Fantasy Football Today - Top 5 Backfield Battles! (06/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

We'll be keeping our eye on every backfield during training camp, but there are a few battles that are really worth monitoring. Before we get into the Top 5, our CBS colleague Chris Trapasso predicted Michael Carter will be the most productive rookie RB this season. What do we think about that (2:15)? ... Backfields to watch include Tampa Bay (6:15), San Francisco (13:00), Denver (16:00), Atlanta (26:00) and Arizona (31:00). With the Bucs and 49ers, do we have a tandem regardless of who wins the starting job? Should Javonte Williams be drafted ahead of Melvin Gordon? Does Mike Davis have any competition? And find out why James Conner might become a great value pick in drafts ... We run through a few more backfield battles (36:30) including Miami, New England and Buffalo ... Your emails at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck. A Google search defines the word battle as a sustained fight between large, organized armed forces. And that's what we are talking about today on Fantasy Football today. The best backfield battles, the top five to watch out for. Organized armed forces on the football field. Trying to figure out who's going to be atop the depth chart. I'm Adam Azer with Dave Richard and Chris Towers.

Chris, we have some disagreements about the list here of what should have made the top five battles. But we'll just talk about it. I'll just throw it. You have Miami on there. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see any reason to think there's a battle there. I could be completely wrong. Maybe I'm totally underselling how much they like

Malcolm Brown, but there was no uncertainty about Miles Gaskin's role when he was high class. Let's bump them out. Let's bump them to the honorable mentions. Who's the new number five? You can pick a backfield. What are the top four again? So Dave gave me his three of his Tampa Bay, San Francisco and Denver.

Yeah. And then I put Atlanta in there. Arizona. Arizona is an obvious one. I mean, that was a team that produced for as frustrating as it was they produced a decent amount of running back production last season okay arizona it is others we'll talk about buffalo uh dave yeah buffalo should probably be in there too you know what chris you can't have everything you want it's top five chris not a

top six top five but we will touch on all of them and we're also going to do an FFT in five episode after this to kind of address some of the debates that we weren't able

to have on the full length show so that's why you need to listen to both Fantasy Football Today and Fantasy Football Today in five I'm going to kick it

off with an email kick it off good football transition there from Jeff in Lake Stevens Washington doesn't that sound

nice? Lake Stevens Washington Washington. Doesn't that sound nice? Lake Stevens, Washington. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We'd love to hear your thoughts on your colleague, Chris Trapasso's article on Friday with the claim that Michael Carter will be the most productive rookie running back this year.

Not sure I can agree with that, but I wanted to see what you thought. I saw that article. It was a good article. He ranked top five, Chris, because that's how we do lists. Rookie running backs in terms of the production he expects. And yeah, he had Michael Carter number one, and he had Najee Harris number two, which was quite shocking.

Dave, what do you think about that? I think he's got a shot to be number two. I have a hard time believing he's going to be more productive than naji because i don't think he'll get as much work as naji and i don't think he's as accomplished of a running back not taking anything away from him he's a great runner he's a good pass catcher out of the backfield he's a terrible pass blocker uh i think that's going to limit his playing time. I think the philosophy, the offensive philosophy that I expect these new Jets coaches to have will also limit his playing time.

I think a good year for him would be a thousand total yards and six touchdowns. But if I told you that Najee was going to get a thousand total yards and six touchdowns, you'd want to punch me in the face because that's not what you'd want from Najee Harris in his rookie year. Yeah. you'd want to punch me in the face because that's not what you'd want from Najee Harris in his rookie year yeah yeah like I think Carter is kind of in a similar boat to Devin Singletary and Zach Moss in Buffalo where I think you you should be pretty confident he's going to split work you know

hopefully you're looking at 60 percent of the snaps uh at running back for the Jets um but it probably won't be a great offense for anyone, but especially, you know, the running backs, depending on how much they use them in the passing game. The one thing that he does have going for him is at least in mini camp, he was getting more reps with the first team offense than any other running back. Um, so, you know, that's, that's a pretty good sign. Yeah. Who's to say that he doesn't just become the main guy? I'm not going to say he's going to be an every-down-back, a 300-touch guy, but who's to say he's not 15-plus touches a game?

Right, and when you look at the other players that are in that backfield, you can kind of believe it because it's Tevin Coleman who's, eh, he knows what he's doing in that offense. He's familiar with that system. That's good for him. But I don't think he's anything special. I don't think that LaMichael P. Ryan is special.

Ty Johnson could have some flair in the passing game. We saw that a little bit last season. But I think Carter is in line to be that guy that you're talking about where he leads the way. And he's really talented at unc he's he's a good player okay so actually chris trapasso he was ranking the five rookie running backs who will be the most productive in 2021 number five was giovante williams number four was travis etn number three was treon. And number two was Najee Harris.

Number one was Michael Carter. So that's not how we're going to have it ranked, but that's an interesting list from Chris Trapasso. Okay, we're getting to the top five backfield battles. But tonight, there's a big battle going on. Tuesday night on YouTube, a gathering of armed forces for some poker. Fantasy Football Today YouTube channel.

That is youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. And that is 7 p.m. Eastern tonight, Tuesday night, courtesy of Faded Spade. So join us there at youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday to watch our poker night. Faded Spade cards are the preferred playing cards of the World Poker Tour and poker players across the globe. So get your set for 20% off with the code FFT at faded spade.com. That's pretty cool. Need some cards? Go to faded spade.com and the code again is FFT. And we're

giving away two free sets of cards during the show. Subscribe to the channel and we will see you on YouTube tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern. And right into it. Here we go. Tampa Bay. Can we agree they should be on the list? I think they should be the top team.

Yeah, I think that's a legitimate battle. Okay, good. That's a battle. I'm just not sure there's going to be a winner. What's a battle? Okay, so David, I... I said that's a battle. I know.

David, I've been laughing about Ralph Wiggum. What's a battle line? Look it up. Highlight for Tampa Bay's backfield. In four games without Leonard Fournette, Ronald Jones averaged 15 non and 18 full PPR fantasy points. That's really good. That's top 10 good.

In three games without Ronald Jones, Leonard Fournette played even better, averaged even more fantasy points. And that was two regular season games and one postseason game. In the draft that we did, the one that we talked about on the mock draft episode on Monday, Fournette went in round eight, Ronald Jones in round nine, and Giovanni Bernard in round 13. Chris, you can have the first word here. Well, let me set you up like this.

It is a battle, but the reason why I would object to this being number one is I don't know there's a chance that one guy runs away with job without an injury. So I think this might just be kind of cruddy all year. Yeah, I think it could be like a Pyrrhic victory kind of situation for whoever does win the battle because what we saw last year was a very frustrating split between the two of them there were times where fournette looked like he was

going to be the lead back there were probably more times when jones looked like the lead back and i know fournette was really really great in the postseason but jones was coming back from an injury i'm not sure he was 100 healthy so i so I think that's relevant. I think the biggest problem with this backfield, though, is it's kind of the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme here. They're very similar players. Neither is a natural pass catcher. Neither is a particularly good pass catcher. I know Fournette has had some seasons where he's put up decent reception numbers,

but he's never been a particularly effective playmaker in the passing game. And so I think Giovanni Bernard is going to play a significant role. And I think that's going to be a complicating factor for this group. And I want no part of this backfield unless I can get Fournette or Jones outside of the top 36 at running back, at least. Also, if you could, I have a request. If you could just stick to Spider-Man historical references instead of King Pyrrhus of ancient Greece,

that would be better for me. Did you not know? Do you not understand? I do now. Have you never heard that? No, look, Google's a great thing. Pyrrhic victory. I didn't think that was too tough.

It is for me. So, Dave, round eight for Fournette, round nine for Jones, and round 13 or 14 for Bernard. And so I think that those are fair ADPs for all three of those running backs. I agree with Chris that Giovanni Bernard being there is going to be a problem for both of these running backs.

And my hunch is that both of them make the team and that when one's cold, the other one goes in until that one's cold, and then they go back to the first guy. I think Ronald Jones kind of tells the defense what the Bucs are thinking because he's not a pass protector. They now have a way. He's not a passing downs player. He's a great runner for sure, but his hands stink, his blocking stinks, and I don't think the Bucs have to lean on him in those roles anymore,

whereas last year they may have tried to get him into those roles a little bit. I was encouraged by what I heard last offseason about Ronald Jones and why I was bullish on him becoming a three-down back. When he got hurt, he was playing great. He was that lead guy for Tampa Bay, and then Fourette came in and he just he was great in the playoffs I think that Fournette might have the first snap when they take 11 on 11 in training camp this summer it doesn't mean he's going to be able to carry it all the way through to week one and then all the way through to the year so what about drafting both of them is that something that might interest you as a fantasy manager where you spend both picks to try and lock up that backfield and then just

get the running downs guys or do you just gravitate toward geo and take him with a real late round pick hoping that he plays in that james white role and we've seen geo play well as a running back before we know that he can handle rushing outs maybe he's the one that gets into more of a three-down roll. It will happen if Jones and Fournette, both of them, struggle slash get hurt. But really, the truth of it all is that these are running backs that you don't want to take too early on draft day. You don't want to single out draft capital into them because it's still an offense that's going to throw the ball successfully. And I don't know how much it really leaves for any one running back to hog up all the work. I think it's going to be three guys splitting it.

Yep. And I think Jones and Fournette, they're really only targets for me in like a zero RB build where I'm just throwing darts starting in like the seventh round and I'm looking for upside because I think either one of them has upside i just don't think it's i don't think they both have upside at the same time so that's where it gets confusing for me it would definitely it would definitely be easier to ignore

them if they were on a lousy or even an average offense but the fact that this the bucks might lead the nfl in scoring and nobody should be surprised if that happens, it makes it a little bit more difficult. And you hope maybe you get the guy who has the touchdown role. We don't know what that would be. You would probably think Fournette. I would imagine Fournette would have the edge early on. The last thing is I'll just –

But if there are no huddles and Gio's in the game, then it's going to be him. You just look at Fournette. What evidence is there that Fournette is better than ronald jones to me it's there's zero except the playoffs last year he was on fire right but ronald jones was was amazing early in the season i mean he had that stretch of three straight hundred yard games he had that you know the 192 game there was the what 97 yard touchdown right right still even if you take that out that's 90 something yards that's pretty good um and they made for net inactive yeah week 14 something like that they

gave the keys to jones and then he got hurt and we had covid and for net it opened the door back up for for net but there was a point just remember there was a point where they said ronald jones you are our running back. You're our guy. You're not necessarily going to catch the ball, but you're our guy. Yeah, I bet he's going to have to prove that all over again in training camp.

All right, well, listen, guys. Same thing with Fournette, and Gio's going to get in there, too. We go to the second backfield, which is San Francisco. They drafted Trey Sermon. And if you look at ADP, if you look at our recent draft that we reviewed on Monday, if you wanted to lock up the Niners backfield or the Bucs backfield, the costs are pretty similar.

It might be a round earlier for the Niners. Mostert went in round seven, and Sermon went in round eight, as opposed to Fournette in round eight and Ronald Jones in round nine. But Dave, what about that approach? Is it kind of the same thing with San Francisco? I think I almost like it better because I think that's a team that wants to commit to

running the football more so than Tampa Bay. When you've got the greatest quarterback to ever play, you're going to want to lean on him. When you've got a rookie quarterback who played at the FCS level and a quarterback who's been okay as a starter but gets hurt a lot, you'd love to have a real good run game going. And Mostert, as long as he's healthy for week one, I think he'll be their primary back.

You'll see some of Sermon. Once Sermon starts to get going, if he shows that he can play at this level, I imagine he could evolve into the lead back. There will always be multiple backs in this offense, but you want to have the one that's got the best shot at 15 touches, and if it happens to come with goal line carries on top of it, so be it. And that job,

that job is wide open with Jeff Wilson on the shelf. Chris, your read on this situation here, and when does Wilson do back? Second half of the year, if at all. I mean, they might redshirt him all year. Yeah, he gets an extra year of eligibility.

Chris, what do you have to say about the Niners? I don't really view this as a battle. Like Dave said, I think the expectation should be that Raheem Mostert is the lead running back entering the season, but there's going to be a role for Trey Sermon. And if it wasn't for the Jeff Wilson injury, maybe there wouldn't be that role right away. Jeff Wilson looked pretty good last season as well.

But what we've seen in this offense the last few years is everyone they plug in looks great. I mean, do we remember Jermichael Hasty being the top waiver wire target at one point last season? Jeff Wilson was. Raheem Mostert the year before. This has consistently been a team that just creates a ton of running back value because Kyle Shanahan is so good at scheming up,

rushing opportunities, and getting them in space. So I think even in the first game of last season, Raheem Mostert was very good. I think he had the long touchdown reception. He had 150 total yards. There were still 14 targets slash rush attempts combined for the other running backs in that game. So if that's Trey Sermon getting most of that, I think 10 touches a game, even as Mostert's the lead back is perfectly reasonable for Sermon. Another thing that I just want to bring up, and this is just kind of the caution siren going off is that Shanahan with

the 49ers hasn't had a single thousand yard rusher. He's only once given any of his running backs over 200 touches. That was Carlos Hyde in 2017. And that might've been out of necessity because guys kept getting hurt, mainly most certain than other guys too. But he, he, and this is something to keep in mind

for Sermon, and I've talked about it before. Shanahan hasn't had a rookie running back earn over 200 touches in any year from 2014 through 2020. So Sermon is going to have to be really, really impressive and really, really good for him to over-deliver on that fantasy ADP. What we're probably looking at is most are filling in as the starter. And then whenever sermons ineffective and most are healthy, most it'll be the guy when most are goes down sermon and Gallman will probably battle for touches and maybe sermon. Good.

Then maybe Gallman might be a guy that we have to reconsider in those deeper drafts. Cause he's, he was pretty good in short yardage, if I remember correctly, last year with the Giants. So I can double-check that and get back to you on a future episode, but I think Gallman might have a path here to be moderately okay as a bench running back.

How's that for tempering expectations? Great, Dave. Very strong. No, I mean, no one's going to take him in round 10 unless something happens to Mostert or Sherman in August. No one's drafting Wayne Gallman. Great best ball pick. He might have a role. Yeah, exactly.

Great best ball pick. Great pick. Yeah, in a league like Scott Fishbowl where you've got really deep benches, I think Gallman is a really nice deep sleeper. Plus Adam gets to play the music. What music?

For Wayne Goleman. No idea. Oh, okay. Highlight for the Niners backfield, 36 running back rushing touchdowns in their last two seasons. That is a lot.

All right, Denver is on this list. Number three. It's really no particular order. But this one is really interesting because, you know, for Sermon, Sermon's being drafted ahead of Mostert and NFC ADP. Fournette's being drafted ahead of Ronald Jones. Again, like I said, we don't have a ton of evidence

that Fournette's better than Ronald Jones. We have no evidence that Sermon's better than Raheem Moser, who, by the way, is one of the fastest players, fastest running backs with the ball in his hand. Had the fastest carry by a running back last year. He ran over 23 miles per hour. And now in Denver, Melvin Gordon coming off a pretty good year, as Heath always points out,

but there's so much momentum for Javante Williams, and he's definitely going to go ahead of Melvin Gordon as of right now, as of June 28th. In the draft that we did a couple weeks ago that we keep referencing, PPR League, Javante Williams was the last pick of round six. Melvin Gordon was in round eight. Javante in round six, Melvin Gordon in round eight. Javante in round six, Melvin Gordon in round eight. And Chris, this team, Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsey last year, the highlight to know about the Denver backfield, they combined for nearly 1,500 rushing yards on 333 carries and 10 touchdowns. So they ran the ball pretty well, those two. Just, you know, there was that ugly split.

But what's your read on that ADP? Well, let's not call it ADP. What's your read on where they went in the draft that we did? Javante Williams, last pick of round six, Melvin Gordon in round eight. I don't think there's much reason for Williams to go ahead of Melvin Gordon, certainly not a couple of rounds ahead of him.

My assumption going into the season is that Melvin Gordon's going to be the lead back at least to start. And, you know, it's the kind of thing well well well Javante Williams could take the job as things go but like Melvin Gordon's a good player you know he's been a lead running back his entire career um so I don't think there's any guarantee that Javante Williams becomes the lead running back I think he's a a decent like if I could get him in the eighth round I think that would be really good.

But if you're talking about having to make a fifth or sixth round selection, which I think is what it's going to end up being more often than not, I'm probably out on Javante Williams. Just because, one, he was never a lead back in college at UNC. He was splitting time with Michael Carter, obviously, and that's not a knock against him. But it's also, we know Melvin Gordon can do it. We know Melvin Gordon can carry the ball 15 times and get four or five targets a game and be a good player. We don't know that about Javante Williams. What we know about Melvin Gordon is that he averaged 12.5 PPR points per game last year. That was good for the 23rd best among running backs. Six games out of 15 with 15 plus in PPR.

Four came in the final seven weeks of the season. Over the past two seasons, he's had 15 or more PPR points in 11 of 29 games. That's not very consistent. And that was before Javante Williams went to Denver. He's also 28 years old. It's not fun to draft Melvin Gordon. It's not exciting. And it feels like if you draft Melvin Gordon,

it's like having a bomb on your team that eventually explodes and you're left with dust at running back because Javante Williams will eventually get an opportunity. And even when he gets the opportunity to be the primary guy, he might still be sharing.

The Broncos have talked multiple times this offseason about using multiple running backs. It makes me nervous to take any of them, but Javante is more fun. He's, he's a three down player already. They're encouraged by how he's doing in past drills so far. I,

I have a feeling that he can end up being quite easily the best running back in Denver this year. But isn't there a better chance that the guy being drafted in the sixth round is the bomb that blows up rather than the guy being drafted in the sixth round is the bomb that blows up rather than the guy being drafted in the eighth round it's possible of course but like if melvin gordon i think his upside is higher than melvin's i think if he gets the type of work that melvin's been getting and gordon has gotten a bunch of games lately with 15 plus touches if giovante lands that role by october you'll be happy to have him on your team, even if it's a little bit of a stretch to do so at the end of round six.

Yeah, I don't know. I think it's certainly possible, but it does strike me as a little bit of the mystery box versus a boat thing. Like Javante Williams could be anything. He could even be Melvin Gordon. Right, right, right. You know, maybe I'm underselling him. Maybe I'm overselling Melvin Gordon, but it just strikes me as the like,

this is the new flashy thing. And Melvin Gordon is the former new flashy thing, and Melvin Gordon is the former new flashy thing that is no longer flashy, but we know he's pretty good. We know he's been good. He's given you at least nine total touchdowns, five straight years. He's given you at least 75 total yards per game.

Five straight years. Can he do it for a sixth with a rookie running back nipping at his heels and another running back in Mike Boone, who's familiar with the offense. They are talking about him. They are talking about him. This is another good best ball guy.

You might want to even take him ahead of Wayne Gallman. Feels like a Pyrrhic victory to me. That's what I was looking for earlier. That's the Gallman music I was hoping for. You know what I'm looking for now, Dave? Because you said the word fun like 600 times.

Do people still eat Fun Dip? That's what you think of? Shrag, have you ever had Fun Dip? Yeah, Fun Dip. Yeah, classic Halloween candy. Your mom doesn't want you to eat it, but yes. It's not a Halloween candy. Dang, you said that about your mom.

That's like a high-end Halloween candy. I don't know. Love to lick a piece of chalk and dip it into sugar. It's disgusting. Just an incredible candy. Sugary chalk. It's great. I just like...

Do people... I don't know. Would you rather have Fun Dip or draft Melvin Gordon? I don't know what it is. It just feels... There was one report that was like, Javante Williams could be the lead running back by week one. Right.

But that wasn't, that wasn't a report. That was like reporter speculation. Okay. There was one reporter speculating. It just feels like the arrows going down for Melvin Gordon. Royce Freeman. With Javante Williams?

Yeah. No, because people think that Javante Williams is the best running back in his class. Some people do. I don't think people were saying that about Royce Freeman. It feels more about Melvin Gordon. It just... He just...

I know the yards per carry were good last year, but it just doesn't seem like he's that good of a... I don't know. It just doesn't seem that way. People consider him to be a very good running back anymore. So... I have my eye on this one. He's played six years in the NFL and seven years in the NFL and he's no longer

a superstar. Once you've been around for a while and you're not a superstar anymore, you're trash. That's just... We skip straight over. There is no like, oh, this guy's still pretty good. It's like, if this guy gets a touch, if this guy gets a touch, if this guy

gets one touch, I'm going to burn the stadium down. That is how the fantasy community talks about a guy like Melvin Gordon. He feels like if we're going to give him the, you know, if we're going to give running backs the Todd Gurley award for falling off the cliff or whatever, he feels like the

front runner right now. The shortest odds. Okay. All right. The shortest odds. Okay. All right, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about the Atlanta Falcons. Is this a battle? What's a battle? We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Whether in the game or in life,

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Don't hear a lot of talk about Kadri Alisson these days. Dave, is this a backfield battle in Atlanta? No. I think Mike Davis is going to be the primary running back, but I do think this is a team that's looking for a second back to claim the work that Mike Davis doesn't get and potentially challenge Mike Davis for the first role. But I think that that's two steps away.

They just want to back to compliment Mike Davis first. And so they've got all these guys that they might be good at like one or two things, but there's nobody that's as complete as Davis. And that's what gives Davis the edge. But there's still things I don't love about Mike Davis. He's 28 years old. Last year, his first three games were outstanding.

He was like 24 points per game in PPR. And then the Panthers started taking work away from him, didn't have a lot of really good fantasy games through the next 10 games that he played. And now he's going, it's a different team now in Atlanta. But I still am a little worried about Mike Davis coming through after changing teams being an older running back and never really having a track record of playing a considerable

amount of time until last season I think he's the definition of a jag like I mean when you talk about the the Melvin Gordon teeth gnashing every time he gets a touch, let's not forget that it's, you know, the first two weeks of the 2019 season, fantasy football Twitter was ready to march Matt Nagy out of town because he was giving Mike Davis touches instead of David Montgomery. So I think he's just a guy. I think the situation in Carolina and the way they use their running backs was why he was valuable last season,

and I don't have any reason to believe Atlanta is going to be that kind of situation. I think he could be fine, but I look at him as one of those guys who ranks relatively highly in projections because, well, he doesn't have any competition for touches or we're projecting him to be the lead back, but he's not actually that good. And if he averages three yards per carry through the first three games, he could be a complete afterthought by week five.

He was three and a half yards per carry in those last 10 games of 2020. 10.9 PPR points per game in those last 10 games of 2020. 10.9 PPR points per game in those last 10 games in 2020. And his targets went down. He was getting 8.3 targets per game in the first three games where he was replacing Christian McCaffrey. Three starts, I should say. And then the next 10, it was down to 3.7. So obviously there's something there

that this coaching staff likes about Mike Davis. Otherwise, they wouldn't have signed him. They would have solved their running back issue another way. But I don't know if he's really – he's not going to be Derrick Henry, for crying out loud. He's not going to get the work that Derrick Henry got. There's Kadri Allison on this roster. I think that might be – Darryl Patterson is there, and there's talk that they want to use him more as a running

back and less as a, as a wide receiver. They're going to, they're going to make use of these guys and, um, adapt to what they have. That's, that's been the Arthur Smith way. The other thing I'll bring up and people don't like me talking about the schedules, but here's something you might want to know about Mike Davis to begin the season. It's Philadelphia in week one at Tampa Bay in week two at the giants in week three, Washington at home in week four,

do not be upset if you miss out on Mike Davis on draft day, because you might have a chance to get them even cheaper in trade by the time October comes around. It's a very good point. And this is the, when a guy is, is when someone has a somewhat tenuous grip on the job, maybe he doesn't,

but maybe he does, you don't want to see a tough schedule to start. That's the kind of thing that can lose them the job. And there are tougher schedules out there, but I graded it as among the worst, second worst among early schedules for running backs. Yeah. I'm not really sure how Philadelphia's run defense is going to look.

That might be his best matchup. It's usually pretty good. Giants, again, I think they'll be good. They lost a pretty key piece. But Tampa Bay should be, again, among the best. Washington's going to be really tough to run on. So that's not good. Okay.

That is Atlanta. When would you, to finish it off, when would you be comfortable taking Mike Davis? Well, after Myles Gaskin, for sure. Get Gaskin off the board. Round five as one of the last RB2s. Ahead of Javante Williams, for sure? Yeah, for now, yes.

Ahead of the Bucs guys. So he's the highest-end guy that we've talked about so far. Would you go Kareem Hunt or Mike Davis? I think I'll take Davis. I think that's fair. All right, let's talk about Arizona. This is a good one here. I actually really loved the running back value,

the draft value for James Conner. Just going to a good one here. I actually really loved the running back value. The draft value for James Connor. Just going to take a look here. James Connor went with the second pick of round nine in the PPR draft we did a couple of weeks ago. And Chase Edmonds

went to RJ. Same guy. He took them both. So we took Chase Edmonds at the end of round six, and he took James Conner at the beginning of round nine. This is the Scott Fishbowl draft we're talking about, right? No, no. This is just regular. This was from two weeks ago on YouTube.

Yeah, so what do you think about that, Chris? Locking them both up, but Conner in round nine and late round six pick for just ahead of Javante Williams for RJ. I prefer the Conner value. I'm not sure Edmonds is ever going to be a lead back, and my expectation would be Edmonds

is in the Edmonds role, and James Conner is in the Kenyon Drake role, and I think that's valuable for both of them, and both can be viable fantasy starters but um i don't see that big of a gap between the two of them in my in my rankings i'm pretty sure i have them if not back to back very close back to back connor one spot ahead of admins at 27 and 28 i think it takes a little guts to do that just because we've seen Connor not play 16 games yet.

He's missed at least three games each of the last three seasons. And this is a team that they use their running backs a decent amount. They're middle of the package last year. At least they were middle of the package. But Kyler's there. That could always take some work away from both of them. Edmonds didn't even play 50% of the snaps last year. And he had over 50 catches.

He had over 850 total yards. I think he can play a little bit more and get to 1,000 total yards. I think five touchdowns is within the realm of possibility, and I think 50 catches is within the realm of possibility. Now, what does that leave left over when you consider those numbers, plus what Kyler does for James Conner when he's healthy? I feel like he's going to be a touchdown-needy running back who will get 11 carries a game.

Sure. But I think Edmonds cuts in a little bit more than what we saw last year. I think they're going to give him a little bit more of a chance to play in this offense because he gives him a little bit more explosiveness. Yeah, the thing I struggle with, and I'm not sure if this is fair, but last season, the talk in the first half of the season was, why don't they give Chase Edmonds more work? Kenyon Drake is a stiff. Edmonds is clearly better.

And then they did give Edmonds that opportunity in the Miami game when Drake was out with an injury, and Edmonds looked a lot like Kenyon Drake did in that game. And so I'm, I just think they're pretty, pretty similar in value in terms of what they bring to the Cardinals offense. I think Connor's just a better rusher and Edmonds will, you know,

be in a similar role to last year, more work than last year. I think that's entirely possible. I just, I have, last year. More work than last year? I think that's entirely possible. I just have trouble getting too excited about either necessarily, as long as they're healthy.

I just really can't stand fading running backs on good offenses. I'm not saying that you shouldn't, but that's why this is difficult. But last year, you probably would have been in good shape if you had faded

the Cardinals running backs. You know, you had, what really killed Kenyon Drake was the beginning of the season before Kyler Murray's injury, he kept scoring

these touchdowns and Drake would line up in the backfield and be a play fake and then, you know, the zone read and Kyler would run it right in.

You just needed him to score the touchdown. If he didn't score the touchdown, I'm just saying off the top of my head, we would get like 60 yards. Big deal. But if Conor can play that role and get a little bit more consistent touchdown opportunities, because Drake got a lot of them later in the season,

then he's certainly worth a ninth round pick. People are sleeping on him if that's the case. And Edmonds did have that game against the Giants a couple years ago where he had 27 carries, like 130 yards, and he scored three touchdowns. He has like one of those a year. Well, that was when David Johnson played two snaps or something. He had 27 carries.

He had three rushing touchdowns. Then the following week against New Orleans, he had seven carries for eight yards. So he's really had three games where he's had an opportunity. And one of them was incredible. The Dolphins game that Chris mentioned was 25 carries for 70 yards, not very good. And then the Saints game in 2019 was awful, but that was the Saints. They were ridiculous against the run. But I guess we're kind of... My point is this thought that Chase Edmonds can't be a lead back

is kind of based solely on the Miami game. I really feel like a lot of people are like, see? Whereas Cliff Kingsbury keeps talking about how he could be a lead back. Right, but he talked about him as that way last year, too, in the offseason. And then he never used him that way.

I'm not saying he can't be a lead back. My thought was more, my point was more that we kept screaming about give Edmonds a chance, give Edmonds a chance, Drake is terrible. And then I think it was more about the offense and the situations that they were being asked to run in. Drake rushing in fewer obvious rushing situations than, or Edmonds rushing in fewer obvious run situations, so that makes it easier to run for, you know,

a third and seven draw is easier to pick up six yards on than a first and ten dive. So I just, I don't know. I think it's going to be a split, I guess is my point. I don't think Edmonds is going to be like a 15 carry per game guy. Okay. All right. So what other backfields should we be looking at, Dave? Well, we can start with one that's just,

it's almost not even worth bringing up, but the Patriots. And what do you do with these guys? Damian Harris and Ramondre Stevenson and James White and who knows who else can come out of the woodwork. As long as Cam's the quarterback there, I really don't have any interest in any of them unless I'm doing a long-term stash. And you might be able to draft Damian Harris late enough to do that, where you keep him on your team for the first four weeks of the season and see what happens. Once Mac Jones becomes the quarterback, I might be a lot more interested in whichever running back seems to be the lead guy there. But for now, I think that's going to be Harris. The Patriots are always

going to be a team that plays the hot hand and who's running well in practice. We just were never going to be priv team that plays the hot hand and who's running well in practice. We just were never going to be privy to that stuff. Would you be surprised to learn that the Patriots had the fourth most fantasy points for running backs last season? You're talking about Cam Newton as a running back?

No, running backs. Yes, I actually would be stunned to know that. It's true. It's not true. You're lying to everyone. Maybe I'm doing this wrong, but... You're all hopped up on Fun Dip right now. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'm doing the numbers wrong then.

No, no, I believe you. I believe you. That's wild. Sonny Michelle and Harris both had big hands. 373 fantasy points in PPR. James Boyd, Rex Burkett, Damian Harris, Sonny Michelle, J.J. Taylor. Yeah.

Dave, I think Dave should reconnect. Let's have Dave reconnect so we don't get another football, football, football, football episode and the joys of working from home. All right, well, yeah. I look, I think damian harris and james white are the only ones that people are drafting maybe stevenson late yeah like stevenson went around

14 whatever he's gigantic he's like legaria blunt um you know white's white is james white he's got his role harris has really shown some promise and had a very low touchdown rate last year. And Cam Newton scored 12. So I've made the point that if Mac Jones is the quarterback, that might actually help Damian Harris. People will say, well, he won't run for as much yards per carry. Sure, that might be true. I still think he can be good in yards per carry.

I think he could be a good running back. And then he could score some goal line touchdowns because he doesn't have Cam Newton to contend with. Chris, give me another. So basically, I'm looking for Harris, and I don't really care much about James White, to be perfectly honest, but I suppose he could be a nice little outlet for Mac Jones.

I just don't really like pass-catching running backs that barely ever score. Chris, you don't think the Dolphins are a backfield battle? I mean, it's possible. I forgot if we said this on the air or off the air, but yeah, I think it's possible they are, but Myles Gaskin played 61% of the snaps in all 10

games he played last season. The three games that Savon Ahmed started without Myles Gaskin around, he played at least 61% of the snaps. They didn't show last season that they thought they needed another running back or that Myles Gaskin wasn't good enough. Maybe they don't think he can do it after the injuries

he suffered through last season, but I don't think you bring in Malcolm Brown to battle for a starting job. I think you bring Malcolm Brown in to be Malcolm Brown, which is handle some passing downs, work when you want to keep a blocker and maybe pick up some goal line touchdowns. That was one place that Miles Gaskin didn't look great last season. He is pretty small, so it's possible that that's what Malcolm Brown's role is, and he can be fantasy relevant in that role.

But I don't see much reason to view Miles Gaskin as anything but the clear back in Miami. Okay. Let's see if Dave is back. Dave, hi. Do you want to give your quick thoughts on the Miami backfield? We don't know what it's going to be. We think it's going to be Miles Gaskin, but they're changing offensive coordinators. I think this offense is going to try and morph

into more of a pass-friendly version of what we saw last year. There are additions at wide receiver, certainly suggests that. New play caller this year. Nothing's guaranteed. I'll take Gaskin for now as the lead running back, and I would take him over Mike Davis for now. But that's one that can change quickly depending on what we see in camp and what we see in the preseason. Do you guys think that Jacksonville or Buffalo are battles? Buffalo for sure is. They've said that.

The coach, the offensive coordinator, pretty much everyone has said, we don't have a lead running back right now. We're not going to name one going into training camp. And based on how they used them last year, that's pretty logical. I know Moss did kind of take on a lead role last season, but I'm not sure he ever – did he play more than like 60% of the snaps in any games last season?

I'm not sure. I'm worried about zagma staying on the field he's been in the nfl one year and he's already had three injuries yeah popped up and that was his problem at utah like he was this awesome running back he would create yards through his physical nature but he would consistently get hurt so i'm nervous about him being healthy i'm worried about devon singletary making a jump to being a lead back i i loved him coming out of fau he was also a yards creator but he hasn't quite delivered consistently enough they add matt burita who's got speed like that's something that i don't know the other two running backs really have but he's also had issues staying healthy this could be a team that just continues to revolve around Josh Allen under the,

under the heading of, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. This has been the least valuable offense in football for running backs over the last three seasons. Last season, I did fix my numbers. New England was 10th in running back points last season.

Ah, now that I believe a little bit, pretty impressive. Um, Buffalo was 31st just ahead of Pittsburgh, and they have not ranked higher than 30th in any of the three seasons.

Josh Allen's been in the NFL, and it makes sense. Josh Allen is a mobile quarterback who doesn't throw to his running backs very often. He's the best goal line player on that team, and he's consistently taking goal line

touchdowns. And last season, they were one of the past heaviest teams in the NFL, and it wasn't just because they were blowing teams out early. In neutral situations, I think they had the third-highest pass rate last season. That's interesting. It is 60% with Zach Moss, by the way. Yeah, 60% was his highest.

He had another one at 59%. But he never had more than 13 carries down the stretch in that stretch where he did emerge as the lead back. His season high was 14. He never had more than three or four targets in a game. I just think it's going to be Singletary handles the passing downs and gets eight carries a game, and Moss gets the rushing downs, gets 12 to 13 in an offense that doesn't produce fantasy points for running backs.

So I'm letting them fall to me. If Devin Singletary is there at a hundredth overall, I can take Devin Singletary, but there's just, I don't see any reason to make getting Zach Moss or Devin Singletary a priority. Okay. And then for Jacksonville,

do you guys, this is really interesting. If you guys see a scenario where, where Travis ET, I don't think I could see a scenario unless there's an injury, obviously where Robinson is working a lot in the passing game. It seems like that's what they really want from ETN. But is there a scenario where Travis ETN is working a lot in the running game

and he's a three down back, Dave? Yes, that would happen if James Robinson struggles as the traditional running back. Think back to that Saints offense when Mark Ingram was there. And Ingram was a player that was spry and under the age of 30. He was the traditional running back. He was capable of catching passes. They didn't call on him to do much of that, but Alvin Kamara could catch passes and get

out in space and be an air back. And I think that that's what ETN is going to end up being. ETN has a more, I think it's more likely that ETN eats into Robinson's work than Robinson eats into ETN's work. Iinson eats into etn's work i think the only way that the latter happens is if etn gets hurt but i think i'm starting to warm up to robinson more and more i said it last week maybe the week before but he's starting to slowly move back up into my rankings and by the time we get to the the middle of august he might end up being a low-end number two running back for me this is an line that's okay he can

certainly come through for touchdowns and maybe he does catch one or two passes per game to help pad those ppr numbers i was shocked to see james robinson's 24th in running back adp since the nfl draft at nfc i figured he would have tumbled um i'm kind of glad he's there yeah one thing that i think is worth keeping in mind is that if uh cadarious tony had been there urban meyer said he would have taken him instead of travis etn that was the guy they wanted and so you know obviously i don't think that means they're going to use travis etn like they would have used cadarious tony but i think that shows that they were looking for a playmaker on offense. They weren't necessarily looking for, we need our James Robinson replacement.

And so I think you're going to see Travis Etienne used, like you said, more as the Alvin Kamara type of player, splitting out wide in the backfield next to James Robinson. I don't think that there's necessarily not room for both of them. I don't necessarily think both should be RB twos, which is where they're being drafted right now. But I think there's room for both of them to succeed. Seven and a half carries per game for Camara. His rookie year wouldn't surprise me in the least.

If that's what we saw for ETN overall in 2021, it could be his first month could be five carries per game, and then it kind of balloons as the season goes on a little bit more. Let me ask you, what's better value? Travis Etienne, 48th overall, last pick of round four, or James Robinson, 95th overall? That's deep into round eight. Yeah.

Yeah, I think the safer bet is Robinson at that ADP. That's PPR, by the way. Yeah. At that cost, it's Robinson. It better be PPR because if it's not PPR, it's no question it's Robinson. Yeah. All right. And let's read some emails.

We'll do more backfield battles on fantasy football today in five. Your email is at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. That's the letter I, fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Kyle from the letter I, fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. Kyle from Columbus, Ohio is in a 12-team PPR league. He says, I start two running backs and two wide receiver slash tight end spots and one flex, wide receiver, tight end, or running back. So he does not need a tight end.

I have picks 12 and 13, and I think the players available will be Jonathan Taylor, really, Akers, Harris, Mixon, Ridley, Diggs, and Kelsey. We didn't read this email in a prior podcast? I don't

think so. Okay. I think we did. Maybe it was an Apple podcast question. Sometimes they do both. Well, what would you do? I remember Taylor being the obvious. I think you're right. No, don't go zero RB. Go Taylor and who?

Not Kelsey because you don't need a tight end. I think I would probably go Taylor and Mixon and not worry about running back again until the 10th round. I think that's probably the way to go. Just double up on those guys. If you like

Najee Harris, you can't let him go past you with Taylor. And that would be a nice combo that you can keep for a while. All right. Let's go to Tim Weldon. It's just the players that he thinks will be there. Just the players that will be there. Do not go zero RB, so it's not...

Do not go zero RB if it's not a keeper league. Honestly, it doesn't even matter. I think I like... Take your pick from Akers or Harris, along with Taylor. Okay. Okay. Okay, from Tim Weldon.

Greetings from a city in the heart of bourbon country. Murfreesboro. Okay. Hey, Troy, Jones, Nelson, and Winter. Hint, probably only listeners schooled in British television will get this. Well, that's not me.

Can you explain? This is such a silly email. Can you explain? Sorry, Tim. Can you explain why almost everyone seems to regard McCaffrey as a no-brainer, number one or number two overall? Given that he's coming off a significant injury, has a new quarterback, plays on a team that I believe will be playing from behind more often than not,

I'm having a hard time putting him in my top five overall picks. What am I missing? Tim. Christian McCaffrey has given you at least 15 PPR points in 30 of his last 35 overall games. If 15 PPR points isn't enough for you, let's make it 20. He's done that in 27 of his last 35 games. A 77% success rate. 25 of his last 29 games overall.

86% of the time in his last 29 games, he's given you at least 20 PPR points. He says he's at 100%. He's going to continue to see the majority of work at running back for his team. They've got a top five strength of schedule rating for the first four weeks of the season. He is going to get off to a great start. He is a candidate

for over 2,000 total yards. He is a nice guy with really good looking arms. It's true. Now stop talking about me. He's one of the best fantasy running backs of all time. Perfectly said. And he's 25. Next email.

Andrew from Champa Bay. Oh, that is obnoxious. But it's true. It is true. Dear Nathan, Kenyon, Francis, and Aubrey. That's good. Those are Drakes. Yeah.

Yeah, Nathan Drake from Uncharted. Great video game. Good, good. We always hear you guys talk about Dynasty Leagues, and I'm interested in starting a new Dynasty League with 10 to 12 teams. What would you say is the optimal setup? If you're doing a legitimate dynasty league,

you're talking about, I think, especially if it's a 10 or 12 team league, deep starting lineups and deep benches. You probably want 25 players total rostered for every team, if not more than that. I think two running backs, three wide receivers, tight end, two flexes is a nice way to build a dynasty league right now.

What is it? Say it again. Two RB, three wide receiver, one tight end, two flex. And any super flex? You could do a super flex. You could do two QBs. I think in a dynasty league, it adds a little more strategy to the qb position if you're only playing one qb even in a dynasty league it you know still really uh minimizes the value of the position yeah i like it better if you're

going to go just 10 teams to do a super flexor to qb when you get to 12 it's a little bit harder don't know if you want to make, it's a little bit harder. Don't know if you want to make it a hassle for everybody else in the league. Last question, real quick. How many players do you keep? All of them? 20 of them? Dynasty, you keep everybody.

You don't have to keep everybody. Yeah, if you're doing Dynasty, you keep everyone. Yeah, anything where you're not keeping everybody is a keeper league. No. No, because I am in a dynasty league with contracts and I have to give players up. And then there's franchises and you can extend some players,

but then we have a free agent draft. So you don't have to keep everyone, but you can keep everyone. But that's a lot for someone who's playing in a dynasty league for the first time.

And probably establishing a dynasty league with people who've never played in a dynasty league. I think you probably just want to do... I mean, maybe you don't maybe you keep it's a 25 man roster and you keep 20. Yeah.

Every year. So you have to have some turnover. Right. You can't have football teams can't keep everyone. You got to have some type of constraint. All right. That's from Jim. That constraint's usually like, you know, the rookie draft. If you want to be able to draft rookies, you got to drop guys. That's fair. All right. This is from Jim.

Would you keep Stefan Diggs in the sixth round or Antonio Gibson in the ninth round PPR? Love Diggs, but love the value on Gibson there a little bit more. I think that's fair. And from Tony in Sacramento. Dear Moe, Larry, and Curly, I know them. 14-team keeper of the half PPR.

Each team only keeps one player for the previous year's draft value. J.K. Dobbins in round three or Josh Allen in round five? It's half PPR, it's 14 teams, and it's six points for passing touchdown. J.K. Dobbins in round three or Josh Allen in round five? Supply and demand with running backs makes me want to lean toward Dobbins.

Yeah, I don't necessarily love the value for either of them, but I'm lower on Dobbins than pretty much everyone. It's 14 teams, though. Keep that in mind. Yeah, I do think Dobbins than pretty much everyone. It's 14 teams though. Keep that in mind. Yeah, I do think Dobbins probably, although Alan, you know, QB, we love the depth of it,

but there's a pretty set hierarchy of like seven ish guys that we think are clearly better than everyone else. And having one of them in a, in a 14 team league can give you an edge. Okay. Well, that's it for today's show. Make sure you listen to fantasy football today in five for more backfield

battles and check us out playing some poker tonight, Tuesday night, 7 p.m. Eastern youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Thanks for listening. Everybody back tomorrow with another, with another top five.