Fantasy Football Today - Running Backs Preview Part 1: Sleepers, Breakouts, Strategies and More (08/05 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

Bid on Draft-A-Thon items here! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tiltify.com/@cbs-sports/fft-draftathon-2025⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ How should you approach the running back position this season? Jamey and Heath give their overall strategies (2:55). Sometimes a Hero-RB approach works best, but don't be afraid to take two RBs early (6:00). We also talk about how to draft RBs if you're picking early or late in the first round, and what to do if you start with two wide receivers (16:50) ... Let's discuss RBs13-24 in ADP and how much we should rely on them (20:40). There are risks associated with Ken Walker, Alvin Kamara and the rest of the group. Then we've got some news and notes (27:30) before we talk about the great rookie RB class (32:30) ... How does our RB strategy change in different formats (42:40) including auctions? Does age matter anymore at this position (49:00)? Who are the biggest sleepers (51:15), breakouts (57:10) and busts (1:04:00). We talk Jaydon Blue, James Cook, JK Dobbins, D'Andre Swift, Javonte Williams, Saquon Barkley and more  ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Shop our store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shop.cbssports.com/fantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FFT team on Twitter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @FFToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @AdamAizer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @JameyEisenberg⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @daverichard⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @heathcummingssr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FFT newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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

This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

Oh, what a year it was for running backs in 2024. Can we repeat that success? I'm going to go out and live and say probably not. You know, especially running back's 13 through 24, an average draft position, usually kind of a wasteland or at least a disappointing range in terms of production. Last year was absolutely sensational, but everybody's a year older now, and that's one of the themes as we look at the running back position this year. Welcome, everybody. This is RB Preview Part 1 on Fantasy Football Today, presented by BetMGM, the sports book born in Vegas. We've got a great rookie class combined with James Connor, who's 30, Derek Henry, who's 31, Aaron Jones who's 30, Joe Mixen's 29, Alvin Camara is 30, Christian McCaffrey's 29. We'll see how much it matters. Good morning, guys. How are you feeling about running back this year, Heath?

Fantastic. Good. Very to the point. Jamie, how about you? Doubally fantastic. Okay. I hope it's not a trap. You've got you've got like 17 pre-scripted questions that I'm trying to answer with different names and different ideas. So I can't, I don't have any other words. I've already, I've already got my words ready. Good. Well, I know you're feeling fantastic about draftathon because we are over 120,000 on draftathon. And I'll tell you about some of the items that you can bid on a little bit later in the show. but let's get into the running backs preview here.

So part one is going to be more of an overall strategy sesh, and then part two will really break down the players and the ADPs. So, Jamie, what's your overall running back strategy? Same that's been for the last several years. Really, you know, find that the best approach for me, and, you know, I tell anybody who asks is here, Arby. I think just taking one in the first two or three rounds is the best approach, and then you get such great value, especially this year.

know, on, as you said, the running back class has, the rookie running back class has sort of reshuffled a lot of things, you know, where you're either going to get, you know, potentially a high-end rookie, you know, at a good price, R.J. Harvey, Caleb Johnson, maybe Trevianne Henderson, some other guys, which I really like, but that's a little bit later. But also it's pushed around some players that I think can also give you an opportunity to take some shots on an RB2, three or four of those guys. So if you like the receivers, and I think the receivers, the high receiver talent drives up a little bit quicker than the running back talent. So I like to get my receivers early and then, you know, with one running back and then sort of stock up on those other guys.

And Heath, how about you? What's your running back strategy? I like the Hero RB approach. The problem for me has been that I also like the running backs in round three more than I do the wide receivers. And so if I take a running back in round one, and that's for me, more determined by how the draft goes and not like forcing guy i've moved chase and lamb up to basically 101 and 103 so i'd like to take one of those two guys early on but i'm not i don't feel good about necessarily putting nico or puka or jefferson with the hamstring right now ahead of all of the running backs in round one so if i take one and round one then i i sometimes end up with two in the first three rounds and i'm okay with that you say all of the running backs in round one

Who are you exactly referring to? So for me, it's Beijon, A. Chan, Barclay, Gentie, Gibbs. And A. Chan is someone that on fantasy pros, his ADP is 12th. Yep. And on football guys, let's see, A. Chan's ADP, I think might be a little bit lower than that. Yeah, it's 14th. So that's a really, that's a fun one because you could get, you might be able to get A. in the second round.

In every single one of our drafts that we've done, our mock drafts, he's a first round pick, sometimes the top five pick. So we really like Devon Achan. He averaged almost 23 fantasy points per game in full PPR when Tua was healthy. A lot of catches. But, you know, he's a second round pick.

That wasn't completely out of nowhere. He averaged over 20 fantasy points per game in his nine healthy games as a rookie. Yeah, he's just been so good. The whole offense was dragged down when Tua was out. We're hoping they'll be a little bit more competent. this year if two and misses time. But we like A. Chan in the first round.

ADP has him in the early second round. So if he's there, you know, if he and Derek Henry are there and you're picking late and you really like one of those guys, maybe you go wide receiver with your first pick and just hope that Henry and A. One of them is available to you in the second round. Yeah, so you have no problem taking two running backs with your first three picks. Jamie, what's your take on when to get that second running back? I will say format matters because if it's a problem.

it is a two running back, two receiver league, I think HeroRB does not make as much sense in a three receiver league. I shouldn't say it doesn't make it much sense, but it's easier to get away with going running back, running back in a two receiver league than it is to do it in a three receiver league because just, again, the receiver talent, I think dins out a little bit, you know, when you're trying to fill that spot. So, I'm sorry, what was the question? Yeah, when do you want to take your second running back? Are you okay doing it with your first two picks, two of your first three. What do you think? Yeah, I think the, you never want to pigeonhole yourself, you know, so I'll sort of, maybe sound a little hypocritical here. Like, I don't always want to

just go in. I'm only doing Hero RB and I'm, I'm, you know, stuck doing it because to Heath's point, I don't really like the running back value in round three the way that I have it ranked. The way that we see it fall sometimes, especially early round three. I think that might have been what you're alluding to, Heath, by pushing the receivers up in the early part of your rankings. Because when you get that two-three turn, you'll still see potentially Bucky Irving, Kairn Williams, maybe Jonathan Taylor, maybe Josh, you know, somebody that could Chase Brown, you know, fall into the 25 through 28 range. So, you know, I think that's just, you know, pretty good value to find one of those type of running backs,

depending I feel about Williams. The other two guys, I think, still seem to go. But now we're seeing an injured Ken Walker in round three. James Cook and his contract situation in round three. I have Omari and Hampton sort of at the three-four turn, but that's at the back end. Brees Hall is going to be in that range for some people. He's a round four pick for me. So I don't really love those caliber of running backs that early in some cases.

So I think if you find yourself taking Robinson or Barclay or Gibbs or any of those guys in round one, and you don't love really the receivers, I think, after Drake London. So Higgins, McConkey, Tyreek, the tight ends depending on falls. Like, why not just take running back, running back? and then just sort of hope your receiving court isn't, you know, somewhat so decimated that you're not having potentially a top 12 guy, depending on how it falls for you. So, again, don't pigeonhole yourself, but for me, ideally, it would be starting in that round five, six range. You know, so go running back, because I'm not usually a quarterback or tight end, an early guy unless it just falls the right way. But it would be most likely taking a running back in the first two or three rounds and then looking at it again in round five or round six, depending on who's on the board.

So Harvey, Swift, Henderson, those type of guys is a lot of where I look in that range of number two running backs. Okay. And there's a range of players. I'm just going to read 20 or I guess, yeah, 20 to 30 in ADP on Fantasy Pros, PPR, ADP. It starts with Jonathan Taylor, and I won't even include the quarterbacks, because we do have Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and Jaden Daniels in there. I mean, you should. They're going to factor in.

Yeah, but, okay, I'll read them all. What's, I, it's like, I'm not even going to read the quarterbacks, but here are the quarterbacks. Jonathan Taylor, Drake London, Bucky Irving, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Kyron Williams, Ladd McConkey, T. McBride, Chase Brown, Tyreek Hill, Jaden Daniels, T. Higgins. I think for a lot of us, if we come away with two of those three players, not including the quarterback, we're probably not taking the quarterbacks there, we're going to feel pretty happy, whether it's Bucky Irving and T. Higgins, or it's Drake, London, in Chase Brown, or it's

Kyron Williams and Tyree Kill or something like that. You kind of feel me, guys, if we agree there, like those are good options if you're drafting, if you have an early pick in the first round, first half of it, you're probably going to feel pretty good about your second and third round picks based on those names. Yeah, I mean, I always

just take Karen Williams there. And I always take Chase Brown. If I took a running back in the first round or in the second round and Chase Brown is there in the third round, it's almost automatic to me. I'm just clicking it. And that's where he's going. And he's going 27th. And on football guys, Chase Brown's going 26th.

So you do have to ask yourself, am I going to take Jamar Chase and Chase Brown if that's, if you like him? Jamie, is there a guy for you that's just an automatic select at the, around the two, three turn at running back? At running back? I mean, Chase Brown for sure. It's hard to, it's hard to pass on that. And even if you take Jamar Chase, like, I don't think that's an issue. I think taking Jamar Chase and T. Higgins might not be the best strategy, but taking the receiver and the running back for sense. Natty is not bad at all.

Tyree Kill is another one. I know not running back, but not really anybody. I mean, Bucky Irving is the same to me as Chase Brown. He just doesn't fall as far. I don't know why people are valuing Chase Brown differently than Bucky Irving so much. I think they're, you know, again, different players, clearly how they get their job done. But like day two, day three running backs, you know, guys that have some, you know, questions about will they hold up and keep the job for as long as they potentially will. competition for targets for touches, et cetera.

To me, it's just, they're very similar in terms of how they're going to get there. Yeah. And we have a question in the chat from Sean. Chase Brown, Josh Jacobs, or Jonathan Taylor. I didn't mean to imply that I'm taking Chase Brown over those guys. But Jacobs and Taylor are probably not going to make it to the third round, whereas Chase Brown, his ADP is currently in the third round. I might want to take him over Jonathan Taylor at BPR.

I'd definitely go in Jacobs one. How do you guys rank those three, Chase Brown, Josh Jacobs, Jonathan Taylor? Jacobs, Brown, Taylor, but they're all back to back to back. Jacobs, Taylor, Brown, they're almost back to back. Okay. So a fun range of running backs in round two and hopefully leaking into round three. So that's kind of how you look at it if you have an early first round pick and you're structuring your team at running back.

Heath, if you have a late first round pick, we alluded to it a little bit. But you have to think about what's coming around in the second round, right? You know, so picks 13 through 16 or 17, and we've got A. Chan, Nico, Brian Thomas Jr., Josh Jacobs, A.J. Brown, Brock Bowers in this mix. So if you're picking 10th-ish, do you have a preference, if you want to walk out of there with a running back and a wide receiver with your first two picks, is there a way to go in the first round? I'm taking A. Chan and one of the past catchers. Okay, if A. Chan's off the board. I guess my question is do you think you're going to have a better

wide receiver available to you in round two or a better running back available in round two or it just really depends on who the first 10 guys that were taken like I think there's a pretty good chance when you're talking about pick 14 or 15 it also depends on how you feel about AJ Brown another wide receiver who currently has a hamstringer injury

I'm a little higher on him than consensus and he's often the last of those wide receivers there at pick 14 or 15 but I think if you're picking in the last three picks and you're thinking A-chan might fall to my next pick, well, do you have a tier break between

Brian Thomas, Niko Collins, Pooka, A.J. Brown, whichever of those four guys are left. Because generally one of those four guys is left at 15. If you don't really have a preference, or if the guy you like best usually goes last, like A.J. Brown, then I think you definitely

take H.N. it's just it's so easy to see how the draft board is falling at that point you know because to his point like if i know like i think for me i have nico and brian thomas ranked a little bit ahead of where consensus is for example uh i think we're all you know whether it's heath at two or me at five a chance ahead of consensus for us too so those are two and we're probably ahead on on McCaffrey as well at this point. So you can sort of see, I haven't seen a draft yet, and I've probably done 25 already,

best ball and redraft. I haven't seen a draft yet where one of McAfree, A. Chan, Genty, have not been there. I'll throw Henry in there, too, 10 through 15, in some capacity. And just looking at CBS ADP, like Brian Thomas is 15th right now, A.J. Brown's 17th.

Right. And so then it's the receivers, you know, so if you want to go receiver running back, like I haven't seen any anywhere without question. And again, it depends how you feel on these guys. Like Nico, Brian Thomas, in some cases, Amaro St. Brown, A.J. Brown and Drake London, not being available, you know, and that's assuming Puka's gone. You know, so you can easily go. Like, again, your best ball draft, if you want to throw it out, fine. But the first rounds are eerily similar, you would expect. So I did a draft last night where I had the 12th pick, and I took Brian Thomas and Gentie. Brian Thomas and Gentie. Okay. Yeah. And that's great. And it seems like Brian Thomas Jr. and Nico Collins, based on multiple websites, average draft position, are wide receivers

that are more likely to be available to you, you know, kind of in the 15-ish range. so if you're worried about not getting one of those elite running backs, maybe take one in round one at 10thish overall, and then maybe you like the wide receivers better. But I think what you need to do, what you need to do at home is figure out, you know, here are the wide receiver rankings, here are the running back rankings,

and then also figure out how does Brock Bowers factor into this for you. But I want to have, I want to come away with my first two picks. This is if you have kind of a later pick. With one of my top, you know, could be seven running backs. that would be Robinson, Gibbs, McCaffrey, Barkley, A. Chan, Gentie,

Derek Henry. I have Kyron 7, but yeah. I know, yeah, I was just looking at consensus, and I didn't even go in order, because it's consensus, we have A Chan 2 in consensus because you love, everybody loves him. Everybody's got him in the top four, but you have him second. And then maybe you want to get one of the top seven or eight wide receivers,

Chase, Lamb, Jefferson, neighbors, Puka, Collins, Thomas, A.J. Brown. That's 14 or 15 picks if you include A.J. Brown. That's without any quarterbacks. That's without Brock Bowers. So figure out at what, you know, I want to get one of the top blank running backs and one of the top blank wide receivers. Or obviously, you could always go receiver receiver. You could always go running back, running back. Do what makes you feel comfortable. There's no set in stone winning strategy. I think just I know you want to take a break, but I think the one thing when you're picking at the end of round one, you really have to think and you go receive a receiver,

You really have to think, how comfortable am I with the two running backs if you're going to go running backs in your next turn or, you know, again, how you build out your strategy. Like, do you really like to whatever degree they may fall? Kyrin could be there, but I doubt it. But let's just say Kyron is there. James Cook is there. Ken Walker's there. James Cook is not. James Cook's ADP's risen enough where I don't feel comfortable putting him.

It's around 30. Oh, I think it's about to plummet. Okay. Okay. That is true. But as we do this right now, he is holding. in. As we do this right now, it's about 30-31. So that was always kind of a fallback for me, Jamie. I completely agree with you. If I went wide receiver, wide receiver, man, I love taking James

Cook late round three. As of right now, he's not getting there, but you are correct. If he continues to hold in, the ADP will fall. But give me some of the more names. You got Hampton there. You got Brees Hall. You got Brees Hall. You got Brees Hall. It's, it's, it's, from the top to the bottom, I think, of the group. Kyron, James Cook, Ken Walker, Amari and Hampton, Breece Hall, Alvin Camara. I think that's probably where it ends. Maybe Chuba. Chuba is the other one that could be included.

Yeah. But it's also, I mean, forget about included. You may have to reach. You know, so again, you know you're not getting those guys back to you at the, at the five, six turn. So it's how comfortable are you with that group of guys? Now, again, we've talked about this in some cases with the pick by pick and some other various examples. Like, you don't have to take a running back, right? You know, you can go with more of a zero RB approach or just take one of those guys.

and take Kittle or take a quarterback or another receiver and you're on your way and still have an ability to throw a lot of capital at the running back position. I think, again, it's just a matter of if you are, I need to get my running backs a little bit more secure, then make sure you understand what you're doing if you take, if you go receive a receiver at the back end of the first round. Well, I think one of the conundrums here is do we base, do we do we base our expectations off of last year or the three years before that? because I looked at running backs drafted in rounds, or not rounds,

running backs ADP 13 through 24, and how did they do? And I'm going to tell you how they did in just a second. Now, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code fantasy, and you're going to get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. And here's how it works.

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Quick break here, and we'll be right back to talk about running backs 13 through 24 and what history tells us after this. Let me tell you, if there's a surefire way to wake up feeling fresh after drinks with friends, it is with pre-alcohol. Zbiotics, pre-alcohol, probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic.

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Going. Twizzlers. Keep the fun going. Okay, so I've been trying to compare running backs versus wide receivers basically throughout drafts, but specifically in the early rounds, the top 24 drafted each position in PPR leagues. And who's safer, which position is safer?

I would say that the data shows that running backs are a little bit safer, but if you look at PPR scoring, there's usually about the same amount of running backs that score 14 PPR points per game, as there are wide receivers who score 15 PPR points per game. It's every year, it's pretty close in terms of 15 points per game for a wide receiver, 14 points per game for a running back. So running backs drafted as top 24 guys have hit the four. 14 point per game mark, about 75% of the time, whereas it's 65% for wide receivers.

So we're having more success drafting running backs in terms of top 24 guys than we are wide receivers. This is over the last four or five years. So that's one thing to consider. Here's another thing, though, Heath, and I think it really relates to today's show topic, right, is the running backs, and specifically if you're taking two wide receivers or something with their first two picks. Running backs 13 through 24, that 14 point per game mark, they had hit that four times, right? So in 2020, one, two, and three, four running backs in that range of 12 averaged 14 or more PPR fantasy points per game. Last year, I think it was nine.

It was such a good year for Arby's 13 through 24. And honestly, it was such a logic-defying year for running backs because we're so worried about all these old guys and pretty much all of them were good, right? Derek Henry, James Connor, Aaron Jones, Alvin Camara. They were all old for the position and they were all really good. And now we have to worry about them again being old. So you know what I'm trying to get at here? It was such a good year for running backs. Should we dial our expectations down a bit? And, you know, what do you think in general about RB's 13 through 24? It's like, look pretty damn good on paper. But history tells us it's not a great range except last year it was you shouldn't ever let one year change all of your priors you also

shouldn't completely ignore it and one thing we saw was a little more running in the NFL last year like we we had to figure out how do we beat all this too high stuff the defense is doing and a lot of teams decided the way we're going to do that is just run it down their throat and let them stay in that defense and so i am more optimistic about the running backs in the rb 13 to 24 range probably than I was going into last year, but not expecting a repeat of what we saw last year. It's somewhere in the middle. And like looking at that group now, I've got a little gap in my rankings kind of from, it's more like RB16 through 24 that I'm looking at in kind of the same range.

And it's it's RB15 where the cutoff is that I feel like guys could be RB1s this year. The other thing that really changes it, and I think you have a question coming up about this, so I'm going to go ahead and run it. But it's maybe the best running back class we've had in six or seven years. And a lot of the guys at the tail end of that RB 13 through 24 range are rookie running backs. And even when people were talking about the dead zone and avoiding that range of running backs, the guys who were generally the exception were the rookies or the young, exciting running backs.

So I think you should feel more optimistic about it than you did last year. I think part of it also is, I mean, you can start to see. You know, unfortunately, you know, some of the pitfalls for a couple of the guys that may go at the top of this group. James Cook with the holdout, hold in, Walker now with a foot injury, Hampton, I think the hype may get out of control if Naji's back at some point soon and sort of ruins that. Breeze Hall and the potential competition. Like you can see the flaws for that. But I think part of this, which I think helped last year, based on the previous years, they got part. push down a lot.

A little bit, yep. And so we'll see how that changes this year, right? Because as of now, it's about the same. Right. I don't think we've seen it yet. But again, where does the true ADP sort of come in when all the drafts are happening, when the quarterbacks are being selected a little bit higher than we expect? and maybe the the third tier of second to third tier of tight ends start to push up a little bit as well.

You know, LaPorta and Kelsey and those guys maybe come into this range a little bit more so than we've seen in our drafts. But I do think that when you start to look at the value for these guys, you know, and so like where does James Connor's value settle? Where does Henderson and Harvey and Caleb Johnson's value settle? You know, like it's still an uncertain market. And I think that's where, you know, to what you said yesterday, and it goes both ways, you know, drafting early versus drafting late. You know, you may be getting some incredible values on some of these players, or it may go the other way, it may be awful at later points in the draft process. So it's just a strange group of players, I don't say strange, an interesting group, intriguing group of players of how this is all going to work out because you may get, you know, you may be buying too soon on. Charbonate at this point because of Walker's injury.

And Walker may fall to a spot now where it's like, how can I not draft him because of what he can be if this foot injury is not bad? Same with Joe Mixon, right? Same situation. Right. And Mixon, they're not sure if he's going to be ready for week one, but there's a chance, certainly. And Walker, I mean, look, it's August 5th.

He's missed three days with a foot injury. It doesn't mean he won't be back out there on August 8th. And then all of our fears will be put to rest. But he does have an injury history, especially I think ankle injuries he's had. in the past. I think the Walker win brings up something I was struggling with yesterday because we were like there was all types of positive stuff coming out about Caleb Johnson the last couple of days and how good he's looked running.

And it was like three days before that all the coverage was what a disaster Caleb Johnson was in past protection. Now he was just getting trucked over and over and couldn't block anybody. And that's why like with, and sometimes we have guys that are hurt for three days and we start to adjust them and then a week later they've got training camp highlights and they're perfectly fine. So you just, we want to react to news, but we probably need to react slowly and do it when the news is more consistent over a week at least. Yeah, I know. It's tough. Don't draft yet. Wait a little bit. All right, let me go through some news and notes.

Breeze Hall return to drills. Isaac Arendo, this is a big one here because he's a guy we keep saying, you draft Christian McCaffrey. You better draft Isaac Garando. He's going to miss a few weeks with a shoulder injury. So how does that change things for fantasy, Jamie, specifically the McCaffrey manager? Well, one, I think if you're drafting Garendo, you're drafting him for the potential what if, which hopefully will not come early in the season.

So he can still not have to be used a lot and get right, but it also suggests at this point that Jordan James should be on your radar as somebody to take with the late round flyer if this injury continues. Or who might be our new cockroach, Amir Abdullah, who's now on the roster. and had some very good moments last year,

can do well in this past catching role, I'm sure. I hope he doesn't matter, but, you know, never know. In any event, I keep moving Garando down, not because of this, because there are other players in that range that like more, but also because McCaffrey seems to be healthy at this point. So I was probably a little too aggressive in some of my early drafts with Garando because we didn't know what was going to happen with McCaffrey

once the training camp process started. So I think if you're still drafting Garando, you're drafting Garando, you're drafting him with the what if down the road. Oh my gosh. Amir Abdullah. Are you kidding me? Let's see. Week 15, he was RB7. Week 16, he was RB 15. And he scored 19.5 points in week 15 and he was, or week, what week am I on here? A16, sorry, and he was only RB 15. And then week 17, your fantasy championship, Amir Abdullah was RB 7. I started him in several playoffs last year. He scored 19.6, 19.5 and 17.7 PPR fantasy points.

He was good. And he had three carries, seven carries, and then 20 carries. Wow. I remember that. That was a lot of fun, actually. Ken Walker's missed three days with a foot injury. He can do one of his, yeah, I don't think you've done it in a while. Your Twitter names, you know, Amir Abdullah, Alamara, same thing.

Yeah. Ken Walker, three days he's missed with a foot injury. Damien Pierce is off the Pupplist for the Texans. Benjamin Albright of K.O.A. Colorado says that both running backs and Denver running backs look good, but he suggests that JK. Dobbins is RB1 and he will be until R.J. Harvey gets better at pass protection. You hear that a lot about rookies.

The Giants signed Jonathan Ward because Cam Scataboo is banged up right now and I don't know the severity of the injury but obviously it would matter for Tyrone Tracy's value. Entering injury, by the way. Cleveland signed Tyler Huntley at quarterback. Should her Sanders back at practice but it looks like Joe Flacco as Jamie and Heath mentioned yesterday

appears to be the favorite Joe Flacco to become the starting quarterback. Can you imagine how high I'm going to have Joe Flacko ranked week one against the Bingle's defense? Chasing the score against that offense. He might throw 50 passes. Nice. Maybe the start of the week. Yes.

Green Bay cornerback, Nate Hobbs had knee surgery, but he could be ready for week one. Other quarterback news, Spencer Rattler is clearly outplaying Tyler Shuck, according to New Orleans. Dot football's Nick Underhill, Tampa Bay signed quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. The Chargers met with Keenan Allen. they might sign him, we'll see. And Travis Hunter, he was listed as a starting wide receiver and a second string cornerback on the first depth chart. And Heath, you were saying that they wanted him to play 80% of the offensive snaps.

I think Liam Cohen was very hesitant to answer the question. I think Jamie said it was Rich Eisen, right? Yep. I was trying to pin him down like, what's, how many snaps is this guy playing on offense and defense? And he started on offense and said, like it if you can play around 80% of the snaps. Wow. And then we'll try to match what he does on defense to that. But it sure seems like offense is the focus and defense is the secondary thing, hopefully.

He said, as part of the answer, and you could check it out on Coach's Index, he said that he can walk on the field and play corner now, essentially. And offense is what he has to learn the most, the nuances of playing the position. He said there's not a time that he is not in a meeting with someone. It's very similar to, you know, if you want to just see what his, his, Travis Hunter's interview with Pete Prisco, which you can find on our site. saying the exact same thing. You know, he's basically going to do as much as he can to play every snap on both sides of the ball. But if he's playing 80% on offense, it's going to be very good for his fantasy value as long as he holds up. That's the biggest thing.

I had him projected right around 70%, which put him at wide receiver 30. If I put him at 80%, he's going to be like a wide receiver 18. But I just hope some documentary crew is following him around. And at the end of the year, we get the video of how Travis Hunter became the first guy to be a, full-time offensive and defensive player. That'd be pretty cool. Okay, Travis Hunter is currently a sixth round pick and someone we will talk about in a couple of days.

But right now, let's get back to some running back questions. So, Jamie, how does this strong rookie class factor in after Ashton Genti, who's likely going to be a first round pick? How does the rookie class change your draft strategy, if at all? Well, I think, first off, Hampton, is getting closer to Jentee than he is to, you know, how was, how did you have a triple H and double H? Double J. Yeah. Which is a single J right now because Judkins. Right. Right. He's, he's closer to Genty than he's ever been. And we'll see how long that

stays because of Najee's eye injury, which, by the way, I think it was yesterday or maybe Sunday, there was the video of him walking around practice, not running. He was just walking around the practice field. Like, this is so weird what's going on with Najee Harris right now. I don't know what to make, but hopefully he's okay in every, in every facet, not just as I am, you know, whatever's going on. But this is just weird that he had an eye injury and he's not running at all. In any event, I think there is going to be stretches of the season where this class is dominant. You just mentioned the Broncos report where J.K. Dobbins is running ahead of Harvey until he picks up until he gets better in past protection. He's brought up the Steelers situation, which we heard Jalen Warren, we know is great in past protection based on how he grades out in previous years, and Caleb Johnson may or may not be struggling with it. There was several reports the last couple of days because of training camp stops from various networks about how great Treveon Henderson looks, and still Ramandre Stevenson is going to be in the mix. So almost all of these guys, aside from Gentie, are in situations, and Judkins could be maybe a little bit different if he ever can get on the field, but all. All of these guys are in tandems or committees. And so at what point, including Scataboo, including Jaydon Blue, who's getting rave reviews in Dallas, maybe Basial Tutan with the Jaguars, and maybe Jacori Kroski Merritt with the commanders.

Like at some point, we may see these guys all be the starters and all have fantastic stretches of production. But you may have to be patient with it. And so when you're drafting these guys, it's hard to say, I'm comfortable unless, you know, you really like the rest of your roster and are just going to take some shots at the position. But I'm comfortable with Trayvion Henderson, week one as my second running back. I'm comfortable with Caleb Johnson, week one as my second running back. I'm comfortable with even Amaran Hampton, week one is my first running back. And so it may just have to preach patience and believe in what these guys can become when you start the season.

on the other hand if you want to take henderson or harvey in round five and say it's a pick not necessarily for week one you can come back and you can take um aaron jones or i would take isaiah pecheco in round six and have a guy that you could feel maybe more comfortable in in week one or you can just take that backfield and take romay stevenson and warren or you know see how that plays i'm just saying based on cost like if you don't want to double dip on the running back position right away like you can wait a little bit and still get the second guy quote unquote who maybe the starter week one and just sort of see how that plays out so like in the case of what heath is talking about for example like jerome ford's an easy target for the start of the season at this point because no matter when judkins signs he's most likely going to be so far behind in terms of prep and being NFL ready jerome four is probably the starter week one against a very good match in a very good matchup against the bangles here's one here's one that you could structure a team

that had the ninth or 10th pick, let's say. You could take Ashton Genti in round one or you could take, that could be Derek Henry or Devon A-Chan. Yeah, we'd take A-chan, right? You could take A-Chaffrey, yeah, I review it. Yeah, all right, so you take a Hero RB, Brian Thomas Jr. in round two

or Nico Collins or maybe Pooka Naku in round two. Round three, come back. Jackson Smith and Jigba could be there. You might like him, or maybe Jaden Daniels is there. You might want to take a quarterback. round four, we like George Kittle there, or maybe there's a wide receiver you like. Round five, R.J. Harvey or Trevian Henderson.

Round six, Isaiah Pacheco or Aaron Jones. I don't think that's so bad. I could live with that. I'd be pretty pumped about that. You want me to say it again? I don't disagree. I mean, the strategy, at least. You know, players might disagree.

But I think in terms of going that route, sure. You know, especially knowing that Jones or Pacheco or whoever else may be in that spot there could also, be your flex. Yes. At some point there's a season. Go ahead,

and I know, like, it's good that you emphasize that we try to find some of these strategies that people can think about. I just stay open

because our drafts are so different across a variety of different spectrums that there's a lot of different paths that might work out. I don't have any problem with that one if it happens

to work out that way. All right. So that would give you a lineup of, let's say, Jaden Daniels, Devon A. Chan, uh isaiah pacheco brian thomas junior jackson snow uh george kittle and we only have one wide receiver on this team okay so you're not going to take daniels and kittle that's that would be the you'd have

to take a wider just ask your next question uh which is it it does the the the round break but let me take a we take a break and then we're going to talk about what is it the uh the formats three receiver that that's your question yeah all right um Can I just finish up the rookie discussion with this? Do you agree or disagree? If you walk out of your draft without any rookie running backs, you've made a mistake. No, you haven't made a mistake. I mean, it's probably not the best way to go, given how good these guys can be.

But to Heath's point, like, I don't want to walk into my draft saying, I have to draft a rookie. But it's easy to do. It's easy to do it all over the place. It depends on what you're talking about here because, yes, you can draft Blue or Tootin or. you know, DJ Giddens or, you know, Crosskey Merritt, like any of these guys you could draft at some point, Samson, but like, I'm not going to walk and saying, okay, I like A-Champ better than Gentie. I'm not taking Gentile because I need to get a rich. No, but you don't have to do. I'm not saying you, you know, you throw out the rankings and just say, I can take rookies,

but I definitely, I'm not leaving any drafts without at least one rookie running back. This is too good of a rookie running back class. What level of rookie running back are we talking? It doesn't matter. I mean, the later we go, the more I'd want. If I didn't, get any in the first eight rounds. We're probably going to take a couple of shots. But we have old running backs. We have old veteran running backs. That is a bad recipe.

I know it wasn't bad last year, but those guys could falter. Get some youth. Get some youth at running back. Heath, you should have at least two rookie running backs on most of your teams. Do not make an intentional choice to make sure you draft a rookie running back and throw away a pick because you're doing that. And the other problem is, like, a lot of the old backs that we're worried about don't

have rookies waiting behind them. I know. In the middle of that rant, I was like, well, I'm not sure this has actually helped the argument. You have two that come to mind. You have Woody Marks, you know, behind two old running backs. One's hurt right now in Houston. And Devin Neal, behind an old running back in New Orleans. So they're free.

And you said round eight, I know you want to take a break, but you were going to skip the question that I wanted you to ask. So you were going to ask if we like running backs or wide receivers better in round like 8, 9, 10, the later rounds. Oh, yeah, I wasn't going to skip that. The reason that I don't want to take, like, force a rookie running back in round nine is because a strange thing this year, and you've talked about it, we usually get one or two good wide receivers from this round. As of ADP right now, I love the wide receivers available in round 8, 9, 10. Now, you get to the later rounds, you probably should just take backup running backs

and hope they become starters. But looking at CBS ADP, and I know it'll be different than best ball ADP, but Roma Dunesay Cooper Cup Ricky Pearsall Emica Abuka Matthew Golden like that's that's the round 8 through 10 sauce right there

I feel comfortable saying this I could give you some numbers but I feel comfortable saying that once we get to round 7 or later you will see more success stories not necessarily this year but in the last 7 or 8 years more big success is at wide receiver

than running back So that's something to keep in mind. Now, this is your week-wide receiver rookie class. Great running-back rookie class that could change. But you definitely want to spend some late picks on wide receivers because Ladd-McConkie and Jackson-Smith and Jigba and Brian Thomas Jr. and all that from last year. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

There's a lot of success stories. All right, now we're going to take a break. We're going to talk about running back strategies in different formats. We're going to talk about how much you care about age. Sleepers Breakouts, bus auction advice, all after this on FFT. Okay. What is your strategy change in different formats? Jamie, I guess let's start with scoring.

Let's start with non-PPR versus half-PPR versus full. In non-PPR, I think you look for running backs certainly earlier rather than later. You want to get one of these workhorse running backs that are going to get the opportunity to touch the ball as much as possible. So, for example, Derek Henry is a round two pick for me. He's a round one pick in non-PPR. guys like Alvin Kamara on that format, you know, plummet just because they're not going to get as many carries. Same with the great Amir Abdullah. In half-p-R, it depends on which players you're comparing them to at what point in the draft.

So, for example, Derek Henry at the back end of round one versus Puka Nakua, for example. So that's a tough choice depending on how you think Puka is going to do in terms of scoring touchdowns. I would still lean more toward the pass catchers in that format, just because I see. still think the half PPR matters a little bit, but it becomes a little bit more tricky. In full PPR, you want running backs that are going to be involved in the passing game if you have the option to draft them. So, you know, again, you may not believe based on Greg Roman's history and Najee Harris being there that Omerian Hampton is going to be a significant factor in the passing game. By comparison, Ken Walker's coming off a very good season catching the ball, and Alvin Kamarro's

in that same range, and Breeze Hall's in that same range. So those three running backs are going to do a better job catching the ball. So it's going to, you know, depend on when you start to compare player versus player in each format. And I would say just based on a bunch of mock drafts that we've done in the past and having this conversation, I have not noticed a big difference in strategy change from half PPR to full PPR. Maybe certain players, but I don't think if you looked at the way we draft, when I say we, I mean, you know, the three of us plus Dave, usually Dan, Jacob Gibbs, they're in our

drafts, Thomas is in our drafts, just kind of the CBS FFT family. I think if you did look at ADP, half-PPR versus full-P-R guys, I kind of feel like it would be pretty similar, whereas non-PPR would be dramatically different. Part of that is because the rankings in the draft room on most sites are going to be the same. For half-PPR and full-P-R, it's still some version of PPR. I will say in my projections, RB12 and wide receiver 12 are projected for the same number of points. In half-PR, there's a 30-point gap favoring the running backs.

but does it change the way you draft though because you know i'm much more likely to have a running back in the flex and half ppr okay having just done a half ppr draft with other analysts for the flex leagues there were two managers who took very drastic approaches one went hero wide receiver and took only one wide receiver in the first five rounds One went here, R.B, and I don't think took a second running back until, like, maybe round eight. I could see in a half PPR draft taking three running backs in the first four picks. Here's just since it's relevant, I'll find it for you real quick. And that's because what Heath said, three running backs in the first four picks.

That's partially because Heath has a big blob of wide receivers that probably he feels the guys in getting round six may not be that different than the ones he gets in round four. And the blob gets bigger. and half PPR. Fair. Because those catches don't matter as much. So here are the two teams. This was,

one was pick. Oh, wait, crap, wrong one. Sorry. Is it a half PPR league where you don't have

to start a tight end, by the way? Why can I get there? Sorry. You want to come back to it? Podcast awards, folks. This is it.

All right, here we go. So one was, this was the third team, started with Bajon Robinson, and then it was Garrett Wilson, T. Higgins. Garrett Wilson. Yeah, a little too soon for me, but whatever. Garrett Wilson, T. Higgins, Tetero McMillan, McMillan, James, Ricky Piersall, Amecca, Bucca. Next running back was not until round eight with J.K. Dobbins.

And then went all running backs with the next four picks of J.K. Dobbins, Tajay, Spears, Dylan, Samson, and Ray Davis. That was from pick three. Then at pick 10, we had Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Alvin Kamara, DJ Moore, DeAndre Swift, and then Joe Burrow. So only one wide receiver through the first six rounds, but four running backs in the first five. These are double flex leagues, right? These are double flex leagues. So two running back.

Three receivers, two flex box. Yeah, right. You can start all the running guys. Yeah, I mean, I prefer the running, but I'm sure we all prefer the running back team. yeah um based on the start yes yeah all right let's again this is the receiving court for that team DJ Moore Michael Pittman Juan Jennings oh that's awful that's horrible right so again the start you may prefer the actually I think I prefer the receivers the other team just because the start like the running backs are obviously going to be a little bit tough to stomach but

you still have Robinson and you just have to hit like if tajy spears is the best running back in Tennessee, that team's going to be very tough to be. Well, yeah, that team does have a lot of if scenarios, though. You could see it going well. So that's one thing that people do sometimes. They just take a lot of chances on a guy like Tajey Spears and I forget the other, but anybody like that, Zach Charbonnet, where you might get a four-week stretch of having an RB1 and it might work out for you.

Real quick here, Heath, two-receiver league versus three-receiver league. How does things change for you? In a two-receiver league, you should draft running backs earlier. In a three-receiver league, you should draft more wide receivers earlier. Mm-hmm. So Hero-R-B, Hero-R-B and more likely to do it in a three-receiver league? I can do Hero in either one. Zero-R-B more likely to do it in a three-wide receiver league.

All right. Auction advice. Out of a $100 budget, Jamie, how much are you spending on the first-round pick running backs? You're asking the wrong person. Heath? Yeah. Go ahead, go ahead. I've got between 28 and 31.

percent for Bejohn, A. Chan, Barclay, Gentie Gibbs. And that makes sense. The reason I said that is because I'm typically not going to do that. I'm going to let somebody else spend their budget on those guys and be the, take more shots on the Tai J. Spears group in salary cap leagues. Then what are you spending your money on? Receivers. Okay.

Does age matter anymore? As I said at the beginning of the show, James Conner's 30, Derek Henry's 31, Aaron Jones is 30, Joe Mixon's 29, Alvin Camara is 30, Christian McCaffrey's 29. Before last year, 29 and obviously older, not good years for running backs, but last year totally bucked the trend. Heath, I rank all of those guys lower than I project them. I think it still matters. I'm not going to call Derek Henry a bust this year, but I've also not been drafting

him. And if I was going strictly on projections, I may have a couple times, but other times still undefeated. If we were not concerned about age, Derek Henry and Alvin Kamara will be top five picks. Well, Camara still has this horrible offense, though. And one more Camara concern, since it's the running back show, Kellan Moore's throwing two running backs in his offense is at least not great. It's not bad, but Austin Eccler's caught a lot of passes with Kellan Moore went from 6.3 catches per game to 3.6 the year that Moore took over the Chargers.

Really? Zeke caught 77 passes the year before Kellan Moore took over, never caught more than like 54 with Kellynne Moore. Sequin Barkley, I know it had a lot to the Shailen Hertz, but just had the lowest receptions per game of his career. So maybe it's only one less catch per game for Camara,

but yes, that offense is so terrible. Any deem in his reception volume is a problem. Yeah, I look forward to talking about that tomorrow because I looked at have we had standout running backs or any wide receiver or tight end on really bad, offenses. And there were enough over the last five years to kind of, I've been sort of poohing Camara a lot, but I think I can get on board. He's a round four pick. Does anybody take him in round four? I mean, round five, I feel like I would take Camara. Round four, it was a little

early to me. How about you guys? I've drafted him once. It was in our pick by pick. And so it was at the four or five turn. So that's the spot on comfortable drafting him at this point. And really only in PPR. Half PPR and non, it's much later than that. Here's another hot take. I'll take Trayvion over him now. Oh, wow. Okay, the younger version, huh?

Okay, my favorite sleeper running back is blank. Jamie. Well, since I have to get a rookie before I leave the drafts, I'll say Jaden Blue. Just the reports, I think, for a backfield that has so much ambiguity, there's a potential for him to be the best. And I think with every positive Giovante Williams report that we had at the start of training camp, we're not getting that for blue. So there's going to be a little market correction. But I move those guys closer together. He's just an easy guy to take in that round

nine plus range, you know, if he's still on board. I'll just stay on that because I think I can make the argument for Giovante Williams as the best sleeper running back. I definitely think he's going to have the first crack at it. You know, remember yesterday, Jamie, I was reading some headlines from 2024, some things that I had put in the notes a year ago about training camp risers. I don't know if I read this one, but it was Chris Godwin says he finally feels healthy, two years removed from his torn ACL. And that's what I'm hoping for, for both Giovante Williams and Breece Hall, talk about him tomorrow, but that some

guys, it takes that extra year because Javante had a super bad knee injury. It was not just a torn ACL. It was a really serious knee injury. And if he, he's great in past protection, right? He's probably probably going to be the third downback. Jaden Blue was what, six-round pick, seventh-pound pick? Phil Motha was seventh round. I think Blue was fifth. Oh, okay, fifth.

All right. Well, that's a little bit better because fifth-round pick in most years I would ignore, but in a running-back class this deep, you can't ignore it. But, yeah, I think you look at the cow, let's just say this, look at the Cowboys backfield

and keep monitoring it because Rico Dowdell was really good the last half of the year when he finally got the work. If they can get someone in that role, whoever it is, probably going to be pretty good. I don't think it's a bad idea to take both those guys.

That would meet the quota of rookie running backs. It's true. Heath, who's a sleeper for you? I've got two because I'm being stubborn and still using what ADP says. And so Tank Biggsby's up 10 spots, but he still pick 117. And I think he's going to be the starting running back for Jacksonville, probably lead him in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. And then if he gets elevated out of that range, which I would take him a couple rounds earlier, Braylon Allen is still like two rounds behind him and probably going to have

it's not going to the line. They're not going to score as many touchdowns as the lion. So it's not David Montgomery production, but the David Montgomery role. Well, for giving two. I mean, I feel left out. Yeah, I'm going to give two. I'm going to give a second one. Go ahead, Jamie.

Oh, Tai Jay Spears is like an auto pick for me. You know, I think just we saw it last year when both were healthy. You know, he had some very positive moments. There was the one game where Pollard didn't play. and he had over 20 total touches. I think this offense as a whole is going to be better. And I think Spears has an opportunity to be a potential flex in deeper leagues, but a lottery ticket if something happens to probably.

I'm only giving this one because I feel, I'm not, I wasn't planning on giving sleepers breakouts and busts, but I feel like everyone's going to be on board with this. If you're going to say Tank Bigsby, I think we've got to say J.K. Dobbins. They're going in the same range. Dobbins appears to be the starting running back in what capacity, I don't know, but starting running back for the Denver Broncos.

I think yesterday I said people think they have the best offensive line in football. I think everyone kind of feels like the Eagles do, but right after that, it's the Broncos, at least in some... You were saying hyperbolic takes yesterday? That one was heat of the moment, the Caleb Boy, he was one. But I'm going to say J.K. Dobbins is a sleeper.

He's going after Pick 100. I'm surprised you said that, though, because you sort of painted a negative picture of Dobbins yesterday. No, he could be a sleeper. It's a great point. It was amazing the first two games of the year. After that, he just really wasn't that good.

It was weird. Very inefficient, not making big plays. But he's only 26 years old, so I don't know what to make of that. But even if I have those concerns about him, I still think he's a sleeper. Heath, you would have been proud of him yesterday. I swept, name that player. Yeah. Love it.

Do you guys agree about that on Dobbins, that he's a sleeper? Yes. I think the Capitol right now, you know, again, you get the reports like we're getting that he's running with the ones and, you know, might be better in past protection and all those things. That's probably going to change where his, you know, he's, you know, ADP is, but I also think this is a coach and a system that has proven you can get quality production out of two guys. And so it just, and this is, again, drafting early versus drafting late, and we're going back a little bit sooner, but the RJ Harvey value is hopefully going to settle to a spot where

it's too fantastic to pass up, you know, and so like I think when you start to look at the three, four, and five rookie running backs of Henderson, Harvey, and Caleb Johnson, and obviously they're a very different type of players. Henderson right now is going to probably move past those guys if he's not already because of what's happened the last few days. I think we're going to see Harvey fall because of reports like this. And Caleb Johnson is kind of just going to be sort of settling as the third option of those three guys. But one more training camp highlight of Caleb Johnson running through what would be seven tackles for a touchdown and saying, wow, look at the burst is is going to you know change some of those things so take it for what it's worth i would

take henderson first but i think harvey could end up being the best of maybe the non-genty guys if something happens to daubman so those four or five games that daubman typically misses rj harvey might be an absolute superstar all right my favorite breakout running back is blank heath well they're all running rookies so all my favorite breakouts are rookies and And I'll just, I'll say Trayvion Henderson. I, and this is some confirmation bias because he's my second favorite running back coming into the NFL. And you can't watch Patriots reports without seeing them glow about how much different his burst is than anyone else on the team. Romandre Stevenson's already fumbled once in training camp.

And that's the thing, the two things that keep veterans that we don't like ahead of rookies that we love are pass protection and ball, security, and Trevion Henderson enters the NFL better than Remandari at both. He will break out in year one. Love this. I love it. You're firing me up to pick Trayvian Henderson. I've been nervous. I'm nervous about the split, but yeah, you make such good points.

Jamie, your favorite break-out? Do you have buyer's remorse from taking Harvey over Henderson in your rookie draft? I didn't do that. Did I? There's no way. I thought you took Harvey over-Henerson in the Big Burger League. Oh, please tell me I didn't do that. I'm going to look at the draft results right now.

It was defensible, I suppose, before the Dobbins signing. But I loved Trayvon Henderson. No, he took Cam Ward at pick three. I took Trayvon at pick five. He took Harvey at pick seven. Yeah, I have probably the biggest buyer's remorse than that. John Jenkins is pick eight. Who's your favorite breakout, Jamie?

I can't believe he let me have this. I'm going to take D'Andre Swift. This is going to be the best year of his career. All right. I believe it. DeAndre Swift has been top 24 per game every year. Let's see, the highest. He did finish his RB 10 in full PPR in 2021,

RB20 that year per game. This is per game in non-PPR. So that was a year where he had 62 catches and 13 games. So what do you think? Do you think he's got top 15 potential? Absolutely. I mean, again, when you start to look at some of the situations, you know, forget about who he is.

forget about his resume anything. If you just look at situation, right, you have Ben Johnson coming in, you have an upgraded offensive line, you have a guy that's dealing with a player in the second spot who's at a hard time staying healthy and who struggled in Roshan Johnson and a seventh round rookie as the top competition right now. Now, I would not rule out if somebody gets cut that they add somebody else at some point. You know, so from like a Devon Singletary, Antonio Gibson type, which I don't think is a huge threat to DeAndre Swift, but just something to keep in mind.

Like one of those guys that's, you know, right now second or third on their depth chart, but clearly going to get pushed aside for either new players or younger players, whatever the case may be. I just think Swift is in such a good spot that he's going to catch a lot of passes. He's going to, you know, hopefully score enough touchdowns to be relevant and be just in a spot. First off, his draft capital is great at this point still. You know, I hope it doesn't get out of control. But it's just an easy spot to sort of draft him.

And so, yes, the touchdown potential is the scariest thing. but I think he's going to be top five in receptions at the position. Wow, I disagree super duper strongly about that. In receptions? Yeah, at the position. DeAndre Swift, top five? I mean, you're just basing that what on Jemir Gibbs? I'm basing it on how this offense is shaping up right now.

Get the ball out of his hands quick. I mean, what does that sound like? They definitely want to do that. If they want 70% completion rate, they definitely want to do that. Gibbs hasn't really been that high of a catch guy, though, believe it or not. and well but swift was he had 70 targets in 14 games with ben johnson and 78 the year before in 13 games yeah i just don't know i mean look i can't i can't sit here and buy into colson lovelin and luther burdon's having a good camp and roma dunes a breakout and dj more they're going to manufacture touches for him

and now dandre swift's going to be top five at the position and catches too i don't know we're not nobody's selling all of those things you have to decide which of those okay but we just talked about r j harvey and travion henderson do we do we think swift's going to have more catches than those guys? I think he's going to score more fantasy points. He's going to have more catches, though. Do I think he have more catches than Henderson and Harvey? Harvey, yeah.

I think more than Harvey. Henderson, look, I'm obviously making a bold prediction here, but it, uh, he won't have more than A-chan. He won't have more than Camara. He won't have more than, I think, Gibbs. Who? Bejan. Bejohn.

That I could see being close. I don't think Bejohn's much more than a 50 catch guy. Really? Didn't he crush that last year? Am I crazy? I've got him at 54 this year. I should know that. He had 60 last year.

All right, whatever. It would shock you if Swift is in the 60 range? Surprise me. Wouldn't shock me. That's okay. You know what? He can be a breakout even if he's not top five in catches. All right, so we'll make a bet.

Harvey receptions versus Swift receptions. Yeah, I'll take Harvey. Okay. I like that bet. That's a fun one. That'll be a good one. What's the loser I do? I don't know.

Save your eyebrows. Oh, man. The loser has to shave my eyebrows. All right. So we got Trayvon Henderson for Heath. We got DeAndre Swift for Jamie. I'm just going to say Chase Brown. I don't see how this guy fails unless he gets hurt.

I think this competition, the backfield sucks. Their offensive coordinator is talking about he's going to be a household name, Chase Brown. He was top five running back. after Zach Moss got hurt last year. I am worried about him holding up. I am. I don't know what kind of workload he can sustain.

He's not the biggest. It's not the smallest, but he's not the biggest, but he could be on the highest scoring offense in football. Anybody want to push back on that, or can we move on? Say it again, I'm sorry? Chase Brown. I just, I don't see, I don't see how he fails unless he gets hurt. So you have Joe Burroughs a sleeper.

Stop. You said it. He's not an official sleeper. You said those words. I just think he's going a little too late in six point for passing touchdown leagues. Chase Brown had 1,350 yards, 54 catches, and 11 touchdowns last year. What does he have to do to be a breakout? He can be a great pick without being a breakout.

But are we going 1500 yards? We're not going down the road of what's a breakout versus not a breakout. But, you know, the Bucky Irving, Chase Brown, portions of seasons where they were awesome and saying, that's going to be a full season worth of production. Like, you can make the case that that's a breakout, right? Because if they do that over 17 games or 15 plus games, like that's easy top three potential player. Yeah, I don't, yeah.

That's 2,000 total yards and 81 catches and 12 touchdowns, which I don't, I'll take the under on everything but the touchdowns. But I think, no, I think he could be a top five running back in full PPR. So I don't have a, you know, that's how I would say it. But he's going to the third round. I just love that. All right, blank will be a bust. By the way, my sleeper is Isaiah Pache.

My other sleeper is Isaiah Pacheco. We're going to get to talk about him. All right. Six three are just a typical slicks round sleeper. Blank will be a bust. Jamie. You've heard me say it a billion times at this point. Sequin Barkley.

I just so nervous about the metrics of what he, is dealing with historical metrics of what he's dealing with of 400 plus total touches 400 carries when you factor in the playoffs and the history of 2 000 yard rushers again i hope it's not injury related but he's just not somebody that i'm drafting in the first half of round one i just can't do it and you'll take saquin berkeley when the back half of round one starting at like eight overall okay i mean again it's you know a little bit of a coward bust to to say it this way but But I think for, again, I just did an analyst draft. He went second overall.

It's not, it's not going to change. I think no matter what anybody that's, I was anti-Barkley, but nervous about Berkeley, it tells you. People are still going to draft him in the first five picks. I get it. And I, a lot of times get painted as the guy who's okay with Sequin. And that's because I'm higher on him than Dave and Jamie. But I've got him fifth, and he never, ever seems to be there at fifth either.

I haven't drafted him once. So I agree. I'm not taking him where everybody else has taken him. but there's not quite a job. You know who your breakout really is, by the way? It's A-chan. Okay. I mean, it's hard to say that when a guy's had two seasons already

where he Azer-statted over 20 points a game. Yeah. Okay. And Chase Brown, Bucky Irving, they're all the same. They had great stretches of the season where you can't expect better than those stretches unless you're saying they're going to do it the entire year. Yeah.

I don't think Chase Brown's going to be RB3 per game for the entire year, which is what he was in full PPR. are because I don't think he'll catch as many passes but yeah but I get what you're saying um he who's a bus for you uh James cook and he was a bust for me before he decided to hold in and stand on business um I just the touchdown regression that's coming is terrifying and early reports when he was practicing there was talk about how he wants to show more three down skill set and there was no sign in bills camp that that's what they were planning on doing it was still a heavy rotation of running backs.

He's awesome. I love James Cook as a player, but the bills do not want to use him the way he needs to be used to make up for the touchdown regression that's coming. I won't take him to a round four. And what's going to be interesting, Heath, is if he continues his hold-in,

you might end up with a lot of James Cook when he starts falling to round four. Well, I would guess if the hold-in continues to mid-August, then I'm probably going to be lower in him to round five. Could be. All right, so sleepers were Jaden Blue, and Tajay Spears for Jamie, Tank Bigsby and Braylon Allen for Heath.

Breakouts were Trayon Henderson for Heath, DeAndre Swift for Jamie. We also, all, everybody loves Devon A-chan this year. We have him much higher than ADP, which is weird because he's 12th and ADP. But we have everyone, Dave, Jamie, and Heath have him as a top five pick. That's Devon A-chan. And the bust, Seekwon Barkley for Jamie,

who's got him about eighth. Not that we think Seekwan stinks, but he's not, shouldn't be the second pick. And James Cook for Heath. All right. draftathon, we are over $125,000. We're going to set a record this year, it seems. But if you go to the website, tinyurl.com slash 2025 FFT, scroll down a little bit and

click on auction houses, okay, click on View Auction House, and that's where you're going to see all the things that we have available for you to purchase. That would be spots in the FFT Dynasty League, spots in the podcast league. no bids yet on a private call with Adam Azer, but there are bids on the Jamie and Heath ones. That's pretty messed up. And there's plenty more there. Plenty more, an appearance on the show is one of the things.

So go to tiny URL.com slash 2025 FFT, click on View Auction House, and you'll see all the great things that you can bid on, and it all goes to St. Jude. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Preview Part 2 tomorrow. We'll go through ADP. We'll go through all the players, yeah?

Just to wrap up. your fantasy takes so far for the preseason. Caleb Williams' best arm in the NFL. Well, that's not a fantasy take, but your NFL takes. Caleb Williams' best arm in the NFL. Yeah, yeah. Correct? Am I saying correctly?

Well, I said it. I would love to take it back, but he has an amazing arm, though. I'll stand by that. The best part about that was, so this was on Sports Network yesterday, right, when you said it? Yes. I had to say on national TV. You said it. Thomas immediately, immediately texted us.

and what was it was l-ol the caleb williams take is that what he said i think he said that might have been the worst take i did add it to the thread also you came back from commercial and you're like i may have misspoke Caleb takes probably the worst all-time on the pot that's what thomas said i just i said it like going into break i wanted to drop something hot and i went too hot i went too hot there um joe burrow is a sleeper yep yep i said that that and chase brown is a breakup oh there's nothing wrong with that but calling pacheco a sleeper might be you know no joe burrow sleepers you're sleeper call my definition is is people are sleeping on them go ahead eve no i think i think that's you can define it however you want adam words don't

mean anything at all uh i just wanted to say that in 12 minutes you guys should just stay right here FFT Dynasties coming with updating how the rookies have moved to training camp. Perfect. I'm sure there will be some Trayvion-Henderson talk on that one. Yes. All right. For Jamie and Heath and Thomas, I'm Adam.

What's that? Oh, yeah, live stream tonight at 7 p.m. We'll see you there. We'll do it a live mock draft. YouTube.com slash fantasy football today. 7 p.m. Eastern right there. Okay, now I'm signing off. Bye, everyone.

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