Fantasy Football Today - Backfield Chaos Rankings: 5 Most Unclear RB Situations! Cowboys, Chiefs, Giants, & More! (05/08 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 The following was recorded from inside an ice plunge. Ah! Woo! Okay, alright. When a core's light is cold enough, the mountains on the can turn blue! So the next time you want a cold lager, cold filter, cold package, core's light, just wait until those glorious mountains on the can turn blue. Woo, it's easy to say that fast when you're freezing gold. Five backfields that look a little chaotic right now.

Starting point is 00:00:32 We're not sure what to make of it. We'll tell you on FFT Express. All right, Heath is here with five unclear running back situations. So we'll go five, four, three, two, one. Give me number five. This could have easily been 10 or maybe even 15. But I will start with number five.

Starting point is 00:00:54 I know my host. It's the New York football giants with Tyrone Tracy, a late draft pick from 2024 who had some good performances, had some fumble problems, and was probably better as a rusher than we expected and worse as a pass catcher than we expected. The team went out and drafted Cam Scadaboo, who I think might be better as both a rusher and a passer than Tracy. But it's, it's two young running backs, a coaching staff that must win this year. And I have no real certainty. And I should have mentioned also Devin Singletary is there. It trades.

Starting point is 00:01:31 Obviously no one's drafting Singletary, but you'd still taking Tracy ahead of Scataboo. I don't want to know. So I currently in the projections have Tracy projected higher. It seems like Tracy usually goes first. If I see Tracy go, I will draft scataboo. Um, but I, I would rather take a chance on scataboo as of right now. And I, maybe that helps to, I'll tell you what I've got for projections.

Starting point is 00:01:59 I've got 183 carries and 22 targets for scataboo. I've got 178 carries and 22 targets for scataboo. I've got 178 carries and 49 targets for Tracy. Okay. Don't shaft anyone then. Uh, this could be a backfield. You just want to avoid, but I do think that history says that fourth round pick is probably not going to be the main guy week one. I think Tracy will have his opportunity. We'll just see how he does with it. I think this could be a backfield to avoid.

Starting point is 00:02:36 Who's number four? It's the Kansas City Chiefs. Let's just stick with the theme of being homers. No, this backfield you've got Isaiah Pacheco who, I mean, 18 months ago, 12 months ago, even we would have thought there's no way these other guys are competing with Pacheco for the job, but he broke his leg, didn't look the same at the end of last year, hasn't really. Like even throughout his career had a very large sample size where they trusted him to be anywhere close to a feature running back. He's had somebody working in short yardage sometimes, he's had somebody working on passing

Starting point is 00:03:08 down sometimes. On the roster right now, the Chiefs also have Kareem Hunt, who was their best running back last year. They added Elijah Mitchell from the 49ers, who's been very good whenever he's healthy and gotten opportunities. And they drafted, and you talked about fifth round running backs don't usually become starters, Brashard Smith in round seven, and there's a lot of chatter about him hopefully playing the Jarek McKinnon role. So this may just turn into a full-blown committee where Pacheco is the lead back, Hunt is the short yardage back, and Brichard Smith by mid-season is the pass catching back. And you don't really want want any of them but there's too much upside in this offense to do that. So Pacheco gets drafted in round seven and everybody else is a late round afterthought.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Okay, I am hopeful and I think I'm just gonna be getting a lot of Isaiah Pacheco. I really don't factor in what he did after the broken leg last year's broken leg. Yeah. You know, obviously just wasn't healthy and he read said as much last six games of 2023. The average 16.2 carries per game. And then in the playoffs, 24, 15, 24 and 18 carries week one, 15 carries week two, 19 carries. So I do think that they obviously were turning to him as a workhorse running back and enough catches by the way in those games too. I mean, yeah, kind of a lot of catches, you know, so I love the role. If this is another one where I just feel like if he's good, he's going to have a really

Starting point is 00:04:43 good year. If he struggles, then yeah, we could have some problems here. But I don't look at anyone else in that backfield teeth is as major competition, especially Kareem Hunt. I mean, it would be really a travesty if they use Kareem Hunt a lot this year. Like he's one of the worst running backs in the NFL. I'm sorry. He's just I don't I would disagree with that. He has a skill set that's

Starting point is 00:05:03 very good at certain things. I think he's really good at past protection. I think he's really good at short yardage. And I'm not really concerned about anyone. I think it's unlikely that Hunt is the lead back again for the Chiefs, but I am very concerned that Hunt and either Mitchell or Smith both have a role. All right, let's go take a break here and we'll get to three, two, one,

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Starting point is 00:06:29 So we've got the Giants at five, the Chiefs at four. What's the third most unclear backfield right now? So I think you could choose any of the ones where the rookies were drafted, but the one that is the most unclear probably is Ramandre Stevenson and Trevion Henderson in New England. Stevenson has had flashes where he's looked like a good runner. He's had seasons where he got a lot of targets. I am hopeful that the thing that makes the most sense is what the Patriots do. And that is that Ramondre Stevenson leads the team in rush attempts and Trevion Henderson dominates passing downs and targets.

Starting point is 00:07:02 That would make sense to me, but they do have a history of throwing it to Stevenson a lot. Henderson's got to earn the role. And I think there is an outside chance. They've said they view him as a three down back. There's a chance he just takes the whole darn thing from Ramondre Stevenson and is the second best rookie running back. Yeah, that would be great. I'll get greedy and hope he leaves the team and carries and gets all that passing work. He's a very good pass protector, Trevion Henderson in college anyway. Number two.

Starting point is 00:07:30 It's the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's Travis Etienne. It's Tank Bigsby. It's Basial Tutin. None of these guys can, I don't think, really be viewed as the favorites. I'm planning on moving ETN down in my rankings the next time that I add him. There's been some talk or that I update them. There's been some talk that ETN is not really a favorite of the new coaching staff. Bigsby was very good as a rusher last year. Tooten is another, he was a day three pick, right? Another day three running back that May, there's a possibility that he takes this backfield over by mid season.

Starting point is 00:08:07 There's a possibility that he is just completely worthless as a round two rookie draft pick also, because often running backs taken day three art. Yeah. He and scataboo were very early in round four on day three. All right. So giants five chiefs four,s for Patriots three. It's three Jaguars to I've got a guess for number one, but I'm not going to tell you what it is until you tell me what you're. Why don't you just guess I've got it written down. So

Starting point is 00:08:38 you guess this doesn't feel like it doesn't feel on brand for you. Okay. I'm gonna go with the Cowboys. Cowboys are most definitely the most uncertain backfield at this point. I'm not so sure that the starting running back for the Cowboys is even on the team right now. But they've got Givante Williams, they've got Miles Sanders, they drafted Jaydon blue and Phil is it Mafa? Like they've got a, they still have Deuce Vaughn on the roster. They've got five running backs on their depth chart. None of them look like starting NFL running backs to me at this point. But absolutely, like we didn't think Rico Dowdell was really a starting running

Starting point is 00:09:18 back two years ago or a year and a half ago. And he, he isn't any longer. He's a backup again. So you don't necessarily have to be a starting caliber running back to be fantasy relevant if you end up with a bunch of touches. Now, a lot of times these guys end up in the Zemir White range where we boost them up too much

Starting point is 00:09:36 because of lack of competition. That's not happening with any of these guys. They're all available very cheap. Givante is still my favorite for now. All right, that is Heath Cummings. Iivante is still my favorite for now. All right. That is Heath Cummings. I am Adam Azer and those are the five most unclear running back situations as of May 8th.

Starting point is 00:09:51 Have a wonderful weekend and a great Mother's Day and we'll talk to you next week on Fantasy Football Today.

Fantasy Football Today - Backfield Chaos Rankings: 5 Most Unclear RB Situations! Cowboys, Chiefs, Giants, & More! (05/08 Fantasy Football Podcast)

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