Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy headlines PFN analyst Ian Cummings’ way-too-early top five running backs for the 2027 NFL Draft, and he got there without the best number on the board. Lacy’s 90.1 PFN RB Impact score trails several backs ranked beneath him, but he led the SEC with 24 rushing touchdowns in 2025 and paced the FBS with 306 carries.
Why Kewan Lacy Leads PFSN’s 2027 NFL Draft RB Rankings
Cummings reached for a pro comparison to explain the appeal. “My early NFL comp for him, James Cook,” he said of the 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior, a leaner back who wins with vision rather than power. “What you do have with Kewan Lacy is one of the most compelling creative frameworks, where he has the offsetting ability, the vision, the creative instincts, and the spatial IQ.”
That creation-over-size theme runs through the whole list. Cummings pointed to Lacy’s high school track speed as evidence the burst will carry over. “All of those things lead me to believe that Kewan Lacy has impact starter upside at the NFL level,” he said.
Florida’s Jadan Baugh checks in at No. 2, and he may carry the highest ceiling of the group. At 6-foot-1 and 227 pounds, Baugh ran for 1,170 yards and earned second-team All-SEC honors in 2025 before deciding to return to Gainesville. Cummings did not hide his enthusiasm.
“The dude is a freak athlete among freak athletes,” he said, describing Baugh as an “incredibly elastic, twitched-up runner with that fluidity that you wouldn’t expect for a guy who’s so rocked up.”
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Baugh’s mix of mass and movement is rare, and Cummings framed him as a back who can anchor an offense. “A guy who I think has massive breakout potential and is a potential RB1 candidate,” he said, stopping just short of the top spot.
Antwan Raymond, LJ Martin and Isaac Brown Round Out the Top Five
BYU’s LJ Martin lands at No. 3 on the strength of a 94 PFSN RB Impact score, second among 2025 backs only to Emmett Johnson, a 2026 fifth-round pick of the Chiefs. The Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year ran for 1,305 yards at 5.5 yards per carry before a shoulder injury ended his season early.
At 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, Martin offers a different frame than the backs around him. “He’s a big finesse back with that combined finesse and physicality that makes him a very, very compelling potential volume option,” Cummings said.
Louisville’s Isaac Brown comes in at No. 4 despite an injury-shortened year. Brown averaged 8.8 yards per carry across nine games in 2025, and Cummings sees a specific kind of weapon. “With Isaac Brown, you have an elite home run, game-breaking threat on the vertical plane with his speed and his explosion,” he said. At 5-foot-9 and 190 pounds, Brown will not run through anyone, a tradeoff Cummings named plainly.
Rutgers’ Antwan Raymond closes the list at No. 5. The Montreal native won the Jon Cornish Trophy as the top Canadian in college football after rushing for 1,241 yards and 13 touchdowns, stepping in for Kyle Monangai, now with the Chicago Bears. Cummings flagged his third-down value first.
“Right away, you know that you can have him out there on third downs because of his pass blocking value,” he said, calling Raymond “one of the more underrated volume runners in this class.”
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None of these backs has taken a 2026 snap yet, which is the whole point. The board will move. But if Cummings is right that creation ability ages better than measurables, this class already has its tone, and Lacy already has its lead.
