Fantasy Football Daily - Can Zero RB Still Win in 2025? Fantasy Football Strategy Breakdown w/ Davis Mattek

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Is the Zero RB strategy still viable in today’s fantasy football landscape — or is it a trap waiting to blow up your draft? On this episode of Fantasy Football Daily, Davis Mattek joins the show to dissect the 2025 draft environment and explore whether fading early running backs can still lead to league-winning upside. We dive into: The ideal WR/TE starts in Rounds 1-2 How WR depth dominates flex spots Davis’ favorite mid-round WR targets (Rice, JSN, Garrett Wilson, and more) How to recover if you miss out on elite tight ends in TEP formats Whether you need an elite QB for Zero RB to work Which RB archetypes to prioritize (pass-catchers, ambiguous backfields, upside bets) Round-by-round RB targets from Rounds 5 through 12+ If you're debating Zero RB, Anchor RB, or any hybrid build — this episode gives you the clarity (and the targets) to draft with confidence. Don’t miss it! 🎧 Tune in, subscribe, and follow Fantasy Football Daily for more strategy breakdowns all offseason. Where to find us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://twitter.com/TheOGFantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://twitter.com/DavisMattek Join the Discord here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/discord#/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to Fantasy Points for FREE: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fantasy Points Website - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ NEW! Data Suite - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://data.fantasypoints.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/FantasyPts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #fantasypoints #nfl #fantasyfootball #dynastyfantasyfootball #FantasyFootballAdvice #dynastypoints #dynasty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When planning for life's most important moments, sometimes the hardest part is simply knowing where to start. That's why we're here to help. When you pre-plan and prepay a celebration of life with us, every detail will be handled with simplicity and professionalism, giving you the peace of mind that you've done all you can today to remove any burden from your loved ones tomorrow. We are your local Dignity Memorial provider. Find us at DignityMemorial.ca. The Dignity Memorial brand name is used to identify a network of licensed funeral cremation and cemetery providers owned and operated by affiliates of Service Corporation International. Can zero-r-b strategy work in 2025? Theo Greminger for Fantasy Football Daily over here on the Fantasy Points Podcast Network, joined today by Davis-Matic. This is always a hot-button issue, one that I enjoy discussing.

I'm a player who has built some zero-r-b teams that were just nasty over the years. Occasionally you build a zero-r-b team and it sort of falls apart. But this feels like the return of zero-r-b this year, Davis. It seems like a perfect atmosphere. So I'm really, really excited to talk to you. Again, joined by Davis Maddock, repeat, guest. We're actually back-to-back, ship chasers here on Fantasy Football Daily. I had Pete Overset in last week.

That was a really fun one. Make sure you check it out. We talked about some ADP risers. Now, Davis, we're going to take a step further. We're going to talk draft strategy. So how are you doing today, man? I'm doing well, a, you know, very near and dear to my heart, the topic of zero running back.

So very excited to get into the nuts and bolts of the strategy this year. because I don't think it's super straightforward, actually, in 2025. Yeah, and I'll say in 2025, I feel like any strategy can sort of work because we see balance in the round one and round two with the strength of multiple positions. Like, just we'll dive into a little bit later on the show, but there's wide receivers I really like in round two. There's wide receivers I really like in round one. There's running backs I really like in round two.

And there's obviously some running backs I really liked in round two. and there's obviously some running backs I really liked in round one. Why do you think zero RB is such a hot button issue for people? This is a anytime I put a zero RB podcast on, there's immediately people who jump into the YouTube streets and sort of just immediately bash it. But over the years, you've seen some huge hits. A couple years back, the NFFC had two teams that were zero RB,

that won championship within the same year. It was the Silver Bullet and the NFFC classic. I believe that drafter didn't draft a running back before like round six or round seven. So you're talking about in that format, which is obviously wide receiver heavy, they were able to thread the needle. We've seen an FFPC main events. Some teams have done well. Usually the overall winner, though, has been a HeroRB build or something along those lines. So shout out to the GoBills guys.

They've never been ZeroRB in their strategy. They won it back to back years. But they did use HeroRB, which has a lot of the same benefits of ZeroRB. which we'll touch on HeroRB, another show for the HeroRB Truthers out there, but why do you think this is immediately dismissed by so many drafters? I mean, the reason why it's immediately dismissed is because it has the word zero in it, right? I mean, that's as simple. And then also, if you just sort of think about most people's experiences with fantasy football,

the best years they've had in fantasy, the true legendary seasons, people, you know, they are thinking Marshall Falls. Lodanyan Tomlinson, Christian McCaffrey, Saquan Barclay last year. And it's just hard to imagine having a fantasy team that wins $250,000, $500,000 a million without one of those guys,

even though we have evidence that it's pretty easily doable. And then the other thing is that ZeroRB embraces chaos. It embraces not knowing. It embraces, well, I don't know what's going to happen this upcoming year in Fantasy. football. And that's not very fun. It's not very fun to go into a draft and be like, well, I don't know what's going to happen. So I'm just going to try and organize a team that can

take advantage of chaos that falls a specific way. Yeah, it's sort of a, it's sort of a contrarian view from, from the beginning where you're saying that the value is not going to lie in the heavily drafted running backs inside of round one, that instead we're sort of going to build our strength where sort of other people are not looking, which is the wide receiver position. What's funny, Davis, is we saw like a complete 180 where a few years ago, there were like nine wide receivers going inside of round one at one point when you're talking about FFPC, some of these other high stakes formats where a couple years back, it was like a sort of seemed like a, the wide receiver enthusiasts were very much winning.

Hero RB or ZeroRB was trying to be executed. It seems like last year was sort of the big reset. Last year has sort of reset it where people don't want to miss on running back again. The environment last year was unbelievable. No one got hurt and all of the old guys scored. The AJ Pecks went completely out the window. You had Sequin Barclay, Derek Henry just scoring absurd levels. And all of the running backs that were younger completely broke out.

we saw every single one of those year two backs take their game to the next level. Bijan, Jemir Gibbs, Devon, A. Chan, all of those guys hit big. So I don't know. For me, it feels like this is the year that the chaos could potentially return, year of the wide receiver, if you want to call it. And there's just so many of them. So your thoughts on sort of the, is last you're going to get people in trouble? So ADP actually is not swung near as much as I would have

expected a little bit more on FFPC than it has on underdog and on draft kings in terms of the best ball stuff like people do still really want you know i mean we have the wide receiver 30 going in the fifth round of drafts which is just like never you know when i started this the wider where do you think the wide receiver 30 was going in like 2016 you know like you know seventh eighth round maybe you know we had we had 24 running backs gone by then but uh you know it's it's more of a overall meta as it pertains to the NFL. Like if we come back and all these quarterbacks and the offensive coordinator spent all off season trying to find a way to beat the shell coverage, the two high safeties,

and they got nothing. If the chief suck on offense again, if the bills are content to play six offensive linemen and just win every game, you know, just throwing the, like running the ball down people's throats, the Eagles are totally unstop. They're tush pushing their way. Like that is the subtext of all of this is that not only was last year, you know, really only Zach Moss and Isaiah Pacheco were injured of the top 100 drafted running backs and then all these wide receivers got hurt.

But we also went from 49 and a half points per game in 2020 and 2021 to 43 and a half points per game. It was the first time in, I want to say, I think the number is 26 years, that running plays were positive EPA per play. if that happens again, guess what? You're just going to want to have running backs again. You're going to want to start running back in your flex every week, you know? Yeah, it's very interesting. And I will say, like, that can sort of get us in trouble a little bit because NFL

defenses adjust year to year. We've seen it time and time again where something really, really works and then it shifts. Like, what these defensive coordinators are able to do year and year out in terms of, like, when you've an entire offseason to scout what the other teams are doing, see what worked for across the NFL, what can I do to sort of take these things away, that matters. And I think that when we go into it,

could it be running backs again completely dominate at the top? Absolutely. But at the same time, I'm open-minded to this strategy in this year. Jamar Chase, of course, is my 101 in all formats. So at the very top, I'm sort of a running back at the top, I mean, a wide receiver at the top guy when it comes to my rankings. So it's sort of like leaning into the strength.

Before we kind of dive into the particulars of zero RB, there's many different definitions of zero RB. How would you define it? Is it like something, it's like kind of like art where some people say it means you don't take a running back until this round. Some people will say it means that I need to fill my flex before any running back spot. And some people are sort of like, I'm just going to attack each and every edge and every single round. sort of what would be like if you had to define it for Wikipedia, what is zero RB?

I think it's totally the Clarence Thomas. I know it when I see it. I'll tell you the biggest difference for how I view zero RB versus how like the newer generation of fantasy people seem to understand it is it's all about winning where you can. So I think a lot of times a true zero running back build should have an elite quarterback. It should have an elite tight end or both, right? It should have Josh Allen and Sam Leporta. It should have Jane Daniels and Brock Bowers.

And it also, I mean, the way Sean Siegel always tried to describe it was you go into your draft attempting to get six of the top 15 points per game scores at the wider receiver position. And that is how those become super teams. But, you know, I don't think taking Brise Hall in the third round means it's not quote unquote a true. I mean, then it becomes more of a hero running back bill. but or or if you really want to, I suppose if you really want a definition, it would be not, probably for me,

not taking running back till round seven, I guess would kind of be how I would define it. Yeah, and that's an interesting way. I think that like, you've seen some variations of this, and we're going to talk about it a little bit later, but you've seen some variations of this where people end up diving into the dead zone.

I consider that sort of upside down drafting. The whole, I'll draft three wide receivers and then I'll follow up with a running back in like rounds four. in rounds five. In years past, that's sort of crush teams, but the dead zone's actually been paying off a little bit better. Again, we'll dive into the dead zone in a whole other another episode. Is there a dead zone? Is there a wide receiver dead zone? That's a whole other podcast. But the dead zone's actually been producing some guys who really, really hit. So the upside down

strategy can work a little bit. But I kind of agree with you. And shout out to Sean Siegel. He's very synonymous with zero RB strategy. He's been here on Fantasy Football Daily. But Sean will always talk about sort of winning the flex. And it's interesting that you talk about getting six of the top 50 wide receivers. I think that's another misunderstood tenant of zero RB. It's not just that I'm trying to get, like in some formats, three wide receivers and a wide receiver in the flex, or in some formats, two wide receivers and then maybe two high-end wide receivers in the two flex spots like FFPC. You need that depth to fully execute it. Why don't you talk about that a little bit? Like, the need for wide receiver depth inside and out of your roster?

Well, wide receivers get hurt. Wide receivers bust. You get hits at the wide receiver position in the same way that you get hits, you know, otherwise. Like lots of guys at the wide receiver position, it's kind of funny how it's organized. There are quite often guys we think are really talented, but they're buried because, oh, the team's not going to throw enough passes.

Or he's behind this guy. The example in my mind right now is Josh Downs. Like, if the Colts would have re-signed Joe Flacco and not drafted Tyler Warren, downs would be what, the sixth round pick-ish, probably something like that. Maybe fifth round pick being getting right now on the eighth and ninth round because of just a lot of concerns. But basically, your wide receivers are going to get hurt. Some of your picks are going to bust.

Like, oh, Tyree kills your third-round pick, super bust or injured or whatever. And a zero running back team is never going to win. without the, you know, the story of the season wide receivers. Like you're going to need to have the number one overall wide receiver. You're going to need to have a guy who has like multiple 30 point games. Like last year, like Jamar Chase, Brian Thomas Jr. Uh, combination. Like zero running back.

It just really wouldn't have worked. It would have been very hard. But you would have needed, you know, those guys and T. Higgins. Like you, you just have to, you have to piece of. together so perfectly. So like just stopping at five wide receivers on a zero running back team is tough because you got to give yourself more outs. Yeah, I think more outs is the operative word. It's, it's having a chance like to really have that extreme wide receiver production. And you have to do that with volume. It's also like being able to dive into there's always like the last

draftable wide receiver argument, like the last wide receiver of comfort. This argument comes with best ball drafters. Like, what's the last sort of wide receiver that's not really a dart throw? Being able to identify these tiers and being able to dive into wide receivers who ideally are number one options on their team, having a number of those guys. And if it's a number two option on their team, it better be a high-powered pass attack. You reference a guy like a T. Higgins, a Devante Adams, those sort of wide receiver twos.

I think the other sort of wide receivers that ZeroRB enthusiasts want to go after are are just those really talented guys that might be a little bit of contingent value plays, really young guys with draft capital, sort of like an Emeka, Ibuka, a Luther Burden would sort of fall into this. We saw Garrett Wilson produce big returns, his rookie season, sort of being drafted inside that range. So, yeah, I love talking about the wide receiver strategy. And we're going to dive into it a little bit more.

We're also going to talk about Davis's tight end and quarterback strategy. Just how much emphasis should you be putting in the two one-off positions, if you attempt it in zero RB right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Football Daily. Theo Greminger with Davis-Matic. Davis, you're recording all the time. You're recording on your own channel right after this. You're on ship chasing.

Let everybody know sort of your weekly content this time of year. And what else you have going on in June and July? Yeah, I mean, basically there will be either a posted video or a live stream on my YouTube channel every day of the week, seven days a week for the rest of the. summer. I've got rankings, you know, seasonal rankings, best ball rankings up at Patreon.com slash Davis-Matic with post, you know, strategy style posts, thinking, thinking about fantasy football style posts at least at least once a week up on patreon.com slash Davis-Matic

and ship chasing every Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Yeah, I highly recommend you going and checking out Davis's work. He's also drafting a lot, really, really accurate in terms of your ADP info. I'll say that's like sort of a pet peeve for mine. I try to listen to a lot of podcasts. Whenever I hear somebody reference incorrect ADP, it's off, Davis. It's off for me. With your stuff, it's really, really annoying since we're in this information age and you can get accurate ADP info like the morning of. So I'll give a shout out today. I'm going to pull some FFPC ADP off of Fantasy Mojo. Shout out to Darren Armani. That's a site that's great. But simply just downloading the underdog app onto your phone and looking at underdog

that underdog ADP, that can help a lot. There's so many ADP sources out there. So let's get back into it. We talked a little bit about the wide receiver strategy. We sort of defined it as loosely wide receiver depth, continuing to attack the trying to have a unbelievably strong flex and also having multiple wide receivers who can hit as wide receiver ones. You briefly mentioned the need for big time tight end and quarter.

back production. This is also something that I think people misunderstand when it's a zero RB strategy. When it's zero RB, and I'm not necessarily going to get access to guys who are going to give me top five to top 10 running back production, just by definition, it's going to be harder for me to find that level of running back production when I'm ignoring the position for so long. Having an edge at tight end and quarterback really, really is a big deal. So let me ask ask you this, when you're attempting a zero-r-b build, are you more likely to go after the quarterbacks like the true elite ones towards the top, the Jaden Daniels, the Josh Allen, the Jalen Hertz, sort of the top five guys, Lamar Jackson, of course, or are you trying to find

an upside edge pick so you can keep attacking wide receiver and tight end? I'm a little bit less hip to the elite quarterbacks this year because they are quite expensive, right i think the um you know josh allen jaden daniels and lamar jackson are like really expensive hurts generally speaking um you can get him a little bit cheaper and i like his like i of the four of those guys i have drafted hurts the most often but the most appealing elite one one z guys there are bowers kittle mcbride um and i like actually t j hawkinson for me. I have in the same tier as Laporte. He's not really drafted that way on either

underdog or FFPC. But I think I think he's being a little bit undervalue. But yeah, and I've done quite a number of builds, like just like trying things out where you do both and like your first running back is like Tony Pollard or Isaiah Pacheco or whatever. And you can

back build those kind of nicely, particularly by the way, drafting early. This will be a little bit different if you're drafting teams, you know, in the main event on August 30th. But right now, with the ambiguous backfield type stuff, you can at least tell yourself a story. Oh, I just drafted the Cowboys starting running back.

I just drafted the Jaguar starting running back. Like there are ambiguous situations to take advantage of now that will not be there in honestly, probably even like a month. So just getting back to quarterback, I like the Jalen Hertz call. And he's a guy that really has like no buzz right now. He sort of has drafted where he's drafted. There's very few people saying like Jalen Hertz could be the league winner. but he's going this year at like an FFPC.

He's a four or five turn guy. He's going alongside Joe Burrow. And he's going about around behind the other big time quarterbacks. In terms of rushing production, it's a given you're going to get fantasy scoring from Jalen Hertz through his legs. The tush push is here to stay. And it's a guy that on a per game basis is like top three all time in NFL history in rushing yards per game of the quarterback position. So I like hearing a guest on Jalen Hertz. Just curious, do you also enjoy drafting Joe Burrow this year?

Burrough's interesting because the top four quarterbacks all have rushing upside that Joe Burrow doesn't have. But it seems like the offensive environment is there for Burrow to deliver us a peak Peyton Manning like 50 passing touchdown season. He's got all the weapons in the world, a defense that's going to concede points, and a division that is sort of become shootout friendly. Where you're at with Burrow is he an edge pick for you in the same

senses hurts. Yeah, he just, he just isn't, right? I mean, it's like not that, not the Joe Burrow can't be the guy you needed in fantasy football, not the Joe Burrow can't win MVP. Like, he can do all those things. But if you're just, you know, if you're playing the percentages, you're thinking about how fantasy points are generated, what are the most sustainable and repeatable performances.

It's either guys who run or guys who sustain MVP level production. And what you'll find, and JJ, uh, are, our, our, and JJ Zacharison over at late round. I mean, he's done the best research on this, but the killer stat is basically like no quarterback who has a, I think the exact stat is no quarterback who's generated a top five fantasy finish based on a touchdown rate north of six has repeated it the next year. And I might be,

I might be mangling JJ's research just a smidge, but it is that 6% number that's really big. And if you look at Joe Burrough's career, Joe Burroughs' touchdown rate last year, was abnormal. It was much higher than his actual career rate. His touchdown rate last year,

highest of his career, 6.6%, even higher than the 2021 season, even higher than his 2022 season. And his career rates 5.5%. Sounds like not, like just like talking, you're like, oh,

six and a half percent to 5 and a half percent. I mean, that will end up being the difference of like 40 fantasy points, 50 fantasy points over the course of a season. Let's get back to quarterback and let's try to look at a couple of potential other targets if we're attempting this build to find upside at the quarterback position without investing in like the top four quarterbacks. I'll just throw out a few ADPs. Let me know which one you kind of like the most.

This is FFPC $350 redraft ADPs. Bo Nix is sort of slid a little bit. He's QB8, but you're getting him inside around 10 a lot more these days. Kyler Murray's supposed to run a little bit more. QB9. you're getting him around the mid-10th round. Justin Fields, always an interesting one because of his rushing upside at the beginning of round 11.

And then Caleb Williams going inside of round 12 consistently, do any of those four guys? And I'll throw out the sort of later option. We'll kind of ignore DAC and Brock Purdy and Baker Mayfield for that matter. I think they're sort of, we know what they are. I think that they're guys that can finish as QB-1s, but don't necessarily have the top-3 QB upside. Drake May, though, is interesting. He's going inside of mid-round 13, and he does have that big-time rushing upside to his profile. He's also extremely young, has a lot of room to run, some unknown upside with May. Of all the quarterbacks I mentioned, which one of those guys or

guys stand out to you the most? I mean, Fields, I think, is the most obvious one that, like, oh, we get to the end of the year. Justin Fields scored 21 and a half points per game. The Jets win nine games, but they're like pretty scrappy. Fields had three games where he ran for 135 yards and and two touchdowns. You know, Garrett Wilson is is not like throwing temper tantrums on the sideline. I think that one's pretty obvious. I'm actually done telling myself the story that Kyler is going to like run more. I think Kyler's being drafted fine. But like what, Kyle is 28, I think 29. I mean, so it's just like I think Kyler just pretty much is who he is. He's like the 13th best quarterback in the NFL.

He and the Drew Petsig offense. It's just going to suffer when they get behind in games. They just need to. Kyler needs to be playing on a balanced team. The Drew Petsig's offense needs to be in a balanced game script to work. You want to know my, my answer for who is this year's guy who's way overdrafted next year based on an unsustainable touchdown rate.

It's, it's Purdy. I think Purdy once in his career will have like a 42 passing touchdown season because he's pretty good. Shanahan's an amazing play caller. It kind of depends on like, well, how good is Jennings really? How good is Pierceall really? Is Iy back in week four or is he back in week eight? How healthy does McCaffrey stay? Kittles 31 is this kiddell's black marble season.

But I think Purdy across all formats is like dynasty redraft. I think Purdy is like literally my most rostered quarterback. He just seems so obvious to me. Yeah, it's interesting in dynasty drafts. he's got the contract insulation now, but it didn't really like do anything to steam him up. So I do think he's very, very interesting. It's been so efficient as a passer.

And he's got like two QB1 finishes, back-to-back seasons. I think it was QB6 in points per game and like the QB 10 or 11 in points per game in consecutive years. So this is a guy that's been finishing as that sort of a score. Interesting to see you on Purdy. Let's get back over to tight end though. Hawkinson, I really like the call because Hawkinson's a guy,

where it's sort of a post-hyped sleeper. Everybody remembers a few years back in like FFPC main events. Hawkinson was the kind of guy you had to use like a two, three turn pick on. Was a finish, he's got a, does not have a tight end one finish in his career, but I believe he has a tight end two overall finish. One of those first seasons between Detroit and Minnesota, he was just phenomenal on a points per game basis. You're getting him at the five, six turn in these FFPC draft.

So really, really interesting. You're getting him a significant discount from Sam Leporta, who's the tight end for. Let's say you miss on Hawkinson, though, and you still need to recover at tight end. Who would be a tight end that you think could sort of outbeat his ADP, give you an edge? This year's a little weird. Even in the tight end premium streets of FFPC, a lot of these low-end tight-end ones are starting to go in the end around six into round seven. Guys like Evan Engram, David Njoku, Mark Andrews, John Hsu Smith. Tyler Warren, Tucker Kraft, Dalton Kincaid, Colston Loveland,

and how could we not mention Travis Kelsey, who's going at the 6-7 right now? Do any of those tight ends jump out of you? Or are you saying, really, if I'm going to attempt zero, I want to try to get one of those top four in your mind, tight ends? You know what's funny is I think Kelsey is just like pretty good to like, you'll be fine. You know, probably catch 82 passes, about 830,000.

he scores 11 touchdowns super sick you're going to love to have had him if he scores four touchdowns you're just going to be like man really wish i would have taken someone else instead i i've i've really honed in on two guys as like the potential stories of the season at tight end uh tyler warren and tucker craft which is funny because i started out being like i'm not drafting Keller Warren. I have no interest. But now that it became clear that Richardson is just clear to me that Richardson is just not going to play this year. In fact, I think it's more likely, honestly, that Richardson never plays for the Colts again than starts like more. Like I guess maybe Daniel Jones gets injured or maybe Daniel Jones just plays so, so bad. But probably I think we just

see 17 games of Daniel Jones. Daniel Jones completed 65 and a half percent of his passes in his career. Anthony Richardson has completed 50.1% of his passes in his career. I'd rather have Anthony Richardson as my franchise quarterback. The Daniel Jones, I think there's more there. I think if things had gone differently for Richardson, he could have been a pretty good NFL quarterback. It just hasn't worked out that way. The shoulder injury, it's the same shoulder injury, by the way.

It's not a new injury. So that's pretty troubling when a quarterback has a shoulder injury for like 10 months, and it's still the same one you still can't throw. And then we have Tucker Kraft, which is like, Tucker Kraft might just lead the pack and targets. They have a roster full of wide receiver threes. The best wide receiver threes you've ever seen, but no one really dominant.

And actually, I'll add one more amendment in there. If we can get Flacco for 10 games and then Shudur is like not horrible when he starts, why can't David and Joku just like literally catch 100 passes and just be awesome? Like I'm pretty sure

he can. David and Joku is the answer for me. Like I love David and Joku this year. It's such a simple ass where we want tight ends who are the number one or number two target on their team, it would be shocking if Njoku was not a number one or number two target. And like you said, if it's Flacco, we have a history and a sample size of Flacco hyper-targeting Njoku and Njoku having big-time production alongside him. So like I love Njoku.

Every year he seems like a value to me. And when we talk about tight ends in terms of targets, David and Joku on like a per game basis is top three or top four. over the last two years combined. So completely with you on that one, Warren's really interesting. I think Warren is super interesting because I think they're going to manufacture touches for him. And if it's, if it's Jones, I think some of these Taysom Hill narratives where can we get Tyler Warren just a few goal line carries. If you can give Tyler Warren three rushing touchdowns this year on top of his tight end production, that's enough to really like push him and make him like even more meaningful pick.

So I think that's interesting. Tucker Kraft is, it's like ambiguous target tree. And Tucker Kraft, we think, is good. And he has yak ability. So really interesting names from you. Let's take a quick break. We come back. We're going to identify the wide receivers you should select inside of these rounds, doing a couple head-to-head ADP debates. And then we're going to identify some running back targets for you to execute a zero RV build. All right. Welcome back, Fantasy Football Daily. Theo Greminger with Davis-Matic. Let's get into it. Round one. Jamar Chase is off the board. Like, I'm assuming he's your wide receiver one as well, Davis.

Yeah, you know what's so funny is I, like, drafting in the first round, if you weren't scared, if we, if we were all not so scared, I think would actually look a lot different. But like, honestly, like Justin Jefferson should be projected for the most points in the NFL. I actually don't even, actually don't even really know if it's, if it's close.

But because, because Chase is, I mean, I'm not going to not draft tomorrow Chase, right? I think that is not what you should do. But Justin Jefferson will probably score the most points at wide receiver this year. Yeah, I mean, Jefferson, it's always interesting. Jefferson is one that he sort of settles in, but you're actually seeing a little variance where he goes off the board. I'll give another shout out to Darren Armani Fantasy Mojo.

He actually, he's the must follow on Twitter for you if you're not following him because he posts a lot of FFPC boards. He posted a board where Jefferson went at like the 109. Like, just weird to me to see Jefferson in that range. We have seen some smart people, Sigmund Bloom, for that matter, is on CD Lamb ahead of Justin Jefferson. Do you kind of push back on that one?

Like the argument for Lamb being it should be a much more pass-happy Dallas team, you don't necessarily have a running back who's going to sap a considerable amount of touches, some ambiguity in that room. Lamb has, like Jefferson, a wide receiver one season to his name in recent memory. And he also had 183 targets that wide receiver one season. Last year, despite Cooper Rush starting quarterback, like Lamb was still able to survive. Is there an argument for Lamb over Jefferson? Or do you sort of just completely push away that narrative? I mean, there's an argument, but I wouldn't buy it. Like Jefferson is, of all active players in the NFL, he averages 10 more receiving yards per game.

game just over the entirety of like career numbers over everyone else. Chase being number two, Lamb being number three. I think I, and I, what the, what the pushback is is that people are unsure if JJ McCarthy is any good, to which I would say pretty sure he's probably better than Sam Donald or the Vikings wouldn't have made that decision because only $30 million a year or $35 million a year, would Donald agreed to with the Seahawks with like a pretty generous to the team out where they can get out of that deal after year one pretty easily. Vikings, if they thought there was any question, like, what did they just won 12 games,

right? 13 games? Like, they were, they were really good. They had a chance to win the division, lost to Detroit that week 17 game. It was, yeah, Minnesota really showed a lot of confidence in J.J. McCarthy. And I think for us to assume that a organization that gets things right a lot is going to go with a quarterback who's not going to succeed is sort of foolish. And plus all of the Kevin O'Connell quarterbacks have fantasy, put up fantasy numbers.

Like we will see Nick Mullen's pass for 400 plus in this offense multiple weeks. Josh Dobbs had a, there was Josh Dobbs mania on the waiver wire at one point, a couple of years back. So like, yeah, JJ McCarthy is going to be absolutely fine. So you're Jefferson over Lamb. Let's throw Lamb also into a mix here. Lamb, Nakua, Neighbors, BTJ, Amon Ross St. Brown, who is occasionally going inside round two more and more now. But if that that little cluster of wide receivers, if you're trying to execute zero from the back end of the first round, do one of those wide receivers stand out to you more?

Honestly, no. Like, I think my argument would be all encompassing injury risk, team, like whatever. To me, I think Jefferson and Chase are in a group of their own. And then Lamb, Nakuwa, St. Brown, Nico, Brian Thomas Jr. To me, you could argue those guys in any. order. You could say, oh, I think Neighbors is going to be the wider receiver one next year. So I want to have him on every team. Or I think Travis Hunter's going to open things up for Brian Thomas Jr.

He's going to be, like, I would hear any of it. I have no strong opinions about any of them. I think they're all great. And I think you are in a foundational place to start your team with those guys. I think all of them are going to score an exceptional amount of fantasy points. I agree with you completely.

I would gravitate towards Pukukukua and Malik neighbors, just because I think that they could put up absurd target totals, where the wide receiver one overall has led the NFL in targets and receptions now for four straight seasons. Like Malik Neighbors was 11 targets a game last year, and Pukua was on pace for 160 targets, had about the same as rookie year. So both of those guys getting into that 190 target range, it wouldn't be shocking at all.

I think BTJ getting up to the 170 plus range is a little bit wishful thinking. I think he'll settle into the 150, which I'm not complaining about for a player of his level, certainly not. And Sungad, I think, deserves to be a little bit of more of an early second round pick with some of that turnover in that offense. Let's push it to round three. Now you've, or excuse me, let's push it to round two. Round two, last time you were on Dynasty Life, you talked about the potential for A.J.

round. What a great value he is in drafts. He's going alongside Ladd-McConkey, Drake London, and then of course, Nico Collins is routinely available in the early portion of round two. Currently, he's the two-four in these recent three-fifties. And this is over the course of 20-plus drafts for anybody questioning this ADP. Nico Collins is the highest drafted of these guys, but all four of these guys are in like a cluster of six ADP spots. Do you have a preferred target here? I mean, it's definitely A.J. Brown. I'm comfortable with any of them again. I do think it's rational and reasonable to say after BTJ and Nico to say I actually would prefer Jonathan Taylor. I would prefer Bucky Irving. I would prefer to have an A chain and kind of do that build. I think I think that's totally rational and reasonable. But you can do these crazy, like, particularly on FFPC, you could just get these crazy high-charged wide receiver starts because, you know, McBride will go early sometimes. Bowers goes obviously so early. Like, you can,

you could do like, things could fall a certain way at the tail end and you could start your draft, Malik Neighbors. I'm on Ross St. Brown, you know, on, on the FFPC. And like, I don't know, that is just crazy. Like, that's crazy. Just like, you're going to, you're going to project for like 37 points at your wide receiver one and wide receiver two every week. Yeah, we've seen a Malik neighbor's Brian Thomas Jr. start in an FFPC main event already. Like, it's incredible the amount of potential you can get with a wide receiver, wide receiver start there. So you're A.J. Brown over those guys. I'm probably Drake London there. But I think all of those, like you said, are really strong picks. And again, I agree with you. I like some of those running backs

in round two as well. Different ways to build your team. Let's push it to round three. Okay. So let's say you've started out wide receiver, wide receiver, or potentially wide receiver tight end. You want to continue building a very strong zero-rb build. This is where I think it gets interesting because we have wide receivers inside of round three with potentially enormous target ceilings. Garrett Wilson, who's a target magnet, Rashi Rice, who was like a usage king to start last year, Jackson Smith and Jigba, who loses DK Metcalf, loses Tyler Lockett, had 100 catches last year. He's going at the 3-4. Then you've got T. Higgins, who was amazing on a per game basis last

year, 18 points per game in PPR, double-digit touchdowns. Tyree Kill, who was the number three or number two overall pick last year. And then you've got Devante Adams, Marvin Harrison, Jr. So round three is loaded with potential wide receivers who could take their game to another level or at least give you, let's say, 15 to 17 points per game this year. Is there a wide receiver that stands out to you the most or a few guys you really like in this range. I mean, Marvin Harrison Jr. to me, I mean, Garrett Wilson, I think is just a layup. like, Garrett Wilson might not ever hit his ceiling that we thought he had as a player, but he's definitely going to just be like good this year. But Marvin Harrison Jr., we took him

at the one-two turn last year. He had like a disappointing rookie year, 850 yards, eight touchdowns. I mean, a lot of like, I've been doing this research on, or I did this research on other first round rookie wide receivers who kind of disappointed in like DeAndre Hopkins had 800 yards and two touchdowns. Cidie Lamb had I think 900 yards and three touchdowns. Devonta Smith 900 yards. Like basically first round rookie wide receivers who are like good and their starters, but they're not great right away generally get better.

Now, I mean, look, don't get me wrong. You've got your your Johan Dotsons, your Jalen Ragers. I mean, honestly, even your QJs like Quentin Johnson researched as a fantasy asset last year but didn't get any better as a player really and i i don't think marvin harrison jr is going to go that route yeah marvin harrison junior i'll give you a shout out you had a thumbnail where i believe you put marvin harrison jr and sam sullick in the same thumbnail that they're jacked yeah absolutely jacked humans who was the third jacked human in that chris chris bumsstead there you go there he got chris bumsster mr olympia that was a very creative uh thumbnail uh but i like morvin harrison

Jr. You can also get him at the beginning of round four. I'll say there's a lot of people here at fantasy points over the top over Rashi Rice. Garrett Wilson, we've talked about. He's sort of a layup because he's a potential that he could lead the NFL in Target Share in the third round. And he's a guy that had 100 catches last year. And you're getting this ADP discount. It's been sort of the offseason of Garrett Wilson, very bullish on him. It's sort of an easy explanation, and round three guy. I will say, I think I'm bullish on JSN this year. If you want to hear my takes on JSN, go ahead and listen to the school of Scott where

Jacob Gibbs joined Scott Barrett and I. I sort of made a big bowl case argument for JSN. Don't want to take too much time here. But I think he'll be north of 25% target share. I think he'll probably have just as many catches. And with his versatility now in the offense, I think people are looking at that as a negative where he's going to not be a full-time slot player. I think that opens things up for him to have more spike weeks.

So I'm into JSN at cost. Let's take this into round four. Let's say you want to push it and you want to start with three, four straight wide receivers or one tight end and three straight wide receivers. You've got now it gets a little hairier. Guys like DJ Moore, D.K. Metcalf, Tett McMillan, Travis Hunter, Xavier Worthy, Mike Evans, and Terry McLaren. Do one of those names stand out? to you. And again, when I reference Travis Hunter, it's where I think he'll be. Right now you're seeing him more as a five, six turn guy. But Davis, we've done this a long time. By the time we get to FFPC men events in August,

there's going to be people who don't want to leave their drafts without Travis Hunter. So I throw him into this mix. And I'll go ahead and throw James and Williams in there too, Davis. Because I think we talked about him on ship chasing when I was on. I think he'll continue to rise throughout the summer to like wide receiver 18, 20 land. Hunter, J-Mo, Worthy, Evans. I mean, all of them. They're all good. It's so hard for me to take, like, James Cook. And honestly, even like Amarion Hampton.

Like, I like Amarion Hampton. But it's just like, I don't, these are guys who are like, I don't even have to squint. I'm like, oh, yeah, Mike Evans just scored 13 touchdowns. So Devante Adams was just still Devante Adams, but playing in a dome with the best quarterback he's played in since like 2021. on Aaron Rogers. Like, it's just so evident.

And then Hunter, I mean, dude, like, I get it. Oh, he's going to play defensive. Like, if Travis Hunter is the guy that we all think he is or, or, I mean, he might already be like the, the smoothest athlete at the, like, you know, he reminds, he actually really reminds me of C.D. Lamb, which is not, lamb is, is a little bit thicker than he is. I think Lamb's listed weight is 205. Hunter's like 186, I think.

but just like how Hunter catches the ball and just transitions to be like going up the field like in one motion you you can hardly even see him do it. I mean right now if you're if you were doing the what do they call it the big gorillas the 350s I would I would be I would be and I have a ticket for one but I just have not had enough time yet. I would be I would be taking him every time I think before he gets a little bit more expensive. Yeah I think he's super interesting and like you said there's multiple wide receivers in this round. This is why it's a lot of fun to do these sort of builds. So the easy part is over here, Davis. We've identified a bunch of wide receivers, a bunch of tight ends, and some quarterbacks. Now we're going to attempt to identify some running backs that can help you recover after passing on them for multiple rounds right after this. All right, Davis, so we're back.

Let's talk about just a bird's eye view. Is there a specific kind of running back, like from an archetype type that you're looking for when you're trying to execute a zero-r-b approach. Is it youth? Is it upside? Is it past-catching ability? Like, is there a real answer for this? Or is it I'm just trying to find value where I can in like round six and beyond?

I mean, I think kind of the old archetype would have been like Caleb Johnson, like, ambiguous backfield, rookie, good spot, all that stuff. But weirdly, I think one of my biggest changes in perception. from last year to this year. It's like, well, James Connor can probably be that guy. DeAndre Swift can probably be that guy. Isaiah Pacheco can, just like any guy who is, we don't love his workload.

He gets some receiving work. They're like kind of vaguely interesting and can just run into 290 touches, which all those guys can. You could totally draft a team right now with DeAndre Swift is your first running him back and be like, well, yes, some of the time the way, this season is going to play out, I'm going to win. Yeah, and I'll say that when you bring up Swift, nobody's going to be like, oh, my gosh, Davis,

you're so creative. What an unbelievable answer. Right, exactly. It helps you get off to a quick start because I think with DeAndre Swift, like a lot of what we're going to do with zero RB and potentially even some hero RB builds is you're going to end up having to attack running back in like the double digit rounds. You're going to build running back depth there, sort of in that like you reference round seven and beyond.

And I have a zero RB target list article coming out at fantasy points probably this week. It also talks about sort of your hero RB2s in that same sense in the same article. And I'll go through sort of round by round here. But you really hit on something where I can't have all like gutshot straight upside guys. I need a couple of boring guys that can get me off to a good start. And then of course you can have those handcuffed, the chaos guys, the guys who could potentially overtake a backfield. So Swift is definitely an interesting one. Before we dive into our preferred running backs by each round,

let's just take a step back. You mentioned you weren't crazy about round four. But I think one thing I've seen in some of these modified zero RB builds is drafters drafting the edge pick in rounds one, two, three, attacking running back in round four, and then returning to edge picks and maybe picking up their RB2 in round 7, 8, 9, whenever. You mentioned you don't see the edge in the Omari and Hampton tier, but let's just take it a step further.

If you were to attempt to do a modified zero where you anchored or built like a Hero RB team from the fourth round, which player stands out to you the most? O'Marion Hampton, James Cook, Kenneth Walker, Alvin Kamara, and then I'll throw a Breece Hall in there. Because you're seeing Breece Hall falling into round four more and more often. it's not every draft, but it's quite often these days. I mean, Breece is my favorite for sure. Like a guy we were taking in the first round last year who just like kind of had some bad luck. The team was worse than expected.

They draft Membu, so that has been a problem spot for them, the left side. And honestly, both the tackles have been pretty poor there. And playing with a running quarterback, our gut instinct is that it's a death now. Like, oh, he's never going to catch the ball again. First is Fields actually checks it down more than the average. joining quarterback because he is a he scrambles some but so much of fields rushing in the NFL has been designed that he actually throws it more to running backs than like a Richardson for example but then the other thing is is that uh and i just look this up because i just made a video about it um

breese average 5.4 yards after contact average on uh uh zone gap runs which is like exactly what you get with fields. Like basically what that tells me is when it's breeze versus one linebacker in the hole, he's going to win that battle like all the time because he's just too, he's just kind of too hard to bring down. And generally the research is, I found this in the weirdest place. I found this in a 2018 SB Nation article, the Music City Miracle, the Titans blog, where they did this research about how much yards per carry playing with a running quarterback ads for you. It's about half a yard per carry playing with like a a really good running quarterback.

So I think it's just like super wheels up for Brise. I had this conversation with Graham Barfield. And I've gone sort of full circle with Brice where beginning of the off season, he was a guy that I thought I could fade. But when you start pushing him into round four, there's just too many upside scenarios for me to pass up on him in that range where the, there's the hit rates for round four guys are always not as good as when, you know, as we think they are.

And then when we get into Brees Hall, I had this conversation with Graham Barfield where we broke down each and every team's top two targets. We went over all 32 offenses over the course of two podcasts in like three hours and predicted who would be the number one and number two target on each team. I keep gravitating back to this could be Brees Hall, having an Alvin Kamara like 19, 18 percent target share season

and being the number two target on the, the Jets, where even if Aaron Glenn wants to mix in a Braylon Allen and Isaiah Davis, it doesn't matter for us because Breece Hall is just going to catch so many passes. And like you said, the efficiency of the run game in New York should improve with Justin Fields behind center and a better offensive line. So I'm sort of with you. I'll take round four shots on Breece Hall for better or for worse in that range. Let's get back to it, though.

I think more likely if you've executed this strategy, you're going to find your running backs like you said round seven. I think a lot of people might have play a little bit of chicken and want to dive into rounds five or round six. You're still somewhat fragile and you could still return to drafting wide receivers. There's plenty of those guys in round seven, round six. So let's say you decide round five as your running back round. Shuba Hubbard, Travion Henderson, RJ Harvey, James Connor, Joe Mixon, your preferred pick in that round five range currently in FFPC ADP. It's probably RJ Harvey. And I like taking Dobbins a little bit too,

but Harvey is just like, he's kind of everything you ask for he does. The passing game stuff, weirdly not a third downback, but still I expect to be fine. The passing game gives you that crazy explosive athleticism that generally is kind of the hallmark of what we really look for in zero running back stuff.

But this whole range, Mixon, Hubbard, Harvey, Camara, Walker, Trayvion Henderson, James Connor. David, well, probably not David Montgomery. I probably wouldn't love having David Montgomery's my running back one. But honestly, these guys can fit a hero running back build or a zero running back build and just like be the only starter you take until the next range of guys.

And I'm totally comfortable with that. Yeah, I'm with you. And for, in my article, round five, I believe that Shuba Hubbard, I believe that R.J. Harvey and James Connor should be targeted. if you attempt to build this strategy. Travion Henderson fell into a value category where there's a little bit more risk with him as your RB1, but the upside for him is immense.

He's playing next to the running quarterback. He's got elite past catching ability. So it's a really strong round for running back values there. Round six gets to be a little more interesting. You mentioned David Montgomery, D'Andre Swift, Caleb Johnson, Quinn Sean Judkins. So I have two rookies and two veterans. both going inside of this range.

Of course, on Underdog, these guys might be a round later, but FFPC, we're talking about round six values. Does one of these players stand out for you? See, this range, I think these dudes are all the same. I don't particularly love or particularly hate any of them. I think it's super flat, and it's the kind of range where I think taking a real clear, like if you're the type of person who's going to do 10 teams or 50 teams or 100 teams,

I think you kind of just let the room dictate what you get here as opposed to being like, oh, I absolutely have to take player X every time. So for me, I think none of them, none of them really stand out. And like you said, all of them sort of have a range of outcomes where they could help you. I'll say Judkins. Judkins, for me in round six, it's a palatable ADP where he's got the draft capital. He's got the Belcow profile. I think Dylan Samson could end up being a really an annoying presence in that backfield.

But I'll take shots on Judkins inside a round six. Him as my RB2 in a hero RB build is probably way more appealing than Judkins as my RB1 in a zero RB build. But I do think the volume will be there with him. I think he's athletic. I think he's got the profile. And there's just not enough horses in Cleveland skill position player wise that they're not going to try to get at least something out of a guy that used top 40 draft

Capitol for. Let's take it into round seven. This is an interesting one. Aaron Jones, Tony Pollard, Isaiah Pacheco. Do any of those players stand out to you? Davis? So this is where like the difference between FFPC and the best ball rooms change a little bit. I'm just like, man, I don't really pass as appropriate here too. Yeah, I like Pollard. Like if If Pollard holds on to, the role Pollard had last year was quite good, but Tage Spears, well, Pollard was injured too, but Spears was actually injured, like out for some of those games.

And they spent so much of last off season talking about, oh, we're chopping and changing. No, we got a 1A, we got a 1B, and they can switch per game. Like, if that is truly the case, Pollard will be like a pretty brutal pick. But he's the one I like the most. conceptually of that group because he could again i mean he could have three he could have 300 touches

um and he was good on a bad titans team last year but these guys kind of all feel like this is what the dead zone has now become this is like that like isaiah pacheco these these guys are are dead zony yeah it's very very dead zony i i'll have tony pallas rinked the highest uh i agree i think the others don't really get me excited let's start out round eight with this one Jones is going off the board currently as the 612. So he's going somewhere at the beginning of the seventh, or excuse me, he's going at the board as the 7-1. So he's sort of at that 6-7 turn.

Jordan Mason just sneaks into round eight. Jordan Mason, I had Andrew Erickson on the other day. He made a prediction that Jordan Mason is going to be like this year's Jamal Williams, Rahim Mostert, lead the NFL in rushing touchdowns. It was a bold prediction show. So we got a little bit over the top. But I think that the argument that Jordan Mason takes over the goal line work in what should be a very, very plus offense in Minnesota is there. But you're paying a big time premium for Mason. Mason last year, of course, had three out of the first four weeks.

He finished as an RB1. He had nine rushes over 20 yards last year. A great first down rate where I think 25% of his rush attempts resulted in a first down. Are you in or out on Mason at the 812? because Davis in a zero RB build, Mason checks off a lot of boxes. He has the contingent upside behind an older back. And he's going to have a weekly roll where you can throw him in there if you get stuck and you want to get double digit points at your RB2 spot. Mason feels pretty thin to be like a league winner at that price.

Like I made this comment on shipjure, not ship chasing, on ADP chasing last week. Like good rule of thumb, drafting the most expensive running back to like every year is probably bad. Like if you just avoided that guy. It was like Blake Corum. Trey Benson last year.

Trey Benson. I don't think, I don't think David Montgomery counts because like. He's his own position. David Montgomery like the people like, I always include him in the handcuff articles and people always get so angry. But he technically is a tancuff in this thing of ours because he's the number two drafted back.

but he sort of has a weekly role. And I'll say during the peak Mike McDaniel era, I mean, I can't believe we're saying that. Mike McDaniel's still there in Miami. But the good old days where he most sort of had his own role, even with the big Devon A Chan weeks. So like you'll find guys that are quote unquote RB2s, but you're talking about RB2 in like the classical sense,

the Jordan Masons, the Zach Charbonnays, those kind of guys. They're just, they just like, don't get me wrong. You run into that nuts. season incredible. I mean, you, Ken Walker turns his ankle. You have Zach Charbonnet. You win, you know. But that should correspond to their price.

And like Jordan Mason, I think, well, it's funny. At this price, Jordan Mason could score 12 touchdowns and be a bad pick. Like you could be like, oh, dude, Jordan Mason, he gave me a bunch of 12-point weeks. Aaron Jones stayed healthy, caught a bunch of passes, and I still wasn't that stoked. I still like Mason in an underdog because he's kind of available there. A lot of times when you're taking quarterbacks, you know, he's like in between Bo Nix and Brock Purdy and ADP, like that rough range. And like, let's say I already have one quarterback or maybe I took Josh Allen and I don't

want to take another quarterback here and I'm behind at running back. Then I like him there. I like him less in managed on the FFPC just because I likely am needing other guys where he's at. Okay, let's keep it going in round eight. Just sort of a yes or no. Are you in or out on Jalen Warren and Brian Robinson inside a round eight? Out. Out on both.

Okay, so let's take it into round nine and beyond. Round nine is interesting because you're seeing Travis E.T.N. and Bachel Tootin going inside of round nine. You're also seeing Tyrone Tracy consistently drafted here, and he's going behind Camp Scataboo. The gap is closed a little bit. And then you've got Dallas where Javante Williams is the first Cowboys running back off the board. And then we'll throw a Zach Charbonnet in the mix, a high-end handcuff.

So these ambiguous backfields, is there a Jacksonville Jaguars back, a New York Giants back, and a Dallas Cowboys back that you prefer at cost right now? Yeah, I like, well, frankly, I like Bigsby the most probably. Oh, you know what? I like the cheapest one. And I don't even love Bigsby, the player. I think Tutin's way better than him. I think honestly, I think an efficient market would have ETN, like a 10th round pick and Tutin and Bigsby, like 12th round picks each, like almost like back to back in ADP.

I think efficient pricing for the Dallas backfield would actually have blue be the most expensive than Sanders. Sanders, 40 spots higher, Williams, 40 spots cheaper, but you don't get to draft. You don't get to draft in an efficient market. And in some ways, that's good. and in some ways that's bad because it means that if you do actually want to try and approximate efficient exposures

to that backfield, you have to pay some bad prices. Like I've taken Jibonte a couple times. I've taken ETIN a couple times. It never feels good. But I also like those backfields and I don't want it to be a situation where all my bets are on Bayshel Tudin and I was right that the backfield had all these points in.

But I was wrong that I was wrong on the guy. I'll say that Jacksonville is one where like Dallas necessarily investing in the Dallas backfield. I don't think it's something where you have to do it this year. Let your let somebody else in your league figure that out. And I do like attacking the Jacksonville backfield though because Liam Cohen last year, he had two running backs in design targets in the backfield like Rashad White and Buck Irving over at Fantasy Points data.

We're both top five in design targets. That's been a little bit of a staple in Liam Cohen. offense where I think that one of these guys is going to exceed our expectations as a pass catcher. ETN on paper would be the one to do it. But Tuton, I like having exposure to him. I think like you said, if you're a volume drafter, I want to have sort of the most Tooten. And I love your Bigsby call. He was really efficient as a runner last year, like way more efficient than ETN was over the last two years as a runner. Bigsby's still young. He was a day two pick. there's a lot to like with Bigsby as sort of the cheap Jacksonville Jaguars running back.

And if you miss on him, he's significantly cheaper. Do you have a pick between Kim Skadaboo and Tyrone Tracy? Slightly lean on Scatabu because he's like bigger. But this is like a total, uh, Devon Singletary cool. It's, it's Devon Singletary cool aid man situation. Like I don't know. I just. And it also feels like they're complimentary enough that they could be a,

a total 50-50. Like Tracy gets some stuff, Scatibu gets some stuff, and it is not all that predictable. And they're also going to be bad. Yeah. That is a good argument against taking one of those running backs. I worry,

I think that they wanted to be a little bit more of a split backfield, too. You could end up with a split backfield in a bad offense. Just dropped Malik neighbors on New York and sort of pass on everybody else. I think that's a good draft strategy this year. Tracy, I'll take some shots on because he's cheaper. I've drafted some Scataboo as well. I think the one out for Scatibu getting an outsized role is Tracy put the ball in the ground a lot last year.

Daible has to be coaching for his life a little bit. I know some people think, no, Dable, he's a little safer than you think. But if the guy gets off to one of these horrendous starts, he gets completely steamrolled in game one like he has in back-to-back years, there's going to be a lot of heat on him. So Tyrone Tracy fumbling the ball, him going to the more less turn of him. overprone scataboo might make a little bit of sense. But again, I worry a lot about that backfield. Davis, got to get you out of here. Throw in a couple of your double-digit round running back targets.

Well, Miles Sanders is, Miles Sanders and Bigsby are the top ones. I'm big on Ray Davis. I think he can kind of become a Montgomery to Cook's Gibbs in a way. I really, and you know what, actually, here's, here's the one that nothing even has to happen. and we'll look back on it, it'll be so obvious. Jalen Wright. If the Miami Dolphins offense is 2022, 2023, two is stays healthy.

The line just plays like, the line is the 19th best offensive line in the NFL, not the not the worst. A chain is a little bit more efficient in his 20, 23 role. It's like, that's where you would actually want him. And Wright is, well, I was going to say he's the biggest guy in the backfield. He's not anymore because they drafted Ollie Gordon. And maybe it'll be Ollie Gordon,

I think Jalen Wright can really just kind of be the most. And I just feel like that's not being priced in at his ADP at all. He's being priced like a pure contingent value guy. Ray Davis is definitely one of mine. I've drafted a ton of Ray Davis. I agree with you. I think he can carve out a role here. And also if you have the outside chance that James Cook holds out or sort of quiet quitting,

this is if they don't want to reward him with the contract, you could end up seeing Ray Davis with four or five starts. this year. And I think he would perform somewhere at a mid-level RB2 level. I think he would be a really, really fun player for 0-R-B. DJ Giddens as a direct handcuff running at Giddens is, I love Giddens. I know you and Pete Overzette are, we're very bullish on Taylor at cost, but Taylor missed his time every single year. Giddens has high-level athleticism, can handle volume, was really productive as collegiate. and there was some buzz with him with those Colts beat reporters where they say get in sort of handles himself like a starter and is a guy with a lot of confidence and the

coaching staff believes in. So I don't think he's going to take away from Taylor, but I think if Taylor were to go down, he'd be a guy that gets 20 plus touches every single game with some juice. Davis, this is a lot of fun, kept you a little too long. Let everybody know once again where they can find your work. Yeah, you can get all of my work over at YouTube.com slash Davis underscore Maddoch and then all of my written stuff, rankings, Dynasty rankings, literally everything. And then at patreon.com slash Davis-Matic and subscribers to both of those have access to

the premium discord full of like-minded individuals. Yeah, check out all of Davis's work. Jared Smola from Draft Sharks is going to be joining Scott and I on School of Scott this week. Matt Kelly is going to be joining me on Dynasty Life. We have a loaded week here over at Fantasy Points. Stick with us here at Fantasy Football Daily. We're going to help you crush your fantasy leagues this season.