FantasyPros - 13 Running Back Draft Decisions That Will Define Your 2026 Fantasy Football Season (Ep. 2081) - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's up, friends, and welcome into Fantasy Pros, the Fantasy
football podcast with tough decisions, specifically for running backs. Thirteen
big tough decisions in your drafts you're dealing with You're
trying to make between the first round and the end,
what running back to take? Well, we have got Tara
Roberts and Jake Seely here that are going to be

(00:21):
answering those questions because there's some difficult ones. Maybe you
know the very tippy top isn't that, But whether it's
a two running back decision, three rbs, who to take,
We've got the answers for you with the toughest of
tough questions. Mister Jake Seely, ore running back's really that
tough for you this year? Or do you feel just
a clarity across the board and wherever you're going to

(00:43):
take them, even if it's going to be in the
later rounds.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I think there's a clarity in the fact that I
feel more set about my tiers than I ever have
over so, if you look at the athletic two with
like projections everything, there's like more clear cutoffs and it's
not just oh, the next drop off running back is
twenty points behind. It's like the next running back starts
this collection of messy backfields, or the next collection starts
a rookie with competition alongside of them. Like, it's just

(01:08):
it's there's a very segment of group. So I don't
think we necessarily you don't have to get a running
back around one or two. That's like this not the
be all, end all, but I think coming out of
the first three rounds, but at least one. So when
you get to the fourth, fifth, sixth round we've called
the dead zone, whatever it might be, you can kind
of say, you know what, I don't have to force
myself for a running back. I could take the value
at wide receiver and have four wide receiver, or take

(01:29):
one of the early tight ends because you're not chasing
at that point where I think a lot of teams
are going to be coming out of drafts with two
running backs in the fourth to sixth rounds and kind
of be feeling frustrated in the end.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Anyway, Yeah, tera this experiment that we're going to get
into where you know, it's literally going to be we're
going to look at the variation of a round, the
running backs that exist in there, and then we are
going to have a who would you rather? That's what
this is going to look like. In doing this experiment,
did you find any that surprised you or any surprise
revelations that came from having these discussions of running backs?

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, I did have one. I always love doing this
stuff because it really allows you to, you know, bump
players up together and really think about and say, hey, wait,
maybe I should adjust my rankings on this. So yeah,
I'm with Jake, this is this is fun format running
backs are. They're fun and a little bit more clear
this season, a lot more clear than last season. I'll
say that.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Well, if you guys want to check out, whether it's
ranks or ADP, make sure you go to Fantasy pro
You go to fantasypros dot com slash ADP, Fantasypros dot
com slash NFL slash rankings. You can check out that.
You can switch between the tabs. You can kind of
see the guys that we're talking about. Obviously, the we're
using the overall ranks and the ADPs over on Fantasy
Pros to kind of dictate where these players are. So
of course there can be a variation to their values

(02:38):
or what sites you're going on, but just follow us.
So let's just dive right into this the tough running
back decisions that you have got to make this year,
and of course number one is at the very tippy top.
It's literally number one, because yes, you could take the
wide receiver. But as our dear friend Pat Fitzmorris here
at Fantasy Pros has mentioned, like he is making the
decision between one of the two running backs, so he

(03:00):
is number one overall, Bejon Robinson. But is enough of
a discussion to say that there is a debate with
Jamir Gibbs, who is number two? Who would you rather
the RB one the RB two? Is there any variation?
Jake kick us off here, this is this even a
tough running back decision despite it being potentially the number
one overall pick.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I actually think it is a tough and the point
where I'm not going to say, if you want to
take Gibbs, you're crazy like I have this is we're
talking about the tiers. I have two and tier one.
That's it. Robinson and Gibbs. Those are the two elites.
Those are the two that if I'm picking one or two,
then I would really think about either of these guys
and maybe I try to differentiate, but if I'm the
one on one, it's my only shot at the one
on one. It's the slightest of margins. I talked about

(03:40):
another show with fits funny enough as I would go Robinson.
Mostly I see the higher ceiling for Gibbs. I do
think the highest ceiling is with Gibbs. Actually he has
some of the games like if you want to come
out of it and be like, ha ha, I kicked
my opponent's teeth in, that's Gibbs. I mean, he scored
almost fifty points last season in one of those games,
But there was plenty of twenty and thirty point games
from b as well, and I think if you look

(04:01):
at the two of them, I see a slightly higher
floor for Beijeon, a slightly higher ceiling for Gibbs. But
we're nitpicking here. But again, if you want to look
at it, Bijon had what thirty seven point five or
thirty seven point four is fifth highest in the season.
He's also inside the top twenty with two more games,
so it's not like you're giving up an enormous ceiling.
But I think people getting caught up in the well
Gibbs is going to catch a ton of passes, catch

(04:22):
a ton of passes. Kick What did Bijon just do?
It's not like he's giving up that role to Brian Robinson,
and Brian Robinson was brought in to replicate what Tyler
Algier was doing, And honestly, I think it might even
be a slight downgrade for them. I know people talk
up Brian Robinson a lot, and I love him as
a player and his you know this drive, but I
actually think there's a possibility where Bijon sees even more

(04:43):
touches this year.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, there is this really interesting thing too. You were
kind of mentioning that both of these backs had these
attached secondary backs to them that put in the question.
It was Algier, it was Dave Montgomery. It's like, you know,
could there and what do they take away? Both of
those guys go, they find replacements, and I think it
kind of just throws to us as a potential upside
for both of these players. I don't know how big

(05:06):
the gaps truly are. Tara for you, if you feel
that it is clearly Bijon, clearly Gibbs or it is
a tight knit race as Jake mentioned, But what say
you on this tough RB one or overall pick at
number one.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, I'm with Jake. I think it's extremely close because
I don't think we're going to see the boost and receptions,
but we will see a little boost and carries. The
difference between carries for Bjon and Gibbs really was kind
of negligible last year. Gibbs saw just the little over
two and a half carries less than Gibbs. It just
around two and a half carries less than Gibbs per
game last season or than Bijon last season, So I
don't think it's that big of a difference. Plus, I

(05:40):
think we're under selling the exit of Zach Robinson and
the arrival of Kevin Stefanski. For all his issues, he
has been very generous in terms of ensuring that backs
don't have issues with being three down backs. So I
don't even know if we're going to see that Tyler
Algier work directly transition to Bijon Robinson anyway. I mean,
if anything, we could have an increase in goal line

(06:01):
opportunities here for Bijon now that Zach Robinson's is out
of the picture, all right.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
So we move from the one one to the mid
first where I think there are some more discussions because
we've got three backs that we're going to be throwing
into this one. So from the seventh overall spot RB three,
Christian McCaffrey, We've got Jonathan Taylor, and then we've also
got James Cook. So we've got three running backs in here,
RB three, RB four, RB five. Obviously from a seven

(06:29):
overall to an eleven overall, there's a little bit of that, like, well,
if I have a mid first round pick, dot a dot.
But if we are looking what is the choice on
the tough decision at RB in the mid to late
first round, Jake, we will drop it to you McCaffrey,
James Cook or Jonathan Taylor.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, I'm gonna go with James Cook. I'll save something
for after Terror in case she brings it up, because
that kind of kind of come for her pick and
a degree unless she backs it up for a different way.
But I'll say that, I'll say that little nugget this way.
I have to stay through the entire podcast, at least
the guinea part, But I look at James Cook and
it really comes down to this is another tier. Like
I have Cooke Taylor. Other running backs are in this
tier as well, that we're not even mentioning so far.

(07:06):
We're going to mention some of them later in the show,
but there's a big group here where I'm not going
to be like, oh my god, you're crazy to take
Jonathan Taylor, Are you're crazy to take Saquon Barkley or
whatever it might be. But I look at James Cook,
and everybody went into last year, and I say everybody,
the entire industry went into last year saying, let's be hesitant,
let's worry about that touchdown total, the you know, the
regressions coming. And it came. It was four rushing touchdowns regression,

(07:28):
and oh what did he do to offset that? Only
ran one hundred more times for six hundred more yards,
Like he actually improved his yards per carry with one
hundred more carries. And everybody's still afraid of James Cook.
The dude doesn't even have a thousand touches to his
career yet, Like, let's chill it. Like it's not all
of a sudden he's going to be like, oh my god,
it's Christian McCaffrey and he's in one of the best

(07:49):
offenses that still gives him plenty of rushing touchdown upside.
I get it, he doesn't catch a ton of passes,
but he doesn't need to be that because of what
this offense is for him, and that's what's going to
continue to be. So tying myself to the bills time
myself that James Cook to repeat again is why I
would take James Cook. Although, like I said, I'm not
going to sit here and go like, oh my god,
I can't believe Tara picked Jonathan Taylor. There's just one
little nugget that really worries me about him, and I

(08:11):
want to see if she's going to bring it up first.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
So we don't have Christian McCaffrey. Very sad, neither of
you are going to pick McCaffrey. And as Jake just said, Tara,
you are going with Jonathan Taylor on this, So talk
to us about Taylor over McCaffrey and James Cook.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
I am jt is my boy here. I like that
we both went via void. Christian McCaffrey. We're out there
because he is the riskiest of this little group here, unfortunately,
and for all the hubside that he has, he definitely
has the highest upside everybody, but unfortunately apples and Apple
is the one most likely not to make it through
the season because of the touches last year, it is
CMC unfortunately there, I like James Cook, I am mildly concerned,

(08:45):
like what happens with that giant rushing upside. Like you mentioned,
one hundred carries added last season, not a lot, right,
three hundred is not a massive workload, but it is
a little bit more were in terry than his body's
used to. But he's been very reliable, so I'm not
downgrading him for that. But when it comes to JT,
when I look at the Colts and what happened last year,
the beginning of the season was basically easy mode for

(09:06):
JD managers. He had twenty total touchdowns, Seventeen of them
happened before the bye week in Week eleven. But we
know there were two issues. We know why it happened.
One the Daniel Jones injury. He was not perfect right,
but he was a massive improvement compared to the previous quarterbacks.
So even coming off of the injury, he's just so
much farther and upgrade compared to what they previously had.
Greatly looking forward to him being back and riding the

(09:28):
ship on this offense, and again I didn't expect him
to be perfect, right, But what really happened there is
once he got that unfortunate injury, his ability to get
the ball vertical and things, it just kind of dipped
a little bit there. And then obviously once he exited,
completely major issue there, and the Colts twenty twenty five
schedule was unfortunately kind of backloaded with terrible matchups. Again, JT.

(09:50):
Camp pushed through terrible matchups. He had excellent games against
Denver earlier in the season and the La Chargers earlier
in the season, but back to back to back, it
just kind of created this whole lopsided issue where the
first half of the season was wonderful and the back
half of the season was a total disaster. We weren't
going to have that issue this season, thankfully, because the
schedule is a lot better, much more spread out, so
we're not going to run into that back season backlog

(10:11):
where he just dies in the fantasy playoffs for us there.
But again here, Daniel Jones being ready to start the
season is the big thing here. Again, the schedule here,
a lot of the tough matchups spread out very evenly,
so I'm still looking for I know it's a lot
of touchdowns right there for him, but I'm still looking
for perhaps maybe even a little increase there if they
want to be a little bit more cautious in terms

(10:32):
of the running capabilities with Daniel Jones, as long as
he's still mobile, maybe it takes maybe a few weeks
for him to really get back up to speed and
feel comfortable on that leg. But once he's good to go,
feel really good about this offense kind of repeating the
trends that it had last year.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
All right, Jack, I was watching you sitting in your seat,
as seeing you move a little bit, twirl a little bit.
Did she cover what you wanted to go at? Are
you going at? Tara?

Speaker 2 (10:55):
She dipped her toe into the pool there for where
it was, And it really comes down to Daniel Jones.
And I'll say that's how I'll present it. For overarching
kind of thought, here is if the Colts went seventeen
and O this year, Jonathan Taylor is better than Ladanian Thomason.
And here's what I was pointing out. This is why
he averaged thirty points per game in wins, thirty he
averaged ten and losses and as Tara slipped her toe

(11:16):
and said, like a lot of that came after the
injury to Daniel Jones. That's the only reason that I'm
kind of like, I mean, this is a team that's
projected at seven and a half wins, and I know
that Vegas isn't perfect, but like, if I'm looking at
a team and that kind of discribed if we're talking
it was twenty five and fifteen, that's a little bit
club at thirty and ten for wins versus losses. Like,
I know we chase that it's not a perfect stat

(11:38):
but that's just enough for me to be like, in
this tier, I would actually take Christian mcay. I would
go Christan McCaffrey, James Cook, and Jonathan Taylor after both
of them. But it's such let's not dismiss the point
that Tara brought up, which I completely agree with. It's
such a slim margin, like like we're not going to
be like, you're stupid if you want to take Jonathan Taylor.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
And that's what the first and mid first round are.
It's it's small margin about really great players, not so
much as we are going to be moving through here.
We got more running backs, but we have got some
giveaways for you. In fact, we have two giveaways. If
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(12:18):
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you turn on notifications so you know when new videos
are up and you don't miss your opportunity to claim
that awesome prize. All right, we are going into the

(12:41):
one two turn and we've got a two running back
battle here. I'm actually a little bit surprised by both
of the decisions here you guys made, so this is
going to be very cool. I guess I'm kind of
going to spoil it because this is Ashton Gent who
is RB six Versus Devon a Chan who is RB seven.
I think if you're looking at the top twos, you
guys are having fun discussions about the first round, small

(13:03):
margins and whatever. But I'm not sure there is a
more polarizing name, right now than Devon a Chan because
of that offense. I guess Genty isn't that much less either.
Both of these guys are kind of polarizing type of names.
But we know that Devon a Chan is very talented.
But there's just a whole context of the team built
around and both of you. This is why I'm spoiling it.

(13:23):
Both of you have picked a Chan unanimously over Genty,
So Jake kick us off here? Was this even a
tough decision? I guess is the thing that I want
to know from you.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
So not so much for me. This is one where
I have a little bit bigger of a gap and
it feels like and I was actually surprised to see
a tear on the same page as me because I
feel like I've been on an island, so to speak,
with a Chan, which feels weird because it's a Chan.
But I just feel like it's getting too much hate
at this point. And I know a lot of people
are talking about the team and the scheme change, and

(13:53):
it is Bobby Slowick, but Slowick runs very much as
Shanahan offense. You know this, And no it is not
Kyle Shana. Like I'm not saying he is. I'm just
saying of the usage of his running back, and people
are like, well, Molik Wills won't throw the running back
as much as Tua did. To go back to the
argument earlier, for the two of being in Atlanta, one
of the highest rates of throwing to running backs. And
I know things changed with certain teams and offensive styles

(14:14):
and all that type of stuff, but I'm not super
overly concerned with a Chan's touches. And so the biggest
argument people are pushing back with is the Dolphins will
be one of the worst teams in the league. We
all know that Ashton Genti just came off being one
of the worst offenses in the league. He was RB
seventeen points per game. We're all expecting it to be better.
It's going to be better. How can it not be.
But at the same time, if both of these offenses

(14:35):
are bottom ten offenses, at least I know a Chan
can do it on lesser touches, and maybe that completely
goes sideways and this offense goes belly up and a
Chan can't even do anything, and all of a sudden
he's only getting forty targets. I just think there's a
lot of ifs, like, it's all the ifs seem to
be pointing positive for everybody in genty, and all the
ifs tend to be pointing a Chan negative. And in

(14:57):
that case, I'm going to take a Chan, mostly because
the discount is there versus genty.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
So I've already spoiled the terror picked a Chan. Let
me turn this just slightly to ge Tera as you
give your answer and you can talk about the gap.
I know this isn't an option for this, but does
this have the feel a little bit of like, yes,
a Chan, but neither like when this is a tough decision,
is there a little bit of neither? One of these

(15:22):
guys are really or are you much more pro a
Chan than I'm obviously giving you credit for.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
I'm severely pro a Chan, Jake. You might have met
your match there in terms of I've been doing the
same thing all off season of defending this man come
up with a whole spiel in terms of his defense.
So yes, so it's it's not close for me, although
I don't I don't dislike gent because again, you know,
we know the offensive line is improving. We're definitely get
a quarterback approval here, So I'm not massively concerned Kirk

(15:50):
Cousins can check down. It's not an issue there, So
no offense to genty whatsoever. But when I look at Chan,
I see the wide receiver one of an offense, right,
And I understand the con yarns that people have in
terms of Malik Willis checking down because objectively we have
not seen it. We wouldn't have seen it in Tennessee
because that's Derrick Henry, and we wouldn't have seen it
really in Green Bay because they're very inconsistent about checkdowns anyway.

(16:11):
They prefer a three down back and relying really on
the early down work for the running back. So not
the same kind of situation there. But Jake also touched
on it in terms of Bobby Slowck, saying that's the
key there. If we were running into a new situation here, yeah,
we could be a little bit more apprehensive. But we
know Bobby Slowick was in charge of pass game of
this offense last season. So this internal promotion, the connection

(16:32):
to Kyle Shanahan here, we know what's going on. And
to defend him as well, I think he unjustly got
blamed for what happened in Houston with c J. Stroud
history is shown that is all c J. Stroud unfortunately.
So I'm not worried here. And the mean thing is that, yeah,
I could be concerned about the checkdowns if that's what
we were re lying on, but we're not relying on

(16:53):
the checkdowns here. Hm lines up as a receiver. If
you look at the amount of times that he lined
up on the slot and outside one hundred and six
times last season, forty two times in the slot, one
hundred and six was in the slot, forty two was
on the outside. For comparison, CMC lined up in the
slot ninety three times, twenty one out wide v John
Robinson ninety eight times in the slot, fifty nine out wide.

(17:16):
These are truly dynamic pass catchers. You don't rely on
checkdowns in the whim of a quarterback to get the
ball to them. You put it into your offense and
design it. And we've got the guy that designed it
last season. So no, I'm not concerned. I understand that
people are sad that Mike McDaniel was gone, but the
to be fair, the team's been bad, right and A
Chan has been fantastic through the team in the tough

(17:36):
times and the good times as well. So realistically, I
think this is going to potentially be a CMC type
of season for him with the amount of times that
he can catch the ball this season. So it's risky
one hundred percent. It's not a layup or a guarantee,
but it's it's a legitimate overall RB one upside that
I'm willing to take the risk.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
On the pro e Chan podcast, I was not aware
we were going to want.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
The way for all those numbers that you throughout the
percentage by the way, a Chan eighteen point four percent
of the time in the slot, number one of any
running back to have at least one hundred touches Christian
McCaffrey nine point two half of that for your argument
there to add.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
To it, it's beautiful, very interesting. All right, we go
from the one to turn to the mid second round.
We are going to have a three running back battle here.
This is OURB eight, nine and ten. We've got Chase Brown,
Saquon Barkley, and the very popular Omaron Hampton. So mid
second round, Jake, Chase Brown, Barkley, Hampton, who's your pick?

Speaker 2 (18:33):
I like all of them. This is why I kind
of prefer to like wait a little bit, Maybe take
a wide receiver because these are in the same tier
of people that we were talking about so far, and
I would take Chase Brown. I feel like that if
you look at Brown, we kind of did this last year.
We're like, hey, we hope that the Bengals leave them alone,
and they pretty much did. And you know, we saw
somewhat of a share coming in and he was Chase Brown.

(18:54):
We was basically what we ever want even when things
were going bad, and things were bad and it wasn't
as good as it could be for like a top
five running back, but he's still producing. The biggest worry
and concern for Chase Brown's the rushing touchdowns. And again,
he's pretty much been left alone this year. You're worried
about p Ryan and the rest. I'm not touch books,
whatever it might be. Chase Brown's gonna get his workload again.
If Joe Burrow's healthy and this offense clicks like it

(19:15):
has been, you're talking about somebody that pushes the upper teens,
the upper like fifteen sixteen, seventeen points per game. Again,
the only concern being the rushing touchdowns. And I'm not
saying this is just like it's gonna sound throwaway, like
there's no basis for it. But we talk about touchdown
various variants. We talk about James Cook, and I know
that the Bengals do pass a lot when they're inside
the red zone. But what if he even doubles, like

(19:37):
just goes from five to ten, six to twelve, Like,
what if he gets in that ten to twelve range
for rushing touchdowns? Chase Brown will be in the conversation
for the top five, just like James Cook. And that's
really what it comes down to. I like all of them,
but if I'm chasing somebody who I think has the
biggest ceiling to get through by just one small thing
changing Like, I'm not asking for more in the passing game.
I'm not asking for more of this, more that, more

(19:58):
or whatever. I'm just asking a little bit more touch
down upside. And all of a sudden, we're talking about
top five running back? Are the RB decisions getting tougher?

Speaker 4 (20:05):
Terr?

Speaker 1 (20:06):
You've got three? We got Chase Brown, Saquon Barkley or
Marion Hampton. Brown has been picked. How tough is this?
Where are you going?

Speaker 3 (20:12):
Now? This one's not tough? Honestly, you know again, This
is a good range. Like Jake was saying, you can
start off with wide receiver and then turn around and
get any one of these guys. You can't go wrong.
I lean towards Saquon Barkley on this one just because
of the guys in this group, and this is the
one that I know for a fact can be the
overall RB one. You know, it's good because we've actually
I've been higher than consensus on him all off season,

(20:34):
and finally he's starting to push back into a more
appropriate category. I thought that we were going to end
up getting him in like round three. So this nice
mid round two is a nice, little happy medium for him.
Because there is inherent risk obviously with you know, the
Philadelphia offense and all the changes that it's going through,
But I don't think that's necessarily bad for Saquon Barkley.
You can be maybe a little apprehensive of the past

(20:55):
game if you've got issues with Jalen Hurts. I'm not
overly concerned. But if there are concerns about helping this
pass came get along and acclimate into its new identity
with a new head coach as well, they're going to
lean on Saquon Barkley because that is what won them
a Super Bowl. Leaning on Saquon Barkley was the magic
sauce here and I don't think they tried to get

(21:16):
away from him last season. There was just obviously overall
issues with the Eagles offense. They've again unfortunately they tend
to go through this issue of losing your offensive coordinators
having to replace, and they replaced with the wrong option
last season, so that had a major effect. On top
of that, he was coming off of the dumbest workload
possible in terms of what he had to do in

(21:37):
twenty twenty four, over three hundred and forty carries plus
all of the postseason work. I mean, it was over
two thousand yards. It was ridiculous. So you know, unfortunately
that does often come with regression in the next season.
So his lack of extreme upside in twenty twenty five,
if not, is not an overly major concern. I love
him for a bounce back this season, leaning aggressively on
him in terms of getting those carries back up better

(21:59):
efficiency as they continue to retool the offense, and then
of course the touchdowns as well. And I'm actually excited
to see Sean Manyon coming from Green Bay obviously when
we're looking at what green Bay does. Again, we talked
about it earlier with Ajan in terms of Green Bay
System not going to Miami Green Bay System. For the
most part, there's going to be differences. Right we're heading
over to Philadelphia here, and I think what will carry

(22:20):
over is the reliance on the running back in a
traditional three down fashion there. So we're going to get
Saguon back on track here.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Tell you, this is a tough range. I think they're
all very likable because I think there's an easy case
for am Aaron Hampton and this as well. I I
really love him on the back half of this sometimes
even slides into like a third round like McDaniel and that.
There's so much to like about Hampton. But there is
a safety net I think that you get provided in Barkley.
There's an offensive upside in what Chase Brown can be
and Hampton maybe sits on the lower tiers. But I

(22:49):
don't think that would have been an incorrect answer if
we had gone out there.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
They're all good.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
I agree, yeah, they are. Now the next group, we're
going to go to the two three turn. This is
a weird group. Now we're gonna get into like weird
groupings of players because not one player is really like
the other. We've got Derrick Henry at RB eleven, we've
got ken Walker at twelve, and we've got the thirteenth
RB Jeremiah Love. So how fun would this? This is

(23:15):
a weird. Maybe it's gonna be super easy because I
think there's like one kind of defining name in this
but from RB eleven, twelve, and thirteen, it is very
eclectic group Jake, where you go and you're gonna play
an upside player, You're gonna go with a new offensive
skiing upside or he's just gonna go with what we
know in Derrick Henry.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Well, if things go wrong and that branch that Tara
and I are on for a chan breaks and it's
gonna hit dead Dereck Henry on the way down, because
I'm on this until he's dead. At this point, like,
I just I understand everybody's concerned that, oh, it's gonna
get to Derrick Henry, it's gonna get to Derrick Henry.
At a decrease in rushing efficiency last year, the guy
still averaged five point two yards per carry on three

(23:54):
hundred carries. Like it's not like it's it was a
decrease by Derrick Henry's standards. Like, let's be honest, and
he's ran for sixteen touchdowns, which by the way, involved
an offense that didn't really have one hundred percent Lamar
Jackson for most of the season. Like, let's make that
clear too. And if you look what's behind Derreck Henry. Yeah,
somebody believe in all possibly in the passing game because
he's never going to be that guy. But he doesn't

(24:14):
need to be. He's proven that for his entire career.
Does he get back to eighteen to twenty points per game,
Probably not, But as a back end RB one in
this group, Kenneth Walker, we're hoping he gets the workload
for the Chiefs. But time and again we've seen the Chiefs,
whether it's Day Mercado, Ermic Johnson, whoever it was, their
lead option, shares the passing game work. Maybe we're hoping

(24:35):
that contract tells us otherwise, but we're hoping Jeremiah Love,
We're hoping he gets all that work. Despite the fact
that they signed Tyler Algier and still have one of
the bodies of Benson and Connor left hanging around. Whether
either of them get goin on the field. What's his
workload going to look like as a rookie He's on
one of the worst teams in the league. Does he
have a gent like rookie season. I just think the
answer is take what you know and that Derek Henry

(24:56):
is going to be the beast he's always been. His
drop off is this ceiling for a ton of other
running backs? Still had almost sixteen and a half points
per game last year, again with an offense that was
kind of dysfunctional by raven standards. That Doyle is coming
in and everybody's talking positively. I know he didn't call
the plays, but everybody, even from the team that he
was just with with the Bears, we're talking about how

(25:17):
good he was and how great the next mind is.
And this is another one. If you don't want to
believe that and say that's all speculation, that's fine, but
it's frustrating when you watch people are like, well, this
is a great mind that's going from play caller to
offensive coordinator or blah blah blah. And we do that
in certain situations, but then we talk against it the
other side, like this is one of the ones where
it just feels like everybody's like, Eh, you know what,
I'm kind of done with the Ravens, and I take

(25:39):
that as our advantage.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
You know. The one thing that's sticking in my brain
that you mentioned is like, if you had also Terra
maybe you can answer this if you have to answer
the question when we're not talking about Derek Henry of
what do you trust more? Do you trust the Chiefs
go against what they've done in the past because of
the contract and him having a real running back and
Ken Walker and him get in the volume? Or do
you trust the equity of what the Cardinals spent in

(26:03):
Jeremiah Love despite having all these running backs? Which running
back do you think is a better bet if you're
going to bet on them having the volume play? Is
it the contract in Chiefs offense? Or is it the
number four overall pick with the Cardinals and loves talent?

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Oh, I think I would still lean to you. I
would lean towards Kenneth Walker on that one. Again, you know,
better offense. I think that's what it would come down to,
because you know, like Jake was saying, we're we're hoping
that there's this Ash and genty type of season but
at the same time, are we really because overall wise, yeah,
that was cool, but there were times where it was
very inconsistent in terms of you having a great week

(26:38):
because the receptions are there and he does manage to
crack some yardage, and then there were the dreadful weeks
where you were looking at twenty yards there. So we're
we're looking for an ash and gent season, but an
upgraded version perhaps because you could be prest can as
you know, throw the ball. But at the end, at
the same time, it's just it's a risk, right, which
is why we're getting the discount. We're not drafting him
up there at a greedious levels, but at the same

(26:59):
time probably going with these safer Patrick Mahomes and Kansas
City offense where you know what you're at least getting
as a baseline there.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
But your answer though, is not Ken Walker, you are
joining the Derek Henry.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
Yeah, I am, I am. And this was actually the
one that I debated for for a long time because
this was the one that made me actually adjust my
rankings because I went in and I'm like looking at
the picks here and I'm like, oh, of course, Derrick
Henry and then I like to bump it up to
my rankings just to make sure I'm not being a
hypocrite there. And I was like, oh, wait a second,
I am being a hypocrite. Whoops, that doesn't make sense.
So I thought about it, and I'm like, Okay, it's

(27:30):
kind of like what Jake was saying. It felt like
he was in my head, which is a good thing
because if I'm in his head and he's in my
head and he's very smart, that must be that I'm
smart by proxy. So that's wonderful. But I feel like
we're just like hoping, you know, for the optimism of
Kenneth Walker being unlocked because he's out of Seattle. We'll
get him being a three down back, and you know,

(27:50):
everything's going to be opened up with a prolific quarterback
of Patrick Mahomes. So there's just gonna be these wide
open lanes, big yardage touchdown opportunities here. Great, but we
know what's gonna happen with Darren Henry. Even By, as
Jake was mentioning by last year as standards, I mean still,
the man averaged over five yards per carry and that
was in a defunked offense for the vast majority of
the season. There's no mystery there. As long as the

(28:11):
Ravens offense is operating at remotely inoptimal level, you're getting
fifteen touchdowns because they're you know, obviously they're protecting Lamar Jackson.
They don't run him at the goal line. So the
offense moves. There's a guarantee. It just needs to be
a competitive game here. So it's just the safer option there.
You know what you're getting. I want to root for
the upside of Kenneth Walker, right, but apples to apples,

(28:32):
I'm going to go with the safest, most reliable, known
upside here.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
If you feel you have Jake in your head, please
seek medical attention. That's happened to me. I went through.
I went through a whole thing getting Jake out of
my head. So all right, we got more running backs,
more bigger decisions. But first, let's talk about our presenting sponsor,
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Speaker 1 (30:43):
All right, we are moving to the late third round.
We've got RB's fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, so we've got
another Battle of threes. We've got Kyron Williams who comes
in at RB fourteen according to Fantasy Pros, Breece holl
at fifteen, and Josh Jake at sixteen. There are questions,
lots of questions specifically around a mister one, Josh Jacobs,

(31:07):
and you two apparently seem to have your answers because
this is another one I'm spoiling because you guys have
decided to go in together in on this. Josh Jacobs
is your answer over Kyron Williams, with Blake Korum looming
over Breese Hall Jets. So talk to us about why
Josh Jacobs situation is less scary than either one of those.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Jake, because what Tara said earlier in the show is
that three down back, and Josh Jacobs is there three
down back. Even as bad as it was in the
run department last year, didn't have a thousand rushing doors.
He was top ten points per game, ahead of Kien Williams,
not by far. And I'm actually gonna kind of take
your question and leave more on the plate for terror
because if it turns out to be an all field

(31:47):
situation that does continue, I know it is. I'm saying
one that continues into the set.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
That's what I was alluding to.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's a very concerning one. So let's make
that clear. I'm not trying to dismiss that or whatever,
but like, if it does affect his season, then I
would go Kyron and I wanted to talk a little
bit about him because if this situation does play out
that way, Kyraen Williams, it seems to me this is
another one that feels like he's getting a little too
much hate and everybody's like, well, Korm, Korm, And what
if he gets forty percent of the work, which I

(32:13):
think is a weird number for people to throw out
because he had thirty nine percent of the work last year. Like, okay,
so this one percent is going to ruin Kyraen Williams season.
Like I know that the Rams have gone away from
Bell Cow usage and Sean McVay talks up everybody like
it's the best player he's ever seen in his life
on his roster. But this is nothing new, and the
Karen Williams situation is nothing new. It's going to be
sixty forty. Would we love it if it was seventy? Sure?

(32:36):
But Kyle Williams is Kiraen and Williams are one of
the best offenses and the only way this goes wrong
is if Matthew Stafford gets hurt. But we don't care
about that when it comes to Pucunakua, Devanta Adams and
the rest of the team, but we do for some
reason with Kien Williams. So I wanted to kind of
turn this a little bit more on the fact that
if it's not Josh, Jake was for me because even
as bad as things were last year, he still did
really well and he has a three down back. As
Tara said, then my next choice would be Kyroen over

(32:58):
the rest.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
So there, then how about this, Should there be ifs
with Josh Jacobs? It really I think only just sits around.
I mean we did this on a mock draft episode.
We had ch Rich riebar on and he kind of
was just like just hey, I'm going with Josh ja Gibbs,
not worried about it. No off field the current like
thing that's looming, Like I love the equity datata. Should
we have more of a of a concern about the

(33:22):
what ifs on the off field or should we just
dispel that now and just not worry about that and
have to have like a if it comes, it comes,
and it happens, but we should just move forward with
Josh Jacobs.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, I'm on the We're not worrying about it ranking
him as is because you know, often these times, unfortunately,
like or often, we see the issue happen and we
don't see it affect the season until later. So unless
something happens over the next month or so, just proceed
as like, hey, this is the guy. But I think
maybe what we should kind of key in on as

(33:54):
well is that we do need to look at Marshaun
Lloyd a little bit more in terms of somebody who
is being undervalued as a handcuff in terms of you know,
while he's not you know, he's not next in the
depth chart, but the Packers have made it very clear
like that would in fact be the next man up
if he were to finally stay healthy here. So that's
kind of my perspective on that, because again, the Green

(34:15):
Bay offense, just the reliability that you get in terms
of knowing that a touchdown it was the most guaranteed
anytime that last season before he got injured, in terms
of knowing that touchdowns were coming back to back to
back to back. I mean, prior to his injury in
Week eleven, the man had one game without a rushing touchdown.

(34:36):
That's absolutely insane here, just the reliability and the overall
upside in the fact that you won't have those weeks
where those weeks where he completely whiffs is just too
much to pass up because of the what if this
happens right Obviously, if things happened towards the season, we
can make those adjustments. But I do go to bat
in terms of thinking that we're also going to have
a bounce back season from Jacob's as well, because the

(34:57):
overall numbers look nasty. But as a Packers fan, I
do have to jump in and say that is unfortunately
because he tried to play through games towards the end
of the season where he was injured, and so you
have a lot of nasty games where there were like
very limited snaps four or five carries there that are
factored in. If you eliminate those, there was zero issue
in terms of the pace that he was on in

(35:18):
the efficiency. So Apple's Apple's a fully healthy season there
for the price that you're getting right here, you just
can't beat it.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
All right, We're moving to the fifth round, and let's
put up before it's the four horsemen of the fifth round.
I don't exactly know who Rick Flair is going to be,
or Arn Anderson Jake on which ones you want to annoy,
but we go four running backs in this fifth round
that we are going to be battling out here. Quinjohn
Jutkins comes in at RB twenty, Bucky Irving at RB

(35:46):
twenty one, DeAndre Swift at RB twenty two, and Trevon
Henderson at twenty three. Very eclectic group of different issues
and upside and reasoning. So of these four RB horsemen here,
what side are you going with? Jake?

Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah? So close that I originally had a different name
and I had the same as Terris, So let her
take that one because I could see the upside a
little bit more for the one I ended up going with,
I think the safest one in this entire range is
DeAndre Swift. Like, if you just want DeAndre Swift and
just want to get fringe rby two value, which I
think that's why people don't love DeAndre Swift, that's who
you go with.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
But that'd be like Dean Malinko. Wasn't he a four? Yeah,
that's like he's like the Dean Malinko of the group.
So I'm getting really wrestling nerdy for not.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Real good grappler, Like, yeah, the Bucky Irving one. I
could see going either way. Like I kind of feel
like this is going to be wrong, Like if we
get really positive news, he's going to move up health wise.
If we get less and less and it seems to
be iffier, we're gonna talk about game well later. I
think he could even move down. But for Henderson for
the ceiling, I'm somebody and I'm taking the stance as
somebody who's been down there, like let's not just completely

(36:47):
just throw away from Andre Stevenson. When they were both
healthy at the end of the season, it was Stevenson
and then Henderson was the forty. Henderson was the Warren
to Nasee Harris at the end of the season and
to go back to the Steelers from a few years ago.
And unfortunately, that looks like it could be the case
this year, except for there is some talk we're starting
to get some of that, like, hey, let's remember how
good Henderson is as a prospect, how explosive he was

(37:10):
The interesting thing about that, and I'm talking against my
own player, is that in the passing game and on
per touch basis, Stevenson was even better than Henderson towards
the end of the year. But I think the biggest
question is do we really expect that to carry over
or was that we just saw this really good stretch
from the best of what we've seen from Rondre Stevenson,
and they're still more to unlock with Henderson. So if
I'm looking in this group, I think you can kind

(37:30):
of make it an argument. Like I said, I originally
had Juckins, so let Tara talk there about somebody who
could finish top fifteen. But I think if things break
right and the split goes the other way in the
sense of being a sixty forty Henderson split, I think
in this offense, Henderson could hit the top fifteen, and
I know a lot of people would be excited about that.
I was trying to get it all in. Yeah, you
could tell that's what that was it there, And I.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Think people are dying to know what the grouping of
the four horsemen they are. I think I think Bucky
is probably more the Rick flair here, Judkins is probably
the arm.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Yeah, it's just kind of hurt. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah. Well and also are you know, not receptions just
pounded it in like you know, he's a brute force.
And that's quinch On Jutkins here, Tara, and that's your
pick of these four rbs. So talk to us about Jutkins.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah, he's the three down back here. I know, we
don't think of him as a you know, he's not
a prolific pass catcher, but three down back who can
in fact handle checkdowns, easily handles twenty plus carries on
a regular basis there. I mean, we're talking about Swift
shares a backfield, which I don't think is a massive
concern because they are Chicago is deceptively run heavy, so
I don't think it's an issue. He's a very safe pick.

(38:28):
Henderson shares a backfield where occasionally he is not the
starter Bucky Irving, you know. And this is the one
where I think, like Jake I was saying, is very
interesting because we could go one way or the other here.
But again, I talked a little bit about how his
offensive coordinator is now Zach Robinson, who gave those Tyler
Algier touches over Bejon Robinson, so it makes me a
little bit uncomfortable. Judkins is the one that I really

(38:50):
trust the most here, which is surprising because it is
definitely the least trustworthy offense of the grouping there. But
we're talking about a man who had four RB one
weeks despite playing behind an objectively awful offensive line, flipping
through multiple quarterbacks where they're only receiving threats. Sorry, Jerry
Duty was in fact a rookie titand the Browns are upgrading.

(39:10):
For what it is worth, they are changing to a
new scheme. I think, you know, offensively, this could be
a better situation for the quarterbacks. They have new talent
on a completely retooled offensive line. By the grace of God,
hopefully they can figure out how something at quarterback and
get some kind of remote strong quarterback play. You know,
a girl can dream on that one. But what I
do know is that again, this is a three down
back that has a team where the defense. I know

(39:34):
we just lost Meles Garrett, but I feel like people
are underestimating the talent of Jared Verse a little bit here.
So this defense is obviously going to take a hit,
but it's still very strong. These will be competitive games.
So as long as this offensive line kind of halfway
at least pans out in terms of all the changes
that they've made, and then we've got the addition of
all of the receiving talent from these two talented rookies

(39:55):
as well, things will be looking slightly up for the Browns.
Up enough to feel super confident in their offense, no,
but up enough to where I know that this man
is going to have a certain amount of carries. I
trust that given the carries, he is going to get
a thousand yards and doublegated touchdowns is very reasonable because
realistically his seventeen game pace was just under a thousand
yards last season with zero offseason preparation, right, So all

(40:19):
of this is heading into positive direction. I feel good
and comfortable about this one, especially in the range. So
if you're getting your guy early and then you want
to dip back and get a strong candidate for RB
two in terms of workload with upside, If things can
trend in a positive direction for the Browns a little
bit there, Judkins is the guy for me.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Mid sixth round. We are going to be playing an
upside running back game because two guys with a lot
of theoretical upside, I think a lot of people are
putting in as a target of an RB two or
you know, I don't know, maybe even inn RB one
if they're really playing the waiting game in here. But
we've got RB twenty five and twenty six in facial
Tutin and Jendarium Price. These are around the mid sixties

(40:56):
of drafts, so penning ten to twelve, you know format
that you're playing a lot of questions I think just
in general about what you know Tutan's actual role in
the offense. But the same thing goes on with Price
that's going to play out there. So Jake a little
bit tougher one maybe on upside, what side are you
going to go with Price or touton?

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Yeah, I'm going with Price on this one. And I
think so a lot of it comes into play with Sharbonay.
And there's been talk that we were just a month
ago saying Charbonne might not play until December. If all
of this season, all of a sudden, people seem to
be waxing positively saying like, oh, you know, he could
be out there October, even towards the end of September.
I'll be one of those people like, let me wait
and see it, because I still don't believe that the

(41:34):
timeline points to November, that the average timeline, so to
get out there aggressively ahead of that. We've seen before
that nine out of ten times getting out aggressively even
just means ever re injury or they don't look the same.
So I'm not worried about Sharbona. So I'm going to
go to the next step here, is that everybody was
before the injury from last season when we're talking about, hey,
Keneth Walker's a free agent, Well look at Sharbona going

(41:55):
into next year. Charbone's got no competition behind him, and
all of a sudden, people are like, well, they signed
a Manual Wilson and George Hallane, and like, all credit
to those players. They're fine backups, but I don't think
they're the ilk of Jendearing Price. And let me make
this clear, I don't think Price is an exceptional pass catcher.
I do think he's better than people realize, similar to
Jonathan Taylor coming out of college, and I would still
take Taylor passing game over Price. But the offense Notre

(42:17):
Dame playing with Jeremiah Love masked a lot like they
didn't need Price in the passing game. So my biggest
comp for this has been Raheem Moster is like that
rushing threat, the one who really hits the gaps. They
love his speed and his ability, which is say why
they talk about in the return game. Well, were Raheem
Mostert in this offense? Which is that style? You put
Price in this offense, and that's where the upside's gonna come.

(42:39):
I like Tutin' but I actually, and this might sound
crazy to some people, I think Chris Rodriguez is a
bigger threat to to invent anybody in the backfield to
Jenderium Price. I don't think it's a massive difference. I
would just take my like, if I'm betting, like, I
would take the odds that I'm right about two forty
two to fifty touches for Price, and I think Tooton
falls into the two hundred at the end of the day,

(43:00):
two hundred and two forty. They might have equitable numbers
because of the offense that Touton's in and his ability.
But I'm just going to take the touch as a
slight favorite for Price. Again, another one where I know
Terror is going the other way. I'm not going to
call out crazy for it. I call a lot of
people crazy, especially Joe, But this is one where like,
you're fine if you want to go the other way.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
No, it's perfect, Terry. You're going on the other side.
This is a tough decision. You guys are on opposite end.
So what is your play for Tooton over Price?

Speaker 3 (43:24):
It is, Yeah, And to be fair to Price, I
think you know, I think price is probably the safer
bet in terms of being sure that he's going to
get into a certain range of carries for sure. Regardless
of when Sharboney does come back there, I will say
I'm getting spooked. I am getting a little spook there.
But when it comes to Basil Tooton and the Jags offense,
it's a lot riskier because I know for sure what
I'm getting the price, but I also know that nine

(43:47):
times out of ten, more than likely we're not going
to get the level of volume that could make him
a weekly top ten back. Well, it is possible for
Bacial Tutin, it's possible that this Jags committee or running
back room operates as a committee.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
Right.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
It's as if Travis etm was pushing prolific volume last season, right,
it was you know, the Jags were run ish, heavy,
but a lot of that was Trevor Lawrence picking up
the pace a little bit towards the back half of
the season. But when it comes to this backfield, like
Chris Rodriguez is exclusively an early down and goal line back,
and obviously a lot of you know, noise has been

(44:20):
made about the connection that he has tour with Liam
Cohen in college, but that also means that Liam Cohen
knows his limitations in the fact that this can't be
a three down back. The man called thirteen passes in college.
It's not possible. We know that about him when we're
looking at Tuton. I'm not saying he's the second coming
of CMC or anything, but between the two, I know
that that is the only one that could theoretically be
a three down back. And we haven't heard any kind

(44:41):
of noise in terms of Lequent Allen Junior being more
than a passings down contributor as well. And when we're
doing apples to apples, Chris Rodriguez is obviously very good
at the goal line, but I feel like we might
be underestimating and giving some kind of automatic preference there
when we actually saw some preference with Tuton at the
goal line last year. Kind of goes overlooked because he
wasn't the lead back, but he was actually very strong

(45:04):
on the ground in terms of red zone efficiency. Last season,
he had twenty three attempts inside the red zone, not
a ton right because he was not the lead back.
He converted four of those into touchdowns. All four of
those were inside the five. His conversion rate was actually
more impressive than Travis Etn Mike Clemson boy there. He
also had two red zone receptions four touchdowns. That's a
very specific level of trust at the goal line for

(45:26):
a rookie. So for Liam coming to have that level
of trust into as a rookie, to make the assumption
that Rodriguez is going to get the preference and all
of a sudden that's going to go away, I don't
know if I buy it here. So it's an upside
play for sure, It's high risk. There is no guarantee here.
This could just be an ugly, messy committee, But there
is the what if possibility of this man could legitimately

(45:47):
just be the guy for the Jags.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Looking at all of these really tough decisions, one thing
that stands out even more clear if you guys haven't
gone into the experimenting side, is jumping on Fantasy prost simulator.
We just did a mock draft like a week or
so ago that's on the channel, and I or maybe
it was the itail one, but I hated my running
back build. I absolutely hated my running back build. And

(46:10):
when you're dealing with these tough running back decisions and
whether you're playing it, you know word for word, and
it's these two guys or these three guys versus, jump
into the draft simulator and start testing these out. If
you have definitive decisions on some of these debates that
we've gone through, maybe you're someone in the comments that
is like, nope, it's easily this guy, this guy, this guy.
See how that works for your builds. See how comfortable
you are. Start practicing today. And you can do that

(46:32):
with Fantasy pros. Got a fantasyprose dot Com slash mock,
or you can just download the Fantasy pros app, use
a draft simulator and practice all of these really tough decisions,
so it's a lot less tough when it comes to
actual draft time. Do it today, all right, friends, It
is a lightning round time. You guys have done a
fantastic job of all of your great breakdowns, but now

(46:54):
you got a zip it, and now you got a roll,
and now you got to give us quick answers. No
craziness here because we got a lot of debates here.
So a couple sentences, make your best case, make the
chat happy at the bottom, make everybody on your side,
and we will start with a big one in the
mid seventh round. Tony Pollard, Ramandre Stevenson, Chewba Hubbard, and

(47:16):
Rico Dowdell. Four names, jake your quick decision in the
lightning round. Who are you taking? And why?

Speaker 2 (47:23):
The one that I don't even love to do as
Tony Pollard. The difference before with the wins and losses
seventeen for him seven and losses, he was garbage and losses.
But maybe Brian Dable helps this offense to what we
hope he can be as offensive coordinator. Maybe you know,
with maybe maybe, maybe there's a lot here, but the
Titans are middle pack offense and Tony Pollard is getting
sixty percent of the work and that's a lot of maybe's.
Then he can be an RB two Top.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Twenty Pollard, Stevenson, Hubbard, Dowdell Tara, which one.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
It is Hubbard?

Speaker 5 (47:51):
For me?

Speaker 3 (47:51):
It's Hubbard for now. It's good change. But I like
Brooks potential here, but we do have to admit that
the jury history does not bode very well. The Panthers
want to lean on the ground game, they may significant
investments into the offensive line. I feel good about either
one of these guys, but obviously the big injury risks
there is with Brooks. So Howbar could end up being
a three down back again and being the guy that
we always knew he was from like two seasons ago.

(48:14):
So I'm gonna I'm gonna lean that direction there all right?

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Early eighth round, We've got R. J. Harvey versus Kyle
Manong Guy versus Blake Korum. The battle are these backups
or these two the ones twos? What the hell are they?
And how do they fit for the scheme of my team?
Jake Harvey, Manonguy Blake Korum.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
I can't believe Harvey fell back far enough there. I
now want Harvey like I didn't want Harvey instead of
the top twenty and then but it's like they signed JK.
Dobbins and people full on panic because the ranks were
in the side the top twenty, and I know that
Dobbins was better. Nobody's going to disagree about that, and
Harvey did wasn't the thing until Dobbins got hurt. But
Dobbins hasn't been healthy for entire season, basically forever. When

(48:54):
it comes to Magong Gay and Korum, I get the
upside if anything were to happen to their lead option,
But I don't know if this is a Joe Coleman fear.
Do we not know what the like Sean Payton doesn't
just throw out rookie running backs and give him a
ton of work. Like I don't get this one. Harvey
inside the top twenty. No Harvey at thirty two every
single time for me?

Speaker 1 (49:14):
All right, Harvey Manoguay corum taro? Which one?

Speaker 3 (49:18):
I just want nothing to do with Harvey? I get it,
I do. I don't trust Sean Payton to let anybody
be the three down back there, can't do it. Give
me kalmanang Gai just in this range. He's a handcuff.
He's a high end handcuff. Deandra Smith goes down league
winning upside.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Mid ninth round. We are now going to RB thirty six,
thirty seven to thirty eight. We've got Kenny Gainwell, Aaron Jones,
and Rashad White's Rashad White a very popular pick amongst
a lot of people think he could take the top job.
But is that over Aaron Jones and Kenny Gainwell? Jake,
what say you yeah?

Speaker 2 (49:49):
And you said zibit. But I I'll bring White into
the same conversation for Terra's point there with Manangay, wouldn't
be shocked if Manoguy takes the lead this year, and
I think that's the thing with White, wouldn't be shocked
if White stille. Like I know, everybody loves Crosskey Merritt,
and there was excitement for him last year, but Ben
Standy good covers the commanders even said that if anything
was going to happen with him, it'd be later in
the season because he basically had played one game in

(50:10):
two seasons and he flashed at times. But they brought
our shot of White, who actually fits a little bit
better for what they're going to be doing this year
with Blow. So I'm taking White because he could be
the lead, but it's a full blown committee. I don't
really love him. I don't really want anything to do
with Aaron Jones. Go watch the one what I just
did with Fits and Joe. I wanted to say the
other one, Miss, I'll let Tara because but I've talked

(50:30):
about him so much on this network and I didn't
want to double down on this one, so I'll let it.
My real pick would be Terra's, but I just went
different just for this one reason.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
By the way, it is impossible doing Lightning Round with
these smart people. They just you guys have too many
great takes. That's why I had I got that in
one minute.

Speaker 5 (50:48):
You did do it.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
No, you're doing good. I want you had the zip comment,
but I want to say you're doing a good job
about this. It's tough. You guys have all the great takes.
People want to hear it. But it's Lightning round Tara,
Lightning round Kenny game. While Aaron Jones were shod White, I.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Too love to yeap okay to short Gainwell, that's my
soft spot a multi year game. Well Truther here, I
don't trust Bucky's health again. Bounce back for the Bucks
offense here for everybody. Don't trust Aaron Jones to make
it through the season. We're shot white. Cool, not a
major issue, but game well is the link for me?

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Well, you know we should we do by the way,
we should have had a timer the amount of time
you talked in lightning round at the very end. I'm
just throwing this out of.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
This all the way.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
One last yeah, and then you just have the amount
of time they talked in lightning round and see who
won that.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
I thought you were gonna say, like you got four
minutes total and then like once you're out, like that
was it.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Oh, that would have been a good idea to speed through.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
These are all great ideas for future lightning rounds. I
love you guys, all right. Eleven to twelve, we got
two more here. Eleven to twelve. Turn, We've got a
couple four more backs here, Tyler Algier at forty three,
Jonathan Brooks, Zach Charboney and Woody Marx. What a collection there,
Jake kick Kissoff here of these forty three to forty
six at RB.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Yeah, I've already made my piece about it. Sharbone and
Algier is time share at best unless the injury. But
I'll take Jonathan Brooks as the chance. Like, look, I
don't guarantee this. We don't know if he's one hundred
percent or looks anything like we knew that Jonathan Brooks was.
But if he is, if he is anything like he
looked when he came out of college, he's taking the
job without an injury. But that's the big question. So

(52:15):
I'll just take the upside chance that that can happen.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Tarah, what say you about those four running backs? Are
you're going to join Jake in this one?

Speaker 3 (52:23):
I am Jonathan Brooks, same deal, you know. I like
you a Hubbard because I like both of them. I
want some piece of this running back game. Because someone
is going to be the lead back here. One person
will be. They upgraded their offensive line, they want to
lead on the run, So all good there. If he
can stay healthy. Again, we have seen time and time
again people steal jobs like hotcakes in this Panthers offense,

(52:43):
so no one's job is safe. He could definitely earn it.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
The final one, the final tough to see a lot
of crazy ones we've been having here, but the final
of the tough RB decisions here is late late running
back pick.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
Here.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
We've got Brian Robinson at RB fifty one. Keith Mitchell
at fifty two, Tank Bigsby at RB fifty three, and
the RB fifty four mentioned a little bit ago. Jonah Coleman,
so Jake final one here of these four running backs
is are going to be more bingeback to making the
bet on How tough is this decision? And who did
you pick?

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yeah? I like Kate Mitchell if I need a flex option,
but if anything were to happen, I don't think Kate
Mitchell's getting the full workload and shots fired on the
sidebar for Terra's pick, But I don't think Tank Bigsby
is getting a full workload because it's not a big
pass catcher. I think he shares more than people might assume.
And I'm not saying that Tara's saying that. Will find
out what Tara has to say. Jonah Coleman, I don't
think it's the full workload. The one person in this
group I do if the lead option gets hurt is

(53:34):
Brian Robinson. Who's behind him, Tyler Goods in, Nathan Carter
and cash Money Jones out there like I don't even
know I have. I don't have a profile in Cash
Jones to make that clear of what's behind that so
Brian Robinson, in my opinion of these four bell cow
workload if the lead option gets hurt, and that's why,
all right, Tarah, what's say You's.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
Tink big b just give me the handcuff and the
run heaviest offense. We talked about it with Saquon. They
are going to lean on the ground game. So if
something were to happen to him, boom. I mean we've
seen the upside goal line touchdowns as well, So that
is Maline there just grabbing the guy that I think
is the highest upside handcuff option there.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
I think Tara might have won the Lightning Round. I
gotta be honest, I think Tara might have had the
most succinct in there. Didn't also call me out about
telling you to zip it, Jake. So Tara wins Tara
whin's the Lightning round? That's calling you out.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
I was actually making an apology for myself. It's trying
to be nice to you.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
Last time they were anointing. We're anointing Tara the winner
of the Lightning Round. But what say you in the
comments below? How tough were these decisions? What was the
toughest and did you have another take? You know, there
were a couple of backs that weren't even talked about
in these especially when we have the three or four.
So hopefully you guys can go and put some of
these tough decisions to the test. And the draft simulator

(54:45):
go start playing with that, and you can go and
check out the ranks. We've got great articles, we've got
everything over a Fantasy Pros, but you can check out
inside of put the test of the ranks that we've
talked about here the ADP, and you can use the
draft simulator. When you're doing all that great stuff. You
can also go check out everything Jake's got going one
over at the Athletic Tara, thank you so much for
the time. Hopefully you guys all enjoyed it. For Jake

(55:05):
and Tara, I'm Chris Welsh. We'll talk to you next
time right here on Fantasy Pros.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast.
If you love the show, the best freeway to support
us is by leaving a positive review on Apple podcasts,
at Fantasypros dot com, slash.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Review, or on Spotify.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
Follow us on x, Instagram and TikTok at Fantasy Pros
and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com.
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FantasyPros - 13 Running Back Draft Decisions That Will Define Your 2026 Fantasy Football Season (Ep. 2081)

Episode Transcript

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