Fantasy Football Today - Our Favorite Mid-Round RBs; Fill in the Blank (08/26 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 26, 2020

Who are our favorite mid-round RBs (1:40)? We tease the crux of the show before we expand on it later. First, we've got a lot of news to cover today beginning with David Montgomery's injury (4:00). Does Tarik Cohen get a bump in value? Also, is Le'Veon Bell angry (11:30) and what the heck is going on in that backfield? We also discuss Derrick Henry's chances of getting 30 catches (14:00), Josh Allen's rushing and Russell Wilson's throwing ... Fill in the blank (20:00)! How many targets does A.J. Brown need to finish as a Top 10 WR? What is Josh Jacobs' upside? Who will be the Comeback Player of the Year? ... After we reveal an awesome Podcast League entry (25:50), the last half of the show is dedicated to discussing the RBs who are typically drafted in Rounds 4-6 (27:10). Which of these players do we avoid? We go through RBs like Mark Ingram, D'Andre Swift, Ronald Jones and more and sum up our thoughts at the very end with the Draftometer (56:30) for each RB in this group ... Email us at [e-mail] Listen to the brand new Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-in-5/id1528634304 '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. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.

Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. Cordero Patterson averaged 6.1 yards per carry last year, 7.6 in his career. Sign him up. Everybody, get yourself some Cordero. No, maybe not, maybe not.

We've got to talk about the Bears' running back situation, though. David Montgomery with a groin injury suffered today in practice. It is Wednesday, August 26th. Welcome, everybody, to Fantasy Football Today. Adam Azer with Dave Richard, Ben Gretsch, and Jamie Isenberg. Ben, I want to thank you for the show topic today. Your favorite mid-round running backs. Much appreciated, sir.

Heath Sy. Do you want the really sexy Heath Sy? The exasperated Heath Sy? Any of them. Okay, there you go. Now, look, mid-round running backs are tough. Ben's not drafted a lot of them,

but fantasy managers across the world are. So we'll talk about some of our favorites, go through a lot of injury news, do some fill-in-the-blank, and see if we have time for emails. We will at some point this week, fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Hello, Dave.

Adam Azer. And Jamie Eisenberg. Don't ever talk about Cordero Patterson again. Come on. He can run. He's fast. He's good. No.

They don't have a backup. It's not my fault. I don't run the Bears. They'd be better if you did. Okay. So David Montgomery was going to be, still is, part of the mid-round running backs. We're going to come back to this topic later. We will.

But I just want to know, who are some of your favorites? The guys I'm looking at, I think maybe it starts with Le'Veon Bell, Jonathan Taylor at the high end, Mark Ingram, Ronald Jones, the rookies other than Taylor, Cam Akers, DeAndre Swift, maybe J.K. Dobbins, Montgomery, Cohen, Kareem Hunt, Raheem Mostert, Devin Singletary. Jamie, who are some of your favorites that you find yourself drafting? Taylor when I can get him from Ben. Jones when I can get him from Dave.

Those two. Ingram and non-PPR when wouldn't get him from Schrager. I mean, I like still taking Akers and Swift in the right spot, but I think that's after round six. And I don't think they're going very much in that range. But of the guys you mentioned, yeah, and Dobbins too. Okay, Dave, some of your favorites?

Kareem might have thrown there also too, I'm sorry. Yeah, no problem. Jones at the top of the list. DeAndre Swift after that, although I think Cam Akers is making a pretty solid push to overtake Swift here. But there aren't a lot of guys. I'm not excited about Fournette, not excited about Hunt, not excited about David Jones, wasn't excited about David Montgomery,

would be excited about Tariq Cohen if Montgomery's prognosis was not as optimistic as it was. But the point is that there aren't a lot of running backs that I really like in the mid-rounds, and because of that, I'm targeting running backs in the early rounds. I'm going to look for receivers in the middle rounds. Yeah, you stole Ben's line, but Ben, if you had to take a few of these mid-round running backs, who would they be?

Yeah, this is for anyone who, you know, has listened in the last year plus has been what I've called the running back dead zone. It's pretty much it to a T, but Jamie named pretty much all of them. Jonathan Taylor, Ronald Jones are guys that I think have enough upside to maybe justify it. Akers and Swift, typically when guys came out of the dead zone and actually had huge upside, it wasies or or second year players really young guys breaking out for the

first time um when i did that research last year so it's it's for me it's pretty clearly those guys over any of the vets that either were producers in the past but have since you know fallen off a bit or um in the case of you know like the most arts or the Montgomery's are like not as exciting. You know, Montgomery is not necessarily a veteran, but just not as exciting. I don't really see the profile. All right. All right.

Well, we got to talk. We'll start with David Montgomery as we get to the big news here. He strained his groin today. Do we have an update? Do we know what the situation is? I don't know the length of time he's going to miss but i mean with the season less than three weeks away it's hard to envision him being ready for week one so the next thing is what do the bears do uh in your case you're making cordero patterson

the featured back for chicago i wouldn't do that you know clearly terry cohen would would take on a little bit more work but you know the the guys that they have behind him uh is it ryan null yep and there's another guy too and artavis pierce right that's his name um those two guys would you know be looking at a a bigger opportunity unless of course they go and make a move and get somebody like a davante freeman who we know is still out there or do they get aggressive and make a trade my guess would be they don't because you know he's not out for the season in terms of montgomery so i don't think they're going to give up any sort of draft compensation to get you know the guys who would be on the market levy on bell at this point uh you would

think uh leonard fournette based on the off season um you know dave mentioned something before we left the office for our h show about Kareem Hunt. Somebody floated that idea with his history with Matt Nagy. I saw Marlon Mack as well, which made me smile. Oh, my God. That'd be great for both of them. That would be a win-win. Absolutely.

Well, but Montgomery's not out for the season. I know. Right, but if Chicago is concerned, listen to the guys we just said that are playing behind them. Patterson, Nall, and then they undrafted rookie free agent. You know, so if Montgomery does go down again, you know, later in the year or has a recurrence of the groin injury, now he's susceptible to it. You know, maybe they want to have some insurance.

I would think you just try and see if you can get Devontae Freeman cheap and just give yourself some competition because he could fill both roles. He could play behind Cohen. He could play behind Montgomery. And clearly he's still looking for an opportunity to get back into the league. All right. Well,

are you thinking Tariq Cohen's going to get more work in the early going of the season? They start with Detroit and then the giants in the first two games of the year, Detroit was horrible against the run last year. The giants were pretty good after they traded for Leonard Williams. And so do you think Tariq Cohen gets a bump in carries? Not really.

I actually, I kind of think that his price is going to rise a lot more than it impacts him. Like it doesn't really impact him that much, but if Montgomery is expected to be out, people will start drafting Cohen too much higher. Okay. Cordero Patterson, two years ago with the Patriots, remember we thought maybe he became their starting running back for a stretch.

He had two games with 10 or 11 carries, and he wasn't that bad. Had a 22-yard carry against Buffalo. He had a 17-yard carry and 11 carries for 61 yards and a touchdown against the Packers. I think he's been more in the running back room this year. They're kind of treating him as a running back. So, I don't know.

We'll see what happens. But hopefully it's, you know, a quick turnaround for Montgomery and he can get back out there. I don't want to make it seem like we know he's going to miss a ton of time. And by tomorrow's show... But you have to take Cohen

ahead of Montgomery in PPR if you weren't doing it already. Yep. What if you're not drafting them to be starters? Well, Cohen has starting ability in that format.

Yeah, but does he have upside? Well, I mean, he showed it two years ago. Absolutely. So I would say that year, you know, what he did was almost historic. He had four catches of 35 or more yards. Christian McCaffrey's never had a 40 yard catch in his career.

Running backs. If you go in, if you go in expecting him to be a top 10 guy, you're making a mistake. If you go in with the hope that he could be a top 20 guy in that format, then that's the type of player that you should be taking. And if you draft away, Ben drafts,

we had this conversation yesterday, breaking down everybody's teams, the way George Maselli built his team, the way Heath built his team. This is the perfect type of player for you because, A, he's going to get a boost in carries. It may not be 10, but he's probably going to get two or three more with Montgomery not be maybe five more, maybe seven more.

Who knows? But he's their best running back right now. And he may have been their best running back before Montgomery slipped and fell. So he's going to be involved in the passing game, and he's going to probably be 10 touches a week, which is not bad with what he's going to do with those touches. Yeah. And I'll just add, Jamie is absolutely right that you shouldn't expect top 10 production, obviously, but if there's one pass catching running back who has that kind of upside and

that upside is not impossible in PPR leagues, it's something that we don't talk about enough with pass catching backs, but James White, Danny Woodhead, Darren Sproles have all had top 10 seasons in PPR leagues in the last decade. So like three of the last 10 years, one of these guys who's had 100 carries maybe has been a top 10 running back. And there might be even more, but those are three that I know have had really great seasons. Woodhead was RB3 one year.

And Cohen has. Eckler from week five on last year. Right. Eckler's a great example as well from last year. And Cohen has from week five on last year, right? Eckler is a great example as well from last year. And Cohen, the thing that they have to get in on top of their receptions is they have to get a red zone role. All those guys had plenty of touchdowns. White did. Woodhead was always used that way with the chargers. And that's Darren Sproles as well with the saints Cohen. I think there's a small case to be made that especially now that Montgomery's

hurt, but Montgomery was really woeful in the red zone last year. If they decide that they want to do some more interesting looks down there, they want to do some jet sweeps and some tip passes and some things, instead of just lining up and running it up the middle with, with David Montgomery, you might see Cohen play inside the 10 a little bit more this year in those scenarios. If that, if they go that route, I think there's an outside chance they could go that route.

But it's an outside chance. It's outside. It's an outside chance because this coaching staff has not given Tariq Cohen a huge opportunity. And I think if there was one or two games that Montgomery was going to miss and they were confident he'd come back and he'd be fine, they'd probably just deal with Cohen and Patterson as the run game. But he's played 49 games in his career. He's had 10 plus touches in 22 of them. That's touches 10 plus carries. He's only had four times in his career, 20 plus touches, only twice in his career,

15 plus touches, six times in his career and only once last year. He's never been in a scenario though, where the primary back, which was either Jordan Howard or David Montgomery has missed significant time is that my point is that even if they miss time i'm not convinced that this coaching staff is going to say well we got nothing else to do let's just give it all to terry cohen i don't know they want to operate that way again i don't think you're getting you know north of 10 touches per week but in those 10 touches that's probably five to seven catches and then if he's getting four to five carries along with that, you know, he's an explosive player.

That's the thing you're looking at here is he's going to make plays in space. The Bears, for the most part, have done a good job putting him in space, more so 2018 than 2019. And so if he's getting a few more carries, I'm going to buy into that for sure because I want the ball in his hands as much as I possibly can. But what the Bears actually should do is they should play Nick Foles, a quarterback, and Trubisky, a a tailback because he may be their best option. That's kind of a fun idea.

But this is a case of what they should do versus what the track record says are very different things. Right, but again, they've never been put in this scenario before. But to that point about 2018 too, he had eight touchdowns in 2018 and he had 70-plus catchers. They did kind of use him that way in Nagy's first year. Okay. So let's,

let's wait and see the prognosis here on Montgomery and we can kind of hopefully react more to it tomorrow. Mike Williams could miss up to six weeks with a shoulder injury. So we bumping up Keenan Allen and or Hunter Henry. I'm not. No, I'm starting to get disenchanted with the Los Angeles Chargers passing game. All right.

I mean, I'm not moving those guys down as a result of this. I think Henry is going to benefit with hopefully a few more looks. But Allen, I mean, he was going to be their target leader anyway. This isn't going to change that. Does he get a few more targets?

Sure. But he's already going to see the opposing team's top cornerback week in, week out. Is Le'Veon Bell angry? What's going on here? That's an understatement. So what's the deal?

So according to reports, he wasn't practicing. Adam Gay said he wasn't practicing because of a hamstring issue. I don't know. Sore hamstrings, I think, is what the report said. And Le'Veon Bell tweeted, nope, my hamstrings are fine. And then he answered some tweets or tweeted himself and answered one saying, you got to get ready for games.

You got to practice to get ready for games. And I want to be practicing. So I'm ready. And he wants to be out there. Sounds as if Adam Gay is doing Adam Gay's things. All right. It does. It does work out really well that another team started running back went down because, He wants to be out there. Sounds as if Adam Gase is doing Adam Gase things. All right. It does.

It does work out really well that another team started running back went down because, you know, if there's ever an opportunity to see if you can maybe unload Le'Veon Bell to a team that still considers themselves a contender based on their defense, I would think the bears would, would take a phone call. Absolutely.

It just, it feels like Gase and Bell just don't get along. Yes. Just, I don't think that this was a match made in gangrene heaven. I don't think that exists. Adam and Will Brinson don't get along, but they like each other. These guys, they have to hate each other.

Our buddy Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, he wrote something within the last hour on Wednesday detailing the 16 months of their relationship. And not good. Just not good. Okay. Well, it's worth keeping an eye on there. Chris Carson expected a return to the team this week.

That's good. Hopefully he gets back out there soon. Brandon Ayuk is week to week with a mild hamstring injury. Chris Godwin has missed three of the last six practices, and Bruce Arians is not telling anyone why. He said, that's for me to know. I don't know. What time is it?

We're recording this right now? 2.30. 2.30, 2.50 now. 2.50. In 10 minutes from now, Pete Prisco is talking to Bruce Arians on CBS Sports HQ. Don't drink. Check out that video on demand.

All right, we'll see. We'll stay up to date. Anyone dropping Chris Godwin? No. No. Okay. Derek Henry. I'm a little concerned about that efficiency, though.

Derek Henry, I know we're concerned about his efficiency, too. He limped off the practice field. Seems like he's fine, but there's actually some talk about him being more involved in the passing game. Is anybody buying that Derek Henry is going to be more involved? Let's say 25 or more catches. Let's say 30 or more catches.

30, I'm not buying. I think the fact that Evans is so far behind and struggling in camp and has had some fumble issues. They talked right after they drafted him about his past, you know, the way they scouted him and projected him to be a good pass protector, which I thought was a very positive sign. As a rookie, it's hard to be on the field, and it also seemed like a bad sign for Derrick Henry's pass game work. But if Evans is not what they think he is and they're not ready to use him, I assume that could impact Derrick Henry positively.

Neither Chicago quarterback is standing out so far in camp, so that's not good. Yeah. The San Francisco defensive end, Nick Boza, is week to week with a muscle strain in his leg. Josh Allen wants to run less frequently. And Brian Schottenheimer, the offensive coordinator for the Seahawks,

is not going to commit to more passing. So, Dave, what do you make of these two news items? Josh Allen wants to get the ball to his weapons more, and the Seahawks are not, at least publicly, they're not saying they're going to let Russ cook. Well, they should, and it's just a matter of how games go for them, and I think there's going to be a lot of high-scoring games in the Seahawks' future where they'd be stupid

to just keep feeding the run game. And as for Buffalo, they added Stefan Diggs for a reason. They want Josh Allen to be a more efficient and effective passer. They don't want to risk him running around, you know, five to eight, 10 times a game and plunging from the one yard line where he could take some serious blows to his body. They added Zach Moss. They added Stefan Diggs kind of tells you what they want to do with

Josh Allen and it's not let him run a lot. So I think he's got the message and he's just trying to let everybody know don't count on me to run a lot I'm gonna try and get this thing done with quick easy short passes I hope that's the direction that they go in because I don't know if throwing deep is really his forte do you guys want Carson Wentz or Josh Allen Allen I think I'd rather wait for Wentz. I moved Wentz one spot ahead of him. Wentz is actually going ahead of him, I believe, in our ADP on CBS Sports. I could be wrong on that, but I thought so. Really?

That's interesting. Allen's falling. He started out as the number six quarterback. He's now down to number nine. And this piece of news is only going to sink him further. Because half the reason why people wanted Josh Allen was all those rushing touchdowns and the rushing yardage. And if he's not doing that,

then it kind of makes him a lot less appealing, if you ask me. Well, I would also say that back in college, Tim Tebow said he was going to run less. Last year, Lamar Jackson said he was going to run less. I think we heard it from Cam Newton at points. Quarterbacks say that, but it's in their nature to take off and run. So,

yeah, I mean, what he did say, part of the quote was he's going to run less. He actually didn't say the words run less. He just said, he's going to put the ball in his playmakers hands more, but he said when his numbers calls,

we'll certainly still be doing it. So I think you go from, uh, you know, over five to, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 yards rushing the touchdowns were definitely going to come down. But do they go from nine to two, or do they go from nine to five? You know, so if he's 450 and five, he's still going to be a top

five, six rushing quarterback for the season, unless some other guys really just jump up into that realm. And so, you know, he's still going to be a very good rushing quarterback. And now you expect the passing to come up because of what Stephon Diggs brings to the table. I cannot believe I just said Tim Tebow. All right, last note, Alshon Jeffrey making progress. Good that you're recognizing greatness. No timetable for Alshon Jeffrey. But is he

worth a late round pick? In a 20 round draft? Yes. In a regular 15 round redraft? I'd still say no. Yeah, but like, for example, you know, Dave, you have our salary cap league with five IR spots. I mean, he's worth a stash if you can stash him there.

Oh, sure. If he's healthy, he's going to play, right? They don't have a really deep receiving core. They love Jalen Rager. They obviously really have talked plenty about Deshaun Jackson, but like Jeffrey will play. They love everybody. Everybody.

Today was J. Jaws turn. Everybody was raving about J. Jaws today. And then it's been Greg Ward, you know, Rager, the other young kids have gotten some opportunities as well.

John Hightower. Yeah. Kaz Watkins. If Jeffrey is healthy for the stretch of games that he's healthy, he will lead their receivers and targets. It's not pretty, but that's going to be the case

because that's the guy Carson Wentz trusts the most. He will lead their wide receivers. Wide receivers, yes. Not Zach Ertz, not maybe even Dallas Goddard, and certainly not Miles Sanders, but in terms of their wide receivers,

he will be their most targeted wide receiver. Okay, today's Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday, if I have that right, and that means tomorrow is Twitch Thursday, and it's an AMA.

It's an Ask Me Anything with Heath Cummings. Use the hashtag AskFFT. We got beer reviews with Heath Cummings. You can ask him anything. Again, it's twitch.com slash FFToday, Thursday night, 7 p.m. Eastern. Also on Twitch and on CBS Sports HQ, the Draftathon, six-hour fantasy football Draft-a-thon.

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You should be playing your fantasy football on CBSSports.com. Sign up. Get a commissioner league. It's the best in the business. And if you want a free draft kit, go to CBSSports.com slash kit. CBSSports.com slash kit. That's rankings, sleepers, breakouts, busts, tears, rookie breakdowns, a lot more.

CBSSports.com slash kit. Fill in the blank. Here we go. Heath Cumsports.com slash kit. Fill in the blank. Here we go. Heath Cummings actually gave me the first fill in the blank. Blank running backs will average 20 PPR fantasy points per game. I mean, this is obviously something Heath looked up and he wants to make a point about the fact that... Yeah, totally.

However many did last year. Yeah, probably. He'd say michael thomas is going to so yada yada yada i'll say six there were two who did last year i'll say four this year there were three in ppr leagues there were eight the year was the third ppr leagues i have uh derrick henry right at 20 i do too and then i and then dalva cook and i don't have Henry right at 20. I do too. And then Dalvin Cook. I don't have Henry at 20. My bad.

I've got Henry below 20. McCaffrey, yeah. Probably fumbles or something. I think I'm looking at one. Yeah, three to four, maybe. Six is aggressive. Yeah, five or six, maybe. Yeah, who knows?

All right, all right. This is from Luke. AJ Brown will finish as a top 10 wide receiver if he receives blank targets this year. 110 in non-PPR, 133 in PPR. I was going to say 130 to 135 in PPR, and I think it's skittable. Okay. From Andrew Patrick,

if RB blank gets at least 35 to 40 receptions, he will finish in the top blank. Give me an RB. If he gets at least 35 to 40 receptions, he'll finish top blank. 49 top five.

No, you didn't do it right. I'll start. If Melvin Gordon... Josh Jacobs would be top five. Oh, okay. Oh, Ben, that's not 49. You got to get 49 catches to be top five. I don't even know if I agree with what I just said about Josh Jacobs anyway, so let's backtrack that.

I'll say Melvin Gordon top 15. If Melvin Gordon gets at least 35, 40 catches, he'll be top 15. Chris Carson, top 10. Jamie, you want to try again? Jonathan Taylor, top 8. Oh, don't live in a fantasy world, Ben. Well, if he's getting... I think he can.

Melvin Gordon got 33 his rookie year with Phillip Rivers. Wendwood had got 80. I think this is being slept on. This is possible for Jonathan Taylor. Yeah, they've speculated that he's going to throw to all three backs. Doesn't matter who's on the field. That's just what he does, right? Yeah, he will.

He's a statue. He doesn't move. All right. But if Taylor's getting that many receptions, then that means that something's really gone right in his favor. Josh Jacobs' fantasy upside is RB blank. Three. Five. Five.

Five to nine. I'm going to say six because, you know, the catches. From Slappin' Cheeks, okay? Comeback player of the year will be blank. Good one to read. Yeah. Alex Smith.

Oh, I love that. I hope that's true for him. I'm going to say Adam Thielen. Juju. Or Ben. Oh, Ben. Ben Rothenberger.

Yeah, Ben. Juju. Steelers. Who else missed a lot of time last year? Alshon? Yeah, Ben I think is a Steelers. Who else missed a lot of time last year? Alshon? Yeah, Ben I think is a good one. Marcus Mariota. From... What are you laughing at? Me? Alshon.

Well, I don't know. He missed a lot of games. From BroccoliRob, Blank is your most owned wide receiver currently outside the top 20 in ADP. Will Fuller. That's probably true for me too. Dave, outside the top 20, most owned wide receiver.

Brown's outside the top. He's inside the top 20, right? Is Tyler Boyd in the top 20 or out of the top 20? No, out. Yeah. Okay, I'll say him. Interesting. I like that. No, I'll say him. Interesting. Christian Kirk is mine.

He's way too undervalued. I have him on every team. I thought you meant Marquise Brown. It took me a while to realize you were talking about AJ Brown. Yeah. Oh, me too. Okay, I was so confused. Jamie, why did it take us a long time to realize that Ben was talking about AJ Brown?

I don't know. Because I was thinking of the receivers in that range, and so that's what made me think Marquise. From CJC, at yards per Gretsch is super wrong on blank. I got to, before you guys do this, we were going to do fill in the blank yesterday, and I almost stopped your closing when you're like,

we're going to push that to tomorrow and ask if Heath was going to be on, because this is a question for Heath, but David, Jamie, you guys got to bring it. love this question i saw it on twitter i liked it great submission but i also want to hear he's take on this at some point but david jamie you guys got to you got to give us some good ones you'll be wrong on yeah well i mean it's the guys that you draft all the time it's brown taylor more uh i think it's kirk It's the one guy like I can, I guess I can see it with Will Fuller.

I can definitely see it with Jonathan Taylor. And I believe it with AJ Brown and DJ Moore, but Kirk, I just do not see it with them. The one, the one that I would say is barring injury is Nicole Harden. Cause if, if those guys stay healthy in Kansas city,

he's not going to be, I think what you hope he's going to be. Okay. Yeah. I would say he's not going to be, I think, what you hope he's going to be. Okay. Yeah, I would say he's super wrong on the pronunciation of his last name. That's the answer. Now, speaking of which, so we've got some podcast league entries, and now we're going to start talking about these mid-round running backs.

But Isaac wrote a song for Ben Gretsch, basically about the running back dead zone, about avoiding these guys. So it was a two-part song. I'm going to play part two for you here. But this is Isaac's... What? It's called...

No, it's... I think that's how it goes. But let's take a listen. Isaac, take it away. This is part two. So it's picking up midstream. Listen to Benny Gretsch. Oh, you may feel that they're Take it away. This is part two, remember, so it's picking up midstream. Listen to B-B-Benny Gritch. Oh, you may feel that they're wonderful, but Ben would want you all to glean.

The wide receivers found in the third, fourth, fifth round have more sure value than the Arbeys. Oh, listen to B to Benny Gresh. Right? Benny, but nothing rhymes with Gresh. On Fantasy Football, today on CBS. Thank you all. Okay, that was a submission. CBS. Thank you all. Okay, that was a submission.

Yes, good stuff, Isaac. You're probably going to be in the league with that. Good stuff. That's a probably. We got some good submissions, man. And the league's filling up fast. How many leagues are you doing? You asked me if I wanted a co-manager, Adam. That guy, I'll manage with him if he wants to.

Oh, it's going to be a duet. I got to ask him because he might want his own team, but that would be fun. But yes, he was talking about this mid-round running back group, which Ben mostly avoids. But, you know, I just think that these are really tough. It just feels like a lot of coin tosses. But there are some standouts that we mentioned earlier in the show. So let's start with this group here. I'm going to

start it with Le'Veon Bell. I wasn't sure if I should include him, but I will. He and Jonathan Taylor would be the first two I would guess off the board. And then we're looking at Ingram, Ronald Jones, David Johnson, David Montgomery, Tariq Cohen, Kareem Hunt, Raheem Mostert, Devin Singletary, Cam Akers, DeAndre Swift. And Leonard Fournette is interesting because he goes ahead of this group, but we think he should be in this group. But why don't we start with Le'Veon Bell and Jonathan Taylor, who have dramatically different profiles. You expect a lot more catches from Bell.

You kind of need things to break right for Taylor. I don't know. They're so different. But are they... When would you start taking Le'Veon Bell and Jonathan Taylor? Taylor I would look for in round four in every format. Bell I would look for in round four in every format Bell I would look for in round four in PPR

prior to today's news after today's news I want no part of Le'Veon Bell really I mean not even if he falls in the right spot clearly I'm gonna I'm gonna take him but that's like after round five it's gonna be the worst headache you could ever have knowing when Frank Gore is gonna come on the field knowing what one day or one game Adam Gase may say, you know what, you don't look like you're ready to go. And Le'Veon's like, what? And it's Frank Gore and LaMichael Piran. It's a nightmare.

So would you take him, would you say like Devin Singletary or Le'Veon Bell? I'm not a Singletary guy with all the Zach Moss showing. Cam Akers or Le'Veon Bell? I'm not a singletary guy with all the Zach Moss showing. Cam Akers or Le'Veon Bell? At their cost, Cam Akers. If they're both sitting in the same spot, Le'Veon Bell. Okay. That's why I wanted to know how far he'd have to fall, I guess. But you're still going to take him over Cam Akers.

Okay. And before this, I was still taking Taylor over Bell, even in PPR. All right. Dave, what do you think about Bell and Taylor? You know, I've got a different opinion on Taylor just because I think there's other running backs there that are going to take too much work away from him. I'm not questioning the talent at all.

I'm just worried that the Colts are going to really be versatile and diverse with their offense and not lean on any one player too much for anything. And as long as that's the case and the schedule dictates that Marlon Mack should be able to get off to a decent start, that'll hurt Jonathan Taylor's ability to start getting close to 15 touches per game. I think I can find a better player than that in round four. So the talent, his talent is like round one or round two talent, but the opportunity it's going to ding them this year. So I can't take them in round four.

I would say late round five at the earliest for me, and I'm never getting them in any of the leagues I'm doing with you guys, because you're all taking them before me. And Le'Veon is kind of in the same spot, but it's just, it's gross what's going on in New York in PPR. I think late round four is the absolute earliest you can consider it. And it really comes down to how you feel about Todd Gurley versus Le'Veon Bell. And if you're

willing to say, all right, I'll take the ugliness of Gurley over the ugliness of Le'Veon. They're both ugly. And you can throw Melvin Gordon in there. It's a big, ugly stew. And you've got to take a bite. And you've just got to decide which one is going to be the least gross in in your in your system i don't know if that's really a good analogy but all three of them are guys or i just don't want to have on my team and so i'm going to try and avoid them at all costs levy on bell ty girly melvin gordon yeah like all like i think gordon is going to lead the way for me out of those three that's how i have it ranked right now But I keep going back and forth on which guy I want less between Gurley and Le'Veon. Yeah, I didn't include Conor, who we think is a borderline second round pick.

Conor's way ahead of the ugly stew. Carson? He's ahead of him, too. Everybody agree? Yep. And then Gordon and Gurley, we don't think are ahead of the ugly stew. Oh, I would take both.

I mean, the fact that they're talking about Gurley, you know, 25 touches a game. Oh, gosh. They said 15 to 25. Well, I'm just saying, like, that's the vision. Like, if things work out really well, like he's getting 25 touches a game, I'd rather buy into that optimism

than the other two guys who have a coach who's going to, you know, screw with the guy in the Jets and the Broncos who have is just a talented backup as we've seen in recent memory, you know, in Philip Lindsay behind Melvin Gordon,

who's already dealt with an injury to begin with. So yeah, I'll take Todd Gurley or both those guys without question. I'll tell you what, if I was guaranteed 16 games and that's it of each of these three running backs, I would take Gurley over both those guys without question. I'll tell you what, if I was guaranteed 16 games and that's it of each of these three running backs, I would take Gurley too.

Ben, which running backs that we've mentioned are not in your dead zone? They all are. Well, no, Connor, Carson. All of them. Even Jonathan Taylor? Then why do you always take Jonathan? Connor is moving.

I think we'll probably wind up not being there. I think his ADP is probably rising right now. I haven't really checked it recently. Late round three. I'm not talking about their ADPs. I'm sorry. I mean, your personal do not draft list. Yeah, I wouldn't draft.

Sorry. Yeah, okay. My personal list, all of these guys are pretty much off my list, except for the ones that we mentioned at the top of the show, like Taylor and Jones. I've taken a lot less of Taylor in the last month because of just positional philosophy. All the other running backs, if I'm staring at them, I'll just take a receiver. I don't mind being very deep at receiver early in drafts we've talked about this a lot what taylor is a guy that at a certain point the upside um is why i would take him so what about connor and carson for you i i won't take him in any leagues interesting

okay i mean connor is a maybe i i'm monitoring that situation maybe i shouldn't write him off entirely but probably not. But you're not taking Connor when he's going to get pushed into round two. Definitely not at that point. Yeah. By the way, we have a note on Joe Mixon. Thank you, Ben Schrager.

He is not with the running backs, not on the side rehab field. He has a minor injury, according to The Athletic. Joe Mixon. And sorry to cut that off because that's an important note but i also want to add this is totally format dependent because we just did that draft uh that sour cap draft yesterday which was two running backs two receivers two flexes half ppr and i prioritized filling my flexes with running backs

in that format i ended up with todd girley i ended up with kem Hunt. I ended up with a couple of guys in this group. Maybe another one that I'm not thinking, oh, I definitely had Taylor on that team. I wanted to build out some running back depth. I had to lean into the fact that I think running backs are fragile. So it's definitely format dependent. Non-PPR, half PPR, I'd be more open to it.

Let's go to the next group here. Okay, so David Johnson, Mark Ingram, Ronald Jones, David Johnson. Since 2014, that's six seasons for Mark Ingram. He was bad in 2018. He got suspended, missed the first four games. His comeback wasn't really that good. But in the other five seasons, he's been a top 15 running back all five times. Top 12 running back three times.

When he's played 15 or 16 games, the last times. When he's played 15 or 16 games, the last three times Ingram's played 15 or 16 games, he's been his top eight in non-PPR, top 11 in PPR. He has done that with 205, 230, and 202 carries. He's also had 46, 58, and 26 catches. My point is with Ingram, he always outperforms his touches.

So Ingram, Ronald Jones, David Johnson, that's the trio I want to look at now. Jamie, what do you think about them? Well, this is a format thing, I think, when you talk about Ingram, because as we saw last year, he had five receiving touchdowns. That's not going to happen on the

minimal amount of catches that he had last year. Jones has got a great opportunity in front of him. You know, I mean, he's got the chance to be the lead running back for Tampa Bay by leaps and bounds. You know, he's going to be the starter. And as long as LaShawn McCoy doesn't cap his receiving totals, he had 31 catches last year. You know, he has a chance to be in the 40 catch range. So, you know, I think Ronald Jones is better than Mark Ingram and PPR. Who was the third guy? I'm sorry.

David Johnson, David Johnson. David Johnson is, you know, I kind of view him as a similar to Todd Gurley. You know, you know, he's going to get the majority of the work. There is a clear, I don't know, mantra, but there's, there's a clear sort of scenario that you could see of Bill O'Brien having to justify the trade of forcing the ball in his hands in a variety of ways. Carries, catches. He's talking a good game, saying you're going to get the 1,000-1,000 David Johnson again. The offensive line he's playing behind is better than the one he had last year because the Texans have done a good job revamping that unit.

The quarterback he has, while Kyler Murray still has a way to go, Deshaun Watson's better. So, you know, maybe that helps him as well. And I know we keep harping on Deshaun Watson's numbers throwing to running backs. That's under Bill O'Brien. They have a new play caller now. So maybe the wrinkles that Bill O'Brien was hoping to do once upon a time,

maybe they finally come to fruition. So I don't mind David Johnson, but I'm not going to overpay for David Johnson. You know, I've seen some places where he goes in, in round three, uh, to me, that's a huge mistake when I get him in round five, you know, we've had this conversation before Adam, like I I'm fine with that, you know, because what his workload will be. And, uh, you know, they, they squeezed a thousand yards out of Carlos Hyde last year. I'm hoping that David Johnson at this point is still better than the Carlos Hyde. Bill O'Brien, uh, in the last four seasons, Houston's lead running back has finished in non PPR as RB 16, 14, 22, and 23. And in PPR RB 18, 16, 23,

and 31. So that's three of four years, a top 24 running back in PPR and four of four years, a top 24 running back in non PPR. They weren't like great. They just got a ton of work. Carlos Hyde at 245 carries last year, but only 10 catches. Dave, how would you rank Ingram Jones Johnson?

In non PPR, it's Jones Ingram Johnson. And in full PPR, it's Jones Johnson Ingram. And the only reason why Ingram is behind Johnson is because I do figure Johnson will catch more passes, but I really don't want David Johnson on my team. We've seen Bill O'Brien mismanage running backs before they traded for Duke Johnson last year. And everybody was so excited to draft Duke Johnson. You guys were fighting over him in our drafts and he was terrible. Carlos Hyde had all that work and that's great for him. And, you know, he wasn't necessarily efficient. And I think David Johnson is going to have to

stay healthy and prove that he's, you know, able to still get at minimum 3.7 yards per carry. That's been his average over the last two seasons, but he's gotten beaten up. He's 28 years old. Not only does this team not throw to its running backs, and I don't suspect that's going to change because of who's under center for the Texans. I don't think they're going to make this huge change to their offense where they're going to say, okay, let's throw to our running backs now that we don't have DeAndre Hopkins around. It doesn't make sense to me when they get inside the five, that's where Watson can steal touchdowns too. So there's just not a lot of appeal for me, for David Johnson, where I don't even think I really want him in round five. I want to let somebody else draft him.

He belongs in the ugly stew. Okay, man, that we've seen Bill O'Brien mismanaged running backs before point is such a good one. Like, it's fun to think about David Johnson being what he was in Arizona. But if he was still that guy, Ben, he'd be in Arizona right now. It's true. Well, no, because it's cost. What do you mean? It's cost. If he's he would guy, Ben, he'd be in Arizona right now. That's true. Well, no, because it's cost. What do you mean it's cost? He would have been worth it.

No, he would have been worth it if he was that good. We don't pay running backs that. That was a mismanaged contract. So, I don't know. If you get 1,000 yards rushing and receiving, you're probably worth a lot of dough. And one other thing about Texas running backs is maybe it's because of Deshaun Watson.

Maybe it's a fluke, but they just don't score a lot of touchdowns. None of those I talked about the last four years of their lead running back, Lamar Miller, Carlos Hyde, never more than six touchdowns rushing and receiving in a season. And that's that's pretty strange considering all the touches they've gotten. All right. Next group here, David Montgomery, Tariq Cohen and Kareem Hunt. David Montgomery, Tariq Cohen and Kareem Hunt. Ben, why don't you talk about these three? Yeah, we talked about Cohen a little bit, and I talked about the upside scenario, the top 10 upside scenario.

I think that was there with Montgomery healthy, and I think it's obviously still there if Montgomery's not healthy, but he might end up being costlier, and it's not necessarily something that I want to hope on. We're talking about a little bit of a different usage than what we saw last year. And he has to be more efficient.

And there's a lot there. So I tend to not take Cohen lately because he's fairly expensive when you can get Naheem Hines later, a very similar player, in my opinion. Obviously, less competition for touches, but could be a very good pass-catching back in PPR leagues and is a fine bench receiver, or I mean, running back or receiving back. So Cohen is like a guy I like,

but I just don't end up taking a lot. Montgomery, I'm basically avoiding entirely. Hunt, we've talked a lot about. You know, he's got standalone value. He's got upside if Chubb goes out. I think he's a very fine pick in this dead zone range. One thing I like about david montgomery last year he had 14 carries inside the five yard line six most in the nfl and he had 87.5 percent of his team's carries inside the five and if foals wins the job that's one less rusher that could steal some touchdowns so i do feel like he's got the

you know he's the runaway favorite for the goal line work there. Montgomery. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, part of the point I was making on Cohen was Montgomery was awful. He got a lot of that work, but he was awful.

Right. Poor efficiency for sure. That offensive line's bad too. And I think Montgomery needs a good offensive line in order to be unlocked as a productive running back. Yeah, I'm upset for this injury because I was expecting him to be not significantly better, but definitely better. Because, again, you look at the workload and that's something you could start with as the floor. So hopefully, you know, he gets better with the work that he was going to get.

Came in in better shape. You know, the injury hopefully is not a result of any training that he did this offseason but um probably just fluky but he came in in better shape and the addition of john d filippo you know i don't think that's something that should be overlooked even though he's the quarterback's coach that influence you know hopefully with getting him more involved in the passing game with a lack of pass catchers that this team has that alan robinson and now finally anthony miller gets on the field but robinson's banged up but after that they don't really have much so i thought montgomery would be a little bit more involved in the passing game. Hopefully, he's going to come back and come back at 100%,

because if you get him at a discount now and you just have to sit it out for a couple weeks, I think he's going to end up being better than he was a year ago. I would think that DiFilippo would be a strike against Montgomery because he's the coordinator who's been fired twice for not running it enough. He's not the coordinator, though. I know.

But still, if he's going to go into Matt Nagy's ear and say, hey, why don't you throw it more, throw it more, yeah, throw it enough. He's not the coordinator, though. I know. But still, if he's going to go into Matt Nagy's ear and say, hey, why don't you throw it more, throw it more, yeah, throw it more. He reminds me of Beavis. That would be something that would hurt Montgomery. And Montgomery is a fine pass catcher out of the backfield. But, I mean, if you're going to throw to your running back in Chicago, it's going to be Tariq Cohen. No, throw to both of them.

You're right, Cohen and Patterson. So, last year, Kareem Hunt, we have to talk about him. Kareem Hunt was in the eight games he played, he was number 26 in non-PPR. He was RB 17 in PPR. He had 43 carries in eight games, which is obviously not a lot, but he had 37 catches, which is an incredible pace. The usage might be different this year.

We heard it. Nathan Segura talked about it on FFT. He covers the Browns. He used to work for us here at CBS. That they just might use Chubb and Hunt sort of interchangeably. Now, of all these running backs that we're going to talk about today, probably nobody has as much upside as Kareem Hunt. Injury upside because if Nick Chubb goes down,

Hunt could be the number one running back at fantasy. I mean, he could be that good. But do you think you are going to start him with a healthy Nick Chubb? Is he just a flex? Is he a number two running back? What are the outcomes here? What do you think will happen?

Jamie, I'll throw it to you, with Kareem Hunt with a healthy Nick Chubb. He's a flex in PPR. He's probably more of a bench guy in non-PPR. Half PPR is in the flex conversation. We have to see the carries come up for him. You know,

that's the thing that's going to be the telling part of this. And the other side of Nathan's comment is that Nick Chubb is going to be more involved in the passing game and Kareem Hunt, maybe not as much as he was last year. So if that is just more of a, you get two series in terms of Chubb Hunt gets one series, you know, three for you,

two for the other guy. And that's the role that he has. Then it could be troubling. Like week one against Baltimore. It's hard to say. I want to start Kareem Hunt. If Nick Chubb is healthy in the non PPR league, but the thought would be,

okay, they're probably trailing. Who's the better hurry up, catch up type of player that's more likely kareem hunt over nick chubb so i think comes down to your roster build um kareem hunt is definitely one of those guys that if you don't take running backs early and you get him in round five or round six he can be an rb2 for you in ppr and that's the type of guy you know or one of two rb2s that you're getting in PPR. So that's the perfect type of guy in this scenario because of the lottery ticket upside.

So, you know, I would prefer to get him as a third running back, but I certainly can see why you would maybe have to draft him as your second. And I don't think that's horrible in a full PPR. In all formats, would you take Mark Ingram or Kareem Hunt? Ingram for sure and non. I think I'd probably take him over Hunt in full PPR too because I think we're speculating on how the Browns are going to use these running backs. And maybe the safest thing is that it's not going to be like last year

where Hunt is solely going to be in passing situations. I've thought about this though. And I think Jamie nailed it when they're in the hurry up offense or the two minute offense. I think hunt's better for that than chub, but I think every other situation, it could literally be chubs in until he's tired. And then when he's tired,

it's hunt. And then when he's tired, it's chub. And if chub starts one series, maybe hunt starts the next, and you're never going to know which one's going to be on the field in any given situation. and that's great for the Browns. That gives them a rushing presence

constantly through four quarters of a football game, but it's going to absolutely stink for fantasy managers. I have a tough time taking Kareem Hunt confidently. Okay. In PPR, that's a fine role though, and Ingram's 30 right now. He's going to be 31

in season. I i mean i fully expect he'll be their lead back but he was great last year the idea that he's getting you know he didn't even have 250 touches he was very efficient the idea that he's going to have another really strong healthy season at 31 30 going on 31 it's hard for me and adam Adam, I would only say like, you know, you referenced Kareem Hunt as would benefit the most maybe of injury. J.K. Dobbins might be right there with him. Yeah, he wasn't on my list. He's going a little bit later, but sure, you're absolutely right. Raheem Mostert, last four I want to talk about here,

and then I'll ask you where Leonard Fournette would fit in. But it's Raheem Mostert, Devin Singletary, Cam Akers, and DeAndre Swift. Mostert, Singletary, Cam Akers, and DeAndre Swift. I'm going to give you guys a little bit of time to think about the order that you want. Raheem Mostert, Devin Singletary, Cam Akers, DeAndre Swift. We're going to take a quick break on fantasy football today and wrap up our discussion of mid-round running backs when we come back. Miller Lite. The light beer brewed for people who love

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Singletary seems to certainly be a faller. Zach Moss certainly seems to be a riser. But who's your favorite in this group, Dave? Mostert, Singletary, Akers, Swift? Swift in PPR, Mostert in non. Okay. Ben, who's your favorite? Akers and Swift are incredibly close. I took Swift over Akers in that Snickers mock earlier this week,

and then afterward I moved Akers ahead, and I right now want to move Swift back ahead. JB? I have Mostert ranked above the two rookies in non-PPR. I have Akers ranked ahead of Mostert in PPR, and I'm going to change that to put Swift ahead of him also. I don't really want to draft Raheem Mostert. I just think it's going to-PPR. I have Akers ranked ahead of Mostert in PPR, and I'm going to change that to put Swift ahead of him also. I don't really want to draft Raheem Mostert. I just think it's going to be a mess.

I think you saw the best of Raheem Mostert last year. This is going to be a situation where Tevin Coleman is going to make it ugly. Jarek McKinnon, if he's healthy, is going to make it ugly. Raheem Mostert is going to be their best running back, but I don't think you're going to get a top 24 performance out of him, and so I'd rather take a swing for the fence and go with one of the young kids. I think it's a swing for the fence to go with Mostert. I mean, let's think about the track record of the Shanahan clan with running backs going all the way back to Terrell Davis out of

nowhere. I could keep naming other guys. You know them all please. Shana clan, Shana, Shana clan, whatever you want to call them, but they're good at finding running backs that fit their scheme and i'd say that raheem mostard fit their scheme pretty well last year and if he comes out of the gate hot this year and that's the if of course then i think that relegates tevin coleman to a much smaller role i'm starting to get a little concerned about jerk mckinnon who's going to be probably locked into that third down role that we talk about for other teams they're probably chomping at the bit and he's chomping at the bit to get out there and play football after missing each of the past two seasons. So to me, Moser does have

a ceiling. There's no question about it, which is why you can't say he's a full-fledged top 20, even type of running back. But I think he's a good fit for what they want. I don't really mind that he doesn't come in with this great pedigree. I think he's a good fit for what they want. I don't really mind that he doesn't come in with this great pedigree. I think he started to prove last year in a camp. Apparently he's looking just as, as swift, no pun intended, since we're talking about the rookies as he did last year. And that offensive line is great. And that passing game is a gigantic red and gold question mark. Right. So what are you going to do in San Francisco? You're just going to load the box and say, and you know what?

The 49ers will be fine with that because they are very creative even with how they run the football. They've got fullbacks and tight ends that they can move all around their chess pieces on the field to open up lanes

for their run game. Yeah. I just feel like most gave you the best of what he got to give you last year and you're chasing his production if you're going after it again. I think he's really awesome. I just, I after it again. I think he's really awesome.

I don't disagree. I think he's got a chance to be a good player, and he has been a good player for the role that he's in, but we're talking about his fantasy production. I don't think you're going to get that again. He was so touchdown dependent. It was. For sure. He still wasn't getting a lot. You said, what's the difference between him and Mark

Ingram? Probably more carries for Ingram, right? And more involved in the passing game. And more catches. Yeah. Especially with this buzz about McKinnon in the passing game. Yeah. Okay.

And then in terms of the rookies, Akers and Swift, do we see big upside for them? Things have to break their way. It's as simple as that. And it's starting to break Cam Akers' way because of Henderson's hamstring injury. It doesn't sound like it's a big deal, but you never want to see somebody go through that in training camp where they're going to end up not being at 100% for the first couple of weeks of the season. Malcolm Brown,

we kind of poo-poo him every time we talk about him, but it's Malcolm Brown. I don't know what else to tell you. Cam Akers is the better talent and there are reports out of LA saying that by the midpoint of the season, he's going to end up being the lead guy for LA. And he's a good pass catcher out of the backfield too. Now, Swift needs to have the same thing to happen to him. He needs Kerryon Johnson to get stuck in a gigantic human-sized knee brace for him to really take off.

Swift's got to be healthy too. He's still dealing with that leg injury. He is a little bit, yeah. So that's a factor. And Matt Patricia, every time someone brings up their running backs, he likes to talk about how he likes to use more than one. So I think it's really going to take Swift playing.

There was murmurs of an Alvin Kamara comparison and how that's how they wanted to use him. That would be great, but it's kind of unexpected. Okay. I would say great, but it's kind of unexpected. Okay. I would say that means that things have been breaking well for Swift too. I agree with everything you said about acres. I like him and I'm going back and forth with both, but, um, from Jamie's interview on, on, um,

HQ this week with Dave Burkett or Burkett, where he said it's going to be 50, 50 and Swift's going to play on passing downs. That makes me want Swift. A rookie starting in a 50-50 split who's playing on passing downs, especially when we've already talked about a ton that carry on his other main competition

is injury prone, or has been at least to this point. And I still don't mind carry-ons price a little bit later. But that to me gives Swift that type of upside where you're growing from a receiving role into a bigger role. But he's also going to play 50% of the time. Okay, look, I can use him every week

if he's going to catch passes in PPR leagues. Stafford used to love throwing to Theo Riddick back in the day. Yeah, I mean, that's the Miles Sanders. That might be the hope. That might be the hope. And you mentioned, yeah, Sandy, he and Akers are both. And Jonathan Taylor, I feel, is in this same boat. They're all in that Miles Sanders type of possibility

where by midseason, they're starters for your fantasy team, but you're not going to feel real comfortable using them as starters right now. But the great thing about Sanders was he was catching passes early. That's why I was on him in stealing signals during the season saying you should trade for this guy even though he's not playing a ton because he was catching multiple passes almost every game couple early games he didn't he got multiple passes and i think 15 of 17 games so lucky gretch you got so lucky adam adam cut him i did not cut him i love miles sanders but let's face it i cut alvin kamara early

in the season 2017 i did not do that either. But I know five years ago, whatever it was, or four years ago, you cut David Johnson before he, like, we got 12 or something and finally started going off.

You got lucky, Greg. Because Bruce Arian screws with running backs. Which is why I hope it doesn't happen to Alvin Kamara. Because Miles Sanders was just not really good. Like, Miles Sanders is a cautionary tale because if Jordan Howard didn't get hurt, if Jordan Howard didn't get hurt,

you did not have a great running back last year. Very true. You would not have had the ceiling that Miles Sanders gave you. I'm close. But you are talking about DeAndre Swift playing behind an injury-prone back. That's why you buy into it.

You're talking about Cam Akers, the guy that he's in probably the most serious competition with, and Malcolm Brown's clearly there there is already hurt. So that's the thing you're looking at with those two guys. So it's again, this kind of comes down to roster build. I think if you're looking at it from the three guys we're talking about, most of its floor should be the best of the three because you know, he's going to get those carries in PPR. It's maybe a little bit of a different conversation because he's not going to be involved in the passing game, but you know, he's going to get probably in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 touches per week.

The other two guys, you can't say that right now. But you would buy into it given the circumstances, as Ben said, based on what Dave Burkett told us. 50% of the snaps, he's probably looking at 12 to 15 touches if things go right. Cam Akers, it may take a little bit longer for him if everybody's there. But again, now he's getting the opportunity to showcase himself with Henderson not being there. I was actually disappointed in hard knocks on Tuesday night that they didn't show more of what happened to Henderson

and featuring Akers a little bit more. They really haven't touched on their running backs. It's kind of hard to do when you're looking at two teams. But I was hoping to see something from their scrimmage from Akers. But this is now his time to shine. So hopefully he takes advantage of it. So here's the cautionary tale, Miles Sanders thing.

All I want to say, like, I get what your point is there, Azar, but the other side of it is it's the proof positive that when a guy's in a committee and he's getting the receiving work, if the other guy goes out, that's where the monster upside is.

It's the receiving plus the increase in rushing. And that's why I love Swift. That's why you look for the guy who's catching the passes and could add rush attempts like Kareem Hunt as well. That makes sense. And that also might be Zach Moss. I'll give you a quick injury update. Pete Prisco's interview with Bruce Arians is over,

and Chris Codman's dealing with a hamstring injury. Okay. All right, there you go. And Chris Carson's back at practice, by the way. All right. Let's finish it with this. First of all, where should Leonard Fournette be drafted? Like, should he be ahead of the rookies other than Jonathan Taylor?

He shouldn't be drafted. I think round eight. You're the low guy. I'll say round five for Fournette. Round five. He round five he's after he's part of the ugly stew but

if you're waiting that long for a running back and he's still there he is what he is for now let's do the draft okay I'm going to say the player's name and you tell me zero to ten how much you want to draft him how much you want this player on your team okay Le'Veon Bell what format are you want to draft him. How much you want this player on your team. Okay? Le'Veon Bell.

Wait, what format? Are you going to dictate a format? Half PPR. Okay. Le'Veon Bell. 0 is the worst or 10 is the worst? Come on. Say 0, Jamie. I'll say 2 for Le'Veon Bell. 0 is the worst. I'll go higher than 2. 3.

Negative 7. Okay. Jonathan Taylor. 6. 8. 7. 5. than two three uh negative seven okay jonathan taylor six eight seven five ben had two answers there how about that yeah seven he said 67 and now i want to say more than ben does jamie came in with eight after me so i gotta get up to eight now all right what did you what did you get him in the salary cap like Like $9. Yeah, it was goodbye. It was too early to spend for me, but it was goodbye. Mark Ingram.

Three. Six. Three, six, six. Okay. Ronald Jones. Seven. Seven. Seven.

David Johnson. Four. Two. Five. David Montgomery. Not now, man. Yeah, zero. Four. Five. David Montgomery. Not now, man. Yeah, zero. One. Three.

David Montgomery in round seven. One. Four. Tariq Cohen. Four. In a half PPR, I'll say a five. Yeah, five seems right. But I'll bump it up to a six if it's full PPR. Kareem Hunt. Full PPR, I'd say a five. Yeah, five seems right. But I'll bump it up to a six if it's full PPR.

Kareem Hunt. Full PPR, I'd say it's seven, right? Kareem Hunt's like a five for me. Yep. It's me too. Six. Raheem Oster. One. Six in non-PPR, five in half or full PPR.

I'll say four in non-PPR, in half, and two in PPR? I'll say four in non PPR and half and two in PPR. Devin Singletary. Same as Mostert. I think I'm more interested in Mostert, especially in

non. I'll say four. Cam Akers. I hate that. I hate that, though. I like him, but it sucks. who's next acres six six yep swift 6.1 5.9 i'll say seven for swift okay by the way i just i google searched devin singletary yesterday he showed up in the all-bust team, I think, or the all-fade team in the athletic and the all-breakout team on USA Today. I thought that was funny for Devin Singletary.

He's polarizing for sure. We're going to finish today's show with apparently a funny tweet at my expense. Ben Gretsch, the floor is yours. Well, yeah, I mean, funny and interesting. So somebody just tweeted me during the show. Shout out Drew A. I'm not going to read his handle

because it's inappropriate. I'm not like Azir. I'll just tweeted me during the show. Shout out Drew A. I'm not going to read his handle because it's inappropriate. I'm not like Azar. I'll just read those. But it says, one pays a premium for perceived consistency in fantasy football. So if you steer into inconsistency, you get a discount at every pick. But because of natural variance, you end up with a point total

that will be just as consistent, but with a much higher ceiling. I think it's a really good way of putting that. But he also writes, tell Azar this. You make this point a lot, but maybe if you're articulate like this, Azar will actually get it because he makes the same comments on all your teams. I don't think it's well said at all.

I don't really, I don't even really understand what we're talking about here, but we're talking about inconsistent players that have big weeks or something. Yeah. My point is you're going to start them when they have two points consistent players that have big weeks or something? Yeah. My point is you're going to start them when they have two points and you're going to sit them when Marvin Jones catches four touchdowns and he was

started in like 40% of leagues that week. So when I compile my start, my started fantasy points that you will see my point and then I will articulate it beautifully and that will be it. Mr. Dirty Twitter handle guy who's taking shots at me. All right. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Isaac, for your awesome song. Apparently you did not like Drew's tweets very much. I thought they were interesting. I do think they're interesting. I do think you pay a premium for consistency. I really think that's a good point oh yeah i disagree with that

i agree i totally agree with that see ben i'm not even smart enough to understand what drew's talking about okay that's why we need to end the show um yeah all right we'll talk to you tomorrow on the podcast and on twitch till then bye what what an ending