What to Make of Achane Being Ranked the Eighth-Best Running Back
De'Von Achane was named Miami Dolphins MVP in 2025 for a performance that put him among the upper echelon of NFL running backs. But exactly where does Achane belong in a ranking of the position?
An annual exercise from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler ranking a top 10 at every position based on a poll of NFL executives, coaches and scouts, Achane came in eighth at running back.
Atlanta Falcons star Bijan Robinson was ranked number 1, with the Detroit Lions' Jahmyr Gibbs and Philadelphia Eagles' Saquon Barkley rounding out the podium. The biggest surprise, however, may be the newly extended Achane, who was ranked by at least one poll participant outside the top 10.
MAKING THE CASE WHY ACHANE SHOULD HAVE BEEN RANKED HIGHER
The metrics surrounding Achane's historic first three seasons paint a more favorable picture, however.
As Fowler pointed out in the article, Achane is the all-time leader in yards per carry among any running back with at least 500 rushing attempts, and he also leads the league in yards after the catch per attempt since entering the league in 2023.
Achane's speed and explosiveness are also well documented. He finished atop the league in runs of 10 or more yards, along with runs of 15 or more miles per hour, per NFL NextGenStats.
But what this ranking fails to take into account is the all-around nature that he has developed. Despite weighing a listed 191 pounds, he led the league in yards after contact per attempt in 2025, finishing four tenths of a yard better than Derrick Henry, who is notably 60 pounds heavier than Achane.
Isolating Achane's performance from his supporting cast, we can look at ESPN's Run Block Win Rate metric, which measures how often a given unit is successful in a given year. Miami ranked 29th in 2025 and still produced the leading rusher in terms of YPC by half a yard.
Part of that can, of course, be credited to former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, who called one of the most diverse run schemes in the NFL. NextGenStats, however, has metrics that account for this.
Rushing Yards Over Expected (RYOE) predicts the yards an average runner would gain in a given situation, comparing it to the performance of any individual player. Last season, Achane finished fourth in total RYOE, and fifth among running backs in RYOE per attempt.
A knock on Achane's production, by no fault of his own, has been that Miami's offense has created enough explosives in the pass game to take defenders out of the box, and the stats certainly bare this out. Achane only faced stacked boxes (eight or more defenders) on 23.1% of his carries, which is 29th among qualified rushers.
Despite this lack of volume, though, he's still among the league's best against them on a rate basis. Achane ranked second in yards per carry, third in RYOE per carry, and fifth in Expected Points Added (EPA) per carry against stacked boxes in 2025.
Achane, no matter how you slice it, is among the best running backs in the NFL. His home-run ability is second to none, of course, but almost every metric places him firmly higher than eighth, and the tape backs it up.
Being overshadowed by Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle in previous seasons may have contributed to the lack of recognition from some league employees, but entering 2026, Achane will have an opportunity to gain even more attention with a new supporting cast.
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This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 1:36 PM.