Transcript of RB Rankings Countdown: 20-11 + ADP Risers - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/11

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Oh, welcome in. I think you saved it a little bit.

I think I was a little late to the party.

I'm already mentally there.

Welcome into the show.

John, welcome in.

Tuesday, August 11th, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast back with you.

Supposed to be pumping the people up, not bringing them down. This isn't an ASMR sleepy time podcast.

Well, maybe if somebody said it was football time every once in a while, we'd all be energized.

Give us a little, a little bump.

It's not football time, but it was on the Hall of Fame game, man.

And it turned into some pretty darn good football.

But here's the thing.

Hall of Fame game had more viewers than the highest rated NHL game last year, I think.

Yeah.

Get wrecked, hockey. But here's the thing. Had I said it's football time and then Carson Beck goes out and lays an absolute stinker. I mean, it's football.

You don't know your football. We knew that was coming.

Yeah, we, you don't know your football. You don't know your football, Mike.

I apologize.

I knew that Carson Beck could see all.

We did talk about the field vision.

Well, he, he's, maybe that makes the no look.

Oh, that was a look.

Yeah, that was a, he was staring him down.

What the DBs don't realize. Is he had fully tipped exactly where that ball was going to go.

Yes.

What do we got?

You just got to, you got to look because he cuts his visor really wide.

I know I'm looking at this black shirt crew, the triple black shirt. We wear hats, triple hats today. Deucers back there. There's one hat too.

Oh, there's no, there's one hat too few. There's one hat too few back there.

I tried on a hat yesterday and you guys picked on me.

But that's because of the hat.

You picked the hat out. He's also the only one without a black shirt.

Dude, I mean, genuinely, you pick hats like that boy from The Sandlot. Like, what?

Oh man, I— what? You know, you don't know. I don't get it.

It's the flat dad hat.

Yeah, the Sandlot where the kid is like, you know, Benny comes and he saves him. He's like, dude, don't wear that hat. You can't, you can't wear that.

I kind of remember that one.

He put a washcloth on his head.

I mean, I got to go back.

Not much different.

I haven't visited The Sandlot in Probably two decades.

Oh man, brother. It's bad.

Oh, that's a big bill.

What is happening?

That's a huge bill.

We have performance climbers on today's show, by the way. Barely any news. I'm just going to skip the segment and just give it to you real quick. And then we're going to jump into running back rankings.

Yes. There's no news. Nothing to see here. Oh no.

Wait, what is that?

That's the liar lying pants.

No, no. There's no— the news. You're right. Don't even worry about that news section. Oh my gosh. What is—

just hit the button and—

oh, you're saying the Christian McCaffrey part?

No, there's just no news. It's two of them.

We have to announce—

there's no news, guys.

First, because it is that time of year, we are going to do a UDK for life giveaway. This is your one chance a year to pick up for life the UDK for the rest of your natural life. I know we've had debates on bequeathing. Like once you pass, can you give your UDK life away to somebody else? I don't know. I think we kind of shut that down before. I'm willing to open that up.

I'm opening it up, but it has to be, it has to be in a will. It has to be in a will and some kind of, you know, we're not, we're not going to court here.

Yeah. No probate.

No, no way.

Never through probate.

But if you pick up the UDK or an Ultimate Foot Clan membership before we do our live stream, which will be August 24th, you will be entered to win the UDK for life and a signed Ja'Marr Chase jersey.

It is pretty cool. I know obviously everyone wants a UDK forever. That's awesome. If you get the Ultimate Foot Clan membership, we're going to have the, the Megalobulls coming soon. We're not opening that up yet. It's not announced, but you're going to want to play in that. So get the Ultimate Foot Clan membership and you just get everything we ever do. Forever, always, you're in every tournament. You got every product in season, out season, up season, down season, inside out.

Yeah.

DFS, everything.

Out season?

Out season, yeah.

I am trying to decide on something right now, Mike. We were sitting down to record the show.

This sounds dangerous.

We were sitting down to record the show.

I'm not vibing. I don't know what we're doing.

We've got, we had producers. You know, ready to rumble. Me and you are here. And a man came bursting out of the shower.

Okay.

And empty. And I know that that guy went out to the range this morning.

I did.

To hit some golf balls. We're back in Arizona.

60 of them.

It's dangerous. So he hit 6— what, 2 buckets?

Oh, that's 1 full bucket.

Okay. And I am afraid to ask him how it went because I know he's trying to get on track because he's got— let's just say this. There's a decent chance, 100%, that he's going to be the video on— Yeah, tomorrow— Like last week, people played 9 holes with me.

Right.

Tomorrow I'm going to talk—

And I learned a lot about myself and chemicals found in golf tees.

Yeah. Yeah, Jay, my recommendation is just pesticides from bottle.

I'm going to start licking the grass in order to end it, end this golf curse. No, yeah, tomorrow I will be recorded for everyone's—

You're different. You normally shoot the pesticides 30, 40 yards away. For everyone's viewing pleasure.

Everyone other than myself. And how it went this morning was I shot 60 balls. I would say 30 of them were horrifically bad. There was one I was able to catch. So that was pretty cool.

Like, like it hit off the ground and then you caught it.

So it was teed up. I had my driver. Oh, this is going to be— Dude, I hit that tee. Got to be 50 yards. Got to be.

Okay.

The ball, however, went straight up and I was able to yoink it right out of the air like a pro.

Did anyone see it?

I don't know. There was two old guys near me, but I don't know if they're watching.

Any tips? Did you get any tips from the old guys?

No, thankfully. They can't help. You can't help this.

So I think, I think on Wednesday we are going to have Jason's play 9 holes with Jason. You can find that on.

That will be the last day of my life.

So in all.

At theFFballers and Instagram.com/FFballers.

Oh yeah. Jeremy wants to know about the other 30.

I had 10 good shots. 20 that were like.

So that's not even Fulton Reed level.

1 out of 6. 1 out of 6 were good.

Yeah, it is.

Fullton Reed's 1-5, isn't it?

Was he? That's a Kyle question.

Kyle, what do you got? Yep, 1-5. Yeah, okay. But yeah, ultimatedraftkit.com, pick it up, get the UDK for life, be in or to win. Let's move on.

Performance Climbers presented by GMC.

All right, we have 3 names, players that have been moving up in average draft position, and we want to talk about those moves, starting with the newly acquired Stefan Diggs, wide receiver for the Commanders. Obviously really wasn't being drafted before the signing. Moving up, will continue to move up.

He's fascinating to me because it—

there's so much opportunity there.

It is a late addition. Terry McLaurin can't be the entirety of the offense. So right now, you know, he's going in double-digit rounds. So if you're scooping up, like you're doing your drafts about now, he's a massive, massive value. So the question really becomes, I think so.

So let's have a philosophical question about what good is because he finished as the wide receiver 16 last year. Obviously you could just end end the whole debate and say, well, that was really good. And he was drafted way beyond, behind that, but he wasn't good. Like he had 1,000 yards. That's awesome. But also he wasn't played in fantasy the vast majority of weeks. Did he have a handful of weeks that were great? Top 10 weeks? Absolutely. On your bench or on waivers. He was not—

I think he was in more lineups than you're giving credit for.

I mean, maybe if you're like—

that was happening early in the season. I think people faded out of that and moved on. Like people were starting Kayshawn Booty at random there.

I mean, I'm not saying he was never started for a good game, but I do think that he was nowhere near as valuable as what saying the wide receiver 16 with 1,000 yards sounds like. And that was with, I mean, I would imagine we would assume that Drake May throws for more yards than Jayden Daniels last year versus Jayden Daniels this year. So you've got a smaller pie. He was the one.

Last year versus also coming directly off of a torn ACL and puts up 85 for over in over 1,000 yards. I mean, we have to poo poo 100 targets going in the double-digit round. Sounds kind of strange.

Let's put it this way though. There's two sides to it. One, he's a year older. He's Stefon Diggs. He's not in his prime.

A year healthier.

But like Keenan Allen had 122 targets last year. He had 80 catches. Stefon Diggs had 85 catches. I think that's a pretty interesting comparison of those two guys.

And one of them's on a team.

By contrast, Keenan Allen finished at 32 with the same numbers. It was just, he had fewer yards.

A lot fewer yards.

But the same touchdowns, the same receptions.

He had about 300 fewer yards though.

Yeah.

250.

I'm just saying that's the range though for a guy that's a low area target guy like Stefon Diggs now is, is it 16? Is it 32? Is it 40? I understand it. I think there's opportunity in Washington. I think that's obvious. I think Jaden Daniels, we like him. It raises the ceiling for, or the floor for Daniels to me. Possession guy that can catch the ball. I think full, I think this is one of the biggest full PPR, you know, situations where Diggs is somewhat valuable there, kind of moderately valuable at half and not valuable at all in the, you know, standard league format. I'm not trying to poo-poo him. I'm just saying we are long— like Keenan Allen had a peak. Now Keenan Allen became a possession guy and I look at Diggs the same way.

I guess my question is like for the purpose of this segment, the ADP, he's been rising. Where do you think he lands? Because obviously, yeah, I think that's a— let's say he 8th round, 9th round. Where do you anticipate that he would go?

I think 8th is probably a good landing spot.

So do you spend the pick on a guy that doesn't have a ceiling in the 8th?

That's my point.

Or do you spend a— pick on another guy we're talking about.

Here's perfect. Here's a perfect example. Okay. Yeah. Stribling. That's great. That's a, that's a good counter because I was going to bring up Alec Pierce and Mekhi Lemon. They're going in the 8th round right now.

Oh gosh. Yeah. I would take both of those.

Of course. Like there's a ceiling and even though Mekhi Lemon is injured and maybe he doesn't get involved.

But Diggs in the 10th.

Yeah. Maybe Diggs doesn't make it to the 8th then.

I mean, would you take Mike? Let me put you on the spot here. This, this will be a decision you'll easily be able to make. Pat Bryant. With all the glazing going on in the last 2 days.

Oh man.

Or Stefon Diggs in the 10th round.

I think the ceiling discussion is very, very fair because it's like Stefon Diggs probably, I think he can get over 1,000 yards again. And I think he could be 5 to 7 touchdowns around there. Stefon Diggs is definitely a safer bet on a week-to-week basis for like your second flex play. That's what we're— and we're not talking about the wide receiver 2 on your team. We're talking about a bye week fill-in. We're talking about a second flex, just a guy who could go right into your lineup. That will be better in my opinion than like scraping the waiver wire, you know, heading into Sunday. You're like, oh, I got to find a play. Stefon Diggs is going to be much better than that.

There is definitely a place for that where I love those players midseason where I've dealt with injury or I took my swing at the big guys and now I need I need someone to plug a second flex. It's like, oh, he can go in there and, you know, he'll, he'll have 8 or 9 targets. That's fine. But when I'm in the draft, I'm just looking at guys that are way, way later. Well, talking about Johnson in the 9th or Concepcion in the 10th or Jaden Higgins in the 11th or Denzel Boston in the 12th. I would rather take a shot on those type of players.

Would you rather have Michael Wilson or Stefon Diggs?

Wilson.

Okay. That makes sense. De'Jawn Stribling. Wide receiver for the 49ers has been moving up. We are looking at ADP risers right now on Performance Climbers. Stribling was in the 12th and 13th. Now he's in the 11th on Yahoo. 33rd pick in the NFL draft. We know what the situation is in San Francisco on a regular basis with injuries. But all the reports on Stribling, all the highlights on Stribling have been positive. Picking up things in a hurry according to Shanahan. Clay Kubiak said he's been able to handle multiple responsibilities early. Fairly extensive role early on. We lost Ricky Pearsall. We lost Christian Kirk. Evans is the oldest drafted player in the top 6 rounds basically. Deebo Samuel. Deebo's interesting because they're saying he's getting all of the work. Like he's splitting wide receiver running back room again. It made me kind of forget, like last year, Deebo was not a part of the taking snaps at running back situation. But, but where are you with Stribling and taking a shot on him?

I think he absolutely has to have a shot taken on him. Brock Purdy is a very good quarterback. Like he, to me, I put him in the certainly top half quarterback, but probably a tier higher than, than most people put him. That's why I've been kind of into Mike Evans. He's obviously a great red zone weapon. Brock throws touchdowns, but Evans is 33 going on 700 years into his— his soft tissue is just brittle. He's already dealing with the quad issue. I mentioned yesterday he was back to practice. He's working on the side. He's not full practice yet. I wanted to take shots on Ricky Pearsall. So like this offense, they need someone.

They lost—

they lost Jawan Jennings. They lost Ricky Pearsall. Mike Evans, they will lose at some point. And so yes, Stribling is, he was drafted to be an important part. He's already rolling with the ones and the reports like Grant Cohn, I don't know what you think of him. He's, you know, not everyone's favorite 49ers reporter, but he's saying he's the best wide receiver at camp, full stop.

Well, and there's opportunity there. I mean, the other pass catchers that are trustworthy in San Francisco are are all older.

Yes.

So, you know, that includes Kittle, right? Kittle looks really good. Like he should be back out there, but that is not uncommon to start the year strong. That's where Stribling, I think, could— I doubt he has a breakout week 1 through 4. But as the year goes on, I mean, we used to see this with vintage Larry Fitzgerald. The first half of the year for Fitz was higher than average, you know, better than expected. Second half slowed down. I would expect similar things from, from potentially Kittle and You're saying starts with Mike Evans, ends with Stroud.

Well, wow. Wow.

Should have cut you off.

Breaking news.

Brooks said safe for news. Get out of here, Brooks.

Brooks, we're not doing a news segment. Did you hear me? I have a bunch of news to talk about, but it will not be in a segment.

I mean, this guy's going to ride in ADP now.

Kyler Murray has already been named the starting quarterback.

There was too much good news coming out about JJ McCarthy. That's honestly what it seems like. It was like, Reporters are starting to say, look, the last couple of practices McCarthy's been winning. And then he's like, I got to get out of here.

This is terrible for Minnesota. Like the potential negative outcome. It could be great. Sorry. Let me completely start over. It's great for Justin Jefferson. It's great for that discussion we had a couple of days ago about Jefferson and being— maybe it was yesterday. I don't even know what days are anymore. But the potential outcome in Minnesota is pretty rough because Now if Murray fails and then JJ comes in and it's just JJ, you're down to zero quarterbacks again. And I imagine Murray will be okay. But you feel better about Jefferson now?

Moderately, moderately, moderately. The, like we've said, the information about the quarterback battle has been very, very difficult to sift through as The, it, the, my take on everything is I don't know that I've, you're, you're, it's very rare to see an impartial view of what is going on in Minnesota. I feel like a lot of baggage. I feel like people have already decided they don't like JJ McCarthy. So whenever Kyler does something great, they're going to report on it. Or there's the, you know, that JJ McCarthy still has his supporters and they're not going to say anything when Kyler Murray does anything good. It's been very difficult to navigate, but this had to happen.

This is—

you have to pick one and say, okay, you're at this point, you're the— we think you're the best shot. You get all the snaps with the ones now. We can't keep splitting this crap up. The season is like 3 weeks away.

Yeah. The whole thing where they were going to take this all the way down to the wire. I'm so happy they're not in either direction. In either direction, you've got to give your team a starting quarterback.

Yes.

To practice through the next couple of weeks before you start the season.

And this is, this is what we thought was going to happen all along. This is why I hated the, this guy won this practice, this guy won that practice because the—

So did Kevin O'Connell.

The coach knows where he's headed. Kyler had never played in the offense. JJ had. It's not about what you can do during practice. It's about what you can do during the game as a, as a, you know, much more established veteran quarterback. Kyler gets the shot. It's good for Addison. It's good for Jefferson. It's good for the offense.

Overall, I agree, but we need— now the information really matters because I think that the— I had shared it with you guys. I can't remember. There was a Minnesota Beat reporter where it finally felt like, okay, we're getting real news because he came out and basically said, I don't care about who's winning, who's not winning this practice. He's like, they both have not been great. Like that is the true key story is both are struggling severely. Kyler against the ones. JJ McCarthy's look good, but then he struggled sometimes against the twos. So you have to make this move as the team, but this will be a follow, follow now. You feel like there won't be as much bias in the report. Yes, because now it's just directly towards Kyler Murray. How does he actually look? Because after our discussion, you know, yesterday talking Jefferson and Drake London, it's like, man, I, I'm nervous. I'm nervous and I need training camp to talk me back in.

So circling back to Stribling, I think he's going to start right away. I think he's very interesting as he's a perfect late round target because he doesn't have the same type of like, I think Carnell Tate's a great ADP value right now. Jordan Tyson probably is a great ADP value. There are, you know, Jacoby Lane's another late round shot to go with Dijon Stribling. I think this is an interesting guy. I don't think the ADP moves up much more. He could be the, it could be like a preseason highlight reel situation that does move him up the ranks.

But I also don't think it's out of like, I love Carnell Tate. He is my current by far rookie wide receiver leader. I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility that at the end of the year, Stribling is the best rookie wide receiver. He has the opportunity. He has a great head coach and he's got physical tools like the way that Deebo was used by Shanahan to get the ball in his hands and let him do what he can do physically. That reminds me a lot of Stribling, not in the big body tackle breaker, but he's 4'3"6". Like scheme him some of these plays where he gets the balls in his hand and just open space.

Do you have any concern that you know, at least in recent memory. So like John Lynch has been the GM since 2017.

Yes.

They have not drafted very well.

No, I have huge concern over that.

So I mean, like while we're getting all the, you know, the tire pumps are just blowing this Stribling thing up, are we confident that San Francisco actually got a pick?

No. Kaelin Black. I mean, it's great that he's the 33rd pick or something like that, like a high second rounder. That doesn't mean that they did a good job. He was not someone that I think was super highly touted. Like my Felix model has him with a good score with the draft capital. But when you take that out and you just have the pure talent score, it isn't, it isn't something where it's like, man, that guy should be the 33rd pick. So yeah, there's question marks, but the opportunity, the offense and the draft cost costs you nothing. Like just go ahead and take a shot.

Last name to throw out there on performance climbers, Malik Nabers. Obviously we understand why that ADP is moving. You know, he's gone up above Olave and Ted McMillan on Sleeper in the third round. He was in the fourth. He's moving up on Yahoo as well. He's on track to play week one barring setbacks.

Man, we— it's tough because I think about like our show yesterday, the top 10 wide receivers. And as soon as we got to like Jefferson It was like Drake London. He's awesome.

After the CD Lamb tier break.

To me, after the CD Lamb, obviously the top 4, I think, are better than I put CD Lamb right there. And then it's like, these are awesome guys. Jefferson and London and AJ Brown. It's like, Nabors, like, I don't know, man. Nabors is right, right there. He's got very little competition.

Starting doesn't necessarily mean He's back to full form and there have been questions about the offense. Do they concern you?

I mean, yeah, Matt Nagy concerns everyone.

It's not Nagy alone either. It's Nagy and Greg Roman combo.

Oh man.

These circus—

can they like cancel each other out though? No, no, you don't think two wrongs make a right?

No, there's more of a square root situation.

Yeah, it's a day where we have an exponential gain or decline, I should say.

Did you guys see that Adam Gase has a job?

Yeah, he's way down on the—

Is he on the—

He's on the Chargers.

Yeah, the Chargers.

Offense specialist somewhere down on the Chargers.

Who is giving these people jobs?

That seemed like a pity job. He was so far down on the coaching list where it's like, okay, dude, you need a check.

But I— when it is literally just an injury, I hate it. I hate the analysis because I don't have— the insight that the team has. But based off of the risk and the profile, uh, in the third round, I'm happy to draft Malik Nabers.

I think everyone is, and I don't think he stays there. I think when drafts come around, he's going to—

where is his second? I think second round is—

second round is Rushon Rice, Nico Collins.

We have no Dart-Nabers data, basically, right? Ever.

Correct.

Yeah, it's wild. All right, that was Performance Climbers, brought to you by GMC. We are professional grade. Let's take a break and we'll jump into Well, I guess some news and then we'll—

What?

What?

No, just like passing news and then we'll get into rankings. J.K. Dobbins got hurt. John Payton said he'll be fine.

Now I will say he said he's not going to miss a game. He guaranteed he's not missing a game.

Which he is still not a liar.

Still not, I guess, a liar. He did get injured in practice and leave with a trainer, but he's fine.

Christian McCaffrey given the day off with tightness. Just managing CMC according to Clay Kubiak.

Yeah, that seems fine.

Josh Jacobs is going to be out for at least another week with the groin injury.

These groins, man.

I was—

I've got to start doing that butterfly stretch more.

I was really talking to—

You think—

you think they're not doing it?

I think they're—

obviously they're skipping it. Hammy, calf, anything else we should stretch? No, coach.

I do find myself like, I want, I want to be fully confident in Josh Jacobs, dude. But when you mix the, like, the legal stuff got me out on him to start the offseason and now he's banged up and he missed. He's been, he's had problems staying healthy. I mean, last year was no exception to that. He missed with a knee injury. He missed with a knee and ankle. And then he was inactive to end the year. He was a machine the first 10 weeks.

The world deserves Marshawn Lloyd. It doesn't, man. Yes. And let me, let me update that. The world deserves to see what Marshawn Lloyd can actually do on a football field. Yeah.

I mean, the world deserved to see that with Kendray Miller as well.

Yeah. Well, pick one.

We don't know. We don't always get what we deserve.

So, and then Mike would like us to talk about the fact that it was all this negative stuff. Bryant had been I like how it's written in our doc.

Pat Bryant rules per everyone. Obviously, Mike put that in there.

I'm just sourcing.

Pat Bryant has been a training camp highlight guy the last 2 days on social media where like unbelievable for everyone to make sure that they know Pat Bryant was a rookie wide receiver last year for the Broncos.

Yes, third rounder. But I'm saying like you have good beat reporters who give us good information, really steaming up Pat Bryant. Some of them even saying like, not only is the wide receiver 3, but the transition to wide receiver 2 over the course of like, it might happen this year during this season.

That would be over Sutton. And then K. Adams said, what are you, how are you going to keep Pat Bryant off the field? And Sean Payton said, we're not.

Yeah.

So there you go. Pat Bryant, something to pay attention to. The big thing for me with that is, you know, if it's Waddle and then Pat Bryant is stepping up into like a meaningful role, which he was hurt last year, didn't get a lot of opportunities. That's two big weapons that Bonex is picking up this offseason potentially.

So sure.

Let's get into the ranks.

Running backs.

All right. We are counting down the running backs 20 through 11, our consensus rankings. What makes an RB2? Over the last decade, running backs finishing in this range, 20 through 11, 70% average 17 or more opportunities per game. 77% had 1,100 or more yards, which, you know, that's a lot. And then 77% had 8 or more total touchdowns. We'll start with Mike's guy, DeAndre Swift.

Not to be confused with my guy.

Number 20. But this is a Mike guy.

Yeah, that's fine.

This offseason.

That's fine. I, I'm in on DeAndre Swift, man.

Well, you're in on the offense.

Yep. You're check.

You're in on the forever dismissing DeAndre Swift, yet him producing part of his career. Now he has always been a running back to 18, 19, 22, 23, 19, 14.

He got close this year. Or last year.

I don't know how a player to me looks so good and so bad on different plays. That's one of the things that is weird about DeAndre Swift. And it's also weird when you have played on, you know, 3 different franchises in a 6-year career and teams don't love you. Now we thought maybe he would get dismissed or not used by Ben Johnson. And that's not been the case.

Like everything is set up. For DeAndre Swift of Offensive Guru. Offensive Guru came in and said, this offensive line is garbage. Here is money. Fix the problem. And they did. It doesn't always fix, but what they did, it worked out. Their rush success rate went from 21st to 3rd. Yards before contact. That's a huge one. That went from 26th to 6th. Their run block rank on PFF went from 14th to third and DeAndre Swift still goes in the middle rounds, which, and he's the pass catcher, you know, there, I like Kyren Ngai. I think he's, he's a fun, interesting player towards the end of drafts. You can get him much later than Swift. If you're wanting to do the, I want a piece of the Bears running back committee, I'll take the later one. That's fine. But I think that Swift is going to be the leader of it and we're just going to see more of what we saw last year, potentially even better, not just because of Swift, because of Caleb and his command, you know, the projection of what can Caleb do in the second year of this offense, assuming Luther Burden is healthy.

This thing should be, it can easily be a top 5 offense in the league and Swift is the leader. He's going to score a ton of fantasy points.

Yeah, I mean, he is as undesired by the masses as possible because you just don't see a path for him to really finish as a league-winning, top-5 back. He's been in the league long enough. We know what he is. He's a running back too. He's solid. He's good. He's out there for most games, which is great. He's a good pick in fantasy football. He's not a league winner, but he's a good pick. However, we, you know, we, we, we talk about some of these guys behind, like when Manungai, when Swift missed week 9, Manungai was the running back 3 in fantasy football, had a ton of work. This is a great offense, a great offensive line. And a system that wants to run the ball. But obviously the other thing can happen too. Like should, should Manunga get injured, that is how Swift becomes a league winner.

Yeah.

Because I think the red zone is an interesting conversation there. They basically split the work last year. It is something where Swift, I think him coming off the field half the time in the red zone is a limit to the ceiling.

Yeah. He just, he had 13.2 points per game. Last year. Like, that's 0.2 points behind Saquon Barkley. And I mean, that was more points per game than Ashton Gentry. And it's like, but where he's going is not in the first or the second round. He is, he's, he's such a, he's such a good pick to me.

77% of RB2s have 8 or more touchdowns. He had, he was over that mark last year. Number 19 is Bucky Irving. I think one of the most Polarizing?

Not even polarizing.

I mean, just like, just wildcard, uncertain wildcard players. He's only 23 years old, guys. I mean, Bucky is being drafted at RB19. So we're exactly at ADP there on him.

The latest reports, because I think that if we knew Bucky was going to get the workload that he got at the end of the rookie season that he started to get for his sophomore season, Bucky would be You know, probably a low-end RB1 as far as where he's being drafted. Now the question is, while they lost Rashad White, they brought in Kenny Gainwell. And what is the utilization going to be? The early reports from camp are that the vast, vast majority of carries are going to Bucky Irving. He is like their running back. However, there's a lot of two running back sets now with Gainwell on the field. Gainwell is doing a ton of the passing work and he so far in the last report that I saw in camp, he's getting more receiving work than Bucky. So that really does make sense. It does make sense. That's Gainwell so good at it. But it nerfs Irving's upside if he loses a ton of passing work to Kenny Gainwell.

Yeah, I think we want to see the between the tackles runner that Bucky was. As a rookie come back to light because there's going to be opportunity if the offensive line, which is ranked 5th and Baker's healthy and you've got Zach Robinson, like there's a lot of upside to, you know, I think Bucky's a great pick if they're a top 10 offense. I think he's a bad pick if they're a bottom 3rd offense. Like a lot of it depends on the surrounding situation to me.

Yes. The hard part for Bucky is The talent is there. How will he be used? Like if we're saying a lot of the running back receptions are going to Kenny Gainwell, that's a negative for Bucky. And then last year, you know, obviously not a complete full season for Bucky, not a single carry inside the 5. And if this coaching staff is deciding We don't want Bucky doing the inside the 5. He's not our goal line running back. And Kenneth Gainwell is more of the pass catching back than Bucky. Like you want the guy who's in on first and second down because that's where the true fantasy points are. But if that's just 20 to 20, you have a really big problem for his ceiling.

Here's something interesting about all the players going in the range of Bucky Irving, which by the way, it's Travion Henderson, but he's losing first and second down.

Work.

It's Travis A. Chan Jr. He's losing third down work, which is what Bucky's doing. It's Judkins losing third down work, which Bucky's doing. It's, you know, Bashaw Tuten, who we think might lose goal line and third down work, which is what Bucky might do.

Like, and then there's DeAndre Swift.

And then there's Swift. So Swift just seems like—

that's why I like Swift because he— sure, you can have question marks about Swift, but he's like a almost 2 rounds cheaper than all those guys we were just talking about.

Yep. And so are you, you know, Cam is basically in the same area as well. And I think I'd take Cam Skatteboo over Bucky.

So that's the question is, you know, when, when you're on the clock and Bucky's there.

Negative. There was some negative news about Cam.

Yeah.

About Cam Skatteboo that he's coming off in all 2-minute drills to Tracy.

That would be, I don't like that really bad. Oh, that would be naggy.

Yeah.

No, that would, that math checks out. That math completely checks out. Of course he'll come off. He's their best weapon in a 2-minute drill. So you got to, you got to outthink yourself, you know, you got to make sure.

They will never see it coming. No, you, I mean, they'll put Tracy on the field and be like, they are never going to give that guy the ball. Tyrone, why is it still red?

Because here's why.

Why is it still red?

Here's why, it's because the hype train, I have to hit the button again to stop it. But the red alert, I don't. And I'm supposed to remember it all. Every time.

Does workman's comp cover UV burns from panic alarms?

It's my fault, Mike. Al would like you to know it's my fault.

But Tyrone Tracy will be the 2-minute back because he shouldn't be.

See, that is— that's why I get really scared with everything on that offense. That's why I get scared about Nabors being as good as he should be. It's why I get scared about Dart getting to do what he wants to do. I'm very I'm very scared of the Giants.

Well, I've had this deck of playing cards that has not left the table. So looking forward to busting those out.

So, but I do like Skat more than Irving.

I think this is, I think this is worth bringing up for the Foot Clan because we've, we were talking about how in those early rounds when we were going through, when we get to the Justin Jefferson and we get to the Drake London, and it's like, obviously everyone at that point in the draft, they're great, but there's a lot of questions and that there's ways that it can go poorly, whereas there were really, really good running backs instead there. But now when we get to this point where we're like, I don't know about Bucky or Cam or a lot of these questions, Henderson, the wide receivers that are there are, you know, DeVonta Smith and Lad McConkie and Emeka Igboeka and Zay Flowers. It's like, To me, I'm looking strategically at just the 2026 draft. I like the wide receivers here more than the running backs here.

Almost like there's a running back dead zone, Jay.

Yeah, basically. And it's moved, it's moved up.

I wouldn't say that I feel like any of the guys you talked about so far, including this next name, I wouldn't feel comfortable as my RB2 though. Like I, they're not in that. I'm not that level of afraid.

I agree that I wouldn't be uncomfortable, but I just think that the odds are higher for some of these guys that it goes wrong. Ironically, This guy, I think he's pretty darn good.

Javonte Williams. I am the highest on Javonte at 15.

Oh, that's fine.

I'm so proud.

He was a running back 11 last year.

Solid. Solid is the way to describe Javonte.

I am very happy for Javonte.

There's nothing spectacular about Javonte's game anymore. It's just, he's a great running back. He can handle a large volume. He had his best year. Points per game-wise last year, 14.1. He missed one game. His workload, his efficiency, everything went, went to a place where we were like week in and week out. Oh, look at Javonte again. Oh, look at, I mean, there's an offense we love.

He's not good in the receiving game, but he is used in the receiving game, which is enough.

It was like Chuba. Chuba would get past the ball all the time and do nothing with it.

Follow the goal line back. He is the passing downs back and he's the between the 20s back. So he is a true workhorse back for one of the offenses we're targeting. He's not necessarily the most explosive player where you're going to have some breakaway amazing season, but he's not aged out either. He's not an old man. So to me, it's like get a piece of the Cowboys offense, get a piece of the Bengals offense, especially when those two running backs have no competition on the depth chart.

He had 8 total touchdowns inside the 5 for the previous 4 years. Last year he had 10.

Do you guys have big news?

J.K. Dobbins is back out on the field in pads.

That's right, babe. I told you no news.

Pretty remarkable.

Nothing to see here.

Pretty remarkable.

Nothing to see here.

Don't worry about it at all.

I won't.

But you should. Breece Hall.

I think Jayden Blue is worth talking about because he was an absolute He was nothing last year. There was what the Gucci, Gucci cleat gate where the rookie showed up and thought he was hot stuff and seemed like from that moment on the team had to humble him. But the news on Blue is much, much better this year. So I'm just curious if you guys have any concern for coming in.

None. I just, I, I want to yawn so much through what you're saying.

I just want to like, I don't care at all.

I couldn't care less.

Yeah. And it's not, it's just those guys are just ancillary. I need a blow. Is it Mafa or Blue?

When you hear all the reports, Malik Davis, I don't care what he does.

When you hear all the reports of like, I had to learn a big lesson rookie year and I've learned it. Like, okay, great.

Here's what Javonte did. Had a great season. They paid him more money.

Yeah. I mean, he's the guy. I mean, If you want to talk like, okay, an injury happens to Javonte, is it Jayden Blue? But we're not even sure it's Jayden Blue. I have zero worries that someone's going to like take a chunk of work while Javonte is healthy away from Javonte.

Here is a player that I am the highest of the three of us by a lot and I'm just really close to planting my flag on. Breece Hall at 17. I got him at 13. Jason at 17. Mike at 20. Mike a little bit behind ADP. Jason right there. I'm ahead. Look, he got the bag this offseason, 3-year extension, guaranteed money, 1,400 yards from scrimmage in an offense last year that was an utter embarrassment. But one of my favorite things I've read this offseason is just the fact that the drumbeat has been, one, I like the way the offensive line is trending. Two, they paid him the money. We don't have this cloud over the head of Breece where it's like, They want him out of town. And then they've talked about featuring him more. They've literally like, oh, it's a Braylon Allen. Imagine, you know, but they've literally talked about featuring Breece Hall, which they've kind of done against their will. It feels like at times I think he is.

I love, I love the, the pick of yours of liking Breece this year. I think he's going to be very involved. He's, he's great as a pass catcher. We saw Gente last year propped up by Geno just from the dink and dunks. Little drop-offs. And that's Breece. One of his best parts of his game is taking those little dump-offs. There's— and he's going to play Friday.

He's still explosive. I mean, he has big plays.

All the Jets starters playing Friday.

4th in explosive rush rate. Breece Hall, 10th in forced missed tackle rate. 36% of his carries 5+ yards. They knew what they were doing. They knew what the Jets were doing. They didn't have a passing game. And they still, he still had success. He has always had success.

They should have one of the more changed offensive lines. So there's, and I think there's a lot of, we're tired with Breece Hall. After he was running back 4 as a sophomore, we got too hyped and he disappointed a couple years in a row. But right now where he's being drafted, there is upside. Where he can, he can finish as an RB1. Obviously he's not on a great team, not a great offense. The scoring opportunity is not going to be there, but he's explosive. He's using the passing game. He's their goal line back. He's basically everything that some of these other guys are, just not on a good offense. All right.

We'll take a quick break and come back with the rest of the rankings. All right. Cam Skattebo comes in at 16 on the rankings. We did just talk about him quite a bit. It was awesome as a rookie. You know, he was number one in the entire NFL in terms of the percentage of his rushing yards after contact. Like he got it done. He could fight through tackles. Everything you saw on the college tape, he just translated right into doing it to, you know, linebackers and, you know, corners and everything else at that.

Only Ken Bone Walker had a higher forced missed tackle rate.

Yeah, he was awesome.

I mean, he brought it up too of like, that's his way of avoiding punishment. You know, when we were chatting with him, it was like, if he hits you first, then his legs don't take punishment. He doesn't take that damage. He is totally fine to damage his head so long as he's saving his legs.

Yeah. And he was just great. 17.4 fantasy points per game in his starts. But I just, I just am at this place where I don't know how prescriptive anything they did last year was. You know, Tracey, how often do you involve him? You know, what does Dart in this offense look like? I don't know the answer. Matt Nagy, Greg Roman, Brian Callahan, that trio scares the living daylights out of me. They're also going to be—

trio.

Yeah, I mean, but, but Cam is—

Triforce of sour.

We were so close to Cliff here, but Cam, Cam is just kind of— he's the kind of guy that more momentum. In the game, more opportunities in the game, he wears people down. So I hope that this offensive brain trust can recognize that and not take him off the field. Could easily just to say that you have a third down back.

Yeah, I could see it happening down the stretch where the choice is kind of taken away from them. You know, I would not be surprised if you come out and week one and for this month of the season, it is a three-way committee. You know, they get Devin Singletary his and then Tyron Tracey. Chyron Tracy is the 2-minute back and some passing downs back and first and second down is, is Cam. But I do think as the season goes on, kind of what happened in his rookie season, you just see like we can't really take this guy off the field. He can do it all. He's really, really good. So I expect him to have a better second half than the first half. He's a scary pick to me because there are ways it could easily go wrong, even though love the talent, love the player. If you had the right coordinator, like, and maybe they do, maybe they just say you are our, this is a team that wants to run the ball for sure. They want to run the ball. I said that they have a good defense early in the offseason. They didn't last year.

I think they're going to have a good defense.

Yeah.

That's bold. Time will tell.

They're not, the problem with that is best laid plans for teams that are underdogs a lot. It can take away your running game. Yeah, I mean, are they going to be above .500?

But that's the thing with Skadaboo is that he should be involved in all three. You know, he should be, he should be a pass-catching back. He's, that's like, I know he's seen as an RB1. No way.

Okay. I want to know when we get to a name today on the 20 through 11 where you might be comfortable with him as an RB1.

No way.

If you went heavy wide receiver, played onesie in the draft.

If I was his offensive coordinator, I'd be, I would take him. Running back 4 because I would just give him the ball 30 times a game.

And the injury is still like he is still recovering from major injury.

The earlier on, if you, you know, if we can pull any of the trends from, so 2017, he was the OC talking Matt Nagy. He was the OC of the Kansas City Chiefs. That was one of the Kareem Hunt years where it was Kareem Hunt led the league in rushing.

You don't dismiss that for Andy Reid though. Well, I just like—

hold on.

Okay.

So he led the— so tons of 272 carries, 63 targets. Matt Nagy parlays that into becoming the head coach of the Chicago Bears, which to his credit had incredible success in year one. Running back-wise, it was Jordan Howard was at 250 carries, only 26 targets because it's Jordan Howard. The next year we had Montgomery at 242 carries, 35 targets. And then that followed up with Montgomery, 247, 68 targets. So he's, I'm saying it's not out of the, like, it's not like when we're looking at Monken where it's like there's just the stretch, you know, like he's got a guy who for sure carries the ball and then he has a guy who for sure catches the ball. He utilizes or, you know, at least has used his guys sort of correctly. We'll see if he can continue that.

Definitely the ceiling case for Skadaboo is an RB1. Like, yes, he can easily finish as an RB1. It's just a scary process of where you're putting your trust.

Well, 15 is Jeremiah Love of the Arizona Cardinals, 21 years old. I mean, everything you could ever want in a feature back skill-wise, elite in every way. I mean, he is a dominant receiver, but you're on the Cardinals and you're on Cardinals offense that has Tyler Allgeier. I mean, I haven't heard a whisper about a play from James Conner this offseason. Maybe you guys think he's still hurt. Okay. Well, maybe that explains it because I mean, that would—

because all I've seen is, is Allgeier and Jeremiah Love sharing work, which is a, is an issue, at least the way that they have publicly talked about James Conner, like they're still talking about him as he is very much in the plans for the running back room and he's not even—

I've seen him out on the practice field. That's why I'm confused. Not playing, but like talking to coaches and stuff. So, and in pads. So I'm a little bit confused about, like there's a lot of rumors about Conner filling in gaps in different teams. Like maybe the Lions with the MCL sprain to Pacheco go after James Conner to be a backup to Gibbs. Situations like that where the running back rooms are thinned out a little bit.

I think that when Marshawn Lloyd inevitably gets hurt, that the, that you've had Conner recovering from his injury and then Trey Benson continues to be hurt. I think that that probably weighs in right now of the Cardinals. Like, do we have a third running back that we know we can at least get on the field?

Gente was the RB 6 in ADP last year. First round pick. Bijan was the third running back as a rookie prospect. Zeke was the third running back off the board as a rookie prospect. Love is now 13. Like we, we, you aren't paying.

I don't hate it.

A ton of money. I mean, if you trust LaFleur at all in making decisions that are advantageous to his team scheme-wise, like the improvement from Gannon to LaFleur on offense. Like if you, if you go, what is that? Rational coaching?

Yes. The fallacy of rational coaching.

Your path to victory is Jeremiah Love getting as much work as possible at 21 years old with the third pick in the draft. I guess I'm just curious if that discount is enough for you to take a shot at it.

I, I'm okay with it. I've spent most of the offseason being kind of prepped and concerned to be completely out on Jeremiah Love, running back 13. Even the rankings and projections is slightly behind that, trying to factor in some dumbness from what the coaches are doing. But prospect-wise is like, I think Love is a better prospect than Gente was. I think he is a better prospect than Bijan was. Like this is a true elite player to me. And I just— that's so Bijan went at the running back 3 in for ADP-wise when he was a rookie. And it's not all that dissimilar to me of, you know, like this, it's not going to be a good team. It's a highly drafted running back. They should fully feature him. Now, you know, he got algiered a bit. Ironically, in the world we are in, Jeremy Love will get algiered a little bit. That's the question is like when they get inside the 5, who's going to be in there? Is it going to rotate? Is it going to be Allgeier or will it for sure be Love? Because if it's for sure Love, running back 13 is—

can't you make the argument like this? It's not for sure Love. I mean, it's going to be at the very best. I think it'll be a rotation. They will bring Tyler Allgeier in on the goal line in certain situations because he's good. They did it with Bijan. Even into Bijan's career, not just when he was a rookie because Tyler Allgeier—

It's not Michael Carter with Breece Hall.

Right. And going back to Breece Hall, if you look at, you know, LaFleur was the OC during Breece Hall's rookie season where he wasn't even as highly drafted a guy and they had Michael Carter.

Breece was a second rounder.

He eventually took over.

Breece was averaging 16.4 fantasy points a game before he got injured in his rookie season. On pace for 200 carries, 62 targets. I believe that Love will get enough work. He will get vultured on the, on the goal line too much. He will also not be someone that in his rookie season is getting 275 carries on the ground. This will be, he will, he will be more around 200 carries and you're hoping he gets like 60 or 70 targets.

If 70 would be insane, it would be awesome.

That might be the argument for Love. Yes, entirely. You're going to— you're not just underdogs in every single one of your games. You're double-digit underdogs in 4 of your first 6 and 7.5 and 8.5 point in the other 2. Algiers not going to be out there on these, on these comeback attempts, right? Isn't it going to be Jeremiah Love catching? It should be. Like check down Charlie situation.

It should be Love. And so if he gets 200 rushing attempts and we'll call it 65 targets, he should be an ADP of being the running back 13. He just finishes as an RB1.

Historically since 2015, here's running running backs drafted in the top 10 of the NFL draft. Barkley finished at 2, Zeke at 2, Bijan was 9, Gente, it was, it felt really bad and it was 12. McCaffrey was 11, Trent Richardson was 8, Leonard Fournette was 8, and Todd Gurley, even coming off of the ACL injury, finished at 7. So I mean, historically, this is a, you know, the top 10 running back in the NFL draft is a great bet for fantasy. RB13.

I've—

Gente, I think I'm in.

Gente is why Love is going to be a fine pick this year. Like, Gente made everyone get too hot and bothered. He was the running back 6 drafted last year and he was a bust even though he finished as an RB1 because he didn't return on that value. You're not drafting Jeremiah Love in the first round. He's absolutely fine where he's going right now.

Number 14 is Kyren Williams, the hotly debated Kyren Williams. I got him at 19, Jason at 12, Mike at 16. 16.

Yeah, just right.

I mean, Kyren's a very good player. He's not an explosive breakaway type of guy. He's a high opportunity grinder. The big argument for me is just, just look at the data. There's a team that was pressing for the Super Bowl pre-bye week. Kyren was getting 72% of the running back opportunities post-bye week. It was 57%. Yes, he performed statistically for fantasy, but it's a law of averages thing for me where if the team has made a decision to share the running back workload, you're going to have a reduced effectiveness for Kyren at some point in time. I think Corum is awesome. All the offseason reports have been great. So I think there will be a slightly reduced running back workload for Kyren. So I have him slightly below ADP. I mean, I'm 4 spots below ADP. I don't think that's weird because you have to decide what you think the team is going to do.

It would seem like you won't have any Kyren on your team though.

I will have no Kyren on my team. No, I will have lots of Blake Corum on my team. Yeah, Corum was in— he won't be a my guy because he's still too— like, I don't think he takes over the job from Kyren. I don't think that that's in the realm of possibilities is Corum becomes the RB1. I think Kyren stays the RB1, but I think you've seen a progression of running back opportunities reduced for Kyren Williams. And that's something I don't like at his ADP.

Jay, is it my turn? Yeah.

Kyren Williams.

I ceded my time. To the fine analyst on my left.

Kyren Williams is a very good running back who is part of the heart and soul of this team. That is their lead back that is paid. They gave him the contract to be the man. Blake Corum is very good. And don't hear what I'm not saying. Corum is a good fantasy pick. He is. I put out a tweet of like the insurance backs. He's a league winner. Should, should Kyren go down? Corum is awesome. Corum can be more involved and Kyren still be a fantastic pick in fantasy. And that's what's going to happen. Corum is going to be more involved and be fine. And Kyren is going to be a good pick in fantasy. He's been a running back one the last 3 years. He's on one of, if not the best offense in the league, right? You guys, you know, he's, he's in that total upper echelon, especially when the only reason I wouldn't put the Rams necessarily with the Bengals and the and the Cowboys and the Lions is because their defense is good. But that's good for the running back. That means at the end of the game, they're running the ball more and more and more, more opportunities for Kyren.

When Corum was super involved at the end of the year and they both had 11 carries inside the 5, like they were both used as goal line backs, Kyren was averaging 14.5 fantasy points a game. Kyren turned his 11 into 6 touchdowns. While Corum turned his 11 into 3 touchdowns. Kyren is not going away. Kyren is the leader and he will score a ton of fantasy points. Will he be the, you know, 85% bell cow, the Christian McCaffrey? No, but that doesn't mean he's a bad pick where he's going right now in fantasy drafts. He's just like, I'll tell you what, would I be comfortable with Kyren Williams as my running back one?

Absolutely.

He, I see him as a as a guaranteed running back one for fantasy.

He seems like—

and that's where, I mean, I'm not alone and I addressed all of the things you said when I spoke. So I don't need to go back and do it again. He's being drafted at RB 15 outside the RB 1 category. It's not the consensus opinion that he's an RB 1.

He has to be a favorite among running backs for double-digit touchdowns.

Certainly. He is. The DraftKings lines are—

they're going to be on the line. They scored 65 times this year.

Yeah.

And like, there's plenty to go around for a 1A and a 1B.

Yep. But I mean, I think it will be the turning of the page towards a new paradigm and, and, and yeah, Kyle says his projection, his line is 9.5 touchdowns rushing touchdowns.

So that's not even receiving.

Yeah. I've got him 4 spots lower than ADP. So that's, that's what I think of Corum. Jason's got him 3 spots higher than ADP. At 13 comes Josh Jacobs, 28 years old, dealing with the groin. We've all got him about the Same spot.

Yeah, we'll see if he stays here.

Most touchdowns inside the 10 in the NFL over the last 2 years. Huge part of the offense. It's really, you know, we can say all the jokes or whatever about, you know, Marshawn Lloyd finally getting an opportunity. If Jacobs is healthy, they don't care about Marshawn Lloyd. This team cares about giving Jacobs the rock because he thrives on more and more opportunities. On being out there for his team. You know, there is just, it's not a very messy situation outside of injury to me.

There's, is he healthy? He's dominant. Is he not healthy? He's not on the field. I mean, that to me, it's very simple. He's a goal line machine. They figured that out and they score every time they give him the ball near the goal line. He was so consistent.

He was, I gotta think he was first 9 weeks last year before injury on pace for 21 touchdowns on the ground and 64 targets with 52 receptions. Yeah, I auto RB1.

I had him last year. I mean, it was our league of record team. I had the Jonathan Taylor and Josh Jacobs. It seems hard to remember how good they were now in the first half of the year.

Yeah, that's fair.

But they were genuinely unbelievably dominant. And then he got injured, dealt with that, kind of played through it when he shouldn't have, then got punished again. It was a weird, wacky year this season because of it. But yeah, I mean, those, those first 9 weeks he was the running back 5.

Favorite in the first 6 weeks of the year, Green Bay is.

I will not argue anything about the touchdowns, but I'm curious of the just, you know, lack of explosive plays. And, you know, he's grinding it out. He's maybe he's doing what the team wants him to do. But this is a situation that I think is primed for someone else to get more work than you're hoping.

Saquon Barkley comes in at 12.

Oh boy.

It's a nerve-wracking player to draft, but he's at 12. So again, everybody here is our consensus rankings. Jason's taken the shot at 4 spots lower.

I don't feel good about that.

So my, the, the, which according to our Kyren Corum analysis means he hates him beyond all measure.

How do you respond to hating Saquon Barkley, Jason?

I would say that it's rare for a running back at 30 to get better than the year prior when they start to statistically like lose a step. Now there are rational thoughts on how it can happen. Last year, the injuries to Lane Johnson and the offensive line for the Eagles might be the reason why it wasn't the age to Barkley. It was the offensive line situation that caused Barkley to be less efficient. That makes sense.

As a whole was pretty dry paper.

Petullo was a terrible offensive coordinator and now they've got Mannion in. The offensive line should be better. Also, another humongous change for this offense is Jalen Hurts, who never was really under center. When he was under center, the offense was very good. Under center, play action, those things. They're really, really good for the running back position. So he is focusing on being under center much more. The offensive line is better. That's all great. But when you look at last year and you say, well, Saquon was inefficient because of Patullo, because of the offensive line, Tank Bigsby was awesome. When he got the ball, he didn't have any problems whatsoever behind that, that line. And what we've seen in camp, maybe it's, you know, look, it's smart. Saquon's going to be 30. Don't just run him into the ground. But Tank has been more and more involved in camp. And so I wouldn't be surprised if this year it's going to be the Saquon show. But I think that Tank will get more than he has in the past. And Saquon has been getting the entirety of it. He's been getting like the, the full Christian McCaffrey type of workload.

So being 30 years old, having lost efficiency last year and the potential for work to be ceded. That's just that. That's why I'm scared. But I'm also like terrified that Saquon could be— if you say like, could Saquon be the running back 1 this year? I'd say yeah, he could. He could end up with, you know, it's in the range of rushing yards and 12 touchdowns and still be involved in the passing game. But I am— I bypass him in most drafts where he's going. He's being drafted as the running back 7. And I like other backs there.

Do you like Omarion Hampton more?

Yes.

Omarion Hampton comes in at 11 to round out today's episode. 23 years old, was great when he was on the field, but wasn't on the field a bunch last year. Mike, you're the lowest. The comments in the last, you know, 24 hours are, you know, the Twitter spheres abuzz about Mike McDaniel saying that the, you know, doing his trolling thing of bad news fantasy owners, good. I see all three of these guys speaking of Vidal, Hampton, and Mitchell performing at a high level, but that's not possible. No, nor is it like customary for Mike McDaniel and what he does on the offensive play calling side. Like he, you remember the comments he had about, I think it was Ollie Gordon. And when he's just like, he'll have either all of the snaps or some of the snaps or zero snaps in the upcoming game.

He's a troll.

He does like trolling the fantasy football community. I think it's very important. I'll say this. I think it's very important that Amari and Hampton establishes himself early in the season. That's what I think is important. Now, if you want to start the year against Arizona, Las Vegas and be double-digit favorites in the first two games, that's an awesome opportunity to do that.

Establish it.

But, you know, I think Keaton Mitchell is kind of a player that Mike McDaniel wants to use in the passing game. And really in inventive ways in this offense. I don't look at Vidal as a threat to Hampton. No, he's healthy.

No, but Vidal is—

but I think I, I think I don't know what the real range of outcomes for Hampton is. So just tell me so I know whether to trade him or not.

I don't see Hampton— well, I want you to trade him to me. So I would—

yeah, we were talking some trades yesterday.

I would make the bear case. But in truth, I think that there is an extreme likelihood that you get 18 touches a game. For Hampton. And if Hampton's getting 18 touches a game behind a good offensive line, that'll be great. I think he will be great. This is a team where the defense is good. The offense is good. The offensive line is extremely improved. The offensive coordinator is improved. This is also an offensive coordinator in the past who had two top 5 running backs at the same time for fantasy on the same team. So I'm not worried about the other guys when it, when, you know, it was Raheem Morris and Devon Achan. If you've got talent or Mostert, yes. What did I say? More. Yeah, the coach.

That's not the running back.

No, no, no. Most are NHN. So I pretty much love all the situation. I really liked the player coming out of college, which obviously the team did too. They spent a first round pick on him and he was very good. You could talk about like there are different ways to spin all the deeper analytic numbers. I see people talk about how inefficient he was here and then I see Look, the numbers that show he was the most efficient, just the best. It's like, just watch the tape. He was very good. He did things on his own and he had very little to work with with the offensive line. I think that the offensive line with the improvement at center and both tackles will be awesome.

Can he be a top 5 back?

Absolutely. I believe he can be.

You believe that, Mike?

I do. I'm like, my projection and ranking has me out on Hampton. It's a real weird one of like everything is there. Everything is there for Hampton to be what exactly what you want for fantasy football. And yet there's just, you know, the tiny little variables where you're like, yeah, you have to kind of trust that like makes me unsure.

Like Omarion Hampton is a first round running back. Me and Jason fell in love with his collegiate tape and you have to—

as do the Chargers.

You have to fundamentally believe that that guy is much, much, much better than Kamani Vidal on a per-down basis for this team and that that will win out.

If you look at opportunities per game on year 2 running backs who were first round picks, all of them, the opportunities per game were Rashad Penny was down at 7 and Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who turned out sucked and we found out pretty quick.

He was the first time running back too.

Yes, I know. That's what I'm saying. These are all 14. He had 14 opportunities a game. Still a pretty good amount. Everyone else was 16, 18, 19, 19, 20, 21, 21, 21, 22, 22, 23, 28. He's going to get the work.

Yeah.

And he's good.

So just maybe don't worry about the trolling by Mike McDaniel. Let's do a couple mailbag questions.

Mailbag. Mailbag.

Yeah.

Pete in Jersey, should I keep Tett McMillan in the 4th or Tyler Warren in the 7th? What would you do?

Oh, I would take Warren in the 7th.

I would take Tyler Warren.

I lean Tett there, man.

But without—

I don't think you're making wrong choices.

Alec Pierce, did he or didn't he?

Tett going right around there. So maybe Warren.

He's having 3, 4 turnovers.

Warren's got to be going 5th, 6th though, right?

Yeah.

What in the world's going on with Alec Pierce? So did he get a shot? Did he— the second shot? Did he not get it?

Not get a second shot.

Why is it?

But if he did get a second shot, it's normal according to the doctors.

Either way, nothing to see here.

So I look at— there is something to see there. I'm not going to stick my head in the sand. I don't— I don't want— like, there are no good vibes around Alec Pierce right now. The end. I mean, until he's on the field. And looks like himself, which by the way, 2 years in a row of leading the league in yards per reception, you kind of need your wheels. So, and, and from what I understand, ankle is part of the running process.

So it is connected to the part of the wheel.

You know, it's the Tyler Warren thing. Like the only thing I'll say about Tyler Warren that needs to be said is that when he didn't have MVP level Daniel Jones, he never hit double digits in fantasy production. That's, you know, is a regular Daniel Jones versus MVP. I mean, they were an 8-1 team. They were dominating.

Yeah.

Can, are we going to see that again? I hope so. Tyler Warren, I saw some clips of him at camp this morning and it was like, it was funny because everybody's commentary on him and I kind of agree even though I don't care is that he makes running look exhausting like that dude.

Yeah.

He's not fluid.

That is really, really fair.

Yeah. And other comments are like, what you don't see here is how long it took Tyler Warren to catch his breath. Like he is a rumbling, like, yeah, like a round mound of touchdown.

You know what I mean?

It's not fluid and smooth. No, it's like, but when you get up to speed, it's great.

It's just carrying around £260.

Yeah.

It's not, it's not Loveland, right?

It's right.

It's not Ingram or somebody that's or even Kyle Pitts. It's a big boy.

He reminds me of TJ Hawkinson, which—

yeah, that's fair.

It feels bad now, but TJ Hawkinson was, you know, awesome, was a top 5 tight end 3 times. He was the tight end 2 once, but like younger.

Brock never looked like he really knew what he was doing running the football.

No, he was just out of control at every moment.

Out of control and blown up.

When you get a locomotive going, you can't stop it.

Can Warren go— what's Warren's outlook for target percentage with Michael Pittman gone?

I think he can easily have 25% target share.

I think he could too. Like, I'm, you know, it would— we— the Loveland-Warren argument is like, it's fun to have that debate. Both are going to be awesome.

I think I'm finding myself really putting Tucker Kraft up into the Tyler Warren area mentally now.

You're speaking Mike's love language.

I think— I mean, I moved him early this morning, Tucker Kraft, went up right at about the same production levels as Tyler Warren. One more question here from Nate in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Oh, bonjour.

Are we undervaluing Chris Godwin? Evan's gone. I expect Ibuka to get more targets, but the same couldn't be said of Chris Godwin.

I think we really might be. He's in the 8th round and this is a player. Here's why we're undervaluing him. He's 30 years old and he didn't look very good. Last year.

No, he didn't.

So it's like you don't expect—

those are good reasons to doubt somebody.

Those are good reasons to doubt him. But the doubt's already baked in. He's in the 8th round.

Yes.

So you're not— you're already paying for, oh, he's not it. But in camp, the camp reports have been that Chris Godwin looks explosive, that he's been oftentimes the number 1 wide receiver, that there's been days where it's like he was easily the best receiver today. And so yeah, in the 8th round, I think early in the offseason, I was I wouldn't have ever thought about drafting a share of Chris Godwin.

Baker likes Chris Godwin.

Yeah.

And in the 7 games before the major injury, he was 16 points a game in 2024. Last year's kind of a lost season. You look at it and you say, I mean, he's a 30-year-old wide receiver. That's a factor. His yards per catch, not where they were during his peak seasons. But is he, could he still be, you know, Diggs plus? You know what I mean? Level production.

He can easily be a top 36.

Yeah.

Top 30 wide receiver. You should check out, we have our miniseries on our YouTube, youtube.com/thefantasyfootballers. It's called Just the Tips. It's a shorter form content. The one from this past Saturday was all about identifying situations for sleepers. And a one Chris Godwin was mentioned in that show.

Yeah. You make a good point about it being baked in. That'll do it for today. Top 10 running backs tomorrow. Mock draft mayhem on Thursday. 10 tips and tricks. Do not miss the Friday episode.

Mayhem is back.

And the 10 tips and tricks. I'm so excited about that on Friday. It should be a great rest of the week. Win the UDK for life by picking up the Ultimate Draft Kit by Monday, August 24th. UltimateDraftKit.com. It'll help you win your league. Go get it.

Goodbye.

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