Fantasy Football Today - Running Back Breakouts! Why Pacheco and Chase Brown Are Among Our Favorites (08/15 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

Want to be in our next mock draft and have a shot at being on air? Check out our St. Jude Draft-a-Thon Store here: https://tiltify.com/@fftfundraising/fantasy-football-today-draftathon-2024 Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts It's not so easy to find young breakout candidates at this position, but we've got some for you including James Cook, Isiah Pacheco and Chase Brown. We're also joined by Chris Harris of HarrisFootball who tells us a few running back values he loves.  Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I had no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. The Breakouts Bonanza continues on Fantasy Football Today, presented by BetMGM. Welcome, everybody. We're talking about our favorite breakout running backs for 2024.

We've got another one of our favorite guests. It's Chris Harris of HarrisFootball.com. Welcome, Chris. talking about our favorite breakout running backs for 2024. We've got another one of our favorite guests. It's Chris Harris of harrisfootball.com. Welcome, Chris. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me. And I'm honored that I've been coming on for so long that Adam no longer refers to my physique when he introduces me. Like ripped, very impressive physique.

Avid softball player, I just learned. That's great. Is that your best sport? I mean, I play a lot of golf. I would say golf is probably, right now, a little better. Yeah, but golf's not really a sport. Just kidding, just kidding. People hate me for that.

Dave and Jamie are here as well. Dave, who's your favorite breakout running back this year? I think my favorite breakout running back is a name that we know already, but I think he can have a career year. That's how I view breakouts. I think it's Isaiah Pacheco. Just having the opportunity to be the lead back in Kansas City. They added those great receivers. It's going to keep the safeties back. He's going to play more on third downs, certainly can do more in the passing game, and he can still rack up a ton of touchdowns on the back. He's going to play more on third down, certainly can do more in the passing game, and he can still rack up a ton of touchdowns on the ground.

He was great last year. Whenever he played 60% of the snaps or more, he had 20 or more touches in six of seven, 19.1 PPR points in those games. That's his ceiling. I think he can get close to that, but I think he can get well past 16 PPR points per game. I'm taking him in round two.

Jamie, who's your favorite breakout running back in 2024? I'll go Brian Robinson. I like the setup for him in Washington with Cliff Kingsbury calling plays. I'm not so concerned about Austin Eckler. A lot of it is based on price because you can get Robinson somewhere right now, at least on our site in the eighties. And I like that upside for him, you know? So the way that I usually like to build my teams with mostly hero RB approach

is he's somebody that I'm targeting. I don't want to put it in negative. He's somebody that I'm targeting as a number two running back. So he's a top 24 guy for me. I think he's going to be better than Eckler. I like what I saw from him last year catching passes when Gibson was banged up, and I like the addition of Jaden Daniels to open up things in his offense. So Robinson is somebody that's going to be a lot of my fancy teams.

All right, Chris, why don't we get your reaction here to Pacheco as a round two breakout and Brian Robinson lot later. I'm not outraged by either. I don't mean to, I don't, I don't want to evaluate my peers here. It feels like Pacheco has a, has a fairly hard ceiling, sort of is what he is. And,

um, I second round might probably be a little aggressive for me. I don't think it's crazy. And Robinson's definitely coming at a price that you, you can take the chance and you don't have to feel absolutely married to him. Cause you're going to take other running backs as well. I,

on my show, actually today, I talked about Eckler as a sleeper in the, I think he's going to eighth round, maybe in some full PPR, he goes seventh. I can see taking him at that price, but I'm not going to take them both.

That's not a situation where I'm handcuffing. I'm probably picking one of the other, you know, this is a weird year for quote unquote breakout running backs because we didn't have any rookie running backs who were highly drafted enough, who have intact knees that make us think they're you know really going to be instant impact guys jonathan brooks would be lovely but he's not probably not playing the beginning of the season and i i had a hard time with this exercise coming

up with young players who haven't done it before so so i don't want to cast stones because the names i'm going to talk about are not not really technically breakout players. No, it's a good point, though. You don't have, I don't know, like, who was it last year? Last year we were expecting maybe Travis Etienne, right? Like a young guy getting a bigger role. Rashad White. Yep, Rashad White. Yeah, for sure.

Dejan Robinson. Yeah, I mean, it's always interesting with rookies, right? Because, like, how do you define a breakout? Are they going to have their best season? Of course, rookies are going to have their best season. But I get what you're're having an elite season basically as a rookie running back um but yeah i don't know like maybe a tajay spears i don't know how you feel about about him or any of the year two guys from from last year um oh we can get to that but

but yeah there's some in that range that qualify spears will be one and chase brown so chase brown definitely is on my sleeper list for sure. I do this almanac thing over the summer. You guys have all gotten a copy of it. And the people ask me, okay, you watched all this film this summer from the 2023 season. Who's someone who popped and you change your opinion on it was Chase Brown. I can't tell you usage. I don't know the, between him and Zach zach moss moss fits the mixin body type if he's going to be a bunch of short touchdowns maybe it is zach moss i just think chase brown could have done a lot worse in terms of acquiring another running back than zach moss and i love

the speed i think chase brown 215 pounds a little more physical maybe than we give him credit for he's never played a meaningful snap with joe burrow. And I can't tell you that I'm positive. Like, do I want Pacheco over Chase Brown? Yeah, by a lot. But I'm going to have a lot of Chase Brown. Is he a breakout guy? He's a bench guy to start the year, but he's close. Before we get to the guys that Chris wanted to highlight,

some players that are going in round four that he thinks are great values. Let me ask you all about Devon Achan. Achan, I'm in a draft where he just went to best ball draft, so I get it. He went, I think, 12th. I see him in the second round sometimes. I see him in the third round sometimes. He never makes it to the fourth round.

Devon Achan's ADP on CBS is 26th overall. Dave, is Devon Achan, I mean, technically he should have his best season just by playing more, but is he going to have a true breakout season? I would bet against it. And I know that that's not a popular take because everybody wants to go and grab him in late round two, but I view the Dolphins' run game as a multi-pronged approach.

And I don't think it's going to change unless, like, everybody gets hurt. Raheem Mostert's going to get hurt. Okay, you can see that happening. But Jalen Wright has shown up both in practice and in the preseason. I think he would have a role if Mostert went down. A-chan himself has to stay healthy. He put on a little bit of muscle this offseason. I guess that's a good thing.

We think that he's going to be involved more in the passing game. I know that would be a good thing. But I just worry about the return on value if we're taking him before 30th, 35th, somewhere in that range, I guess, is okay. But that round two price tag, in best ball, I get it. But in redraft, I think it's too soon. I think you should wait a little bit to get HN. Chris, how do you feel about Devon HN this year? Yeah, I think Dave's got it right.

I'm not freaked out. I mean in in best ball he's going to go higher there's no way in the world anybody should be considering in a regular you got to start fantasy lineup type thing in the number 12 no but i i view hn maybe as the biggest swing player in drafts this year because obviously we can all see what could go right i mean everything went right for him last year he's a big play waiting to happen i watch film on the dolphins and sometimes i can't tell the difference between hn and tyree kill until i look at the uniform number they're that fast and similar to one another so of course we can all see how it could go right and if you want to draft

purely for upside that adp does not like i understand in an upside kind of build why you'd think HN but I got a early rounds I got to play it a little safer I'm I'm scared of the tiny bones running backs I feel like usually if you do if you if you pull they act where they're getting 15 plus touches a game they usually get hurt Austin Eckler took a couple years for it to happen but it did finally happen last year so if the dolphins are smart it does feel more like a 10 touch a game roll very hard to justify that as a second round pick for me okay how do you guys go jamie dave chris how do you rank james cook isaiah pacheco devon achan pacheco cook agent that's what i have to me as well the checko cook agent okay uh let me tell you about bet mgm because if you haven't signed up yet use the bonus code fantasy and you're going to get up to a 1500 first bet offer on your first wager with bet mgm and here's how it works

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and it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at Rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A. All right. Chris Harris of Harris Football is going to tell us now a few running back values that he really likes.

Who do you got? Yeah. Harris football is going to tell us now a few running back values that he really likes. Who do you got? Yeah, these, I guess it's because everybody's going crazy with receiver early and reaching and trying to find receivers, but there are veteran running backs that when you guys said, Hey, come on board and talk about breakout players. I feel like we're going to get breakouts, maybe not their best years of their careers but bigger than the market expects from several or at least three fourth round running backs i think josh jacobs is going way too low he's probably my favorite of this group i think joe mixon is going way too low and i think alvin camara is going way too low um i get it if you're mixing receivers in earlier when you're blending positional ranks then the running backs tend to fall in general.

But I wouldn't take Devon Achan over any of those guys, even if I am shooting for upside. I think those guys have huge upside. Josh Jacobs in Green Bay's offense in the Aaron Jones kind of role, but hopefully adorable back who also is amazing at the goal line. I don't see. I mean, I'm a big Josh Jacobs fan. I do not think anything can go wrong there.

Joe Mixon, the whole fantasy world just doubts him every single year. All he does is finish as a running back one and get you high single digit or double digit touchdowns. He's a monster from inside the five and he moves from one good offense to probably a better one. And Alvin Kamara, Adam, you and I had an exchange

just as we were talking about topics for this. Neither one of us can believe how low Kamara is going. With everybody else in Saints camp in that backfield, all the people who want to give Kamara's job away, there's not a lot of guys I really think are healthy and trust and any good. And if there's a single offensive coordinator switch that I like most, even though I don't love the saints this year, Pete Carmichael leaving new Orleans,

the saints last year ran pre-snap motion on fewer than half of Alvin Camaras carries. That is crazy. That is not the NFL any longer. And if there's one thing I know it's that the Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan system is going to have a lot of pre-stamp motion and get some, so, so seeds of confusion and Camara is going to have a little more open space. So, but I mean, I probably rank all of them mixing in Jacobs. I think I rank in the second round. I don't have to take them there. I would take them

in the third though. And Camara probably I would take in the third as well. So just so I understand this correctly, Adam brought on a guest who he admires his physique. He admires his softball ability. And now just talked about three running backs who he's just been raving about for the last three months. Sort of. So I had been raving about the trio of Mixon,

Camara and Ken Walker. Jacobs is better than them. You know, for me, he usually goes ahead, just ahead of them. But if we make it a quartet instead of a trio, would you throw Ken Walker as a round for value?

And there is another really good one. Absolutely. And again, I think we're where Ken Walker falls among the running backs. I think we're probably less surprised by, we agree more with, and probably it's just the round because people are reaching so high for other positions. And so Walker stands out to me less as what are you all doing? When people are getting around to taking running backs, it feels like they're taking Walker at the right spot. But absolutely, I'm going to have Walker on a bunch of teams he was my most owned player of last year I also think Zach Charbonnet frankly going outside the top 120 is also wrong and crazy and that's a case where I actually would handcuff both guys together because Charbonnet is essentially free they're both good players a lot more pace in Seattle and like a

pretty prescribed roles listen guys we all know this ourselves but a lot of pace in Seattle and like a pretty prescribed roles. Listen guys, we all know this ourselves, but a lot of people think, Oh my God, there's two guys in the NFL today. If you only have two guys in a backfield, like Javante Williams is over there going,

Hey, I have five, you know, two is great. And, uh, and there's a role for both of them. And then if one of the Seattle guys gets hurt,

the other one is gold. How does everybody feel about Zamira White's breakout potential, Dave? I feel good about it. I think the Raiders coaching staff likes him a lot. They went 3-1 in their last four games when they were feeding him the rock. I think he's kind of a throwback. He's not the type of running back that we've been talking about in that he's much more of a grinder and a physical back.

The photos of him from the offseason were amazing. And then watching him, he looks like that type of running back that just is going to have defenders bouncing off of him. The offensive line got better in Las Vegas. I can't say that the coordinator change is a good thing overall, but I think that the competition, you know, how many running backs is he going to share with? Well, maybe a little bit of Alexander Madison. That seems to be the guy that could take him off the field on third and long. But when it comes to goal line work, red zone work, you're going to see a hammer. And I think he also has potential, and we saw it last year, to have breakaway runs.

I'm taking him in round five. I don't know if he can finish top ten. But if you told me that at the end of the year, he was 13th among running backs on a PPR per game basis, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Jamie, just to get some more names out there, why don't you talk about Rico Dowdle, someone you kind of teased on yesterday's Sleeper Show,

and you wanted to talk about him as a running back breakout. Yeah, I mean, again, talk about great value. Somebody who you're getting getting at least right now, I think it's going to change as he potentially gets more hype. We'll find out if that actually comes to fruition, but, um, I think he's the best running back in Dallas right now. You know, I'm, I'm not worried about Zeke at his age and what he's looked like the last two years.

I would like to see them add somebody, you know, so, you know, uh, a potential transaction here, but if it stays in its current form in terms of their depth chart, I think he's going to be the best running back for, for what this team is looking for them, looking for him to do. And so is he a special talent? No. Has he had a hard time staying healthy? Yes. But when you look at the guys around him and Royce Freeman and Malik Davis and Deuce Vaughn, who's, you know, makes Allen look like a giant. Um, I think we're going to see an opportunity here for Dowdell to hopefully get close to 200 total touches.

And if that's the case, I think he'll be in the conversation of at least the top 30 running back, if not higher. All right. What else we got here, guys? Let me ask you this. We have these shared backfields. We have Pittsburgh. Good hosting. Yeah, we have Pittsburgh, Tennessee, and Cincinnati.

Jamie, we already talked about the Washington backfield, but Pittsburgh, Tennessee, and Cincinnati. We got some talented players in these backfields, and we'd really love them if they weren't sharing. Does anybody see a path for Najee Harris, Jalen Warren, Chase Brown, Zach Moss, Tony Pollard, Tajay Spears to have a big breakout season. Pollard, I don't know if you want to call it a breakout season, whatever. Najee, actually, his rookie season, he was like a top five guy.

But you know what I'm getting at. Without an injury to their backfield mate, does anybody emerge from this as a true difference maker in fantasy football? I would say Chase Brown most of all because he's the least known and maybe Zach Moss is to me, the most pedestrian back you just mentioned where if chase Brown is special, I can't imagine Zach Moss is the reason that he doesn't have a really great season. I think the floor is low. The floor might be lowest of that group too, because again,

chase Brown is kind of unknown. And most of what he did at the end of last year happened for a Bengals team that didn't have Joe Burrow and was pretty much out of it and playing out the string, but electric, like he's the stuff that we love about Jalen Warren, I think is there with Chase Brown and maybe a slightly more powerful package. And again, Zach Moss, I know he was the NFL's leading rusher at some point in September last year, but I'm sorry. There's been like three coaching staffs in a row that have gone. No, thanks. I think we're going to get a fourth.

So my answer would probably be Chase Brown. How about Gus Edwards? Does anybody think Gus Edwards could have a better year? He averaged 11 PPR points per game. That's obviously going to be his worst format. But Gus Edwards or Jbers or JK Dobbins, is this breakout SZN for them, Jamie? I mean, you know how I feel about Dobbins. I, you know, I crushed by him what happened last year because I thought last year was going to be his breakout

season, you know? So for a guy coming off of that injury, you know, by all accounts, he's looked good and there's still the potential for him to be great, but can he stay healthy for more than a half? I mean, that's the problem. And so based on the cost of either one of these guys, especially with the latest reports coming out of, you know, chargers camp that Kamani Vidal, who we were all kind of saying, this could be the guy probably isn't going to be the guy may not even make the team. So they'll have some other names that they'll, they'll throw out there. They have a lot of guys behind these two. But Edwards, if he stays healthy, Dobbins, if he stays healthy,

feels like they're going to cannibalize each other. Not a huge role in the passing game, at least based on their previous profiles. I think Dobbins can do it, but he just hasn't shown it yet. And so you're asking them to score a lot of touchdowns. Yes, they're going to be a more run-heavy team than we've seen, and these guys are basically following their coordinator to to vault from Baltimore to Los Angeles. But, you know, based on their costs, yes, they're they're worth taking a shot on. But huge breakout seasons.

I don't think unless if you tell me right now Dobbin staying healthy and he's pre Achilles form, then easy. Yes, he could be a breakout, but that's just unrealistic. OK, Dave Richard, any names that need to be mentioned before we hang up the phone here? No, I like that we got them all. I don't know if there's a conversation to be had about whether or not Bijan or Gibbs could be the RB1. And if that really even belongs here, because they've already, we already know what they are, but could they have a career year? Could they have the best year that they'll ever have? Well, they better. I don't know if that's appropriate

for right now. I think in the case of Bijan, you could see it happening. What's that? No, I thought ever will have is different than just in their two years. They'll be better than they were last year. Obviously, they could be better. Well, at least Bijan can be better than what he did last year, but can Bijan get to a point where... Can

either of these guys finish as RB1? And I think you can make that case for Bijan. So does that make him a breakout candidate? Sure. Does that mean that you're taking him ahead of McCaffrey? No. I wouldn't do that. Well, if you guys are picking the second running back off the board,

is it obvious to you between Bijan and Brees Hall? I don't think it's obvious. I'm taking Brees, but it's very close between the two of them. Yeah. I would take Brees as well. I have Bijan, but man, it's tough.

Yeah. One last name to end the show for me. I'm just hopeful. If we can get in between 5.1 yards per carry and 3.8 yards per carry, the two seasons for Travis Etienne, if we can get to 4.4, 4.5 yards per carry and 3.8 yards per carry, the two seasons for Travis Etienne. If we can get to 4.4 or 4.5 yards per carry,

you might actually get a consistent breakout where his best, because we know he was RB23 per game the last eight games of the year, I think. We might get Etienne in a really good role having a full breakout season and performing more like a first rounder. I'm hopeful for that.

The only other one I'd say is Cook. I think James Cook's going to build off what he did with Joe Brady last year. Yeah. So I probably should have spent more time on him. Okay. Thank you very much, Chris Harris. Everybody go to harrisfootball.com and check out everything he's got. An almanac.

He's got podcasts. He's got softball tips. Swinging bunts forever. Chris, thanks for coming on, man. Thanks for having me, you guys. Pleasure. Those are our 2024 breakout running backs. We've got breakout wide receivers up next on fantasy football.

We'll be right back.