Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Etienne Reaction: Is James Robinson a Round 3 Pick? (08/24 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

Bid on our Draft-A-Thon items right now to benefit St. Jude! http://cbssports.com/ebay Travis Etienne could face a lengthy absence due to his foot injury, so does that push James Robinson into the Top 20 at RB? Do we prefer Robinson or Darrell Henderson? Myles Gaskin? We also talk about Carlos Hyde and the Rams backfield. '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

James Robinson was a top eight running back last year. Is his stock on the rise? We don't like to see injuries, but obviously it's a big part of fantasy football. Travis Etienne, a midfoot sprain. We'll talk about that. We'll also give you a little update on Daryl Henderson and what you should be doing with the Rams and the Jaguars backfields. Welcome to a bonus edition of Fantasy Football Today.

This is not our Tuesday podcast. Please, if you haven't heard our Tuesday podcast, we recorded a long one yesterday with league winners in every round. So please make sure you check that out. But we didn't want to go a full day without talking about the big injury news. So a midfoot sprain for ETN. He's going to have more testing. Dave, what's your initial reaction to this? And Jamie's here as well. We'll hear from him in a moment. Dave, what's your initial reaction? My initial reaction is that I don't want to draft Travis Etienne in any round in any seasonal redraft league, but give me James Robinson, baby, because he's going right back to where he was before the NFL draft. I love it. I think he's

really in a position where he's going to get a lot of work. The target volume should now be back to where it was. I don't expect ETN. I don't know if ETN plays this year. I'll be honest. And I think there's a real chance that he doesn't. It's a significant injury. We've seen these Liz Frank injuries before.

It has ruined careers before. And I think he's going to end up being just fine. I'm ready to take James Robinson in round three. Okay. So hold on. So right now it's Tuesday. What day is today? Tuesday morning. I'm ready to take James Robinson in round three. Okay, so hold on. So right now it's Tuesday. What day is today?

Tuesday morning. The 24th. 10 a.m. Eastern. And we don't know much. But it is possible that this is a big, long injury. I'm assuming that it's going to put ETN on the shelf for a while. Okay. Until I hear otherwise.

We'll react. We will keep as the news comes comes in but we wanted to at least give something now jamie are are you as doom and gloom as dave excuse me well i mean it most likely he's going to go on short term ir i mean just based on what you know about this injury you know midfoot sprain um it's a it's a tough situation and look you know you never know what jacksonville's aspirations are but i would imagine they want to make sure that their first round pick their second first round pick is not going to rush back on the field in a season where they're not going to be a super bowl contender so why why risk it so i i would assume that they're going to take their time with this again Again, I would think short term. My R is the,

is the first thing you'll hear maybe the entire season. So I'm not ready to say don't draft him yet today, but by the end of the day, that could certainly change. And if that changes, like I moved Robinson into the round four range, I think round three is, is probably it's,

it's a little on the high side, but it's, it's, he's going to be close to that. For whatever stupid reason, they're going to use Carlos Hyde because they're stupid, which is going to be frustrating to watch. Well, there's the stupid reason right there.

Yeah, I guess so. I don't think James Robinson is in as good of a place as he was last year because he was so much the focal point. But he's pretty close to that you know so this this is encouraging for you know anybody who drafted you know i've i've done i think like five or six uh drafts already that are being played out and so i went last night just to take a look at the people who drafted james robinson and and you know those are the ones that that you

you say oh wow they they drafted a third running back that now could be easily a starter for them. So those are the ones that benefit. And then you just feel bad for the people that drafted Travis Etienne. So right now with Daryl Henderson... That offense looks absolutely awful. Yeah, it looks terrible. He's playing without three of their starting offensive lines.

Yeah, and two of them may be hurt to start the season too. So it's not exactly hurt. But they do look bad. And the second week, they looked really bad in the preseason. But their backups look awesome. They were horrible last year. They had one of the worst scoring offenses last year. And there actually, believe it or not,

has been at least one top 12 running back on a team that was bottom five in scoring. Six straight years. Todd Gurley in 2015, then Jordan Howard, then Jordan Howard and Duke Johnson the following year. Duke Johnson only in PPR. Then David Johnson the following year.

Then Joe Mixon in 2019. He was number 12 in non-PPR, number 13 in full PPR. And then last year, James Robinson and Melvin Gordon, who was 12 and 9 and 13 and full. So we've seen guys, if you can dominate touches on a bad offense, a bottom-five offense, you can still finish top 12. You're not going to finish top 5, but you can still finish top 12,

and that's what Robinson did last year. But he really dominated carries. I mean, it was basically nobody getting carries other than Robinson last year. Daria Gumbawale, I think, had 32. He was second on the team, and almost all of his came when Robinson was out in the last couple of games of the season. So, Darrell Henderson or James Robinson, if you were drafting today,

and, you know, people might be drafting today, so that's why I'm doing this podcast, but we will know hopefully more about ETN soon and the severity of the injury, but would you rather take Darrell Henderson, who has a mild thumb sprain, reportedly won't miss week one, or James Robinson?

If ETN is out, then Robinson. If ETN is going to play at some point this season, then I'll take Henderson. So you're saying if ETN is out for the year. What if he's out the first six weeks? If he's on any sort of IR, I'll take Robinson. If he's not on IR and they're going to play it out

where he can try and come back, then I'd take Henderson. I may reluctantly agree if somehow ETN is going to be back in a couple of weeks, maybe a month, but I don't think this is a good look for Henderson because he's dealt with nagging injuries before. They just lost one of their other

running backs to an injury. So they've got a potential roster spot open for them to bring in another running back. So is Jacksonville if they put ETN on IR? No, I'm talking about the Rams. I know, but so does Jacksonville. They have the opportunity to bring another running back too.

Yeah, that's true, but they're not going to find another running back quite like ETN. So I'm not sure what they would do. But the Rams would? No, the Rams have very little depth behind Daryl Henderson that they can look at and say, all right, that's reliable. That's consistent experience that they can count on. So I wonder if this is something that's just going to make those coaches say,

all right, screw it, let's call a veteran. Or maybe they make a trade for Latavius Murray or something like that. I don't know, I'm just spitballing here. But I think the Rams aren't done with shaping their running back room yet. And that makes me a little nervous about Henderson. Okay, so if you're looking at the later running backs, Carlos Hyde, Xavier Jones, Jake Funk, who's the highest ranked of those three?

Still Xavier Jones. Sorry, I was singing the Brodus Club. Oh my gosh. Guys, breaking news. Today is Xavier Jones' birthday. Nice. Yes. Happy birthday.

He's going to be rewarded by being the first team running back in practice. That's right. Yesterday was Taysom Hill's birthday, and he didn't get to start, and they lost the job. He lost the starting job. I like Xavier Jones with the guys you said. Do we have to? Yeah, but Hyatt is going to have a role,

and I do wonder... Yeah, but he's not exciting. No. The only way he becomes interesting in fantasy is if Robinson gets hurt. This is going to be the annoying player to deal with this year, is Carlos Hyatt. Who has a third down roll for Jacksonville?

It'll be Robinson. Hopefully it's Robinson. This is very good news for LaVisca Chennault. For anybody who's concerned about ETN stealing that job, you know, more slot opportunities

if that was going to be a case. But they got to protect Trevor Lawrence a little bit better. He's got to look a little better and those guys got to do a little bit better overall. All right. So week one is at Houston.

Miles Gaskin or James Robinson? Again, if ETN is on any sort of IR, I will take Robinson. If not, I'll take Gaskin. And I'm assuming that ETN will be on one of those IRs, so Robinson's ahead of Gaskin for me. Hopefully we'll have more information for you later and be able to talk about it in our Wednesday episode. We always record a day early, so that's why we're not recording in the morning.

I didn't want to go a full day without reacting to this um then in that case marquez calloway or cory davis davis uh i think i like calloway a little bit better yeah you have you know hopefully a six a five game window of calloway being the number one guy there and then you know we'll see uh davis can be the number one guy for the Jets, so I'll take him. Man, Callaway looks so good. He looked good against the bad defense's backups. He looked good last week, too, against Baltimore, and he had his moments last year.

He's a good player. He's doing that without anybody healthy around him. I know. I worry that people are really overrating Corey Davis in a major way. And they're not doing that to Marcus Callaway? I think both of these guys are at best mid-round picks. Oh, for sure. But I've seen people

talk about Corey Davis like he's a round six pick. Yeah, but we had that conversation yesterday. Now, if we had the same conversation with the same Twitter polls, I would imagine Marcus Callaway is going to be ahead of Juju Smith-Jester, too. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know because of Michael Thomas. Michael Thomas lurks.

But anyway, somebody maybe can help you get off to a good start. Thomas has to worry about Callaway. It's not the other way around. Thomas has to worry about Callaway? Thomas has to worry about Callaway. Dave Richard. He's not going to go away with Michael Thomas. Dave Richard.

What does that mean? I am telling you. It's not the other way around. You can do this. Michael Thomas is Dave Richard. What does that mean? I am telling you. What is that? Michael Thomas. Calloway is not going to go away when Michael Thomas comes back. It's going to be an interesting offense. And James is a downfield thrower. Now you're just laughing for show.

You're a better actor than your cousins right now. Calloway. I'm not saying he's going to be better than Thomas, but Thomas isn't going to be this superstar target getter that he's been the past couple of years. How is he going to get his work? I just wanted to clarify what you meant, not that Callaway was going to be better than Michael Thomas. No, I'm still drafting Thomas ahead of Callaway

and Thomas ahead of Corey Davis, too. But you're saying that when Thomas gets back, he will have to contend with a number two receiver. He's not going to get 10 targets a game every single week. Okay. All right. That's it for to get 10 targets a game every single week. Okay. All right. That's it for this bonus pod. Thanks for listening, everybody.

We have got the most polarizing players in fantasy football dropping tomorrow, and we'll keep you updated on any major news, obviously, as it breaks. For Dave Richard and Jamie Eisberg, I'm Adam Azer, and we'll talk to you tomorrow on FFT.