has been widely mocked as a future Dallas Cowboy, the Texas franchise in dire need of strengthening their backfield with leading 2024 rusher Rico Dowdle a potential free agent when the new league year starts. Jeanty revealed from Indianapolis that he’s met with representatives of the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders at the NFL Scouting Combine, but admitted that playing for the Cowboys would be ‘dope’.

Cowboys fans need not worry that their front office might have missed a trick by not meeting with a potential void-filler in Indianapolis this week, however, as Jeanty — who attended Lone Star High School in Frisco, where the Cowboys are headquartered — is as close to a dead cert attendee at ‘Dallas Day’ where the team can work out prospects from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The 21-year-old is coming off one of the most dominant running back campaigns in college football history after racking up 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns on the ground and another 138 yards and a score through the air en route to finishing second in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Travis Hunter, but that workload could prove to be a deterrent to some teams.

“Ashton Jeanty is my third player in the draft — I am a huge believer in him,” Jeremiah revealed, “but workload is something that you look at. I know Ezekiel Elliott. on the second contract. did not get the Cowboys what they wanted, but I don’t know how many teams would be disappointed with that type of impact if they were to get it out of a draft pick, to have that type of elite player, even if it’s for a handful of years. I think [Jeanty] would constitute a great pick. He has an extremely high floor along with an extremely high ceiling. I think he’s a special, special player.”

The Cowboys, incidentally, are reported to have met with two other premier running back options in Indianapolis, in the form of North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton and Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson. Hampton, who rushed for 3,565 yards and 36 touchdowns in three seasons with the Tar Heels, confirmed the meeting, saying that it was ‘amazing to get to know those guys, get to know the coaches’.

“It’s hard to figure out when the run [on running backs] is going to go,” Jeremiah admitted. “Just to be totally honest, [in my mock draft] I wanted to have some fun with that too, with Ashton Jeanty falling down a little bit. However, I love Omarion Hampton if you want to go with a running back, a big, explosive guy. I think he is a little more loose than Johnson. I think that’s a great pick there as someone who could give some burst as well as the physicality, all kind of wrapped up in one.

“Johnson from Iowa is someone who I just think is that one cut, foot in the ground, speed and go type. He’s got excellent vision. He’s not going to be a real nifty in and out guy. He is just going to see it and go. He has burst, and he has long speed.”

Jeremiah was asked about other RB candidates, with College Football Playoff surprise package Cam Skattebo a particularly intriguing subject.

“[Skattebo]’s a unique player,” the draft expert admitted. “Obviously, it was an incredible run that he went on but, looking at my notes on him when I was putting this stuff in last night, he just chooses violence. I don’t know if I have ever seen a more aggressive runner who just seeks out contact — and who can absorb contact. When I was looking for a comp for him, my first thought was, okay, he is like a shrunk-down James Connor. More than anything, he reminds me of a Plinko chip from The Price is Right, bouncing off everything and everybody!

“The thing with him is we know he can catch it. We know, obviously, the vision, the balance, the toughness. The only question is going to be the top speed. If he has a chance, I think, to me, he looked like he would probably be a low 4.6 guy but, if he would run in the 4.5s, that would be great. That would really help himself out. He is such a fun player to watch. Whoever gets him is going to have one of the most aggressive and physical runners that we’ve seen in the last few years. He’s a fun one.”

‘Fun’ was also the adjective Jeremiah used for numerous players as he fielded questions from media members interested in who their team could find in the middle to lower rounds.

“Just looking at some running backs that I think are mismatch I type players, Jaydon Blue in the pass game out of Texas. He’s a legitimate 4.3 guy, and they used him a bunch of different ways in the pass game: angle routes, he can snap guys off, he can run up the seam… Even just getting him the ball in the flat, with his speed, he’s a weapon. And I don’t think you would have to take him in the second [round]. I think you could get him in the third.

“R.J. Harvey is another one out of Central Florida who is compact. He is under 5’8″, 207 pounds but, when I watched him, this guy is a mix of Devonta Freeman and Tarik Cohen. He’s that type of fast, low to the ground, shifty, just going to be a nightmare type. They used him on wheel routes and got him the ball in the pass game as well.

“Those are outside the second round, fun mismatch type players, and I think there’s another fun one in Woody Marks out of USC, someone who can really catch the ball out of the back field. He has a ton of production going back to Mississippi State, and is someone that I think can be a little bit of a mismatch player there with what he can do.

“Dylan Sampson; not the biggest guy in the world, kind of undersized out of Tennessee, but he, again, can get to the perimeter and get north and south. The two Ohio State guys, [Quinshon] Judkins and [TreyVeyon] Henderson… Judkins is like a finisher — you watch the end of the Penn State game, he is their four-minute back and he just salts the game away. He has got balance, strength, power. In the passing game, more screens, checkdown type, whereas Henderson is one of the best pass-protecting backs that I’ve evaluated. He is exceptional in that regard, but then he can run routes, he can pluck it — and he can hit home runs out of the back field. He is not quite as good of a dirty runner inside as Judkins is, but definitely a home run hitter who, in that system, again, can stretch, and then get up, the field, use speed and be a factor in the passing game. Henderson is outstanding.

“I could go on. There is a bunch of backs. Third round types, someone like Trevor Etienne is another one that I like. It’s a long list.”

With 31 running back prospects invited to try out in front of NFL scouts this weekend in Indianapolis — and many not even addressed in Jeremiah’s lengthy media call — it is clear that the dilemma over when to make that pick is very real.

Want proof? Ask the Dallas Cowboys, who were in the market for a rushing threat last season, waited until the third round and saw all the leading prospects snapped up in a rush before they were due to pick…