Top 10 RB Rankings + Undrafted Gems | Fantasy Football 2025 - Ep. 1780

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballer's Podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. Tuesday August 12th the fantasy footballers podcast Mike the fantasy hitman Jason Moore I'm Andy Holloway. Now I'm looking at the show doc here as we get started. And I'm not sure I trust one piece of information. It says this is show 17,800.

Oh man we've been at this a while.

Was I in a coma for about 15,000 shows.

You don't remember when we started at 12 years old.

Yeah, that's...

Okay, that was... I don't think that's right.

We were first to the podcasting game. I don't think it shows 17,800, but it is the second show of the week. We welcome you in. I do know that Adam Thielen will still be playing football when we get to 17000 I don't know what that would mean for how old we are if we get to seventeen thousand eight hundred but it's probably it probably means a I has made some scientific breakthroughs and our floating heads are still talking about fantasy football was that our voice we were robots we became robots yeah okay we got a running back ranking

show the top 10 running backs today to talk through. We got some important NFL news to break down. Undrafted gems we're going to talk about some more players this week that we think are interesting and will not be drafted but you should pay attention to them. And we are still announcing the big deal.

Yes.

Go ahead Mike. Take it away. UDK for life. Oh you deal. Yes. Go ahead Mike. Take it away. You decay your life. Oh you're doing. Yeah. Getting hyped. Look if you already have a UDK UDK plus ultimate food clan membership you're already in your eligibility is already set. We do this once a year. If you want to get in look you're going to get the ultimate draft kit. Grab it right now and you're entered in this contest to get an Ultimate Draft Kit for life,

which will culminate and we will announce on a big live stream this upcoming Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern. Also giving away a signed Jamar Chase jersey on that live stream as well, so looking forward to it, ultimatedraftkitid.com.

You can check that out. I do want to say, everyone, make sure you stay tuned to today's show because at some point during the show, I won't tell you when, a gigantic super pop star is showing up to announce something huge. You talking about our podcast war, Mike?

No, what?

What are you talking about?

Oh, I'm just talking about.

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm talking about we just, for no reason at all, there is a super mega celebrity on this show and they got a big announcement.

Oh yeah.

They're announcing a new. We put the Kelsies on blast and then all of a sudden. Yeah, weird. We put the Kelsey's on blast and then all of a sudden yeah. Yeah. Bring on weird how that happened. Or take us in the rankings. Nonsense. I Keanu Keanu just stay back.

I'm in the store for a little while. Mr. Reeves you say are counter to the Taylor.

Yeah you're right.

Yeah. He's announcing the next three John Wick.

I know. Oh I blew it.

Oh no.

Oh OK. No. Oh. Oh. Okay. Mr. Reeves you don't need to be here anymore. We spoiled the surprise. Dang it. I. There will be more wicks. I tag Josh Allen Lamar Jackson Patrick. I'm sure they're going to answer me soon and then we can counter punch. This is darned. Kelsey is called Don Tevion. Is it done TV and wicks. Oh gosh. This time he can't catch. Goodness gracious. But yeah, stay tuned for that.

Undrafted players to keep an eye on as preseason rolls on. We've had injuries as well, so suddenly some other players are becoming maybe more interesting, but give me a name. Well, injuries and holdouts for mine. I want to bring up Ray Davis a name we haven't really talked a lot about not enough this offseason the the Buffalo Bills one of the best offenses obviously led by Josh Allen you expect them to score a ton of points last year 16

rushing touchdowns from James Cook. There's a lot of fantasy value here right now James Cook trending towards the right direction to get back to practice today and play. So you know I don't think he's going to hold out into the season and miss game checks by any means. But we have seen people that are skipping practices holding in all of a sudden the season starts. They're not fully ready. Maybe their body isn't ready. In ready injuries can happen. Yeah you fat Thor. Yeah you fat Thor and Ray Davis.

That worked out so perfectly for you. Yeah it really did. Josh Jacobs. That year doesn't make sense he was that bad and then all of a sudden he's great again. Don't fat Thor. Don't fat Thor and maybe don't James Cook. So Ray Davis currently is just involved in a three-way timeshare and it's not great, but I do think that he is a very good player on a great team.

Really liked his tape. He was a rookie last year and he showed some flashes. You know, he didn't play as much as you would want, but when he got the opportunity, he was pretty good. And in fact, I just want to remind people, there was a game James Cook missed last year.

First of all, in the preseason that we saw where James Cook didn't play with the starters, Ray Davis was like six of eight snaps. He was he was really involved. And in the one game last year that James Cook missed, all of a sudden, Ray Davis, who had to that point, you know, been playing very few snaps, came in 20 carries, 97 yards, three receptions for.

55 he was a really valuable running back that week so I you know I just like targeting when you you're not going to necessarily draft them right this is undrafted gyms but pay attention because if week one something happens I do think Ray Davis even though it will continue to be a time share he is a good player on a great offense who would have opportunities, good pass catcher, able to be used around the goal line. So he's a, he's someone to pay attention to. Last week we talked about Zachary. It's Woody marks the backup running back for the Texans.

Austin Eckler was, was Mike's pick. Mike, who do you have this week? So I mentioned him last week, I guess. It could have been yesterday. Yes, one second. This is show 17,800. I have no idea, but we did a mock draft, and I brought up at the very end Braylon Allen, and then I mismanaged my mock draft and should have drafted him instead of my second quarterback, but it's Braylon Allen, running back for the New York Jets, which, fun it's Braylon Allen running back for the New York Jets which

fun fact for Braylon Allen he has the most rushing yards ever for a running back before turning 21 because that's what he is it he's just a he is a baby boy he's a humongous but he is the incredible Hulk and like athletically gifted and coach Aaron Glenn of the Jets. They have been talking pretty much the whole off season about how this is going to be a timeshare is the reason we're concerned about Brees Hall's ADP. And so we need to look at the other side of that pendulum of Braylon Allen's ADP is way too low. Now it could turn out that it's really

Davis Allen and Brees Hall, the three of them, and then we got a big problem. But if it just turns into his version of the Lions, with Braylon Allen being so young and so strong, there is a chance that he really carves out a role in this offense. All right, the name I'll bring up, Torrey Horton, wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks. He was a fifth-round pick out of Colorado state. The camp vibes have been so positive. He's turned heads. He's making plays every single day. Caught a touchdown in the week one preseason game. And he seems to be

winning the starting outside wide receiver job over MVS in Seattle camp. Uh, I think as the years go by and I have, uh in League of Record I have like so few picks every year. Yeah I'm just becoming more and more addicted to taking shots on rookies later in the draft. I believe your your second pick is in the seventh round. We don't need to be specific about my draft. There's a cost that's not hyperbolic to some of that. These are called facts. So also all the rookies will be gone by your second.

Not Tory Horton. Maybe so. He's six three one ninety six. He's a 90 90th percentile size guy. Four four one speed looks the part at least so far. And you have like the situation there where you've lost some stalwarts in the receiving

game. You know, Tyler Lockett no longer a part of this offense. DK Metcalf is gone. We talk about that every time we talk about JSN, but we don't talk about it necessarily in the context of somebody else stepping up opportunities. Even though a Fanta's gone, right?

We're figuring out the AJ Barner and Arroyo thing. So I think there's some opportunities. You look like a man that's like ready to push a button. Well, we just talked about him on the Dynasty nasty boys. And you know, the Tory Horton, yeah, Tory Horton. Oh, okay. He was subscribed to that. You should listen. Great show. But it is one of those things. Mike's brought this up a lot where it's like JSN is a slot player. Cooper Cup is a slot player. They're not sure how it's going to work out.

Does Cooper Cup even still have it? Right. So all of a sudden you've got this guy, Tory Horton, they're, they're rookie drafted by, you know, this regime that he's an outside guy and he's pretty much got that role locked

up.

So it's, it's pretty cool to see. He's going to do his best and forget the rest. That's there it is. That was Undrafted Jim sponsored by Walmart. Who knew that you could get what you need in as fast as an hour. Get free delivery on your first express delivery order with the code express valid for first express delivery order. $50 minimum subject to availability restrictions apply.

News and notes from around the league presented by Progressive Insurance.

Well the Reaper doing work. Look look what the reason Jason said that Jordan Love is going to undergo a procedure on his left thumb to address a torn ligament. He's expected to be ready for week one. Surgery today. So this now combined with the news that Jaden Reed may or may not be available for week one. You know, Jordan Love last year dealt with injuries the whole season and it restricted

his non throwing thumb.

Just make sure people know.

Yeah. And it's not his legs, which he says he wants to use more this year, but it's not great. You don't really want to see injuries like this happen. You want to get off to a hot start. Jordan Love has been one of my favorite values in the draft. I, I, it's not necessarily, you know, fully changing that,

but it's just, you know, you want to get off to a hot start and you don't want to be recovering from surgery as you go into game one. We have like our injury guy, Matthew Betts. He says he's not concerned with. And Matthew was saying you might see more handoffs to the left side of the line in the first few games, but overall not worried. Yep.

So but I agree. You don't love hearing that as we're entering real draft season. Yeah. A reminder, the Packers schedule is one of the reasons why I loved Jordan love their favorite in the first eight games. I think that team is very very good. I believe two of us picked them to win the division. Yep. I know I was one of you think I remember that. You know it was over. Did I. Thousand shows ago. Yeah. But you know now Jaden Reed banged up Christian Watson. He's going to probably

start the season on the, the pup list. No surprise there. No, that one is, that one was expected ACL injury, additional damage. All right, here's some what potentially significant news. We need some boots on the ground here. Malik neighbors still not practicing, did not practice on Tuesday. He hasn't practiced I believe since the sixth when he came off the field said this is part of the plan and the plan. Oh he's resting. Yes. One of those is fine. It turns out a lot of NFL teams this year they are planning to not have their players

play like their plan is to have players not practice. So so if you come out of your draft and let's say you've got like Matthew Stafford and Malik neighbors and Kenneth Walker like are these all are you happy plan you like oh my plan is to have no one week one like no I'm planning for this so you rest in fantasy does that help them right yeah rest up I need you to get double points. I was going to say that'd be a funny format is if you sit a guy, you get like points in

a half the next week, but Malik neighbors, this is a shoulder injury is what's being announced and that is not like the toe is what he's been managing since college. So this is something we need to follow up on, but we want to surface it right now. It's you know Malik neighbors is a high draft capital pick. You got to spend a first round pick to get Malik neighbors in a lot of leagues maybe second round. And I I'm still good with my recommendation Mr. Neighbors of just just pop that toe off. I would not duplicate that. Can't pop the shoulder for your arm. Okay thank

you Mike. Sean McDermott telling reporters he's confident James Cook will practice day when he did and that things have changed. It said that they had some discussions and conversations around the contract. So now he's back out there practicing the yo-yo off season of James Cook continues. Does that insinuate that he's about to have a contract come through. I don't I don't know if I'd go or they said you will not get a contract and he said oh or we'll work nose will work really hard we'll continue to work hard but we need you on the field that's part of the equation getting ready for the season I don't know I'm not there and James Cook he's playing by some new rules

you know he could walk off he could be walking off the practice field right now. And we would not know.

And that could be his thing.

Like, ah, you thought I was practicing. I do half practice. You pay me half of what I deserve, I do half practice. The 49ers. Goodness gracious. You know, Brandon Aiyuk, on track to be back around week six.

That is a long time from now. That's why he's been off our board pretty much the whole offseason. We knew that this was an injury. He was going to start on the pop which which also let me just throw this out there another player that we said hey maybe they'll get back for week one that doesn't look like they'll be back for a while. Darnold Mooney of the Falcons. Yeah he's also in this camp now where it's like, yeah, like last, didn't they say we hope to have him this season? Yeah. And well, that, I mean, the most recent comment was like, yeah, he should be back at some

point this season.

Yeah.

It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, They currently have Ricky Pearsall back who was hurt. John Jennings is hurt. Iuka's hurt. Demarcus Robinson played in the preseason game. He could have a big role, but he's probably going to get suspended. Jacob Cowing, hamstring Watkins now high ankle sprain, but that doesn't even speak of the running back room where they've lost Gorindo and Jordan James and now Amir Abdullah is on injured reserve.

Oh my gosh, Abdul, I mean.

He barely, it's like he walked off the plane and tripped down the thing off the plane, like the stairs. You guys remember an old Marty Short movie, Pure Luck? No we don't. No. No we don't. Okay, well everyone at home,

just enjoy how good that reference was.

Maybe not everyone.

Maybe not everyone just Papa Josh you I'm sure you remember that old this is when we were kids Kyle knows it thank you okay all right goodness gracious you got one Mike you want he gets stung by the bee and he starts swelling is but is the principle of this that does bad things keep happening to him. Okay. He has a name in pure luck. Oh I do remember. Yeah. You do. You do. I will have to be the beast thing. Reminded me. Okay. I'll wait for my ball. That was the beginning of Glick. Yes. Jiminy Glick. The 49ers the offseason the injuries the I

mean it's just year after year after year we go through this.

Listen Christian and George stay in a bubble. Okay. You're the two most important fantasy assets there in San Francisco. And both don't even hang around.

I was going to say both have been hurt before quite a bit. So it's like maybe practice somewhere else. Matthew Stafford, the latest word there, some McVay saying the team will be quote flexible and fluid when dealing with him recovering from his back injury. That's kind of how we are with the deucers when they have to leave in the middle of the show for bathroom breaks. Right. We're flexible. They're fluid. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

D fluting. He was supposed to practice on Monday but ended up being out. It's all going to play. It's the play. The plan is that we're flexible. The theme of 20 25 really is it's like plan instead of you know it's all glass half full. I have a plan for about 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. today guys. Take a nap. OK. Yeah. That's resting you you and Kenneth. That was news and Notes, sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive.com, progressive casualty insurance company, affiliates and

third-party insurers. Not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We'll take a break. We'll hit the countdown. Running Bags. All right, it is time for our countdown, the top 10 running backs by consensus rankings. We're looking at half PPR rankings. A reminder, all of our tiers and tier-based rankings are

in the ultimate draft kit along with customizable scoring. So you can import your league, printable cheat sheets that are compatible with your league. So you can import your league, printable cheat sheets that are compatible with your league. And again, that's on mobile. There's the new Value Scout tool, the draft analyzer, lot of resources.

You can learn about that at ultimatedraftkit.com. Let's begin.

Number 10.

Well, he's healthy right now. Josh Jacobs, 27 years old, dominant season last year in Green Bay. I've got him at eight. Jason at 12, Mike at 11 comes in at 10 in our consensus being drafted as the running back nine right now. Josh Jacobs. Yeah. I don't mind it either. I mean, this is a guy who finished as the running back five last year. And if you look at how the season went along, it was, there was a point last year after, you know, a quarter, a third of the season was in where we were

talking about Josh Jacobs not getting touchdowns. It's hard to even remember like, you know, he was like due for touchdowns because then they figured it out and he got a touchdown every single week. He was so consistent, so dominant. It's part of the reason why I've been kind of down on Andrew Luck. I've been kind of down on Jordan Love a little bit just because what they did around the goal line was so effective with Josh Jacobs towards the end of last year. If that were to continue, if that was the plan, they just figured out how

to utilize his skill set and their offensive line scheme around the goal line where it was pretty much unstoppable. If that continued, Josh Jacobs would be a great pick. I don't have any problem. I've got him a few spots below where his ADP is ranking wise, but he can absolutely, I

don't see him being drafted at his ceiling at running back nine.

The three check boxes yesterday, right? Touchdowns, workhorse roll winning team. Those all are there for Josh Jacobs, the fourth most carries last year, fourth most red zone touches, led the NFL 14 rushing touchdowns inside the 10. So they went to him like you said. And I think it's almost interesting that you, you know, you kind of brought up the fat Thor for a second. But if you look at what his resume is, that season where he played 13 games and it was a disaster for Las Vegas and he left the team, that was very much the outlier of his career. And the offseason demand for Josh Jacobs and free agency showed that teams recognized that

this just wasn't what Josh Jacobs was all about. You go back the year before, he was the running back three and You know in Las Vegas that team was not there was a magic season Yeah, I mean, it was 17.8 fancy points a game But last year back up to 16.2 is second highest of his career two of the last three years He's been just a fantasy force. So we know that potential. I don't feel like he's as He's not James Cook in the touchdown regression fears because James Cook's workload is so

much less and there's so much more like history of not scoring in Buffalo and the three headed monster there. They have other options. The fourth checkbox for me if there was a fourth which there is we can add as many checkboxes. Okay then the fourth checkbox is to have injury prone worthless backs behind you. Yeah.

I mean, there's no competent, like my worry about Josh Jacobs last year was that this is a system that has always been a time, a committee situation. And they've talked about that, like that's their preference. But you can't do that if you don't have the personnel. They can't go into the season and have a 50 50 time split here they don't have the other running backs Marshawn Lloyd is made of the

same stuff that Kendra Miller is made of it's like Laffy Taffy you just can't stay healthy and so Josh Jacobs is going to be a workhorse back for a good offense. Yeah my coming into the offseason all my my concerns were it does Marshall Lloyd show why he was a third round pick. Does the does it swing back for Green Bay where in 2023 24% of their touchdowns were rushing touchdowns and then that jumped all the way up to 45 this past year. So it was like seeing what the floor has done with Jordan Love. They

like to throw. They like like when they're getting in closer but now you have the Jordan Love injury to start, Marshawn Lloyd is hurt, they just signed, I don't know if you guys saw, Tyrian Davis-Price. Ah! Yeah, a name from the past. Yes. From the relics

of the San Francisco draft era. So like. Lord Tyrian. Yeah, they've added another running back because they're probably concerned about Lloyd. So I've gotten to the point where I am, I'm with Jason, I'm slightly behind the ADP, but I don't mind Josh Jacobs as my RB1.

Just said it with Jordan Love, they're favored in their first eight games of the season, projected win total of nine and a half. A lot of the times I worry about backup running backs making an impact when there And a lot of the times I worry about backup running backs making an impact when there's a reason for the team to go away from what happened last year.

He played 17 games. He could handle the workload. He had 344 opportunities, which was 60 fewer than he had in Las Vegas when he played 17. So one of the true workhorses, um, over 1300 yards on the ground. It was, it was pretty incredible from week five on for them once

they figured it out. And again, it was a little slower start. You say they figured it out. Part of that is just you're a brand new member of a brand new team. And part of it was the Jordan Love injuries from last year. He got hurt in week one and then he sustained an injury a few weeks later that he played

through, but it definitely affected how they were choosing to do things. All right, moving on.

Number nine.

Chase Brown. Chase Brown comes in at number nine. I got him at 12, you guys both have him at eight. I think we're all excited for Chase Brown and the potential in that offense. You saw it last year, it was on display.

This was a player that leveled up from a talent perspective, we went into the season thinking, well they invested in Zach Moss who had played well in Indianapolis. The team went into it thinking that Zach Moss was, he was the guy for the first couple of weeks.

Yeah, snap counts for Chase Brown, 33%, 20%, 24%, those first three weeks, just three, four, and seven attempts on the ground. He is not, he's not a prototypical, like, between the tackles workhorse. He's an Austin Eckler. He absolutely is.

He's capable between the tackles, but he can also be utilized, like he can have a game where he gets 10 or 11 carries, but still gives you a really nice fantasy day because of utilization in the passing game. What's crazy is he wasn't getting 10 or 11 carries when he became their starter. He was getting 17.7 carries a game.

That's a 300 carry pace his last seven games played, basically when Zach Moss went down. So Zach Moss goes down, this team got off to a slow start, they lost a ton of games, and they tried to fix it and make the playoffs. Remember, they went on a great run

towards the end of the season, won a bunch of games. That was, Chase Brown was a huge part of that. And as soon as that happened, you have Chase Brown on pace for 94 targets

for over 1200 rushing yards, over 600 receiving yards, a true dual threat back.

I care more about those games, the the targets. Yeah. I mean that is absolutely outrageous. And that's what I am going to project for the Cincinnati Bengals moving forward. Yes. Among AP Ryan will take some snaps away from Chase Brown. But like Joe, they do not want him at 85 percent snaps. That's an insane. Yeah. And saying number that was member they added Cleo Herbert at the end of the year and they'd already lost Moss and they lost backup players.

Like, I don't know, was it Kyron that ended up having those kind of snap counts for like three or four years ago? Massive, both last year and the year before. Kyron's had unbelievable work. You don't generally see snap counts in the 90s.

No, no, that was Kyron. It was basically Kyron Christian McCaffrey. So to your point about like taking some snaps here and there, that makes sense. But, but you, but this is their guy, you will get games. Uh, like, I mean, you would expect three to four targets as your floor for him. And then you have ceiling games where it just works out that this is how the Bengals are going to attack the defense. And Chase Brown is going to have eight or nine receptions and he just it. There's a fourth checkbox here. What's that? There's a checkbox. Samaj P. Ryan is the main backup. Samaj P. Ryan five years ago.

When they get close to the goal line, they just keep throwing. So give me the receiving back. Yeah. And let's hope that, I mean, this, to be fair, the only thing in the back of my head tucked away hidden is they constantly gave some IJP Ryan work when Joe Mixon was supposed to be on the field in their playoff run. But this is two years, three years removed. They've got to be smart about it. But we expect that. Joe Mixon is one

of the things that gives me even more faith in Chase Brown of Joe Mixon was their guy. I mean for years and years and years it didn't matter how inefficient was Joe Mixon having a great game was Joe Mixon having one of his stinkers of a game. It didn't matter. They still kept going to how early is too early to draft him if you're in love with Chase Brown he's the RB 12 off the board you guys have him at eight what I love is that his ADP is in the third I that is spectacular I would take him in the second okay keep it in the third people yeah mock draft season yeah yeah yeah don't pull the trigger on Chase Brown draft season

manipulate the market yeah we're not we're not managed by the you know you should have said Trayvion Henderson a note to you know keep it under control in the preseason because he's hurting the ADP a little bit. He really is. All right. This is a big name to talk about. Number eight Bucky Irving comes in at number eight. We all have him slightly below 80 P just a tiny bit, tiny, tiny bit. I love, love, love Tampa Bay. I love the offense. I love Baker. I love the stability. I love the fact that you have a system that has worked to produce big numbers year after year. And

I absolutely was blown away on a weekly basis by what Bucky Irving was doing out there on the field. He was the RB7 from week 10 on when his takeover really came to fruition. Rashad White's got the groin injury right now. Sean Tucker's talented. I don't know what kind of work he's really going to get

because they've been talking about Sean Tucker being talented for three years. But you look at the 46 running backs with 100 plus carries on the season, he was fifth in yards per carry, seventh in explosive rush rate,

seventh among all running backs in rush success rate, third in forced missed tackles per attempt. There is a world, and it is not one we're predicting by putting him at eight, but there's a world where Bucky Irving is, you get six, seven, eight weeks into the season and we're like, he's sitting at RB three.

And you're like, man, that is, that is that dude. The talent he showed on film last year absolutely says he, he could do that if he gets the workload and if he can handle the workload. Now there that Bucky is good enough to be a Lashon McCoy type of player where he could be a fantasy, you know, game wrecker on as a smaller back with high volume. But there's always the worry I have in the back of my mind is 195 pound back. You know, he had a game where he had 28 opportunities and dominated. He was the running back one.

He had 152 yards you know 6.1 yards a carry. He was awesome. And he didn't miss the next game but he got he left that game looked like he was prepping for a sarcophagus. He was mummied up. He was full wrapped. And then the next game, he plays 16% of snaps, gets five total opportunities. Because he was just, he took too much damage

for a 195 pound back.

Which I think he spent a lot of the off season has been a focal point, is getting stronger, getting the body capable of handling that kind of a workload. He wants to be that guy. What would you put your odds that he finishes the top five back? He's being drafted as the

eighth back off the board. Give me a percentage chance. Top five. Top five. I'll go. I feel like it's 15%. Yeah, more like in the 30. I was going to go about 2025. Okay. When we look at the three check boxes of you know are you a workhorse. Do you get the touchdowns are you on a winning team like the team is good. We're not sure if he's a true workhorse back here if the volume will truly be there with three other backs and then three will be the touchdown machine.

He averaged three targets a game and that was, you know, it even with a slower start. The fact that he was a fourth round running back who's the incumbent took like every snap. I mean Rashad's white Rashad White's superpower when he was good for fantasy was he just was there all the time for a fourth rounder to steal the job, not from an injury to Rashad White, just because Bucky was so much better. That is, that speaks highly.

Where did Rashad White end up finishing last year? He was like 18 or something? White was still very relevant, because he, 24, because he catches so much passes. So I mean, you had Bucky at just over three targets a game, and then you have Rashad White at 3.6 targets a game.

Yep, yeah.

So Bucky Irving at eight.

Number seven.

Devon Achan. Devon Achan comes in at number seven. This is a very unique analysis situation to me. He was the RB7 last year. It was impressive. He could handle the workload. He didn't, you know, injuries were a concern in the rookie season when he was so explosive and then miss time. He's 23 years old. We all have them right

where he's being drafted, almost on the dot. Jason, one spot higher. The pass catching work is unbelievable. The targets are worth a lot more than the carries. And you know, this was the number one running back reception leader in the game. The running back room is thinning out. I mean, Alexander Madison, who was making waves in camp now out for the season. Jalen Wright, not sure that he's gonna be trustworthy enough, he certainly wasn't last year.

And then Ollie Gordon, you know, this is a rookie. So it's definitely all on. Was Ollie Gordon seventh round? Yeah, he fell, maybe sixth. But he, you know, Devon Achan has, he has the workload.

I don't know how good this team will end up. With the offensive line situation.

I don't think that matters.

Yeah, my chips are all in.

I don't think it matters if the Dolphins are good or not because where Devon Achan thrives is the passing game. What matters is if Tua is there. When Tua is gone, so is Devon Achan. That's the risk, that's the worry. If you look at the splits with and without Tua, when Tua was gone, we kind of explained this when he went down. The whole defense is like, okay, now I'm stacking the line and

you're not dumping it off to Devon Achan. He basically disappeared 7.7 fantasy points per game in those games without Tua. But when Tua was there, six and a half targets per game. 19.5, 19.5 fantasy points per game. For context, Derek Henry last year was 19.2. And you know, he had 700 rushing touchdowns. So this is a player who, in my opinion, in my strategy,

if I'm there where he's being drafted and he's on the you know he's available I'm grabbing him yep I believe he has the potential to be top three running back he he will have the workload there isn't a depth chart here with you know with Alexander Madison getting that season-ending injury the Ollie Gordon and the Jalen Wright like I'm not worried about them he's going to have extreme. Tyreek Hill says you should be.

Well Tyreek Hill says you should be worried around the goal line but the pass catching work with Johnnie Smith gone in that area of the field who already had almost I think he had a hundred targets.

This is this guy's just going to get nonstop wide receiver PPR numbers. Yeah they tried Jalen Wright four times on the goal line in preseason week one and that didn't work. So they may need to either throw it around there and let A-chan stay in the game on the field or? It's wild though, just the risk of it not being just, does A-chan get hurt but like two are getting hurt.

You know, you look at Josh Jacobs, you have Jordan Love go out. Of course the offense doesn't work as well, but Josh Jacobs is going to have so much work. Like we're going to counterbalance the, the efficiency of the offense with volume.

With HN, if two goes out, then it's just, you are sad. It just shows, I mean, he only had, he had three rushing touchdowns on 15 attempts inside the five. So it's straight up.

That is not effective.

It's straight up did not work. It did not work inside. I mean, if he. I don't think it would work with a different back though.

That offensive line is so bad.

Well, I mean, maybe a slightly more talented, The line is terrible. I'm just saying like if they had Succeed like if he had succeeded inside the five, it's not the opportunities weren't there Mm-hmm. You're talking about a player that would have finished higher than rb7 last year You talk about the points per game numbers he would be the complete package if you could get inside the the end zone when they have those goal line opportunities, but He feels very very safe this year

number six

All right. It's a preseason bust. Ashton Gente. Negative. He's a turd. 21 years old. I've got him at four. Mike at five. Jason at seven. His ADP is five. And so our consensus rank is six. You know, you saw him briefly in the first week and you know, you're going to see a lot more of him over the course of the season. First round running backs, traditionally, they dominate, they crush for fantasy football.

You know, I think as the season gets started, I do think you're going to see Raheem Mostert on third down quite often. That seems to be the plan right now for the Raiders. But you know, do you see Gente as any sort of bust risk at all?

Yeah. I mean, so he's certainly a bust risk because we've never seen him on the field in NFL games. He played for a college program that was, he's not in the SEC, he's not facing the extreme awesome talent, but he is drafted where he was in the NFL for a reason. I don't think he will fail as an NFL player at all.

At all. He is as locked as you can be at the running back position. But for fantasy purposes, where he's being drafted, you know, you talk about those three check boxes, is he going to be a workhorse? Absolutely. He'll have the workload.

That is a guarantee for where they drafted him and what the depth chart says. Will he have the touchdown opportunities? I don't know if this offense in a tough division, they're currently slated for six and a half wins in Vegas. Yeah, they're underdogs, by the way, for for the six the first seven weeks. So you know he doesn't check all the boxes and you haven't seen it yet. The reason he's this high is because as a prospect you what you're hoping for is one of those generational players who

can finish as the running back one simply because he is that good. You're betting on the talent. You know that the opportunity will be there,

but the team is what scares me. Yeah, they were the worst running game in the NFL last year, which you know, not surprising when you look at what they had in the backfield, combined with the offensive line play, and the quarterback play, and all the play of all the players. But you're looking at rejuvenation here in Las Vegas, you're going to need them to to put it together on a weekly basis. But I think that's the plan. I think the plan is to give him that every opportunity to be exactly what you'd want in fantasy. Yeah, you you hope that with Chip Kelly and you know this team wants to run the ball and have a fast pace of play. So there's some good things here. But the bad things you look at Josh Jacobs, who clearly still has it. Last time we saw him with the Raiders, with that offensive line two

years ago, he was not good. He was inefficient last year. Thirty second best team at running the ball. Zemir white, right? But you know, but my point is Josh Jacobs is, is really good and he sucked there. So I don't know that this offensive line and that the system is really improved enough. Three new starters and like I said they're going to start up you know you go to New England in week one you're going to play against the Chargers in week two, Washington in week three, Chicago week four, on the road again in week five. I do think it might be a little bit now he could put me wrong you can go out and have 260 yard touchdowns on week one but it might start a little slow. Like I said, working in Raheem most or a little bit and the matchups to begin the year, I think we'll get there for Gente.

I love Gente. I mean, I, you know, I've got them at seven, but when I look at the draft and how it goes, I feel like where Gente is going in the first round, if you were to take a wide receiver there, one of the elite studs at wide receiver, and then you, you know, just on, you know, later in the second you get A-chan or you get Josh Jacobs, I don't know that you're really sacrificing much. No, that's a good point.

And that's the decision-making you're gonna have to make in your drafts. I will say this, what's part of it. The excitement that you might have the next greatest of all time might be a yacht, right? Right. No, it's true. All right, we'll take a break and we'll get into the top five.

Foot Clan draft days on the way. You got your rankings, you got those sleepers, you got you can't miss picks, but you know what? You got, you can't miss picks, but you know what you need sometimes a backup because, well, even the best fantasy football team in the world doesn't go according to plan. Sometimes those starters, they don't show up. Wouldn't it be great if you could have the same peace of mind everywhere else with progressive? You get more than just a policy.

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is there with 24-7 support. Don't get caught without a great backup. Visit progressive.com to quote today. Progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third-party insurers, not available in all states or situations, coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. Back into the running back rankings we go.

Number five.

Derek Henry, back again. Long live the King. Long live the King. You're talking about the number two running back in fantasy last year. Just ho hum 19.2 fancy points a game. He is the, uh, he's the player that if you doubt him, you pay the price. That has been the story for what? Three years of you know three years of doubt because he had the injury in twenty twenty one missed eight games the shoe finally dropped right it was like oh boy this is the end he follows that up basically playing every game the last three seasons and finishing top eight for three straight seasons and now

is on a way better offense with a better offensive line than he ever remembered in Tennessee. Yeah, this is... the age is the only concern and I'm not concerned. Some people are... not some people, some person is built differently. He's not a regular human being. No he's not. He I think it's fair to be slightly concerned about the age but that will not stop me from drafting Derek Henry. Do you guys remember after week one where it was the game against the Kansas City Chiefs Derek Henry's debut. He only gets 13 carries. He runs for three and a half yards.

He got the touchdown so he saved the fantasy day and then after that was the presser with Harbaugh. We didn't bring Derek Henry in here to just give him a bajillion carries and I don't know if he was playing some media rope-a-dope with his week two matchup

because from then are out then on out you have like so many games of 20 plus carries. It was the highest like you could argue it was his most consistent season ever. He only had 6 percent bus games and 81 percent good. How many like how many great teams has Derek Henry been a part of. What do you mean as in like like for like when he was on Tennessee how many years of where you were they are top not you're like

the Titans 0 the Titans were great that year. I mean I don't know if it was 0 never a Super Bowl contender. I think I think they had a couple. They may have it. My point solid. You're the point being of you put Derek Henry even at this age on a team that's the number one seed that is going to win whether they were a number one seed the Titans. Well they won the division a bunch of times maybe not number one in the whole conference. Yeah. OK. But my point being that was probably if I had to look at the

and just guess I'm going to guess like twenty nineteen or twenty twenty I'm going to guess like 2019 or 2020 I'm going to guess 2020 just based off of of when they were good. Look the point is Baltimore is great. They will be leading far more than they will be trailing and when they're leading it will be Derek Henry salting the game away and scoring so many rushing touchdowns. Yeah. And Kyle said they were the number one seed overall. That was one. I remember one year where he was in the MVP race as a

running back. So it must've been that must've been that season. But yeah, he's, he is that

dude. Yeah. Frable got frable. Vrabel got him going a little bit. They were 12 and five in 2021. Um, yeah, they look, this is just a perfect match. Baltimore.

2020, told you.

Baltimore, Derrick Henry, perfect match. Same, I mean, Baltimore's in the running to be a Super Bowl champ. 11 and a half wins, favored in most of their games, so very exciting. And you know, Keaton Mitchell, they need people to spell Derrick Henry here and there, but it's not gonna impact where we rank him.

Number four, Jameer Gibbs,

23 years old entering the prime, prime time. Jameer Gibbs last year, number three overall. I've got him at three, Mike at four, Jason at five. He is the most fun player to watch, get an opportunity and fantasy in my opinion because they can all go to the house. He was number one in explosive rush

rate 10 percent of his carries were 15 plus yards. So I had 10 percent of the time I thought he was going to score. I had no Gibbs. I had no shares of Gibbs last year just you know it was unfortunate. That's how the chips fell. And whenever I was playing against Gibbs it was a terrible time. You're watching you're watching the Lions game and every time he touches the ball just watching through fingers like I'm like there's a horror film on like no no don't let him touch it. So many, they barely clipped his foot. Cause if that, and

if that defender didn't get that one tiny clip, he's gone for 50 yards. Yeah. I think the story with Gibbs, we've talked about it a lot. So, you know, I doubt we need to focus on it too much, but it's just how much work does Monty get? Yep. That's that's everything for Jameer Gibbs. And is there any step back offensive line wise with the departure of Frank Ragnow? They're all pro center and they lost an offensive guard. Do they put it together without Ben Johnson?

I don't have any doubt that Jameer Gibbs can make something out of nothing on any play. It's just a matter of your confidence level in those factors. I think when you're talking about the best of the best backs in the league, of which Jameer Gibbs clearly is, what you really want to look at is how does it go wrong? You know, okay, injury for any running back, take that out. Does the offense take a significant step

back without their offensive coordinator and their, you know, all world center. I think that that could happen this year. Um, that's my fear for Gibbs, but if that happens and he then ends up at the same time as the lines take a step backwards, if that forces Gibbs to get more work over David Montgomery, cause they're like, Hey, we, you know, this isn't working. We've got to put our best player out there it'll probably kind of stay the same I do think for Gibbs to truly match this draft cost you know he's he's basically drafted as the the second or third running back usually I feel like David Montgomery has to get close

to vanishing if David Montgomery goes out there and gets 10 touchdowns and plays the majority of the season, Gibbs is not gonna hurt you at all, but he's not gonna be that number one, number two running back. 10 touchdowns would be a problem.

But if he becomes, if Montee becomes the Algier in this situation for Bijan, then I'm more excited. Gibbs averaged 3.7 targets per game, and that includes two weeks of zero targets. Like he's an absolute, it's like H-N, he's just an animal when it comes to receptions.

Absolutely.

Number three.

Well this guy's at three. I didn't realize where he ended up, but it's-

It's perfect.

It's cause that's where Jason has him at three. Mike's got him at one, I've got him at six. It's Christian McCaffrey. Christian McCaffrey, Christian McCaffrey, Christian McCaffrey. I don't like talking about Christian McCaffrey. It's not fun. We've done it a lot.

We've done it a whole lot. This is a team projected to win a lot of games, favored in their first four matchups. We know the sort of McCaffrey. He was league winner for two years, league loser for three of the last five seasons. It's a tall task to ask a player that has been injured frequently to play 17 and give you 300 plus opportunities. If he plays 17 and you get less than that amount of opportunities, I don't think he's worth the number three pick. If he is healthy and they give him all those opportunities, he will be the number one running

back in football. So that's your equation. It's a risk reward situation. You know, the rhetoric is Mike's very much playing to win. He says, don't play scared. I think you have alternates to also win in this draft cost.

So I don't take that approach. But he is the player that if he plays 17 and gets over 300 carries or 300 opportunities, he will probably be the number one running back. You do not need Christian McCaffrey to win a fantasy championship. You can win it plenty of other ways. If you don't want to deal with what we have dealt with three of the last five years on

his injury, don't. And I wouldn't even say that you're playing scared. You could say you're playing wise because you don't need him to win. However, if he plays last time he put you two years ago, he wasn't good. He was in 47% of championship games. It was, it was just super easy to get a championship if you

had Christian McCaffrey. So he's all, he's like a cheat code sometimes. So, you know, it feels less like playing scared and more like gambling. Like I'm, I'm playing the, you know, the, the lotto and I got some pretty good, like if, if the lottery, if you could go out there and get a scratcher ticket and you had a 33 percent chance of winning. I mean OK. Look if McCaffrey was a you know if he stayed late second I mean he obviously would be a

home run because I'd already have another running back on my roster I could lean on Mike is as bullish as one can be. Mike's ensuring he gets picked in the first round in every league. It's that. If he's healthy, he's multiple points better than the running back, too. Did you care about any of the games last year coming back from the Achilles and not giving you the fantasy numbers that you would have hoped for? No. I didn't.

Because there were four games, I think, or three and a half before the Buffalo's injury. It was definitely a slower start. And then in the Buffalo game, when he finally got knocked out for the Caesars, like, oh, there he is, there's Christian. The insane Saquon Barkley year of last year,

2,000 rushing yards, 13 rushing touchdowns, you know, a bunch of receptions. Christian McCaffrey in just two years ago was a full point per game better than Saquon Barkley was last year. And like people are like, the Barkley season, like don't forget what Christian McCaffrey can do.

The schedule for San Francisco is very favorable. They're projected to win 10 and a half games. They're favored in 15 of 17 games and their running back schedule is one of the easiest. So it's, it's the injury. If you want to bet that he's going to get hurt, then don't draft him. Dude, if I can get him and it at the turn, if I can get him at two Oh one two Oh two, I think there will be home leagues out

there where it does happen. I don't think so man. I think every time push comes to shove it will happen. Push comes to shove. Someone's going to be like I don't know. Taking that all because there's a lot of someone's at least three in the last five years that have been burned. So you might have three people not true in our league. It's all the same man. One guy three times. That is the irony of the thing. You know. Yeah. Mike should be the one stopping. Yeah. You know because they're running backs. They all get

hurt. He's getting a tattoo this afternoon. He likes he likes pain. Hey like you know remember when Frank Gore was injury prone. Remember when Matt Forte was injury prone. Yeah. But those don't come on man. Those don't count. No they don't count because they're not doing what Christian McCaffrey is doing which is every other year for his whole career. These are league losing seasons. These are break your team in half. Those are not like like Frank Gore was injury prone for a couple of years and then went on a like not why he was the number one pick in the fantasy like three times. I get both sides. I'm going to draft him. All right. Number

two, say Kwon Barkley. It was a magical year. The question for fantasy players, everyone's sake on Barkley was injury prone. That's, that's way more fair. That is actually feels because he was the number one pick in drafts and then didn't play. Three devastating injuries in a row.

He had missed most of 2020,

and then he missed three games in 2021. I just said, but he was really bad in 2021 because he kept getting hurt. Okay, yeah. Last year, 21.2 fantasy points per game. We have him at number two. None of us have him in the number one slot.

But-

That slot belongs to Mr. Indestructible.

Pfft.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

He just won your league. He should do very similar things in Philadelphia, but also that was, you know, he was not at that level in any recent history. So you gotta put the big plays, the 60 plus yard touchdowns, that type of stuff,

that's hard to bet on. But 66% of his- He's the one you bet on it though. 66% of his rushing yards came before contact. If you remember Kenneth Walker yesterday, 71% of his came after contact.

Yeah, it's- That is called, this is why called. This is not fair. So I D'Andre Swift looked very good in Philadelphia. You got an offensive line ranked number one. They are dealing with a little bit of injury concern right now with Dickerson. They got great news though. Landon Dickerson looked like he was going to miss the season and now it's he's hopeful for week one. So he'll be playing the majority of the season. So you know we're at the point in the countdown where you're just splitting hairs over players.

I think you can take take one number one if you want to. Sure that's fine. It's going to be great. Yeah. He belongs in the conversation if he stays healthy. I mean this is coming off of four hundred and seventeen opportunities. That is a lot of workload on the body. You know, it's ironic because Christian McCaffrey, we always want to say whatever happens last year happens next year, but it's almost the opposite. In reality, you know, wide receiver ones, the wide receiver one almost never

finishes as the wide receiver one the next year, and you can't just predict that. But a lot of these guys, when they come off of a hefty workload season, they struggle with injuries the next year. It's ironic that Christian McCaffrey's coming off a very low workload season. That's one of the reasons why I don't have McCaffrey locked in at number one is because the season he had the year before, before he got hurt and hurt you, was also an outlier

season in terms of overall performance. I think it's going to regulate a little bit. I have him buried at six. Other than worrying about Saquon's workload being bad from last year, there's nothing to criticize. The passing volume is the criticizing point. Like, oh, he didn't catch many passes and that's moot. Because the reason he didn't catch many passes is because he scored so many first half touchdowns that they didn't throw the ball. If he's not scoring a bunch of touchdowns in the first half, they'll

throw the ball more and he'll catch more. So he's just awesome. I worry about the age workload. Number one, you don't worry about the age of B. John Robinson, who comes in at number one overall for our consensus rankings. Number two for Mike was our before last year. He had the highest success rate ever for running back with 250 plus carries. He is game script proof. He can catch the football. Um, I would love to see more big place from B. Sean. That is something that we didn't get a lot of. That was why Saquon was so much more exciting and more fun.

And Gibbs for that.

Oh, yeah.

Like Saquon and Gibbs were much more fun in terms of, you know, the big plays, the week winning weeks. I think Saquon had what, like 30 plus fantasy points. How many times did he do that? He had it five times 30 plus fantasy points. So look, it's cool to finish number one on the week. It's cooler to score 30 plus and win your entire week for your fantasy

team. But, but B John with the age, the dependency on him, the fact that, you know, no matter what this team does, he's involved. Yeah. It looks like he had one carry over one carry over 30 yards. Are they underdogs in the first six weeks?

Is that right?

Yeah, not favored in a game until week eight because of week five by.

So, yeah, you're correct there. It's nice.

He might not have one of the checkboxes.

He might not have one of the checkboxes. Number one draft pick. I will say this. Bijon finishing as the running back one, where we have him ranked, feels like a slightly lower percentage than some of these other guys we've just talked about. But Bijon finishing at running back eight or ten, having a bad season feels so minuscule

compared to all these other people that we've talked about. So he is really a floor play that is so safe to me. He still is going to be awesome. He's going to be a top five running back, but he's, he might not be on a great team and that might hinder his total touchdown opportunities.

But every single time he touches the ball, he creates yards that other players wouldn't. They give him the ball so much. If they're down, they'll throw it to him. His four plus targets a game. Yeah, there's no worry and no risk. The alternate side does exist, though.

If Michael Pinnock's comes out and is that dude, and all of a sudden they go out and

win 12 games, Bijon's probably the running back one. Yeah, I just looked I'm looking at my projections And you know you're always splitting hairs at the top, but sometimes there's a gap right way. That's why we have tier-based ranking I Don't have a gap. I don't have a gap between Bijan Saquon and Gibbs like I took a half a touchdown I just did this for experimental sake I took half a touchdown away from my projection for B. John Robinson, because I had him at 11 and a half. When I drop him to 11, he goes from number one to number three. Half a touchdown separates Saquon, Gibbs, and Robinson.

If you told me I went into my draft and my selection was a wheel that had pie slices for all three of these guys, I would not care. I really wouldn't. I think all three of them, there's an upside case for all of them, right? Saquon keeps doing what he's doing on the best offensive line. Jermier Gibbs, camp seems to be like this is his team now, and he showed he can be the number one back when he gets it, gets all the work and has big play potential.

And Bijon, like you said, like if they're a above 500 team even, not even a super team and above 500 team. There's no way they get that way. Get there without B. John and he can score 16, 17, 18 touchdowns in the right season. So yeah, I'm really, I'm really cool with those. I personally would also want in there or I'm hitting Christian McCaffrey. I would put Henry and Christian McCaffrey all in all five. Yeah. To me. Well, Christian McCaffrey has a lot more issues. The reason why you're saying in the beginning of the first round you're not going to draft Christian McCaffrey is because even like Mike, you've got him as the running back one, but there's no doubt he carries more risk or flags than some of these other guys who can have

an equal chance of finishing as the running back one. So like I wouldn't select Christian McCaffrey over you know those guys in the tier but he is in that tier of you know range of outcomes. Yeah I think McCaffrey and Saquon is the most interesting discussion with the ceiling years right because McCaffrey's super year was 22 points a game last year was basically that's basically where Saquon was so do you expect either guy to come back and give you a year

like that again? Certainly possible. But it's going to be fun. It's going to be, you know, holding your breath, hoping that these guys stay healthy. That's another big part of it.

Yeah, last year was a pretty, other than Chris McAvery, it was a pretty healthy year.

Now, Mike has... For running backs, historically. Yes, it was. We need to get into this. I mean, Mike has the number one overall pick in our league of record. Yeah, yeah. He has got, now it's a keeper league, so there are...

He's already got Christian McCaffrey, of course.

He has Christian McCaffrey on the roster.

Yeah, why do you think I got the number one pick, guys? And there are... There are...

Oh my gosh. That's... counseling. No, he's got to choose between B. John and that's funny, right? It's so funny because Mike has dealt with this every year with Christian. His response to dying at the at the knife at the dagger jab of Christian McCaffrey is I want to feel more pain. He really is Ricky or redeem it. Is this a redemption thing? Is this like you lose the bet at the poker table, so double down and

then you get all your money back it is understanding that every single workhorse running back is that potential of a season ending injury every single game I agree no so but you have to stare down take one and be John yeah those are the guys out there on the board a lot of other players are kept you will be be making that decision. You're making that choice and you're who you're taking. Well I'm told that Robinson is guaranteed to play 17 games so I've got to counterbalance my McCaffrey risk with someone who's going to be there. Don't play scared. Get up. Come on man. All right. There you go. There's our

top 10 running backs. We've got a top 10 top 10 tips and tricks episode coming to you tomorrow. We've got a mock draft episode on Thursday. Uh, the people are hungry for the mock drafts and then we've got a, my guys announcement to make on Friday. So the, my guys episode hits on Friday. We got them locked in unless something else happens in practice or camp or, you know, Dante Pettis or something like that goes on, we're pretty well locked. But that's coming on Friday.

So it's a big week. I know some of you are already drafting this weekend. Make sure you're prepared. We got the UDK for life giveaway, ultimate draft kit.com. Pick it up. Get ready for your drafts this weekend.

It's going to be a difference maker for you. Sorry to Keanu Reeves. We'll get you on next time.

Goodbye.

♪♪

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