Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Cam Akers Out for the Season; Darrell Henderson Round 4? (07/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

Nominate us on PodcastAwards.com! https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup We react to the unfortunate news about Cam Akers as he will miss the season with a torn achilles. Darrell Henderson steps into the limelight now and Jamey tells you where he'll rank Henderson, what other RBs the Rams may look to and the dynasty outlook for Akers.  'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday 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

First bonus pod in a while, and these are not the ones that we enjoy doing. Really tough fantasy football news today. The number 11 pick according to average draft position in the month of July, Cam Akers, a torn Achilles, and he will miss the season. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today. We're here to help you. If you have Cam Akers, if you have Daryl Henderson, if you're wondering what to do now, what the Rams are

going to do now, let's get Jamie Eisenberg's opinion on this. And I know we don't know these people personally, although you did just speak to Cam Akers not too long ago. But we feel for these people. This is terrible. They train all offseason. They wait for their big opportunity. And it's just a shame.

And we're thinking about Cam Akers. Hope he recovers, makes a quick recovery. But this stinks, Jamie. It absolutely does, Adam. It's just a shame, and we're thinking about Cam Akers. Hope he makes a quick recovery. But this stinks, Jamie. It absolutely does, Adam. You know, it's a promising young kid, young player, a team that has obviously huge playoff aspirations in the Rams. They made the big move to get Matthew Stafford this offseason. He was coming off such an amazing finish last year.

You know, we're so excited about this class of 2020 running backs. And, you know, this is just about this class of 2020 running backs um and you know this is just uh the first of i'm sure several injuries that you know guys will deal with uh across the board but you know when you hear season ending in july it's just so frustrating because like you said you know this kid was was planning for a big season you know fantasy managers and keeper leagues and dynasty leagues the scott fishbowl i have i drafted cam makers in the scott fishbowl um you know it's already puts just such a a sour feeling in, you know, in your mind about how the season could go. And so, uh, frustrating when you hear these kinds of things happening,

you know, like you said, we, we feel for cam makers and hopefully it makes a speedy recovery. And we got to talk about him in a dynasty perspective, because this is a very difficult injury to recover from, but let's talk about Daryl Henderson right now. And look, Daryl Henderson, we look at a tweet from Jordan Roderick, who said that Henderson wasn't fully healthy in the spring and durability has been a concern with him and the Rams may need to make a move. But currently they have Henderson, Xavier Jones, Jake Funk and Raymond Calais on the roster. Henderson figures to be the first man up here. Where are you ranking him right now? Yeah, he'll be somewhere in the teens.

You know, I got some fun stats for you, which I know you'll like. One in particular. He had six games last season with at least 12 carries. And he averaged over 5.2 yards per carry in four of those games. So, you know, he was doing a nice job before Cam Akers took off. He wasn't obviously exceptional. And injuries became a problem for him last year. And we knew Akers was waiting in the wings to take over

as the lead guy at some point, and he did. So Henderson is going to be the lead guy there. Like you said, there are other guys there. She mentioned Xavier Jones as one that somebody should keep an eye on in terms of Jordan Roderick, who covers the Rams for the Athletic. You know, we know the names that are out there. You know, there's obviously a reunion that they can, you know, potentially look at and Todd Gurley, if they wanted to, there's Adrian Peterson who came out earlier this week and said, he still

wants to play. Uh, that's a, a name obviously that can help them if they need some veteran, uh, you know, depth and leadership. Um, Le'Veon Bell is still out there. LaShawn McCoy says he still wants to keep playing, you know, so there are obviously, you know, those veteran guys, if they want to go that route, I'm sure there's going to be a player or two who's cut that has a chance to maybe go sign with the Rams or if they make a trade to go get somebody. Again, a veteran guy that they feel comfortable with. We know they lost Malcolm Brown. But Henderson is the one that you're going to look at, and hopefully he takes advantage of this opportunity.

He was somebody that we kept saying has lottery ticket potential. He was somebody that we kept saying that if he gets an opportunity in tandem with cam makers can help you out in a deeper league flex option type of scenario, but he's not acres. We saw that last year, but he's still going to be pretty good. You know,

so this is going to be a great offense. It's a great offensive line. The quarterback play is going to be improved. Coach is obviously fantastic. And Henderson, you know, was a guy that we thought when he first came out of Memphis had a chance to be a special kind of player.

He didn't necessarily deliver on that the first time he got a crack at the starting job last year. But maybe now with things hopefully a little bit improved around him, specifically Stafford, he takes full advantage of this opportunity and can deliver. Yeah. Now you said Daryl Henderson is not Cam Akers. A lot of people still look at yards per carry. Obviously, I do. I get teased about it. He did average more yards per carry than Cam Akers. You know, I think that's pretty deceiving. Akers played week 17 on a bum ankle and had 21 carries for 34 yards.

That dropped his yards per carry. Akers, this is from 4.8 to 4.3. So I wouldn't really give Henderson the edge there. But 4.5 was respectable. He had one fewer big explosive running play than Akers. Akers had four. It's 20 plus yards. Henderson had three in very similar amount of carries. Henderson's best stretch was weeks two through seven. This was six games. He had 84 carries, which was 58% of the team's carries. Cam Akers had only 12 carries in those games, nine of them in one game. So Cam

Akers was not a factor, but Malcolm Brown was a factor. Malcolm Brown had 12 carries in those games, nine of them in one game. So Cam Akers was not a factor. But Malcolm Brown was a factor. Malcolm Brown had 47 carries in those six games. But Akers had 84 carries, or sorry, Henderson had 84 carries. He had three games with 17 or more non-PPR fantasy points. And he had two kind of games, you know, like 70, 80 total yards, or seven to eight fantasy points in non-PPR,

and he had one horrible game. And I mentioned non-PPR because he wasn't much of a factor in the passing game, but Malcolm Brown's not there. They don't have a guy like Malcolm Brown right now on the roster that would get 40% of the carry. So you think maybe Akers would have, or I keep saying Akers, Henderson would have an even bigger role than what he had in those six games. And that was a guy that was worth starting most weeks.

You said you have him in the teens. Who are some players that you have ranked around, stop saying Cam Akers, Daryl Henderson? Yeah, he's going to be in the mix with guys, like David Montgomery, Chris Carson, Myles Gaskin, J.K. Dobbins in you know, he's got the chance to be a legitimate top 15 running back. You know, this offense is going to be really good. And I think one thing that we saw last year, especially toward the end of the season, you mentioned the Week 17 game, the Rams were, you know, fighting for their playoff lives. Teams were daring them to throw, which is not something that I think, you know, Sean McVay was expecting as the season unfolded.

Certainly what the Rams are typically used to seeing, because their passing game was struggling. Now their passing game is going to open things up for the run game. It's one of the reasons why I was excited about Cam Akers. I know many people were. And so now you have this opportunity for easier running lanes for a team that can run block very well, good offensive line. And so the hope is Stafford, you know, will throw him the ball maybe a little bit more than Jared Goff did,

or throw the running backs the ball a little bit more than Jared Goff did. But like you said, you know, part of the reason why we liked Akers was a step forward in the passing game because Malcolm Brown is gone. Now you lose both Akers and Brown, and Henderson has the chance to be the every down type of guy. He's got to prove that he's durable. We have to see what the next move is. But you should be excited about Daryl Henderson.

And for those of us who have drafted already, you know, Adam, you pointed out we did a draft for our magazine before the Cam Akers injury. You're excited that you have Daryl Henderson. And for those of us who have drafted already, you know, Adam, you pointed out, uh, we did a draft for our magazine, uh, before the cam makers injury, you're excited that you have Daryl Henderson on your team. I have Daryl Henderson in a dynasty league. I'm excited about that. You know? So, um, the, the flip side of obviously these, these, these unfortunate situations is the benefit of when did you do your best ball draft? When did you do your dynasty league draft? When did you do your, maybe your seasonal league draft already in the case of the Scott fishbowl for those of us who have daryl henderson this is a big boost to your roster yeah i i i don't know how optimistic to be just because he does have trouble staying healthy

and this is a team that in the last two years has been 30th and 31st in running back targets so they haven't thrown to their running backs but they haven't had a running back go over 35 receptions in two seasons yes yeah and and they just don't thrown to their running backs. They haven't had a running back go over 35 receptions in two seasons, yes. They just don't throw to their running backs much, but they used to when it was Gurley. Stafford has a great history of throwing to running backs. Theo Riddick and Reggie Bush. He's had

a 50-catch running back almost every single year. Even Kerryon Johnson was catching a lot of passes, so that's a good thing there. You're going to put him in that round four-ish range with the Montgomery's and the Jacobs and the Carsons of the world. And I'm not going to nail, you're not going to make you nail down where you're going to rank them, right?

We have to hear what the Rams are going to say about this, but that's the general range. I think Dave is going to be a little bit lower. We weren't able to get him on the pod. So let me ask you this. Are there any, real quick, are there any other Rams running backs that you're drafting right now? No, I think we got to see who the number two guy is. And, you know, again, they're not done. They're going to go out and get somebody, you know, and I think the names

you'll start to hear, you know, just off the top of my head, just thinking, um, you know, Justin Jefferson, we heard about the chargers potentially, you know, moving on from him. If he doesn't make the final roster, that's a guy that they could look at, you know, those are the type of running backs that you're going to hear, you know, Peyton Barber, you know, if he doesn't make the Washington roster or Lamar guy that they could look at you know those are the type of running backs that you're going to hear you know Peyton Barber you know if he doesn't make the Washington roster or Lamar Miller you know Houston has about 10 guys that they can move on from that may be of interest we know that Sonny Sonny Michelle could be on the chopping block for the Patriots you know these are guys that are going to be uh the names that you hear uh Boston Scott potentially if the Eagles decide to go in a different direction with all the players that

they brought in or maybe even carry on Johnson to reunite him with Matthew Stafford, just the guy that Stafford is familiar with. So there's going to be a lot of, you know, names that, you know, uh, obviously it could be something like we saw last year with a Le'Veon Bell joining the chiefs, which ruined a young running back and Clyde Edwards, Hilaire essentially, or it could be just somebody that's brought in for depth and, you know, they let Henderson go until he gets hurt. So, um, the, the, the second running back for the Rams is going to be of interest, but Daryl Henderson is clearly the one to target.

Yeah, and you said Justin Jefferson. You meant Justin Jackson. I think I had Justin Jefferson. Justin Jackson, excuse me. That would be quite a play there. I don't want to see him play running back, excuse me. I could see a scenario where they, especially if Henderson gets hurt, where they just have a really bad running game this year.

So does this boost Stafford Cup Woods? I think it does slightly. You know, I mean, you know, Woods especially, we know how they like to give him those carries, you know, so hopefully that's something that adds a little bit to his plate. You know, this was going to be a team that was going to be more successful throwing the ball because I think the trust factor is back in the passing game where I think they lost that last year when, you know,

Goff struggled and then got hurt at the end of the season with the thumb injury going into the playoffs so Stafford brings a different element you know that this is a big boost for him I had just you know coming back from vacation and updating my rankings I put him into my top 12 and now he may creep closer to top 10 you know he's at 12 right now so I was getting more excited about Stafford obviously excited already about Woods and Cup Tyler Higby's a top 12 tight end for me already. And then we're going to see who that third receiver is, if Deshaun Jackson could stay healthy, or is this the time that Van Jefferson takes that step forward?

So this is a great passing game. This was a team that we were looking at and saying, we like Woods, we like Cup, we like Stafford as a fallback quarterback option. But now, yes, it does make those guys more attractive because the run game could be a little bit less than without Akers there. Yeah, one thing that you really love about Rams running backs, four seasons under Sean McVay, these are the rushing touchdowns scored by running backs.

15, 19, 17, and 12. 12 is not great, but it's not terrible, and that's the lowest mark. The only time they've had fewer than 15 running back rushing touchdowns. When they get near the red zone, they run the ball in. And that's hurt Jared Goff a little bit. But now you wonder without Akers and if Henderson can't stay healthy or if he's just not that effective, if that opens up some more passing touchdown opportunities for Stafford,

we will see how it plays out. Last thing here would be the dynasty outlook, Jamie, because it is a difficult, difficult injury to recover from. And then not a, not a lot of history really with it. But Marlon Mack's coming back. We don't know how he's going to do, but I was texting with Heath and we were trying to find some examples of players who came back successfully running backs from ACL injuries. I know people say Andre Brown, but he didn't really do that much. Yeah, so from a dynasty standpoint,

how much does this sink Cam Akers? We have to wait and see. I think if you're drafting now in a startup dynasty league, he's going to go with probably something closer to a double-digit pick, double-digit round pick, just because of the concern, not knowing where he'll be next year and if he'll ever fully recover from this. But modern medicine has changed.

It's more of a basketball injury, I think, that most people think of. Isaiah Thomas' career was ruined by an Achilles tear. We know Kobe Bryant with what happened to him at the end of his career, but he was obviously older. Yeah, and Durant, I think, is really encouraging because people are saying, oh, he may never be the same again. And he looks as good as he's ever been. I know he's not a running back,

but it's just the progress of modern medicine. These guys, ACL injuries used to be much worse than they are. Hopefully, Achilles injuries are much easier to come back from than ever. And Durant is a great example. Now, he's not young either. But like Heath and I were talking, who's the better dynasty value? If you were doing a startup dynasty draft, and Durant is a great example. He's not young either. Heath and I were talking, who's the better dynasty value?

If you were doing a startup dynasty draft, would you take Akers or Henderson knowing that you don't have a year of no Akers? Who would you take? I'd take Henderson. Yeah. All right. It's a lot to think about. I am going to make you do some rankings real quick.

Subject to change. Right now, you're drafting Henderson or Miles Gaskin? Henderson. Henderson or Josh Jacobs? Henderson. That's easy. Okay, you have Gaskin. That's right.

Henderson or Carson? Carson still. Okay. All right, right in that range. Thank you, everybody, for listening to this bonus pod, for watching live. We appreciate it. I see the comments coming in,

and I think people think that we might be a little high, uh, on Daryl Henderson, but we will see, you know, small, small sample out there. Um,

so again, thanks for tuning in into Jamie for hopping on. He's on vacation this week and he hopped on so much appreciated and have a good one. We'll talk to you. We got another draft, a mock draft though, Tuesday night.

I'm still going to work for that one too. So we got a live show seven Eastern tonight. That's right. Mock draft. And we'll see where D, 7 Eastern tonight. That's right. Locked draft. And we'll see where Daryl Henderson goes. Be a great experiment. Curious to see what our guests say about that. Have a good one, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.