Fantasy Football Daily - ALL 32 NFL Backfields Breakdown for Fantasy Football 2026 | Sleepers, Handcuffs & Values

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

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Breaking down all 32 NFL backfields for fantasy football in 2026. Theo Greminger joined today by Graham Barfield right here on Fantasy Points YouTube and Fantasy Football Daily. Graham, we did this last year where we broke down every single backfield. I think we got a lot of things right. We're going to try to identify a number of categories that can help fantasy managers. How clear are backfields to you at this moment? it feels like a heading into the summer it's pretty more clear to me than it was maybe at this point last year where are you at it is more clear and i think we're seeing that in fantasy drafts right

we're seeing the ADPs it's not just like um you know the clear uh elite running backs at the top of the board it's also just like um you know people chasing that safety with some of these elite running backs uh especially compared to receiver scoring kind of falling apart but yeah i'm with you i think in general we've got some clear like clear cut rb ones uh then we've got some guys like omarion hampton um that could eventually become like a full blown battle cow this season based on how things are going and then like you said i think we do we have some some running back battles i'm sure we'll get through today and we'll we'll debate them uh some of these lower end handcuffs but i'm with you i think a lot of these backfields are are pretty settled right now and we really don't have any free agents

theo like it's just nausea harris that's it yeah it's just nausea harris and then also i think for the clarity aspect, we benefited from the NFL kind of telling us what they thought about this 2026 running back class. There's a couple of running backs who could play spoiler that are rookies. We're going to talk about them today. They fall into a couple of different categories. I think let's start off at the very top. Let's start out with the running backs that are at the top of the food chain, sort of the apex predators, the ones you all know. Let's get these out of the way. Bejohn Robinson, Atlanta Falcons, Brian Robinson, the new handker. cuff back there. Any sort of pushback whatsoever, or is Brian Robinson about as clear as day here?

I think it's as clear as day. Downgrade from Tyler Al Jare. Just don't think he's the same player or, you know, factor as as Al Jare was. But, you know, if Bejohn were to go down, yeah, Brian Robinson would have a really strong role, low end R.B2 at worst, probably. Yeah, I was going to say, I think because of how consolidated that offense is, he'd probably be a guy that we would have to rank somewhere in like that running back 15 to 18 range. I wonder what Chris Wecht would have to say about that. And if you want to take a look at early projections for 2026, they're up over at fantasy points.

Chris Wecht was really the best in the business last year with receipts to prove it. They're up over at fantasy points. So spoiler alert, he's got Bejohn really, really high. But for me, my number one in when my rankings are going to drop. And I'm going to drop them early June right here on Fantasy Football Daily. My early PPR rankings, I'm going to have Jumeer Gibbs at the very top. Detroit signed Isaiah Pacheco. This is another like downgrade from their running back to last year. Going from David Montgomery to Pacheco is like a huge net win for Jumeer Gibbs. But you have

to say that Pacheco landed really, really well. It felt like he was heading down like a slippery slope of like unrosterable. Now I think he's sort of in that fun handcuff category. Fun handcuff, but I also don't think he's necessarily a direct handcuff. I, think if Gibbs were to get hurt, like God forbid. I don't think Pacheco would be like a full-blown the way that Brown Robinson would. And just while we're talking about Gibbs, I still think he has an underrated upside. You and I were talking about this last year. It's like he's so much better than Montgomery. And we saw at the end of last year, especially when Dan Campbell took over the play calling. You know, this final like 13, 12, 13 games Gibbs was RB6 and snaps at 70%. That's like just behind

Achan and Bejan and J.T. So if he does like, you know, find a way to play a few. you extra snaps get like 70, 75% of the snaps this year, man. I'm with you. Like, he's already our RB1 and it might be by like a considerable margin for Gibbs just because the lion's offense, man, is so much better than the Falcons. It's so much better. And also like with Gibbs, we've seen what the receiving ceiling can look like. I would say like the only only slight, slight, slight pushback is teammate touch competition. Like Bejohn has way less hurdles on a weekly basis. There's going to be maybe the occasional game where Jameson Williams breaks loose for two long touchdowns, maybe limits those scoring opportunities. Leport is healthy this year.

But I'm like splitting. And also the touchdown god, Isaac Tesla, there's going to be that random like two touch, three touchdown Isaac Tesla game this year at some point. But Gibbs to me is the one that could break fantasy. I think Gibbs is going to average 20 to 22 points per game. But if Gibbs, it really, really happens. You could see like a, Christian McCaffrey, 2019 type season out of him where maybe we get some, or Cooper Cup 2021 season where Gibbs is like outscoring quarterbacks if it all works out really well. Like the guys like 26, 27 points per game. So Atlanta and Detroit pretty cut and dry. Another backfield that to me is very, very clear. We sort of rooted for Will Shipley. I think

there was a big contingency of like FFPC and NFFC drafters who saw Will Shipley as a big contingent upside guy a couple years ago. But really when when you look at Philadelphia, it's Saquan Barkley as the starting as the starting running back. And then Tank Bigsby is in a spot where I think they like him and I think they trust him a lot more after trading draft capital to acquire him. I think if Saquan were to go down, Bigsby would have a pretty high volume role in this offense. Obviously a way more capped ceiling than Sequin. But he would, he's a very useful player to roster. I'm with you and this is another guy. I think I'd rank ahead of Pacheco. I'd for sure rank ahead of Pacheco and honestly I might rank ahead of Brian Robinson just because

I think, man, I think Tink Bigsby is pretty good. Like anytime the last two years he's gotten like legitimate volume in terms of yards after contact, miss tackles his efficiency numbers, again, small sample. They've all looked very good. Obviously his rookie season was was really bad. I don't need to spend too much time on that but the last two years have been good. And yeah, I mean, Sequin goes down. I mean, this offense will keep humming. And Tank is like, to me, I think probably the most valuable direct handcuff in fantasy football right now, Theo. I don't know. To me, it's either him or Brian Robinson, and I think I prefer Bigsbee just because I think Bigsby is a slightly better back.

Another back that I, and I think this could be a year where there's a number of these year two running backs where the teams didn't trust them in year one, maybe have a little bit more trust in them in year two. and the contingent upside will come with them. Jonathan Taylor is a locked in first round pick. I'll have him somewhere in my top 10 overall, Graham. I think you probably would as well. But Taylor, I think it's going to be a clear backup this year with DJ Giddens, who was the 2025 fifth round pick where there was a little bit of steam last off season about Giddins with the beat reporters, how he sort of carried himself like he was a starter,

has really plus athleticism coming out of Kansas State. But last year really didn't take off. And I think it was a little binged up at times. So I think Giddens now, based on what Indianapolis didn't do this offseason, the only running back that could be a threat to Giddens is a seventh rounder in Seth McGowan, who they drafted this past draft. But I think McGowan, to me, looks like the running back three. And I think Gidens moves into like fun, hand-eastern.

cuff range. Yeah, I agree. It's a little bit of a mystery box. But like you said, you know, Colts didn't do anything. JT goes down. They might have to sign somebody at this point. This, this backfield is very, very thin. But for right now, yeah, Giddens is looking like a really good, like, you know, late round pick and best ball for sure. And if, you know, we get to August, Theo, and, you know, they still haven't signed anybody. I think we're going to be, we're going to be saying the same thing about him. He's, you know, a really good, like, end of roster stash for, you know, deep deep leagues if you're just trying to stash a handcuff early in the year. Yeah. And if you have Jonathan Taylor in Dynasty or if you draft Jonathan Taylor in the first round of some of these

early redraft leagues, you're able to mix in Giddens in like the 19th round, 20th round. He's sort of completely forgotten. But I'd argue that his upside might be similar to a guy like a Pacheco or a Bigsby just because of the raw athleticism that he brings to the table. Daniel Jones should be back. We sort of saw how the functional that offense was with Daniel Jones last year, especially the running game. So I'm into a little bit of DJ Giddens right now. I was able to add him in a couple of Dynasty rosters recently where I still have Jonathan Taylor.

Another team that seems very clear to me is the Las Vegas Raiders. Ashton Genty is the starter, but I think it's going to be Mike Washington as a handcuff. And he's not really a handcuff plus, but he could be an annoying presence to Ashton Genty at times this season. and if they want to embrace his physicality. To me, it feels sort of like the Bruce Hall, Braylon Allen corollary, but with an elite offensive mind in Clint Kubiak

that's going to actually target Ashton Genti all season long instead of like, why did you stop targeting Bruce Hall? He was pretty good catching the ball. Where are you out on Mike Washington? I think this is just all Jancy, man. I think I think Kubiak has said, you know, hey, I want, you know, ideally I want a committee,

but to me I think you know just having Charbonnet and Walker last year the talent on the roster kind of dictated that to me and Mike Washington is just nowhere close to the prospect or player that Ken Walker, Zach Charbonnet was coming out and especially obviously not Jancy I honestly I have questions whether or not he could play in the past game I think obviously as a grinder he could certainly take the early down carries but yeah I'm I'm a little I'm a little suss on Raider Raider backup RBs, man. I think they could add somebody for sure.

They could play Dylan Lobby in the past game. I don't know. I just think this is going to be, like, if Jayne T gets hurt, it's just going to be so gross in that backfield. Like on a week-to-week basis, I just feel like we're going to be, you know, ranking these guys as like high-end RB3 flex plays at best

if Janty gets hurt. So that's kind of where I'm out on Raiders. Yeah, I think, I think it's, to me, it's Washington. I think Washington probably, I think I'm a little higher on Washington than you are just in terms of like how we should view him in like the hierarchy based on where they drafted him. I think that Roman Hempie is kind of an interesting name. If you play like preseason DFS, Hemby who played at Indiana and was good at Maryland before that.

Raiders also brought him in as a UDFA. Shout out Dylan Lobby, Long Island's own Dylan Lobby. We're rooting for you. Oh, no kidding. He's from Long Island. All right. Long Island. I didn't know that.

Long Island. He's out east. He's from out east. So Dylan Lobby, we're rooting for you, but I don't know, new coaching staff and all that kind of stuff. I think Dylan Lobby crawled so maybe Eli Hydenwright could run for Scott Barrett and the Hydenryke believers. So we got a new one. Sorry about that, Dylan Lobby. We'll keep it going. Direct handcuff backfield.

One that it's absolutely going to be a direct handcuff, but it feels like a little bit of a competition. Marshaun Lloyd, who was the Green Bay Packers. Marshawn Lloyd was a third round pick a few years ago. I was very enthusiastic about Marshaun Lloyd. He cannot stay on an NFL field. And then there's Chris Brooks who there's a hive for Chris Brooks, where when he was in Miami, people were like, oh, this guy is big, this guy can move. Green Bay acquires him and sort of, it feels like the coaching staff sort of likes him.

Emmanuel Wilson is now a Seattle Seahawk. And this is another backfield where Green Bay is like, Josh Jacobs is going to get whatever he can handle. and then we've got these two guys that one of them will just emerge and be the handcuff. Are we betting on a Marshaun Lloyd resurgence or if you needed to like draft a handcuff back for Josh Jacobs? Would you go with Chris Brooks? I completely don't think Marshaun Lloyd is capable of staying healthy and playing football at any level. I think we've just seen that.

Even going back to his college days at USC, like he was never able to handle more than like 12 or 13 carries in a game. Then the guy just like, dude, his hamstrings have got to be made of like paper, like wet, thin paper or something like that. I, dude, if Jacobs goes down, it'll be Brooks, I think. And then Lloyd will probably, if he's healthy, he'll get like some change of pace carries. I think this is just like one of these backfields that there's, there's not really a direct handcuff. Also, Brooks, like, kind of outplayed Emmanuel Wilson at times last year. He might like legitimately be good. So for right now, I'm kind of, uh, Okay. Yeah, guess what? I'm not doing it again. I'm not I've learned my damn lesson.

Michael's, you're absolutely right. I've learned my lesson on Marshall Lloyd. I liked him a lot too, Theo. He really popped in yards created. There was a small sample thing. But yeah, he was really good. The dude just like he can't stay healthy. I remember Daniel Jeremiah at that class. Like I really respect Daniel Jeremiah. He had him as like R.B3 in that class. Like he was a couple people who had him as RB1 ahead of Brooks. So like we weren't the only ones who liked him. But yeah, my Marshawn Lloyd. I can't quite quit, but I do think that Brooks is the better, I can't quit them, I can't quit them. Theo,

you're going to have to find, the theoretical athletic running back like Marshawn Lloyd. Bro, you're going to have to find some sort of support group. Some Marshawn Lloyd support group and, uh, and get some help. Yeah,

absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, one backfield that I think is super interesting because we have James Cook who there's a huge price correction in ADP. James Cook is now a first round pick. And I think he's earned that after a couple of years of being pushed down to like, round three. But when you look at Buffalo, when it was Sean McDermott, we saw a lot of Ty

Johnson, and then Ray Davis would have his moments where he'd flash. They'd also use him on like special teams. They didn't really do anything this offseason. Like Desmond Reed is in that backfield now, sort of a, a dart throw rookie. But to me, I see our, our graphics team who, and we've, and you're looking at images directly from fantasy points, like these, these like, cool, charts and like graphs showing the depth charts. I get it. But we have Ty Johnson listed as the backup running back. To me, this is a great opportunity for Ray Davis with a new coaching staff there where Joe Brady takes over. Pete Carmichael comes over. Ray Davis heading into year three, maybe if a James Cook injury were to occur, there would be some contingent upside with

Ray Davis that maybe Ty Johnson doesn't have. Actually, these are not on FantasyPoint.com. I stand corrected, but still very cool stuff that we're looking at. Shout out to Trey Camberling in the background here. But we're seeing Ty Johnson listed as the backup. For me, it's Ray Davis. And it's clearly Ray Davis. Am I wrong on this one, Graham? Yeah, Ty Johnson's just a passdown back. So like whether or not Cook is healthy, he's just going to play on the pass downs. I think Ray Davis is an awesome, like late round pick and best ball. He's going in the 200s right now. He was being treated as like a really strong, contingent upside pick. Last year, if Cook were to go down, I think he was going on the 140s or

150s and like you just said bro like nothing's changed literally nothing's changed they haven't added anybody um offense hasn't changed you know the hierarchy of this backfield hasn't changed so to me yeah if cook goes down ray davis has the early down role he has the goal line role uh you questioned some of the upside just because tie johnson is good on pass downs um but yeah i think for for best ball purposes davis is like an awesome like rb6 last round pick and you said it at the top i'm with you on james cook two years ago i was just too low i was just wrong On Cook, last year, I definitely bought in way more. I had them, I think, highest on the site in terms of, like, rankings.

This year, I'm with you. I just think, like, between this offense, his big playability, yeah, I mean, he's a locked-in first-round pick. And I've seen some debate on Cook. And to me, I really, I'm with you. I really don't think there's a debate. I think he's just earned that first-round status. I'll take it a step further.

And this is, I don't think it's hyperbole because I think James Cook is the Dark Horse RB1 overall. It's going to take a ton. But when you look at James Cook, it's sort of like, when we see him with the ball in his hands, you're like, oh, this is a guy that should be catching 65 passes a year? And is that the change in this new coaching staff where a lot of people are betting on like DJ Moore? There's some people betting on like Dalton Kincaid. And then, of course, Josh Allen is Josh Allen.

But what if the little wrinkle we see with McDermick on is James Cook plays a much higher snapshot they get whatever they can out of him. And they end up using him as more of a receiver this year, sort of phase out Ty Johnson a little bit. And you get James Cook with 65 receptions, still has the home run hitting threat as a runner, and then ends up with like 15 rushing touchdowns because the offense is so damn good

and averages like 30 points per game every year. So I'm not betting on it, but I am comfortable taking James Cook when I'm drafting at like 10, 11, 12 range. I think he's really good there. Yeah, I mean, you said it would take a lot. I think it would take probably a Bjean or Gibbs injury, God forbid. But then from there, it's like, man, I could make a debate about Achan.

I could make a debate about JT. Because just because JT has just never played much in the past game, right? And you look at like the last, you know, a couple of years. I mean, Cook, in terms of his production, I mean, he's at 17 PPR points per game, like you said, without, I wouldn't say a big role in the past game. He's got a role in the past game. But he definitely doesn't play every, yeah, he doesn't play every snap, that's for sure. It's like his reception totals are in like the 30s and you're like, this guy looks so good with the ball.

I mean, so it's, I, it's been one of the things that sort of like drives me crazy watching Bill's games is like every time they dump the ball off to James Cook, he looks so explosive with it. I'm like, get this guy more easy button looks, get him out in space a little bit more. Yeah. Takes the pressure off Josh Allen. So we will look for that. And I'm sure we'll talk about it. I'll see all off season long. Make sure you're hitting that, that subscribe button.

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That was easy. Ram, let's keep this one going. The New York Jets. I think it's Braylon Allen. Braylon Allen, whenever he's been healthy, has been sort of ahead of Isaiah Davis. Breece Hall, the unquestioned RB1 there. They've made some improvements in New York

in terms of the overall offensive skill positions. Gino Smith is going to be an improvement at quarterback. They add Kenyon Sadiq. They add Omar Cooper. So I think Breece Hall is in a pretty decent spot right now if they use him as a receiver out of the backfield. But the handcuff role is valuable, because we have seen Brice Hall missed time

at multiple points of his NFL career. Are you with me where it's like, it's Braylon Allen? Or do you think it's a little bit of a competition in the preseason Isaiah Davis versus Braylon Allen? I would lean towards Allen, but yeah, I still think Isaiah Davis is pretty good in the past game. And if Hall were to miss time,

we've seen this in the past, again, different offensive coordinator. Now we got Frank right there. But two years ago when Hall missed time, it was actually pretty much a direct split between Allen and Davis, Davis playing. A bit more in the past game, Allen having, you know, kind of more of that early down role. Alan also coming off a pretty

brutal knee injury, man. His knee got completely caved in. I don't think it's a competition. I'm with you that the early down stuff probably goes to Allen if he's back fully healthy. But this is probably one of those like kind of messy committees, not necessarily as bad as the Raiders, but probably pretty gross committee, I think, if, if Brice goes down. Yeah, I mean, we have like the cool, the cool graphic up on the screen where it's direct handcuff. It could have kind of been more of a handcuffed battle, I guess. And I do think there's something to be said that if Hall goes down, Allen's role increases, but it gets a little bit capped. And Davis takes away some of those like long down and distance, sort of the two minute offense, that sort of stuff

where some of the Brice Hall to work in the passing game might go to Isaiah Davis and be really, really annoying. One backfield where I think this is like a two-parter, I'm talking about early season. Emmanuel Wilson to me is the handcuffed to Judarian Price. And then I guess whenever Zach Charbonnet comes back, it becomes a little bit more of a split. But the early season work is going to be really important because Judarian Price, I think, could get off to a really fast start. Emmanuel Wilson clear his day, or do you think George Halani will have something to say about this just because of his familiarity with the team, they trust him as a pass blocker, all that sort of stuff? Yeah, I could see this is like a Jags type situation where Halani has this like LeQuint Allen type role where he just plays on like clear third downs and past protection situations.

But yeah, to start this year, Manuel Wilson is going to be the starter. I think week one, it's going to be really gross. People are going to be pissed about how much he plays over Jadern price. It'll just take a couple weeks. I've been doing a lot of like our injury tracker stuff at the site this off season. I'm not entirely sure Zach Charbonnet plays this year. So he had the ACL in the playoffs. Then he had a couple of weeks to get the swelling down.

Then he had surgery, I believe in February. So if you play out nine months, man, like we're talking about like December. It might be like late December. And even then, you know, you question the ramp up period, whether or not he has any other like kind of lingering issues, injuries or issues coming back. So yeah, I mean, the generic price pick was was not just for the next couple of years. I think it's for this year too. That being said, yeah, Wilson, he's going to play start week one. he's the direct handcuff to me.

And then, yeah, it should be the Judarian Price show, like, you know, October on. Judarian Price to the moon, and I'll make a bold prediction. It's not a bold prediction show, but I think Judarian Price could finish as an RB1 this year. And I think there's going to be a lot of soul searching for a lot of you, Judarian Price haters out there when we get to the end of the year. And Judarian Price is like, you know, Graham heading into week 12, he's like running back 15. And then all of a sudden, you see him rip off a bunch of these home run runs. And all of a sudden, he's in the second round discussion.

heading into 2027 and people are just having to like reassess where they're at on this guy in all levels. I just think he's going to be very good. You look at what Kenneth Walker was able to do in the playoffs and Judarian Price has that same home run hitting ability. Brett Whitefield's made the comparison with Kenneth Walker. Let me know in the comments how crazy that is. But I think Gendarian Price can have a really, really good season. I'm sure Graham and I are going to be talking about him a little bit early on when we're doing start sits. One last backfield to talk about Graham, are we as a company going to refer to Travis E.T.N. As Travis A. Chan now, or can I continue calling them E.T.N.

Are both last name pronunciations acceptable to you? I had no. That was completely out of left field. I've been listening to Travis in the press conferences for four years. I was out of left field. I guess we'll go Achan, but I'm going to go E.N for now. Let me know in the comments. Am I being insensitive to the new pronunciation of A. Chan? I was on a podcast with my guy, Cody Carpenteer.

Shout out to Alex Dunlap and Cody of roster watch. But Cody just casually drops Travis A-chan. And I'm like, okay, Cody, we're just doing that now. We're calling him Travis A-chan. But Travis E-TN slash A-chan in a really good spot. Kellenmore offense, Graham, we were all over this Kellenmore offense last year. We found reasons to put guys in lineups. Like, we were on Joanne Johnson for a number of weeks.

We were on Devin Neal during a few opportunities he had. We sort of talked about just the ramp up of Chris Olave, how clear it. it was that the guy was heading towards like wide receiver one usage. We did it every week because like you're a huge fan of like the pace in the Kellyn Moore offense. And I think it's an offense with Tyler Shuck. We were also on Tyler Shuck a couple of those weeks he hit big. Tyler Shuck running the show heading into year two, Kellyn Moore year two. You look at what they were able to do in the draft adding like Jordan Tyson, Oscar Delp, Bryce Lance, this this sort of speed element that they've added in there. Travis E. TN's at a really good spot. But who backs

him up. Are we crazy for thinking Alvin Kamara is going to be there during the season? Or do you think this is something where like Alvin Kamara is not going to be there and drafters should sort of ignore him and just take Devon Neal if they're looking for a handcuff? That's what I was thinking is Devin Neal is really sneaky right now. He's basically free in dynasty. No one's drafting him in best ball. No one's even thinking about him. And I think that'll change in a couple weeks. Alvin Kamara will likely get cut. One of the Saints beat writers, his name is John Siegler he put out an article a couple weeks ago basically saying like hey I think you know Camarra gets cut post June 1 as a part of you know the new you know the the cap deadline there

and then you know from that point on like the Saints are in a really tough spot cap space wise like are they they just gave ETN all this money there you go I'm going to say ATM I just decided it they just gave ATN all this money they have dead money with Camara are they really gonna sign another running back I'd highly doubt it so Yeah, to me, I think this is, if I were ranking, I would put this as like a handcuffed battle just because we don't know what, what's going to happen with Kamara. But, yeah, Devon Neal is certainly somebody to keep in mind. We'll see what the Saints do. Again, June 1 or June 2 looks like the day they move on from Camara and try to free up some cap space.

But yeah, like you said, ETN looks great. And I think it'd be Devin Neal, right? Like, I know they signed a bunch of guys this offseason. They signed Ty Chandler. They've got Kendra Miller still there. Audrey has to pay still on the roster, but I think it's clearly like they like Devin Neal, you know, they played him quite a bit at the end of last year. Yeah, I think Devin Neal is one where we liked him coming out of Kansas. I think the Saints like him. He has familiarity now with

Kellynne Moore. We sort of talked about like the DJ Giddins. There was all those guys in the 2025 draft class where it was such a highly regarded draft class that I do think some of these guys are going to break through as year two bets. It just, it, it makes sense based on the sheer number of players drafted and then just the steam we had in the community, like evaluating this, this class. So add Devon Neal to like the interesting year two handcuffed bets. It's real quick, before move on, it's funny that you say that. I was thinking about that this week when I was finishing up, Yards create, it's like if, if Devon Neal and DJ Giddens were in this class, we'd be really, really high on them. Like, if they just came out a year,

year later. How high, how high do you think we'd be on them? Seriously. I mean, DJ Giddens, I think would have been a third round pick in this year's draft potentially. I was thinking, yeah, I was thinking round four. Yeah. Because DJ Giddens, like, people forget DJ Giddens, like ripped up the combine and his production was very, very good in college. Like, DJ Giddins, there was a big hive for DJ Giddens. Like, if you put DJ Giddens into like, spoiler alert of San Francisco backfield right now, how valuable would he be versus like guys like Jordan James? and Kaelin Black, and we'll talk about it. We're going to get to San Francisco soon.

Let's go with the really important one. And last year we had this conversation, and people sometimes will ignore these backfield battles. They'll say, I don't want any part of it. It's sort of like, you know, shout out to JJ Zacharison, who it was actually his term was ambiguous backfields, and now we sort of all say it, but I'll give a shout out to JJ.

He's the one who coined it. It's sort of like Konami Code quarterbacks. we just say it, but it's a rich rebar line. Like, it's like Google. You're in like the common vernacular now, JJ and Rich. But the ambiguous backfields, a lot of value can come out of them, even though there's a competition and you might get burned by drafting one of these players. But like last year, Graham, we had this conversation and we were talking about like Tyrone Tracy versus Cam Scadaboo.

We were talking about Javante Williams versus Jaden Blue. We were talking about Jalen Warren versus. Caleb Johnson at the time. And like we were kind of on the Giovante Williams track and a couple of these other. And like we didn't necessarily think that would be like a league winning decision, but it ended up kind of being one. If you draft Javante Williams in like round 12 last year in these early drafts,

you crushed it. And some of you people were saying, what are you talking about, Theo? Yeah, he was down there in like the double digit rounds and then came up at the end of the summer. So let's attempt to do it once again. The most important one, Jacksonville, because we saw what Travis ETN was able to do last year in this, Liam Cohen offense. Now there's been a big battle in many different fantasy sites with a lot of

people we respect Graham. And there's some strong takes. And within our company as well, over at fantasy points here, you've got certain people on the Basial Tutton bandwagon. Then you've got sort of the Chris Rodriguez narrative. Basial Tutin is the one that drafters are betting on. According to fantasy mojo.com. He is the running back 24 going 55th overall in recent, like in the very, very early main event streets, which is, you know, the high stakes one. And then very similar draft range for him over in the $350 contest. Chris Rodriguez, though, has steamed up in terms of both the underdog drafts as well as in the FFPC. Let me look at Chris Rodriguez's is updated Chris Rodriguez is running back 41.

So you've got running back 24 and you've got running back 41. So obviously a pretty big delta, but Chris Rodriguez is still a 10th round pick. So you've got basal tutin in the 5th. You've got Chris Rodriguez in the 10th, sort of a little bit of a double bet, but a little too expensive for us to just draft both of them. I think that's sort of the wrong approach. I'm on basal tutin side here. I think basial tutin's clearly the one I'd want,

but I have to spend a fifth round pick on him. Is it better strategy for me to just say, oh, I'm going to take Chris Rodriguez in the 10th and maybe I end up with the backfield points here? Or are you with me on drafting Basial Tutin if you're going to attack this backfield? To me, it's just an upside argument. With Rodriguez, we know what we're getting, right? Like, we know he's probably going to lead the team in like early down carries. We'll see on the goal line. I think that'll just be split.

Cohen has always been a coach who he doesn't really prefer. I don't like a straight goal line back. It's just kind of whoever's on the field at the time. They're going to get the carry. To me, and I think I said this on a previous show with you, it's just like the upside for Tootin is just playing way more in the passing game and getting all these like kind of design screens from this offense. To me, you know, LeQuinn Allen is just a pass blocker on third down.

So play on some, you know, two minute drill stuff. But it's really like the design screens that I'm interested in, right? Like this, you know, the plays where Cohen's trying to, you know, design a play where he parts the Red Sea, gets to it in a big running lane, and creates an explosive play. Yeah, I mean, it's a split backfield for sure. But, yeah, I think drafters are right. You're looking at it from like an opportunity cost perspective, though,

and at least right now, Judarian Price is starting to really come up in price. He's really coming up in ADP. He and Basial Tutin essentially have the same price right now. Price is going at 58, overall over on Underdog. Tutin's going 61. I much prefer price. And then I think there's a few receivers in that range. I also prefer over Tutton.

I think Tutin probably steamed just a little bit too much at this point based on, you know, Chris Rodriguez over the last two years, man, leads all running backs and success rate. He is leads all running backs and yards after contact. Again, small sample, different type of usage, not starter usage. So you can't necessarily extrapolate that over a full season for him. But he's still been a very, very good player. To me, yeah, Tutin, way more upside. but I do think his price right now at current ADP is is pretty much like this is the top to me.

You know, this is where I most feel comfortable clicking him. If he goes much further than this, much further up the board, then I'm probably going to be out. I told Scott Barrett that to me this feels a little bit like Zach Moss Chase Brown from a couple years ago in Cincinnati, where it's the plus offense. We want to take shots on it. Rodriguez is sort of in the Zach Moss narrative here. But like Bachel Tutin, if he gets work in the screen game in Jacksonville, based on like what we've seen in the Liam Cohen offense over the last couple years, where, you know, we saw it with Bucky Irving and Rashad White.

And then of course this past year with Travis Eton. Like that's scary to me. If we get Bachel Tutin out in space in the screen game, we know he was pretty effective around the goal line. There's a chance that Rodriguez ends up being a more of like a between the 20s type grinder. in a role that's way less valuable for fantasy, but maybe valuable stylistically to Jacksonville to sort of keep Tutin nice and fresh.

So to me, I think there's also a narrative where Lequint Allen could be a real pain in the butt, because if Lequint Allen is the one that could ruin this backfield for fantasy, where if Rodriguez ends up getting like the between the 20s work and Tudin ends up like getting some of the passing game work, some of the running game work,

but then Lequint Allen catches like 35 passes, then that could be. be really, really annoying. But I still think Tutin, if I'm drafting a hundred teams in bestball, I want to get exposure to Tutin. If you're only drafting a few teams in redraft, I can understand sort of avoiding this one. But it is an offense that we're going to bet on. We think Liam Cohen is really, really sharp. So this is one of the biggest decisions, I think, for fantasy managers. This could end up being one that burns you in multiple ways. So we're going to keep talking about this all offseason long right here at fantasy points. Let's talk about

Chicago. Chicago Bears, it's a backfield that, you know, we expect to be very, very promising because the Ben Johnson offense continues to churn out running back points year in, year out. Multiple seasons in a row we've seen Ben Johnson offenses produce multiple fantasy football viable players. Last year, DeAndre Swift was very good in this offense from accounting stats perspective. would give you a ton of utility. And the Bears rewarded him with an extension. You've got Kyle Munungi, though, last year's seventh round pick, who really flashed for multiple weeks as well.

The ADP prices here, it's even a little bit tighter than Jacksonville, where DeAndre Swift goes one spot ahead of Bachel Tutin in recent Big Gorilla FFPC ADP. Swift goes off the board somewhere around the running back 24 range, which is about a mid-fifth round pick. And then Kyle Munungai, who there's a lot of people sort of listing him as a zero-r-b candidate, a hero-r-r-b candidate, a guy you can sort of play catch-up with. He's going in the eighth round.

He's going as a running-back three, though. I believe his latest ADP, I'll double-check this one, running back 34. So you've got running back 24 and you've got running back 34. I think there's a chance that both of them could beat their ADP. but do you have a preferred way of attacking this backfield or do you want to avoid this backfield? Where are you at, Graham? Last year at the end of the year, you know, Johnson just kind of split it. You know, you look at her expected fantasy points metric here in the fantasy points data suite.

Basically, in a per game basis, these guys have the same role. I mean, it was essentially the same role for the last, especially the last couple of weeks of the season. That being said, though, the under Swift was pretty freaking good last year, man. And I think people need to give them some credit. So we split out, in terms of our charting, we split out zone blocking concepts and man and gap blocking concepts. Last year, DeAndre Swift averaged a full yard more per carry than DeAndre Swift, or excuse me, then Kalman Nungai on zone blocking concepts. And that's important because the bears, I mean, they're predominantly a zone blocking team. And Swift, you know, man, I mean, I know he's frustrating for fantasy.

Like we've always been left wanting more. but like every year he's like a low end rb too and you're kind of you're drafting him where he's been his entire career uh to me Kyle Monongai um you know I think you with him the upside argument is clear like Deander Swift gets hurt and Monongai just gets like all the work um but to me I deonder Swift is is the leadback I think he's going to get the majority of the you know uh passing down work and you know this is an offense we want to be buying man like we saw some progression with Caleb Williams last year. I think there could be another step forward,

which would obviously help this entire backfield. There's like the one name to throw out there that would be just kind of like, can Ben Johnson like do something kind of cool? And it usually does offensively. We saw the Bears make this pick for Xavieron Thomas in round three. And Xavieron Thomas is like lightning, lightning fast LSU player. He could end up getting a couple of snaps in the backfield. No real threat to either one.

of these guys, but just an interesting sort of wrinkle. If Xavieron Thomas ends up becoming a, like a little bit of a thing, it could be annoying for multiple Chicago Bears. But I'm with you. I think Dandre Swift, it's a really fun bet right now at ADP. He's 27 years old, but he's in such a good spot. And it's like people are just pushing him down and sort of chasing these upside bets. But I could see D'Andre Swift being like running back 15 this year and catching a number a passes on this on this team as well. So I think Swift is is a really pretty fun, easy bet. Kyle Monongai, I'm not going to talk you out of them. We trust in Ben Johnson. Let's talk about Minnesota. It's literally the same conversation we had lost off season, except I think there's

less steam for either one of these backs. Aaron Jones, 32 years old, is he 31 or 32? We'll double check that. And Jordan Mason, the incumbent back, who I think like when you go with like a lot of a lot of our analytical takes. Like Jordan Mason, there's a number of like analytical measurements that sort of say Jordan Mason was very effective last year. But he's been a guy who's rushed for 700 plus yards and back-to-back years. Hasn't really gone north of that. Aaron Jones, we know what he was.

And he continues to be an effective player when he's out on the field. But he's getting old. The one player I'll throw out there that's really fun is day three pick, DeMond Claiborne, who I've sort of compared to like a rookie year. Keaton Mitchell and type of the vibes. And anybody who sort of had Keaton Mitchell when he was a Baltimore Raven, his rookie year, it was only a couple of games,

but it was really, really fun. He's kind of thrown into the mix for me. Is there a bet you want to make here, Graham? Everyone is affordable in this backfield right now. Yeah, and for good reason. I avoided this backfield last year. I just was like, man, Aaron Jones is overpriced, and I just don't want anything to do with Jordan Mason.

This year I kind of feel a little differently. I kind of like Jordan Mason in like the 140s. He was a much better running back than Jones was last season. You look at our advanced metrics here at fantasy points by mistackles forced, which is really surprising considering Aaron Jones was a very, very, you know, electric, elusive player early in his career and by yards after contact. Jordan Mason was just by far the better player. Yeah, he's, you know, Jones is in his 30s now.

He's really like maybe got a passing down role. I think it'll be Mason on early downs. I'll be honest, I'm probably just going to avoid this backfield again. And like I just don't really see a ton of upside. Now they've got Kyler Murray too. And I'm really interested to see if Kevin O'Connell kind of designs up some maybe inside 10 red zone carries for Kyler, kind of gets them, you know, going on the outside. I just don't really see a whole lot of touchdown upside with this backfield. And then, you know, for fantasy, I mean, the O'Connell backfield, especially in the red zone, they've been a lot more pass heavy than expected.

So, you know, you think, hey, maybe we've got a decent quarterback in Kyler, somebody that they, COC can trust and call plays for. Maybe they just lean in on that and Justin Jefferson and, you know, Hawkinson, like, these guys just feast in the red zone. I'm just out. I'm out on this backfield. I'm really out on Aaron Jones. Jordan Mason is okay to me, but yeah, I just don't really see a whole lot of upside here.

Even if one of these two guys get hurt, to your point, you know, they could just use Claiborne as kind of like a change of pace guy. Yeah, I'm kind of into Claiborne, like super late. I think he's really fun. He's a great fourth round pick of dynasty right now. Late round dart throw. You could just see Claiborne. And again, when we're drafting players at like that end game range,

if we get four weeks out of them, like that's good. And I think Claiborne has that big playability. He's super fast, but he's also kind of physical for a little bit of a smaller back. So does he have the frame for his sort of game to hold up over a 17 game span? I don't think so. But I think like from a short term five week, four week perspective, Aaron Jones could go down, and I think you could end up seeing Claiborne being pretty viable. So he's interesting.

What's interesting about this backfield is on Underdog, I believe it's Aaron Jones running back 40, Jordan Mason running back 41. FFPC, it's running back 39, running back 40. So they are absolutely neck and neck. And I don't think anybody really knows what to do with it. But I do think it's an offense that's going to score points. We trust in Kevin O'Connell. It cannot get worse than what we saw last year with like J.J. McCarthy, and some of those Carson Wentz week.

So I think it's going to be Kyler Murray, a big chance to sort of get this thing going again and this team getting back on track offensively. So a chance you could hit in a major way, but potential landmines in this backfield. Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike McCarthy taking over, and you've got Jalen Warren. Yet another year we're talking about Jalen Warren

in a backfield battle. We did it when it was Jalen Warren versus Naji Harris, and we were like rooting for Jailen Warren to take. over that backfield for years. Then we had it last year where it was like Jalen Warren or this third round pick Caleb Johnson turned out to be a lot of Jalen Warren. Then you've got then Kenneth Gainwell, of course, last year we sort of underrated in the preseason. This year we've got Rico Dowdell coming over after two straight thousand yard seasons, one of which was in Dallas with Mike McCarthy. So he has the familiarity with McCarthy. And Dowdle we heard, Dowell wants to leave Carolina because he wants to take over a backfield where he has a chance to maybe be the lead role. To me, it sort of feels like Rico Dowdle Time, or am I wrong? And are you still betting on on Jalen Warren based on his familiarity with the team? And I guess a little bit more of a

experience with Aaron Rogers. I think it's a direct split. I think for fantasy, we're probably going to be pulling our hair out every single week with this backfield. Warren, obviously, passed down work is going to be solid, but Rico's been such a good runner for the last two years. And like you said, he's got that familiarity with McCarthy and the scheme. I think I prefer Warren just slightly because we know he's going to play in the passing downs. And he's been pretty good at the goal line too. But yeah, I mean, we have them ranked literally back to back. And best ball right now, you know, in the ADP streets, they're going essentially back to back. Warren is going just a few picks ahead of Dowdell. I think that's just right. But I, I, I,

I think, you know, drafters are seeing this kind of how we're seeing it. It's just like it's a direct split on kind of the mid-office. You know, I think the big question, Theo, to me, with this backfield is like, if Rico does what he does, if he did what he did last year and he has like a one or two game stretch where he, you know, he runs for 100 yards, like, do they put Warren back in the kind of change of pace role he's been in at some point in his career? I think that's like the upside argument for Rico. It's that he's handled the 25 carry big volume games,

and he's been great in those games, right? And he's done it with two different teams. Jaylon Warren's just never really been that high-volume player. So, you know, I think I prefer Warren, but again, I see an upside case for Rico. To me, this is not like the Vikings backfield. I think both these guys are pretty good. I think this offense might be okay, and they're going to be very run-heavy still with Aaron Rogers back there.

So I'm not avoiding this backfield like I am the Vikings backfield. And you can still draft these guys in the 90s. I think both these guys should be going a little earlier. That's for sure. I'm going to go team Rico Dowdell. And I was team Jalen Warren for like years and years and years. I love Jalen Warren. I think it was like sort of a pound the table forum type guy when my previous job before fantasy points.

And then like even last year, it's like, oh, Jalen Warren's going to be this great bet to make. Jelen Warren's going to get all these targets from Aaron Rogers. and it ended up going to Kenneth Gainwell. So it's like we sort of got the targeting the backfield argument, but it was the wrong guy. I think it's going to be doubtled because I think McCarthy has this familiarity with him. And Jalen Warren was always a Mike Tomlin guy.

They brought Jalen Warren as an undrafted free agent under Tomlin. And Tomlin used him like really, really heavily as a young player in the passing game. And then year two, Jalen Warren was really good. So it's, you don't have that the, the coaching staff that's sort of into Jell and Warren as much. Whereas Mike McCarthy, this is his guy and Rico Dowdell. So I think it's Dowdell's job to lose. Warren will still be a pretty fun pick for best ball. But I think from a redraft sense, I'm going Rico Dowdell.

Okay. You convince me. I like that. Yeah, I like that logic. You convince me. All right. Yeah, there we go. So we're now team Rico.

I was easy to convince on this backfield anyway. We brought, the capitulation of Graham Barfield. Here we go. Graham, this is a tough one. You've got to get this one right for everyone. Denver Broncos. You've got J.K. Dobbins, who they re-signed, who was running ahead of R.J. Harvey clearly before he went down with an injury. J.K. Dobbins was averaging like 15 points per game over the first like six weeks of the season. Then R.J. Harvey came in and scored a ton of touchdowns. A lot of question marks about Harvey heading into the offseason. And then Denver goes and drafts Jonah Coleman in the

fourth round who I listed as a potential takeover candidate. Is there a preferred player for you in this backfield? And who leads this team in fantasy scoring this year of these three guys? I think Harvey leads them. Obviously, the equation for him has changed considerably since they drafted Coleman. You know, Dobbins, we kind of called it last year. Like, yeah, he started great, but then he got hurt. And now he's dealing with, gosh, what, his third or fourth? fourth major injury in his career. I think he's a really, really poor bet at ADP. Him and Harvey are basically going up the same ADP.

Harvey's at 101. I think Dobbins is in like 105 or 110 or something like that overall. If, let's say the same thing happens again, like Dobbins is, you know, gets hurt or, you know, has a slow start or whatever. I think it's Harvey clearly is the lead back. Sean Payton has just always struggled to put rookies on the field and trust them in big roles unless it's Alvin Camara. That's literally the only player in his history that he's given, you know, a massive, massive role to in his backfield is it's Camara and it was for good

reason. So we have that, you know, Coleman, you know, he's a workhorse back, but I think he's kind of a jack of all trades master of nun type guy. Like he's good in every facet, but not great at any one facet. You know, Harvey last year, he struggled with vision for sure, but I think the upside argument really Like, it's changed with, you know, the entire backfield that, you know, we've got three guys here. But to me, like, I'm not, like, writing off Dobbins, but this might be the end of the line for him. Like, I don't know if Dobbins, I don't know how much Dobbins has left in the tank, man. I think that's, that's like a huge, huge question here at this point. Harvey's the guy I'm still betting on.

And I think he's a really, really strong pick right now in the 100s. Yeah, I'm with you. And Harvey's one where I pushed way down. in terms of dynasty. I still think it's a one-year bet here. This is not a dynasty take. This is more of a redraft take. Harvey's 25 years old, and the team just brought in Jonah Coleman. I think Jonah Coleman's pathway is J.K. Dobbins goes down. He sort of takes over that role. But I think RJ Harvey has a chance to be the past catching back out of this backfield for like the entire year. And if we remember the beginning of last year, it was like Tyler, Tyler Beaties or excuse me,

it was it Tyler Batts? Yeah, no, it was Tyler Batts? Badet. Bade. Bade. He's still, Payton could not help himself with that three-man. I was talking to Chris Wecht about this when we were going through projections last month. And he's like, dude, Tyler Badee just needs to go away.

And I was like, I literally completely forgot about this guy. And he's right. He might still be there. If Badee gets cut or he's like a game day inactive or whatever and it's just all Harvey, then yeah, Harvey's a great pick. Shout out to Bade. We're going to edit out that pronunciation of, no, we'll keep it in there. We'll keep it in there.

Hopefully we don't have to talk about Tyler. Badey all off season all off soon. That's the last time we mentioned him. So I will be Tyler Badee free. The last backfield, uh, well, I'll say Harvey in the past catching role, I think is still my bet. Um, and he's so cheap right now. So you can get him as like a, uh, your R. B three in like, if you're punting, you know, your RB two and your R. B three, you might end up getting some, some, some like utility out of him as a pass catcher, even if like Coleman or Dobbins are the ones getting the rushing yards. I think they're just going to find a way to use R.J. Harvey based I'm just taking him in the second round last year,

and he can catch the football. This episode is brought to you by FedEx. These days, the power move isn't having a big metallic credit card to drop on the check at a corporate lunch. The real power move is leveling up your business with FedEx intelligence and accessing one of the biggest data networks powered by one of the biggest delivery networks. Level up your business with FedEx.

The new power move. Here's probably the most important one. Ramandre Stevenson is running back 30, and Trayvion Henderson, I believe, is running back 23 right now. So they're both close enough. This was one of the ones where I'm like pulling my hair out. I was one of the resident like Trayvion Henderson stands over here at Fantasy Points. And for a couple week period, I felt like the smartest man on earth when Trayvion

Henderson looked like he was heading towards the 2026 first round Graham. And then it was like the rug pole of all rug poles, Remandre Stevenson comes back and then takes over as like this high volume guy and ends up scoring a ton of points down the stretch and in the in the NFL playoffs. Now we're at like a moment of clarity where it's like, is there some self-scouting where New England's like, look at what we got out of Trayon Henderson in this limited sample size. Our second round pick last year, top four. 40 draft capital, this explosive element to our team. And then we've got Romandri Stevenson, who was really good last year, but getting a little

bit older. Like, who do you prefer at ADP right now, Stevenson or Henderson? And is this going to be a source of frustration or a backfield that ends up really helping fantasy managers? I'm sorry, but I think this trivia on ADP is wild. I think it's wildly high. Yeah, I think we're just, I think we're overestimating our ability to project. like the upside here and underestimating

Romandre Stevenson. Yes, Trevion Henderson's super explosive player can house any play any, you know, any, like literally any play is a house call opportunity for him for sure. But Ramondre was awesome last year. They played nine games together after he came back from injury. Stevenson played 62% of the snaps. Henderson was down at just 40%.

They did split carries, but I think the big thing here, Theo, is this pass-down role for. Stevenson was so freaking good, man. He played on 53% of their pass downs compared to just 27% for Henderson. He doubled up Henderson in targets. And I think one of the things that surprised me most last year about Henderson is he really struggled in pass protection. This was something he was awesome at at Ohio State, but he got Drake May blown up a few times and I just don't know that they really trusted him back there. I think he's going to have to prove himself on passing downs before he gets a bigger role. And Stevenson has always been good on passing down.

He's always been super steady. And then, you know, as runners, yeah, Henderson definitely has more upside because of the big playability. But, you know, Stevenson was really good last season, too. By all of our metrics, they were very close in their efficiency. I prefer Stevenson at ADP. I understand why Trivion Henderson is going ahead of Stevenson because of the upside argument. But I don't know. That to me seems like we're getting a little ahead of ourselves based on the roles last year and how well.

Stevenson closed out last season. I mean, in the playoffs, it was basically all Romandre. Trevion had like a very, very small role. Yeah, I'm with you. I think that the appeal of Trayvion Henderson is, I don't think there's any pick you can make in round five that has more contingent upside. And I know people hate that term. But if Ramondre Stevenson were to go down in August and Trayvon Henderson was your clear back, his ADP would move up to like the second round. That's just sort of my take on Trayvon Henderson is if you can if you can like stomach having some some unusable weeks then from your fifth round pick then there's a chance that you end up getting unbelievable production if Stevenson were to miss some time or if Stevenson at 28 years old was

to show any signs of regression and they lean into that big playability. So like people hate that term. They hate hearing contingent upside for a pick that cost them an early pick. But I would argue that Trayvion Henderson maybe has more contingent upside and a higher ceiling outcome than anybody going in that range of drafts right now. And if I can take him as my running back three on a running back heavy build, I'm open to it. That being said, I do think Stevenson, at least for the first month of the year, for six weeks of the year, is going to be a really valuable player for you to have. And I think New England, the game flow could dictate that their offense has to be a little higher-paced. Like, everything worked out well for their defense last year. They were lights out.

If everything, and as a team, they won so many games where- Yeah, they had the easiest strength of schedule by far. They didn't really play a good quarterback, honestly. And I know Patriots fans will hate me and hey, they'll be in the comments for saying that. But you're right. You're absolutely right. This team is going to regress. But honestly, I think that helps from Andre.

If he plays in the pass down role, bro, he's just going to play more. Like, I think that helps Remandre, honestly. If they kind of, I wouldn't say, like, lose more games. I don't know if they lose more games, but playing closer games this year. Let's let us know in the comments. Trevionn Henderson at Running Back 23 or Remandre Stevenson at Running Back 30. Who should drafters be taking? Let's talk about Washington.

Washington is completely wide open. David Blow takes over as OC. You've got Rashad, White. You've got the rookie Ketron Allen, and then you've got Jacori Kroski Merritt, who last year had over 800 rushing yards and like eight touchdowns. And it didn't never really kind of felt that way. There was the sporadic usage for him. But getting that out of your seventh round pick, that was a really big win for him in terms of counting stats. You've got David Blow taking over his OC, Dan Quinn back as head coach. There's been a lot of positive comments about Chachori Kroski Merritt. Rashad White. it felt like a really fun landing spot for him, but they're not paying him a whole lot. And then you've got Ketron Allen, the all-time leading rusher in Penn State history,

who just getting thrown into the mix here. Do you have a bet that you like to make in this backfield right now? No, I don't. I just know that I don't want Jacori Kroski-Marit. The guy had two, three good games last year. Two of them were against arguably two of the worst run defenses in the league and the Cowboys and the Chargers, and he went off against the Giants in two games.

You know, it's a new coaching staff. They just brought on Ketron Allen, who I actually kind of like. Rashad White has always been a pretty bad runner, but he can play in the passing game. It feels like they've just got three backs who kind of do three different things. They do everything kind of well, but in different facets of the game, White obviously being passed down to Corey Kroski Merritt being kind of early down. I think Ketron Allen, like, if there's a, if there's a guy who can do all three relatively well, it would be him. I don't want anybody here. I'll be honest, the only guys I really want on this team are Jane Daniels, and I want Terry McLaurin on every team this season.

That's how I feel about the commanders. And I'm just going to kind of avoid this backfield because unless one of these guys get hurt, man, like I, dude, we're going to be pulling our hair out with this with this one. Yeah, I think they're all so cheap, though, Graham, would just be the argument that if you do hit on one of them, then it could end up being really beneficial to you. I think it's probably Jacori Crosky Merritt, because I think he's going to. to be used early on and you're going to get maybe a little bit of a head start. I think that there's also a narrative that Rashad White, maybe, maybe Rashad White could be this year's Kenneth Gainwell if sort of an Antonio Williams doesn't emerge or Chigacanquo doesn't emerge like we think they could and the secondary pass catchers on the team are not quite as good as we think they could be. I agree with

you. Terry McClure in such an easy bet right now as the offensive focal point. But I do think it's worth taking some shots here on one of these guys because they are so cheap. And it's a perfect backfield that if you hit on one of them, I know that there's been a lot of enthusiasm with like Ryan Heath, with Rich Rebar about this being a big turnaround offense. Someone's going to score some points at the running back position. And is it going to be such an ugly split that none of these guys is usable? I would bet that we end up, I don't know. We'll see.

We'll see. Let us know in the comments, who are you hitting, who are you attacking from I think everybody's just forgetting that Jane Daniels is going to get like 30 or 40% of the goal line carries. Like so it's like so it's like yeah, okay, we've got this backfield split that no one really knows what to do with. Everybody kind of has a different opinion on. Oh, by the way, we've got Jane Daniels coming back fully healthy. He's going to get six, 10 carries a game. He's going to get goal line stuff.

Like I just, I'm struggling to see an upside argument with this backfield. I guess that's my whole thing. And I'm, you know, when we're talking through these, these competitions and splits, right? Like with this Jags backfield, like, yeah, there's just like so much. much upside because Trevor Lawrence doesn't really run at the goal line. It's going to be a much better offense than the commanders. I think this season, you know, same thing can be said for the Broncos and even to the Steelers, the same extent. The commanders, man, this defense is not good. The backfield might be split. And then we've got Jaden Daniels kind of this X factor. I'm just,

I'm just kind of out. I'll say that you make some arguments that the past catching back is going to be the valuable role here. And does that mean that they, they have a more of a trust in Jacori Kroski Merritt who had a reputation as a guy who could maybe get out into space? We never really saw it with his, with his like college numbers in terms of catching a ton of passes. But it was a lot of theoretical Jacori Kroski Merrick can be a good pass catcher in this offense, like from the beat reporters. Whereas Rashad White has caught passes every single year. The problem with Rashad White is he's like a ninth round pick. now, which seems cheap, but it seems also kind of expensive. But if Rashad White starts falling

into like the 10th, 11th round, I think taking some shots on Rashad White might make some sense just based on all of the arguments you make that Jaden Daniels is going to take away a lot of the goal line work. And this offense is going to have to be in catch up mode in a lot of these games because the defense should be pretty generous. So I don't know. It's a weird one, but it does feel like one where fantasy scoring could come out of it. Let's rip through the handcuff battles here. Let's talk handcuff battles and we'll each sort of pick a fighter here. Let me pull this up on the sheet. Handcuff battles, these are fun ones because a number of the backfields I'm going to name have stud, well, they're pretty much every single one of them,

has a stud running back who's going in the first or second round. Let's start out with Arizona. Is it as clear as Tyler Algear is the handcuff and James Connor get sort of brushed aside? or is this a little bit more of a competition than maybe some might allude to? The organization loves James Connor. Like they're having them go up during the NFL draft, make the selection. Anytime they have a New Jersey, it's like James Connor modeling it. But that being said, they signed Tyler Algier. They draft Jeremiah Love third overall.

And James Connor is old and coming off of an injury. Is it just Tyler Algeria here? Or is something could happen here where maybe Alger gets moved? Like, where are you at, Graham? Yeah, I think Al Jazeer is a real. really good pick, actually. Just for like best ball contingent upside purposes because Connor, like you said, he's old, he's 31.

He's coming off a major, major injury. This ankle injury was very, very severe. Yeah, he's been like the heart and soul of this team, but it feels like to me they're keeping him just kind of like coach up love in year one. I think Tyler Rouse years very clearly the handcuff you want in this backfield. Miami Dolphins backfield. Ollie Gordon versus Jalen Wright. We're both on team Devon A. Chan.

now. A-chan, I think, is an unbelievable value in the second round. I know that our projections guru, Chris Wecht, has him averaging, like, I think he had Chris had him for like 18 and a half points per game. I'm with Chris there. I think A-chan's going to be awesome with Malik Willis. And I think he's the running back who is going to lead his team in targets this year. Like right up there with Christian McCaffrey, he's the bet, but he doesn't have a Mike Evans to deal with. So I get the Malik Willis worries. But this offense could be run heavy. There could be a second back who could offer at least a little bit of best ball value. Who is your bet between Ollie Gordon heading into year two and Jalen Wright heading into year three? I like Jalen Wright.

Last year, Ollie Gordon just kind of lost his role. Middle of a year basically didn't really play after the middle of the year. It was all Jalen Wright and kind of using that momentum, you know, right coming into his now third year, Gordon in his second year. Wright definitely looked a lot better in terms of his vision and everything. I'm with you. I think this is one, kind of one of these sneaky ones to maybe get right. I'm on Jalen Wright,

and I'm with you on Devon A-chan. I'm doing drafts right now, and it feels like I'm drafting teams again last year. I'm just taking Devon A-chan every time I can at the one-two turn. It's awesome. I'm taking Devon A-chan sometimes at like the 24, 2-5. It feels like stealing right now

when you get them in that range. And I think there'll be a correction here where I think I agree with you. When you get to like the real money drafts, I think A-chan's going to be. there right at the like the 201. But you're seeing a lot of these underdog drafts where he falls to like the 205. I'm like, what am I missing here?

Brett Whitefield has made a big argument for his volume case with Malik Willis where Devon Aitian, they just paid him the bag. He's the only skill position player of note in this offense. They're going to build this whole offense is a Devon Achan offense. And the ability for him to play next to a hyper mobile quarterback is something we haven't seen yet from him. The yards per carry average last year, the yards per carry average. average as a rookie. You can end up seeing Achan at like six yards per carry in this

offense, even in a high volume role. It's scary what he could accomplish. And I know there's a lot of haters out there about this offense as a whole, but I'm going to take an optimistic case. Let's go with an offense that we don't have to argue about. They're going to score a ton of points. Chase Brown is in a tremendous spot right now. Also a strong ADP value in round two. You've got the handcuff role, though, Taj Brooks, year two player, Samaj Pryne like 30 years old at this point. I'm betting on Taj Brooks. Where are you at? I'm with you on Brooks. You were on Brooks last year. Somaget P. Rines just to pass down back. And I'm with you on Brooks kind of being a sneaky last round bet. He is going to make, I got an underdog best ball values

article and kind of like just sneaky picks. He's going to make that as a last round pick this year. Yeah, we're both in agreement. Another one of these guys like DJ Giddins where you're going to see some of these year two names that maybe were invisible last. last year sort of become household names for fantasy managers based on their contingent upside as handcuffs, betting on Taj Brooks, another player who was really productive as a collegiate and I think could break through in a major way this year. Not so much that he's going to take away from Chase Brown, but I think drafters will quickly realize that if I have Chase Brown, I really should be rostering Taj Brooks if I want that handcuff. Dallas Cowboys,

It's Javante Williams in a really good spot. The team paid him this offseason, extended him. He earned the bag. And then you've got Malik Davis, who had some moments down the stretch last year, and Jaden Blue, who another year two back, elite speed. I think it's Malik Davis. And I know there's been some positive buzz with some of the beat reporters on Malik Davis. Where are you at on this one?

I'll throw Phil Matha's name out there, another year two guy, sort of with Jaden Blue out there, but I think it's Malik Davis. I think it's Davis as well. He took over this backfield, at least the RB2 role last year over Jaden Blue, especially late in the season. Malik Davis actually played, I think 30% of the snaps are more in their final three games. Bro, I was so wrong on Javante Williams in this backfield last year. I just, Jain Blue, like, he was an interesting kind of like pass-down bet in this

backfield and then maybe like he grows into a little bit, you know, better of a runner and it just did not, did not take place last year. So I'm, I'm with you on Malik Davis. Javante, though, he's, he's a really strong pick, man. It feels, it feels like people have kind of underrated him a little bit, you know, as a third round pick. He's going nearly fourth round at this point. Like you said, just got paid. And Malik Davis and Jane, like these guys just do not concern me. Yeah, it's funny. It's one of those things where it's, it's like a delta of like five picks, but, But it feels much better drafting Javante Williams when he falls to you at like the 404 than it does having to take him at like the 311.

I don't know. It's just one of those weird things, Graham. I'm just looking at the running backs in this range this year, right? Like we started the show saying, yeah, running back is being pushed way up. We've got 12 running backs in the first like 15, 16 picks, something like that. Then we've kind of got this like gap almost. And Javante to me is like clearly in terms of confidence, like him versus Kyrn Williams and you know, Bucky Irvin and even David Montgomery.

I feel way better about one, the offense and the volume, then especially compared to Bucky and especially compared to Montgomery. Obviously, Rams' offense is great, but Javonte is going to have a better role than Kairn this year, that's for sure. Let's talk San Francisco 49ers. Christian McCaffrey back in the first round. McCaffrey looks poised for another extremely high-scoring season as long as he can hold up.

But I will say, Graham, when we look at the volume that Christian McCaffrey's had to endure for the last two years, or excuse me, last year. And then we look at sort of the injury history with Christian McCaffrey. Like last year was, I think, a little more touch volume than San Francisco wants him to take on, but maybe not. You see these off-season workout videos from McCaffrey. Dude's like crawling around. He's doing like insane workouts.

Like it feels like McCaffrey's like, okay, let's go 300 touches again. But it still is a valuable handcuff role because of the age of the back. and because of the volume he's going to have to endure and because of our trust in the Kyle Shanahan system. You've got Kalin Black, who was a third round pick out of Indiana, a much maligned selection during the NFL draft, but who cares at this point because he's there and the team seems to like him. And then you've got Jordan James,

who the team also seems to like, who was a seventh round pick in the 2025 draft out of Oregon. So are you on year two Jordan James, or you on year one, Kaelin Black, as the running back to roster behind Christian McCaffrey in San Francisco? I don't really have a strong take here on this backfield. The only thing I've noticed with Shanahan and the 49ers is like every rookie running back they draft, like they just don't play year one.

So that kind of, that's like the only anecdotal evidence I have in favor of Jordan James. I didn't like either of these guys as prospects, yards created was very low on James. It's very low on Klon Black. You know, both guys just kind of, I don't know, 10th, 20th percentile prospects in yards created. To me, it's just like, I came into this offseason thinking in February, I was like, man, McCaffrey scares the crap out of me just because the touch volume, he's going to be 30 this year.

They're probably going to add somebody. They didn't. So it's like, yeah. Oh, yeah, damn, like I'm back in. I'm back in on McCaffrey for one last ride. And I think they just ride him into the sunset. Give him 350 touches, load him up. Even though he did take a big step back last year, I think in terms of his explosiveness,

I just don't really think it's going to matter. These guys are just, you know, mid-prospects and it's going to just be all McCaffrey. It's all McCaffrey. And I do think this is one where it's okay to not have an answer and sort of see which way things are leaning when we get into training camp, let the beat reporters sort of talk about who's getting maybe some first team reps. It's a role where if you have McCaffrey, use that first round pick, you're going to be able to draft this guy in like round 19 if you're drafting an FFPC, NFFC, or if you have a deep dynasty format.

And we know that this is going to be a valuable backfield for fantasy. Another sort of Superman-like old running back who's going to get a ton of volume is Derek Henry in Baltimore. This is one sort of up in the air. I like Adam Randall, the rookie out of Clemson, but you've also got Justice Hill back. And of course, you've got Rashina Ali. who was a fifth round pick two years ago out of Marshall. Also, he offers some value as a kick returner.

Adam Randall, though, it's an interesting player because he's like 230 pounds. He's like 6-2, 6-3, was a converted wide receiver at Clemson. We've seen a number of these sort of guys hit in fantasy, and it's like big back for big back. It's not like for like. I mean, Derek Henry is what, like 265 playing weight these days, but at least Adam Randall brings some of that size to the position as well. So I'm actually betting on with a new head coach with Jesse Minter.

We talk about like the Jalen Warren corollary. Like Justice Hill was a Harbaugh guy true and true. Now you've got Jesse Minter as a head coach. I mean, how many times Graham were like Keaton Mitchell should be getting these touches instead of Justice Hill? But Harbaugh seemed to absolutely adore Justice Hill. Now you've got an opportunity, I think, with a new head coach that the handcuff is completely wide open. And this is an important one for fantasy football based on just how good this running game is going to be.

Vagione drafted in round one as their new guard, an absolute killer in terms of run blocking. And then you've got, of course, Lamar Jackson, the threat of him. So it's a running game that should print. Adam Randall, for me, do you have a bet here? I'm with you on Randall, actually. Big back, what, he weighs 225, 230. And like you said, kind of gives him that thumper. Rashina Ali was a really, I mean, honestly, Randall's not that great of a prospect of

your arts grade either. Neither was Rashina Ali. And we know what Justin Hill is. So it'll be interesting to see what they do, right? Like they're not going to carry four backs. And you said, you know, like Ali's got this special team's role. He actually played ahead of Keaton Mitchell because of his special team's ability last year. It'll be interesting to see what they do.

They're not going to carry four backs on game day. So I'm kind of anticipating, yeah, I think it'll be Henry Hill and Randall. I think Randall's a really fun pick. and I think he's a really fun player to draft in Dynasty right now. Doesn't cost you anything. And again, I think he's going to be in a valuable handcuff role. Like you talk about a player who might have a little more buzz in August than he does. I mean, we're actually, we're doing this in May, Graham.

I mean, this is, this is five. We're sickos, man. Yeah, absolutely. And smash the like button if you're enjoying this and you're watching an hour and 15 minutes in, Graham. I thought this would be a quick one, but this turned into a long form conversation. Very, very fun show so far. We've still got a bunch of backfields to go through.

L.A. Chargers. Kamani Vidal was really good last year. He's heading into year three. He had a number of awesome weeks, but now you've got Keaton Mitchell in the mix. Is this one of those backfields where Kamani Vidal is still the handcuffed to Omarin Hampton, and Keaton Mitchell just is going to have a weekly,

high-value touch role that might get a little bit better if Hampton were to miss time? or is this like Keaton Mitchell is in an unbelievable spot, Mike McDaniel, and this sort of back could thrive in a McDaniel offense? If you had to roster one on a redraft setting behind O'Mary and Hampton, who would it be? It's the former. Like you said, I think you're exactly right. If Hampton goes down, it'll be Vidal as kind of like that replacement.

And then Keaton just gets a few more carries. I think Keaton's just like the change of pace, like home run hitter in this offense for McDaniel. And he's going to be a lot of fun. But you know what? So is Amarian Hampton. Yeah, I'm going to score a shitload. Dude, he's going to be a, he might be a flag plant player for me this year. Like get him every single chance you can in round two.

Great offense, getting Slater back, getting Alt back, Hampton fully healthy. He dealt with obviously with that ankle injury in the middle of year last year. He's going to be full go. And Keaton Mitchell's just always been a change of pace player. And Kamani Vidal, he had a great run last year, but he's, you know, talent-wise. He's not somebody that's even on the same planet as Omar and Hampton. I think what Keaton Mitchell would do is he's going to cap the contingent upside of Vidal. Yes.

Where like Vidal last year was like you'd get these like multiple hundred yard type games where I think it would end up being the Mitchell would end up being potentially playable because I think it's going to be a really good offense. And we've also seen Mike McDaniel offenses where two running backs put up fantasy points in a week. I think everything being equal, O'Mary and Hampton is going to score a ton of points. He's going to get a ton of volume. Mitchell mixes in and like Vidal is sort of a non-factor unless Hampton misses time. But then when if Hampton were to go down, I think it's Vidal as like a running back two. But Mitchell would be a guy we talk about, hey, maybe we use him as a flex this week because he's going to catch three passes and he's going to get maybe eight or nine rushing attempts and he can house it in this sort of an offense. So I think it's a really fun backfield.

I do like Keaton Mitchell as a best ball pick, Graham. I think he's a fun one when you're building depth and looking for. usable weeks. Now we have a couple of fun backfields to break down here. Graham, we often talk about like handcuffs, but there's also handcuffed pluses where if you're a zero RB drafter, you're a best ball manager, or you're in some hero RB build where you're trying to like piecemeal RB2 together. These handcuff plus type backs can end up being very valuable. And some of these guys end up being the higher scoring running back in the same backfield. Like last year, you, Ramandre Stevenson was was picked in this range.

Last year, Kenneth Gainwell was sort of a player in this range. And then for a time being, we mentioned Javante Williams when it was sort of up in the air. So let's talk about it here. And let's talk about a couple of these players. We're actually going to tear these guys. Let's first start out with handcuff pluses that I think are potential challengers to outscore the starting running back. And let's start off with Carolina.

because it's like the hopes and dreams of fantasy managers are now here. Jonathan Brooks is healthy. He's in the handcuff roll behind Chuba Hubbard. And I know there's been some like lip service that he's almost healthy, but it seems very close to it. You also, of course, you've got EATN in that backfield, but I think people really want to hear about Jonathan Brooks here. So is Jonathan Brooks, what would you rank him tier-wise as a draft pick right now for redraft

managers. I'm going to go B tier with the ability to move up a tier into A. With Brooks, it's all health related. He was just saying before OTAs, he's still trying to get back to 100%. He obviously tore his ACL twice. Very, very young. But man, I mean, you know, you just have all these question marks with his injury history and it's just like, you know, can he stay healthy? And then if he does stay healthy, like what type of role can he have? Like, I don't even think the Panthers really know. We loved him coming out. I mean, he was a very highly touted player, obviously, went second round.

He was great for yards created. I actually had him number one in that class, even coming off the injury. There's just so many surrounding, you know, questions. I think with his backfield, though, like Chuba Hubbard was really good again last year, just kind of like gets what's blocked and doesn't really create a whole lot of explosive plays. And, like, coaches love that. You know, he's just never going to be out of position. There's just, like, a lot of questions with Brooks.

And yeah, I think B tier is right for him because he's certainly not like a C tier player, you know. Yeah, I think B tier is probably about right because he's expensive right now. Yeah. I love Jonathan Brooks. I wish I could put him in the S tier or the A tier. But the fact that I'm having to pay running back 39 prices, Graham, this is one where could it come back to bite me where I'm taking Jonathan Brooks? I mean, Jonathan Brooks is going directly next to. J.K. Dobbins and Blake Corm right now in ADP over on FFPC, according to Fantasy Mojo.

For me, that's like, whoa. I mean, like, why I was getting Ron Jonathan Brooks' early best balls? He was like, what, like running back 50? And you're able to get him for so cheap in terms of Dynasty trade. So like for months on this channel and over at Fantasy Points Dynasty YouTube, I was like taking all these shots on Jonathan Brooks. Now like the price of the brick is going up. The bull case is Dave can.

Canales offenses print money. And Dave Canales offenses have often had the second running back drafted outperforms the higher drafted one. We saw it with Shuba Hubbard in year one with Canales where Hubbard was awesome, then earns a contract. Then we saw it last year where Rico Dowdle was like free in these drafts. So I get it. I'll put them B tier.

I hear you. Real quick, I hear you. But I just go back with Hubbard, man. like Rico was running so hot middle of last season. Hubbard comes back from the injury and then Dave Canales plays him a starter for a few weeks, you know? Like he loves Chuba. So to me it would take a lot for Jonathan Brooks to come in and take over this, the starting backfield. And Chuba Hubbard's an interesting one. Like Chuba Hubbard could be sort of a post type sleeper player. He's so boring, exactly, but you're right. He's so boring, but you're right. Yeah. Could. And if Carolina,

I'll say another thing like a shout out to Brett Whitefield and a shout out to some of the like the real film watchers and like the IDP people like Carolina's defense is going to be good this year. This is a team that could be in better game flow situations than we maybe used to seeing for a Carolina Panthers team. They were a playoff team last year, but they could end up being like I don't know about running away with the NFC South. But I think for a lot of like film people, they are every a lot of like the true film grinders favorite to win the NFC South. we can end up seeing like Chuba Hubbard in a really good spot. So we'll keep Jonathan Brooks in that sort of B tier area. Let's go Blake Corum.

Blake Corum, there's been some recent speculation. We hear it every offseason, but it feels more real this time that Blake Corum heading into year three could be in a little bit more of a split backfield with Kyron Williams than maybe we saw at a lot of moments last year. Blake Corum had some very effective games. last year running the football. We talked about him a little bit on our Start Sit show right here on Fantasy Football Daily, right over here on Fantasy Points YouTube.

Where do you put Blake Corum, where I think Blake Corum like, could he end up being a guy you could put in your lineup in like a zero RB build in week one and feel like maybe you have a chance for him to fall in the end zone once or twice? Yeah, I think to me, Corum is like the definition of handcuff plus, S tier, handcuff plus, S tier, B. tier baby. And it's like, yeah, you know, he's got the 30 to 40% snap share every single week. He's going to relieve Kiron Williams on, you know, every other drive. Plus, yeah, if Kiron goes down, like he's going to be like a low end RB one, I think, for fantasy if Kiron were to miss time.

So yeah, I think KORM is very clearly the S tier here. When we covered the San Francisco 49ers backfield, you sort of talked about how there was the unwillingness to trust a year one back. We saw with Corum like rookie year than Corum year two like Corum like exploded in terms of usage and in terms of his production. Maybe JarQuest Hunter they mix in a little bit. But for me, Hunter feels like more of a guy that would see more time if Kyron Williams went down. Whereas Blake was a guy who could maybe take over and be the leading score in this backfield. So like I get it. People get very angry when you say anything negative about Kyron Williams because it's been sort of of like a hot thing to do the last couple of years.

And Kyron Williams has been like one of these fantasy success stories where day three back ends up becoming so productive on such a good offense. But the volume does catch up with people too, Graham. And Kyran, it's always sort of talked about how unbelievable he's been as sort of a sub 200-pound player taking on this level of volume. But I don't know. Blake Corum maybe this year has a chance to actually outscore him. So I think Corum gives you a ton of outs.

Even if Cairo Williams stays very effective for fantasy, I think Corum's going to be mixed in more than enough. Touchdown equity in this offense could be like a top eight ranked player some weeks if Williams were to miss time. And the use of 12 and the use of 13 personnel, Rams have been so effective running the football out of these heavy packages. So I'm with you, man. Definitely put Blake Corum in the S tier. Let's go Tyrone Tracy, who has been. been effective for two years in a row. Cam Scataboo looks clear as day as the starting running back.

A lot of positivity with Cam Scadaboo. I actually think Cam Scadaboo's ADP is going to go up as the summer moves along. I think he's going to move into like that maybe third round range because if he's healthy, he's going to be in a pretty prominent role. But if he's not healthy and is unable to go at the beginning of the year, Tyrone Tracy is going to get you off to a fast start. And it's just how much can he carve into a weekly role with Scataboo like at 100%. So where do you view Tyrone Tracy as like a contingent upside guy with maybe a little bit of weekly juice? I would say A tier. I originally was thinking B tier, but then I started thinking more about like what happens to start this season.

And I think it'll be Tracy like clearly starting weeks one and two. And then they'll just see where Scatibu's at. I am not a medical doctor. Shocker. I do not have a doctorate. I only have a bachelor degree. No, I don't. I have a bachelor degree in finance.

So I don't know if this necessarily gives me the right. That's because Browfield's all about making you money in fantasy football with his finance background. That's right, maybe. That being said, everything I've read about Cam Skadbu's injury is overwhelmingly negative. Just the type of injury he had, the, you know, the fractured fibula. And then obviously he had, you know, major ligament damage at this point. But man, I don't know. Matt Nagy offense without Malik neighbors.

This offense might stink, man. Yeah, I think that there's, they're going to be effective running the football. I think the Francis Maui Noah edition at Guard. Maui Noah is just a monster. We talk about Vega Ioni. Like Maui Noah might be the best run blocker in this entire draft class. And he probably ends up becoming a tackle at some point early in his career. But for this year, they're just going to play him at guard.

guard and be really happy about that. And then I think that the underrated player for the run game that they drafted is Malachi Fields. Because if Malachi Fields is in like the slot role as like a blocking wide receiver, it sounds weird to talk about that. But if you've ever seen Malachi Fields in person, like Brett Whitefield and I were down in Mobile at the senior bowl and like Malachi Fields looks like a tight end, like a straight up tight end.

He's a beast. So I think Tracy, I agree with you, A tier, because I think how valuable. this role is. And then you also factor in Malik Neighbors. If he has a recurrence of injury, they could lean even more into the running back. So you've got contingent upside with Scataboo. You've got contingent upside with neighbors just based on the offense. And do they mix in two backs a little bit more if neighbors goes down? Like a lot of scenarios go through my head. We talk about fields. The number two target on this team could end up being Isaiah likely. So there's opportunities for the running backs to catch the football. In interest,

interesting one. Let's talk about Tennessee. And this is sort of a handcuff plus challenger to outscore, but also a handcuff plus battle. You've got Taije Spears, who's always been sort of a fun player, struggled with some injuries here and there, but he's caught the football at a pretty high rate when he's been in games. We saw the end of the 2024 season where Spears was awesome down the stretch. Spears had like a number of really effective games in fantasy. and then last year it just didn't quite work out. Tony Pollard were projecting as the starter. He's at three straight seasons of 1,000 rushing yards,

and he should benefit from the Brian Daibald offense, Cam Ward going into year two, Carnell Tate, Wondell Robinson, all that good stuff. But I want to specifically look at Nicholas Singleton, the rookie out of Penn State, versus Tai J. Spears, because I think one of these players offers you maybe a chance to be the leading score in this backfield if everything goes right.

I think there's a lot of ranges of outcomes here. Singleton, if we're following a trend here, Graham, Brian Dable has had back-to-back years of a day three back, ending up being really effective for fantasy. Scataboo last year, Tyrone Tracy over 1,000 yards as a rookie in 2024. And then if we go back to the Buffalo days, Devin Singletary was a third round pick, but had a lot of like fourth round type traits. I'll be honest. I think this is an F tier one.

I think, yeah, I think Singleton plays enough on the passing downs where he kind of could beat out Spears. But then, you know, if Pollard goes down, both these guys are going to play. And we'll probably be like scratching our heads a little bit. Yeah, I've liked Tai J. Spears, you know, as a prospect, he was a really fun player. Obviously, I have the knee injury. But he's just never really materialized. volume back and then now he's got singleton who can kind of you know give him some competition on these passing downs where spears that's where he's kind of been his you know at his best over the last

couple of seasons if anything i think tony pollard's pretty sneaky um but yeah i think these guys are like this is it's just pretty tough they also added michael carter who was pretty good last year as we're not going to get michael carter again are we in fantasy oh my god man that was unbelievable but he was actually like literally good at arizona just their backfield just completely died. But yeah, I think it's kind of over for Tige Spears. The Spears hope is it's over. Yeah, I think that the singleton steam might have moved up a little too much.

I think I agree with you that Tony Pollard's the one that I want. Pollard is just like the forgotten man here in fantasy. And it's so funny because Tennessee was rumored to draft Jeremiah Love, which would have like nuked Tony Pollard into like a zero almost. or, you know, a strong handcuff, I guess, but would have put him down in, like, the Tyler Alger range for us. He avoids him.

Then they draft Nick Singleton in, like, round five, and now people are taking Nick Singleton at, like, the 202 in rookie drafts. And I'm like, Tony Pollard sort of came out of the draft in a pretty good shape. And again, he's been one of the most consistent players in football at the running back position over the last three years. We haven't seen it with, like, the high scoring points per game average, because he's been on terrible offenses. is if Tennessee can be better offensively than maybe like the haters like Graham Barfield

are saying they could be, then Pollard could end up being a decent source of running back scoring utility. Let's keep it going here. Let's talk about my guy. Well, your guy too last year, Graham, but I don't know if he's your guy still. You tell me, I'm all into on Kenneth Gainwell. I want you to say S tier, A tier really badly here because Kenneth Gainwell last year had 70 plus receptions was an RB1 for like the second half of the season was really the offensive focal point

in Pittsburgh and now ends up in Tampa Bay sort of chooses his landing spot and you've got Bucky Irving still dealing with shoulder injury last year Bucky Irving dealt with a foot injury a shoulder injury mental health issues and now like everybody's sort of like back on Bucky Irving I'm a little bit worried because Bucky Irving like for him to hit his ceiling outcome he's going to have to a lot of passes. And I don't see how that happens with Kenneth Gainwell here. Am I wrong here, Graham? He's S tier. Gamewell is absolutely S tier. And honestly, I think I might have him ahead of quorum. I think he might be the more valuable player. Uh, just on what's above S tier? Let us know in the chat. Uh, as plus. S plus maybe. S plus. There you go. S plus. Um, it's two things.

It's one, like you said, it's the, you know, it's the pass down work. And then, man, this price on Bucky. Like literally makes no sense. Like I kind of wanted to come into this season thinking like Bucky's like maybe a little bit of a post type sleeper. Like you said, he dealt with injuries and just kind of a weird year last year. But man, he's going on the fourth round. There's some amazing receivers in that pocket. There's Colston Loveland in that pocket. And then, yeah, Kenneth Gainwell is just like way, way too cheap.

Like we know he's going to have, you know, weekly value just as a pass catcher. And then, yeah, we've got all these like things with Bucky between the injuries. Yeah, Ken Genwell, we've got 10 spots ahead of ADP in our best ball rankings. I would personally rank him about 15 to 20 spots ahead of ADP, and I would take him over a lot of the running backs in that pocket, including Aaron Jones, Kyle Menungai. I would probably take him ahead of Blake Quorum just because I know he's going to have a role weekly and probably a slightly bigger role than Quorum weekly.

I think I'd start questioning around RJ Harvey, but yeah, Gainwell, S-tier, Handcuff Plus. To me, he and Quorum are like kind of the definite. of these two players where like we know they're going to be on the field like 35% of you know 35 40% of the time and then yeah the starter goes down man like low end rb ones potentially yeah kenneth gainwell like this and i'm going to be doing some my guys videos here right on this channel i'm going to release some like early my guys in june gainwell's going to be one of the my guys and i think for best ball he is a must pick in best ball uh the the value that he presents over on underdog is tremendous

And then for redraft sense, on teams where I'm having to catch up at the running back position, I'm fine paying like this running back 33, running back 34 price tag for him. So like it seems expensive to draft a running back two in this range. But there's a chance that he has 60 catches in this offense. So I'm really into Gainwell. I'm glad to see you have them as an S tier. So we have two S tier players so far, Kenneth Gainwell and Blake Corum, Tyrone Tracy in the A tier, Jonathan Brooks in the B,

tier, Taije Spears all the way down in the F tier. I probably wouldn't put him in the F tier. I probably would have put him a little higher than that, but Graham Barfield is cooking. Let's talk about a couple other handcuff plus types. Now, these seem like less of a chance to take over, but they do seem like fun picks because they can catch the football. They have contingent upside. And with a couple of these guys, we've seen them score fantasy points before.

Let's start out with the rookie, though. I have Emmett Johnson, the rookie running back in Kansas City, as a player that I think you really should be rostering if you have Kenneth Walker, especially in Dynasty. But I think it could be an interesting late dart throw for best ball and for redraft because not only does he have contingent upside, but he's got a very strong pass-catching ability in an offense that maybe could embrace that. He's so good that I'm not even sort of talking about Breschard Smith,

who I think heading into the NFL draft looked like a winner. Johnson getting there, I think just was a better prospect than Breschard Smith and sort of offers the same past catching ability that he adds, but also the running element to him. Huge stats last year at Nebraska, Graham. Where are you out on Emmett Johnson? I think he stinks. I'll be honest.

Yeah, he was dead last in yards created. Brett Whitefield hates him too. Brett Whitefield hates him too. I think Breschard Smith converted wide receiver might be a better pass. catcher. Yeah, I think he's F tier. I think he's an F tier. So I'm, I would say I would say C tier. And for this one, I'll say let throw him in the D tier. Throw him at John. Middle middle and yeah, middle and go DT.

Well, because you at least have the good offense argument here, Graham. Okay, you're rolling your eyes. The Kansas City, we haven't seen them with this level of running back in in in, in, in Eons. What can they do with Kenneth Walker here? Last year they were averaged like 20 points per game. Could they end up improving significantly. I think they could. We could at least call them a middle of the pack offense. If Kenneth Walker were to go down though, don't you think Emma Johnson has the theoretical upside to be a usable fantasy piece for us? Maybe. If anything, if they lose Walker, dude, I think they just go like super pass heavy. That's probably it. I think they just go super pass heavy. It's Rashi,

Rishi Rice getting 15 targets every single thing. Exactly, man. And like they do some savior worthy BS and to get Kelsey a bunch of short throws. You know, this backfield, like, for fantasy, at least the last couple years, it's just been like, we think there's upside, but there's really not been much upside. Now they've got this like Bell, Cowan Walker. And if Johnson goes down, yeah, he'll be their leadback.

But, you know, between Breschard Smith and DiMercato, who can play on pass downs, I don't really see a whole lot of contingent upside. And then I just don't really have a whole lot of faith of him as a prospect. Okay. Well, there we go. F plus tier. F plus.

Shout out to Trey, given the F plus. We don't even have a D tier here. Okay, we've got, we're almost at the end here. Shout out to everybody who's watching towards the end of the show. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. We're dropping videos like this, a lot shorter than this for most of the videos. But we're dropping videos like this every single day. And a reminder, we're going live next week.

Every morning, 9.30 in the morning, Eastern time. Fantasy points YouTube will be live. Graham Barfield will be joining me in season. every week for our start sit show. We'll do some more cool offseason stuff. Graham, we're going to have to run it back with our target show where we do this, but we basically pick who's going to be the leading target, earner and the secondary target on each and every team.

We're going to have to run it back really soon on that one, Graham. We did it last summer and people loved it. So hopefully you got a lot out of this running back video. We got two more guys to discuss. Gosh, I'm running out of real estate here. I think we've done 30 teams and I'm like blacking out. Houston Texans. We got David Montgomery as the lead back.

You've got Woody Marks, though, as the backup. Sort of a role that's a little more natural to him. Where are you out on this one, Graham? I'll go B tier for Woody Marks. I thought about C tier just because I think he's a C tier player. But it's just there's a depth chart. Like if Montgomery gets hurt, it'll probably be Woody Marks. I could see Joward Jordan mixing into.

I actually thought Jordan looked a little better than Marks at the end of last year. don't have a ton of confidence in it and you know this offensive line is still a big question mark but yeah i think i think you know what actually c tier what do you think theo yeah let's do c tier yeah i think it's c tier i i love david montgomery this year david montgomery is a player that i think is easy to draft and i think he's in a great role and i think he can be close to what joe mixon was woody marks like every time me and you said anything nice about him the usage would go down last year on the start sit so he's like the one player that guy Not us. Never again, Woody Marks. You're in the C tier. It's an offense where I think the

offensive line play is going to be good. I think they want to protect C.J. Stroud with the running game. So I get it. If Montgomery plays 12 games, you're going to have a couple usable weeks for Woody Marks, but that's what he is. It's not really a guy that I think is going to score a lot. Here's an interesting one. Dylan Samson. We'll end the show out with Dylan Samson and Cleveland. Quinn starting running back. Some positivity about Judkins' recovery. But Dylan Samson, a fun player who can catch the ball. Graham, where are you out on him? All right, this is one I'll go B tier.

I should have trusted the gut. Mark's the C tier, Samson's B tier, and it's all just Quintan's injury. You know, obviously Browns didn't really do anything behind Samson in the draft. They let Jerome Ford go. It's just Rahim Sanders behind him. You know, so pretty decent contingent upside. And then, yeah, we've got some questions about Judkins' injury.

I still have major questions about this offensive line. I know they just, you know, kind of redid it. They got Zion Johnson in the full. They've got all their old guys kind of out of the way. New an offensive coordinator, or new head coach and Todd Monk in offensive coordinator. He's going to call plays. Yeah, I think, I think, you know,

I'm low on Samson as a player. I think he's like a C, meh player, but he's got some opportunity here for sure. All right, well, there we go. I'm not going to push back on you because we're an hour and 40 minutes in. I like drafting Dylan Samson as well. We covered all 32 backfields here in an hour and 40 minutes. This is the longest fantasy football daily episode.

I think I've done here except for a couple of my own. Let's go. We're breaking records, man. Let's go. Shout out to Graham Barfield. Shout out to our audience. We are nearing 25,000 subs over here at Fantasy Points YouTube. We need like 700 more this summer.

You could be the next one. Just hit that subscribe button. It doesn't cost you anything. It helps us out a ton. On our way to 50,000, Graham, we're going to get there at some point. And shout out to everybody supporting this channel. We're going live next week. Stick on us here at Fantasy Points.

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