Fantasy Football Today - 2025 Top 12 RBs! (01/15 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

How do we rank the Top 12 running backs in 2025? We'll get to that after the news and notes (3:10) as we talk about the Cowboys future and more. Then, is it Bijan Robinson or Saquon Barkley as RB1 in 2025 (10:50)? ... We reveal RBs #3 and #4 (22:40). Did Christian McCaffrey crack the Top 4? Then we're on to #5 and #6 (25:35) with Derrick Henry in here even going into his age 31 season. Did Bucky Irving or Chase Brown make the Top 6 or are they in the RB7-8 range (35:45)? ... On to RB9 and RB10 (40:00) as we start to get to the James Cook/Josh Jacobs group. And we finish with RB11 and RB12 (44:40) with some love for Jonathan Taylor. Did Alvin Kamara make the cut? ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Shop our store: shop.cbssports.com/fantasy  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays at his feet. This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath. Yo, what's up everybody? Welcome to the show. It is Wednesday, January 15th, Adam Azer, Dave Richard and Jamie Isenberg

gonna spend some time today on the top 12 running backs for 2025 as we welcome you to fantasy football today presented by bet MGM the sports book born in Vegas for games this weekend. Rate them on a scale of one to 10 on the excitement meter or excitement meter. Houston at Kansas City. Five. Ten. Get out of here. Such a liar. Washington. Every game. Washington at it, you're such a liar. Washington. I'm gonna give a 10 to every game. Washington at Detroit. 10. Say eight, Dave.

I said eight. Rams at Eagles. 10. Seven. See, this just cheapens Baltimore Buffalo, Jamie. Now you're equally excited. One billion. Yeah, yeah, I knew that was coming.

Ha ha ha. There you go. Oh yeah, one and a half billion, so there. Guess what? That's the only one on CBS this week. So we got the good one. Baltimore at Buffalo. Very exciting.

We hope, we hope, we hope. You think they would get us tickets if we wanted tickets to the game? They definitely wouldn't get us tickets to Detroit. You see how much those tickets are going for? Yeah. Oh no, how much? $900 a pop. Oh my goodness much those tickets are going for? Yeah. Oh no, how much? $900 a pop.

Oh my goodness. That's the get-in? I saw Albert Brewer, I think. Sounds fun. Let me see. Let me see how much Bill's tickets are going. Maybe we'll go up. You guys fly up here. I'll drive us. Oh, they're only $188. Wow, that's great. They're the cheapest ones, it seems. Okay, that's great. All right, well, I'll go. All right. So anyway, welcome to the show.

News and notes. Let's get you some news and notes for the weekend. We'll talk about the coaches too. Mike McCarthy not coming back and maybe it wasn't Albert Brewer, sorry. And also Cleveland will have a new offensive coordinator. David Montgomery is going to play this week. We're going to talk about the top 12 running backs and where Jameer Gibbs ranks. And obviously the we mentioned I

think last Monday, but the staggering difference between his points per game with him without Dave Montgomery. Tyler Higbee left last week's game with an injury. He's having a pretty good game too. And he will play he is expected to play at Philadelphia on Sunday, which Jamie says is a 10 out of a billion, I guess, for him on. Sorry, it was field Yates of ESPN, $991. Really?

Average purchase price. Oh, average purchase price. Yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna tell you right now what the get-in is. 588, 597 for get-in. I see 527. Me too. Wow. Those are cheap.

We should get them. That's a car payment. Yeah, that's a lot of money. Houston Wave Deontay Johnson. I don't know, man. Come on, Deontay Johnson. And Chris Jones, Chiefs defensive tackle. He practiced in full.

Lions cornerback Terry and Arnold, he practiced in full. Green Bayback Terry and Arnold he practiced in full. Green Bay QB coach Tom Clements is retiring. The guy's had an amazing career mentoring or coaching some fantastic quarterbacks. All right so then the big news is that Dallas not bringing back Mike McCarthy also defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer may retire. Dallas has been really good for fantasy under Mike McCarthy with this year being an exception, but the previous three seasons, they were top four in scoring. They're always running a lot of plays.

They've been top five in plays in four of his five seasons. I think he's been there five years, right? For the last five seasons. And they usually throw the ball a lot. They were third and past attempts this year. So it's been good for fantasy. People might not like that, but they may not kind of see it that way. But it's been prolific. I'll say that. Jamie, what are your thoughts on the Cowboys going in another direction? I guess you're the higher. I mean, that's the biggest thing is, you know, who's going

to come in and replace McCarthy? Is it going to be an offensive-minded head coach or what we really don't love all the time is a defensive-minded head coach, but then the offense coordinator will be the key. I think you know what you're getting with Dak Prescott. He'll be a low-end starting quarterback if he's healthy. I don't think he's going to get drafted that way, but he will be one of the first few number two quarterbacks off the board, especially if you draft an uncertain number one fantasy option so CD Lamb I think will still be a top tier wide receiver you know whether he goes in round one or round two will probably determine you know who the coach is and then we got to see what they do with

their backfield Rico Dowell is a free agent so the biggest thing is rebuild the offensive line or continue to build on the offensive line because that's been such a strength of what McCarthy had when he inherited the job and it's just you know continually as those guys gotten older and you know Tyron Smith for example falling apart and then getting you know leaving the team. Zach Martin and his you know injuries and struggles this year so you know a few of the the stellar standouts there have you know gone away but I mean clearly there's still a lot to like about this team so hopefully the right coach is in place. Yeah, the offensive defensive head coach thing is interesting. This is the second year in a row. I'm just looking at this right now, where almost exactly half of the top 10 teams

and pass rate have an offensive head coach. And the other half has a defensive head coach. So Cleveland and Cincinnati, their numbers one and two in pass rate this year, offensive head coaches, Raiders, Jets, Seahawks, defensive head coaches, Cowboys, Giants, offensive, Bears, defensive, Texans, defensive, Chiefs, offensive. So that is five and five offensive head coaches. But Bears were half. Uh, that's fine. I guess I didn't break it up like that, but last year, I remember it being pretty much 50-50 also.

So the coordinator is obviously what matters there. And GameScript obviously matters. A lot of the teams that you mentioned were teams that were losing a lot, trailing in the second half. When a team's trailing in the second half, they're throwing a lot. Yeah. And then Cleveland named Tommy Reese, their tight end coach and past game specialist. He's been promoted to offensive coordinator. He's previously been an offensive coordinator at Alabama and Notre

Dame. We'll mention that Cleveland has led the league in plays each of the previous two seasons. But usually when we have a head coach who's an offensive guy and usually calls the plays, we don't typically care too much about the coordinator. So I don't know. Do you guys care about this? Tommy Reese being promoted for Cleveland? It sounded like he was on his way to New England to be the OC for Mike variable before Cleveland swooped in and made him the OC. So maybe this is somebody who could become an offensive minded head coach someday, certainly on the trajectory for that. And he's got a lot of connections. He is a younger guy.

I want to say he's in his like early thirties. So getting this type of opportunity in your early thirties, that's usually a sign that you know what you're doing. Probably has a lot of good connections to current prospects that are coming out in the draft now, cause I know you used to coach at Alabama once upon a time. So this is someone who's paying his dues, could become a future star as far as play calling goes in the league.

Go back to Dallas real quick, because we have a comment in the chat, and it's from Jack. And he says, I'm interested to hear about Rico Dowdell if the Cowboys don't add in RB1. I took Rico Dowdell with the 11th pick of round six in a half PPR draft that we did yesterday. He went just after Aaron Jones and just before Ramondre Stevenson that was the next and Brian Robinson. Those are the next running backs off the board. Jamie, what do you think about Rico Dowdle going into 2025 if the Cowboys don't add an

RB one? Again, I'll come down to the coach, but you know, we saw some really good things from Dowdle down the stretch once he became the feature guy, you know, he had a nice little run there of 100 yard games. I think he was the first undrafted running back in however many years to get three straight 100 yard games when he had that going for him toward the end of the season. You'd like to see a little bit more work in the passing game,

but I think that would come with Prescott back under center, again, depending on who the coach is. So it'd be very surprising if they don't add to this backfield, because I don't think this is the MO of what this franchise wants to be, is necessarily relying on somebody who's unproven. I mean, they usually spend a lot of capital in the position. So if this is status quo because of money and whatever they can get by with paying Dowdle and not paying somebody else or not drafting somebody

in the first round because I think everybody's looking at Genting saying he's going to be a cowboy. It could be a real good situation for him. So this is the range he'll go you know I think if he's the starter for Dallas you know in that round five plus range of low end number two running backs but could be still a solid starter. Who was that last running back before Rico Dowdell? Aaron Foster. Yeah, Aaron Foster. 2014 was the last undrafted running back to rush for 100 or more yards in three straight games. All right. Hey, listen, go to our Facebook page because I have not done it

yet, but I will do it today. I'm gonna put up the polls and you can vote for our superlatives. That would be MVP, biggest bus, comeback player of the year, rookie of the year, there was one more. I'm gonna put them all up today on the Facebook page. Just go to Facebook, search for fantasy football today, join our Facebook group.

You get some nice discussions with many of our, it's a pretty big popular Facebook group and you know, you're not going to be able to ask us questions and get them answered all the time. So bring them up with other FFT listeners and viewers to talk about the show. Mostly it's questions about start sit and right now keepers and NFL draft stuff like that. But yeah, anyway, join the Facebook group and I'm going to post those polls. I need you to vote so we can get our winners for the superlatives.

All right, why don't we take a quick break and we'll come back. Nah, it's too early for a break. Let's get to our RBs one and two in our top 12 running backs. So what, do you guys both have Bijan one, Barkley two? I do. Yup. Me too. I can tell you the other four people who have their rankings if you need.

Yeah, that's fine. I want to bring this up because when we did the rankings a couple weeks ago, whatever, I wasn't really thinking about it, dove into the numbers. I don't know. I might be leaning more wide receiver early, we don't really have, in my opinion, the profiles of league winning running backs at the top. Like guys who could flirt with 24 points per game or something like that. Yeah, how dare those guys average just 20?

I mean, they suck. Well, that's not really what you want from the number one overall pick. I just want the guy to stay healthy at this point. Yeah, well that's true. So Bijan averaged right around 20. And we have him, basically he just shares a lot with Tyler Algier.

I mean, we know he's great, but shares a lot. Barkley have a lot to say about him. But I don't know, how are you guys leaning with your overall? More widely, like top five, how many running backs, how many receivers in your top five, if you recall? Chase, Jefferson, and Puka in the top five, and Bijan, and Barkley.

Sounds about right. And how do you feel about the running back? It was such a good year for running back, but there wasn't one guy, oh, you know, this is the best take I ever had. The best take I ever had was 2023. When I said I didn't want that one amazing player that was so much better than everyone else. It was the most obvious like great take and you guys just killed me for it. I don't know why.

We've had two years in a row like that. Two years in a row where we have not had that McAfee-esque player. McAfee wasn't like that in 23? No, he wasn't. He was great, but he was not that great. He wasn't... 24.5 PPR points per game. Yeah, very good. But not someone that you couldn't overcome. I guess you could say that CD Lam

was like that for the last half of 2023. But it's my best take. I'm not putting this up to debate. But yeah, I don't know what my best take. I'm not leaving, putting this up to debate. But yeah, I don't know what my question was. Totally forgot it. Is it better than your Derek Henry comeback player of the year take? Yeah, slightly.

It's definitely better than what you want to eat on Sundays before games start. Maybe I'll have that today. I haven't had the football Sunday in a while. Yeah, but at least be a man and order it in person. I will. As long as no one else is in the restaurant. All right. I don't remember my question. If you showed up and this is what you're ordering, you know you're getting it, and you see people standing in the deli line, the counter, you're not going to do it? Uh, no. You're afraid of being judged by strangers? Yes.

For a sandwich? Yes, I am. It's such a weird sandwich. I'm worried about being judged by the people making the sandwich. That there's the strangers we have to throw in there. Here's my question, my running back. Do you see anyone who's got 24 point potential next year? with their current situation being the same, so like not, not Jameer Gibbs losing David Montgomery.

Right. Same. Right. Uh, yeah, I can see B's on taking and step forward. I mean, he was while still sharing pretty impressive down the stretch. I know it was just hovering around 20 points, but it was, it was, it was a pretty impressive stretch. He was well past 20 points per game from week six on.

He had at least 16 touches in every single game. He averaged around 23 touches per game. This is week six to the end of the year, 22.8 PPR points per game, 20 plus touches in all but two games. That's the guy who could do it. It wouldn't take that much more for him to jump from almost 23 to 24. And that's why he's my top running about that. And he's, you know, five years younger than Saquon Barkley. The offense isn't changing. I don't think they're changing. Coordinators in Atlanta should get better.

I do want them to address their depth on the offensive line a little bit, but I see the passing game being better with Pennex. And I think Bijan Robinson's absolutely in position to challenge for the 101. All right, let's take a break now and come back and we'll talk about Barkley and everyone else. So Bijan's number one, Barkley's number two. We'll tell you the rest of our top 12 after this on Fantasy Football Today.

So Saquon Barkley, number two running back overall, but number one per game. He did not play in week 18. Jameer Gibbs had an enormous week 18. I have a fun trivia question. There have been... All right, let's go back. Adrian Peterson, 2,000 yard season in 2012.

In that season, he had seven carries of 50 or more yards. There have been two running backs since that year, since 2012, that have had more than three carries of 50 more yards in a single season. Can you name them? Barclay? Barclay this year. He had six.

Since 2012? Yeah, it's almost every single year, the running back who leads the NFL and carries a 50 or more yards has three and there may be multiple guys. But John Taylor? No, Barkley did it in 2024. He had six and there was one other guy. Since 2012.

And it was 2018 if that helps. And his name rhymes with Maquon Markley. Ah, okay. Markley's done it twice. He's the only guy since Peterson to have more than three 50-yard carries in a season and he's done it twice and he had six both years. Isn't that crazy? But he just had a 2,000-yard season. I remember doing this research when Henry did it. Every running back who has a 2,000-yard season sees a huge decrease in yards per carry like over a yard. I think 1.3 yards or more if I remember every single time. Barclay just averaged 5.8 yards per carry, which was a career high. Do you think Barclay can get any better than what he did this year? 22

points per game. And if I'm not mistaken, he's the oldest to go for 2,000 yards? Ooh, I don't know. I mean, Henry had to be right around that age. But I'm honestly not sure. I'll tell you. Certainly he's up there.

Yeah, the history's not good for these guys coming off the 2,000 yard season because clearly they get a lot of work and you know, that's the fear. Can he get better? No. Can he stay in a relatively similar range? I think that depends if the Eagles keep their offensive line healthy and you know, together. I mean, it's such a great group.

And so that's the thing that we were excited about for Barkley was he was this environment change was going to just be such a better situation for him that it was going to, okay, how will it all come together? Will the touch push just completely crush his touchdown potential? Well, it hurt, but I don't think it crushed it, especially when Jalen Hurts got hurt toward the end of the season. So I think in terms of why he's second for me is he's still got the opportunity to be a 1,500 plus yard rusher, still got the opportunity to be a 1500 plus yard rusher still has an opportunity to be 10 plus touchdowns if not 15 plus

touchdowns. So there's an opportunity to be around 30 to 40 receptions per game. And that's the the the upside. Now we have to see how this postseason run finishes if he still continues to get a lot of work. Again, what the off season holds? Do they bring in somebody else to you know, maybe ease the burden, especially if they win the Super Bowl and feel like they have a chance to what the off-season holds? Do they bring in somebody else to maybe ease the burden, especially if they win the Super Bowl and feel like they have a chance to repeat? So there are still some questions we have to see. But again, when you start to stack them up to Jameer Gibbs with David Montgomery and Devon Achan and the situation in Miami and then the sliding

scale of these other running backs of Josh Jacobs and Kyron Williams and Derrick Henry and his age. So there's a lot of, I know, I think still in Berkeley's favor, but we have to see how this, you know, season finishes and where the off season leads for Berkeley and Eagles. He had 345 regular season carries. He tacked on 25 more in their first playoff game against Green Bay. So here's another candidate for 400 touches for sure, but maybe 400 carries entering his age 28 season. And if you take the splits of just his games with 20 plus touches, he had 13 of those last

year Adam, it's 23.5 PPR points per game. It's exactly the number that you're looking for. Can't he have another season where the majority of his games are 20 plus touches with hyper efficiency like he had this year and coming off of a season where minimum 370 carries but potentially 400 carries? I'd bet against that. And now I'm starting to think that maybe Saquon is a top five overall pick could be a little bit of a mistake. So I think the one thing that we have to sort of do

a little bit as, you know, science and medical and all these things get better and the way that the NFLPA has adjusted the off season work for these guys and practices for these guys is we probably have to move the goalpost a little bit when it comes to age 27, 28 year old running backs. As we saw this past season, you know, it was a fairly good year for these guys as they were approaching

30. I mean, you know, Barkley not he was on the cusp of this. Obviously, Alvin Kamara had a really solid season until the end with the groin injury. Eric Henry was a monster at age 30 going 41. James Connor was amazing. The majority of the seats in Aaron Jones stayed healthy. I know he didn't finish strong, but had a really good year. And the other part of it is, you know, Dave keeps referencing the carries, which is, you know, the football outsider did a great job. You know, I don't remember the date when they when they published the first of 370, you know, which we've referenced time and time again, is that's based on a 16 game schedule. You know, we have to adjust it with a 17 game schedule

and then the postseason and all that stuff. It may be just a different evaluation of these guys and how they approach year over year. And so maybe it's not age 28 when the breakdown happens. Maybe it's now age 29. Maybe it's now age 30. We have to just, I think, continue to look at it. And obviously, it's individual players. Yeah, Barkley coming off of this workload, again, I think it'll be more, how did he manage himself in terms of health? He's been great. And how does the Eagles offensive line and ecosystem look coming off of this year? You know, does everything come back in the same regard? Cool. All right. Let's so one and two or B John and Barkley who are running backs three and four by the way

This is full PPR who are three and four for you guys Gibbs is three and Devon a chance for I have the same two guys same order. I Have Gibbs and Christian McCaffrey. I have the same two guys, same order. I have Gibbs and Christian McCaffrey. I have HN5. McCaffrey will be 29 in June, but Jamie, what do you think about just reevaluating all the running backs? I'm just kidding.

Yeah, I mean, when you were talking about that, I thought, well, that applies to Christian McCaffrey. And I still think that he has the most upside of any running back in fantasy. Yeah, I just do. He had 19 targets in three and a half games and I don't have to get into McCaffrey. I think everybody rewind the clocks back 11 months. I remember saying this a couple of times, not 11 months ago, certainly six, seven months ago, just a warning on McCaffrey who we already said last year, 24 and a half PPR points per game. We were drafting him

based on that and based on the upside of him getting even as high as like 28 PPR points per game. He had that sky high upside. But after last season, 28 years old, 417 touches, 400 plus touches in 2019. He missed 23 games over two seasons after that. Now we're a season past the 417 touch year. We all know how bad of a year it was for him health-wise. Can we fully expect Christian McCaffrey to just bounce right back into being that upside guy and then take him with a first round pick? I think that that's a little bit of too far of a stretch to make. However, once we get to July and August, if he has, uh, an issue free off season

and he's practicing normally in training camp, I think fantasy managers will say, okay, I can take McCaffrey in round one, but I better get the guy behind him. In round seven, eight, nine, somewhere in that range, just to protect the investment. And I know that's not something that people really want to do, but in that offense, and we've seen it now time and again, whoever the backup is, when they get that opportunity, they have the potential to be not as good

as Christian McCaffrey, but certainly good enough to start in fantasy. Yeah. All right, well, he'll be an interesting one for sure. We all have Gibbs at three three and it's an interesting one because Gibbs, if David Montgomery just were not on the team, probably be the number one pick for, you know, I would guess consensus. Number one running back.

He'd be up there for sure. But with Montgomery, he was he averaged 18.2 fantasy points per game. That's fine. That's nowhere near a top five overall pick. He was the number five running back per game in half PPR, number six running back per game in full PPR. Yeah, it is what it is. You know, at least he's gonna have a high floor,

but Montgomery could cap his ceiling. All right, let's go to five and six. Running backs five and six, Jamie. For me, five is Bucky Irving, and six is Derrick Henry, as of now. I've got Kyron Williams at five, and I almost feel the same way as you do about Derrick Henry. He's in at six, but that's definitely in pencil.

Okay, so top four were the same for you guys, Bijan, Barkley, Gibbs, and Achan. And then five was Bucky for Jamie, and six was Henry, and for David was Kyron Williams and Derek Henry. Before we get into that, I just needed to remind you all that if you have not signed up for BetMGM yet, please use the bonus code fantasy, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM yet, please use the bonus code fantasy and you'll get up to a $1,500 first

bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. So here's how it works. Download the BetMGM app and sign up using the bonus code fantasy. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game and you'll receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets. If your bet loses, just make sure that you use the bonus code fantasy when you sign up. So just going back now, they both have Henry six, but number five, Bucky for Jamie, Kyron for Dave. Jamie, where do you have Kyron Williams? I am seven. Okay. And Dave, where do you have Bucky Irving? He is 11th. Ah, all right. So let's get into that a little bit. Jamie, obviously much higher on Bucky Irving. My favorite thing about Irving, the last four games of the year, including the postseason, Rashad White had 10 carries.

So they just completely phased him out. And Bucky averaged, I think, 18 carries in those four games. And Dave, you have him 11th. Why are you a little bit lower? He had two games all year where he played 60 plus percent of the snaps. That includes one in week 18 when most fantasy managers were packed in for the year. Final seven games was good, 18.2 PPR points per game. That includes a game he left early, by the way. So if you take that one out, you Azer stat that, he's probably closer to 19 PPR points per game. That's the upside.

I think that there's absolutely potential for him if things go right this off season in Tampa Bay for him to be right back there. And if that's the case, then I can't justify having him this low. But I don't know if this coaching staff fancies Bucky as a feature back. And he split so much over the course of the year and toward the end of the regular season. And I don't know what the split was in their playoff game. I can look that up. I just said he really didn't split them. He averaged 18 carries per game in their last four games. Rashad White averaged two and a half. Okay. And listen, obviously that bored out in the numbers. And I think he's a talented

guy. It's just a matter of is he going to be in the position to have that much work again? Or was that just the byproduct of he's hot right now. We don't really have anybody else who can, you know, work with him. Um, could it be something like that? So right now I'm a little bit hesitant to put Bucky Irving in my top six. I get it. We all saw it at the end of the year. But I just want to see how the off season rolls for Tampa before I lock in with him that high. I think what, extremely small sample size.

We've done two drafts and we've seen him go in the first round in both different formats. Half and full PPR. Jamie, can I ask you this? Maybe Kyron Williams put this debate to bed, but the history of day three running backs full PPR. Jamie, can I ask you this? Maybe Kyron Williams put this debate to bed, but the history of day three running backs who have had really good rookie years is not good. Guys like James Robinson, guys like Damian Pierce.

So Heath brought this up with Isaiah Pacheco last year, I believe, in regards to not just day three running backs, but in the James Robinson, Pacheco, undrafted free agent guys too, that the coaching change has mattered. So the guys that have stayed with the same coach have had success. The ones that have seen a coach come in and change system, bringing in their own guy, draft a guy, that's where it's kind of been the failure. And so I think with the guys that have had the same coaching tap, he's had, you know, the guys who have success with this and not success with this. So maybe next week when he's back, we can ask him the names. But I remember him bringing this up in regards to Pacheco. But I do think the way

that the NFL and that may change again, you know, as we're seeing how successful the season has gone for running backs and the teams that are advancing and still advancing in the playoffs because of the run games. Do we start to see more capital on the position or is it I don't have to spend cap? It goes both ways because of the season that Bucky Irving just had, for example, and Tyrone Tracy having a thousand yard rookie season, you don't necessarily have to invest heavily on these players and still have success. Clearly it's case by case again, but I think in terms of what Bucky Irving has done, it's a pretty good indication that you don't have to be

a first round pick to be a star. All right and my five and six by the way were Devon Achan and Bucky Irving. So we all have Bijan, Barkley, Gibbs and Achan in our top five. You guys both have Derek Henry as RB6, I don't. You guys both have Derek Henry as RB6, I don't. I have McCaffrey in the top six, you don't. Jamie and I both have Bucky Irving in there. And then Kyron Williams is gonna be top eight for everybody. But let's go to running back. I'm just looking at everybody else's. Heath has Kyron Williams fourth.

Oh wow. Where does he have Bucky Irving? He has Bucky 11th also. That's Adam Adams rankings. Dan has the same top four as we do. He has Derek Henry five. He does not have Bucky Irving in his top 12 and he calls him. We did in the story you can read on CBS Sports.com, the player who just missed the cut and that's who it is for Dan.

And Jacob has Bucky Irving at 6, also with Henry at 5. And... Wow. I am super low on Derrick Henry. I have my 11th. Dan has to Henry 5 and he has Henry six. I think he's probably the easiest guy to make the case against 31 years old. But he's what three years older than McCaffrey. How old is Derek Henry? Age 31 season McCaffrey 29 years older.

I feel like eventually it's going to catch up to him. And then I kind of feel like with Henry, we saw what everyone feared for a stretch like, oh yeah, from weeks 10 through 15. That was five games he had to buy. He didn't score more than 14.1 PPR points in any game. He's such a low catch guy. 19 catches in 17 games, kind of defied the odds a little bit.

But yeah, in a full PPR league, I don't think I can take 19 catches as a top eight running back. But how do you feel about 15 touchdowns? He had 18 touchdowns, so. I know, but in 14 games where he had at least 14 or more touches, he had 15 touchdowns. I know, but in 14 games where he had at least 14 or more touches, he had 15 touchdowns. Yeah, he's amazing.

At some point, it's going to stop for him. So it's funny you say that. I don't know how you guys feel about these running backs, but you have Henry, Kyron, Taylor and James Cook, who aren't going to be high volume receiving options. I think the difference is, I could see it with James Cook. You know, it wouldn't shock me if he had a 50 catch season.

I can see it with Cook, I can see it with Kyron. Kyron, right. At least that potential's there. There's no chance of that with Henry and very, very little with Taylor. Well, I mean, if they had Flacco for the full season or something, but yeah, that's just like, there's just no chance of that with Henry and very, very little with Taylor. I mean, if they had Flacco for the full season or something, but yeah, that's just like,

there's just no chance of receiving upside for Derek Henry. But then again, when you talk about Cook and Henry and Kyron, I think they all scored 16 rushing touchdowns. Wow. Yeah, first thing you gotta believe is when you think about drafting them, if you think that you're just, you know, or was it Jacob? If you're a touch-downing game, you go right ahead and not sweat the full PPR thing.

They were all in the same range. Kyron's great. Three guys had 16 rushing touchdowns to lead the league. Okay, so it was Cook. I'll tell you right now. It was Cook, Henry, and Jamir Gibbs. Oh, Jamir Gibbs. Sorry.

Jacobs had 15. Yeah, Gibbs with the week 18 performance How many catches did say Quan have didn't he average like two per game 33 in six ten games? Yeah 278 yards and two touchdowns on those carries on those catches for Saquon Berkeley alright, so Seven and eight for you guys Tell me after this quick commercial break on fantasy football today, then we'll find out the back half of our top 12

at running back after this. All right, welcome back. Running back seven and eight. Who do you have, Dave? Josh Jacobs is seventh, and this is where I put in McCaffrey again, using pencil. He's at eight. Josh Jacobs and Christian McCaffrey, how about you, Jamie?

Kyron Williams is seven, and Chase Brown at eight. Josh Jacobs and Christian McCaffrey, how about you, Jamie? Kyron Williams is seven and Chase Brown is eight. And for me it was Chase Brown, seven, and Kyron Williams, eight. So I'm with Jamie there, and Dave, I'm sorry, you had Jacobs and McCaffrey. Okay. Right. All right, so I got a little nervous about the Chase Brown that I think maybe I felt like I was too high on him at seven.

If he comes back with the same role, then he's he's perfectly fine there. We just bangles starting running back is a great thing to be last eight games. Chase Brown was the number three running back per game and full PPR number five per game and half PPR. What is one PPR points per game? What did you say, Jamie? That's three week 18, right? No, three weeks. 17. Oh, because week 17 and 18. 3.6 PPR points per game. What'd you say, Jamie? That's through week 18, right?

No, through week 17. Oh, because week 17 and 18, he was at 13 points per game in both those games. He didn't play week 18. He played week 18. No, he- I'm sorry, he didn't play, I'm sorry, 16 and 17. Yeah, yeah, he was, through his last eight games,

he missed week 18, Klobberts started, Chase Brown was the number three. Right, his last two, I'm sorry, 18, Kahlil Herbert started, Chase Brown was the number three. His last two, I'm sorry, week 16 and 17 were not his best. Yeah, he was on pace for 81 catches, which is really, that's a lot. I don't know if we can expect that again, but why do you have him in your top eight, Jamie?

Exactly what you said. Once he took over for Zach Moss, he was a superstar. It was, I think, going into week 18, he was at 18 points per per game 18 plus points per game when he was the starter or the featured guy you know so you saw what this is you saw what Joe Mixon was this offense you know you know this offense is going to be explosive it may be a better role in the passing game if T Higgins doesn't come back you know and they may have to use him a little bit more in that regard so they're gonna score a lot of points

and I do think there's going to be somebody else there, whether it's Moss coming back or, you know, a Khalil Herbert type, but if it's a Khalil Herbert type of a guy that's not going to play very much, then chase Brown could be just a star and eight might be too low. Herbert's a free agent. Zach Moss could be a cap casualty. They'll save about 3 million bucks by letting him go. I'm, I'm a little bit worried that they draft somebody and they really just focus on using a two man rotation like they did to begin the year. Now, unlike bookie Irving, chase Brown played 80% or more of the snaps in every

game from week nine through 17. And it might've been just because they, it might've been out of necessity. They acquired Khalil Herbert. They didn't really like him fitting in or could have just been, Hey, chase Brown's awesome. Let's just let them do his thing. If they let him stay in that role and it's, you know, a day three running back that's behind him.

This, this is a top five running back. This isn't a top 10, top eight, wherever we have them. This is somebody that you'll see pushed up into top five, and a definite first rounder because it's a great offense, it'll be an offensive line that I think can improve just simply by everybody getting healthy, they add depth to it as well. And I think they're a long way from really fixing that defense and making it stronger. And that'll just mean more high scoring shoot

outs for the Bengals to play in and for their running back to participate in. Yeah. I think what made me nervous, I believe I drafted him in both of our recent drafts and I drafted him yesterday with the second pick of round three, which I was thrilled about, but I feel like, yeah, I don't want to be, obviously we're so far away. I don't want to be overexposed on a guy that I'm just not convinced is big enough. I drafted him in round three in both leagues, second pick and fourth pick of round three.

I don't know that he's big enough. I don't know that they're gonna view him as a workhorse. I feel like- They did. They did out of necessity basically. I think they're gonna add someone, obviously we'll see how significant it is and we'll reevaluate. I love him on a per touch basis But also I can't project them have 80 catches. That's just kind of silly. No, but 60

I mean what mixin mixin was a 50 cash guy twice, right? I think that's where you shoot for 50 catches It's a huge difference though He does get to 60 if they don't replace T Higgins with anybody of significance. Yeah Arby's nine and ten Jamie who do you got at nine and ten? Nine is Jacob's ten is McCaffrey. I Had jigs and McCaffrey higher than that. My nine is Breece Hall. My ten is Chase Brown

All right. That's the high anybody higher than Dave on Breeze Hall, Jamie, I had him 12th. He's not in my top 12. So he is. Let's see, he has him not ranked. Dan has him 10th. And Jacob hasn't told. So I mean, he didn't not have pretty solid top 12. Okay, Dave. He was the player that I put in the category of, just missed the cut. You can justify, you are the high guy

on Breece Hall at number nine. When he had 15 or more touches this year, there were 10 of those games, he averaged 19.3 PPR points per game. He averaged 14.8 non PPR points per game. That's the Breece Hall that we know. And this offense, which is such a mess, and it's going to get uprooted. It's going to be a new play caller new system. Hopefully they get a little

younger on the offensive line, probably going to get younger at quarterback as long as it's not a total disaster back there. I think Breeze Hall can be the focal point. I don't think he'll share that much. I think he'll still be in line to get those 15 plus touches week in and week out. And he's only 24. He may, he may share as much, if not more than anybody on this list so far. If, uh, if the new coach likes Braylon Allen, who did some nice things

at points during the season. I hope it's not Isaiah Davis as well, because he also did some things at the end of the season that somebody could, uh season that somebody could find somewhat attractive to use. It's just so many question marks right now with this team. The thing that cratered for him with Aaron Rodgers back was his role in the passing game, which was such a selling point for Brice Hall coming into the year last year, which is why he was the second overall player drafted, not the second running back drafted. His average draft position in PPR was number two.

So this, this was arguably the biggest bust of the season, non-injury finished as RB 16. So do they give a shared role to Breece Hall? Does he have the quarterback in place? Because you could see Aaron Rodgers back there again. It was, It was ugly. And we'll see what happens with this team going forward. But really-

He caught 57 passes for 483 yards in the top. But he had 72 the year before. I mean, you know that. Yeah, 76. He did do, he was much better the year before. I think he was playing hurt. I think that's part of the reason why he didn't have like 15 games.

Definitely was playing hurt. Missed the game with a knee injury. Yeah. I mean, a little bit, it obviously was, the Devonte Adams trade really changed his targets. I mean, we can do the math if you want. But I mean, look, six, eight, five, five, four, six. Those were his targets before the Adams trade. And then after that, he had a few spike games, but he also had three games with one to two targets. That was it. So I would I think he was probably on a pretty ridiculous catch pace. And in fact, in the first six games of the year, he scored 18.3 or more points in four of them and had four more catches in four of them. So I think it was just the Adams trade that really changed things for Breeze Hall.

I thought about him as, you know, Jamie said he could share as much or more as, as anybody on the list. Dave doesn't think he's going to share a lot. I think he could go any way. And my concern with Breeze Hall is that he's kind of like Ken Walker now. He has so many negative carries, zero or negative carries. And it drives me crazy. And that's why I'm going to say, are they going to, are they going to get tired of that? Cause yeah, he has some explosive plays, not like what we saw as a rookie, but too many bad carries for him.

Is that on him? Is that on his line? I don't know. But that, that concerns me. That was the debate. Remember those two guys came out in the same class. Who was the best running back there? Uh huh. Ken Walker and Breeze Hall. Yep. Yeah. All right.

Breeze played 70% of the snaps in 12 of his games this year. So he is splitting. There's no question, but he's still dominating in terms of playing time. And that's obviously the first step forward toward being a feature back and, you know, the type of workhorse that we want. On pace for 96 targets and 74 catches before the Adams trade. On pace for 53 catches and 71 targets, which is basically what he had for the year after the Adams trade. All right, let's go to running backs.

11 and 12, who are my nine and 10? My nine and 10 were James Cook and Josh Jacobs. James Cook basically finished here overall and a little bit worse per game in full PPR. He was 11th per game, which is not great now that I think about it. Like for him to have been 11th per game in full PPR with 18 touchdowns, that's not great. But I had Cook 9 and Jacobs 10. Who's 11 and 12 for you guys? Jamie, you can go first. Taylor is 11 and Cook is 12. And I might flip flop that just based on how things go this off season. But Cook was awesome, including this 100 yard game that he had against Denver. It's now three of his last five with over 100 yards rushing

and a touchdown. And he, again, tied for the NFL lead with 16 rushing touchdowns. So like you said, he has the potential to be a significant pass catcher. You look at what he did at the end of 2023 when Joe Brady took over, he was much more involved in the passing game, but that just didn't carry over to this year, probably by design. So can he share as well? Ray Davis had a very productive rookie campaign and Ty Johnson was a factor too. So there's other guys there and clearly Josh Allen with his rushing touchdowns.

But I think when you still look at the age, the offense, everything that sort of factors into it, there's lots to like about James Cook. Okay. So Cook is my 12. Bucky Irving is my 11. We already talked about Bucky. Listen to these numbers on James Cook. First and foremost, he totaled 18 touchdowns. That's the most by any running back in the Josh Allen era by 10 touchdowns.

Can you name who had the second highest mark? You have Tavius Murray. No. Frank Gorman. No. Devin Singletary had eight. And now he had 18. I know that that was one of my big worries about James Cook coming into the years.

Yeah, he's great and he's fast. Just how many touchdowns could he get? Well, he got a ton of them 18 touchdowns That's pretty good. I talk about playing time and you know percentage of snaps He had one game during the regular season with more than 60% of the snaps It's just it's it's crazy. Now. Listen, it means that he was efficient He had plenty of games where he had a lot of work, nine games with at least 15 touches. Eight of them were wins for Buffalo. He only had three games where he scored and didn't get 15 PPR points. In fact, he had under 12 in those games. This is another running back where if you think that they're going

to continue to put up touchdowns, by all means, go grab them. Probably should be a lot higher than the 12th running back off the board. But if you think that there's some regression coming in that category, then you shouldn't go crazy for James Cook. Yeah, that's a good point. He they had they played so many blowout games, wins and losses. I wonder if that affected his playing time but you can see he never played more than 61% of the snaps. That's incredible. Their playoff game was a blowout too. Gosh, look at their... It reminded me of the Cowboys a couple years ago. They so rarely had a normal game script.

I left Jonathan Taylor out of my top 12 even though he finished his RB six per game in full PPR That may be a mistake on my part Jamie you had him 11th. I think Yep, Dave. You didn't have in your top 12 either. He's gonna end up being 13th for me It'll either be him or camara and he's younger than camara Hmm. I mean are we overlooking him? I just to think about how crappy of a quarterback situation he had last year and for him to average 17.6 fantasy points per game, same as Josh Jacobs, same as Devon Achan.

Achan, though, averaged much more than that with Tua. Jamie, you have him in there, you have him 11th. I'm curious if the other three guys had Taylor in the top 12. So assuming Shane Stikin keeps the job as the coach, which sounds like he's going to, I'm going to ask him to have Jonathan Taylor play at least one preseason game, drop the ball right before the end zone on a touchdown run, and then let that motivate him for the rest of the season. Because what he did after that play was insane to carry a lot of fantasy

managers in the playoffs. I wish the Colts defense would have done the same as well. But in any event, the workload is not going to change for him. I don't think that they're going to bring in competition for him. The biggest thing is Anthony Richardson in the passing game. And I don't think we've ever really seen, even the year that he was number one, a guy that was going to profile as a 50 plus catch guy. Now you want him to be around Barkley, right? 30 catches and that's what he was that 2021 season. So can you do that? I think if you assume Richardson, whoever is going to be, you know, working with him this off season, give him the opportunity to have some easy throws

to a guy that can make plays in space. I hope that can sort of be the next evolution of what Richardson does. And then just keep in mind, look, Richardson's probably gonna miss some time, whether he gets hurt or gets benched. So whoever the backup is there will probably lean on Taylor a little bit more in the passing game. So I think 30 catches is realistic. But he's gonna be one of these guys that has an opportunity to challenge for

the rushing league. He's gonna be around 1,500 total yards, if not more, and I think around 12 plus touchdowns. So to me, that's a borderline number one running back in most formats. He averaged over 28 carries per game in his last five games, Jonathan Taylor. That's pretty good.

And yeah, all right, but right, comparing him to Alvin Kamara, where there could be a 50 catch difference in full PPR. That's, it's tough. And a 10 touchdown difference too, the other way. Definitely. So then that's fun, it's almost the same amount of points. It's 10 more, if Taylor scored 10 more touchdowns

than Kamara and Kamara had 50 more catches, then Taylor would have him on by 10 points. Yeah, Kamara really scares me just with what the offensive environment and team is going to be for the Saints. So we'll see what they do at Coach. But at his age with everything else happening, it's like if Derek Henry had stayed in Tennessee, that's just what it feels like. Just everything around him is crappy right now. It'd be nice though,

is if Taysom Hill's not stealing touchdowns from him next year. Probably won't happen. That would be nice. What did he have? He had, did he have a torn ACL? Yeah, he tore his ACL. Yeah.

Taysom Hill. And he's 34. Yeah. He'll probably still like six touchdowns for him. All right, that's our top 12. If you guys wanna read them in order, I'll just, if you wanna queue them up, I'll go. Well, do you want, I mean.

Now, read the article. Let him read the article. Well, I'm just looking at whoever's like, so Heath does have Kamara in his top 12 of just anybody who's different. Dan has Joe Mixon and James Connor in his top 12. Oh, Connor I think is, I can't justify that, but Mixon is definitely one that, is he old?

I mean, he's the same age as these guys who've been having success, and when he has, he's had terrible matchups. Like we knew he had terrible playoff matchups and he stunk, but when he didn't have terrible matchups, he was phenomenal. So that was a tough one for me to leave out too. So he turns, I think it's 29 before the season.

It'll be 29 next season. And then Jacob had one which we had a little discussion in the draft room yesterday because Chuba Hubbard in his top 12. And I drafted him in round four as my first running back. I did a similar approach. If you remember our last draft, which we discussed on the air,

I took three receivers and then my first running back in round four last time it was Ken Walker. This time it was Chuba Hubbard, who I like better than Ken Walker. I felt that was a little bit of a steal. Jacob was making the case that he should be a second round pick. Like he really loves Chuba Hubbard.

You know, as we've done these two drafts, I don't know if you guys feel like there's been a true steal, but to me it's been Pacheco. He went with the 10th pick of round four yesterday and he went with the sixth pick of round four. Oh, same guy, Jake took him in both leagues like right before I was going to basically. I could see, could you guys see Pacheco having a top 12 ADP?

If he has a strong playoff run, which will start for him this week, then absolutely. If they don't add to their backfield, you know, so if you just think about what he was last year, you think about what he was in their first two plus games this year, you think about what Kareem Hunt did at his age and lack of playing over the last couple of seasons, being thrust into the featured role. We were all excited about Isaiah Pacheco having a potentially great season this year. This offense could be ridiculous with Kelsey you know, Kelsey back, not Kelsey back. And there's going to be so much speed on the field, you know, that they have now that Pacheco is part of that, you know, he came out of the combine faster running back that year and, um, as we've seen, you know, so much, so much upside.

So top 12 is probably, I don't want to say it's a stretch, but you know, depending on how things go with a few guys, like he'll probably be in my top 15, you know, so won't be far off from that. Wouldn't you bet against it though? Because when he did come back, we were all hoping, all right, once he gets his legs under him, he'll be good to go. He'll be the the workhorse in the Chiefs run game. He had one game with more than 15 touches. He didn't even play this games. That's that's that's a guy coming off a broken leg. Like, you know, we kept having this conversation of when when should the chiefs bring him back? And I know for me, it was they they want him now like they they want him for now. That was I agree.

So it's it's going to be like, again, what, what does he do from this point forward? You know, do they get three more games and if they get three more games and he is 15 plus touches in every game and looks like the explosive player that we know he's capable of being and doesn't show any setback. Remember we had two guys coming off a similar situation in Pollard and Tankdell. Pollard said it didn't take him, it didn't feel right until week 11 of the following season. And for Tankdell, who knows if he ever felt right, you know, maybe until the game he got

hurt when he had to make play. He didn't look like the same guy. So you know, we may not see the best of Pacheco until next season. So I think when you start to stack them up to Mixon and Connor and Kamara and Walker, like, he'll be, for me, probably at the front of that group. You know, just the, Breece Hall as well, you know, so right in that mix, you know, so RB 13 through 20, you know,

I think that's kind of where he'll settle. And if he has a strong playoff run, maybe he does prep in the top. I'm hoping for the strong playoff run. And I think that that's absolutely right. If they use them like a workhorse and that'll give you optimism for next year. I am almost certain that they will draft a running back and that they will have somebody younger and more explosive than Kareem hunt, some Ajay P Ryan, Carson steel, uh, working and ready to go behind Pacheco. In the event that Pacheco doesn't recover his game or gets hurt again, they need some insurance there. That

might be the running back that I would target in Kansas City to have on my bench to begin the year. Okay. I was gonna do some fantasy cops, but we are out of time. I will save that for a different show. Tomorrow, we will talk about the four games. We'll talk about our top 12 wide receivers, not as much in depth because we got to give you a weekend preview and give you some DFS help. Oh, I wonder if I, uh, wonder if I cashed on Fandool. Let's, let's see. What do you guys think? Remember I was, uh, if you're just now checking to see if you cashed, I'm going to guess that if you did cash,

it'll be for the minimum. I was in the money going into Monday night and I was like, oh man, I'm not gonna do it. All I have left is the Ram's DST. Oh. Right? So you probably made some money. You probably got enough money to pay for a side

of Russian dressing for your bagel sandwich. I won $25 on a $500. Wow, that's a lot of Russian dressing. I came in 30 second out of 1666 people The down you like in South Florida Bagel and yeah, that's ridiculous that that's all you get for 30 second out of 1600 That's how let's see. What was the buy was the buy in a penny five dollars Makes even worse. Let's see. I maybe I just missed fifty dollars. How many people you got to up your units, man

I just use that twenty five dollars and do a bigger pool this week Maybe it's only twenty dollars of profit. You know, I think I just missed forty dollars. All right. Well, I'm happy Good for me. Alright, so we'll give you DFS. These spreads, by the way. Six, nine and a half for the Lions over the Commanders? That's a lot. I mean, that's a seven seed, six seed.

Yeah, we completely counted them out last week. I was like, ah, they haven't beaten anyone good. The Buccaneers are beating all these good teams. Buccaneers definitely got a great quarterback great quarterback I don't know. That seems like a lot Eagles minus six. This Rams defense is really good. Whoo It's gonna be I think I mean, you know, they're beat up to low-scoring game And then Ravens bills bills one-point dogs at Wow. Chiefs eight and a half point favorites. I think the chief should be bigger favorites than the lions.

Surprise. Can't wait to talk about it tomorrow. Have a great day everybody. We'll talk to you then. Paramount Podcasts