Travis Etienne Vs. Tank Bigsby And Two More Training Camp Backfield Competitions

NFL training camp is revealing major running back battles across the league—stay ahead in your 2025 fantasy football draft by tracking depth chart shifts in Denver, Dallas, and Jacksonville.

Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. (1) rushes for yards during the second quarter Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Training camp is in full swing, and the NFL Preseason has kicked off. There are still position battles going on all over the league that will have a major impact on the fantasy football season. You need to be monitoring these position battles closely over the next few weeks. If you can figure out how they will play out before your league mates do, you can come away with great value. 

Denver Broncos Running Backs

Broncos Running Back Depth Chart

RB1 JK Dobbins

RB2 Jaleel McLaughlin

RB3 Audric Estime

RB4 Tyler Badie

RB5 Blake Watson / RJ Harvey

The Denver Broncos made major waves in the fantasy football community this week when they officially listed rookie running back and fantasy darling RJ Harvey as the co-RB5 on their first depth chart of the year. It sounds like JK Dobbins, who may be a steal as the RB37, is entrenched as the RB1 right now and will likely maintain that role for at least a stretch of the regular season. We'd expect him to eventually lose that job, whether it's because of injury or performance-based, but he's not just going to be a non-factor when the Broncos take the field in Week 1.

Broncos’ first “unofficial depth chart” of the season lists JK Dobbins as their starting running back, Jaleel McLaughlin as second string, Audric Estime as third string, Tyler Badie as fourth string and Blake Watson and rookie RJ Harvey as fifth string.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 6, 2025

What we've heard coming out of Broncos camp is that Harvey has struggled mightily in pass protection, something we knew he was terrible at coming out of college. This is one of the biggest reasons young running backs don't get on the field. What makes that so concerning is that a lot of his fantasy hype is based on his PPR expectations.

Denver Broncos running back RJ Harvey (37) during rookie minicamp at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

If Dobbins is the lead early-down back, and Harvey is a detriment in pass protection and can't get on the field on passing downs, he could really struggle to give you fantasy production. At least early on in the season. It is important to watch and try to figure out not only who the lead back is in Denver, but who will be on the field on passing downs to start the season. There is a lot up in the air.    

Dallas Cowboys Running Backs

Cowboys Running Back Depth Chart

RB1 Javonte Williams

RB2 Miles Sanders

RB3 Jaydon Blue

RB4 Deuce Vaughn / Phil Mafah

This is a three-man battle for the RB1 job between Williams, Sanders, and Blue. In reality, Sanders will likely end up being a non-factor. This should ultimately come down to Williams vs Blue. We should all be rooting for Blue to win this job. That's not because we know he's good. We just know all the other running backs in this backfield are bad.

Jaydon Blue continues to stand out at Cowboys training camp:pic.twitter.com/03lCtJfmPM

— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) August 4, 2025

If Blue wins this battle, we could potentially have a high-upside young fantasy back on our roster. If Williams wins the job, then it essentially means that Blue wasn't good enough to take the job, not that we should believe in Williams. There is a good chance we don't have a strong sense of how this backfield will be deployed until we actually see them in action during the regular season, unfortunately.   

Jacksonville Jaguars Running Backs

Jaguars Running Back Depth Chart

RB1 Travis Etienne Jr. / Tank Bigsby

RB2 Bhayshul Tuten

RB3 LeQuint Allen Jr. 

RB4 Ja'Quinden Jackson

This is another battle viewed as a three-man show. Etienne, Bigsby, and Tuten are going to be fighting for opportunities. This backfield is similar to the Dallas Cowboys situation, but all the backs are slight upgrades. This backfield could very well end up being a full-blown committee this season. It would be great if someone took the reins and emerged as the top guy; however, that doesn't seem overly likely.

The hope was that the dynamic rookie Tuten could pull away with this job, but chronic fumbling issues have resurfaced in training camp and thrown a bit of cold water on those hopes. That's not to say he can't turn that around with a good week of practice. We're just going to have to monitor the situation and hope this backfield clears up as early as possible.