Which running backs rush for the most yards against top run defenses?
Jonathan Taylor leads all NFL running backs with 653 rushing yards against top-ten rush defenses, on 157 carries and 5 rushing touchdowns across 8 games.
NFL Running Back Rushing Yards vs. Top Run Defenses
Ranked by YDS · 2025 regular season| # | Player | YDS | ATT | YAC | TD | GP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Taylor Indianapolis Colts · #28 | 653 | 157 | 399 | 5 | 8 |
| 2 | Ashton Jeanty Las Vegas Raiders · #2 | 547 | 157 | 376 | 3 | 10 |
| 3 | Tony Pollard Tennessee Titans · #20 | 536 | 140 | 314 | 1 | 11 |
| 4 | James Cook Buffalo Bills · #4 | 478 | 110 | 348 | 4 | 6 |
| 5 | Travis Etienne Jacksonville Jaguars · #1 | 463 | 128 | 312 | 6 | 8 |
Want it sliced by week, opponent, or your own custom split?
Open this in the Stat Explorer →Why this matters
Season-long rushing totals reward volume and soft matchups just as much as talent. Facing the defenses that are hardest to run against strips away the easy weeks and isolates who actually creates yardage when the blocking numbers and the scouting report both favor the defense rather than the offense.
A back who holds up here is proving something a per-game average cannot. Vision, contact balance and the ability to create yardage after contact all matter more against a disciplined front than against a defense caught out of position on a given snap, which is exactly the gap this view is built to expose.
Treat the defensive side of this equation as a moving target rather than a fixed label. Run defense quality shifts with injuries and scheme changes over a season, so a back's showing here should be checked against how a given defense was performing at the time, not against its reputation from earlier in the year.