Fantasy Football Today - Top 5 RBs! Who is #1? Is Taylor Top 5? (06/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: June 28, 2023Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts. The rankings disputes begin at ...the very top of the running back position, and we will get to that later after a quick look at the consensus Top 5 (2:55) with thoughts from Dave and Dan. Then we have a lot of news and notes (5:55) plus some minicamp risers (14:30) who could become Fantasy relevant ... Tera Roberts joins the show to help with our RB discussion! What was the most difficult decision to make when ranking the Top 5 RBs (20:15)? Do we have Jonathan Taylor concerns? Why isn't Derrick Henry in the Top 5 (25:45)? Then we'll talk about Christian McCaffrey vs. Austin Ekeler and why this might be a tough call (29:40) ... Which Top 5 RB has the most upside (37:40)? Which Top 5 RB has the most downside (42:15)? Does Saquon Barkley have a case to be RB1? ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
Today, we talk about the top five running backs in our consensus rankings in PPR leagues.
It's Adam, Dan, and Dave today on Fantasy Football Today.
And all of these players likely to be first round picks or at least very close to it.
But there are some big names who are not in the consensus top five.
And looking forward to breaking that down.
We're also going to have Tara Roberts joining us later
as a special guest of the program today.
Dan Schneier's back. What's up, Dan?
What's going on, guys? I'm happy to be here.
It's been a nice few days. We had a
fun mailbag and now let's talk running backs.
Yes, and Dave Richard is here. We just spoke to
Robert Turbin. What an awesome interview
with Dave. I had a great time.
I don't know how you felt. I had so much
fun talking to Robert. Oh, I had a horrible time. It was't know how you felt. I had so much fun talking to Robert.
Oh, I had a horrible time.
It was totally not insightful.
Didn't learn a damn thing.
No, Robert was great.
It's always fun to talk with former players because they give us a perspective that we just don't have.
We didn't play football.
I know, Adam, you look like you played football,
but you didn't.
It's good to pick their brains um i thought
it was very interesting what rob had to say about torn acls and how he felt like he needed two years
to come back to his normal self and that kind of meshes with how it's been for most players yep i
say most not all adam you brought up adrian peterson that dude's a freak
of nature is breese hall a freak of nature is giovante williams a freak of nature are they
going to be able to come back from their injuries and play like everything's cool no drop in
efficiency after talking to robert yesterday i'm starting to worry a little bit about them well
let's be clear you were worried about them before talking to Robert Turbin.
I mean, it's not like he opened your eyes to something.
We know the track record there.
Maybe that's true.
Yeah, that's 100% true.
And his top five running backs.
We didn't bury the guest, Adam.
No, I'm burying Dave.
He's, you know, let's not overreact to the comment.
It was a very insightful comment from Robert,
but let's not act like you weren't there before.
But his top five, we made him give a top five running backs on the spot.
It was, this is just the way he listed them.
This was not the way he ranked them.
B. John Robinson, McCaffrey, Eckler.
So that's part of the consensus.
For fantasy, he was doing it or actual?
Okay.
And then he had Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry.
He did not.
He had some things to say about Jonathan Taylor.
Just listen to that show.
Listen to that show if you get a chance.
It dropped this morning.
All right.
So here is the consensus top five combining Dave, Heath, and Jamie's rankings.
Christian McCaffrey, Austin Eckler, I think Bijan's three, Barkley's four. I put that in reverse.
McCaffrey, Eckler, Bijan, Barkley, Taylor.
McCaffrey, Eckler, Bijan, Barkley, Taylor.
Dave, give me 30 seconds, your thoughts on that,
because we're going to spend the rest of the show
talking about this, basically.
But McCaffrey, Eckler, Bijan, Barkley, Taylor.
I think McCaffrey and Eckler are basically going to be
top two for everybody.
And you're going to see them picked very, very early in drafts.
And I think only the old school thinkers of, well, this guy's a rookie.
He's never done it before.
We'll pass on Bijan at three.
I think he's absolutely worth it.
Phenomenal talent.
There's data to back it up.
There's been historical references to him being close to a top five type of
fantasy running back.
I'm a little bit worried about Barkley.
I'm not sure he should be consensus top five.
Same thing with Jonathan Taylor.
Interesting comments from Robert yesterday about him.
And I feel like there's a changing of the guard at the position that we can talk about
as we go on.
Some of the older running backs are kind of getting pushed down a little bit more and
more and younger running backs getting pushed up.
All right, Dan, your quick take on McCaffrey eckler bijan barkley taylor my quick take on that is i have one player in that
mix that is not in my top five and i will leave that for the for later in the show as a little
teaser it's definitely not is it saquon i would be stunned it's not safe of course it's not
oh man it could easily be safe one i don't daniel jones ranked that i
it could be yeah there's some cases to be made against it yes actually i'll go ahead and i'll
go ahead and spoil this now um i i have a segment in here called the case for number one i try to
make the case for number one i don't know if i'll get to it but just in case i'll ask you guys the
case for number one for about eight running backs.
Barkley was the only one that I really did not feel like I could make a case for number one for him.
I don't see him having the same upside, but I will get your take on that.
But I do think it's top five.
Just I don't think he's I don't think he has that like two thousand total yard.
He's weirdly evolved into more of a safe player in fantasy than what he was when he broke out as a rookie, which was like, this could be the potential one one.
Oh, all right.
Save it for later.
Save it for later.
Safe is a weird word to think about with the injuries.
But when you think about the volume.
Yeah.
Safe is a word to think about with running backs.
With running backs.
Yes, that I agree with.
OK, so if you want to get your questions read on the air, the best way to do that is with an Apple Podcast review.
Please, whether you want to leave us a question or not, we would appreciate a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.
Now is the time.
It's almost July, so we're going to start getting some new listeners beginning next month and into August.
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And what you can do, it's pretty easy.
Go to Apple Podcasts.
Leave us a nice five-star review.
Tell everybody why you like the show. And if you ask a question as well, we'll try to get those into a mailbag.
I'm going to try to save time for that later today as well. News and notes. Okay. It's kind of a big day of headlines, Dave. Dalvin Cook has multiple offers, according to NFL Network's Tom
Pellicero. One of them apparently from the Dol the dolphins uh why don't we start with that
uh dave you're what do you think about cook to the dolphins if that happens it would it would
ruin the fun of devon ashane which we've seen his stock rise based on all the glowing reports from
minicamp and it it would really kind of throw that backfield into total chaos because they're already going to use multiple guys.
We already know that.
But they already have two older running backs in Jeff Wilson and Raheem Mostert.
Now they'll have three in Dalvin Cook.
I would imagine that Cook will knock off potentially Mostert off the roster
just because he's the oldest guy and maybe the most brittle.
We'll see how that goes.
I don't know if the Dolphins really need Dalvin Cook. i don't know if the dolphins really need dalvin
cook i don't know if anybody really needs dalvin cook that's the problem right now is that cook
the name is better than the game or probably more recognizable than the game he just he wasn't that
great last year he had some breakaway runs but he also struggled a little bit more than we're
used to seeing.
So bottom line,
don't overrate Dalvin cook,
no matter where he goes.
Okay.
Jonathan Taylor is,
you know, he's hopeful that he'll be ready.
He,
I think maybe he expects to be ready.
I'm sorry,
Dave,
I might be misquoting,
but he talked about,
hopefully is the word.
Yeah.
Putting a little bit of doubt about him being ready for the start of
training camp,
which is still a long ways before the start of the season.
But did that strike you as interesting, Dave?
Yes, because the story on Jonathan Taylor last year
was that he suffered a high ankle sprain early on.
He tried to play through it.
He wasn't that great.
He missed a lot of time.
When he came back, he initially looked good,
and then he started to struggle again.
The high ankle sprain is an injury.
Let's just mention it again.
One that you have to almost downgrade the player on.
When he gets it, Saquon once had a high ankle sprain,
couldn't come back from it and play like the guy that we knew.
The fact that he doesn't feel like he's a lock for training camp
and didn't do anything in any of the Colts
OTAs makes me a little bit nervous.
Now that that'll go away.
If the Colts open training camp and he's there and he's spying,
he's doing all the drills.
Even if they hold them out of a few team drills,
I will feel fine with John the Taylor,
as long as he's there practicing in some form or fashion.
If that doesn't happen,
that could be the start of what slides him down my rankings
in late July and into August.
Okay, and who are you guys more concerned about right now, Jonathan Taylor or Josh Jacobs,
who reportedly could extend his holdout into week one?
Fantasy-wise, I'm much more concerned with Jonathan Taylor.
Oh, I guess we know who's not in your top five.
Yeah.
And I'm a Wisconsin Badger alumni.
So it's not like I'm just homering it up.
Like,
like we've heard some suggestions from both Dave and he throughout previous
shows.
And now I'm more interested in finding out who your fifth man is.
It's all,
not all that exciting,
but it's not Jonathan Taylor.
So I'd like to know who it is.
We'll get there.
We'll get there.
We've got some friends in the chat today. We've got Joey, right? Who's Joey. I'd like to know who it is. We'll get there. We've got some friends in the chat
today. We've got Joey Wright.
I'd like to get him on a show soon.
I'm going to slide your DMs.
And we've got Sia Najad
in the CBS family.
Nobody's a bigger
fan of Frazier than Sia Najad.
No one in the world
would like that show the way he likes
that TV show.
I told him
that i'm watching every episode and so far i think it was he made it a one seat in a 64
sitcom bracket i told him it's overrate he overrated it at best it's a four but it's good
and he said it gets good in season four like gets great gets great in season four show i've ever
heard i know i know three seasons and eventually it'll be fun.
I could sort of.
I mean, I think the Simpsons falls in a similar boat.
I think season three, the Simpsons starts getting great.
Season four, it starts getting epic.
So I'm in the middle of season three.
I'm looking forward to season four.
Back to the news and notes.
Zach Rosenblatt of The Athletic thinks the Jets believe
in rookie running back Israel Abinakanda
as an immediate contributor.
So we'll keep that in mind.
They need him.
If Reese Hall is slow to get going, this is an NFL-ready running back.
Could end up being a nice little zero RB target.
And also, not to mention, not only is he NFL-ready, he is a system fit, a perfect system fit.
Yes.
Which makes a difference when you're trying to see
which running back can get involved early.
Brock Purdy remains on track for week one.
All of the reports have been good in terms of Purdy being ready for week one,
but still a lot to be determined there, I suppose.
Nate Atkins of the Indianapolis Star thinks that it's trending
toward Anthony Richardson starting week one,
but he's not counting out the possibility of Gardner Minshew starting week
one for the Colts.
The reports have not been glowing about Anthony Richardson.
Apparently big shocker.
The accuracy issues that he had in college are now following him into non
contact passing drills in Indianapolis.
We'll see.
We will see.
I think it's a,
all right.
There's a chance that offense just doesn't move the ball this year.
Well,
okay.
You're just spoiling all your anti-Jonathan Taylor arguments,
but Dave just brought it up.
But for Pittman,
I mean,
I could,
I honestly could see a five to 10 spot jump or dip in the rankings,
depending on who his quarterback is.
I don't know how you guys feel about that,
but I feel like everyone wants his quarterback to be Gardner Minshew.
I mean, I've seen a lot of that.
We're just not really expecting it, and if we are expecting it,
we're not expecting it for that long.
But, Dave, how much higher in the rankings would Pittman be for you
if Minshew were his quarterback instead of Richardson?
I wouldn't change it because eventually it would be Anthony Richardson, how much higher in the rankings would Pittman be for you if Minshew were his quarterback instead of Richardson?
I wouldn't change it because eventually it would be Anthony Richardson.
So even if Pittman gets off to a good start with Gardner Minshew,
what a sentence that is, then it's not going to be great.
I've got him 32nd among wide receivers.
He's more talented than wide receiver 32,
but he wasn't a dominant red zone threat to begin with.
And now we're careening toward Anthony Richardson,
stealing red zone work away from everybody because he'll run it
when they get down there.
And if it's not him running it, it's Jonathan Taylor running it.
And it's not going to leave a lot for Pittman to score touchdowns.
And if the accuracy isn't great from Richardson,
that's going to hurt Michael Pittman. By the way, And if the accuracy isn't great from Richardson, that's going
to hurt Michael Pittman. By the way, it's been Alec Pierce. Who's been, I'm not sure Pittman's
healthy right now. I'm not sure if he's practicing. Uh, Pierce has been working with Richardson,
whether Richardson's worth the first team or the second team, they've been together on the field,
every single snap of mini camp. Um, so I think they're trying to get Pierce,
at least on the same page with Richardson.
My guess is that Pittman would be there too,
if he were healthy.
Okay, moving on here.
Evan Lazar of patriots.com
thinks that second year running back Pierre Strong
could be the Patriots complimentary running back.
We're going to hear a lot.
You know, I'm not even going to get into it.
We're going to hear about this every freaking day for the next month and a
half.
So let's just see what happens there.
Do we have,
do we have 30 seconds to pivot to a,
a dynasty trade that I've turned down?
Yes.
I am.
Excuse me.
I make those decisions,
but yes,
yes.
I knew you wouldn't like me.
30 seconds.
They're on the clock.
Helping a Dynasty League.
There's a team in the league and it's best ball that offered me Kirk Cousins and Jared Goff for two first round picks.
Whoa.
Back, back, back, back it up.
You got offered Kirk Cousins and Jared Goff for two first round picks in a super flex, obviously.
Yes.
And what are your quarterback situation?
Aaron Rodgers is my best quarterback.
I do not have a second best quarterback.
Are you playing to win now?
I think my roster is shaped up where I have to.
Like, I've got McCaffrey, Kamara, Pollard.
My running backs are amazing.
Those are amazing.
Do you have receivers?
Receivers are old.
But good?
I didn't commit a tight end.
I say no.
I turned it down.
He's going to take it from somebody else.
I wouldn't do that.
I wouldn't get two first rounds for those guys.
No.
It's a lot.
All right.
So I think what I'm going to do is draft CJ Stroud
because I'm picking in the middle of round one
and he's still there.
And you'll have something.
And then I'll figure out.
Someone who at least playing games.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks for the 30-second detour, Schneier.
I appreciate that.
I make the decisions.
I'm the captain. All right. There make the decisions. I'm the captain.
All right.
There was an article.
I want to make me in charge.
An article from ESPN.com about surprising off-season standouts,
minicamp standouts for each team.
So I'm just going to read some of them.
I want some quick reaction.
Dan, Traylon Burks was one of them.
Spotlighted.
Traylon Burks.
Love me some Traylon Burks was one of them spotlighted Traylon Burks. Love me some Traylon Burks this year.
He'll be targeting a lot of my teams playing with had issues last camp.
Not in shape.
This is a quick, it's supposed to be a quick take.
Just say now he's in shape building rapport.
Ryan Daniel wasn't there all last year, which I love showed some good signs already last year.
Big fan of his.
What round?
What round?
That's a good question.
When will I would start?
Yeah, I'm thinking.
No, it's a little too early.
Probably seven or eight.
Seven.
I was about to say six.
It's a seven pick for me.
Six is a little too early.
Romeo Dobbs, Dave.
Romeo Dobbs.
Listen, I didn't love how we finished last year, but if Jordan Love is connecting with him, you've got to give him credit for that.
I've moved him up in my rankings, but I'm still the low guy on him.
I have him as a round 10 pick.
If the hype continues, he's going to move up into at least round nine, if not round eight.
Is it going to move Christian Watson down for you?
No interest.
Sorry, go ahead.
Is it going to move Christian Watson down for you?
If we don't hear any reports about Christian Watson gelling with Jordan Love,
and I already think that this offense is going to be slower paced
and a little bit more run heavy than we're used to the Packers being,
then yeah, that would move Christian Watson down.
Slower paced, more run heavy, and in my opinion,
we're going to see a lot of bootleg quick throws to the tight ends.
This is all bad things for Romeo Dobbs.
I don't see any path to success.
I have no interest in Dobbs.
Don't like him as a talent.
Don't like his quarterback situation. Don't like the target potential. I mean, I guess
if he's the only one getting targets in camp and it just keeps happening day after day, maybe we
can say the rapport is there and I'll come across and finally get in there. But if he's going around
10 or earlier and no shot for me, I Miami running back Devon, a chain was on this list of standouts.
We already talked about the impact that Dalvin Cook might have.
Remember when you said he could only be a returner in the NFL, Adam?
I definitely didn't say he could only be.
You cannot do this anymore.
Because the thing is, I don't remember what I said,
so now I have to defend it.
I don't remember the exact text,
but I wanted to talk him up as a breakout rookie
because I love this tape.
And you're like, you can't do A-chain.
This guy's going to be a kick returner.
Remember when I said this is supposed to be a quick segment?
And then I gave Dave Romeo Dobbs, remember that?
That portion of the show?
All right.
Some rookie-wide receivers to keep an eye on.
Michael Wilson for the Cardinals and Puka Nakua for the Rams.
They're getting talked up.
They've had a good offseason so far.
The 49ers are absolutely raving about Brandon Ayuk.
Denver rookie running back Jaleel McLaughlin
was somebody that was highlighted in this ESPN story.
So if Javante Williams is out,
remember the name Jaleel McLaughlin.
And Foster Morrow for the Saints now,
reuniting with Derek Carr.
He's had a good camp
and might just be a thorn in the side of Juwan Johnson
if you had any interest there.
We've gone too long without talking about running backs
and without talking to Tara Roberts. So we're going to take a break. And when we come
back, the rest of the show will be dedicated to the top five running backs in fantasy and more,
including some emails and Apple podcast questions. We'll be right back.
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And we welcome Tara Roberts. It's Tara time. What's up, Tara?
Hey, guys. How you doing?
Long time no speak. Always great to hear from you.
What happened to Clemson? Did you move?
No, she's got a Clemson on right there.
Oh, there it is.
I've transitioned to a different location right now, but we're still Clemson represented.
Okay. All right. Always're still Clemson represented. Okay, all right.
Always repping Clemson.
Well, it is great to hear from you.
And again, our consensus top five is McCaffrey, Eckler, Bijan, Barkley, and Taylor.
If you want to know who's after that,
and these are the combination of Dave, Heath, Jamie's rankings,
Jacob, six, Pollard, seven, Chubb eight, Henry nine,
Ramondre Stevenson 10. So Tara, how about you?
Do you have your top five handy?
I do. It sounds very similar. It is a, it's Christian McCaffrey,
Austin Eckler, Bijan, Saquon and Jonathan Taylor.
Okay. So that's the same as the consensus here. Dave,
what was different if anything in your rankings compared to consensus?
I've got Bijan third, Saquon fourth, and currently I have Jonathan Taylor fifth
because I can't find a better fifth.
I'm confused.
I think, let me just double check if Bijan's three and Barkley's four.
No?
Okay, so Barkley is three and Bijan is four.
I had it right the first time.
So that would be the difference for Dave. Dave has Bijan three, Barkley is three and Bijon is four. I had it right the first time. So that would be the difference for Dave.
Dave has Bijon three, Barkley four.
The consensus is,
because Heath is pretty low on Bijon comparatively.
The consensus is Barkley three, Bijon four.
And Dan, your differences?
So like Dave, I also have Bijon three
and then Barkley four,
but I don't have Jonathan Taylor in my top five.
I have Josh Jacobs there in my fifth spot.
Okay.
So I asked this question about the quarterbacks,
and I'll start with Tara.
What was the toughest decision you had to make
when ranking your top five running backs?
And that could be involving those specific five,
or it could be leaving someone out or whatever.
Toughest decision you had to make?
Probably a tie between JT at five.
So I'll leave that one for Dan
because I'm kind of on board with that one as well.
But then also putting Saquon down at four
and putting Bijan at three.
I've had him, I guess, I had him,
the lowest I had him all throughout the off season
was at five, I think.
And I felt pretty comfortable with it.
It was a little bit aggressive back earlier around the draft, but the difficulty with it is then
again, we're kind of taking that chance that he, you know, is going to be somebody who is going to
have that Saquon Barkley-esque rookie season. And we're asking a lot of him and, you know,
do we sit there and take that chance with an early first
round pick or do we go with the more stable backs when we got a proven options right there a lot of
high upside options as well if you're dipping down and looking at some guys like tony pollard
so taking that risk with bijan knowing that this offense could transition a little bit um with the
investments that they've made at pass catcher and trying to transitioning over to desmond ritter as well that felt the riskiest but i'm pretty comfortable with it okay yeah i wonder
where he's going to end up on on bijan i know he's open-minded and moving him up he has an eighth
that's going to be pretty low amongst the industry uh dan what was your toughest decision when
ranking your top five running backs yeah the toughest decision was definitely keeping jonathan
taylor out of the top five jonathan Jonathan Taylor obviously in 2021 was the number one overall running back but there's
just a bunch of red flags that I don't like in his profile I think the first one that I don't like
is that the Colts were 30th ranked in scoring last year and I'm just not positive that they're
going to get back to any kind of range that will be good for Jonathan Taylor. Because for Jonathan Taylor, we could look at him last year and he had,
so in his 2021 season, where he's our RB one overall 26 rushing attempts
inside the five last year, I know he was injured for some of them,
but just 11.
And that's the killer for me.
I just don't see this offense getting back to a level that can lead to him
having fantasy success, like a top five running back,
because he needs scoring opportunities.
He needs touchdowns. Cause I'm not so sure where the passing game work is going
to come from. He's evolved a lot as a player as a receiver, but I don't necessarily think
Anthony Richardson is going to focus on targeting him in the passing game. I don't think the Shane
Steichen offensive system is good for running backs in the passing game. And then there's one
more big flag for me that I'm just going to be worried about with a player like Richardson
coming into this offense. And that's will Richardson take away some of those rushing attempts in the red zone too? Will they run zone read? And will we see a Josh Allen effect there too? And all of those things for me are big red flags from a fantasy standpoint, all situation based for sure. The talent is still there for Taylor, but all these guys are talented that we're talking about in the top five. I need a better situation.
I'm going to throw out just some numbers here.
Look at the top five running backs in PPR
from the last, let's say, five seasons.
I'm going to tell you the
worst offense they were on.
The lowest scoring offense
of top five running backs last five
seasons. I don't have the actual offenses. I could look them
up, but I would tell you 22nd in 2018,
RB5 was 22nd.
In 2019, we had two running backs
who were on the 20th or 21st,
including, I think that was the year
McCaffrey finished his RB1
on an offense that was 20th.
2020, we had an offense that was 23rd,
that RB4. In 2021, RB3 was on the 21st ranked offense
and then the best case for a running back to be on a terrible offense and finish in the top five
the barkley 2018 derrick henry this past year he was rb4 on on the 28th it's the lowest one i've
seen where was that barkley 2018 i feel
like that offense couldn't have been high scoring that giants offense so he may have been 2018 or
19 2018 his rookie season because they didn't they had a bad offense that year um i have
maybe 22nd i think they were 22nd even assuming what you just said though adam that would still
require a pretty big jump
from from the colts offense this year correct i mean they were 30th in scoring i know there's
expectation anthony richardson will help that offense but like dave said early part of otas
he can't even keep the pass game on schedule at all so it's like i i don't know if that's a guarantee
yeah i think actually i think the giants were 16th in scoring that year believe it or not
something like that um all right so dave how you? What was the toughest decision you had to make?
I had two tough decisions.
So I'm cheating and I'm giving you two.
The first one was making McCaffrey number one over Eckler when Eckler's been so productive
for the Chargers over the last two seasons, over 20 PPR points per game.
Just seems like he's a little safer in that regard compared to Christian McCaffrey.
But I couldn't do it because McCaffrey's upside is better than 20 PPR points per game.
It's like 24, 25 PPR points per game.
So I didn't do that.
Plus, Eckler was number one last year.
It's very hard to repeat year over year as RB1.
And then the other one was what we've talked about.
Where does Bijan rank compared to Barkley, compared to Taylor?
Where do Jacobs, Derrick Henry, Tony Pollard, Nick Chubb,
where do those guys rank compared to them?
The case can be made for a lot of running backs to be top five.
The toughest decision, if I had rankings, would be leaving Henry out.
And he's like eighth in consensus rankings.
Let's talk about Derrick Henry, and then I do want to get back to McCaffrey versus Eckler but Tara um two things that I'd be worried about with Henry I think one of them
everyone's worried about and that's his age he's gonna turn 30 in January before the end of the
regular season so it's to age 29, but he's at old 29.
And then people may not be aware,
but I looked at his advanced metrics
each of the last four years.
And over the last,
and like the first two years of that span,
he was clearly elite.
He was elite in almost everything.
He has not even been close the last couple of years.
So there is, I feel safe saying there is decline there unless Skowronski comes and
changes this offensive line dramatically or something as a rookie.
I mean,
I think there is decline there.
I wonder how you feel about that.
Um,
but you don't have Derek Henry in your top five.
And was that difficult for you,
Tara?
It was.
Cause I am very much so pro Derek Henry.
I'll keep drafting him until the wheels fall off.
Because at this point, I mean, you just kind of see that he's built a bit different than
other guys and you can't really project when that drop off is going to come.
But like you said, there's a clear decline.
We can look at yards per carry, his efficiency and see that, you know, things are getting
a little bit more difficult for him.
But what keeps me, you know, pushing Derek Henry up
towards the top and why I'm still comfortable with him as a top 10 pick, um, top 10 at running
back pick is that regardless, the volume is still going to be there. We don't have any major
adjustments in the offense. We don't see anything visit, you know, unless they, even if they signed,
um, Deandre Hopkins, again, that's not going to signal a massive change in philosophy
they just have a slightly better receiving core um well significantly better receiving core than
they had last year just to be more reliable but we're not going to see this offense all of a
sudden turn into a gunslinging offense i think the volume will still be there so even if we're
getting him in the you know low forwards yards per carry the volume will still be there they're
not going to cut that off.
This is not going to transition into somebody else.
Tajay Spears cutting into his workload.
We've still got the goal line rushes.
We've still got a little bit of passing upside.
We got a little bit of that helping out last season.
And maybe if they don't get DeAndre Hopkins, we see that continue as well.
So I think all of the measurables are there in terms of statistics
to kind of make up
for the fact that there is a little bit of a decline happening year over year. The volume
will still be there. So he's still a comfortable pick for me. It's a great point about the receiving
work too, because each of the last two seasons, he's been on pace. Career high last year, but I
think he was actually catching more passes per game the year before that. He just played eight
games. So you're talking about the last two years, 35 catch kind of guy i don't i can't guarantee that but i think more than you know 19 which was
used to be like great for him yeah uh dave i think oh dan go ahead yeah go ahead it's a quick note on
what tara said that i think was a great point about the philosophy saying the same over the
past five seasons with the titans despite them changing coordinators and having different people
in there with mike frabel there they've been top three in neutral run rate over expected
in all five seasons one uh two of the seasons they were first or 2021 they were first two of
the seasons they were second so this is a team that's going to run the football we have five
years worth of data showing they're going to run it over expected there's a comment here in the
chat that like i have no idea if this is true or not even close to true. When Derek Henry, when he retires, he will have ran across the entire planet based on career yards and attempts from high school to the pros.
Who's tracking this?
Feels like it could be true. I don't know.
I believe it.
I believe it that. All right. Dave, you mentioned McCaffrey versus Eckler.
All right.
Yeah, I mean, you briefly got into it.
Why don't you expand a little bit there? And I guess my question would be, how afraid are you of Elijah Mitchell in this debate?
I'm not.
With the 49ers, McCaffrey averaged 21.9 PPR points per game.
He was one of the most explosive running backs last year,
including with San Francisco.
He was the rushing leader despite playing.
I think it was 11 games with San Francisco in the regular season.
He averaged 14.5 attempts per game.
That would have come out to 245 attempts over 17 games.
That doesn't account for any of his catches.
Of course,
his catches would have been great if he had been in San Francisco, and I think they will be. He's also been very consistent,
which I think is what makes him an easy 101 if you were so inclined. In his last 59 games,
his past five seasons, he's given you at least 15 PPR points, 80% of the time, 47 of 59 games. If you're looking for 20 PPR points, he's done that 66% of the time.
Two-thirds of his games, Adam, 39 of 59 games,
he's given you at least 20 PPR points.
And those percentages I just gave you, they're down from this time last year.
I don't think that means that he's a descending player.
I think it just means that he kind of had a little bit of a rocky season,
and now that he's in descending player. I think it just means that he kind of had a little bit of a rocky season. And now that he's in San Francisco, he could really see another great efficient campaign
where he can hit that 25 PPR point per game mark. Basically you're getting like low end QB one
production, maybe even middle end QB one production out of Christian McCaffrey. He's
irresistible to me as the number one overall pick. Tara, your thoughts?
Yeah, I actually think the whole CMC with Elijah Mitchell is kind of blown out of proportion.
I looked at the games, those specific games with the two of them combined. And really,
it's only three because you have to throw out that final game where Elijah Mitchell came back
because that was against Arizona. CMC wasn't really utilized.
The snaps were significantly down just because obviously they blew them out
and that game didn't really matter.
So if we're really looking at those three games in the middle of the season,
you know, shortly after he arrived, are we really throwing, you know,
drawing such aggressive conclusions against CMC as the RB1 overall off of
three games?
And if you kind of look at them,
those might've just been three really weird games because those games were literally the worst games
of the entire season, not just because of him having to split work with Elijah Mitchell.
They were the lowest yards per carry for him in the entire season. He averaged less than three
yards per carry, very weird. So I kind of wonder if maybe there was just oddly something else going on um that just maybe kind of made them pull back a little from from mcafree
over that time period because when you combine that with the low yards per carry and kind of
looking at that and saying if he had been his usual christian mcafree and wasn't struggling
with the yardage the stats would have been very different so i think there might have been just
something where those three games in
particular might've just been independently off.
And I don't know if we want to really discount Christian McCaffrey just
because of that.
And if you look at even those games in that stretch, there were,
I believe there were times where he popped up on the injury part.
I'm trying to remember what it was that he was dealing with.
I thought it was calf, but I'm not positive.
I have to, I have to look at that at another point,
but even assuming that Elijah Mitchell is going to play a role in this offense, which he will, because obviously
this is not a workhorse type of style system with Shanahan. Does it really matter? Cause we're
focusing so much on Mitchell side of it, but what about this in, you know, intense starts with the
49ers after the trade, he averaged over 20 touches per game, 20.1 touches per game. That's more than
almost every run. That's a top five running back type of touch percentage right there, even with Mitchell in for some of those. And the main thing with McCaffrey
for me, it's like, we can focus on how much, how much, uh, how much of the touches he's going to
get, or we could focus on the fact that he's still getting a ton of targets. And we know that
historically, at least one target in the passing game for a running back is worth about 2.7
carries in terms of expected points back in PPR leagues, which is extremely
important. And even with all of the weapons healthy, McCaffrey was third on the target
totem pole, which was really good with 26 and five games when everyone was healthy.
And in addition to that, he scored 13 touchdowns in 14 games with San Francisco. So like we should
also focus on the fact that he's in one of the best offenses, the NFL, which is extremely important
for fantasy. It's a system that doesn't fail. And as Adam said, Brock Purdy might be ready for the week one of the seasons. That's somebody
who can keep the offense on track. We've seen McCaffrey score points with Purdy running the
offense. So I think more of the focus needs to be on the other factors here. Well, I right now
am on Eckler, number one, McCaffrey, two. Reluctantly, it's not set in stone,
but I'll just say, okay,
it's not that I'm killing McCaffrey here.
We're talking about the difference between him being RB1 and RB2, right?
So I'm not burying him or anything like that.
I think I have a six-game sample.
You know, Terry, you said three.
You're not counting week 18.
I am counting week 18 plus the two playoff games
that they both played together.
And I don't necessarily look at,
McCaffrey only had five more carries than Elijah Mitchell.
And Dave, when you gave all those stats about McCaffrey
and what he did with San Francisco and his pace and all that,
it's 245 carries and 80 catches and 15 touchdowns
or something like that, but total touchdowns.
But the numbers, I mean, the fantasy
production, you're talking about like almost 10 per game, nine per game or something like that
with and without Elijah Mitchell. So, you know, they got it. They're skewed a little bit. I think
the bigger number to me is in the first half of those six games, like the first and second quarter
of those six games, McCaffrey had 37 carries and Elijah Mitchell had 17 carries.
And that feels like somewhat of a realistic split, about 68% of the carries for McCaffrey.
And I think if that happens, that's the lowest, that's the worst split, I think,
of any first round running back. Maybe any first or second round running back. It's low. He'll
compensate with catches, but is he a 120 catch guy like he used to be,
or is he an 80 catch guy like he was on pace for?
Let's not forget,
Deebo Samuel missed some time
when Christian McCaffrey was with the 49ers,
and he's a factor with three or four carries per game,
I would expect.
But he also is a short area target,
and he's determined to have a bigger role.
And let's not forget that somehow,
Christian McCaffrey is the only 49ers
running back that hasn't gotten hurt in the last five years, but he gets hurt all the time and
49ers running backs get, 49ers running backs get hurt all the time. And let's not forget Austin
Eckler has been a top three running back per game, two straight years, and has, in my opinion,
pretty much no, no significant competition. So I, I am statistically on Eckler over McCaffrey. I just sit there and I say,
am I, am I overthinking this? He's Christian McCaffrey. He's a better player on an amazing
offense. Maybe I'm just penalizing him too much. You made some great points there, Adam. I don't
think you're penalizing him too much. And especially the last point you made, I just
think it's so, so funny in the fantasy football community, how we view these player and how much
of an, like going into last year's draft, anyone who put McCaffrey as the running back one or the first pick overall,
you'd see comments in the YouTube or wherever, like, how could you draft this guy? He's so
injury prone. You're he's going to be out by week four. And now like, no, one's talking about this
anymore. All of a sudden, this is not a factor in play. It was the biggest factor for people.
And now it's nothing. And this guy missed, like you said, I mean, you mentioned the injuries, 23 games combined in 2020 and 2021 in two seasons,
he missed 23 of 32 games, but of course now it's nothing. And last year it was everything. It's
just so crazy to me. The injury prone thing is just like so overblown. And so we need,
we don't have a good date on it. One day we'll be able to figure it out better. I think
hopefully, but right now I feel like it's mostly based on recency bias.
All right.
Well, Twitter poll right now.
Who's your number one running back in PPR?
I just put this up a few minutes ago at 180 votes.
McCaffrey, 69.4%.
Eckler, 16%.
Bijan, about 11%.
Other four.
Who's your number one running back?
I can't believe there's...
Other.
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's move on to our next topic here which top five running back dave has the most
upside this could be an easy one so mcafree everyone think that uh you know what i'm gonna
take a take a wild card here i'm gonna go with bijan robinson yeah i'm gonna go with bijan
robinson might as well make the case for him right now is why i think he could be the rb1 I'm going to take a wild card here. I'm going to go with B. John Robinson. Yeah, I'm going to go with B. John Robinson.
Might as well make the case for him right now is why I think he could be the RB1 over some of these guys potentially.
So B. John Robinson's entering the NFL right now is, in my opinion, the best running back prospect that I've ever watched on film.
And that includes Saquon Barkley.
The reason I think B. John is a better prospect than Saquon Barkley is because I think B. John Robinson is a better mental processor than Saquon Barkley was.
I think he does a much better job in between the tackles.
I think he does a much better job setting up his blocks.
I think he does a much better job of creating yards independent of his offensive line.
But in addition to that, he has a really good system that he's coming into.
This Falcons team had the highest rushing grade of all NFL teams, according to Pro Football
Focus.
They did it really without a big name offensive line. They have one amazing player in Chris Lindstrom. I think he's the best guard
in the NFL right now in the run game, but outside of him, they just did it with scheme and that
scheme's coming back. In addition to that, we're talking about a prospect who had more forced
missed tackles than PFF has ever charted last year with 102. He had a breakout. His breakout
age was great. He was amazing as a
freshman, 6.3 yards per carry throughout his career, 39% forced missed tackle rate, 22 carries
of 15 plus yards. And he can work in the passing game. It's not just like he's a guy like some of
these guys who make mood, uh, who make progress in the NFL as a receiver like Barkley or Jonathan
Taylor. To me, when I watch them play, I feel like they're just running flare flare routes or
catching screens or running very basic routes with beat with beat on Robinson. It's like a
Christian McCaffrey type receiving running back. He's going to be flexed out. He's going to be
used on arrow routes, Texas routes, wheel routes, and we use all different ways on the vertical
plane, horizontal, and it's going to be a mismatch. And if Arthur Smith, uh, you know,
can figure this out, which I think he can, it's going to be big stuff. And also 1,071 yards after contact last year at a 1575. I mean, this is just a dude who doesn't
need anything around him. So I just feel like he's coming into a great system here. He's going to,
he's the best. I think he's the best talent in the NFL right now at running back to be completely
honest, including McCaffrey, including Barkley, including whoever based on age, based on lack
of tread on his tires, all of those things. So to me, I think there is a case for him to be the RB1 overall
because Barkley wasn't too far away in 2018.
Was he RB1? He wasn't in 2018, right?
I think he was RB2.
He was too, right.
But Barkley was close.
They were basically tied in PPR.
Okay, in 2018? Okay, right.
And so I think we've already seen a case where it's come close,
and I think Bijan has a chance to do it.
All right, Tara, who has the most upside? Yeah, it's gotta be Bijan. Um, again,
I know we've been burned in the past off of, you know, rookie running backs that we've taken in
the first round and turning into a nightmare, but, uh, you know, what kind of pushes me over,
you know, Bijan, the prospect is just on another level, but what pushes me over the edge is just
the landing spot for the Falcons being the little perfect situation for him.
You know, with Atlanta, we know, you know, rushing attempts first, you know, rushing yards.
We talked about them being, you know, fantastic as a rushing offense.
High grades, the touchdowns were there.
The yards per attempt were there.
There was no flaw in their run game with literally, you know, anyone and everyone that they inserted into the lineup to run.
And I know the argument that a lot of people have is kind of the worry that they're going to.
And I think I mentioned this earlier, the worry they're going to increase pass volume.
We're going to see Kyle Pitts and Drake London together again.
Desmond Ritter with more experience under him.
We did see a little uptick as well in pass volume
but I think kind of what we have to consider with that is that you know there's probably going to be
an increase in game pace yeah they ran the seventh least plays in 2022 they're going to increase pass
volume increase the pace of game and the run game hat doesn't have to be reduced so if we're looking
at that Atlanta Falcons system knowing exactly what Arthur Smith wants to do, knowing that this is going to stick and knowing that Bijan is coming in there as this massive investment, this is not going to be a 50-50 split with Tyler Algier. So I'm willing to risk a high pick on him
just because the likelihood is a lot higher
than a lot of these rookies that we've seen in the past.
All right.
I was surprised.
Two Vijons there and a McCaffrey
for who has the most upside and among the top five.
Which top five running back has the most downside, Dave?
The running back with the most downside,
based on who we're talking, it's got to be Jonathan
Taylor.
You're not going to get an argument from Dan. Why
you say that, Dave?
You're asking me or you're asking Dan?
You, Dave. We know that
the offense is in the first
year of a new playbook, first year
rookie quarterback.
Don't know how that's going to work out. We don't know what the offensive line is going to look like. Taylor's coming off of a new playbook, first year, rookie quarterback. Don't know how that's going to
work out. We don't know what the offensive line is going to look like. Taylor's coming off of a
terrible year where he wasn't his efficient self. The argument for Jonathan Taylor has always been
the dude has 2000 total yard potential. He's got to run like a world beater again, and he's got to
do it with a rookie quarterback in an offense. that's probably going to have some mistakes in it
and an offensive line that's not as good as it was
when he did run for over 2,000 total yards
or did have 2,000 total yards two seasons ago.
Worried about touchdowns getting eaten up by Anthony Richardson.
Worried about the offense playing from behind a little bit more often
than we'd like.
And I get nervous about Jonathan Taylor being a mega stud.
Okay.
Dan, I think you're going to agree.
He has the most downside, but he's not in your top five.
So of your top five running backs,
which includes Josh Jacobs and the other four,
who has the most downside?
It would have to be Josh Jacobs for me.
I mean, he's fifth in my rankings for a reason.
There are good things about Josh Jacobs.
I like that he's just 25 years old.
The rest of these guys are kind of bordering on the fall off age of 27 ish. I liked that he had 23.1
touches per game last year, which is to me, it's all about volume. I like no more Darren Waller.
Maybe that helps him in the past game, but I still think back to this and I'm like,
I know Derek Carr's not great, but in my mind, Jimmy Garoppolo is a terrible NFL quarterback.
I'm sticking with that take for the rest of my life. I feel like the Brock Purdy era proved it to me more than ever so
that literally it's all system-based there in San Francisco.
And so I think Jimmy out of that system, yes, he gets McDaniel,
Josh McDaniels, which helps because that system,
he's shown some success in, I guess, a four-game stretch,
if you want to call it that, with a really good offense around him.
But I have real big concerns about the offense with Jimmy Garoppolo.
So that, to me, scares me a bit bit with Jacobs who had 12 touchdowns last year.
Could we see that number fall back to seven, eight range possibly?
So he would be my biggest concern.
When I talk about you, Tara, who has the most downside in the top five?
It's JT.
Technically there is the risk that Saquon could sit a little bit.
So that is a massive downside.
So maybe, maybe there's the argument there, but then again,
that's not statistic wise.
That's purely if he decides he wants to make a statement and wants to,
you know, sit out a portion of the season or a few games at least.
But yeah, it's JT for sure.
And again, I agree with Dave.
It's for him to hit RB one overall, again,
way too many things have to line up in a situation that is
strictly Bryn. There's a lot of things that can work out for him. We see if things maybe can work
out with Anthony Richardson, maybe he can find his accuracy, open things up a little bit,
threat to run as well. Maybe that opens things up and the offense moves a little bit better than we
expect and those rushing touchdowns can be there. But they're not he is so reliant on those and
if anthony richardson steals them you get a little bit concerned that he's just the riskiest one when
you look at a guy like saquon i know i think adam as you've talked about he's the one that we just
can't really see is the overall rb1 just because of the situation that he's in. But at least he's a very stable,
low risk option if he actually gets out there and plays. We know he's an RB1 just based off,
you know, who he is, statistics and track record. With JT, it's a little bit concerning because
there's so many things that could go wrong for him. I hope I'm not selling Barkley short by
saying he doesn't have number one running back potential. I just, I don't see him having like 300 plus carries. I don't see him having more than maybe 55,
60 catches. He's not going to, he's not going to have a Josh Jacobs like workload
or Derek Henry like workload. I don't know. I mean, no, you're not, you're not selling him
short Adam to even get, to even get to that level. He'd have to get close back to 2018,
where he had nine runs of 40 plus yards.
He had two runs of 40 plus yards last year.
Two runs.
He's had multiple lower body injuries.
He had two runs of 40 plus yards.
He averaged 3.37 yards after contact per attempt in 2018.
And 2019 was not too far off.
Last year was 2.73.
And that was supposed to be back to Saquon Barkley.
So in my mind, he really isn't the same
back it's not his fault I don't really think many backs carry that well through multiple lower body
injuries including tears and then into their 20 late 20s but I just don't think he's that explosive
runner as as explosive as a runner as he was I guess and that's what you need to be fan of you
know to be a fantasy RB1 overall his schedule's a nightmare too. And that's another thing. You look at Dave's PSOS, like his
schedule rankings, 32 for Barkley.
Yep. Dead last.
You have to respect the Eagles,
Cowboys, Commanders.
Who's going to run against those defensive lines?
Right. It's going to be
hard for him. Now, he had some decent games against
them last year, but he's
got the NFC West on top of that. He's got
the AFC East on top of that.
Those are going to be some tough defenses, plus the Saints, plus Green Bay.
It is an ugly schedule for all Giants.
You've got to keep that in mind when you draft any Giant this year.
And then add on top of that, people kind of laugh about it and make jokes,
but Daniel Jones, again, he's the one on the list.
When you're looking at it, other than Anthony Richardson,
has the most upside in terms of rushing production.
I don't see where that really decreases for him.
So Saquon does, unfortunately, have that to compete with as well.
Yeah, I shouldn't have said I can't see him getting 300 carries.
He had 295 carries in 16 games last year.
So he did have a pretty big workload.
I just don't really think of him holding.
It's a career high. I don't know really think of him holding, I don't know.
Right, it was, I don't know, I just, how many did Josh Jacobs have last year? I think that number goes down if they resign him, though, to a multi-year deal.
Well, it's not a huge knock against him.
It's just, I don't think he's going to be, basically, like,
Derrick Henry, the case for him is volume, volume, volume.
He's going to get every goal line touchdown, basically.
It's not going to be quite the same. Josh Jacobs had 340 carries. Derrick Henry had 349 in one fewer game.
He's not going to be there, Saquon Barkley, but he could certainly be top five in carries.
All right, let's take a break and come back with your emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com.
And welcome back, everybody. We're finishing up here. We discussed our running back,
so let's get to your questions. Email address, again again is fantasyfootball at cbsi.com and danny from frisco texas says does anyone on
the podcast feel that the tua concussion talk is a little familiar i remember a few years ago when
everyone was so sure that brandon cooks was one concussion away from ending his career and it was
inevitable and ended up being underrated now no no one brings it up anymore. Is everyone too focused on concussions with Tua?
Love to hear your thoughts.
Tara, you're not on the podcast,
but you can tell us if we were making too big of a deal of it.
I think we've tried to put it in perspective, honestly,
but your thoughts on Tua and the concussions.
I mean, I think the concern was natural really just for him as the player.
But yeah, putting too much on it in terms of downgrading,
like people making that a concern for Tyreek Hill and pushing him down a
little bit and saying that,
you know,
he doesn't have that same upside because of the possibility of the
concussion issue with Tua.
Then yeah,
I think we're putting a little bit too much on it from a fantasy
perspective,
not from the,
not from the concern for Tua perspective.
The dolphins have said that the doctors told them that he is at no more risk
than any other player to have a concussion. I mean,
I guess you could argue that he plays quarterback and that makes him more
risky, but I don't, I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't know.
Yeah. Medically, according to the Dolphins,
he is not a concussion risk any more so than any other player.
This is from David in Chattanooga. Dan, you better get this greeting. According to the Dolphins, he is not a concussion risk, any more so than any other player.
This is from David in Chattanooga.
Dan, you better get this greeting.
You better get this greeting.
Dear Harry, Lloyd, Seabass, and Billy from 4C.
Seabass.
I know the Seabass one.
Harry, Lloyd, Billy from 4C.
Because I have Seabass.
It's like that, right? Yeah, yeah.
What is that?
What is that, though?
Why do I know that if I don't know the movie?
Kick his ass, C.Bass.
That's all I know.
That's all that comes to mind here.
Dave, you know this.
Are you serious?
Yeah, this is embarrassing.
It doesn't seem like Tara knows either.
Before I make fun of Dan, Tara doesn't talk to Tara.
It does not seem like Tara knows either, okay?
But you know what?
Tara doesn't criticize.
Maybe you're just showing your age here, Adam.
No, Tara doesn't criticize
my pop culture takes all the time.
You do.
So you not knowing dumb and dumber.
How do you not know Harry and Lloyd?
It's dumb and dumber.
Come on, man.
I've never seen dumb and dumber.
Oh.
Me either.
Wow, the two of you.
All right, which of these three wide receivers,
which are all presumably
the second best wide receivers on their team,
is capable of making the leap to best wide receiver on their teams,
if any of them?
And how do you have them ranked currently?
And the three that David from Chattanooga gives are,
David, you should have said you were from Aspen.
T. Higgins, Devante Smith, and Jalen Waddell.
Higgins, Devante, Jalen Waddell. Higgins, Devontae, Jalen Waddell.
Dave, how do you have them ranked,
and do any of them have the chance
to be the number one guy on their team?
I think it'll take an injury for any of them
to be the number one guy on their team,
but those teams throw so well
and or are so efficient doing so
that you don't mind taking a number two from those squads.
I've got waddle
ranked the highest followed by davante followed by t higgins and love them all in that low end
number one high end number two wide receiver range uh anyone
comment from the chat dan acts like he is
that's schaefer all the way.
That's good.
Schaefer's playing the role of Azor,
cherry-picking the comments that make Azor look good
and make me look bad. I understand.
Tara, how do you rank Higgins, Devontae Smith, Jalen Waddell?
For me, it is Waddell, Higgins, Devontae Smith,
but oddly enough, the one that I do think realistically
has the better chance to be the wide receiver one on his team is Devonta Smith.
I mean, I love all of them.
There's just no reality in which Higgins overcomes Chase.
Just not going to happen.
And we're talking Tyreek and Jalen Waddle.
But realistically, while, you know, A.J. Brown is obviously clearly higher for me.
When you look at their statistics and the way that they were utilized in the back half of that season,
once things really started to gel, yeah, Devonta Smith is the one that realistically could teeter over the edge.
Devonta Smith is my pick as well.
And I think it's the clear cut pick here.
And I'm with Tara.
You look at those backend numbers when that often started to click.
And that's just that you look at these guys as prospects, right?
Like Devonta Smith was one of the most elite prospects we've ever, I think I've ever covered
and studied, and he's showing it at the NFL level.
He's high pointing catches, which people said he wasn't going to be able to do and making
plays away from his frame.
He's doing basically everything you want.
He wins at all three levels in addition to being that speedster guy.
So I actually, it's close for me, but I kind of like Devontae Smith closer to A.J. Brown
than I think anyone in the industry.
I have them ranked closer than anyone I've seen.
I don't have Smith ranked the highest.
I mean, I think there's two questions here.
Smith.
Well, yeah, right.
I have Waddle ranked higher than they play in.
Right, right.
Smith, yeah.
Smith seems like the likeliest
because I believe it started as soon as Dallas Goddard got hurt.
It seemed like they started throwing Devontante Smith more and then they never stopped. But I believe
from the moment Goddard got hurt, which was like week nine till through the end of the season,
including the playoffs, I think Devante Smith had more targets than AJ Brown, but very, very close.
It was really an even split.
All right. Last question here is from Zachary. Dave, Zachary
is from the land of sky blue
waters.
I believe
that would be Coral Gables, Florida.
Okay.
Southern suns
and sky blue
waters. Smile
upon you, alma mater.
You want to hear the rest of the University of Miami alma mater song?
Oh, that's why you guys are great.
Mistress of this fruitful land.
I went all in last year, but late injuries derailed my playoffs run.
Now I have a talented team
with suspension, age, and injury
concerns, so I'm thinking of doing a rebuild, but I don't
have first rounders in 2023
or 2024. What do you
think of this trade offer I received?
If I do this trade, I will plan on making
more trades.
It's a super flex PPR 12 team league.
I give up Lamar Jackson and Joe
Mixon. Remember, he wants, thinking about a rebuild here,
and doesn't have any first or second round picks in 2023 or 2024.
He gives up Lamar Jackson and Joe Mixon.
He gets Tua, Kenny Pickett, A.J. Dillon,
and a first round pick in 2023, 1.7.
God, I hate this trade.
Me too. God, I hate this trade. Me too.
God, I hate this trade.
I'm sorry, my man.
If you want to rebuild,
don't do it without Lamar, first of all.
We just have to make a contract.
Don't do it without him.
Trade your mix-ins.
Trade your guys like that,
but don't do it without Lamar.
And 107?
Come on.
Okay.
Tara, thank you for hopping on.
Always. Yeah. come on okay tara thank you for hopping on always yeah that is it for fft there isn't it obvious that they went to the worst school of us three i mean like come on yeah i'm saying i'm cool i
would have loved the alma mater sounds like my high school right exactly it's the worst
you had a pool on your let's hear you sing your alma mater. Dan Schneier.
Let's go.
Do you even know it?
Varsity.
I feel like I'm in.
Tumor.
Ah,
ah,
Wisconsin.
Am I supposed to jump around?
Stop,
stop,
stop.
You guys don't want to hear me sing.
Yes,
I do.
Don't pressure her.
You're easily going to be the best of these four.
These three. That's very
true. Wait, no, but you had a
swimming pool in the middle of your campus, right?
You would sit at
Sparrows and look out at the swimming pool and then go
swimming in the middle of the day. That was your
campus, right, Dave? Or Dan?
It was my campus. No, but when we
went to hang out at night and at parties, we
didn't have to go to live in the clubs.
No, we didn't either.
We didn't either.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was booking those clubs back in the day.
All right, everybody, great show.
Thank you very much.
Tomorrow we'll talk about our top five wide receivers.
Jake Seeley will be joining the program.
We'll talk to you then on Fantasy Football.