2025 Fantasy Football Draft Rankings & Tiers | Top 50 Running Backs (Ep. 1638) - FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm
Ryan Warmley, joined today by Andrew Ericsson and by Jake
Sealey from The Athletic Guys. We are talking running backs
on today's show.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
We're running through our top.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Fifty ish, going through the first six tiers in the
expert consensus rankings. You can find those rankings and tiers
at fantasypros dot com slash rankings. You can navigate to
other positions as well. Today we are talking the running backs.
This is one of my favorite types of shows that
we do at Fantasy Pros because it's a little more casual.
You guys didn't have to prepare specific names ahead of time.
We just kind of look at the tiers and react.

(00:33):
Who's too high, who's too low, who's in the wrong tier,
Who do we think could jump tiers this year? If
they're in the right tier this year, all that fun stuff.
We'll be having conversations about. Like I said, the top
six tiers, which runs us through just a little bit
past the top fifty in the rankings. Guys, it is
July thirty first today we are taping this, which means
we are one day away from August which means we
are in it. Like the Hall of Fame game is

(00:53):
happening tonight. Football is like, you know, not back all
capital letters, but it's like back lowercase its letters.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Jake, what does that mean for you at the athletic?
What do you have going on?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well, so the athletic, we have our draft kit finally
out and the rankings are there. We're actually gonna reference
a lot of them. I use the widget for the
fancy pro so you can see my ranks versus the
what we're gonna be talking about today. And then of
course the customizable projections, which you can say, Jake, you're dumb.
I think this is what the projection should be for
a player, and then you can see how it affects
the rankings. But yes, it is. It's Draft season kickoff.
I'm actually gonna miss Andrew live in person this Saturday

(01:26):
or depending on when you're watching this last Saturday. Tried
to get you to come out, but I know you
had a lot of trips. You're gonna have to make
it back to the East Coast so you can like
get the crew back by twenty twenty six, all three
of us be back together.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, that I'll be fun for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, it would have been a lot easier to make
it out if I was already on the East coast.
Coming from Denman is always makes it tricky.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
How many times did I ask if you were still
in Maryland?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
A few?

Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's easy to forget, you know, I have when I
don't have the background behind me. I've got all the
Oriole stuff and I talk Ravens all the time, so
it's easy to just think of me as Maryland. But
but you sadly not there anymore? And I say sadly
only because I miss the crabs back there everything else.
I like Denver a lot better Erickson. What's kind of
going through your am? I here a day away from August.
What's your emotion like heading into Like this is the

(02:11):
month where it all happens.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
I'm just really excited. It's crunch time. Everything needs to
be buttoned up. Every day it seems like I'm thinking
about where I want to update my rankings, based on
training camp reports, based on injuries that it seems like
are happening pretty frequently. Every time I look up, it
seems like another guy has gone down, which that doesn't
always happen. Every off season leading up in training camp.
Sometimes we get less injuries, but this year there's been

(02:34):
a lot of shakeup in terms of just moving players
on a day to day basis, trying to keep up
with all the news. So the bolts are flying and
when the calendar turns to August, everybody's in it. So
we're here to break it down and get you ready.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Let's jump right in at the very top. Tier one
is only three names. It's gonna be the names everybody
is not surprised to hear be. Jean Robinson, Saquon Barkley,
Jamiir Gibbs are the one, two, and three.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Erickson is starting with you.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
You setting aside the order of these guys for a second,
Are these the right three names? Would you have had
a larger Tier one if you're putting this together, or
would you have also limited it to just these three names?

Speaker 4 (03:10):
I think that I would probably just limit to two names.
Bjon Gibbs. That's how I would put in my Tier one,
because I think that it was Bogs that talked about it,
and I think it might have been on the Dining
Show when you were talking about tiers, and or maybe
it was you whorrem Basically you said if you can't
ever see a scenario where you would rank a player
over another one, then it shouldn't be in the same tier.
And for me, it's Bijeona, Gibs one two, and then

(03:32):
the other guys I can kind of shouldn't lay them
as other guys, but the other running backs I look
at more in a tier versus Bijeon and Gibbs as
one too.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
That was me, and that is the way I try
to look at it. I know not everybody looks at
tears that way. They look at tiers sometimes more as
just like who's in the same range as each other?
To me again, to reiterate what you just said that
I had mentioned the other show, if there is no
scenario where I'm ranking this guy ahead of the other guy,
to me, that means they're not in the same tier.
I have seen, say, go ahead of Gibbs in some drafts,

(04:02):
So even though we are fading him just based on
the volume, you know, workload we saw last year, I
get that, but but I feel like I've seen it
happen enough that at least warrants being in the same tier,
even if maybe I wouldn't rank it that way.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
But for Erickson.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Just you know, two guys in this top tier. Jake,
how do you see it?

Speaker 3 (04:20):
I put my finger out for people watching in the
video because I have Barkley. Second, I keep him in
the tier. I go b John Barkley, Gibbs. I understand
all the talk about the four hundred plus touches and
all that, like this is the same thing where we
go down the road of Derrick Henry at some point
was gonna break down because years and years and years
of three hundred touches and I know they're built differently.
Dereck Henry is a freaking nature. But at the same time,

(04:42):
it's not so much the fact that you know it's
the injury. I think you can play that game with anybody.
You can say again Derrick Henry. At this point, injuries
pop up all the time. Jonathan Taylor has been hurt
the last three years, so I get it, And if
you don't want him there, I'm not gonna yell at you.
But I just think it's kind of crazy that Saquon
Barkley being the number one running back in points per
game overall because he got that extra game last year.

(05:02):
I'm just not fading him just because he played those
extra snaps and had four hundred touches including the playoffs,
because he's sick one Barkley because it's one of the
best offenses, because it's going to continue to get the
work and the touchdowns and the volume. Youcinaro argue that
there was potentially more touchdown and play for him. But
all that being said, there's risk here. Honestly, if I think,
in my opinion, if you wanted to separate Bijeon, I'd

(05:24):
be more okay with that than leaving out Barkley. And
that's just how I am. And again, like we could
be you know, different agreement disagreements on this, but it
wouldn't be a shock to me to say, like people
victory lap at the end of the season. I'm not
saying Ericson would do it or you would. I'm just
saying it would have shocked me that, like Barkley finishes
fifth on a healthy season and everybody's like I told
you shouldn't have been up there. What a surprise that

(05:45):
somebody having a career year might only get ninety five
percent of it the year following. That's why their career years.
So if you want to play the injury risk with
the four hundred touch numbers that people throw out all
the time. I get it, but I think you can
make that injury argument with a lot of running backs
just inside the top ten alone.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Ericson When you think about Saquon, On the one hand,
I'm almost like a little nervous because it has become
such an ubiquitous talking point about the worklad he had
last year that oftentimes when the entire fantasy community agrees
on the same point all summer, it doesn't end up
ending out that way. But even setting aside that, like
just anecdotal elevenans, I wonder if when you were actually
sitting down at your drafts, we are so in the

(06:24):
weeds with industry drafts and people who are thinking about
this all summer long and all offseason. The more like
I don't see casual like disparagingly, which is more casual
like kind of home leagues where the vast majority of
fantasy players are not thinking about this stuff. In April
and May, I feel like Saquon is going to be
going as a top three pick in all of those
leagues if I maybe even higher, because everybody who's in

(06:46):
those formats and hasn't been thinking about this. So this
whole time is going to say this, dude just broke
fantasy a year ago. Nothing has changed, at the least materially.
Why would we not draft him again? Do you see
it playing out that way, Erickson, or do you think
he will be more of a mid you know, maybe
even late round.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
I'll jump into the end, by the way, because I
actually have an anecdote anecdote on that.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
I think that he will go pretty high. I think
that he could see him going number one overall in
a lot of more casual leagues. You just look at
the average raft position on fantasy pros that you can
custom by the source. You just look at things like
ESPN NFL. He's going number one as the number one
running back off the board. It's more of a debate
of do you want Chase or Saquon Barkley. I think

(07:27):
that the debate is more about Chase versus Bijon. But Jake,
what were your thoughts?

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, no, I was gonna say so. Jeremier runs the
Fancy Football Reddit. We tweeted about this the other day
and I said, you know, I'm doing a lot of
these shows. You're talking about Warren with a lot of
it in these talks that we've been drafting for three
months and have these conversations non stop, and people bring
up the numbers, and I think, I think it's going
to be interesting. And my point was the same thing
I just said, is like I find it weird that
people are on both sides of the fence. It's like

(07:53):
it's not one or the other. It's like I don't
want Barkley, but I will draft Tailor, but I don't want.
I do want Henry, but I don't want That's my point.
And then he said the interesting thing was is that
on the Fantasy Football readit when they did like a
consensus reddit of like the fans, but also a mixture
of some of the experts are in that mix. Saquon
Barkley was still a top six pick. So I think
your question and your point is valid, is like, while

(08:15):
we might be seeing that in the industry that he's
falling to eight nine, I took him at ten in
one draft. I think that's not actually what most people
are going to see in their home leagues.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
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to fantasypros dot Com slash Kit. All right, guys, so

(08:47):
some obviously disagreement on Saquon, but beyond that pretty clear
top tier. I don't think they really need to hit
on like Bijon at the top we are are an
agreement on that.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, let's go to tier two here.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
There's six names in this one, Ash gent Derreck, Henry,
Christian McCaffrey, zvon h Chant, Josh Jacobs, Jonathan Taylor. This
feels like a tier that you really want to get right.
If you picked the right guy out of this group,
it could be somebody that elevates into Tier one status
going into next season, or at least certainly plays like
it this season or produces like it this season. Again,
gent Henry McCaffrey, Han Jacobs, Taylor, jac I'll start with

(09:20):
you on this one. Who stands out to you immediately?
It can be somebody that you think is too high,
too low. Somebody that you would consider having in a
different tier, whether it's a higher tier or a lower tier.
Who's the first name when I read those that stands
out of somebody?

Speaker 2 (09:32):
We got to talk about.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Christian McCaffrey, And there's no question about it, like Christian McCaffrey.
Like people who have been asking me this, I bring
up the projection sheet and I was likely I don't
even have McCaffrey on the pace that he was two
years ago, or on the pace per touch because they
have any touchdowns, but the touch basis that he had
went healthy last year. If you project those out, he
was on the same pace from two years ago, which

(09:53):
is a very high pace that I didn't even project for.
And yet still Christian McCaffrey, because he's Christian McCaffrey, and
all the receptions and all the upside, he still came
in as the number one projected running back. But I
have him at four And a lot of people are like, well,
why do you have it at four? Because what we were
just talking about, like, yeah, we can make the argument
for Barkley, and I'm not trying to say that I
can predict injuries. And that's why I'm doing this, but
we have multiple seasons where McCaffrey has missed time. There

(10:16):
is an injury risk factor where, yes, if Barkley play
or christ McCaffrey plays the entire season, he will likely
be the one to one, and I mean over chase.
But there's also a world that like, maybe that pace
is pulled off a little bit and he gets twenty
two points a game, which is essentially the world that
Barkley and Gibbs were just touching on last year, and
for that difference to only get like a half point
per game difference, I just slide them behind that big tier.

(10:39):
But he would be the first one that I'm looking
at in this group I would consider in the middle
of the first round. That's the name that jumps out
to me. But also something you didn't ask for anybody
that's sitting there being like I don't agree with you
on Barkley or I do, or what about The answer
might just be just take a wide receiver anyway, and
they get a lot of these Tier two running backs
will be sitting there in round two and you can
go that route instead of having that risk with the

(11:02):
running back, and you can still get the running back
wide receiver combo.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
That's a great point.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
I actually should have asked that when talking about Tier one,
like how many receivers are kind of in the same
you know, grouping as these guys, guys like Chase and
Jefferson and Lamb. And we talked about the a little
bit on a short form video, Jake that hasn't come
out yet that you and I discussed how we really like,
you know, Chase Brown, if you can get him early third,
you know Kenneth Walker in the fourth and some drafts,
so be more willing to take that receiver early on

(11:28):
because there are actually really enticing running backs that you
can get in the next couple of rounds. So I
think it's a great point for you to bring up
on McCaffrey, Like, it's really clear if there were no
health questions, this is a Tier one running back right
like Eric Stone, even with the health stuff coming off
of last year, you have him as a top five
running back already. I believe, still in your Tier two,
not Tier one because you mentioned he was only a

(11:48):
two man Tier one, but still like in that conversation,
and if he is healthy, which is the biggest if
you can have. If he is healthy, nobody would be
surprised if he's the best player in fantasy. Jake just
said it so ericson when you like, try to evaluate
McCaffrey this year, not even like where you rank him,
but where you were actually drafting him and willing to
assume that risk, how do you approach it?

Speaker 4 (12:09):
I mean, I think that he's a shoot for the
ceiling type of play. He's a because we've seen him
just lap the field at the running back position. I
guess what I'm thinking about more with McCaffrey is and
Jake did a good job of kind of pointing this
out in his projections where he wasn't projecting exactly copying
and pasting what he did in twenty twenty three when
he was basically scoring. They scored over one hundred points

(12:30):
next to the next closest scoring running back, So that
level I don't think is realistic, especially for a guy
who's twenty nine years old. The forty nine ers offense, yes,
is always a great ecosystem, but they're a little bit
top heavy, especially on the offensive line. Trent Williams is
thirty seven years old, and we've seen his offense crumble
at times. When Trent Williams isn't healthy or miss his time.
The receivers are all banged up. So I think that

(12:52):
that's something that I'm trying to keep in the back
of my mind that even if Christian McCaffrey is healthy,
is he lapping the field like he was two years ago?
I don't think so. And then giving some of these
other running backs some more credit too. Where Ashton Genty look,
I think he can lead the NFL touches in twenty
twenty five as a rookie twenty one years old. He's
an underrated pass catcher. So when we're drafting teams in

(13:15):
twenty twenty six, there's another experiment like to think about
in the first round, who could be the one on
one next year? Is it more likely to be Christian
McCaffrey or Ashton Genty, Like who's more lucky to kind
of fit that role? And if that happens, if it's
Genty is the one on one next year, then he
probably has a pretty good rookie season that you feel
good about. So I think Gent's a really interesting I
know a lot of people asking about CMC versus Ashton Genty.

(13:37):
I think that GENT has a higher floor. It feels
weird to say that, but I would just rather better
on a year old, twenty one year old rookie running
back with a three down skill set playing the entire
season versus Ali McCaffrey.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
I was gonna say the exact same thing Eric said
about the floor.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
I think genty feels like, given not only the talent
but the situation he's in, it feels like he has
as high a floor as a rookie can possibly have.
There is a limit on how high a floor he
can have because technically we haven't seen it, but for
a rookie I don't like, like Derek Henry, to me,
is the high floor play in general in this tier
barring injury, which you coul say about any guy you
know what he's gonna do.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Jen is a high four for a rookie.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Let me flip the question then, because we are and
I'm not saying, don't factor an injury risk. But let's
say they both play sixteen games. You knew that going
into the season, wouldn't Chrisian McCaffrey have the higher floor
because he's Christian freak McCaffrey like, so, I think the
floor is only because which I agree with I actually
even said, yeah, I don't know if you heard me
when Andrews said that it's yeah, it's a twenty one

(14:32):
year old rookie versus somebody who has multiple years of injuries.
It just comes down to what's your decision, Like, you
know you were going to be taking either one. As
Andrew said in the second half of the first round,
do you want the potential one to one or do
you want a potential top five likely because I still
have concerns about the touchdown equity that I'll say, and
how much of the passing game you are one hundred
percent right ericson, it's one of the best prospects since Barkley,

(14:54):
since Ezekiel Elliott. He should walk in two three hundred
plus touches. But it's still a rookie. It's still names
we know in front of him that have produced top
five seasons. So do you want that four because you
don't have the injury risk, or do you potentially want
the person that can win you your league? And I
know people might say that gent d can, but I
don't think they win in the way that Christian McCaffrey can.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
We don't really need to talk about Derek Henry, but
just worth mentioning. Like I do think he's like pre
locked in the top six because, like I know, people
sometimes talk about this pass catching and stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
If he's healthy, he is going to have.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
I mean, it doesn't really matter at this point. It's
just as the He's probably the best bet if you
just had to bet on who's most likely to finish
top five, and so it would be Dereck Henry and
no one would have you Like he may he may
not actually have the RB one in his range of
outcome just because of the lack of pass catching, but
RB five, I mean, you're not going to be upset
about taking him versus CMC or SAC or any of

(15:46):
these guys that have these major red flags. Derek hen
Realy does a score touchdown and rush for fifte hundred yards.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
I expect this to be one of the three best
offenses in football. Again, assuming everybody stays healthy, and if
it is, every time they're near the goal line, they're
going to run with Derek Henry at least twice. Like
that's just it's what we saw last year. It is
not going to change. He's going to score a boatload
of touchdowns. In addition, to running a lot didn't really
show any signs of drop off, So like, don't don't
look at this as like, oh, he's thirty one.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
I'm scared of Derrick Henry like taking.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
On this, but also very happy. I know this is
super niche for everybody that out there is listening. But
I get these questions where people like, why don't you
include this in your projections because they're not projecting one
hundred yard games. Also, it's a completely very difficult thing
to do and excel to include that. But if you
do play with bonuses for one hundred yard one hundred
and fifty yard rushing games, Dereck Henry is in conversation
to be like one oh.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
One yeah, and by the way, that the offensive line
looks better going into the season than it's going into
last season too, So like there's like, Henry's a great
pick this year. The other three names in this tier
Devon eight Chan, who I think kind of belongs more
in this gent t Henry McCaffrey tier because the upside
is so clear. But then Jacobs and Taylor, Like, if
you wanted to make the case for me that this
tier is too big, those are the two that I

(16:53):
would be willing to kind of push down to the
next tier. I'm not sure they belong in the next tier.
That's actually beggars what you guys think.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
But I don't think.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
I don't think like there's no world where I'm taking
Jonathan Taylor over Derrick Henry right like to my earlier point, Jake,
what do you think?

Speaker 3 (17:06):
I get your point, and I think that comes down
to you, like what format, But I mean, I think
it's also to me where if Derrick Henry, Jonathan Taylor
or Josh Jacobs are sitting there and Pookinakua is I'm
gonna take Nakua to come back and be fine with
one of those three. That's kind of how I look
at the Tears. And I know we're kind of like
nitpicking how we look at tears here, but I was
gonna say I even go deeper because my tier includes

(17:27):
all those names you mentioned, but I include Bucky Irvin
and Kyraen Williams. And I know people are scared of
Karen Williams, and they're scared that Sean mcvah could pull
the plug on him like he does before, because the
threat with the Rams is that he makes running backs
good like they are good. Actually, I should say he
makes good running backs great. So there's a threat that
if there's three bad games of Kyraen Williams, boom pulled
the plug, they turned the Hunter or even korm from

(17:49):
last year. But I would go and push back in
you and I have talked about this before on previous shows,
is that every year they draft a running back. Every
year he talks up the running back they's drafted, and
every year he kind of sticks with the bellcout option.
I think we had a contract signed by Kyraen Williams,
we would see Kyral Williams climb up in the ranks
because it would take some of that fear away because
why would you give the contract in the three bad games?
Still pull the plug on him. But all that being said,

(18:11):
like Kyroen versus a Chan, I think they're in similar worlds,
like I know one, especially if you're playing full point
PPR versus non PPR. There's a little of a fringe
difference there that I would say, Okay, I agree with,
But Jacobs, now that Marshall Lawney's hit again, like hurt again,
Like I mean Jacob's in the passing game, Like I
just I'm looking at volume volume volume with those guys,
and no, they aren't as efficient as an A Chan

(18:33):
or a McCaffrey. But it's that workload of genty that
Erickson said is that's why I would include both of
them that conversation. And I think I'm actually more in
the more lower people on Jonathan Taylor because I keep
bringing that up he's been hurt each of the last
three years, Like why aren't we acknowledging a little bit
more that Jonathan Taylor? Sure, three hundred plus touches, but
he's an injury risk at this point.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Ericson.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
We'll get to the rest of tier three in a second.
But those names that Jake mentioned that he would have
included in there, like Bucky Irving, Aaron Williams, do you
see them and Jacobs and Taylor as those guys all
belonging in tier two?

Speaker 4 (19:05):
No, I think I agree more with you where I
would rather have it be Genti, Henry McCaffrey, H Chan,
and then another tier down. So I mean I think
that A Chan, I mean I think that you can
maybe make the argument that why can't he be closer
to Tier one? Like what did he do last year
with to a healthy he was the highest scoring fantasy
running back. You remove Johnny Smith from the offense, He's

(19:27):
now vacuuming up all those underneath targets. Why isn't Devon
ah Chan going to see a lot of receptions in
the passing game? You know, the offensive line from Miami
still has its issues they're talking about they still want
to get the ball out of to his hands really,
really quickly. So I think that a Chan he has
a range in his outcomes where he is one of
the highest scoring players. We're talking about health. If mcaffick
stays healthy, he could be the RB one. Well, if

(19:49):
Tui stays healthy. That's what we saw last year, Davelon
a Chan was the RB one in terms of points
per game. So he's someone that I think, especially in
the full PPR, he's someone that you can get in
round two. And I think that he is a He's
a really high ceiling pick. But obviously there is a
somewhat scary flour with Miami and the vibes in general
with that team, and if things go south, you could

(20:09):
see a situation where he doesn't live up. But I
think that his ceiling is pretty high. Like we saw
last year.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, I mean if the ceiling case is obvious for him,
I think the thing with with a Chan and the
floor is that, by the way.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Erickson's video just freaking out there was hilarious.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Man, I need to like either they're probably not going
to keep that, but like put it when the graphic
over top of it that you need to pull that
out separately and just keep that somewhere.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Because I was ericson, I don't know if you could
tell your video is frozen, and then as as you
stopped talking, it like sped through catching up and it
was like you talking a million miles an hour.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
That was cool.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Well, what I was gonna say on a Chan is is,
to me, the reason that the floor is scarier for
him is that it's two guys could get hurt and
hurt him as opposed to just himself. It's his own
injury stuff and also to us, So that just adds
to the risk. The ceiling, obviously, I think, is super clear.
I don't think anybody, you know what would argue against them.
Before we get to tier three, I want to tell

(21:06):
everybody about DraftKings.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
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Speaker 1 (22:27):
All right, erics, and we already kind of hit on
in Tier three, Buckey Irving, Kien Williams. You know, Jake
mentioned those guys the other names here, So Bucky Irvings
a RB ten, then Chase Brown, Kien Williams, Breese Hall,
James Cook, Kenneth Walker, and Alvin Kamara. So we talked
a little already about how you could maybe even make
the case for guys like Jacobs and Taylor to be
pushed down on your end.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Jake didn't see it that way.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Is there anybody in this tier that you would make
the case for bumping up, maybe not saying they would
be in the would be in the tier with Jant,
Henry McCaffrey, and Hien, but that would be inside that
top nine that you would push ahead of Jacobs or
Taylor or do you see it as these are the
correct names to at least be below those guys.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
I think that these are mostly the correct names. I
think that you're getting into the tier of running backs
where we're starting to see more of the potential red
flags and issues. You know, this is typically where again
it's not the same thing with the RB dead zone,
but there's a reason why they're not in tier one
or tier two. It's because there are certain reasons why
we have some reservations about some of these running backs.

(23:29):
You know, Breese Hall is a brand new offense. Are
they committed to him? James Cooks coming off all the touchdowns,
So just a couple examples of some of the red
flags some of these players. But for me, I still
think that the path is so clear for Chase Brown
to just have a monster season this year. And I
don't know what the long term holds for a player
that was taken in the fifth round, but for this
year specifically, he just looks like he's slated to be

(23:50):
a three hundred, three hundred and fifty touch guy, and
even if it's inefficient, I think that he could really
kind of be what Kyrin Williams was last year, where
he's scoring a ton of touchdowns. Even if it's not
the greatest efficiency season from him, he's just loaded up
because the Bengals decide, Hey, he's our belco and the
other guy we have is Samaj p Ryan TOAJ Brooks, Okay,

(24:10):
I think they're going to load up Chase Brown with
touches and next year we'll be talking about, Okay, Chase
Brown coming off four hundred touches really inefficient, What do
we do with this guy? Probably not going to draft
him highly, But for this season, playing in the high
power Bengals offense, he's used a lot in the passing
game and he's the coaches are talking about him in
a way that reminds me of what he did his
rookie year, where he got to play his rookie season
when he was healthy alongside healthy Joe Mixon. Now that

(24:34):
doesn't happen for a lot of day through running backs
when they find ways to get on the field. That's
something I always think is noteworthy when young running backs
find wayte to get on the field without injuries when
they can find ways to be used, and Chase Brown
is kind of forced to coach his hands where he's
showing that, hey, you need to feature me in this offense.
Even with all the talented playmakers between Jamar Chase and
Ti Higgins and Mike Aseki and now the newly signed

(24:54):
Noah Fan So, I think Chase Brown is really going
to be set up to just have a monster season.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
I said in Tier two that that was like, you
really want to get this tier right. I actually am
gonna like take that back and say Tier three is
when you really got to get right. There's so many
like what it feels like make or break names in
this group. You know, Chase Brown I think is one
of the best picks you can make in like the
early third round. And Jake we obviously talked about that
when we were recording yesterday, as he's one of you
must have players, but like you want to be correct,

(25:23):
whether it's drafting him or fading him on Brice Hall,
James Cook, Kenneth Walker, somebody we like. I mean, there's
just so many names here that getting that question right
will go a long way towards winning your fantasy leagues
when you're drafting in the round three range.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
You've already mentioned Jake.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
That you really like Bucky Irving, Karen Williams, we know
you like Chase Brown. Are you interested in guys at
Hall Cook Walker? I know you've come around on Kamara two.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Really this is another tier
that is now different but also deeper because it started
off deeper. So obviously I'm starting deeper in mine. Mine
includes down includes Breace Hall, which I'm never getting. I've
been low on breeshol this entire offseason, and now we
are already getting to talk to that. Zach Rosenblatt for
the Athletic is saying this might be more of a

(26:08):
one to two punch than people are expecting. And Brylan
Allen is coming for part of the touches, so that's
a concern. And that's why I mean we have him
down in this range. I have him with like the
Chuba Hubbard and James Connors at this point. James Connor,
like last year, if you told me were we're going
to get fifteen games again, cool, sign me up. But
I think it's just I'm not banking on the first
help well not it wasn't even the first healthy season.
It was the healthiest season in a really long time

(26:31):
for James Connor, who doesn't play full seasons, and I'm
not counting on that as a repeat. Chuba Hubbard, I
know he has the workload, but I'm still worried about him.
I'm almost thinking about moving my tiers kind of more
to what you're bringing up and represented on Fantasy Pros, because,
like I mean, I can almost break apart this tier
in half because I'll go back yes, yes, yes, and yes,
Jas Brown go watch that when that comes out. Kenth

(26:53):
Walker absolutely drafting. I was initially out on. I brought
that up with I talked to Michael Sean Duger or
the Athletic and he said, expect Bell Cow work for
Kenneth Walker. I thought it could be more of a split.
So trusting somebody that's close to the team, I'm gonna
trust that workload and that puts him as a fringe
RB one for me. James Cook, I get it. Andrews
talked about it. This is similar to Barkley. Like everybody

(27:14):
on Earth at this point within the industry has talked
about that. Touchdown rate from last year and touchdown regression coming.
But we're not even drafting him as an RB one.
We're not even drafting m in the top ten. If
you're going to give him to me as RB thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, even,
I'll take him every single time. And Kamara, I know
it's going to be a miserable offense, but you really
think Kamara is not walking into another sixty plus receptions

(27:36):
and ninety plus targets with Chris a Lobby, Rashishihid and
that's it. Like that Brandon Cooks like he's back, like yeah,
he's really gonna do something like I just like, I
just think that I'm okay with all of those mostly
because of where they're going. You brought it up. This
is now we're talking about third round. On average, you
get one of these running backs who any single one

(27:56):
of those four could finish top ten and just depending
on what happens elsewhere, and you wouldn't be shocked. And
you're getting him in the round three turn maybe even
later possibly round four, and you can load a bit
wide receiver and come back and get one of these
as your RB one hacking maybe even your RB two Erickson.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Do you also like this kind of group of players,
all of them? Or if is there anybody you would
be willing to make a case against or do you
just not to eat that way you see the upside
for all of them?

Speaker 4 (28:21):
Yeah, I kind of wanted to ask the question of
who in these tiers scares you the most? Like who
are you terrified to click the button? And for me,
Breese Hall is someone that I just catuously. I look
at him and I think about the upside and where
we were taking him last year, But then I think
about is he going to be on? Could he still
get traded? Is asener if they decide, hey, we're falling

(28:42):
in love with Braylon Allen, We're not committed to bres Hall.
Braylan On fits our new offense better. And then they
decide they call it the Houston Text and be like, hey, yeah,
Joe Mix, is that healthy? You want Breese Hall for
a third round pick? And they send him packing. So
that's something that I'm keeping the back of my mind
of you got to spend a big pick on Brescee Hall,
And I don't know, I've been thinking about it. I
love the talent, but it's a new situation, and he

(29:04):
just recently talked about how he knows that this new
coaching staff like he's not their guy, and he has
to prove it to them. So it could be a
smash hit or could also be really dangerous. In those situations,
sometimes it's just better to shy away, take a little
bit more of a safer option in this round, or
even go with a wide receiver instead. So bris Hall
to me, I think, yeah, I get the upside case

(29:25):
with him, but I also understand that there is some
major risk.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Hall feels like the lowest non injury related floor of
this group, like outside the guys that you might be
worried about injury, Like if you told me that the
top sixteen running backs were all perfectly healthy off season long,
which isn't going to happen, but we've told me that
was the case. The guy with the lowest floor, I
would think is Breese Hall, just given some of the
situation stuff and the fact that he hasn't lived up
to it. There's also you know, we liked us and

(29:52):
feels a lot for fantasy. What is it going to
mean for restaw There's just a lot of questions there.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Well, So that was part of the we talked a
few weeks about I don't remember it was you or
was another show, but it's to Justin Fields and who's
played alongside of them. And I'm not even going down
the passing to the receptions of the running backs that route,
because you can make the chicken in the egg argument there.
You could say Justin Fields is to throw a ton
to his running backs. He is actually around league average
percentage wise, again is worsoul. We're also talking about how

(30:18):
much he passes. But at the same time, it wasn't
like the greatest collection of running backs. There wasn't a
breeze hole. At the same time, what I was bringing
up as part of the concern is if you look
at the people running for touchdowns alongside of them, because
Justin Fields is a running threat, it's been the bigger
body running backs that have ran for more touchdowns and
who they've turned to with Justin Fields back with the

(30:38):
Bears days and everything like that. So that was already
part of my concern is that Bristoll might be fine,
but we might be talking about discount Matt Forte back
in the day where it's like, yeah, it's great between
the tens and then what the hell happens once they
get inside the ten yard line and all of a sudden,
that's the Bryln Allen Show, and that's part of That's
also I just don't know that Breese Hole is going
to even approach double digit touchdo combine rushing and receiving.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
If you have handcuff questions or need advice on your
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Speaker 2 (31:12):
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Speaker 1 (31:13):
Bogs and fits at five eastern every Tuesday through the
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and be on the show at fantasypros dot com slash chat.
All right, guys, Tier four, I'll read through the names.
There's a lot of them, so I'll just read through
them quickly. Here goes from running back seventeen to running
back twenty six. Omarion Hampton, Chewba Hubbard, James Connor, David Montgomery,

(31:35):
DeAndre Swift, Traveon Henderson, Joe Mixon, R J Harvey, Aaron Jones,
and Caleb Johnson ericson this is the tier of the
rookie running back setting side gent He's obviously much higher
those other rookies that were all going in the first
round of rookies drafts in May. These guys are all
going in this seventeen to twenty six range of the rookies.
Is there a favorite value that stands out to you?

Speaker 4 (31:55):
I think it on Maren Hampton is going too low.
I think he should be closer to Gentamy. He's the
only guy that was taken in the first round, same
thing with Genty, So to see him now being like
compared to the guys taken after him versus the guy
that was taken the same round as him, I think
is kind of interesting because he's a first round pick
and we've seen just first round picks coming to the
NFL get bell cow usage and everything has worked out

(32:17):
so far in his favor. Like Naji Harris has not
been available to be taking reps at OTA's in training camp. O'maron,
Hampton's getting all the usage that you'd expect. He's getting
a leg up on a new coaching staff like this
isn't Najie Harris from the Steelers where they know what
he can do. This is a new coaching staff that
has no allegiance to Naji Harris. This is the same
coaching staff that signed Gus Edwards to a big free

(32:37):
agency deal last year, and JK. Dobbins was the guy
that they turned to immediately. It didn't take. It took
a couple of weeks aguside, which they decided, right, we're
going with JK. Dobbins. So I think Omaron Hampton has
just like the green light to be the bell cow
in this backfield. And that's not how I felt Originally.
I thought that Naji was going to be a bigger
thorn in his side at least to start the year.

(32:57):
But now it seems like the runways clear for Hampton.
And I got to thinking, if the Chargers had drafted
on Marion Hampton first and Ben signed Naji Harris, don't
you think that his ADP would be so much higher
when you think it'd be closer to like a second
round pick versus the reverse where Nauj was signed first
basically to a pretty low free agency deal and then
they drafted Nase. I think that he should be going

(33:19):
significantly higher, and he's someone that I think should be
closer to Ash and Genty.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
I'm really torn on Hampton. I love the player, I
can't quite get there on raising his ADP too much
for two reasons and then mostly Greg Roman related reasons.
I know everybody sees that and they go, oh, the
Chargers love to run. This is a great fit, but
they love to run with a group of running backs.
Like there is not a long history of true belcal

(33:44):
usage in Greg Roman offenses. And there's also not a
lot of history of pass catching usage, which is a
skill that I think Hampton has. But I worry that
if he's not catching a lot of passes, Eddie's not
actually the true workhorse, just because that's not the way
Greg Roman has historically operated.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Even though the run volume is quite heavy. I get
nervous about.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
The ceiling with Hampton, even setting aside the fact that,
like they did go out and sign Harris, and like,
you know, if Harris's eye ends up fine and he's
healthy later in the year, then I think there's even more.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Chance of a split. But I totally see the upside case.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
So that's why I find myself like it's really hard
for me to make a strong case either direction, because
I feel like, I see both sides of that coin
as really possible to play out ericson.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
I just think that we shouldn't overthink it. It's a
first round pick lands in an ideal spot where he
should get the majority of usage. I mean, that's why
we're betting on Ashton Genty as a back end first
round pick early second.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
He's got nobody behind him.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
I mean right now, there's no one else on the
charges back then sure doing anything?

Speaker 3 (34:44):
No, you're you're right as of today, and that's where Like,
So if we're still talking three weeks into August, two
weeks into August, and Naje still can't get out there
because he played with fireworks, can we just stop playing
with fireworks? People? Just stop? Like JPP tried to teach
you what would happen? So if he's still not out there, yes,
and maybe this is your opportunity to take him as
in mid rby two because the ceiling is higher. Because

(35:06):
it's not so much I disagree with anything you're saying, Eric's,
it's just I also agree with everything worm seat, and
that's why my immediate pushback was gonna be. I know JK.
Dobbins is not Omarion Hampton at this point with all
the injuries and racking it up and everything like that,
but you still look at back last year and they
kept giving touches to other people, including Gus Edwards, and
is like, even at last year with what JK. Dobbins was,

(35:27):
he was still objectively, subjectively, whatever way you want to
cut it, he was better than Gus Edwards, and they
kept turning back to Gus Edwards and other They tried
to get Kamani vind All involved in all these type
of things because it's grow Roman, and I think they're
in Roman's kind of been always more of what we're
seeing now in the NFL of like I'm just not
going to lean on somebody seventy percent of the time.
That's just not what I'm gonna do. I hope you're

(35:50):
right because I'm a huge Hampton fan. I actually even
said that I think the gap between gent and Hampton
is the gap I would have put for Bijon and
Gibbs and did put when they were drafted. It's like
this close. But I'm just concerned that there's other running
back usages and that's my concern. So I can see
the argument if you want to take him over Hubbard
because the thing we kind of went past Hubbard, and

(36:12):
I know, like I was down on I was way
too low on him last year admittedly, but also towards
the end of the season he really lost his efficiency.
I don't know if he was getting worn down or
if it was the Bryce Young resurgence, But if you
look at those games where Bryce Young was really starting
to play well, Hubbard fell off, he was still getting
the volume. He was just pretty inefficient. Kind of your argument,
like we'd be happy with Chase Brown just knowing he

(36:33):
was getting three hundred touches even if they're efficient. So
if you want to take him over Hubbard, if you
want to take him Overhole because of that risk, but
I think it'd be really hard for me to get
him inside the top fifteen.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Ericson When you look at this range setting aside Hampton,
are you more interested in the veterans here Montgomery, Connor Swift,
Joe Mixon, or are you more interested in, you know,
take your pick of the other rookies Henderson, Caleb.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Joe Mexon should be twenty spots lower at this point.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yes, definitely not drop Joe mixing it any capacity. I
don't want. I don't want Joe Mixing, so he should
be in Tier seventeen at this point. I would say,
I think that it does depend a little bit on
your roster build. I think that if you're looking for
a more stability, especially early on in the season, I mean,
James Connor, look until the wheels fall off, this guy's
gonna be a monster. Especially look at the early season

(37:20):
schedule for the car the playing the Saints, wee one,
like they have such a cake schedule to open the
year that James Connor when we look up after the
first seven weeks, if he's healthy, he's going to be
a top five fantasy running back and then he's going
to be immediately a cell high guy.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
Because like we know this kit last every article. We
got him to start writing it right now.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
If you need running back early season production, like Connor
is the guy you want. But if you've already drafted,
let's say to running backs, you took Bijon and Chase Brown,
then no, don't take James. Like I wouldn't take James,
but I would take one of these rookies with some
upside that maybe they don't hit in the first month
of the season, but they're more okay October November plays
or guys that hit in the second half. Will usually
see all of these rookie running backs kind of hit

(38:01):
their stride in the second half of the season. So
I do agree with most of the names that are
in this tier. Again, the rest of the rookie running
back crop, I think this is kind of an appropriate
range for them, and between Henderson and Harvey and Caleb Johnson,
I like Johnson the most just because he's like the
cheapest guy. But I think for the most part, this
tier is pretty is pretty spot on.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
I kind of feel like, at whatever point, Jake, you
get to the rookies in this group of rankings, they
should almost just be back to back to back. Like
I don't see a ton of difference in draft day
value on Trey Van Henderson, R J. Harvey, and Caleb Johnson.
I see interesting cases for all of them. And like,
like you said, like if we're moving mixing down, I
would have those guys above Aaron Jones. You know, decide
what you want about, like guys like Swift and Montgomery,

(38:40):
but like once you get to that first rookie, I
just kind of want to group them all together.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
Yeah, that's funny. I go Hampton, Henderson, Swift, and then
Harvey Johnson, like, so they're four and a five almost
right in a row. Swift just happens to break them
down the middle. But I want to go back to
something real quick as a strategy. I know we're talking
running backs, but Erickson said something that kind of I
don't want to gloss over, kind of embedded in there
is if you do draft Hampton, if you draft Caleb Johnson,

(39:05):
if you draft any of these rookies, really it's the
same as drafting these high end backups. If it's not
happening in the first three weeks, do not panic. That's
not why you took these players. So understand they like
what you just said, ericson with your roster construction, Understand
that you might have more variance and risks to start
the year, and don't sell them all for nothing after
three weeks or for a super discount just because it

(39:26):
hasn't clicked yet, especially with the Johnson's and the Harveys
and those kind of running backs where we are counting
on the second half more than the first half. So
get through that roller coaster, Like like you know, if you
do draft trade Benson and James Conner stays healthy for
four weeks, don't draft Tree, Benson or just you know,
don't why'd you take them in the first place. So
I want to include that in the fact that, yes,
so with these rookies, I have them all there. I

(39:48):
don't have Montgomery in this tier. I actually have Pachecko
in this tier. If Pachecko's healthy. I know that's a
big risk because Pacheco looked terrible, but something that fits
said a few weeks ago. I want to echo as
they said, if Pacheco ever stepped on the field at
the end of last year, would he not be going higher.
It's almost because we saw how bad he looked coming
back from the injury that everybody got upset and like worried.

(40:08):
And it's a valid concern, especially because if they include
Richard Smith or anybody else as a pass catcher and
Pachecko loses what little bit he had there. But I
feel better about Pachecko being the lead than I do
David Montgomery continuing his touchdown success without Ben Johnson that offense,
Like what if they lean more into Gibbs And I'm
not saying like any of that could happen definitively. But

(40:30):
Dan Montgomery just doesn't feel like a name that I'm
going to have in this group and I'm going to
take in this group.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
Yeah, let's let's get into tier five, which is where
Pachecko is. It's RB twenty seven to RB thirty five.
Tony Pollard, Isaiah Pachecko, Brian Robinson, Jalen Warren, Tyrone, Tracy Traves,
Eta Javonte Williams, Quinshawn Judkins, and Najee Harris. There are
a lot of names that I'm not really that interested
in in this tier. Pachecko is not on that list.
Pachecko is somebody that I am interested in for that
exact reason you just said. I almost I feel like

(40:57):
I've heard Ericson make a very similar point to that
as well, about like what if we didn't even see him,
you know, play at the end of last season. How
how differently would we view him and stole it from Yeah?

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Probably.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah, It's one of those things where somebody says that
I one show, and then you know, I sob he
says in the next show, and it just kind of
played a game of telephone with it. But but I
think it's a great point, and I do think Pachecko
is somebody like at RB twenty eight, especially like you're
getting a real discount paked in there. So I really
like Pacheco in that range. There are a lot of
names like I said that I don't love in this tier,
which is why I would really buy the case for

(41:28):
Pacheco being in the tier above ericson what do you
think about that?

Speaker 4 (41:31):
Yeah, I co signed with you guys on Pacheco. I
have him ORB twenty five, so he's also in the
tier above. And to all the reasons you kind of echoed,
where you know, Rashie Rice didn't have to come back
and it didn't matter. This is this they were, we were,
we were bond, and then he was going to be
held again. But if he came back and looked bad, right,
we've gone to the Rashie Rice discount too. Maybe not,
but yeah, I agree with with that. So this tier

(41:52):
I do not like. I'm not going to sure go
that I hate this tier. Worm for the most part,
it's not that I don't like, it's it's bad because
this is real where Okay, I'm desperate for running back touches.
Who can I get that? Maybe was inefficient last year
or not dynamic. That is just okay, these are the
next starters that we need to draft. But you will
also look at when we get to the other tiers.

(42:12):
You're seeing their teammates also get drafted because there's some
ambiguity with some of their roles as the quote unquote
starters in their offense. Like Brian Robinson is the most
average replaceable RB two running back that you can really find. Yes,
does he have touchdown upside in the Commander's offense if
he's the goal line back, yes he does. But if
he starts the season inefficiently and the commanders decide, hey,
we want to get some with more expulsiveness, then you

(42:35):
could see him not necessarily have a stranglehold on that
RB one job. So I'm really not going out on
my way to draft players from this tier, especially the
veteran guys like Tony Pollard, like Brian Robinson. Jalen Warren
I think fits into that. Okay, he's going to offer
some value catching pass out of the backfield drafts ETN
kind of same thing. What we're getting from Jags training
camp is that ETN is the pass catch or Tank

(42:56):
Bakesby's gonna be the guy in early down, So do
with that what you will understanding the roles because we're
not We're very far from Bellcow running backs. When we
get to this type of tier, Javonte, Judkins, Naji all
have their own issues. So I just don't find myself
in this tier being like, if you don't draft this guy,
you're gonna lose your fantasy league. It's more or less.
Can one of these guys kind of help piecemeal some

(43:18):
production down the line for four weeks where I feel
good about it? And in most cases it's like just
wait another round to draft a running back that I
think maybe has more upside, or go with a different position.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
I think it was I can't remember which host it was,
but on Yahoo's a football podcast Football three to ozho one,
they were doing an episode on the most average player
at every position, and I believe Brian Robinson was the
most average.

Speaker 4 (43:39):
He was exactly.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
Is growing shots at Brian Robinson over here.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
He's average averages an average NFL player is pretty good.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
I was running back to stay replaced. That's the I.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
Think he's above average.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
I don't know why we're getting hate for Brian Robinson
of this group. He's among my favorite names in it.
But I disagree with Ericthon that I would just rather
draft a wide receiver in this range.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
I think it's because, like I don't think people really
this dude's averaging like over nine yards per reception like this,
Like he has more to his game and he's a
capable runner. Like I don't know what the hate is
for him, But that was actually gonna be one of
the names I brought up. I think the interesting one
is like, I don't take your seat here for a second, worm,
but because of the news, you threw out Judkins, and

(44:23):
I was like, doesn't Jerome Ford deserve to be in
the conversation now with Brian Robinson and like all these
other names in this group where I'm kind of with Ericson,
like I haven't had a lot of running backs in
this range. I usually have too by this point, and
I'm hitting the wide receiver group or maybe an early
tight end or whatever it might be. So I very
rarely am drafting these guys, mostly like I said, because
I have too. And then a little bit later, I'm

(44:44):
drafting some upside options or timeshare upside pieces as my
third running back to already hit my bench because I
also have a wide receiver in my flex. All that
being said, I feel like Jerome Ford, like the guy
was just top twenty five last year's He's a good
pass catcher. I know the offense is a huge question mark,
but I aren't we all under the assumption that Jenkins
is just not even gonna step on the field this year.

(45:04):
N if so, Ford is right back into being the
lead running back.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Ericson the last guy do you want to hit on
in this tier? And I know we got to get
to the next tier, but I just think Javonte Williams
is worth mentioning. I don't think he should be ranked
much higher than this, but I will be very interested
in him in as long as he's guy kind of
going in the thirties because I just think there's so
much room for like the who's gonna take the carries
in this backfield. I think it's going to be a
good offense. We've talked about this a lot sake, cam

(45:31):
Anblu like, I would be very happy to have Javontay
Williams at this I'm not going to overpay to get him,
but at this cost, I would much rather take him
than some of the other names in this tier, because
I think it's really similar to JK. Dobbins last year
in that obviously, like has injury history, there's a reason
he's on a new team.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Nobody really wants him or sis the upside.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
But early in the year JK Dobbins was winning weeks
and I don't know if it's gonna last the whole
season with Javonte Williams, but I think that he is
a great pick here because again it's a good offense,
but there's nobody in this backfield.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
Yeah, I wish it was going a little bit closer
where Jobbins was. I mean, Dobbins was outside of the
top forty running backs, so he was he was cheaper
than Javonte. But to your point about when I'm looking
out the other old running backs in this tier, I'm
not super crazy about anything except for Pacheco. So if
I'm really desperate for hey, I really need a running back,
especially if I went hero RB or even like a
zero RB build where I really just need to bank

(46:25):
on some early season production where it seemed like Davonte's
all He's going to get the first nod at getting
all the opportunities or the majority of opportunities in the
Dallas Cowboys offense, then I want to take advantage of that.
So I understand Javonte again. I don't think that he's
my be all end all. I'm not as confident about
him as I was Dobbins last year, but I can
see the path where he can be useful.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Javonte started a little lower too. He is crept up
to RB thirty three. He was outside the top thirty
six earlier on. Let's go to tier six because I
know we got to get out of here. There's a
big one. I'll just reading through quickly. Jordan Mason, Campskataboo,
Ramandre Stevens, Zach Sharboney, Taj Spears or Shad White, Tank Bigsby, JK. Dobbins,
Ray Davis, Austin Eckler, Trey Benson, Isaac Garendo, Tyler algier Rico,

(47:09):
Dad al bahell Touton, Jalen Wright, and Jerome Ford. It
goes from RB thirty six to fifty two. So a
very big tier here, Jake, who stands out to you
in this group?

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Somebody who have the next tier up is Skataboo. But wait,
is that Debro coming through? Has he busting through the
wall over here? And as I say that, it's the
cam Skataboo. We've talked about him ad nauseum at this point,
so I don't really need to go down the list
of why I think he's the lead option in a
better pass catcher than some people see. And I know
immediately what's coming in the comments. We're in four to seven, like,
oh wow, what a shocker that Like sometimes that doesn't

(47:38):
mean as much as you think it does. But here's
the obvio. So I'll go elsewhere with this one and
say that looking at this, you did did you say
the name Nick Chubb or did he missed it? He's
not even in the fifty one.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
He is not in this tier, so I.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
Wanted to say Nick Chubb similar to Jerome Ford. Oh
and by the way, Jerome.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Ford is the first name of the next year. He
is in the next half of tier seven and her
he'll be this tier before long, because he should be
similar to Jerome Ford. And I was gonna say for
Jerome Ford when I said top twenty five on double
digit carries, because when he's the lead I'm still gonna
go back to the Bigsby Etn situation that you guys
brought up, because I think it's very similar to Gravanta
Williams and Jayden Blue. I know people don't like to

(48:16):
take both running backs because you're kind of you know,
you're you're limiting your upside in that situation because you're
not gonna want to play both. This isn't the old
Falcons days where it's say DeVonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. Cool,
they're both top fifteen running backs. But when we have
uncertainty like this this early into the off season, and
it's hey, is Javonta even healthy? Or is the Blue
hype warranted? And I'm a big fan of Blue. Similar

(48:38):
to this, is it Etn He's going to look like
he did two years ago the first half two years ago?
Or is Bigsby going to be the guy? And Etn
is nothing more than a timeshare pass catching piece. You
can take both at their cost. We're now down into
very we're in the double digit we're a triple digits
overall for some of these running backs. Take both and
take flyers on him if you're drafting this early, because

(48:59):
by the time we get the third week of August.
As you said, some of these guys are gonna be
climbing if we're talking three weeks into the future, and
both of these battfields are one hundred percent clear, and
it's like, this is the guy.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
These are gonna be top thirty running backs that you're
getting this late, so you might as well take both
if you're gonna stash him on your bench.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Ericson who are your favorite targets in this group?

Speaker 1 (49:18):
And obviously like there's not really a sense of making
a case against anybody here because they're going so late. Anyway,
these are all kind of flyers you're just taking late
in your draft. But who are the guys that you
like that you think could be a tier or even
multiple tiers better than they're being drafted by this time
next year.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
No, the top guy Jordan Mason. I absolutely love Jordan Mason.
Think that he's going to be the goal one back
with the Minnesota Viikings. I think they're going to run
the ball more than they have done pat in past
seasons with o'conic calling the shots because they have a young,
inexperienced quarterback, So think they're gonna lean on the run game.
I think Jordan Mason could be a big part of that.
There were two running backs that rush for one hundred
yards against the Vikings last year. One of those was
Jamier Gibbs, he did it twice and Jordan Mason was

(49:52):
the other running back that did it. So we've seen
this with coaches all the time, like that one guy
that has a good game against your defense, then you
sign him the next year. So they're big fans of Mason.
I think he's going to get a decent role in
that offense. Green with Skataboo, think that he's going to
be the RB one for the Giants. Tajai Spears is
someone that I've kind of opened my eyes up to
a little bit more of just looking at the end
of last year how strong that he finished weeks fifty

(50:13):
through seventeen. He was a top five fantasy running back.
Tony Pollard has had a lot of touches over the
last two seasons, and his efficiency has kind of fallen
off a tad bit, especially in the second half of
twenty twenty four. He's been playing through a lot of
injuries and everything out of Titans camp from Callahan has
been that we want to use more of a running
back by committee. I believe that. I think I wanted
to do it last year, but Spears was just two

(50:33):
banged up and he's got eighty two balls over the
last two seasons, which I was like shocked by. Wait
Toajai Spears got eighty passes over the last two seasons.
Like that kind of blew my mind of a running
back that really hasn't seem like he hasn't played that much,
but he's effective in the passing game. And again going
back to he's found a way to carve out a
role on his offense despite the fact that Darrek Henry
was healthy his rookie year. He earned a role with

(50:56):
Derrek Henry as a rookie, and then last year when
Tony Pollard was also the starter. So I think Spears
is really interesting. And then I mean, we just mentioned him.
But JK. Dobbins once again going outside the top forty
running backs. Is it meant is he meant to last? No?
But can he be the starter Week one for the
Denver Broncos. Yes, and they're playing the Tennessee type yes, So.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
That like one if Dobbins is the start? What if
what if R. J. Harvey is nothing? More as the
pass catcher, like and just take a shot.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
He's just steal again outside the top forty.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
I want to I want to wrap up with you
guys picking your favorite player that is not inside the
top six tiers. And you already kind of mentioned Nick
Chubb there, Jake, I mean the first five names of
Tier seven Nick Chubb, Braylan Allen, Roshawn Johnson, Jaden Blue,
Dylan Samson. Like, I could see the case for any
of those guys doesn't have to be one of those five.
It could be somebody else. But I do think that
those five could all have been in the in the
previous tier. So Erickson, you can go first pick any

(51:49):
player that's not in the top six tiers that stands
out that we didn't mention today that you are interested
in targeting Layton drafts.

Speaker 4 (51:55):
Well, I mean, it's kind of the reason why I'm
like scared about Breese hal It's Braylan Allen. Right, if
he just fits this offense better, he's the Dave Montgomery,
then he's going to have a lot of fantasy appeal
and an offense that wants to run the ball. So
Braylan all I think has standalone value or potential, what
do the trade resalt? Where does Brylan Allen go? Then
I think this is the time to get on him.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Yeah, certainly multiple tiers higher than he is now. If
Hall wasn't there, Jake, what do you.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
Think it would be Jaden Blue if I didn't already
bring him up. So outside of that I brought him
up earlier, is that I would take a shot on
Jarq webs Hunter in case this contract situation continues to
hold out because my biggest fear for Karen Williams has
nothing to do. It's the contract. It's like because if
there's is no contract, there's nothing holding mcveigh's feet to

(52:42):
the fire. If Kiren does look bad for two or
three weeks, and the worst part about it, as we've
seen from McVeigh, he did it with Daryl Williams, he
did it with running backs before him is once he
pulls the plug, it's kind of it. And that's like
I said, it's because the next man up he looks
good and looks great, and it's like why go back
to him? And he just moves on. So that's my
biggest concern. Contract changes things. But as of right now,
I think the door is open until that happens.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
I've read his name a right.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
I do.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Just want to highlight Dylan Sampson. I really liked him
in the draft.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
He was like one of my favorite running backs outside
of that kind of top five group of rookies. And
we talk You talked about Jerome four Jake why he
is an interesting target because of Quinshawn Judkins in the news, Like,
same thing for Dylan Sampson.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
I like him.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
He's RB fifty seven, Like that's pretty late, So I
like that.

Speaker 4 (53:27):
Last guy I wanted to mention j Corey Crosskey Merit
Washington Commander's seven pound pick also goes my bill. He's
gonna be the reason why Ryan Robinson doesn't hit this year.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
Well, now you've heard our running back rankings, you can
go build your own. The cheat sheet Creator is your
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(53:59):
or on the Fantasy Football Draft Wizard app. Try it
for free right now by claiming your three day trial
at Fantasyprospremium at fantasypros dot com slash Premium. All right, guys,
we'll go ahead and wrap things up. There are lots
of running back talk. We got through a ton of
names here for you. For Ericsson and Jake, I'm Ryan Wormley.
Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time. Thanks
for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast. If

(54:21):
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2025 Fantasy Football Draft Rankings & Tiers | Top 50 Running Backs (Ep. 1638)

Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Andrew Erickson

Joe Pisapia

Derek Brown

Thor Nystrom

Ryan Wormeli

Pat Fitzmaurice

Matthew Freedman

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}2025 Fantasy Football Draft Rankings & Tiers | Top 50 Running Backs (Ep. 1638)