The New York Jets invested heavily in their backfield this offseason when they chose to extend Breece Hall on a three-year, $43.5 million deal.
Hall is coming off an excellent all-around season that solidified his status as a top 10 running back in the NFL. He racked up 241 yards over expected, ranking seventh-best in the NFL. This metric evaluates a running back’s total yardage as both a rusher and receiver compared to the expectations laid in front of him by the blocking and the scheme.
Hall’s excellence in that category proves just how much value he adds independent of his situation, which is an important distinction for a player who has spent his entire career in an unfavorable environment with the Jets. His impact goes beyond the box score.
But while Hall himself is widely viewed as a top 10 running back, the Jets’ backfield as a whole is not seen in the same light by some analysts.
The analytics website Sharp Football Analysis ranked all 32 NFL backfields going into the 2026 season, and the Jets placed… 15th.
The Jets ranked between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Green Bay Packers. The top three units were the Atlanta Falcons, the Detroit Lions, and the Buffalo Bills.
It is fair for the Jets’ overall backfield ranking to be lower than Hall’s individual ranking. While many teams around the league have two proven running backs to count on, the Jets only have one, and that drags the unit down.
Behind Hall are third-year backs Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis, who have both been replacement-level players in the league thus far.
Allen’s imposing frame gives him potential as a battering ram, and he’s bulked up even further to 250 pounds this offseason, but he is averaging just 3.7 yards per carry in his career. That’s not a number you’d like to see from the player who would be the next man up to start in the backfield if Hall went down.
Davis is averaging an impressive 5.6 yards per carry, but it’s on just 73 attempts, and many of those came either in garbage time or on third-and-long. If you isolate Davis’ first and second down carries in the first half of games, he is averaging just 3.8 yards per carry.
Having Hall back for the long haul is tremendous for the Jets, but their depth behind him remains a concern. With no major additions in free agency, the trade market, or the draft, New York is counting on one or both of Allen and Davis to step up in 2026.
