Fantasy Football Today - NFL Draft: Emory's Top 5 RBs (03/24 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. We're getting Emory Hunt's top five NFL draft running backs right now on Fantasy Football Today in five.

Starting point is 00:00:24 Five minutes, five running backs and a surprise maybe at the top. Emory, welcome to the show. Who is your number one running back in this class? This year, I'm a big fan of Jay Sean Corbin out of Florida State. He's someone that has the perfect marriage between vision, footwork, and elusiveness. You could be your own blocker. You can get out of a jam with your footwork. You have the vision to see it all and put it all together in one

Starting point is 00:00:48 shot. To me, he does a lot of things that you need to do very well at the NFL level. Okay. Let's get into the rest. I want to ask you about the pass catching here because I do think we have a lot of guys who are pretty good out of the backfield, including Isaiah Spiller, who's number two for you out of Texas A&M, and Brees Hall out of Iowa

Starting point is 00:01:04 State. What, if anything, separates Spiller, who's two, for you out of Texas A&M, and Brees Hall out of Iowa State. What, if anything, separates Spiller, who's two, and Hall, who's three for you? You know, it's the pass catching. I'm glad you alluded to it because Spiller, to me, is a much better receiver. And I'm talking about downfield threat in receiver, not those meets expectations routes, your swings, screens, flares, and flats. I'm talking about so what I can get down the field and be a threat. That's where he has a slight edge over Brees Hall. Both guys are terrific runners, have excellent vision and footwork. It's the pass catching that gives Spiller a little bit

Starting point is 00:01:33 of an edge. What do you like about those guys? Spiller being two and Hall being three. I think they're right now in the fantasy community. They are very popular, potential number one dynasty picks. So tell us about those guys. Yeah, both are foundational backs. And when I say foundational backs, these are guys that can dot that I, that can start and handle 20 carries a game, five to seven receptions. So to me, they are the feature backs that you want to start on your football team and also try to grab in fantasy to use that reference as well. But both guys to me

Starting point is 00:02:05 are what we used to call those classic tailbacks that, hey, you need a tailback, throw a fullback in front of them and profit. Okay. I'll go a little bit farther here. Go to number four on your list. Kyron Williams out of Notre Dame. The one aspect that people talk about running backs, they always bring up, can he pass block? Can he pass pro? Well, this guy's the best in the class in terms of picking up the blitz, knowing who to block. And on top of that, he's a fantastic runner, has a vision, has a footwork, has the elusiveness. I'm not worried about what he ran at the combine with his 40-yard dash. He plays quicker and faster than that. To me, he's someone that can play that Deion Lewis role. You want him as a starter? Perfectly fine with that. You want him to be a spot guy? He can thrive in that role as well. He doesn't need volume to be successful.

Starting point is 00:02:47 All right, it's Kyron Williams. He had 35 catches in 2020. He had 42 catches in 2021. Do you think that's a strength for him as well, coming out of the backfield catching passes? Absolutely, because it makes it an open field game for him because you get him out in space. And when I talk about space, I'm talking about making sure it's him one-on-one versus a defender. He's going to make that guy miss nine times out of ten. And when you keep him in the backfield now, you're not tipping off your hand in terms of, oh, it's going to be a pass because he's in the backfield. No, he's actually good in blitz pickup. So you can still run your entire offense with Williams back there in the backfield. All right, so number five on your list is someone who actually only had 17 catches in his three-year career at Georgia. That would be Zemir White, number five for you. Here's the thing about Zemir White and his

Starting point is 00:03:29 pass catching. Just because you weren't asked to do something doesn't mean you can't do it. And that's why I'm glad of the combine. He showcased he has comfortable hands, he has confident hands, so he can make those receptions that you need to get out of the backfield. But in terms of a runner, this dude has a legit comp to me that's like Frank Gore, where he's going to get better as he moves forward. He had two knee injuries coming out of high school. He's now three to four years removed from those.

Starting point is 00:03:56 And he's starting to get that burst that we saw him have in high school. So this is someone to me that's going to come up. He's another one of these foundational backs. I think he's going to be an even better pro than he was at Georgia. So is this a good running back class overall? I think so. It's deep, it's talented, it's guys that can do more than one thing. And we're going to see more of that type come out as we get deeper in this whole football thing, because

Starting point is 00:04:20 that's what college football is producing. Guys are now playing 7-on-7 in high school. They're throwing the football a ton in college. So you're going to get these pass-catching backs as a result on the prospect side as they go into the NFL. Are any of them better than Najee Harris or Travis Etienne from last year? Travis Etienne had legit, ridiculous speed. So that's in and of itself its own category. But in terms of Najee Harris, I still think Najee Harris would have been number one in this group. But, man, you talk about someone that can ring up that cash register. You talk about Jayshon Corbin.

Starting point is 00:04:52 You talk about guys that can really tote the rock like a Najee Harris. You talk about Spiller, White, and also Brees Hall. And Kyra Williams is the X factor. If he goes somewhere like New Orleans, he's going to be a ridiculous monster. All right, we've got another episode for you tomorrow about running backs. We'll have to talk about Kenneth Walker, who is not in the top five for Emory. Until then, have a great day, everybody. Talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today in five.

Fantasy Football Today - NFL Draft: Emory's Top 5 RBs (03/24 Fantasy Football Podcast)

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.