Fantasy Football Today - Backfield Battles and Polarizing Players (08/24 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

Check out our ebay store to benefit St. Jude! Bid on spots in Podcast Leagues, pre-draft calls with our analysts and more https://ebay.to/3p4Dc3Z Who will emerge in the Dolphins, Chiefs, Raiders, Commanders, Patriots and Bills backfields (among others)? Why are Travis Etienne and Ezekiel Elliott so polarizing? We're covering the biggest backfield battles and the most polarizing players today. First, we tell you about the biggest news from around the NFL (4:00) with Gus Edwards going on the PUP list, Bill Belichick talking about his running backs and Michael Gallup avoiding the PUP list. Then we each highlight a polarizing player including George Kittle (9:30), Etienne (13:26) and Zeke (17:35). Which RBs do we end up targeting in Round 4? ... News and notes (21:30) from around the NFL. Big news items to get to! Then we talk about polarizing players (29:30) like Trey Lance and Allen Robinson (35:50) ... The Athletic gave us a lot of good Fantasy fodder (39:00)! We react to their beat reporter takes on Saquon Barkley, Courtland Sutton, Jalen Tolbert and more. And we finish with backfield battles (47:10)! What are the ESPN beat reporters saying about some contested backfields like Miami, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, San Francisco and more? And Adam finishes the show wondering just how much we should buy into all this running back by committee talk (1:05:25) ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection 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." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. We have got a lot of running back committees, competitions. Let's try to sort it out today. The Broncos, the Chiefs, the Dolphins, the Rams, and plenty more. Plus polarizing players. We'll have debates on Trey Lance, Ezekiel Elliott, Travis Etienne. Jamie's taking them in the third round. What about Heath?

All right, those are just some of the names we're going to get to. Welcome to Fantasy Football today on Wednesday, August 24th. One week away from our draft-a-thon, which will be from 6 p.m. Eastern until midnight Eastern. CBS Sports HQ for the first two hours. YouTube.com slash Fantasy Football Today for the last four hours. And we've already raised a lot of money for St. Jude. We want more. Good morning, Jamie and Heath.

What's up, Heath Cummings? Oh, all kinds of news. news we got pup list guys we've got guys who are not going on the pup list which is maybe even bigger news we've got trade possibilities it's an exciting time of year getting cuts today people are getting cut and maybe the most exciting news i did a mock draft last night and did not draft mark andrews aaron jones brandon cooks dj moore chris godwin or david montgomery jb good morning to you he did your kids in the last i don't know it's probably the last like five years adam your kids are too young um the video games that they like or like watch other people play those video games what yes yes and i like the the best thing that happened i don't remember which one it was but i criticized that and they

reminded me that when i watch football on sundays i'm just watching somebody else play a game that's a good counterpoint you have maybe potential where in there so my my my middle son my seven-year-old who will be eight in a couple weeks is home from school and i'm watching him watch a video about somebody else playing minecraft yeah i don't get it fortnight were the two most popular i don't think he's playing i hope that i hope that uh that fad is done by the time my kids are old enough for that. No. It'll only get worse. It's going more that way. Man.

By the way, nobody's commented on my new background yet. I got rid of my Simpsons poster and I put up a draft board. And I'm not sure if you can tell, but Dave's team is Team 1. He drafted 18 running backs. JB's Team 2. I'm Team 3. Heath, you are Team 4. And you took DJ Moore in the first round.

Mark Andrews, Brandon Cooks, David Montgomery, those are your first four picks. It's impressive that you took the time to do that. I did, took a long time. I have to say, I'm very proud of Dave last night in the draft that he did. He won zero RB. I wrote about it, should be on the site today.

And in describing Dave's draft strategy, the only thing I can say is he is a robust RB manager. He actually ended up with a pretty good team. He drafted 11th. He went zero RB, and he has, like, Justin Herbert. Anyway, it's a good team. Check it out. He started Jamar Chase, Devontae Adams,

Cortland Sutton, Michael Thomas, Dalton Schultz, Justin Herbert with his first six picks. And then his top running backs, which actually ended up pretty good. Clyde Edwards, Hilaire, and Devin Singletary. Yeah, and then some depth to Rashad Penny, I think is on his team. So it's much easier.

No, Ken Walker, Tyler Algier, Mike Davis, and Tyler Algier, Mike Davis, and one other guy who plays in the National Football League. Mike Davis is going to be start of the week in week one against the New York Jets. Anyway, let's get to the biggest news items from yesterday. Jamie, give me the biggest news from yesterday. There was a lot.

I mean, I think you just touched on it. The fact that Gus Edwards is on the pup list, it's obviously it's it's obviously discouraging for anybody that was hoping he was going to be a factor in the backfield if jk dobbins was not and so that's why you're making the uh the assumption that mike davis is going to be in line for a good start which he probably is if in fact dobbins does not play or is limited in week one davis has been their guy in the preseason so far and obviously has a track record of stepping in for other running backs and being successful.

He's probably better suited at that than being a starter, as we saw two seasons ago when he was the backup in Carolina as opposed to last year when he was a starter in Atlanta. And so for a couple of weeks, Mike Davis could potentially be pretty relevant in those first four games that Gus Edwards is going to miss, and if Dobbins is at less than 100%. Yeah, and week one is the Jets,

and they allowed the most fantasy points to running backs last year. Hopefully they'll be better, but should still be a good matchup. Heath, what is the biggest news item from yesterday in your mind? It's the Bill Belichick drumbeat continuing, saying Damian Harris and Rwanda Stevenson will be playing more on third downs. Play all three downs. Like, that's, we just, and I don't know, maybe this will all turn out to be a farce and time.

Montgomery will actually be James white, but it sure sounds like that. There is a bigger opportunity for those guys to be low in number twos or high in flexes, both of them while sharing. And if one of them gets hurt, yeesh, there could actually be significant upside.

I think that's the key to all this though. If one of them gets hurt, obviously one of the top two, being Harris or Stevenson, because I don't think Ty Montgomery is going to be very successful running on first and second down. No. But I also think just the bigger picture for all this is, and you know I've been a Stevenson guy,

is this Pats team could just be completely terrible. Like, I know we've kind of hinted at that. Like, there's nobody that you really want to draft, but clearly you can't avoid some of these guys. But they're struggling in these joint practices with the Raiders once again to run the ball. Like, this could just be awful. Absolutely, absolutely awful.

I'm curious, for those of you that like to watch our show on CBS Sports HQ, we have Will Brinson coming on with us today. And I asked Will because Will is a, he's an experienced fantasy player and he hasn't really done a lot of drafts with us. Usually he does. So we're doing kind of a little, Will Brinson's the host of the Pick 6 podcast. And I said, give me 10 observations or five to 10 observations that you're keeping an eye on. And one of them was, Pats are terrible. It's setting up to be a very, very strange year in New England, it seems like. Yeah. So basically, the crux of today's show is going to be polarizing players, as I mentioned, but also ESPN had an article about 11 backfield battles,

and their beat writers for each team weighed in on them them and that's going to be a big segment also the athletic had a bunch of news uh i wouldn't necessarily call it news uh beat reporter takeaways that are fantasy relevant yeah speculation one of the things from espn's article from mike reese oh they say that right yep okay every time i always forget uh he said that you, just exactly what he said. Harris and Stevenson are more likely to stay on the field for third downs this season. And then he said Ty Montgomery could be the two-minute back. And for those of you who are huge football fans or whatever, two-minute drill is basically the end of the first half or the end of the second half where you're passing. You know, you don't have time to run the ball.

You just keep running back on the field. It's passing downs, basically. And that would be Ty Montgomery's role. So we'll see how that one plays out. And are you guys taking Harris or Stevenson? By the way, that's not that's just speculation. That doesn't mean it's definitely Ty Montgomery's role. But are you taking Harris or Stevenson first at this point?

Still Harris. But I mean, it's always been close for me. The most encouraging thing, to be honest with you, is for Harris. If they're going to use him in any passing situations, he's a winner because that's usually been when he's off the field. Now, you've heard a lot of

Stevenson doing a better job of it and they're going to share touches, but the thought all along was Harris would not play in passing situations. So if he's on the field in passing situations, it's a big win for him. Yeah, Harris round eight, Stephenson round nine for me. Okay. All right, and more big news I actually didn't have in the notes, but someone just pointed it out in the chat,

is that Michael Gallup is not on the reserve pup list. So, Heath, what does that mean to you? It means that the Cowboys are hopeful that he can play in the first month of the season. And that might put a little bit of a damper on Jalen Tolbert, but I still don't think we'll see him week one. I don't think we'll probably see him 100% in the first couple weeks. Gallup, that is. Yeah. And if you're on the pup list right now, that means you're out at least the first four weeks of the season.

At least. Well, if you were placed on this, like Sterling Shepard is still on the pup list, but was not placed on the in-season pup list. So it's confusing, but yeah. Right. So if you started camp on the pup list, you can still come off the pup list. But yesterday, players who were not on that list were put on the in-season pup list. And that's the way to describe it. And they're out the first four weeks. yesterday, players who were not on that list were put on the in-season pup list, right? That's the way to describe it.

And they're out the first four weeks. The big names so far that that's applied to and not applied to. So, for example, Shaquille Leonard, right? Darius Leonard, not on the reserve pup list. So they're expecting him to play at some point. Same thing with Michael Gallup. Chase Young, for example, placed on the reserve pup list. So he's going to miss the first four games for the Commanders. Gus Edwards, as we just mentioned, same thing.

All right, let's talk about, because I'm going to jump around from segment to segment a little bit today, give me a polarizing player that you want to highlight, Heath. Yeah, I will go with George Kittle. The way I chose polarizing players was looking at their I think we did a I like big gaps section earlier this offseason. But guys who have the biggest gap

in where they've been drafted on NFC in the last week. And George Kittle has been drafted as early as 34th overall, as late as 85th overall. And I can absolutely understand both sides of that argument because George Kittle is an elite talent, arguably one of the – I mean, he's one of the top two tight ends

in football. And maybe he just overcomes this situation or maybe Debo or Ayuk is the one that gets hurt by Trey Lance not throwing as much. Or maybe Trey Lance just doesn't not throw as – maybe he throws more than we think he will. But at the same time, like Ayuk's had a phenomenal camp. Debo seems like the clear number one. And we think that Trey Lance might only throw 500 passes. So it's terrifying.

So where do you stand on George Kittle? Right in the middle. Too big of a coward to take a stand either direction. I think I've actually got him in round six now, so I'm not ever drafting him. I don't see very much difference between Kittle, Goddard, and Schultz. They may be back-to-back-to-back for me, actually, and I kind of want to rank Goddard ahead of Kittle. I know Dave ranked Schultz ahead of Kittle.

What a shame. I mean, the guy has been top three per game four straight years. You say, what a shame. It's like you already know he's going to be bad. No, what a shame that people are down on him, I guess. It's not a shame. It's not the right word. You've seen the future.

What a shame. No, no. It's just tough. No, because the industry and he's so good. I think he's so good. I think he's the best tight end in football. I think he said it very, very astutely that, you know, we don't know. And, you know, I'm not betting against George Kittle. I'm not betting against Kyle Shanahan.

There's going to be some games where he disappears, you know, probably more than he has in the past. And you obviously have to factor in the risk. And it would not be surprised if Schultz and Goddard are better than him. So if you want to, you know, draft that way, I have no problem with that. But there's going to be a lot of games because they're going to make a lot of easy throws for him, for Trey Lance, where George Kittle is going to do what he consistently does, which is yards after catch. And if this becomes his go-to guy, Trey Lance's go-to guy in the red zone, and we get

that eight-plus touchdown season for him, which we've never had, he could still be a top-three tight end. It's not without... I just don't see how the touchdowns would really shock me because I feel like they're going to have fewer passing touchdowns than they have before. They absolutely might. With Lance. I'm not disagreeing.

He can go either way right you know he can still be five uh I hope he's not less um but I also wouldn't be shocked if you know knowing how Kyle Shanahan operates and the way that this guy plays you know the thing that's a detriment to him you know he said it you know he's he's a top two tight end he is the best tight end in football when you talk about what a tight end traditionally does. He's the best blocking tight end, or at least in the conversation, and he's among the best receiving tight ends.

He's not the best receiving tight end. That's obviously been Kelsey. But pro football focus consistently writes him as the best tight end because of what he does as a blocker. Such a huge asset to the 49ers. But we'll see. I mean, I think he's certainly closer

to the Schultz-Goddard group than he is closer to the Waller and above group. And over the last week, he's actually been drafted higher than Waller. He's been drafted before Waller on NFC drafts. Yeah, fantasy football calculator too. And probably because Waller's missed so much practice time. Yeah. Yeah, on fantasy football calculator, Kittle is at 4.7

and Waller is at 5.2. Okay, Jamie, give me a polarizing player that you want to talk about. Well, you mentioned one already. I stopped drafting Travis Etienne in the third round mostly because I pushed a plethora of receivers up. So he's still a fourth-round pick for me. But that doesn't take away from the fact that I like him as a breakout candidate. And the ESPN story that you're referring to also mentioned him.

There's a more in-depth story by Mike Duraca, who covers the Jaguars for ESPN, does a great job about how James Robinson is probably going to be easing to action in the beginning of the season. And then they'll kind of just see what happens from there. But also alluding to the fact that ETN's role in the passing game is going to be solidified. So I think it's just a matter of, and this is where I thinkath and i differ uh how many receptions you expect travis etn to get if you expect them to be north of 50 um you should be excited about him if you expect him to be sub 50 sub 40 then you should probably be a little bit concerned um the last preseason game wasn't encouraging from a passing

situation because they did not throw him the ball he still ran several routes just that trevor lawrence didn't look for him this was game against game against the Steelers. But I'm very encouraged by, I think, and this is something I think that we forget a little bit. That first game, he kind of got critiqued for not running some cases the right ways, not finding the hole following the way that he was supposed to run. He missed a year of football. And so I'm sure there's some instincts that are there, but also some things that are missing. I thought he ran better in the second game against the Steelers. He had three carries of, I think, of his 10 that were over five yards.

So, you know, did a good job of moving the pile on a couple of those and finding the seam and getting through there. So I think if he's able to run successfully early in the season, they'll continue to at least split those carries with James Robinson. But he's going to be a huge factor in the past game at least the way i view it so i'm so excited about etn yeah i think like and i don't know if you want to start the uh the touch comparison or anything like that adam but that that's what i struggle with and that that article we've referenced many times um suggested that eventually James Robinson by midseason could get back to his normal workload. And I just – that doesn't make any sense to me. In what regard?

If James Robinson's at his normal workload, that's 18 touches a game. Yeah. I don't see that. There's no – I don't think unless Jacksonville is just a much, much better offense than I expect they're going to be or they're like an Anthony Lynn running back focus type situation. That doesn't leave any room for Etienne to be as good as we think he could be. I've got it projected right now 180 carries for Etienne, 160 for Robinson basically. And 46 catches for EtN and 23 for Robinson. Yeah, I think if you believe in ETN, he's got an audition.

And if he comes out and runs really well at the beginning of the year, basically I'll just say, doesn't it seem like his performance at the beginning of the year is going to really determine how this plays out. I don't think that they want, I mean, the article also references Doug Peterson's track record with running backs. He doesn't usually give guys north of 200 carries.

So one guy north of 200 carries. Um, so yeah, I think he's carries are actually perfect, you know, for what you should expect for these two guys. I just think there's going to be more catches for ETN and you're right, Adam. Yes, it'll be an audition to see how he does. But I don't think they also want to overwork Etienne. I think they realize the asset that

they have in him and want to make sure he's probably ready for when they can compete, which I would expect if they're building the right way a year from now. They'll be a team that's in the playoff picture if things go well this year. I don't think they'll make the playoffs, but I think they'll be one of those teams that's around 500 come the last month of the season if things go well, and then maybe see how they finish. But I don't think they're going to overwork ETN.

I just think that his main benefits to fantasy managers, and this is where I'm almost 10 spots apart, PPR versus non-PPR. His main benefit to you is in any league that reward catches. All right. So one more guy I want to talk about before we get into some other news items and all the other stuff we have to talk about today is Ezekiel Elliott. I think he's polarizing because I see it in our chats on YouTube.

People think he is washed. I'm going to say washed up because wash, that's the correct way to say it, not wash. Some people say he's washed up. He's done. Some people think he's going to have the and and going to be good and played hurt last year and uh i think he's a really tough player i'm polarized in my own mind on ezekiel elliott so uh who do you guys like better travis etn or ezekiel elliott i also want to get a little youtube poll going here on that travis etn or ezekiel ell i'll put it in full ppr heath who you taking i will take zeke i i watched the stream um last night during the draft and i i almost um like i couldn't chat

for some reason i messed something up but i was it was i wanted to yell at ben gretch when he was talking about how little upside ezekiel alia had i just don't understand. I really believe if Ezekiel Elliott's back to what he was at the beginning of last year, they're going to give him 20 touches a game and a chance to be a top five running back. Jamie, who do you take, an ETN or Zeke? ETN. I don't think that Zeke is going to be that guy for a full season

because I don't think he can stay healthy like that again. I'm just not confident that he's that guy. I don't think his offensive line is the same. I don't think that he has the same type of upside that he used to have. So I'm concerned. That being said, at cost, I think Ezekiel Elliott has become a very good buy. Round four to me is fantastic for a player of what his upside hopefully could be. But his ADP still, at least on our site, as of last Sunday, was 30th.

In non-PPR, maybe you can buy that. In half or full, no way. Ezekiel is 27th. He's RB 15 on fantasy football calculator. And again, like I said, I'm going to start using CBS, I think beginning next week after a big weekend of drafting,

but you go to different websites, you'll see different ADP fantasy football calculator says a bunch of mock drafts since August, since August 20th that they're looking at here. And Zeke is an early third roundround pick ahead of James Conner. Cam Akers is in the third round, so that's interesting. Ahead of David Montgomery, Travis Etienne, J.K. Dobbins. All right, so Etienne and Zeke, you guys are split on that.

Who's your favorite between Etienne, Zeke, and let's throw in David Montgomery? I go Etienne, Montgomery, Zeke. Montgomery, Zeke, Etienne. i go etn montgomery zeke montgomery zeke etn how about bruce hall where does he factor in he is ahead of zeke behind the other two he is second behind montgomery okay all right so that's very different these guys in a in a wildly, but they're all like within 10 spots maybe in my overall ranking. So it's not like I actually have a strong preference. It's just the order I've got them in.

Yeah, I would agree. Like ETN's a high fourth round pick for me. Montgomery's not far behind. Hall is not far behind. Zeke's a little bit further back, but all round four guys. So if you are yet to make your league, yet to start it up,

please consider CBSSports.com and our Fantasy Commissioner product here. You've got custom rules, salary cap leagues or snake drafts, keepers, dynasty, great dynasty platform now. Multiple matchups for period, custom flex, IR options. Pup list is now eligible for IR, so you don't have to worry about that. The league history is great. If you just want to keep it going with your friends, the league history on CBSSports.com is great. We have nearly a five-star rating on the

App Store. The fantasy app's awesome. And the advice. You get the advice right there, right in front of you when you go to your league homepage. From Dave, from Heath, from Jamie. Check it all out. Chris Towers as well, obviously. This is the time to be getting on to CBSSports.com.

I'm obviously biased, but I think it's the best one out there. So go to CBSSports.com slash fantasy football. Get a special offer when you start your league today. CBSSports.com slash fantasy football. Here are some news and notes. Some of it we already mentioned. Washington defensive end Chase Young is out at least four games. Detroit wide receiver Jamison Williams is out at least four games.

He's not on the pup list. He's on the reserve NFI, non-football injury list, because he has a football injury, but it was in college. So technically it's a non-football injury. But yeah, Jamison Williams is out at least four weeks. So what does that mean for Amandra St. Brown and TJ Hawkinson, Jamie? It's great. It's great for DJ Chark too. You know, I mean, I think you look at all these guys benefit for as long as

Jameson will not be there. I don't think you should completely overreact and maybe start overdrafting more so Amandra St. Brown than DJ Chark. Like when Ben took him in the draft last night, I believe it was the 4-5 turn. Yep, first pick in my class. And he took him ahead, I think, of guys like Rashad Bateman and Marquise Brown, maybe. Don't remember exactly. I'm sorry.

He took him pretty early. We haven't seen him for that long. He took him a little earlier. And to his defense, which is a mistake we've made from time to time. I'm not going to call it names, Heath. But I'm not knowing the scoring. He thought it was full PPR as opposed to half PPR. So that changes some things. But know your scoring when you're drafting. So I think he said he would not have maybe taken Amaro St. Brown right there.

Okay. And let's see what else. Damian Pierce could be the lead running back in week one, according to the Houston Chronicle. I don't think that's a surprise. Elijah Mitchell is on schedule to return for week one. That's one of the backfields we'll be talking about. Elijah Mitchell is the clear number one guy for San Francisco. Josh Palmer in line for an expanded role with more targets,

according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz. That's Chargers third-year receiver Josh Palmer in line for more targets. Heath, your reaction to that? Well, and I said, I've really had a hard time processing how that happens. But then I looked at it, and he had 49 targets last year. Jalen Guyton had 48 targets last year. We can just give him Jalen Guyton's targets, and I'd be okay with that. I don't think he's actually going to impact Keenan Allen or Mike Williams or Austin Eckler.

And for that reason, I don't think he's probably going to matter without an injury. But he could be a great handcuff wide receiver. Right. And I just want to look at one thing. His ADOT 10.1, which I don't really know. I think Jacob Gibbs, who really likes Mike Williams, speculated that if Palmer has an increased role, it would affect Keenan Allen more than Mike Williams. But I can't really say that for sure. From what I know, that makes more sense to me. But I don't know.

I don't think he's going to play Williams' role. Cincinnati safety just debates. It's also, I think, an impact of going to play William's role. Cincinnati safety Jesse Bates. It's also, I think, an impact of just their tight end situation too. Yeah. Jesse Bates back with the team. Star safety for the Bengals. He's going to play on the franchise tag. Pittsburgh and Seattle are not naming their starting quarterback yet.

For Pittsburgh, that's going to happen after the next preseason game. Pete Carroll did not give a timetable. Michael Thomas' hamstring injury does not sound serious, according to the Athletics' Larry Holder, but it will have to be monitored. Michael Thomas. Gus Edwards on Pup. Ken Walker might not be ready for Week 1,

which doesn't seem like he's going to be right now. I don't know. I guess I'm speculating a little bit too much. But it's very possible Ken Walker's not ready for Week 1. Week 1 is Denver, which did not have a very good run defense last year, but they signed DJ Jones from San Francisco, who's a very good run defender. Week two is San Francisco, who lost DJ Jones, but still should have a good run defense. Juju Smith-Schuster should be ready for week one. Drake London looks like he could be back for week one. This one's interesting,

Heath. We talk about this a lot. Sterling Shepard and the role he's played in the Giants offense is clearly the favorite target of Daniel Jones. And actually, a borderline must start as like a number three or four receiver, I guess, if you're in a three receiver league in full PPR because he catches like six balls a game with Daniel Jones consistently. You seem to be raising your eyebrows that borderline must start. But Sterling Shepard coming off the pup list before week one.

What do you think about that? Man, I hate the Giants wide receivers. Like, just the whole situation. If Sterling Shepard is actually playing week one, I don't know how you would start anybody. Well, he's coming off an Achilles injury. Do you think,

what kind of role do you think he would have? Do you think he'd really impact Kadarius? I would assume he'll be a part-time player early in the year, but if he's a hundred percent at some point, I think he's probably their slot receiver. Okay. And that was also, I mean,

to put it in context, he's been playing with not exactly great options around him and if tony and robinson are living up to their pedigrees daniel jones gonna lean on those guys too i would think a couple more news items real quick patriots corner or no he's not on the patriots anymore chargers cornerback jC. Jackson is out two to four weeks after ankle surgery. Huge offseason acquisition there. Hopefully back for week one, but not a certainty. And Jacksonville right now does not have a kicker.

Nobody for... No, they did sign somebody yesterday, I believe. Oh, they did? Yeah. Oh, well, beware of Urban Meyer. That's all I have to say. He's coming for you. Well, I want to say um because

i adam if you're a commissioner in a league and i assume in all of your leagues you require people to draft kickers if you have to start a kicker of course the first week of waivers run somebody drops their kicker and picks up a backup running back to hold until the day before week one and then picks up a kicker. Is that okay? Oh, man. I hate that. But Jacksonville just did it. I don't want to talk about that right now. It's going to really take me down a road that I'm just not ready to cross at this point. I do have to take a break here when we come back.

Polarizing. No, because I mean, I think it's cheating. I think it's cheating, Heath, okay? I think if you have an illegal roster for most of the week and then you finally make your roster illegal, I think that's cheating, but it's hard to police and the websites allow it, I think, so

gray area for sure. By the way, let's see. When did you take your kicker? You took Dustin Hopkins in the last round. And Jamie, you took Justin Tucker in our little draft board behind me. I'll take a break. When we come back, polarizing

players, backfield battles, whole bunch of things to talk about. Very fantasy relevant stuff. And we'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. This is part one of Polarizing Players. We already talked about ETN, Zeke, and George Kittle. Let's talk about George Kittle's teammate, Trey Lance. Heath said that I was crazy for saying that Trey Lance had more upside than Dak Prescott.

But then everyone on Twitter agreed. And now he thinks everyone else is crazy too. Heath, Trey Lance is, is polarizing. I, I think, although I think people are pretty high on him.

Do you think he's polarizing? Trey Lance's outcomes are polarizing. It's not that we all, I think we all agree about Trey Lance. He has top five upside and he has a lot of risk because he's thrown like 150 passes in the last three years yeah yeah i i i think what's polarizing is maybe when to take him you know do you take him over guys that you might actually have ranked higher just just to secure the the upside or well how much upside do you think he has is that the polarizing part of it? How much upside

do you think he has, Heath? Top five. Jamie, how much upside does Trey Lance have? Top five. Do you think he has QB1 potential? Yes, but I think it would probably take an injury or two for that to happen, but yes. He clearly has the ingredients that we love.

He has an amazing receiving core, he has an amazing play caller, and he's going to run. And so if he's successful as a passer, and I thought when he said he threw 150, I thought he was going to say 150 interceptions in training camp because that seems like all you hear is his inaccuracies and how many times he's turned the ball over. But I think you just have to understand what you're getting.

You're getting a flawed product. And maybe the beginning of the season, despite some easy matchups he may have some mistakes but you go back to last year when he apparently was playing through a finger injury broken finger i forget what it was um yep and who knows how much an impact is throwing in the three main appearances that he had 31 or more rushing yards you know so you kind of see what you're going to get from that. If Iuke is really doing what Iuke has been doing in camp by all the reports, and you know what Debo's done, and you know what Kittle's done,

with what those guys are capable of producing for him, and then Shanahan's creation, you know, I mean, it's just, it could be a lot of fun. It could be, you know, we've seen these sophomore quarterbacks in these same situations, not playing as a rookie. Mahomes, Lamar Jackson playing limited snaps or five games, whatever it was, his rookie season. And they've just blown up.

He's not going to do that. But my God, if he does, the potential is off the charts. And really, my bigger problem with the whole Trey Lance-Dak Prescott was just your insistence that dak is boring and doesn't have any upside he well no he does have upside but he's also boring compared to all the other quarterbacks there's so much excitement he's safe he's safe but but what if he isn't safe i mean what if he just has like kind of a bad receiving core and an aging offensive line i i don't think that i I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

What if there's more downside to Dak Prescott that we don't realize or that we don't talk about anyway? Well, we're talking about upside right now. Upside-wise, what if he passes like he did last year and runs like he did every year before that? Yeah, it's just they didn't really replace Amari Cooper. It's kind of a big deal. It's a big deal if Gallup is not close to what they're hoping he would be. And I would say that's probably pre-Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, which is hard to ask for.

But you still have what could be one of the top five receivers in the league and a top five tight end in the league. And then just sort of figure out the rest if Tolbert and Gallup and whatever they get from James Washington at some point this season yeah so here I just want to sum it up on Trey Lance he played two and a half games as a quarterback I'm just going to tell you what his 17 game pace is even though it's crazy it's two and a half games. He was on pace for 1,100 rushing yards. Also 4,000 passing yards, 27 passing touchdowns, 1,100 rushing yards. I think he does have that capability, but let's just say he rushes for 800 yards. Agree or disagree? And I'm pretty sure he's going to rush for 800 yards, Trey Lance. If he rushes for 800 yards, there is basically no way he's not a top 12 quarterback.

Agreed. I think that's true. I can't think of a quarterback who ran for 800 yards and didn't finish as a top 12 quarterback. Right, there's so few. I think Cam Newton maybe had a bad, terrible year, but I don't know. But probably not. That's just i think the thing such a high floor the thing about trey lance you know you asked uh tara roberts who for those that don't watch our youtube stream she's one of our contributors on tuesday nights

um she drafted trey lance i forget what round it was and you asked her and you said this is the question i ask everybody drafts trey lance are you going to draft a backup and i think that's the easy thing to sort of look at with your league. Like I drafted Trey Lance in an analyst league that has four points for passing touchdowns. I did draft Kirk Cousins on the waiver wire. Still, we don't, we haven't run waivers yet are Derek Carr and Justin Fields. And if I had known that those two guys would be on waivers, I would not have drafted another quarterback, but I felt, okay, this was a little bit earlier in the process. And so Lance, I was the last manager to take a quarterback.

So I felt lucky to get around 12. And so, but again, I think if you know your league and you know, you hear me say this a lot, if you know everybody's going to take or a handful of people are going to take two quarterbacks take a second quarterback with trey lance just cover yourself um i i'm sorry no but if if you don't and you know that that's not something that your league makes do then just play it out first couple weeks he should be great chicago and seattle those first two games yeah should have an opportunity to be a monster all right let's go to our oh i did want to say that lamar jack Jackson ran for 767 yards last year and was QB 16.

Not per game. Not 800. For the season. No, but he wasn't QB 16 per game. Well, no. Oh, but you're saying... You could run for 800 yards and not be top 12. Well, no, Heath.

I didn't say 700. Well, 33 yards would not have gotten him to the top 12. Yeah, all right. That's a good point okay so oh uh alan robinson let's go to alan robinson here do you guys think he is polarized i know among cbsers among you guys he's not polarizing uh but some people say hey he's 20 by the way it's alan robinson's birthday so happy birthday alan robinson aug 24th. 29 years old today. 410 yards in 12 games last year. A career-low yards per catch.

Let's see. A career-low yards per target? No, not quite. Some people think he's washed up and done. You guys don't. Do you think Allen Robinson is polarizing? Well, I mean, you mentioned it's mostly, I think, where analysts, I don't think it's just us, I think it's the industry.

Analysts love Allen Robinson for his potential bounce back and the offense that he's going through. The Rams car wash should be great for him. Stafford, if healthy, should be great for him. Best quarterback he's ever played with. Sean McVay should be great for him, just in the way that he'll find opportunities to get him open and get him the ball. I struggle, you know, you look at, for those of you watching on YouTube, best quarterback he's ever played with. Sean McVay should be great for him just in the way that he'll find opportunities

to get him open and get him the ball. I struggle. You know, you look at, for those of you watching on YouTube, this group of receivers for me, and this is our consensus rankings, but for me it's the group of Cortland Sutton, Mike Williams, Brandon Cooks, and Allen Robinson, those four guys. I think they all could be double-digit touchdown guys. I think they all could be huge reception and yardage players as well. Robinson seems to be the one that goes last.

And so if you like that group, or no, Cook probably goes last, but Robinson is not far behind him or not far in front of him. The upside is amazing to me. So I love Allen Robinson in late round three, early round four in PPR. I think I'm the low guy. I've got him at wide receiver 23. So if someone's polarizing on Allen Robinson, it's me. The thing I've just hated is it's like I could not find if he's not washed and he didn't quit last year on the Bears, then what's the case?

Why was Darnell Mooney so much better? Yeah, I don't know. He just wasn't a fit in the offense. Matt Nagy. But it was the same offense that he had. Nagy was criticized for not really changing the offense for Justin Fields. I don't know. No, I don't like to say that guys quit on their team, but it seems like that's like the best,

that's the good case for Alan Robinson is that he did. I think though, if the narrative is that he quit, it's just that he didn't play. I don't think he quit in games. Okay. Well, it is his birthday. Hey, my folder's bothering me. I can't go. So I have to ask you since it's Alan Robinson's birthday, it is his birthday today. Hey, my folder's bothering me. I can't go.

So I have to ask you, since it's Alan Robinson's birthday, it is also my boss's birthday. Do I text him or does that feel kind of brown nosy? Of course you text him. You've known him for many years. Okay. Good, because I already texted him. All right, it's time for...

It's also Arian Foster's birthday, too. How old do you think Arian Foster is? 33. That's a good guess. I'll go 35 heath is closer he's 36 oh okay uh it's time for a time for a big dump the athletic uh the athletic fantasy uh dump here with a bunch of news so let's rifle through it here we go ready do i have to say the beat reporter can i just say the news item i mean? Do I have to say the beat reporter? Can I just say the news item? I mean, it'd be respectful to say the beat reporter. All right, fine.

Dan Duggan, Giants guy, says Saquon Barkley looks very much like the player he was as a rookie in 2018. There has not been a single bad Saquon Barkley story in months. Everything is glowing. How much are you guys buying it? I buy it, but not because of the reports. I mean, I think it's just a matter of two years removed now from the ACL. I expect the Giants offense to be better than it is, which is probably a very overly optimistic scenario.

But I just think he's going to be, you know, we're talking about, and he said this, if Stony Shepard's healthy, this receiving core is something you want to maybe avoid early. I don't think they're going to be you know we're talking about and he said this if if stoney stafford's healthy this receiving core is something you want to maybe avoid early i don't think they're going to avoid him throwing the ball so uh he could be back to you know 80 plus catches again i've bought it to the top 12 running back um degree i've not bought it to the borderline round one pick degree. Okay, what do you have him overall? 20th? And Jamie Barkley? He's around 15.

Okay, next up, Nick Kosmider, Bronco's guy, says, Cortland Sutton should be poised to take a big leap, and there will be no shortage of targets for Sutton. So, Heath, it really does seem like the reports favor Cortland Sutton over Jerry Judy. We favor Sutton over Judy. What's your read on it? I am, I'm following the reports. I'm, I'm favoring Sutton over Judy. I, I may still be behind on him, but I've got him as a, uh, a round four pick at wide receiver 18. Jamie, where do you take Cortland Sutton? Round three.

He's a top 15 receiver for me. Yeah, and I see a lot of ADP, including right now fantasy football calculator. Cortland Sutton is in round five. Jerry Judy is in round six. Where do you take Jerry Judy, guys? Five-six turn. Round five. And everything for us is 12 team leagues, by the way. So round five is picks 49 through 60.

5-6 turn would be 60-61. Have you guys done any of your home league drafts yet? Your personal leagues? No. We've got it Saturday. I'm so excited to see how these are going to go. I'm so tired drafting with you guys. Hey, I can't stand it anymore.

That's why I had to invent my own draft behind me. The Rams are going to keep an eye on Matthew Stafford's arm all season, according to the Athletics. Does that factor in at all when you draft Cooper Cup or Stafford or Robinson? Not really. No.

All right. John Meshota of the Athletics saidlen tolbert will likely start even after michael gallup returns thoughts i mean i would expect him to be their third receiver yeah i don't know who else it would be i think he's a steal right now you know tolbert yeah he might he could He, he could be like the door is wide open to be the number one wide receiver, not in dynasty leagues, but in redraft this year. Um, and he could be one of the possible candidates. There's probably a dozen wide receivers who could be the number one wide receiver in 2022.

I'm sorry. You mean the rookies? The rookies, yeah. Rookie. And he starts with Tampa Bay. If you remember week one last year, that was a shootout, and everyone did well except for Zeke, basically. I think Mike Evans struggled against Trayvon Diggs. But they got Tampa Bay and Cincinnati out of the gate.

Those could be some high-scoring games. And then they have the Giants. They'll tear them. Dak Prescott tears the Giants apart. All right, let's see. Next up, Arif Hassan. Who's the all-Giants killing team? You got Dak at quarterback, Scott at running back.

Boston Scott for sure, yeah. Brian Westbrook would be on their special teams. Arif Hassan of the Athletic is high on K.J. Osborne and says Minnesota is committed to a three-wide receiver base personnel. So who would you take, Jalen Tolbert or K.J. Os osborne i really struggle with it's funny you mentioned that kj osborne jaylen tolbert and

josh palmer because i see the upside for all three of them and i see the uh the downside as well i mean you know you're talking about what could be the third receiver on all their respective teams and if somebody does not get hurt and obviously obviously Tolbert, you know, has the advantage right now of Gallup being at less than 100%, that they could get lost in their offenses. You know, like Keith mentioned with the targets for Palmer. I mean, Osborne really was a yo-yo. When Thielen was not there, he was great. When Thielen was there, he was a little bit of a non-factor.

But you could see the upside based on how the offense is going to hopefully change. But I think all three of them, and certainly you saw it with Palmer at the end of last season and Osborne again when Thielen was out, the upside, they could be starters for you, for sure. So, yeah, I buy Osborne being more involved. We had Pete Prisco and Bryant McFadden live from Minnesota, and BMax is plugged into Minnesota as anybody. He does the All Things Covered podcast with his cousin, cousin, Patrick Peterson is a quarterback there for the Vikings. And they absolutely love KJ Osborne. And, you know, last year BMAC had, uh, one of the funniest lines of anything we did

on maybe any of our shows when he said that Justin Jefferson's a sports car and, uh, Adam Thielen's a station wagon. Um, and it was more along the lines that he tried to defend it this year. When I asked him again, he said, just, just to defend it this year when i asked him again he said just this ad deal is reliable so i asked him i said is osborne closer to a sports car closer to a station wagon he said closer to a sports car you know and so we could see maybe a slight changing of the guard at some point i don't know if feeling gets banged up and maybe can't get back to form again so osborne's an amazing late round pick i get so pissed off whenever somebody takes him in our drafts because he's one of my favorite late-round guys.

Did I give him to you here? Yeah, I gave him to you in round 11. And I think you have Josh Palmer, too. All right, guys, let's do three more minutes on this stuff here just so we can get to the backfield battles. Let's run through it. Baltimore tight end Isaiah is likely to play significant snaps out of the gate, according to The Athletic. Heath, your reaction?

There's nobody that's going to matter besides Rashad Bateman and Mark Andrews. Adam Janz, or Johns of The Athletic, said it's apparent that Khalil Herbert will be getting carries and that Herbert's style of running fits Chicago's outside zone scheme. Now, he didn't say he was going to be the

starter or anything, but Herbert's going to have a role, and he's a good fit for the scheme. Jamie, does that make you nervous about taking David Montgomery? The offensive line just makes me nervous about David Montgomery. Can he get outside with his blocking? Yeah, he's a great late-round pick. I think you look at the lottery ticket type of guys, if he gets that opportunity like we saw last year when Montgomery missed time, he's going to be very

good. You can't start him at any point in tandem with David Montgomery. You just have to know what you're drafting. You're drafting a handcuff and hopefully if you draft him, you're expecting David Montgomery to miss some time, which we don't want to see. That's Khalil Herbert. Tyler Conklin has been a favorite target of Joe Flacco and

Zach Wilson, according to the Athletic Jets tight end Tyler Conklin. I don't target of Joe Flacco and Zach Wilson, according to The Athletic. Jets tight end Tyler Conklin. I don't think he's going to get drafted, but it's a name to know. Why did they give CJ Hughes almost so much money? He's a very good blocker. Joseph Person of The Athletic thinks that Carolina wide receiver Robbie Anderson could lose targets to Rashard Higgins. It is the DJ Moore show there, basically.

Greg Allman for The Athlet or for the athletic covering. The book said that rookie running back Rashad White has impressed and could get decent carries and catches. So that's a name to know. All right. If you need a handcuff, you take in Rashad White or Khalil Herbert. Herbert. Herbert,

but they're close. Yeah. Chad Graff of The Athletic says Nelson Aguilar could end up being New England's number one receiver. Quick reaction, Heath. They're so bad.

Joe Rexroad of The Athletic covering the Titans thinks that Nick Westbrook-Akina is going to start ahead of Traylon Burks early in the season. And he also thinks that Dontrell Hilliard

is the guy to get behind Derrick Henry. He would get the bulk of the work if Derrick Henry were out. That's the thought from Joe Rexrode. Dontrell Hilliard, there's a handcuff to now. Backfield battles. All right. Thank you all for sticking around this late in the show to talk about a very important fantasy subject here. I've separated them. So this was an article on ESPN.com where the beat writers looked at backfields that look like committees or there's some uncertainty and gave their thoughts and expectations.

So nothing set in stone, of course, but I separated them into the easier ones, a little more complicated, and wait, there are more than two guys factoring in? So let's start with the easier ones. Miami from Marcel-Louis Jacques. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing beat writers' names. Chase Edmonds has been Miami's best running back,

should technically be considered the team's lead back. He'll be used as a runner and a pass catcher. That's Chase Edmonds. And Raheem Mostert should be number two if he's healthy. That was, I thought, interesting. Not Sonny Michel. Jamie, you have been drafting a lot of Chase Edmonds, I think, and I think that he's just clearly the guy right now, it seems.

It seems that way. And again, looking back at the second preseason game against the Raiders, there was no Raheem Mostert, but he just dominated the snaps to a tongue of Iloa. So take that for what it's worth. Offensive line wasn't fully intact. That game receiving core wasn't fully intact. So he didn't look great.

Three carries for three yards. I think it was two catches for 17 yards. But I think everything you're hearing and everything that you should expect, certainly based on the offseason, this was the first running back signed in for agency, for any team. So they clearly had an idea in mind of who they

wanted the guy that was in the division with mike mcdaniel san francisco and arizona um so he you know has an understanding i think of what this guy could be now to what heights will he get i don't know i don't think you want to overdraft him but you know he's he's gone from uh i think his adp on our site as of last weekend was like in the 90s. He should certainly be in the round six range for sure. This is – I put a tweet out last week that really confused a bunch of people, but arbitrage Travis Etienne. I think he may have like almost exactly the same role as Travis Etienne in a better offense and a lot cheaper.

All right. Would you take Kareem Hunt or Chase Edmonds? Edmonds. Edmonds. Kansas City is also in the easier ones. Adam Teicher of ESPN saying that Clyde Edwards-Ziller is atop the depth chart, and that's very clear. Jarek McKinnon and Isaiah Pacheco could carve out significant roles, though.

And, yeah, I mean, I don't know about, like, if they're really going to use McKinnon on passing downs, what does that mean for CEH? And let's just compare him to Chase Edmonds. Who would you rather have, Edmonds or Chase? Or Edmonds or CEH? I am very uncomfortable with CEH. I've got him ahead of Edmonds right now.

I go back and forth. Like, maybe you guys can change my projections, because I don't know what to do with this backfield. I've got basically 220 carries for Clydede 110 for pacheco and a few for mckinnon and i have clyde and mckinnon splitting up the targets basically 50 apiece yeah i would take edmunds um i think you know we've kind of seen the ceh story play out that he's going to probably lead them in carries they obviously obviously like what they got out of McKinnon last year enough to bring him back and continue to use him in this role.

And then you have this wild card of this kid who's as fast as anybody, maybe in the league at that position based on his 40 time, um, explosive. If he continues to carve out a role during the season, it could be, it could be really problematic for CEH. So he's in, to me, he's in that group of Miles Sanders, Elijah Mitchell, Kareem Hunt,

Tony Pollard, you know, he's at the top of that list, but he's in that list. Yeah. I think that CEH getting twice as many carries as Pacheco and splitting catches with McKinnon seems like a pretty reasonable projection there. It's going to probably come down to touchdowns for CEH.

The key will be the touchdowns. Can Pacheco actually take goal line work away from CEH? If he does, then CEH probably ends up right where Jamie has him. If CEH leads the team in rushing touchdowns, then he's probably closer to where I have him. Philadelphia is part of

the easier ones. Nick Sirianni, according to Tim McManus of ESPN, Nick Sirianni has been clear that Miles Sanders is the lead back. Gainwell and Boston Scott will play complementary roles. But also McManus goes on to say that Sanders is currently hurt and gets hurt a lot. So, you know, Sanders, Edmonds, CEH Sanders, how do you rank him? In that order? Yeah, CEH, Sanders. How do you rank them? In that order. Yeah, Sanders last for sure. He's outside of my top 30

in all formats. But he does tend to fall pretty far, especially with this injury, and he might be ready for week one. He might be. It wouldn't be shocking in a 12-team league to get Miles Sanders in round nine at this point. He might be a guy that you end up with, wow, he's actually pretty good.

Yeah, don't forget about him. And clearly he's got tremendous upside if he just gets back to the end zone. But it just feels as if running quarterback, committee backfield, the upside's starting to feel a little capped, especially this hurt. Elijah Mitchell,

according to ESPN's Niners beat reporter, is going to be the number one running back when healthy. Jeff Wilson seems like the best bet to be number two. This is what bothers me, though. Tyrion Davis price could be a short yardage option. That would really complicate things for Mitchell. So Mitchell or Miles Sanders? Sanders for me. Wow.

They are definitely in the same range, and I've gone back and forth. I think I have Mitchell currently one spot. I have one spot ahead of Sanders. I have the first two picks of round eight, Elijah Mitchell and Miles Sanders. Okay. And I would agree. They should be in the same range. If Mitchell plays the majority of season,

he's going to be better, but this is now five different injuries over the last two years. Missed six games last year and the history of Kyle Shanahan, five seasons as the head coach, five different leading rushers. I feel like it's going to be that streak's ending this year. Actually, whatever it's Trey Lance,

it's going to be Trey Lance. Washington is one of the easier ones. It's a committee right now, but Brian Robinson could definitely become the lead running back. He's been working with the ones, probably not exclusively. Who do you take first, Antonio Gibson or Bryan Robinson? Robinson. Yeah, it's Gibson still for me.

I've got Gibson and Robinson basically splitting the carries with McKissick getting a little bit, and then McKissick and Gibson basically splitting the targets with Robinson getting a little bit and mckissick and gibson basically splitting the targets with robinson getting a little bit um but i don't i don't believe that gibson's just gonna be left out in the cold if i can go back in time i would like jd mckissick to stay in buffalo yes and james cook to go to arizona and brian robinson to be the lead rusher for Washington, and Antonio Gibson to play on passing downs, and then I would love Antonio Gibson. I'm not sure if I said this on a live stream or on a podcast, but maybe we don't talk about the fact that Antonio Gibson was not a running back in college. He had something like 33 carries. It's possible he's just not a good

running back. Well, you've said this for a couple of years now.'s possible he's just not a good running back. Well, you've said this for a couple of years now. Yeah, he hasn't been a good running back. He said it after his rookie year that he was still kind of trying to figure it out, trying to learn. Last year, the explosive plays were not really there. I think it's possible that Brian Robinson does just win the job, become the lead guy. Not just possible. I think decent chance here.

I mean, I don't want to... I wish I could say something a little bit more authoritative here, but it could easily happen because Antonio Gibson just might not be a running back. Sorry to say. You've heard me say this a lot because of people that I trust. The front office there is not fond of Antonio Gibson.

And it's a problem. You know, we heard amazing things from Ron Rivera when he took over the job that this was going to be his McCaffrey. Remember, he said this was going to be a guy that has the ability to do that. And maybe he does, but he just hasn't shown it. And that's the problem. And that I think the fumbling is an issue. The lack of maybe the intimate knowledge to be a top-tier running back is not there. And you're seeing a guy that's clearly more physical than Bryan Robinson that just might be a better fit for what this team wants to do. Now, again, going back to the McKissick scenario,

he's dealing with a groin injury right now. If this injury lingers and Antonio Gibson proves that he's the better receiving back, I don't know if that's going to be the case, but it might, then his value just jumps up tremendously, maybe back not to the round four range that he was going in, but maybe ahead of Robinson because that could just make him

the type of running back that I like. A guy that's going to be heavily involved in the passing game and if something happens to Robinson, get back involved in the ground game to whatever heights that I like. A guy that's going to be heavily involved in the passing game, and if something happens to Robinson, get back involved in the ground game to whatever heights that could be. Ron Rivera was there when they drafted Antonio Gibson, right? No. He got hired right after the draft?

I don't believe he was there. They've both been there for two years. Was he there his rookie season? They were both there in 2020. I don't know if maybe Rivera got hired after the draft, which would be weird. Well, let's check the old Google machine. December 31st, 2019, Ron Rivera was hired. And then when was...

So Gibson was the 2020 draft? Gibson was drafted in April of 2020. Well... It's a different GM, though. Okay. All right. Let's get back into it here. A little more complicated backfield scenarios here.

Denver. This is what Jeff Legwald of ESPN had to say. The split between Javante Williams and Melvin... Well, he didn't say this... Sorry, this is not a quote. But he basically said that the split is unknown. Williams is going to be busy, no question. And even Gordon knew that as soon as the new coaching staff was hired.

This I thought was interesting from Jeff. It's why Gordon looked around in free agency for several weeks before eventually returning to the Broncos. So we heard Gordon's quote about it, that they want Javante Williams to be the guy. Gordon will be involved and will have some impact in the passing game. I think we've talked about this enough, but how do you guys feel about Javante Williams

at, say, the 2-3 turn? I think we're the low people on Javante. Yes. Oh, for sure. Is that where you take him? First round in the NFC? Second. Last week of NFC drafts,

Javante Williams has gone 19th. Okay. That's still too early for me. He's the 13th running back on Fantasy Football Calculator at 20th overall. He's going before Aaron Jones. I mean, look, if he hits,

we're going to be silly for not having him in at least round two he's around two for me in in non and half ppr but in full ppr I struggle with it just because of the receivers um the guy that I really have a hard time with right now is between him and Nick Chubb just because of the potential struggles of that Browns offense for the start of the season but if Melvin Gordon's anything close to what he was a year ago, then Javante Williams is going to be very frustrating. I've got Javante at 210 carries and 64 targets. Melvin at 161 and 52.

Rams. Sarah Bishop of ESPN said, I don't think it's a given that Akers will start the season as the Rams' true RB1. And then she just basically talked about how the coaches have said it's going to be a committee and it's probably going to be a committee. Health seems like it's going to be just a huge one here. These two guys are injury prone and

they're both hurt right now. Akers and Henderson but Akers is really tough. He's probably in the polarizing players list here. When the heck should we take Cam Akers? I'm fine with him in round five. Yes.

100%. I've got him just ahead of Clyde and Chase Edmonds. That's my next question. Jamie, Chase or Clyde for you? Chase or Cam for you? Edmonds, Akers, Clyde. And then Henderson has got to be considered a very good late roundround pick, right?

Yes. All right. In Jacksonville, this one we already talked about. In Seattle, we'll see what happens with Ken Walker's injury. And then here's the next category. Wait, there are more than two guys factoring in? Yeah. It seems like Washington maybe should have been in this one.

Washington definitely should not have been in the easy ones because we have no idea what's going to happen in washington uh yeah okay fair um all right true damn it wait there are more than two guys factoring in excluding washington in buffalo elena getzenzenberg says that all three running backs are going to have roles. Singletary is in line to get the bulk of the carries as the season begins. But Zach Moss had a good camp, and he's been the most consistent goal line

and short yardage back for Buffalo. And Elena Getzenberg suspects that James Cook's role is smaller at the start of the season. But, oh man. Look, Singletary's the starter, but how valuable can he be, Heath? I do not have any interest. And I could look down on this one if he repeats the last month of last year. But they're talking about using one guy as a passing downs back

and one guy as a goal line back, and that's the very definition of a trap back on a team that running back hasn't been that valuable. And it's probably going to change during the year. So if you want to draft the cheapest one or draft one of them in the double-digit rounds, and sometimes Cook is there and Moss is always there, then I think that's fine. But I'm not drafting one of them in the double-digit rounds, and sometimes Cook is there and Moss is always there, then I think that's fine. But I'm not drafting any of them in the single-digit rounds.

The thing that's interesting about him is that he looked great in the preseason game against Denver. And like you said, Heath, what he did last year. It's just so confusing. Like, you know, why, why draft James Cook with the, and, and go after JD McKissick if you're not going to use that player and maybe Cook's just not ready. I don't know, based on the report. The fact that Zach Moss just isn't going away. And I know he gets hurt a lot and clearly he, you know, the coaching staff felt a favor. The thing I struggle with with this is Brian Dayball's gone. And is Ken Dorsey enough of a voice to keep Sean McDermott from saying, we've got to run the ball a little bit more? Well, yeah.

I think to me it's like, how much do you buy Zach Moss? Because this has been a Bills team where every year, what happens mid-season is different than what we were told before the season started. It's injury-related or it's performance-related. Moss overtook Singletary, it seemed like, at the end of the 2020 season. And Singletary was incredible at the end of the 2021 season. And like I said, Singletary has been at the end of the 2021 season and I like I said Singletary

has been a very good running back on paper you look at the metrics advanced metrics basic metrics he's been very good he's let the team running back yeah yeah not as a pass catcher not the worst pass catching running back in the NFL he's not gonna have that role for sure right but is he really gonna lose the short yardage and goal line carries to Zach Moss they keep saying it so maybe I should stop being skeptical. But I wish Zach Moss had a better career at this point for me to believe that. But all right, look, they said it. They know more than I do.

So that's why we're doing this segment here. So beware on the trap back is the guy that Heath said who gets a lot of carries, but not the catches and not the carries that really count. And finally, Las Vegas, really interesting here. Paul Gutierrez of ESPN said, Josh Jacobs' role as a true RB1 is in jeopardy, that Zemir White, Brandon Bolden, and Amir Abdullah could all have roles,

and it's hard to see Jacobs being reliable for fantasy purposes with Bolden and Abdullah possibly used more as pass catchers and Zemir White near the goal line. So, Jamie, when the heck do we draft Josh Jacobs? You said Cam Akers in round five. What about Josh Jacobs? I think that's an okay spot to start to look for him.

I would prefer him in round six. But, God, this is infuriating because he's the most talented guy there. And, you know, you saw what he was able to do catching the ball last year. But, clearly, you know, McDaniels has a vision for what he wants to do with his running backs. Now, I think part of that also goes to, could he be Damien Harris, you know, and be the guy that's just scoring double-digit touchdowns and maybe not necessarily factor in a passing game because his offense is going to be good as long as the offensive line holds up. So I don't think you should completely run away from Jacobs because of this report, but

it obviously should put Amir Abdullah on your radar. And I think it's going to be really fun to see throughout the course of the season. I think Hines is on a different level, but McKissick and Ty Montgomery, Amir Abdullah, Jarek McKinnon, you know, these type of guys that just really are going to factor in the passing game. How much are they going to be relevant in PPR? And, you know, like the people that don't like those type of running backs and i think make a mistake and don't realize like you can use them as flex plays especially if you

go zero rb or you go hero rb like they're they're so relevant if they're getting anywhere in the 50 catch range and as we've seen with the james whites and you know occasional darren sproles those type of guys that they get six, seven touchdowns, like they're going to end up as top 24 type of PPR options for you. So, um, you should absolutely be looking at Abdullah with a late round pick in PPR. And you should be a little bit concerned about Josh Jacob and PPR non PPR.

I think he's, he's still a safe number two running back PPR half PPR. He's, he's a volatile one. Well, I'm sorry to keep you guys late here. I think that right now, there seem to be so many coaches, beat writers,

talking about committees. And I'm just not sure that it's really going to end up being that way because I think a lot of it might be coach speak, or at least some of it might be coach speak. I don't think that's the case in Las Vegas. It seems like people seem pretty confident that that is going to be a committee. But where do you think might be coach speak. I don't think that's the case in Las Vegas. It seems like that, you know, people seem pretty confident that, that,

that is going to be a committee, but where do you think it's coach speak though? I think, I think in Philadelphia that mile Sanders is, is going to be the guy. And I think that he's going to be great value. And I think, I think one of those,

what's that on passing don'ts. I think he'll catch 35 passes. I mean, I know Kenneth Gamewell didn't play, but they used Miles Sanders in the passing game in the first preseason game with Jalen Hurts. He caught two or three passes, I think, on one drive. And maybe I'm wrong about the drives. But, you know, I don't know what's Coach Peek.

Like, I don't think the Bills, I think the Bills will eventually settle into their guy. I think that you've got, like, all these committees, and if it is true, why would I take Josh Jacobs or Cam Akers in round five when I could take Elijah Mitchell in round eight or Miles Sanders in round eight? I think we just have to be careful how we define committee.

Like most situations, there's another running back getting more than 25% of the touches. Sure. So everybody's in some sort of a committee. It's how big the committee is. Right. I'm just wondering if this is a time of year where coaches are propping up their players and making the this guy's had a good camp and this and that.

Like on draft day, oh, we're going to use him. And it's not really what happens with a lot of players. Who's getting propped up in this scenario? Zach Moss. But it's not McDermott saying that, though. I would say the two guys who are getting propped up are Amir Abdullah and Ty Montgomery.

Sure. Why would they use Damian Harris on passing downs? What has Damian Harris done to deserve that? He missed a block really badly in the preseason game on the opening possession. At least that's the way I saw it. Why would they use him like that? That's what I'm saying. I wonder if these coaches are really going to stray from what they've done in the past.

Because we've never seen the Patriots use Damian Harris for the first series, and he's on the passing downs. Or Andre Stevenson for the next series, and he's in on passing downs. They have a new coordinator that doesn't know what he's doing. I mean, that's part of this. Well, that's not a good thing. No, that's the thing. I think every scenario is obviously going to be different for how you view these.

And so that's why I was asking, which of these do you think is coached? Because I don't think Sean McDermott is propping up Zach Moss, for example. I don't think he's downgrading him. Well, it's coming from somewhere from the beat writers. Well, again. Sorry. Okay, sorry. So let me just say that it seems to me like beat writers right now,

probably from what they've gained, from what they've taken away from the coaches and from watching practice, think that so many players are going to be involved. And at the end of the day, I just don't see that happening. Of course, I can't tell you where that's going to be the case, but do I really think that Elijah Mitchell, Jeff Wilson,

and Tyrion Davis Price are all going to get carries? No, I don't. Do I really think that Miles Sanders, Kenneth Gamble, and Boston Scott are all going to have prominent roles? No, I really don't. Not prominent roles. No, it's whether those secondary guys have enough to hurt the first guy.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I think in the case of Philadelphia, like Sirianni has said, you've heard it from him. Miles Sanders is our guy. Yeah. But I also think that he's smart enough, at least I hope so, to realize this guy's missed nine games over the last two years, is dealing with a hamstring problem now.

He has to build up the confidence of Boston Scott. He has to get him playing time. He has to give him opportunities with the first team. He has to give him a chance to say, okay, if Miles Sanders is not there, which has happened, who's going to fill that role? Is Kenneth Gainwell going to fill that role? Well, it doesn't seem to be the case, but Gainwell is going to have his role. In the case of San Francisco, you have five games, six games of an absence of Elijah Mitchell last year, who they never expected to be their lead runner. He proved to be their best runner, but Mostert was

supposed to be that guy. And so they drafted Sermon ahead of him. They spent a third round pick again on another running back this year. They have to build up these guys, whether it's their confidence through words or confidence through playing time. So... Alright, fine. If you're asking me specifically...

Maybe coach speak isn't the right word. If you're asking me specifically where I'm not quite buying that the role is going to be a problem i think philadelphia and san francisco i think as long as sanders and mitchell are healthy you're going to love where you're drafting them if you can get them in round eight i think they're going to return really good value for you i think they're clearly the best players and i think they do have some upside especially miles sanders but so you know those would be two if you're asking me specifically. My two would be Cam Akers and David Montgomery.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Cam Akers, right? Because it's never been the case with Sean McVay. Never has he had a committee, really, except maybe 2020 for a bit. Or maybe when he won the Super Bowl. I don't know. What's that? Maybe when he got to the Super Bowl. Not

when he got in the playoffs, but... When he got to the Super Bowl. I don't know. What's that? Maybe when he got to the Super Bowl. Not when he got in the playoffs, but... When he got to the Super Bowl? I mean, last year, you know, they were using Michelle and Henderson when they were healthy. Toward the end? Or at the beginning? Middle. At the beginning. Before Henderson's injury, Michelle had

something like six carries a game. So, yeah. It was Henderson. He was the top 15 running back all right sorry uh i know you guys have hq to get to apologize for the marathon i'll let you go thanks for watching and listening everybody we will talk to you tomorrow on fantasy football today