Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Gus Edwards Round 3? (08/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 29, 2021

Bid on our Draft-A-Thon items right now to benefit St. Jude! http://cbssports.com/ebay Join our poker tournament to benefit St. Jude! stjude.org/draftathon With J.K. Dobbins out for the season, we talk extensively about Gus Edwards. Why not take Edwards where you were going to take Dobbins? We find out where Dave would draft Edwards and where the listeners would draft him. Also, is Justice Hill worth drafting? And we react to the T.Y. Hilton injury.  '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

All right, welcome to the Emergency Podcast here. J.K. Dobbins out for the season. Gus Edwards played one game without J.K. Dobbins last year. It did not go very well. Nine carries, 10 yards, and a touchdown. Lamar Jackson didn't play in that game, so we'll give him a pass. How about 2019? Gus Edwards played one game without Mark Ingram.

That went very well, well over 100 yards, 21 carries, 130 yards against Pittsburgh in Week 17. We're going to talk about the whole situation here, the landscape at running back, but before, I don't want to bury the lead or anything. Dave Richards here. Dave, where are you ranking Gus Edwards? I currently have him as a low-end No. 2 fantasy running back

that I would be comfortable taking in late round five, early round six. I haven't completed doing all of my research on it, but I can tell you that when I saw him run in the preseason, I want to read you my note verbatim. This is from a run that he had against Carolina. He had a right edge run where he stiffed arm two panthers players to keep going on an earlier play he bowled over another defender and then i wrote man he's good and through three drives the first three drives of a preseason game and this is a game that no one got hurt in this is the one from last week dobbins had eight snaps gus had 10 so he was headed toward working in a pretty significant timeshare with J.K. Dobbins as it was. Now there's a chance that he could end up leading this backfield in a pretty significant

way. And each of the last two seasons, the Ravens have averaged that they've ranked top 13 in running back rushes per game. So there's plenty of meat on the bone here for Gus Edwards if the Ravens believe that he's their best option to go the entire season. Do they make a trade between now and the start of the year? Do they really put that much more on Justice Hill? Is there another running back on the roster who could end up being good? These are all things we're going to need to kind of figure out over the next couple of weeks.

But for now, there will be an obvious gravitation toward Gus Edwards and fantasy drafts. I would say don't overreach form. I wouldn't call him around four pick or why not? I mean, why not? Why not take him? I don't understand.

Why not take him where JK Dobbins was going? Dobbins was the 15th running back off the board. He was around three, maybe around four pick, depending on your format. You'll get into why I'm pretty sure they are going to use another running back. Because they always have. They always have. And we can go back to when Gus Edwards was the starter for seven games down the stretch. He was on pace for like 1,400 rushing yards. He only scored two touchdowns in those seven games. But this was Lamar Jackson's rookie year.

They did turn Gus Edwards loose. And he was good. And that's really where he got on the radar for the Ravens. But he basically had zero catches. I'll give you the exact number. But I don't think... You just said you could take him in round five or six. I'm going to post the poll right now. We'll get some live results. J.K. Dobbins out for the season?

He'll be there? No chance. What round will you be drafting Gus Edwards in? Let's assume Baltimore doesn't add a noteworthy running back. I put round two, round three, round four, or round five or later. I think round three might end up winning here because people are going to say, hey, he's not quite J.K. Dobbins, but he's good. By the way, he's averaged five yards per game. This is a great stat from ESPN.

He's one of two running backs. I got to get the exact stat. Here you go. Gus Edwards is actually from the Elias Sports Bureau, but I read it on ESPN. He's one of only two players in NFL history to produce at least 700 rushing yards and average five yards per carry

in his first three seasons of a career. And the only other player to do that is Nick Chubb. So you can assume he's going to average five yards per carry. He's done that three seasons in a row on a significant amount of carries, 133 to 144 yards, 144 carries. Wow, yeah. That'd be a lot of yards per carry.

The yards are going to be there. Who's going to take the touchdowns from him? I mean, he's going to score some touchdowns. He's not going to be there around five, you know? Yeah, like now that job should go back to him. But it really all comes down to just what they do in reaction to losing J.K. Dobbins for the year. There is a chance that they just say,

okay, Gus is going to handle the majority of the workload and the 23 or whatever carries per game that they give their running backs, 17 of those are going to go to Gus Edwards every week. If that's the case, then you're right, Adam. He's going to end up being worth a round three pick, even if you don't get him there. I'm nervous based on the track record of this Ravens offense, that there will be somebody else in the mix and that it'll hurt Edwards ability to even get 15 touches per game. But if he's getting 13, 12, 13 touches per game in goal line duty,

I think that's worth a round five pick. I think that his physical style is good. We've seen it from him. We saw it this preseason. I just talked about it. Pro Football Focus ranked him 12th in yards after contact per attempt last year. So we know that he can be that bully type of running back. And he's

got some good speed to go along with it, but we don't know just how great that opportunity is going to become. That's why I'm hesitant to put him in around three or four. All right. So I'll give you guys some numbers here and last seven games of 2018, I may have said 2019 last seven games of 2018 Lamar Jackson's rookie's rookie season, Gus Edwards was on pace for 279 carries, 1,495 rushing yards, but only five touchdowns. He didn't score a lot of fantasy points because of the touchdowns, but he gave you a really nice floor. He had 16 or more carries in five of seven games, and he had, I think, one catch in those seven games. And even with him being on pace for 279 carries, a second Baltimore running back had seven or more carries in every game. And once it was Alex Collins, once it was Ty Montgomery, the last

five games, it was Kenneth Dixon. He really wasn't bad. I remember Kenneth Dixon. Yeah. And then when there's been the occasion where Mark Ingram was out in 2019 for one game, I remember Kenneth Dixon. We'll push that aside for a second here. But let me ask you for Edwards. Okay, Miles Sanders, Josh Jacobs, that group. Where's Gus? I would put him ahead of Miles Sanders for sure. I think you can make the case for him ahead. Let me just tell you where I have him right now in relation to Josh Jacobs. And listen, everything I'm saying, there's always a chance that I could learn something else or the Ravens make that move,

and it changes everything again. So don't pin me down to this for the rest of the preseason and before week one starts. I've got him behind Jacobs in PPR. I'm just a little bit concerned about how big this role is going to be. And I know we don't expect a ton of catches from Jacobs,

but you might get 10 catches from Gus Edwards. Dobbins got hurt on a screen pass. We should mention that, but I'm not sure they're going to use, like they talked about how they want to use Dobbins more in the passing game. I don't know. They're just going to do that with Gus Edwards. That might be a justice Hill thing.

What do you think? Could be, could absolutely be that with justice Hill. It could be another running back that gets in the mix there. It could be something that ends up falling on the tight ends to begin the year. If Sammy Watkins is healthy, he's a good short area target as well. Okay. By the way, right now, early results, 339 votes.

Hardly anybody saying they'll take Edwards in round two, just 6%. 21% round three. 39% round four. 39% round four. 33-34% round five or later. So maybe you will get him, Dave. Maybe. You have to vote. You got to vote, Schrager. What are you going to vote? Oh, he voted

round four. He's such a front-runner. Close to 40% now at round four. So maybe that's where we should be. I do have him ahead of Miles Sanders. How about Miles Gaskin? A lot of that has to do with do have him ahead of Miles Sanders. How about Miles Gaskin? A lot of that has to do with me being very cold on Miles Sanders.

How about Miles Gaskin or Gus Edwards? Gaskin. That one to me is easy, especially in PPR. Even in non-PPR? I like Gaskin, and I think I know

what his role is going to be. I'm pretty certain about that, and I could take a pretty good guess on Gus Edwards being the lead back in Baltimore. Oh, yeah. I think that's obvious.

Is he going to be the every down guy? No. Yeah, and I think the one thing you can really bank on, though, is efficiency. He's going to have a good yards per carry. And, oh, how about this one's got to be easy, right? You're definitely taking James Robinson over Gus Edwards? Yes.

Okay. I'll tell you, one that I'm grappling with is Damian Harris and Gus Edwards. Two guys that are going to share. I think Harris is going to end up having the short yardage goal line role. As soon as Mac Jones starts for the Patriots, he'll have that role. But he'll probably share a little bit more than Gus Edwards, I think. Okay. Chase Edmonds?

That's another one I'm kind of grappling with in PPR because I do think Edmonds can pick up a lot of catches in PPR to be competitive with Gus Edwards. As of now, I do have Edmonds ahead of Gus Edwards. Okay.

What about Justice Hill? Do you think he should be drafted? Yes. He's a good late-round stab. We're assuming that he will be that guy for the Ravens. And he's shown flashes in the past. I don't think he's necessarily a great back, but he's someone who's interesting.

Does this affect Lamar Jackson or the passing game at all? It might, just like we talked about before, because they may not be willing to feed Gus Edwards three targets per game, or their running backs in general three targets per game. Might mean more carries for Lamar Jackson. Might mean more pass attempts. Might mean fewer carries.

They've led the NFL in rush attempts. It could be both of those things, and both of them would obviously help Lamar Jackson. They've led the NFL in rush attempts. It could be both of those things, and both of them would obviously help Lamar Jackson. They've led the NFL in rush attempts three straight seasons. Now, a lot of that is Lamar Jackson. But they run the ball, obviously. You know, we bring up this stat from time to time. Lamar Jackson had one carry inside the five-yard line last year.

He doesn't score his rushing touchdowns near the goal line. Maybe that changes. Maybe he gets a couple more short yards. But not to say that Gus Edwards can't do it, but you know. They can't do the same thing every time they're inside the five-yard line. Right, right. We'll see. No team does. So it absolutely should open up Lamar Jackson to have a few more pass attempts, a few more rushing attempts in general, and a few more attempts inside the five. The question is, is it enough to put him ahead of whoever you've got him ranked behind? I know that some of us have him ranked second behind Patrick Mahomes. Are you going to put Lamar Jackson first now?

No, I've got him fourth behind Kyler Murray. I think I've got to at least consider the idea that Lamar Jackson is better than Kyler Murray and fantasy at this point, but I'm not, I'm as of now, no, that's not what I'm saying. All right, let's pivot to the TY Hilton news. that Lamar Jackson is better than Kyler Murray in fantasy at this point. But as of now, no, that's not what I'm saying. All right, let's pivot to the T.Y. Hilton news. He's going to miss.

What is the T.Y. Hilton news? He's going to be out for several weeks. He hurt himself in practice this week, and he will not be available for the start of the season. He was already a receiver that people were drafting to put on their bench. You can still do that, especially if you've got IR spots. I don't know if he's going to actually go on IR, so you might not be able to put him on IR, actually. So it depends on how your injury spots work in your league. If you can put anybody who's out on your IR spot, then you can stash T.Y. Hilton. But now I'm worried that he's hurt to start the year. He doesn't really have that chemistry down with Carson Wentz.

Is he going to be another second half type of receiver? And I'm basically at the point now where I just don't want to draft him. All right, but... Pittman! Yeah, so Pittman, I don't believe he played in the third preseason game. He did in the second preseason game. His speed wasn't great, but he can cut, and that's a nice thing to see from a big target.

We know that Carson Wentz has preferred big targets in the past. He's someone who could certainly see an uptick in targets. I think Paris Campbell could be very interesting. And they've got a rookie receiver who's like 6'5", or something like that. His name is Michael Strawn, but it looks like his last name is pronounced Strachan, but it's actually Strawn.

He looked pretty good in the preseason game that I was at against Carolina, and he's shown up on film a couple of other times since. I'm almost certain he's going to make the team, and he could end up being the guy that plays in place of T.Y. Hilton. If you're in a deep league, especially a dynasty league, get yourself a little bit of Michael Strahan.

Okay, there he is, Michael Strachan. S-T-R-A-C-H-A-N as Dave said, Strahan. But I need to know when you're going to draft Michael Pittman now. He's still going to be in that middle to late round range. I'm not going to race him very much because there's still just so much uncertainty.

I think at best late round nine, but you can probably, you could probably wait till 10. Would you take Mike Williams who is apparently on the mend or Michael Pittman? I don't really have a, an affinity for Mike Williams. So I'm taking the Pittman. How about Pittman or Curtis Samuel? I have him a couple of spots ahead of Curtis Samuel right now. All right. Which might mean that Curtis Samuel could be the better value, but I'm just, I'm leaning toward Washington being a McLaurin Logan Thomas joint.

McLovin. Yeah. So, uh, we have three season ending injuries to running backs before the season even starts. ETN cam acres. And now JK Dobbins. We were not Cam Akers, and now J.K. Dobbins.

Not fun. This is not fun, Adam Azer. And we were expecting the year two running backs to make this massive impact, and Akers and Dobbins are already out for the season. I guess the silver lining is that James Robinson gets back into the discussion, but that comes at the expense of Travis ETN.

So it's very frustrating. I think Gus Edwards is in the discussion. I he's not he's not a year two guy but no but at least see this is the nice thing about it is that we well i guess in the case of cam acres we did lose like a primo running back and he's going to be replaced by two guys i think at least in the case of etn going down and dobbins going down we do have one guy that steps up as being a startable fantasy option. And maybe we could say that Daryl Henderson is a startable fantasy option. By midseason, we might be saying

Sonny Michel is a startable fantasy option. Other than the personal aspect of we obviously hate when these guys get injured and can't play the game they want to play, I thought Dobbins was one of the most interesting fantasy decisions. And I thought he was one of the most interesting fantasy decisions. And I thought he was one of the more polarizing players. And I thought, this is going to be really fun.

Some people are going to be really right about this. Some people are going to be really wrong. And we don't get to see it play out. It won't, you know, and the debates will still be there for Gus Edwards. But considering the results of the Twitter poll, which is 1,400 people, you know, I think he's going to settle in around four. Round three, 20%. Round four,

40%. Round five, 33%. And just a few votes for round two. He won't have quite the draft capital as Dobbins, so the debate won't be as fiery. But all right, Dave. Thanks for taking time on this Sunday morning. Thanks to all of you for watching. We will talk to you. We have another episode tonight. You'll probably hear it on Monday

morning. We'll kind of recap anything from week three and we'll give you our updated preseason week three and we'll give you our updated sleepers, breakouts and busts. For Dave Richard, I am Adam Azar. We will talk to you then.