Fantasy Football Today - FFT Dynasty - 2024 NFL Draft RB Prospects Part 2 with Emory Hunt (04/12 Fantasy Football Dynasty Podcast)

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Tune in to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty, where host Heath Cummings and draft expert Emory Hunt dissect the 2024 NFL Draft (2:35) prospects! With Heath's seasoned fantasy expertise and Emory's deep scouting knowledge, we bring you a powerhouse duo to navigate the dynasty landscape. We review the top 5 overall prospects (5:45) and Emory gives his favorite of the bunch and includes two of his most (9:20) underrated prospects. Discover which rookies are primed for immediate impact, including Marshawn Lloyd (12:15), Ray Davis (17:10), Bucky Irving (22:48), Audric Estime (29:15), and Will Shipley (35:16). Can they be long-term dynasty assets? Then we dive into a familiar name, Frank Gore Jr. (39:40) Can he follow in his father's footsteps to become a fantasy stable? And finally, what everyone is waiting for, Emory gives his deep (41:40) sleepers, including Dylan Laube, Jaden Shirden, Tyrone Tracy, and others. Get ahead of the competition and elevate your dynasty team to championship status! 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

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Gold tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially,

giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations, or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. welcome to fantasy football today dynasty i am your host heath cummings and we are here for rookie running back preview part two we have the man that is better equipped to do that just about anybody else emory hunt you know him on Twitter, at FBallGameplan. I think that's the way Adam Azer said it on Wednesday. I liked that.

Emory, what is up? Thank you for being here. Nah, pleasure being on the show, man. You guys do a lot of fantastic work. I gave you guys all your flowers on my dentist and how he loves you guys and is a loyal listener. So it's a pleasure to be on the show. Emory, I want you to just take a moment here

at the very top because I want people to know how much work and effort you've put into this class. Tell them a little bit about your draft guide and where they can find it. Listen, and this is a cool part about, I don't want to say cool part, but this is kind of the benefit of what COVID kind of helped us out because we were all able to sit down in 2020. And that allowed me to put out a digital draft guide. Cause at first I used to throw all this information out on YouTube and really didn't have context to what I was saying, right. In terms of like, Hey, here's my number one ranked player. And it just had a number grade on the side, but with the draft guy, you can actually see strengths areas of improvements.

So if you've been purchasing a draft guide since 2020, right now you are sitting on over 4,300 individual scouting reports. And this year's draft guide has over 900 players because a lot of guys went back to school. And we're excited about it. It's a three-month process, probably my most taxing process, including calling games and all throughout what you see me do during the season. So putting this together, this draft guide, traveling to all the different nine all-star games is fun. So folks can go pick that up at footballgameplan.com slash 2024 draft guide. It's the best information out there. Biggest draft guide you could find because it has all individual scouting reports, no list.

900. Did you say 900 players holy go get go get that draft guide folks on today's show we will be talking about running back six through ten by current dynasty league football rookie adp those are marshawn lloyd ray davis bucky irving audrick estime i think i said that right this time. And Will Shipley. We're also going to go into, in just a moment here, Emory's running back evaluation process. And then if we have a little bit of time at the end of the show, we'll get into some of those running back sleepers that you might be able to find in round three or round four of your rookie

drafts. But Emory, we start every show with three questions for our guests. And I do want to just start with kind of what, what is your process for evaluating these running backs as they make the transition from college to the NFL? Listen, it's, um, it's unique because being as old as I am, yeah, I'm 42. Um, you're seeing, you've seen the transition over time right where it used to be all about can this guy carry the ball 20 to 25 times a game um and now you're starting to see you start to think in terms of okay this is a tandem backfield type of a guy rarely are you seeing now uh the solo king henry types where you dot the I and that's your guy, right?

Because these guys going back to high school, even in peewee leagues are not being conditioned that way anymore. So you're getting the fact that a lot of these guys that we're talking about in the last three or four drafts, you find a rare nugget that can be a solo guy. But for the most part, we're talking about guys that's going to work in a tandem. And so that's how they're conditioned. And also in a way kind of altered their vision a little bit because they're playing you know on side of the quarterback more so than behind the quarterback so they're really

seeing front side as opposed to tackle to tackle how we used to know the position to be so there is some adjustment adjustment for some of these guys because a lot of times the NFL may ask you to play behind, but for the most part, you're playing onside, so you're used to it. That's why we're also seeing this position as always, as it has been, one of the easier transitions to make going from college to pro. I do want to ask a follow-up to that because on Tuesday, part one of the running back preview, I asked this question to J Zachariasen, and I want to get your take on it. The consensus opinion has seemed to be that this is a pretty down year for the

running back class. If you agree with that, is it because there's not really a true workhorse back or because there are not guys that possess elite skills? Are there some elite skills out there, just not guys that compare multiple elite skills? That's a great question. And I do feel like it's a little bit of both. Last year, we're talking about Gibbs and Bijan, um, because they had the elite skills, they had elite traits, they had explosive traits, and it was just a combination of all of those things, right? Uh, this year, one guy may have one thing. Another guy may have another. But rarely do you see one has see one has the full package. And you have more questions about this group as opposed to last year's group. And it's not to say that there's not starters in this group, but this is the class where you can say we can probably wait until day two to take a running back as opposed to saying how where will a B.

John Robinson go or where will a Jameer Gibbs go? Kind of like that. So it's about what we've seen this year in college and the completeness of a person's game, juxtaposed to elite talents at receiver elite talents at tackle and that's going to and quarterback as well it's going to push everything down in terms of the running back position awesome stuff awesome stuff so question two now even though it's question three on tuesday we talked about the top five guys in terms of current dynasty rookie adp and those names right now are trey benson jonathan brooks jay Wright, Blake Corum, and Braylon Allen. That order is going to change a lot after the draft.

I know it's not necessarily your top five, but I do wonder, since we're not really going to get into those guys today, I do want your opinion. How would you rank or tier that group of running backs? You know, I still like Braylon Allen number one. And the reason why I like him number one is his youth. Stu started college at what, 17 years old and was toting a rock at 17 in the Big Ten. And people see 6'1", 240 and think he's a plotter. But I feel like he has very quiet footwork and underrated acceleration. And I'm not making this comparison as a one-to-one, but his style is sort of like Derrick Henry, where it doesn't look fast, but you rarely see him get walked down. Now, Allen is not as fast as Henry, but the same running style in terms of a deceptive acceleration and allows him to rip these long runs that we saw him rip off in college. But I feel like when you look at this, and we'll get to my number two guy here on the back end of this six through 10 that we're going to talk about. That's Marshawn Lloyd. But I feel like when you brought up two of the backs and this is the common theme for a lot of these guys,

some of these guys, Jonathan Brooks and also Trey Benson, you have knee injury history. And we know the league kind of wants to find every reason to pay you less. Right. And I will say this about Jonathan Brooks, though. I interviewed him at the combine and I even it was so it was he was so smooth and such a smooth walker. I forgot he tore his ACL. I didn't even ask him about it because there was no noticeable limp.

There was no brace. There was no scarring that you kind of make, oh, wow, he had a knee injury. He walked perfectly fine. And I like the fact that Benson saw himself get back to what we saw from him at Oregon. I spoke with him at the combine as well. And he talked about, you know, how he dealt with the depression of getting injured and really didn't feel like himself until this past season. So you'd like that he's slowly getting back on that trajectory of being what he was coming out of high school, which was an insane, insanely explosive talent. You saw some of that explosiveness in bursts this year at Florida State.

So you'd like that they're on the upswing in terms of injury. And then, you know, you think about those guys and you're like, OK, this is a you know, this is a situation where they could have some some opportunities here. And I'm also a big Isaiah Davis fan of South Dakota State with my number three back. You know, the reason why I like him, he's played in a tandem. He was behind Pierre Strong his freshman year at South Dakota State, but he was arguably the one that garnered a lot of interest from scouts as a freshman because, like, man, who's his backup? And they went to the national championship game against Sam Houston, and he had a huge run. And then you saw him just consistently add to his game throughout the course of his career.

Ended up at the Senior Bowl. Shows you how much talent he had and put out there on film at South Dakota State. I love that answer. And I love the fact that you kind of answered question three. Who's your favorite running back in this class that I've not mentioned yet? That's going to be Isaiah Davis. So let's give people a bonus answer. You know the names that we talked about last

week in the top five. You know who we're talking about today in the top ten. We've got Isaiah Davis. Give me one more back that we're not going to talk about today that you really like. Isaiah Garindo or Isaac Garindo. And here's why. If you like Jalen Wright, then you should also like

Garindo because they both have explosive homer and hitting speed and both kind of and here's how they can affect i don't know how this affects fantasy football but here's how they can affect the game this season right right away with the new kickoff rule you know these are guys you want handling the kickoff because now you can create blocking real like run play blocking assignments up front and you want someone back there that has the vision of reading things out being patient and then exploding through a hole as a lane pops open right has that home run hitting speed garendo has that home run hitting speed and a guy like a jayden

sherton out of mama has that home run hitting speed so we may see it go back to the old school way of letting the tailback return kickoffs. And a guy like Garindo had kickoff return experience at Wisconsin. He's six feet 220. Kind of reminds me of like Michael Turner, the burner. And remember how Michael Turner started his career with San Diego. He was a kickoff returner, then played behind, you know, Sproles and LT. Then he gets the opportunity to start a couple games,

kind of wild people, and got that big contract with the Falcons and had a really good career with Atlanta. So it's possible for these guys, like Jalen Wright and also Garendo, to start as dynamic kickoff returners and then see a lane open up for them as potential RB2s or even RB1 in some situations. You mentioned that kick return and the change. I've been a proponent for a long time of incorporating kickoff return yards,

punt return yards, kickoff return touchdowns into fantasy football. I have a few leagues that do. There's a lot of people that push back about it. But those yards and touchdowns count in a real football game just the same way they do if they're from scrimmage. So I'm hopeful that with these new rules, we get more kickoffs, people get more into it. Maybe we do see that factoring into fantasy football scoring in more leagues. Let's take a short break and then we will jump into RB6 through 10 according to current rookie ADP.

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We are going to RB6, but not RB6 for you, RB2 for you. It's Marshawn Lloyd, running back out of USC, 22 years old, 5'9", 220 pounds, got that 4'4 speed. Is this guy, as your second favorite running back in the class, a potential feature back in the NFL? I do think he has starter potential. I compare this game to Aaron Jones. I feel like he has the right fluidity that you want to run with. Everything just seems like it fits, almost like how you draw it up on a whiteboard where, okay, we're going to run this 34 lead and the guard is going to kick out the three tech and the fullback is going to lead on the backer, and it's going to pop open right here.

And he hits it at the same time as it's opening up. What shocked me about him was you're studying him, you're watching him, you're thinking, okay, now my running back grades were done before the combine. So I'm watching him, and I'm like, oh, wow, this dude plays like he looks 5'11", 225. He told me if he was 5'11", 215, I would have, I would have like, yeah, that checks out. It looks smart. Then we measured in at the senior bowl, like 5'9", 205. I was like, wow.

Like, I didn't realize that he plays a little bit bigger than his size in a good way. But he has the ability to hit the home run. He's fluid. I think he's very underrated as a receiver. And I, I do feel like he is someone that can end up being a starter. But again, this is the type of guys you can get outside of round one, which is why I think there's tremendous value in this class in terms of running backs. This is a strong physical back as well, right? Like, I think when we look at this, there's really two key roles to have in terms of fantasy football.

You want the guy who's going to be handling the rock inside the 10, inside the five at the goal line scoring touchdowns. And then you want the guys because so much of fantasy football has gone towards PPR. You want the guy who's on the field on third downs, the guy who's involved in the passing game. It looked to me like from Lloyd's profile, he's more likely to have that short yardage red zone role than he is the third down passing downs role. Would you agree with that? And he also excelled at South Carolina in that capacity. So you look at him going out to USC and building on that gives you that impression that you got, which is true. And the unique thing about him and this is this is one of the criticisms about him.

He is one of those guys that feels like he has to hit the hole right away. And you'll see him at times running to the back of his lineman and then it'll work out for him. Go watch the game against Colorado. You'll see that play out on one on one of his lineman, and then it'll work out for him. Go watch the game against Colorado. You'll see that play out on one of his long touchdown runs. Ran right to the back of the lineman, then reversed his field and went down the sideline for like a 45-yard touchdown run. Now, granted, it's Colorado's defense. So you could do that against Colorado's defense last year.

But those are some of the things that are going to have to really slow down his process to where he can rip off more runs from distance. Now, I assume for all these guys, we're hoping for day two draft capital. We can deal with day three for several of them, but is there a system or a team where you think that Lloyd would really thrive? Is there a certain running back run game philosophy that you think fits Lloyd better really thrive? Is there a certain running back, run game philosophy that you think fits Lloyd better than others?

I mean, before they picked up Aaron Jones, I mean, Minnesota would have been perfect for him. But, you know, but Aaron Jones went to the Raiders, right? No, to Minnesota. To Minnesota, right? So that would have been a perfect spot.

It still could be a perfect spot for him for a guy like Lloyd. And here's the thing. It still could be a perfect spot for him for a guy like Lloyd. And here's the thing. New Orleans could be a spot because I feel like with Alvin Kamara, he needs someone that could take the pressure away from him so he can beat Alvin Kamara. Denver could be a spot. Sean Payton needs someone that he can kind of count on

as everyone else around him seems to be more of the complimentary guy even you know the big back out of unc i feel like those guys would probably be best suited as a rb2 as opposed to leading off uh in the backfield so it sounds like somebody who it might be good if he starts off in a situation where he can have that clear early downs role be the hammer in the offense score the touchdowns and then maybe develop more as a pass catcher as it, as his career goes on. Well, here's the thing.

And that's why I love going to the different all-star games because, because guys don't, you know, get involved in a passing game in college doesn't mean they can't catch, you know, they just wasn't used that way. So when you're watching at these all-star games, that's your opportunity to,

to jot down how they catch the football, how comfortable they are catching the ball away from his body. And he was checking out all those boxes. So I'm not worried about him as a receiver moving forward. I think that is very encouraging to people because there are a lot of people who are evaluating these guys. And when they look at the receiving numbers, they're either going to look at the receptions or they'll look at that target share as a part of the team. And those numbers for Lloyd don't make you think of somebody who's going to be more involved in the passing game. So good news, Emory Hunt says he does possess those skills.

Hopefully we see them get used a little bit more in the NFL. Let's take a look now at RB6 in the current rookie ADP. That is Ray Davis out of Kentucky, another shorter back, we'll say 5'8 to 11, 24 years old, 4'5 speed. This guy did have a little bit more experience as a receiver, right? Yeah. And that's someone that has top-notch elusiveness. I like his ability to make a guy miss. And that's what you need when you are looking at a back of shorter stature. You want to be, you have the natural low center of gravity and you're able to change directions rather quickly. The problem with, with Davis is the

obvious one that you brought up is the age, right? So you kind of wonder, okay, you know, what's his ceiling. Can we get four years of high level play from him? And will teams overlook, you know, his size and say, OK, if we get this guy in as an older player, where does he fit in? Is he more along the lines of a Dion Lewis or, you know, James White? Or is it someone that we need to feed him carries? And I think that's a question that you know teams are gonna have to ask themselves when they pick up a ray davis but the vision elusiveness the ability to make a guy miss he doesn't need volume even though he got volume at kentucky so i think that kind of helps him out

um but it's tough when you're thinking about from let's say from a fantasy football perspective i know it's year to year but dynasty is like right looking at it long term okay how much bang for my buck am i gonna get for a ray davis is it gonna be a you know grabbing and entry grabbing stash or you know dash or kind of like i can trust that he's gonna be a guy for for me for at least four seasons so that that right there is tough to call but you like the talent. His is going to be really dependent on situation. Yeah. And I think that's why it kind of surprises me that Davis is at seven at this age. And maybe we're just early enough in the process where a lot of people aren't thinking that way. I almost think I'd like him better if he falls into day three

and maybe falls a little bit in rookie drafts because he does seem like the type of player. And I'll make kind of two different comparisons. First, we've had several of the day three backs who come in as rookies and really help a team out and make a fantasy impact. And then by year two, they've been disappeared. Thanos snapped the fingers. They're not really hugely involved in the NFL. But at Davis at 24 years old, maybe a little more mature than some of the other guys, maybe more well-equipped to come in and make an impact if there's an injury in year

one and then kind of disappear. The other thing I was going to ask you about, we had three backs last year and they're, they're different types of running backs. They're different levels of skill, but we were talking about them as kind of a scale last year, Devon HN, Keaton Mitchell, Jaleel McLaughlin. Those three backs don't really still profile as the kind of guy that's going to touch the ball 20 times in a game very often, but they're so good on a per-touch basis that they can matter for us in fantasy football with 10 or 12 touches. Davis can be that kind of guy, right? Well, here's a special thing about Davis that it doesn't count for fantasy, but it kind of

does count for fantasy because he's going to get his butt on the field. He is very good in pass pro. So we know teams love to trust guys that can block, right? He knows who to block and he does a great job of getting in the way and executing the block. So that's going to get him on the field

on third down and kind of have him sustain a role to where, okay, well, if he could block, OK, let's throw him a couple of passes. OK, wow. He can catch. We know he can run. Let's kind of leave him out there for a series or two and see how it goes. Right. And that's how you kind of see those guys weave their way into a sustained role. Now, he's not as explosive as Keaton Mitchell. He's not as, you know, super dynamic as a Jahliel McLaughlin, but he's talented. He's well-rounded. He can catch. He can block. He's a smart football player. He just has to get a little bit stronger, but you can do that moving forward. I like the fact that he can block. Maybe in that sense, he does have some fantasy value because we know that's going to get you

on the field. One of the things I've said in the past about somebody like DeAndre Swift is, and you noticed it in Philadelphia last year, if you've got a hole that's five yards wide, I want the ball in DeAndre Swift's hands because of what he's going to do with that open space. If I've got a hole that's like six inches wide, I'd like to have somebody else because they're going to get into that gap. I've seen so many highlight videos of him just making a fool out of a defensive back or a linebacker in the open field. How does he do when things are a little bit muddier and tighter spaces? Well, because of that elusiveness.

And that's why I like DeAndre Swift in that class. He was my RB1. And here's the thing. You know, a lot of times coaching can coach the playmaking out of a player and say, hey, man, you got to hit that hole. Right. You know, but sometimes the playmakers mindset is like I can get around that hole and make it happen. We saw this. We saw this clash with Reggie Bush and Sean Payton at first when Bush was losing carries to a Pierre Thomas or Deuce McAllister who was excellent, by the way. Man, he drafted Reggie

because he's Reggie. He could do that. The average back can't, but Ray Davis I feel like is shorter, smaller enough to where he can squirt through the hole. You see this a lot with Blake Corham, too. He can find a way to make a way through a muddy area.

But you hope he goes to a coast that doesn't coast the playmaking out of him because you see that a lot. That is Ray Davis out of Kentucky. Let's move on to RB8. I'd be interested to know where Bucky Irving was before the NFL combine. That wasn't the best day in his life so far. But Bucky Irving, frat of Oregon, 5'9", 192, 21 years old. That's a good thing.

The speed, 4'5", may be a little bit disappointing. Maybe we should start with how much did the combine change your opinion of him, if at all, or is it just about how much it's going to change certain nfl teams opinions about him it's going to change nfl teams about because you know again my grades were done my running back grades were done before the combine so i had bucky irvin behind blake horne um and it was funny because it's a situation where your eyes can deceive you to where you're looking at him and you're like, oh, boy, he's moving fast. But he's moving fast. He's not really going anywhere, right?

It's like he's more quick than fast. Everything is moving fast. You kind of like a little bit like Isaiah Pacheco where you like, man, he's running fast. I know he's not. He's just moving real fast. But Irvin is more quick than fast. So, and I think people just expected him to run his blazing 4-3. But when you combine his quickness and his elusiveness and his ability to hit the hole,

there is a situation for him to be a spot guy, right? Like the Jaleel McLaughlin for a team. And he has been someone that has been able to tote the rock as a feature back for Oregon, right? And so that's something that has value. But if you can get past the explosive speed, yeah, 4'5 is still rather fast. You know what I'm saying? It's not like 4'3, but he's more quicker than he is faster than other backs in the class and i do feel

like he has some room to you know play small he has a you know you could be small but you can't play small right so sometimes he goes down on on an arm tackle like he has to be able to run through that and that's where you kind of separate the because this is a lot of shorter backs in this class a lot of five seven guys in this class, even though he came in at five, nine, about one 95, you can't play small.

And I think that's the area where he's going to have to grow. And it is a guy who was used extensively in the passing game. 53 catches his last year at Oregon. How much of that is Oregon? And how much of that is that he has the skillset to really be a great pass catcher as a running back? I mean, hell, they're one in the same. Because we see this with Dylan Loughby out of New Hampshire. If they're spamming targets to you, you can't help but catch them, right?

Otherwise, they're going to stop throwing you the ball. So, yeah, we're going to give you 15 targets. Obviously, he's comfortable catching the football. So why not? It's the most efficient pass play to dumping off to a back that has elusiveness. to give you 15 targets like he obviously he's comfortable catching a football so why not it's the most efficient pass play to dumping off to a back that has elusiveness why not and so you you can't you can't knock him forward you you kind of it enhances what he what he does now can he be developed into a downfield runner we talked to bijan robinson at the combine last year and i

asked him about how he was able to develop as a downfield threat. He said, well, after practice, me and my running backs coach and receivers coach used to practice running routes like downfield threat. So that's a teachable skill for Bucky Urban. But he already has the ability to catch the ball. So you kind of like that about him because, again, he caught so much at Oregon. His size is pass protection a problem or is he okay at that as well? Well, you can't play small. You already know what that means for pass pro.

Like, he's going to try to cut block everything. So he's very much a liability right now. And let me say this, too, for running backs, it's not that running backs are afraid to block. It's that two things one nobody wants to get run over and get laughed at in the film room right so you always have that in your mind but but most importantly it's technique so guys are jumping away but their feet are not set their hands are out here and they just get run over so if you give, and sometimes they may not know who to block. Like they may,

they may be able to execute the block, but they may not know who, which Mike, which backer is blitzing and may jump in the wrong gap. And the guy calls blitzes across the other way. And it's like, now you out, now you see him reaching and trying to get back across the formation.

So it's a lot of technical issues and knowing who to block for, for urban. I do feel like him getting stronger, him getting better technique and him being a little bit more confident when he makes contact. Like sometimes guys make contact and it's just no different than a fly hitting a windshield, right?

You got to really be assertive in your contact. If you get run over cool, but at least you were able to occupy him for at least a second or two gives the quarterback enough time to maybe hit a pass downfield i last last thing on bucky ring and we'll see if you you agree with this it's kind of a statement kind of a question rb8 still he's fallen a little bit since the combine rb8 i think still probably too high in this class based on what's going to happen on draft day is this the type of

guy that we could not just be on day three but a little later into day three saying oh we thought he'd be gone by now now i think he again we kind of alluded to it and i wish it had fantasy value but his kickoff return um background is huge and so we just talked about how getting a guy that has a running back you know that has a running back, you know, that is a running back to return kickoffs, especially if he has kickoff return in his history, Bucky Irvin is going to go early on day three because of that reason, because now he's an added asset to help a football team as a rookie on special teams. But as far as fantasy is concerned, that doesn't help you much right now.

Great stuff for Memory Hut. Let's take a short break and we'll get back with RB9 and RB10. With Smartwater's pure crisp taste, there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be spiraling over double texting your crush, whether your skincare routine is working because you look the same or is doing nothing because you look the same and whatever the heck red light therapy is it's definitely not that don't overthink how you hydrate life's full of choices smart water is a simple one metro links and cross links are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals.

Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. I'm not sure there's a bigger juxtaposition than the guy we talked about before the break, Bucky Irving, and the guy we're going to talk about next, Audrick Estime out of Notre Dame, 5'11", 221. This dude's big and strong, still just 20 years old, but like 4 or seven speed basically, right? Did score 30 touchdowns over the last two seasons. This guy seems like just solely a hammer. Yeah, and to his credit, he did run four or five at his pro day.

So, yeah, you know, he was able to improve that time. What I like about Estimate is I think he has underrated vision, you know, and, and so if you could see it, your eyes will lead your feet there as well. He has very underrated footwork for such a bigger back. Now he's not explosive, uh, speed wise, but he is someone that can kind of be that pace setter. So if you, if you're thinking, thinking I'm going to use three different backs here and to compare him to he's he's a less explosive version of A.J. Dillon, but he's also sort of have the he has a vision and footwork of a Deontay Foreman. And we saw him have some success and he's kind of built like Jordan Howard. So when you think about those three backs, it screams, okay, we're going to pair him up with a Bucky Irvin or with, you know,

Dylan Lobby or a Will Shipley and get the best out of both guys. Because I do feel like what he was able to put out on film is, is impressive, especially when you watch him against Duke, when you watch him against Notre Dame and I'm sorry, against Clemson. And you watch him be able to pick and slide his way through, find an open lane.

And yeah, he's a one cut downhill accelerator, but those are the type of guys that nobody wants to tackle for 60 minutes. And so they're going to he's going to have a 21 carry 98 yard game and be very productive in that role. You worry about his ability to catch the football consistently. And that's that's where fantasy gets in the play is like, OK, well, I mean, I have the receiving upside, but he may be the one that get the start in the game and be the lead dog. Like if he goes to Tennessee and they pair him up with a Tajay Spears or he goes to New

York and they pair him up with a Devin Singletary, then the value starts to shift a little bit. Right. I think it's, you know, that's a complicated relationship that fantasy managers have with that trio, AJ D dionte foreman and jordan howard so i want to get into the the less explosive aj dylan because he has some traits i would assume also that because a less explosive aj dylan with all of the rest of aj dylan's traits probably not playing in the nfl for very long what are the things that you would say that he's better than aj dylan and um his footwork is a little bit cleaner. I

was able to go scout Dillon live up at Boston College, and Dillon as a younger player was legit like, man, you got to make somebody miss, bro. You just can't plow into human bodies consistently over the course of a game.

And then him as a later player, as a junior, as an upperclassman, it was like, okay, he dropped a little bit weight because he was legit 250. He dropped some weight. He was sort of built like Braylon Allen, but Braylon Allen had the footwork of a smaller back. Dylan was able to get that later in his career at Boston College, and he looked better later than he did earlier.

Estime already has that footwork. But the issue is, and the same thing right now with Dylan, both are primarily frontside, playside runners. So if it's 34 zone, they're hitting a four hole. You know what I'm saying? They're not going to work you know the seven hole or five hole you said 34 coach i am going to the 30 i'm going 34 i'm going right side and that's where if you beat these guys to the spot first they're kind of dead in the water but if they beat you to

the spot and they're able to pick up that momentum that's when we see the big bruising runs of them either squirting past a linebacker or running through arm tackles in the lane. So I know I mentioned it already. He's 20 years old. You mentioned Braylon Allen, your number one running back. Part of that equation is that he's still just 20 years old. The age for these running backs, is it entirely about how long their runway is in the NFL, or is it easier to project growth from a skills perspective for a guy with less experience, a 20-year-old versus somebody who might be 23 or 24? It's more about the runway because the skill is a skill. Really, the only things you can improve on as a pro is technique. So we talked about that with blocking. You can become a little bit more comfortable catching the football, but it's still maybe not as natural.

But blocking is where you kind of see the biggest growth, even route running. Guys getting better at running option routes is somewhere we can see growth within a player. But you're really talking about the runway. If I get a running back that's 20, you feel like, okay, I can get seven good, solid seasons out of him. The problem, the two backs that we're talking about that are 20 are technically considered bruisers, right? So their game is like you look at, okay, we may have seven years of production, but they may be closer to their ceiling as is a 24-year-old smaller Ray Davis, right? Because of how they run. So you want to see them develop a little bit more wiggle.

And I'm glad this is one thing Jerome Bettis talked about the difference between LA Ram, Jerome Bettis and Pittsburgh, still a Jerome Bettis. He realized his second year in LA, like I can't keep doing this at this rate. So when he got to Pittsburgh, he dropped a little bit of weight and developed a little bit more wiggle, which kind of helped him not take as many direct shots. That's where these guys would have to really develop their game. I think Allen does it a little bit better right now than Estime.

Excellent, excellent stuff. One more running back, RB10 by current ADP, Will Shipley out of Clemson, 5'11", 206, 21 years old, good speed at 4'4", had 69 catches over his last two seasons. Let's just start here because we've talked about 10 running backs now. At RB10, is that too high, too low, or just about right for Will Shipley? I feel like it's just about right because when we watch Will Shipley over the course of his career at Clemson, you always wonder, we knew he was a good receiver. We knew he had good versatility. You could line him up in a slot. You could have him return kicks and punts. He has good quickness, good elusiveness. But as a running back, he always

left a lot of meat on the table, a lot of meat on the bones, right, as they say. And I just feel like it just wasn't like, okay, can they get better at tailback? And we saw the backup, who's going to be in the 2025 draft class, look a hell of a lot better just from a pure running back standpoint. But from an all-purpose standpoint, you can't take Shipley off the field because he's so good at a lot of different things. And I think that's going to be his lane as a pro. It's like he's the Power Five version of Dylan Lauby, right? Because how New Hampshire used Lauby is how Clemson started to ultimately use Shipley.

And I feel like that's how Shipley is going to be utilized as a pro. You could even look at, you know, how teams use. We love to talk about the James White and the Dion Lewis's. And there's a reason why those guys had like long careers as, you know, movable pieces. I feel like Shipley can do just that. So Shipley, a very good pass catcher, also very good in pass protection. Yeah, and that's one area where I think he was underrated because that kind of got him on the field early as a freshman.

He's not afraid to get in there and get his head, you know, right in the chest of a linebacker. He'll hold his own enough to where the quarterback can get the ball off. So he wasn't a liability. And when you're able to not only block, it kind of calms the pass rush that they can they're not going to blitz you as much they'll try but by him being so dynamic as a receiver now you just slip him out on the scat pattern and it's like okay dang we got to abandon blitz and so now you've given the quarterback more time in that regard plus you got an ideal matchup with him versus a backer one-on-one

so we've talked about three backs today that we think are going to be pretty good pass catchers ray davis bucky irving will shipley i want you to put your nfl gm hat on what order are you drafting these guys in the nfl draft because that will have a really big impact on what order we draft them in terms of fantasy football adding all right so adding the nfl draft hat and adding the context of kickoff returns man it probably would go bucky irvin shipley and then ray davis in that order based off you know the nfl game as opposed to where i have these guys individually graded because you have to factor in who can help me out on special teams. And then you factor in, OK, who can be a downfield threat as a receiver?

And though with those two things as the backdrop, those two players usurp a Ray Davis. OK, that's interesting. I might make it a little bit more complicated for fantasy football players when I value it, because we've leaned pretty heavily on draft capital as how much to the, how, how do these teams value the guys? We assume they're going to give them the ball, but if they're giving them the ball on special teams plays that don't count for fantasy, would you say reversing that order? Because you, you put it in the order that you would draft them as an NFL GM is Ray Davis, the most likely to have a really good season as a rusher? Wow, that's a great question. Probably not, man, because if you're trying to draft it as an NFL

GM, you're probably going to realize if you're drafting Ray Davis, let's say Ray Davis goes to Chicago. He's not going to play over Swift. He's going to be trying to split time with Herbert, right? And that's where things get murky. All right. So Will Shipley, somewhere right in the middle of that group. That's the end of the top 10 by ADP. We talked about a couple of guys that you like maybe better than

some of the guys on this list. I do know we had at least one question already in the chat. I wanted to talk a little bit about some maybe deeper sleepers. And it used to be that the term sleeper was used about guys nobody's talking about. This isn't somebody nobody's talking about. It's not somebody nobody's heard of. And that's partially because of his name and who his dad was. But we had a question in the chat about Frank Gore Jr. So what's your scouting report on him? And what do you think his NFL prospects look like? I thought I wasn't going to be a fan of his game, but watching him do damage to my raging cages throughout the course of his Sunbelt Conference career, He's my fifth back.

And I got to see him play live at the East-West Shrine Bowl. I was thoroughly impressed with his ability as a total playmaker because he can run routes deeper down the field. He has kickoff return ability. He can throw the ball. He threw a couple of touchdown passes in his career like deep touchdown passes because he was a high school quarterback um and he was a lot quicker than anticipated so and he was very durable which is which is you know kind of i mean that's the emma of frank gore right okay that's the genes that's right i was impressed i was like okay i was shocked that he came in at 5'7".

But if you're going to be short at a position, why not be a running back? So I do like him, and I feel like the league liked him as well based off what I was seeing, a lot of the communication, without spilling too much at the East-West Shrine Bowl. They love the kid. He's a football guy because he can talk the game like coaches. Obviously, he has the pedigree from his dad, and he can carve his own way. I think he's probably a better receiver than his dad, to be honest. He does have a very interesting

receiving profile. So at RB5, definitely ahead of a lot of the guys for Emory that we've talked about today. Had two more backs that I see here in the chat, and if I see a couple more, we've got a few more minutes. Dylan Lau, which I think you referenced him, but I'd like to hear a little bit more about what you think of him, and then I might mess this name up, but Kamani Vidal? Yeah, listen.

I'll start with Lau because I called his game against Monmouth, and the other guy, it was fun to watch him and Jaden Sher sherton who was on the other side go toe-to-toe sherton was more of the the runner handoff guy and let him go 80 and lobby was essentially a slot receiver and it was fascinating to watch at first i was like man they're spamming targets to him right it's like first play pass pass pass pass but then you saw him flex out in the slot and it was – and they put a safety on him.

He gave the safety to Blues. I was like, oh, my goodness. Like, you know, he gave him a little shimmy and then was able to break free on the post. The ball didn't go his way. But if you're working safeties like that and you can carry the ball, it's like you might be a problem. You know what I'm saying?

And so he's good. And Vidal, Vidal may not have the long speed, but he has good body control, good balance, which is important for a running back. You don't knock him over. You kind of bump him to the side. He has good interior contact vision to where you see him, sort of like how Jonathan Brooks has this, where you see him make that last second cut, that last little shimmy,

to kind of give himself a little bit more room to fall forward or to really break a tackle. So he's very underrated. He was so productive, but you kind of get into the situation where he was at Troy for five or six years, right? So age could be an issue, but he had a really good senior bowl. He can catch the ball well. He's solid in pass pro.

So you see him getting there and stick his nose in there. I think he is an underrated player, obviously coming from the Sun-Best Conference. You did talk to us about Keaton Mitchell last year. So I'm going to ask before we go here, and if you don't have anybody, we've talked about a lot of backs, that's okay. Is there anybody, any other running back that we've not talked about, not mentioned his name yet on this show that Dynasty managers should be aware of? Well, I kind of dropped his name all throughout and Jaden Sherton out of mind. So put that on your head. That was a free one, right?

But this guy has been garnering a lot of attention on the All-Star game circuit at the HBCU Combine. He had the best workout. He's been good throughout the course of his career at Alcorn State. And that's Jarvion Howard. Came in at 5'9", about 210. He had the best workout. He's been good throughout the course of his career at Alcorn State. And that's Jarvion Howard came in at five, nine, about two, ten, ran low for four high, mid, low, high for four, low for five. Caught the ball extremely well. He is a one cut downhill explosive runner. And he's been garnering a lot of attention, guys. So that's one to keep an eye on. And I was on the broadcast for the Hula Bowl and everyone kind of knows this guy's name now.

But Tyrone Tracy was a former receiver at Iowa, turned running back at Purdue and speaking with him on the sideline at the Hula Bowl. I was like, Hey man, watching you run you run you know you don't look like a guy that just learned how to play running back you look like you've been playing running back your whole life you find some guys that have played running back your whole life that run like receivers and so he bulked up a little bit he's about 5 11 215 so you know he has the hands as a receiver being a former power five wide receiver but now he has the ability and wherewithal to be a runner and ran well all throughout the week of the hula bowl practices and in the game scored a touchdown that's one i feel like could help you out dynasty wise because no one is talking about him from that perspective so i'm gonna set a reminder on my phone for six months, October 12th.

We'll go back, check the last five minutes of the 412 show, see which one of these guys is now, everybody's adding them on the waiver wire, and then give Emory some flowers. Emory, thank you so much. That was a fantastic job. Tell people one more time where they can find your draft guide. Footballgameplan.com slash 2024 draft guide.

It's the largest draft guide in existence, full color PDF. And if you go back and get the guide from 20 to 24, you've gotten 4,300 scouting reports. So not only do you help yourself out in the NFL, but UFL, CFL, be a well-rounded football guy and win a bunch of fantasy leagues across different leagues. That is fantastic stuff, Emery. Thank you to everybody who was in the chat helping us out, giving us suggestions.

Thank you to everybody listening to the podcast. That will do it for our running back previews. We will be back next Tuesday with a couple of special, very special guests to break down the 2024 rookie quarterback class.