- De’Von Achane leads the way: The Dolphins star leads active running backs with 3.8 average yards after contact per attempt.
- Derrick Henry continues to make defenders pay: Even at age 31, the Ravens star is lethal once tacklers meet him at the contact point.
- Don’t sleep on Jordan Mason: The Vikings backup has averaged an additional 3.5 yards per rush, although he’s done so with just 397 career carries.
Evaluating the best running backs has always been complicated by the unavoidable reality that a runner’s production is heavily influenced by the players blocking in front of him. Great offensive lines make it difficult to isolate how much value belongs to the running back himself.
The point of first contact is one of the most logical places to separate a running back’s individual contribution from that of his blockers. It’s not flawless — some of the league’s most elusive running backs win by making defenders miss without ever laying a glove on them — but yards after contact remains a nicely isolated metric of running back quality.
Once a defender gets hands on the ball carrier, the offensive line’s contribution has largely ended and the running back is left to create on his own. As a result, yards after contact has become one of the most useful metrics for identifying runners who consistently create beyond what is blocked for them.
Yards after contact can be misleading over small sample sizes. A single game featuring one or two long runs through broken tackles near the line of scrimmage can dramatically inflate a player’s average. To avoid drawing conclusions from short-term variance, this article focuses on career production rather than just last season.
The five running backs listed here have consistently proven capable of creating for themselves, turning potential short gains into explosive plays and producing regardless of the blocking situation around them.
1. De’Von Achane, Miami Dolphins
Achane has completely redefined expectations for post-contact production. The Dolphin owns a career average of 3.8 yards after contact per rushing attempt, the best mark among active running backs.
More impressively, Achane led the NFL with 4.1 yards after contact per carry last season and already holds the highest single-season figure ever recorded in the PFF era. As a rookie in 2023, he generated an astonishing 4.9 yards after contact per attempt. No other qualifying season has surpassed 4.5.
What makes those numbers so remarkable is Achane’s build. At 5-foot-8 and 188 pounds, he falls in the bottom 20th percentile for running back size. Conventional wisdom suggests only larger runners should dominate after contact, but Achane has consistently proven otherwise.
He also posted multiple impressive seasons after contact during his collegiate career at Texas A&M, demonstrating many of the same traits that have translated to the NFL. Achane’s raw acceleration hinders the quality of his opponent’s tackle attempts. Meanwhile, his contact balance allows him to absorb glancing blows, resulting in a deceptively powerful ball carrier through traffic.
2. Derrick Henry, Baltimore Ravens
For sheer volume, nobody in NFL history has approached Derrick Henry. His 3.7-yard career average yards after contact per carry matches Achane’s for the highest mark among active running backs, but his cumulative production exists in an entirely different universe.
Henry’s 10,391 career yards after contact is a number that may stand for as long as the league itself. No other active player is within 4,000 yards of him.
The Baltimore Ravens star also owns two of the greatest after-contact seasons ever. His 1,605 yards after contact in 2019 and 1,525 in 2020 remain the two best single-season totals of the PFF era. Henry also produced two more campaigns that rank among the top eight all time in 2022 and 2024.
He continues to add to his résumé at age 31. Most running backs begin a steep decline long before reaching their 30s, yet Henry remains one of the league’s most physically dominant players.
Henry’s PFF rushing grade dipped below 80.0 last season, a potential warning sign on the surface. However, the same thing happened before both his 2019 and 2021 campaigns, and Henry responded with elite production each time. Betting against him has rarely been a profitable exercise.
Highest average yards after contact per carry in 2025, min. 100 carries
3. Tony Pollard, Tennessee Titans
Tony Pollard may not receive the same national recognition as some of the league’s biggest rushing stars, but few backs have been as consistently productive after contact.
His career average of 3.4 yards after contact ranks fourth among running backs with at least 400 carries. The only players ahead of him are Achane, Henry and Nick Chubb. While Chubb’s ability to break tackles has declined following multiple serious injuries, Pollard has largely maintained his effectiveness.
The lone exception came in 2023, when Pollard saw his post-contact production fall below 3.0 yards per carry for the first time in his career. The Cowboys ultimately moved in a different direction, creating questions about whether he could recapture his previous form.
He answered those questions quickly. Pollard returned to averaging more than 3.0 yards after contact in each of his first two seasons with Tennessee, reaffirming his place among the NFL’s most efficient runners.
Pollard avoided the threat of significant competition this offseason when the Cardinals selected Jeremiyah Love one spot ahead of the Titans, preventing the franchise from pairing (and eventually replacing) Pollard with the high-profile rookie. Entering his seventh NFL season, he remains firmly positioned as Tennessee’s RB1.
4. Jordan Mason, Minnesota Vikings
Jordan Mason’s place on this list may surprise some fans, but the numbers leave little room for debate. The Minnesota Vikings running back owns a career average of 3.5 yards after contact per carry, placing him among the NFL’s best, albeit with the fewest career rushing attempts (397) of anybody on this list.
His running style explains much of this success. At 230 pounds, Mason is built to run through defenders rather than evade them. While some backs rely on lateral quickness to avoid contact altogether, Mason embraces it and consistently wins those collisions.
The former undrafted free agent has spent much of his career in supplemental roles, and he enters 2025 behind veteran Aaron Jones in Minnesota. This will continue to limit his raw production.
Perhaps most encouraging is that Mason may have more football ahead of him than most 27-year-old running backs. With only a little more than 2,000 career rushing yards and relatively modest collegiate usage before entering the NFL, he has accumulated far less wear and tear than many his age at the position. There remains plenty of tread left on the tires.
5. Bijan Robinson, Atlanta Falcons
Any ranking of the NFL’s best running backs in virtually any category feels incomplete without Bijan Robinson. The Falcons star has established himself as one of the league’s premier all-around backs, and his ability to generate yardage after contact is no exception. Robinson’s career average of 3.5 yards after contact per attempt places him among the NFL’s leaders.
Last season was particularly impressive. Robinson generated 1,133 of his 1,478 total rushing yards after contact, meaning more than three quarters of his production came after defenders got their hands on him. His 4.0 yards after contact per carry slotted second in the NFL, trailing only Achane.
Robinson is clearly one of the most complete backs in football. He combines vision and explosiveness at a level few players can match. Defenders rarely bring him down with their first attempt, especially when he’s given additional room to operate out wide.
After-contact production is only one aspect of what makes Robinson arguably the best running back in the league. Yet even within that category, he has already established himself among the NFL’s elite.