This is part 1 of a series that includes 12 rookie sleepers who are being undervalued in dynasty drafts.

To keep things fair, and include intel for those in our deepest dynasty leagues, I’ve broken each position into three categories: Day 2 picks, Day 3 picks, and UDFA.

Below are my rookie running back sleepers for dynasty fantasy football in 2024.

Day 2: MarShawn Lloyd (Southern Cal) - Packers

5086/220 | RAS: 8.57 | Player Comparison: Rashard Mendenhall

I liked Lloyd as a prospect – ranking him RB4 in my pre-draft rankings – but I hated his landing spot. As we get closer to the season, I’m coming around on that.

Green Bay signed RB Josh Jacobs to a 4-year, $48-million contract earlier this offseason. It’s a deceiving contract. In all actuality, it is a 2-year, $23.6-million deal. Meanwhile, AJ Dillon could be cut before the season. Even if Dillon makes the team, he will assuredly be playing elsewhere in 2025 following the culmination of his cheap one-year contract.

Let me get this out of the way first: I do not believe that Jacobs will be the team’s starting running back at the end of the 2025 season. But MarShawn Lloyd could steal the gig as early as this coming season.

Lloyd boasts a tantalizing combination of make-you-miss agility, 4.4 wheels, and power. He changes directions suddenly and returns to top gear in a few steps. Blessed with a thick lower body, Lloyd is a loaded spring that snaps arm tackle attempts. He runs with good balance, ricocheting away from off-angle attempts.

While Lloyd profiles as a dangerous early-down back, his pass-game utility remains theoretical. He caught only 34 balls over three active seasons, and he is poor in pass-pro. He also has been a durability question, with injuries that cost him time in three collegiate seasons, including a torn ACL in 2020.

But Lloyd is simply too skilled of a runner to keep on the bench. Initially, I see Lloyd stealing work from Jacobs on early downs. Taking too slow with Lloyd on passing downs would also cut down on his reps, which would increase the odds of him staying healthy. Either way, I expect Lloyd, if nothing else, to render Jacobs a passing-down back in 2025.

Day 3: Kimani Vidal (Troy) - Chargers

5077/213 | RAS: 8.81 | Player Comparison: Jaylen Warren

New Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh watched his bell cow at Michigan, Blake Corum, get snapped up in Round 3 by the other Los Angeles team. So Harbaugh turned around three rounds later and snapped up a discounted version for his run-first offense.

Vidal and Corum are nearly the same dimensions, both rolling off the bowling-ball-build assembly line. But Vidal is the better athlete, with nearly 90th-percentile athleticism. He proved he could handle heavy volume at the collegiate level by rushing for 4,000 rushing yards in the FBS.

His running style is a little different than Corum’s. Vidal packs a surprising amount of power into his sawed-off frame. He runs low, a no-nonsense, battering-ram style. And he’s got a nasty stiff arm.

Vidal has great contact balance. He does not have joystick agility in space, but Vidal is shifty and bouncy in tight quarters, and he’s tough to square up. He ranked No. 2 with 92 broken tackles in 2023.

Additionally, Vidal adds real value on passing downs. He was arguably the best pass-blocker among RB in the past class. As a receiver, he had either 22 catches or 200 receiving yards in all four years on campus. Vidal showed off slick route-running chops at the Senior Bowl.

I tweeted this the moment Vidal was drafted.

Harbaugh is going to start the best running back on the Chargers’ roster. I believe that is Kimani Vidal.

UDFA: Cody Schrader (Missouri) - 49ers

5084/202 | RAS: 3.19 | Player comparison: Tyler Badie

Schrader is currently listed as San Francisco’s RB6 on internet depth charts. But I’m telling you: His path to an RB2 gig in 2025 is cleanly paved.

It’s this simple: Bypass fellow-rookie RB Isaac Guerendo in the hierarchy.

RBs Jordan Mason and Elijah Mitchell are both free agents after this coming season, while RB Patrick Taylor has no guaranteed money and can be cut at any time without penalty. This is why the 49ers drafted RB Isaac Guerendo, and why they shelled out for Schrader as a UDFA – right now, those two represent the sum of the 49ers’ plans behind Christian McCaffrey in 2025.

Out-performing Guerendo is doable. Especially in a Kyle Shanahan offensive system that requires efficiency and consistency. Schrader is the steady-eddy who has a feel for zone running and always gets what’s blocked for him. Guerendo, meanwhile, was the 49ers’ boom-or-bust, swing-for-the-fences guy.

Schrader, an athletically-limited, never-say-die grinder, broke out in 2023. He played in a zone-heavy scheme that accentuated his vision, tempo, and one-cut-oomph strengths. He runs low to the ground and keeps his leg churning. Schrader doesn’t have a ton of natural power and isn’t a bulldozer, but he breaks arm tackles and off-angle attempts, consistently falling forward.

Guerendo has all the physical gifts Schrader could only dream of but doesn’t play as athletically as he tested, and he sometimes runs as though wearing drunk goggles. He is, essentially, Schrader’s inverse. This could play to Schrader’s benefit.

Schrader can be had at the end of the deepest of dynasty formats. If you play in one of those, I’d make room for him on the taxi squad. Wait out 2024 with an eye on 2025.