Fantasy Football Today - 🚨 Damien Williams Opts Out, Is Clyde Edwards-Helaire RB6? (07/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 29, 2020

Nominate us on PodcastAwards for the Sports category https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Where did Jamey and Ben put Clyde Edwards-Helaire in their rankings after Damien Williams elected to sit out the season? Is he RB6!? Is he ahead of Michael Thomas? Dalvin Cook? Are there are any other KC RBs to draft? Find out on this bonus episode! 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter 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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Long play. Off to the races, touchdown! Oh, he's done it again! Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. In 2017, Kareem Hunt was a top four running back. A Chiefs rookie running back takes advantage of a preseason injury to the veteran,

and Kareem Hunt becomes a fantasy superstar with 272 carries, 53 catches, and 11 touchdowns. Will history repeat itself here in 2020? Unfortunately, Damian Williams is opting out for the season, and that means Clyde Edwards-Ziller has a much clearer path to dominating the touches. Jamie Eisenberg and Ben Gretsch are joining me. I'm Adam Azer.

This is a bonus edition of Fantasy Football Today. Get right to it. Jamie, where is Clyde Edwards either in your rankings right now? Where was he and where is he now? So I had downgraded him with the lack of offseason work. I think we've talked about that a little bit, that I was concerned with Williams being there and Edwards-Alaire not getting the opportunity to showcase himself in OTAs, minicamps and preseason. I had dropped him from initially the end of the first round, beginning of the second round to the middle of the third round. Now he is number eight overall and the sixth running back off the board. Man, Ben, how about you?

Yeah, I had, I had him at, I guess, RB 15. We talked about that a little bit earlier last week because I had him right behind Aaron Jones still, maybe a little too high, and not enough of an adjustment at that point. But I'm with Jamie. I think if I'm drafting today, I'm taking him RB6. I mean, I've had Miles Sanders there outside the pretty clear top five backs,

and I would take Clyde Adams-Vallero for Miles Sanders. Ooh, would take glad I was the layer over miles. That was my next question. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Look, I get it. It makes sense.

But do you think they're going to add someone? And with that, with that change your mind, depending on who it is, I think they will. Just the fact that McCoy who played with Sean McCoy, who played with them last year is still out there uh he clearly fell out of favor at the end of the season because he wasn't active he wasn't active

for the Super Bowl but he has a history with Andy Reid he knows the offense under the circumstances of what the offseason has been um they can clearly bring him in but remember they made a move already this offseason prior to the NFL draft to bring in DeAndre Washington from the Raiders and we saw the way he performed when he stepped in for Josh Jacobs last year. They still have two young guys in Darwin Thompson and Daryl Williams. And so, you know, they may not have to make a huge priority move, but it just makes sense given such a young backfield aside from Washington to bring in somebody.

And for me, I would think McCoy makes more sense than reaching for a Devontae Freeman or a Lamar Miller, per se. Okay, so do you think Clyde Edwards-Elair can get 270 carries this year? No. No. What are you thinking? I'm thinking a lot of catches. I'm thinking 60, 65, 65 catches maybe,

and then double-digit touchdowns. I mean, pretty easily double-digit touchdowns. Maybe not a lock for it, but when you're in the Kansas City offense, you don't have to score every running back touchdown to get double-digit touchdowns like you have to when you're in some other offenses. I mean, he doesn't have – it's not going to be too tough for him to put up a pretty big bat line in this offense.

You're talking about a guy that lsu last year nearly 1900 total yards 17 total touchdowns but the receiving numbers i mean you talk about this all the time you know 25 30 catches is typically a high number for a college running back he had 55 catches that's amazing uh i was just on CBS Sports HQ with Pete Prisco. He's guys around the league. Compare him to Maurice Jones-Drew. Smaller back, but stocky build and somebody who's got a physical presence. I remember speaking to him at the NFL Combine. I was very impressed.

He had a very hard handshake. I'm always looking at that after when I first met Adrian Peterson at his rookie symposium. He nearly broke my hand with his handshake. And I remember asking Clyde Edwards-Hilaire, because he wasn't one of the top backs in terms of where his draft stock was. You know, it was Jonathan Taylor and DeAndre Swift, the two guys everyone was talking about. And then it was J.K. Dobbins.

Well, Dobbins was in that top two guys. But then it was kind of Akers and Edwards and Dobbins was in that top two guys. But then it was kind of Akers and Edward Hilaire was the next two guys. And I said to him, if you don't get drafted in the first two rounds, I remember, you know, phrasing it that way. How mad are you going to be? So I'm going to have the biggest chip on my shoulder that you'll ever find. Well, he was the first back taken. That shows you what Andy Reid wants. That shows you what, you know, Veach, the GM wants that, you know, when they compare him to Brian Westbrook and, um, you know, we're talking about him, the setup is almost identical to what happened to Kareem hunt.

You know, a, a, a journeyman type of guy in Spencer where coming off a productive season blows out his knee and Kareem hunt, we thought may have taken the job that year, ran away with it, led the NFL in rushing, you know, on top of what he does at fantasy option. So, I mean, Edward Solaire's got just a huge ceiling right now. And, you know, if you draft to win, guys like Miles Sanders are great. Guys like Joe Mixon, Josh Jacobs, Derrick Henry, Kenyon Drake,

they're all great. This guy could be better than all of them, in my opinion. Yep, that's why I landed at RB6. It's like I love Sanders' upside too, but Edward Solares is clearly higher. Well, if we're basing it on Hill Hunt though, I'll just say that when Kareem Hunt in 2017 and the first 11 games of 2018 was awesome. Like I said, he was top four in 2017, 2018.

He was on a per-game basis third in non-PPR, sixth in PPR, sixth and a-PPR, sixth in PPR, and sixth and a half in PPR, eighth in PPR, and he had seven touchdown catches in 11 games. He dominated the touches. I mean, in 2017, no running back had more than 18 carries other than Kareem Hunt. In 2018, Damian Williams had like 51 carries. It was basically all after the injury.

So I'm just wondering, you know, we make the comparisons to Cream Hunt, but it doesn't seem like you guys feel like Clyde Edwards-Elair is going to dominate the touches as much with DeAndre Washington, with Darwin Thompson, with Darrell Williams there, with maybe LeSean McCoy coming in. Devontae Freeman is still available. Do you think people might overshoot it a little bit? No, I mean, I think this is a great question, but you just noted that not many guys, you

noted the carries that were out there. And I just pulled that up. Cremont had 53 catches that first year. That's good for a back, but Charkandrick West, who is the guy who had 18 carries had 27 catches. So Hunt's workload was more early down and he was playing some on passing downs. And then when you look in 2018, he only played like 11 games. But my computer's kind of freezing up. But he only caught like 20. 26.

26 passes. So he wasn't as much in the passing game. The difference, there's two differences. One, they took Clyde Edwards-Hilaire in the first round. And they talked about how much they loved him and they compared him to Brian Westbrook and all these things. And then two, when you talk about his actual workload,

where he's going to give up some work, Hunt gave up some work in the passing downs. Clyde Edwards Hilaire projects to give up some of that, those low value touches to a guy like, you know, Daryl Williams or DeAndre Washington or whoever it's going to be, or LeSean McCoy if they bring him back. But it seems pretty clear that his workload will be all the high value touches. And that like to me actually gives him,

you know, maybe not hunt upside just because hunt was so efficient that year. It's hard to just project that, but it gives him the same close to the same ceiling. Even with no training camp. Well, you know, different,

even with no mini camp, yes, there's a training camp, even with no preseason games, even with a really good offensive lineman and different anay Tardif opting out, you're still going to go with him over Miles Sanders and Josh Jacobs and Joe Mixon and all these guys. It could be a mistake. It could easily be a mistake. Like Ben said, you know, this isn't, you know, I'll, I'll amend what I said. It's not that those other guys don't have great upside,

you know, Ben, Ben, you know, piggybacked off that correctly. Miles Sanders has a huge ceiling. Josh Jacobs, you know, if his catches go up huge ceiling, Derek Henry, we saw last year, didn't need to catch his monster campaign. Joe Mixon could be fantastic. Also, if he builds off the way that he finished, you go on and on about those guys that are first round caliber running backs, but this is your banking on the coach who just, you know, won, won the Superbowl and, and Kareem Hunt.

And what he's done is done in his entire body career with exceptional players, especially what he's done with running backs. Kareem Hunt did that with Alex Smith. This is Clyde Edwards-Alaire with Patrick Mahomes. You know, with Tyree Kill as one of the best receivers, with Travis Kelsey as the best tight end in the game. And so you have all these things that just set up so perfectly. He just needs to take advantage of that.

And it's an if. But he just helped LSU win the national championship with a monster campaign in an offense that similar type of characteristics, you know, of how they operated and spread the ball around and a great quarterback who set all kinds of records. And so I just think that, you know, you can take the safe route and take Sanders or Henry or, you know, whoever you feel the most comfortable with. When this first happened, I went to my rankings and I said,

okay, you know, 10 is probably a safe spot for him. Behind Sanders, behind Drake, behind Mixon for me. Then I'm like, no, if he hits, he's better than that. Right, right. I did the same thing. I put him in that tier with Sanders and Drake and Mixon, and I have Eckler and Chubb and Jacobs. That's the tier for me. That's my order.

And I had him in that tier, and I was like, he's atop this tier. He's better than all of these guys in terms of ceiling, and he's in this tier. He doesn't belong outside this tier. But, yeah, I agree with that completely. All right, some final questions for you here. Who's the second Chiefs running back? If you're going to draft one, who would it be?

I would take DeAndre Washington now just because he's proven. I mean, Darwin Thompson, I spoke to him at the Super Bowl during media night, and this was at the point of we thought LaShawn McCoy was done, which clearly has been the case. If it was going to come back this year as Williams as the one and maybe Thompson competing for the two, he said, I remember the quote, I'll paraphrase it. If I'm not making a lot of money by the end of, by my next contract, I'm out of the league this year. And so, you know,

he he's putting a lot on himself to, you know, hopefully improve in a big way. The door's open now for him to, you know, be the second guy. And then as Ben alluded to Darrell Williams had some very productive moments last year and even the year before, I think, you know, when Williams was dealing with his injury situation. So they're, they're all capable, I think, of being the second guy, but I'll lean toward the veteran who stepped up in a big way for the Raiders last year and hopefully has been, you know hopefully has been in the playbook and knows what he's going to have to do

to compete to be that second guy now. Yeah, and two thoughts on that. One, part of our concern with Edward Solaire is that Damian Williams knew the offense so well, and DeAndre Washington doesn't. I like DeAndre Washington the most as well of these backups, but I think he's going to get a lot of hype. I'm seeing a lot of already some buzz on Twitter about him being the top one. And so I'm in agreement with Jamie, but I also think, one,

it's a good note on Edwards Hilaire, why we can be so optimistic. I mean, it's very similar to Kareem Hunt. Like you've been saying, Adam, that there was no one else really left. They had to trust this rookie. They're kind of in that position too. They don't really have anyone else. And then all say i like washington the most i would rank him the highest of the backups but i think daryl williams will wind up being the best value because i think darwin thompson's still a little buzzy too i expect daryl williams price end up going

fourth but him and darwin are the two that have the most familiar with the team and darwin i mean daryl is the one who actually played over darwin lot more last year. He's the one who got the most playing time in this offense last year. Not surprising at all. He had a week one role as the guy who they can kind of trust and they know what they're getting. And I would expect also DeAndre Washington and the other others will, but he's the one that I think might end up being the best value if he stays like a 14th or 16th round pick. Okay. And then final question here here you're going to take him as rb6 clyde everett zealer rb6 but what about michael thomas devante adams whoever your number one wide receiver is are you taking uh clyde everett zealer sixth overall eighth for me i'll still take thomas

and devante adams ahead of him but i mean again if you're going to go running back heavy i think you're you know you're looking at uh you at he's going to be, in some cases, he may leapfrog over Dalvin Cook if people are concerned about the injuries there. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a case for it. I think there's a case for him in the top five. It's wild. I'll take Thomas over him still.

I've had Tyreek Hill ahead of Devontae Adams. I have those two as a little tier, my second tier. I'll take those guys behind him. non-PPR or half PPR? Who's your sixth pick? I think I'll take Everett Solaire. It's weird because he's a catch guy, but in that format, I want a running back more. The touchdowns, yeah. The touchdowns are there.

Yeah, right now I have Josh Jacobs sixth. Wow. You have Josh Jacobs over Sanders. In non-PPR and half-PPR, yeah. I've said this a couple times. His 16-game pace would have been fourth in carries and third in rushing. By the way,

if you're going to throw out LSU stats, Jamie, then Justin Jefferson should probably be your number one wide receiver. It's true if he played with a better quarterback. Their stats were crazy. Dave just tweeted this. Yonder Washington played with Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech.

Yeah. Alright, guys. We've got a lot to talk about. Unfortunately, you're not going to hear any of this on the show that publishes tomorrow. That would be Thursday because we already recorded it. So we can talk maybe a little bit more about this on Friday if there's more news. But the Thursday show is about points per game, standouts, and trends and things like that.

It will not have any Clyde Edwards-Ziller discussion. Of course, it will have some Jonathan Taylor discussion, but no Clyde Edwards Z-Lair. And we will talk to you then. Thanks so much for tuning in to this bonus show. Thanks to Jamie and Ben for taking time out to join me here and talk to Clyde Edwards Z-Lair. We will be back on Thursday

on Fantasy Football Today. See you.