The Dumb Zone FREE - DZ Fantasy Football preview hosted by Machine: AITJ Season Preview + RB Preview

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Take fantasy football advice from people who are actually good at it. Machine, Chuck, and Fitz walk you through the fantasy landscape this year and a preview on the running backs (00:00) - Season Preview (52:27) - RB Preview ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The action is the juice. Back on our bullshit for year number 10. Damn, that makes me happy. I'm Mike. That is Chuck and that is also Fits. Fits when we started doing this. I wasn't married, you were probably playing disc golf every day. No, but yeah, close, something like that. But yeah, man, year 10, the action is the juice.

If you're watching, hopefully we've helped you win some money over the years, or at least had a really good time. That's kind of all you can hope for here. But yeah, excited to do the season preview for Year 10. If you're familiar with us, we'll do an overall, we'll do a running back. wide receiver and quarterback and tight end episode we've learned some tricks over the years and the main goal here is to help you in your fantasy league flat out actionable advice things that we do and the the ways that we like to crack the code or cheat the system so over the last couple

years i think this is year three for chuck i think this is year three year three uh yeah so uh I finally found somebody that's as big of a degenerate as I am in this space and is willing to spend as much money as I am in this space to prove that they're smarter than random strangers. And so we brought Chuck along for the ride in the sidecar. And he's been a great addition. So, yeah, that's Chuck. That's Fitz.

This is one decade of action is the juice. And if you're watching us on the Dumb Zone YouTube page, hey, welcome and thank you. This is a whole other audience that, obviously there's some crossover because they are from the blowout podcast network and ticket, you know, brethren. So not completely new group of people, but if you're new to this, thanks for checking it out, man. And I hope you watch the rest of them and get some advice that helps you win your league. That's as much set up as I'm going to do at the beginning of these episodes. So if you jump into the next ones, we're just flying.

So that's as much beating around the bush as we're going to do. And right off the top, guys, how are we feeling about the 2025 player pool thus far? And how do we attack this thing? Where do you see the holes in the draft board of the things that you've done, the drafts you've completed? What have you liked? What have you not? I will throw it to the elder statesman Fitz to start us off. Well, it's interesting.

This year, I am for the first time since 1998, a planning family. Tennessee football. I'm not locked into any actual snake drafts. I've been doing auction auction leagues, which is anybody out there is considering doing one. I highly advise it. But still, you're still breaking down where the values are. You kind of break the auction values down a little differently than you would have a snake draft because you value the guys how you want to value them. You don't value them how everybody else is, you know, throwing, you know, you have the nine pick. You're having to watch eight guys go off the board. Well, if I want one of those eight guys in front of me. I can go get them. Um, so I really get to break down what I really

think of every single guy you have to, you know, and we're going to do a lot of that now. But I, I am, I'm having a hard time, you know, saying going zero wide receiver or zero running back and, you know, for my studs. Uh, it's, it feels oddly balanced as I've gone through this, um, maybe more than other years and a little bit deeper before it falls off for my, for my taste. I don't know how you guys feel about it, but, and I feel like my, you know, one thing I do, I do exercise every single year is I'll do the first three weeks, maybe I'll do everything I can to avoid ADP. I don't want to know anything about ADP. I don't want group think. I want to, I want to take in what I see from fancy points per game from last year, of course.

It's whatever we sort of, you have to have some sort of baseline and then go off the situation of what they're entering into. And that is my favorite exercise is when you do review. deal ADP, you know, maybe a week before the draft, you now, why am I different than the rest of the field? And sometimes you start adjusting because you start listening to some people, some podcasts that may make some, you know, good points. And then you start thinking, I don't, I don't understand this logic. I don't agree with it. That's how I start attacking it. But yeah, for me, it's very balanced. And if I'm, if I'm in a snake draft, I think I'm, I'm wanting to get, at least first round i'm i'm pushing for one of those top running backs um that's my that's how i'm

looking at it anyway yeah finding your edges on how the it is more balanced i think it has been in the past and that's largely because of what happened last year with the running back group we all got a little uh i don't know the pendulum swung back but uh we'll get to that in a second chuck what are you what are you seeing thus far i know we're in a draft that's happening right now um and we got a couple down the road, but how are you feeling about how it's laying out so far? This is a weird year. More than any year I can remember, I don't feel settled yet. Speaking as a redraft, snake draft only person, it really feels like it's a puzzle that I haven't quite solved yet, and more than any year that I can remember, at least in the first

couple rounds, your draft slot is really going to determine a lot of your structure and a lot of your build. If you've got to pick in the early part of the first round, you're going to be starting with a running back for the most part, unless you have the 101 where almost every site is going to have Jamar Chase. If you're in the back half of the round, your best picks are going to be a receiver, most likely. And so I'm trying to think through how to start like that and how to build teams that have an edge and can win. And more than any other year that I can remember, I find myself coming out of the first couple rounds with multiple running backs, which has got to be music to fits of ears. Because he loves Derek Henry and all running backs. I've actually never owned

Eric Henry. Yeah. You're just full of bullshit. Like you don't even. I don't believe that. I swear to God, never owned him. And I've never been one who's really pushed for him. But I will say, oddly enough, this is the year I'm looking at that first round. And I'm liking what I've seen when it comes to Derek Henry, I'm like, yeah, I do like him better than Christian McCaffrey. And I feel safer, taking him over pretty much all those receivers. He's, he's like locked in to 15 touchdowns this year. I don't, I don't see this being the year. But, you know, you never know until it happens. Yeah, I think we're like soft playing. It's funny to watch how people are adjusting to what happened last year at the running back group, because we're all like,

conceding we're all capitulating uh at least from the sense of uh all of us uh slapies that chase wide receivers constantly and we'll just take like seven straight um we're capitulating enough to where we're like okay we can have five of them in the first round or six of them or seven of them in the first round but hey i'm not saying sequins number one oh one after the year he just had right we're still we still got to dream a little bit and go like What about Jemir Gibbs? Like we just, we can't help ourselves, but like project forward instead of just going, hey, young running back, best offensive line in football, did it last year, could score more

touchdowns. So there is still upside left in Saquan's game. Maybe, you know, you can throw the argument in there that like, okay, he's not going to have as many 50-yard rushing touchdowns, but I'd say why not? We're capitulating, but we're not full-on, like, learned our lesson, taken our medicine. And right now, I absolutely love the first round, how basically, like, through the first five or six or, like, consistently stacking up where I can still do what I've always done, which is, like, some version of Anchor RB, throw, like, four wide receivers through the first six rounds at you

and just bludgeon you to death with guys that I can make sense of or are going to have breakouts, and my fourth wide receiver is going to be better than your second one. And we're just going to play a numbers game, and I'm going to beat you over the head with it. But Chuck, what did we learn from last year's running back avalanche? Everyone had to take their medicine and go like, okay, yeah, Derek Henry's good, guys, I promise, I swear to God.

And same thing for Sequin and on down the line. Last year was a historic year for running back production throughout, you know, the first three, sorry, the first like, you know, 36 or so, 48 running backs. And not only that, it was partially because of none of them got injured except for the 101 Christian McCaffrey. And in a year where that happens, people that draft like I draft, people to draft like you draft are going to struggle. And last year was not the most successful year I've ever had. I mean, we still had, you know, plenty of profitable teams. But I think the lesson that I learned from that is not necessarily that, okay, this is the new norm. It's not, I'm not taking from that.

Okay, you know, two high safeties, cover two shells are really unlocked running back production underneath because that that is what defenses are giving you. If anything, I'm ready to bet against that and ready to take the counter bet that, all right, this year is going to be a reversion to the mean where I'm trying to draft receivers more aggressively, but it's just hard because so many of the receivers, especially starting in rounds, you know, late round two, three, four, five, I kind of have hesitation on. Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that, I don't know, people will definitely get weighing the weeds on fantasy and just kind of, you know, whatever you

going to call them spreadsheet socialists or whatever uh sylva calls them and they get too far away from like the actual sport that's happening and it's like if you told me every single defense was going to play there's two safeties 20 yards down the field that would change my perception of how the year is going to like unfold for most teams um and that's what happened last year like that was the defense that got adopted. And if you had beef up front that could get to the second level and get on linebackers, then you had a Derek, Derek Henry season. You even had a lion season, right, where their offensive line was dominant.

And I'm excited to hear Fitz's O-line rankings, whenever we get to the running back episode. But the markets come back to you, Fitz. I hope you're happy and proud of what you've done to everyone. Well, it's been going that way. It's been kind of a slow drag to this. you know like i think i saw the offenses are running three wide sets at the lowest rate since 2019 um and you don't see a lot of the like because of that you're you're not seeing these you're seeing the alpha and you're pushing out these slot receivers um because these alphas

are capable of running out of the slot which is where a lot of this production is coming in from the the high end receivers it's also affecting tight-in production um and it's also affecting running backs catching out of the back field it seven straight years we've seen running back targets go down seven consecutive and it gets back to what chuck is saying is that at some point i mean you know these coordinators are always going to adjust they're going to see what's happening and they're going to it's going to that's what i love the NFL it's just trying to predict it it changes all the time and and you see waves of it happen and this is just a huge we're in the middle of it right now and i and i don't know how you know it's still a passing league overall like it has

been you know for a while now since they've changed the rules and you know that's what the coordinators have adjusted to but you'll it'll turn it'll turn and if you can capitalize on it you're going to you're going to you know it's going to be a cash cow yeah i think one of the one of the things that i'm kind of like i don't know i'll uh i'll shop this theory um to you guys and see if it has legs or not but um one of the things i was very cognizant of in the last couple years uh was that a lot of these players that were coming out as rookie had incomplete profiles due to COVID in the weirdness of transfer portal, right? The transfer portal is not going to change.

That's how it is now. That's just you're going to have to be able to tell if a guy was good at one place or not. Like, that's just how it's going to work. But I think we've stabilized to this point to where everybody that's coming out as a rookie, I know who they are. like i know who all these guys are like i can tell you whether or not this guy's got a weakness here whether he can catch balls out of the backfield whether he can't and so i found myself through the drafts that i've done and the i've done a million dynasty drafts thus far i think i've

like six or seven dynasty leagues and i've done all those rookie drafts um and everyone i'm sitting there wanting more rookie picks because i feel like whenever i'm getting into these redraft this redraft season and this main event season and best ball mania season like dude if i could draft every rookie i like at their proper adp right now i think i would beat the shit out of every team in this tournament if all of the rookies that i like fell to their proper adp and then you know you're not going to have a quarterback i'm not doing cam ward i'm not doing that shit um but if dude if you give me every rookie that is in the first 12 rounds that is a wide receiver tight end running back at their spot i think i'm winning it because these are really really good spots like i

love where all these dudes are falling and i think that's a long way of saying like i think the nfl draft is getting it right again i think they're getting it right again like if you're a top 50 pick a top 100 if you throw in running backs this year because a lot of guys fell because it was such a deep running back class if you are in that upper echelon of dudes that got picked as a skill position player i think you are the real deal um because we are outside of that danger zone of like incomplete profiles of being unsure on these dudes there is still you know there's still a travis hunter where you're like he could be everything or you be nothing you know whatever um but i don't know i'm falling in love with the rookie class like if i could take one

in rounds like three through nine I'll do it if the right one's there I don't know how y'all are feeling about it but where are you landing with with these rookies thus far Chuck drafting rookies in redraft has been a cheat code

for I don't know at least as long as this show has been running and we are faced with this year a historically deep and historically I don't know about top shelf talent but this is a great running back class And I really, really, really like almost every rookie running back in the round that they're going.

Gentie's hard because he's going amongst like Apex Predators, but that's pricey. Yeah, too much. Every other rookie running back is almost the best pick in his round. Yeah. Yeah, that's worse. And they're, they all have, I don't know, you throw these guys into like previous years, player stacks. and it's like yeah he's obviously the best rookie in this group or the best player

in this like round like I don't know why Caleb Johnson is going where he's going like I have no I have no fucking idea like I can't explain why he's going as late as he's going and there's a handful of those and I'm like okay catch passes maybe that's they don't think he can catch passes and Jalen Warren you know that's got to be it

do you mean Jalen Warren the guy that couldn't hold off Najee Harris. Yeah. And fewer snaps than Aaron Roger Hayt, Rogers hate. Yeah, Arthur Smith. I've seen Arthur Smith. I've seen what he does to an offense.

Like, it's going to be so goddamn boring when Caleb Johnson gets 22 carries for 93 yards and a tutty. Like, it's going to be miserable, but you're going to be like, hey, I really like that 16 points. I really enjoyed it. Seventh round? Yeah, he's going late.

But there's a handful of those dudes. I mean, you threw these guys into like previous years player stacks on the rookie side and we're like falling all over ourselves to take these guys. But we're getting, I think we're almost getting spoiled this year with how many good rookies are out there. I think like same thing with Tet. What's wrong with Ted? Somebody tell me what's wrong with Ted McMillan.

Maybe you can't separate on one on press coverage is the one thing. heard that could be a chick in his armor but i mean god his tape is incredible um yeah maybe they don't trust the passing game just yet in carolina that that's fair if you don't think brys young has it if you don't think they can dial it up like and just have an effective passing game like that's cool i'll listen to that but everything else first round draft uh pick equity thrown into him he's huge he's not like he was expected to go there. It was not a reach. He was dominant in college. Big, huge athlete. Looking running slot. Yeah, right out of the slot. Yes. Dude,

he's, we would have like, there's years where we would have like fallen all over ourselves to take, take Tet. And this year we're like, eh, whatever, I don't know. I guess I'll take him if I have to with these other dudes back here. There's just like a handful of these guys in this rookie class from like, we are overthinking this shit way too much. The other thing about Tet, just since you brought him up, I mean, I'm thinking about him like, you know, Adam the Thielen, I think was their number one receiver last year. He was. He was. Yep. He's still there, but I think. Last I checked, he's still there.

But I mean, hell, that's a, that's perfect. He has another weapon to throw to. And Bryce looked good at the end of the year last year. So, um, I, Ted at that price is, what is he, six round? I'm seeing. Watched receiver 28. A little bit earlier, depending on where you're, where you're, where you're draft. I mean, right in front of George Pickens and right after Zayflowers, I think I'm seeing.

Yeah. Like potential to be the overall, like, overwhelming number one in an offense. Like, what's in between Tet and a 25% target share? Xavier Leggette. Jatavian Sanders. Nope. Hunter Infro. If he's even on the rust.

as of this moment. I have no idea. It might take a few weeks, but, yeah, I mean, come talk to me in the middle of the season. I bet you he's dominating those targets. Last year, I pounded the table for Malik neighbors, and it was on the idea that they're going to build the entire plane out of him. One, because they don't really have anything else. Two, because they drafted him so highly.

And I feel like I'm seeing the same kind of things move into place for Tet this year. Obviously, he's not the talent that Malik Neighbors was. I get that. But if he's there in the middle of the fourth or the fifth, I'm probably going to click him most every time. Yeah.

Let me, do you want to look at our My Guys list from last year just for fun? Sure. Just to add some pain. All right, so here we go. 24, My Guys' List. from action is the juice. All right, Chuck's got

Kyler Murray. You can take the boy out of Oklahoma. You can't take the Oklahoma out of the boy. Jaden Daniels, boom, boom. Justin Herbert. He might want that one back. Fitz, Jalen Hertz, ding, ding, Caleb Williams. I didn't put him on my list, but my bank account is still hurting from how bad Caleb Williams sucks shit last year. It was terrible.

C.J. Stroud, what's wrong with me? That hurts. Jaden Daniels consensus pick, or yeah, I guess two out of three is a majority pick. We'll let this. I don't know, man. Bo Nix, got that one. That was really nice. That feels good. Running back, let's check out those running backs. Devon A-chain, that feels pretty good, I think.

He delivered, right? I don't think we, I don't know. There's not an actual little tab that they, keep for efficiency they just they just count they just count how many right they don't they don't count how it happens do you like the highest points per game in the league when his quarterback was healthy hey i do i'm a fan of it um jonathan brooks if he would have played football i think we would have been all right on that one all three of us really wanted some jonathan brooks uh naji here's uh i'll fast forward past that one uh there's no there's no way i pick

Nagy Harris, 2024. This has to be fake news. This has to be fake news. You did. You cited in blood. It was weird. No one asked you to, and you just like, got,

uh, Joe Mixing, good call. Good call. David Montgomery, pretty solid call until his injury. Uh, which you can't predict those.

Jalen Warren. I don't remember if Jalen Warren hit or not. He was okay at times, but I don't think he, I don't think he got. to that i don't think he outproduces a dp he was a guy there was a fringe my guy last year so i will stand up for this yeah you got to the edge and you uh you retreated back to naji harris it looks like uh chase brown there you go fits yeah i was all over him last year i'm kind of upset

that i didn't put sake one because i remember having a long discussion with you guys about him last year you did i remember you saying your words of wisdom were just basically like hey one of the best running backs in football with the best offensive line like why are we overthinking this and they paid him yeah yeah yeah you're probably right man and a quarterback that they're like not going to put the whole fucking plane on his shoulders is not going to happen uh Jerome Ford I don't remember if he did a single thing last year to be honest like everybody else like everybody else in that offense except the one nuclear game uh they got from Jerry Judy Yeah, yep, which we can talk about Jerry Judy at some point, but

God damn, I see people drafted him when I'm like, holy hell, that's that's like two rounds earlier than I would. A chain for me, ding, ding, I'll count that as a hit. James Cook, I will count that as a major hit. Tony Pollard, I'll take a W on that one. I think he was fine, wasn't he? Probably about the seventh or eighth round pick. At least he hit that ADP, if not. at produced it yeah jimante all right i'm sorry guys i i've given up i've given up on jimante okay

i'm done i'm done i don't need it anymore oh but he's back yeah so bad jonathan brooks i'm sorry i really wish it was healthy uh bucky irving ever heard of him heard of that guy he's pretty good right uh malik neighbors uh starting off of wide receivers for Chuck. Yep, got that one. Roma Dunzee, I don't know what's going on there, man. I don't know. We need to talk about the Bears, unfortunately, at some point,

whenever we get to the wide receiver preview section. Brian Thomas Jr., off the top ropes, dude. Major hit, like the biggest hit. Yeah. Fits with a big reach, taking the eighth overall player as one of his guys here in Amin-Ross, St. Brown. Hey, he just walked a walk every single year, yeah. He was great.

Every week, you're just like, all right, 15 plus points. Let's go. Nico. Yep, I was on Nico, too. He was great until he got hurt. Devante Smith had some weeks. Yeah. Had some stretches when AJ Brown was out.

I'll take a W on that one. Yep. Rishi Rice, we were locked in. Same, same. Jackson, Smith, and Jigbo, I think he delivered, didn't he? He was good. did double down because his rookie season a lot of people were jumping ship yeah yeah the overreaction of him going outside the top 100 um i don't know this a funny little funny little

thing we're doing last year uh nico from me dj more i don't know man um rishy rice xavier worthy jordan addison and just for fun i threw uh a d mitchell in there just to show you i'm human nice jordan addison pick i was good the dude dude's fucking legit man yeah i i i'm not sure why people can't can't get on board fully they just never will the suspension i i love that he's getting suspended because he's falling like so far it's like uh where he knew he was going to get suspended and then like the three game thing came down and people were like let's drop you two or three rounds bud um i love the overreaction of jordan addison uh chuck with mark and drew i didn't put an ass on his name so

uh just one of them uh i think that hit That hit, oh yeah. It was really rough, really rough, like first one. Not in the early season, not in the early season. Yeah, yeah, not a week one play. Some guy called Brock Bowers, we all seem to be able to spot that one a mile away. Hunter Henry. I don't know if that was a hit or not.

A little free, it was a free, dress free. Yeah, outproduced his ADP. I'm going to count it. Yeah, that works. Fitz just through one tight end up there and just, hung dong and just said brock bowers 94 overall um i had tray mcbride pretty good little player uh brock bowers uh and i just threw some two fun ones in there uh ben sonott and juan johnson not bad that is not bad work fellas i think that's like uh i don't know i'm not good at math

but i'm going to say like a 65 70 percent hit rate on the my guys uh especially if we take a mulligan on on jonathan brooks um i did remember last year like i don't i'm always looking for just like simple things that i can explain this whole game to to idiots or people that just like walk into the room um and late in the season i did settle on hey dumb ass just take jaden daniels and brock bowers i was like just keep doing that like that's your solution at quarterback and tight end it makes it so easy so easy dude um so to find those unlocks that late in the season because a lot of my drafts do end up you know pumping up against beginning a season where you're not getting any like cheap value

on it um that was fun that was fun to have jaden daniels and brock bowers on a whole lot of teams um so we're going to try to find that that pairing or that combo this year and it might be rookies again um or might not but we'll get around to it um okay so we are a couple weeks in the preseason and uh here i'll move that so you can see my name uh bill uh who's rising in the preseason who's changed uh i guess in the last three weeks for you uh and i will not uh will not step on anybody's toes if they want to run with uh with sir bill jacori kroski merit that situation uh chuck i'll i'll hand i'll do the read option and hand the ball off to you on this one As you know, I've been a huge Trayvion Henderson guy for, I don't know, since the draft.

And on one hand, it's nice that, you know, the market is moving towards me. A friend of the show, John Daigle and I had a debate kind of around rookie draft season time where he was a big of Marian Hampton guy. I was a Trayvion Henderson guy. Turns out we're both going to be right. But the biggest guy that's just walking on air ever high. on the board is Travion Henderson. I did a FFPC main event draft in the middle of last month and we were fist pumping to get him in the middle of the fifth. And if you want him now on that platform, he is a late third round pick. He went 303, didn't he, in the ADB chasing or ship

chasing that I listened to yesterday. I was like, God damn, guys. Like, just losing their minds. Fitz, who has changed your perception of them over the last two to four weeks? I know where to start here. Well, Hunter, Travis Hunter, we touched on him earlier, just kind of really analyzing Liam Cohen and looking at who's going to be running a lot of slot. You know, it obviously BTJ can do all of it as he showed us last year. But kind of if Hunter, if they're in the mindset of letting Hunter ease his way, way into playing defense because he's got so much to learn as a receiver that he may just hone

in on being primarily, mostly a receiver this year and is playing defense on many passing downs, you know, because you've talked to DBs and receivers, like, it's basically impossible to learn two playbooks like that for as a rookie. And he has the athletic profile for sure to step in there and run that slot out of that offense. And, I mean, he's a better athlete than Chris Godwin is. I don't think there's any debate about that. It's just a matter of can he be a receiver that well. But I think he's six-round right now.

Just kind of stripping it all the way and kind of looking at how we looked at Brock Bowers last year. I mean, he's the best prospect in the draft. And why couldn't he step out there and get you close to 1,000 yards and seven or eight touchdowns? and um 90 catches maybe who knows uh that feels pretty pretty doable to me but he could go nuclear and he might be a better receiver than bry thomas junior um you know Trevor lawrence isn't no slouch i don't i think he can get him the ball and uh you know they're going to be throwing a lot uh i i have pretty high expectations for him and it's it's growing and i and my auction league when i had already nailed i had alman raw and cd lamb i got him as

at the time it was a third receiver and i felt like that's a real i like having that sort of foundation as a receiver now i can go out and and try to shoot for the moon uh i love him and then just seeing what chicago did the other day and uh preseason was kind of eye-popping it was only two possessions for caleb williams but it showed you what is possible in that ben johnson offense and made me start to wonder okay who who is going to be the beneficiary of all all this. And then also is Detroit about to have a little bit of regression offensively? Mm-hmm. I think their offense has to change. And I've been toying with, like, who gets slided, I think, in the Detroit offense. And I, you know, I don't want to give away the

headline as the movie's starting, but, or give away the ending as the movie starting, but I don't think they're fucking around with like six-yard Sam Leporta curls this year. Like, I think that offensive coordinator is like you know what this is my shot and this is going to be jemir gibbs and jamo and amin ross st brown and if they're not touching the ball then i'm a dumb ass and just streamline the offense and go for it so um the guys that i think have changed my perception of them at least some some are just absolutely like structural changes like they're literally trying to trade brian robinson junior because of of Jacori Kroski Merritt.

And it's, there is so much volatility in his profile. This could all just be like the funniest thing that's ever happened and everyone's just like drafting him in, you know, single digit rounds now because they're just expecting he could be anything. He could even be Austin Echler. Like, you know what I mean? And so, but this stuff happens at running back.

And specifically with teams that have most of the rest of the offense, filled out. I mean, I had Brian Robinson on a lot of teams last year because I expected something or he was just like that throw the life vest overboard and find me a running back too because the ceiling's falling and I have too many wide receivers. So he ended up as like a nice little landing spot RB2 or RB3 to make me feel better about myself, a little safety blanket. And that dude sucks. Like, I don't know how else to say it. Like, he's just not very good at modern running backing. And so I don't know if Tukori Kroski Merritt, if Bill is better or not, but he could

be anything. There is so much volatility in his profile. He missed a year. And people just have no idea what he is. So that's intriguing. If a team believes in them enough to move a veteran incumbent starter or and this might all be bullshit we might wake up Friday and just be like nah Brian Robinson Jr. is just hurt or something like you know what I mean yeah there's a lot of there's a lot of clutter in that Washington backfield too as we saw last year it was just like whoever you know okay we're going to start Chris Chris Rodriguez his first name Rodriguez and yeah and as you mentioned Austin Echler and there uh Jeremy McNick who's the yeah McWeapon McWeapon

Yeah, so even if they do trade Ryan Robinson Jr., it doesn't really mean, doesn't necessarily mean that Bill is going to be the starting running back. Yeah. It's starting to, the helium is getting a little, I don't think it's out of whack yet, but it's progressing there. There is some helium, dude. It is hot and steamy in the Washington backfield at this moment.

And I am of the belief that when guys rise, they don't rise far enough i think i think that is a very sound idea like when we look back i don't have an example from last year but i i probably could i mean when bucky started rising late in the preseason last year where they're like yeah i don't know we're watching football now and uh watching rashad white carry the ball on this offense and then we get the direct comparison with bucky Irving running the football on this exact team and this exact scenario and all of the beats and all the coaches and everybody is basically telling you like this thing is not like that other thing so things can change things can change like that when it's a rookie it takes time most the time it doesn't happen that quick but lucky didn't rise enough Brock Bowers didn't rise enough right when you look back at it even fucking Trey McBride didn't rise enough whenever you realize like the target chair he's going to get after you look at those preseason games and practices and he's he's the wide receiver one like it or not so bill bill's super interesting to me I know he's the industry darling at this moment but dudes that have like significantly changed their value and I don't want to give away all of the my guys but I also want people to be able to watch this and maybe win their league off just this this one alone if they don't get to the other episodes

Pickens getting moved. That's so fucking big, dude. I thought about you when that happened. First person I thought of. That's so big. That's so huge for him. What's going on in Washington through the passing game? I marked this on our preseason camp buzz items.

I love Debo. I always have. Don't give me another reason to love Debo. and to think he's going to get 120 touches because I think that's going to happen if, you know, F1, if Terry McLaurin keeps fucking around. And then the other guy that, I don't know,

there are two other dudes that have not changed my perception, but have started rising, have some helium to them. Egbuka, Emeka, Egbuka, I don't know if it's a clear, clear path, but it's getting clear. He's not like an attention. situation where I'm like, yeah, he's going to get 25% of the passes and my only one that's seeing this. That's the only thing I'm worried about with a Big Boca is that Mike Evans is such a

dominant target hog and Chris Godwin is eventually going to come back and play. I've fought the Chris Godwin thing for years and I've eventually just like tapped out and been like, yeah, when he plays, he's going to get fucking 10 targets. That's just what it is. We'll see if it changes. And for people who haven't heard that McMillan, the guy who was slotted to be their three guys out for the year yeah yeah so you got two injuries kind of clear in the way for uh egg muka besides just the constant just like glazing that's happening when anybody talks about him and you know people knew what kind of prospect he was coming out he was he played amongst some of the best wide receivers in football and everyone's just those guys can't stop talking about him

um and the last dude but i don't know if he's my opinions changed or not but it's kind of like okay there's there's some helium he's not rising far enough is is tyler warren um for the colts like i know what kind of player that dude is i was talking about him before the college football playoff last year like i have one league in which i could do debby at drops Tyler warren's been on there for a while um he's just a fucking man child like he's the line up at quarterback, a line of a running back, he'll catch 40% of the balls in Penn State's broke-ass offense. But Tyler Warren, he is not rising enough, and I want a lot of Tyler Warren. Daniel Jones makes it more appealing. It does. That's part of it. That is absolutely

part of it. You were right. If it's Anthony Richardson, I'm like, yeah, I don't know if Anthony Richardson can complete a pass 10 yards down the field. He can complete them 30 for some reason. or 70 yeah but that that 10-yard range i'm not very confident in so yeah there's our there's our overall um preview i hope that hope that helps in some fashion we'll get way more in the weeds on on specific positions uh as we move forward um if you have any closing thoughts please do jump in but to put a bow on it i i'll take a rookie in every round if you let me besides um uh besides whenever i'm needing a quarterback whenever i get tired when i've taken too many wide receivers and running backs and i'm like oh shit better make a pit stop i'm not pit stopping for cam ward

that's just not a thing that's happening so uh i don't take all the workies guys i think it'll be a pretty good plan for this year but um yeah any any closing thoughts on the overall advice section of the podcast um chuck i'll throw it to you you first i think i want to know Are there any of these guys that are shooting up draft boards that either of you guys are not taking? Is there anybody that you're like, I don't know that that, that's earned? Good question. How did I look at a list of dudes that are rising that hard, but just of the names that we've talked about. I think I'm chasing all of them, except maybe Bill.

And it's only because I'm less familiar with his game. Trayvion Henderson, it might be a little too early for me. Do you not like fantasy points? Just a little bit early for me because of what else is going on or what else is around him. I love him. I watch the tape. I love everything about him. I love what he can do.

But I also look at the offensive line and it's dog shit. And they also have another running back that people are kind of forgetting about. Now, he is going to catch a lot of passes, but is he going to get the goal line work? Probably not. is he you know it's he could be slotted as mostly a third down back so to pop him in the late fourth early fifth seems a little high for me um again love him love the talent um but the helium i mean where he was two weeks ago i was all over it but he's jumped two and a half rounds i was like when he returned that kickoff for a touchdown i'm like fuck and then he scored a

touchdown in the preseason game from 10 yards out i'm like fuck i guess i'm not getting him this year um i don't know if i'm willing to i don't know if the price is just getting a little bit too high for me personally i understand it yes chuck i love him um he was my favorite running back coming out of the draft i actually liked him more than a marion but um yeah man it's just it that it's just a little if he they switched roles on different teams you know if it was a different team i might be a little more inclined to take him but we'll see i mean i don't know you know maybe drake may's just going to check down to him a shit ton this year and if you're in a full ppr format okay yeah now we're talking i don't play full ppr but i know you guys

do mostly so i can see where our you know our thought processes might be running into each other a little bit yeah i are left wing slapies you're a right wing slapy yeah you're not I agree. I think the thing we're kind of forgetting and all this is that this is a Mike Rable ran team. And I just don't know if he'll ever let a rookie running back just do that. He's the dude that had Derek Henry for most of Derek Henry's good years. And I know Josh McDaniels can hit or miss depending on season. But if you're taking Trillion-Henderson 303 or somewhere in the third round, you're taking him as a running back one, like for my drafting style.

Like, you're most likely taking him as an RB1. And if you're taking him as an RV2, you're fucking up some other part of your team that I really don't want to fuck up. I mean, maybe you think you have a cheat code in the fourth and fifth a receiver where you can like double tap something that just fixes it all for you but man that's that's that's that's really tough that is that is incredibly tough to me to take trevan henderson and the third i love the dude um i'd honestly much rather take hampton and late second um just because i don't have a doubt about his coach committing to his style of play from day one um and

then the bill thing like the bill thing could just be complete bullshit like it just be like the stupidest thing that's happened uh in a in a long time um that's probably that's probably all of them i mean everybody else that's rising is because a team is signaling or because i think for good reason um i can't think of one that i'm like don't see it can't see it can't see it I mean, Jameson Williams is kind of like a wild one, too. That's a projection. That's a straight of projection. I have in this fantasy pros draft, Bill, as in case you didn't quite catch it,

is Jacori Kroski Merritt, the running back for Washington. For some reason, he's shorted his bill. And he's running back 54 and 157 is his. a draft position which they don't do it by round here but my math tells me that's really late in the uh i think it's like round 14 or something so i don't know what you have this here but uh that's obviously for basically free so then yes i'd be happy to take him in the 14th round um in a stank draft you're not going to get him in the 14th round no no it's not happening but i maybe fantasy pros is just doing like a community live over the last three three weeks that but yeah

he's what do you what do you happen what's the what's you said eighth there he went in the eighth round in the main event damn his ADP in the last three days and the main event is the 10 point nine yeah this has a 129 overall is that real-time um fantasy pros ADP but updates like every 30 minutes uh so yeah he should he is flying upboards um oh one of the other one of the other things i guess we didn't mention him but um bo nix i know i i thought he was probably way more NFL ready and could like run an NFL offense and like be fine last year people are drafting and ranking him as if there's like another shelf of Bo Nix to unlock

and I'm like I think that's the top shelf bud not much further he can go you're not going to top six I think that's him I think that's him like I I'll own zero Bo Nix because I'm just there's he might do this every year of his career

and that'd be so cool and I'd be so happy for him um projecting more for bo necks seems absolutely insane to me i was listening to a podcast earlier and it was like i think there's more i think there's untapped potential in bo necks and i was like the the guy has more college football starts than anybody in the history of the fucking sport as another level as another gear that he just has been keeping hidden for a little while like I don't know that that one seemed insane to throw one I don't I don't have a lot of quarterback hot take so I wanted to throw that one out there I mean he's 130 yards rushing last year and four touchdowns that is really what put like you know

a floor under his under his production and we've seen lots of NFL quarterbacks rush less as their careers progress and I wouldn't surprise me at all to see him follow the same path. So if he rushes, you know, for a hundred less yards and scores two less touchdowns, now you're talking about a guy that's not a back-end QB1, but a middle in range, QB2. And it wouldn't surprise me if that happened. I'm still fine with Bo Nix, but just let's temper expectations. He's in that pile of, of like another 12 cubies. They're just like, once you get past Mahomes, it's like seven through whatever it is. I mean, wherever you want to decide to stop counting, where any of those.

those guys you could you could take and you have a great shot at finishing seven yeah i guess one other dude that i i guess isn't rising now i might technically be falling a little bit but i've just never quite made myself comfortable with it's one of those things where i'm like yeah cool player cool pick um but then in like uh you know in the privacy of my own home i never never draft the guy uh r j harvey you sure about that everyone's real fucking sure r j harvey's about to get a 150 carries and and be good and i don't know man they're running jk daubbins for a reason yeah i i'm confused i like some r j harvey um yeah i mean i'm fine well we'll get the offensive line rankings but that's probably probably reason number

one um and then obviously jk davens is i don't know if i had it as my guy in there but he definitely i think he's my 100 plus guy we'll get to that i guess but yeah i that backfield i want to take both of those guys and ride that out because as we know we've talked about this in the past on these previous shows that sean payton has often produced not just one but two you know high producing fantasy running backs in the same season most of the time and with the way he schemes it up and they have enough talent um on the perimeter uh yeah dude i I think they're going to run the shit out of the ball this year. And I love everything about Denver this year.

I think they're one of these teams that could actually, they actually might take down the chiefs. And specifically because they can run the ball. And specifically run blocking is what these guys do on Denver. So I like RJ Harvey. And he profiles is a pretty past catcher, even though he didn't do a ton of it in college. Yeah, you can see what Sean Payton is thinking of.

And maybe he sees a little baby Camara in him. yeah maybe this is just like the gross part of the draft too where i want him to be the answer but then i like never take him like i'd really love for him to be the answer like that i can be comfortable with at whatever this is 54 overall um because i don't want any of these dudes in this range besides like pickings and worthy whenever i'm feeling wild um yeah you can't get Trevi on at 49 overall anymore guys sorry but anyway yeah he's he's one of those dudes if we're just like doing true true serum why is this guy in this range I won't I can't talk myself into it but all right well we need to jump into some running back talk so let's do that next on action is

the juice hope you enjoyed the overall preview thank you Chuck thank you fits and do stick around for the the running back preview coming up next Well, to me, the action is the juice. It's Mike, it's Fitz. It's Chuck. Shout out to all you unks out there because it is the running back preview. This is the money position. You got to nail this one.

Very rarely can you make any money or any return on your investments if you don't have at least one solid anchor running. running back on your team so let's talk about it the most important aspect of this position that isn't lined up in the backfield is obviously those dudes along the front line playing offensive line fits has some rules that he's laid out every year that i try and drive home uh in my brain that uh that keep me kind of balanced on whenever i get out out over my skis over someone that's on a really bad offensive line, but I think he's got really good talent. It always kind of grounds me a little bit to see Fitz's O-line rankings because they're

directly correlated to the guys that are going to finish at the top of the position at the end of the season. So Fitsy, if you want to jump into the O-line rankings for this year's crop. So I'll take you back to last year just to quit gloss over those. Alvin Camara was the only guy that finished in the top 10 of Arby's that came from a bottom 8-0 line. You had guys like Saquan Barkley, they had the number two preseason rank the Eagles did. He was the number one overall running back. He had Jemir Gibbs from Detroit. They had the number one offensive line.

He finished third. Bejohn, Atlanta had the fourth preseason rank. Jonathan Taylor, believe it or not, they played the toughest running back schedule last year Indianapolis tied with Atlanta for the number four preseason rank for offensive lines. Taylor finished overall as the 5RB. Josh Jacobs,

they had the 11th preseasoned rank, Kairn Williams, the Rams at the 8th, and then he had James Cook coming in there, had the number 13 preseasoned rank, but that's a pretty strong correlation of guys playing. I mean, it's not always like streamlined, but it's one of those things, Mike,

I remember when we first launched this podcast, podcast. It's like the first thing we sort of talked about our philosophies in fantasy football. And it's like one of that we were kind of aligned. Like that's something we actually pay attention to. You're just trying to simplify like the player pool, right? I always talk about this as one of my hacks is like, just fine guys. You can straight up like mark the name through. You know what I mean? Like it's like, it's like, it's like fill in the blank. But the answers are all over here. You just have to like make a couple decisions and ruling out a running back it's going to come from a bottom five offensive line is like man that's table stakes let's let's do that don't step on that landmine so you want to go low our

offensive lines you want to start at the top go worse to best dealer's choice it says the worst okay i want to take a guess uh i'll give you guys a few shots if you can nail five of these bottom five those are the ones i've not thought about this at all but i'm going to throw the texans are definitely down there. Unanimous last place offensive line every single one. Just real quick, just so you know, what I did was, uh, looked at PFF, with the pro football network, looked at sharp football analysis throughout the high, throughout the low, gave the minimum, um, and that's kind of how I came to this conclusion. Um, and yeah, this is kind of what, what it spit out. So yeah, 32 is Houston.

Can I put the Miami Dolphins on the board? They finished six to last, but you are very close. Yeah, they had a couple votes for the bottom five. Retired. I'll go bangles or Jags. Bangles are number 31. Jags were right before Miami, 26. There's three other teams out there that have stinky situations.

Can I go Saints? Saints have improved. They got out of that bottom five. they're up to 23 this year for the hawks seehawks 30 they just perpetually this is where they live they fixed it for like a minute there too briefly yeah then they came right back to it they just don't know they don't believe in it apparently we're missing one of the bottom five teams right think there's one obvious one that you're forgetting they kind of suck in yeah the giants oh okay yeah yeah yeah

28th, and then the other one's New England. So, yeah, from fifth to worse is that New York Giants are 28th, New England, 29, Seattle 30, C-C-31, Houston, 32. You know, Houston was 32 last, I think they were 31 or 32 last year, and then they traded, they got rid of their Pro Bowl offensive line, and really the only good linemen on their team, they got rid of them, and Laramie Me Tunsell. So in Cincinnati right now is dealing with, they have a guard that's out for the year. Now, he's a depth guy, but.

It's a that those are those are I have really kind of you look at Cincinnati and you look at and their schedule they're facing this year passing schedule these are reasons that I am I have all every single bangle slot at just a few slots lower in the rankings at every single position this year and people are just like automatically putting Jemar chase at one and Chase Brown's getting into the second round a lot of these drafts I think I think I've seen them in the at least. I don't know if you've seen that, which shocked me. And I have T. Higgins, like, way down from whatever else does this year. And a lot of it has to do with this. So, yeah, these are just situations that if you're looking at a running back, I mean, you know, you still have to score touchdowns in fantasy football. You still got to punch it in. And if you can't punch it in because you have a shitty offensive line,

it's a good reason to, you know, if you have a tie between the running backs, it's a good reason to click the other running back. One of the funniest things I heard about the Texans offensive line was the athletic football show with Robert Mays. He was visiting all the different camps, right? I think he did like, I don't know, more than 10 of them. He made this little trip like down south and went to Texans camp for a day or two.

And he came back and he said, none of the five offensive line positions are set. none like not one like there's not like one that's just like yep that's our left guard no one can beat him out it's hard to get continuity from a line when you don't have anybody settled and that's kind of so funny dude it's just unbelievable i mean you look at some of these lines at the top of this list when we get to them all their guys are coming back they know who they're starting five as or in buffalo's case sometimes they're starting six mm-hmm um so yeah my Miami is on the fringe this year.

Now, they are Austin. I think it's Austin Jackson is the guy that they're getting back. It caused a lot of problems last year when he was gone. When he was gone and two, it was gone, that offense turned into a mess. And then Jacksonville, at least they're not in the bottom five, but Jacksonville, kind of worried about the running situation a little bit. Then I'll call out a few and feel free to ask about one, Pittsburgh, as we're moving up 25, Cleveland, 24, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Tennessee. Carolina, Kansas City.

Dallas has been a slow faller the last few years. They're 18. Like I just said Kansas City at 19 that, you know, they lost Joe Toomey and Joe Toomey. And that's not a nothing. That's something they've relied on. Going to be very interesting to see how they're protecting Mahomes this year. Because Kansas City, that's been one of their backbones.

And one of the big reasons why they've made it to the Super Bowl. Of course, they got their ass kicked up front because they faced a better defensive line. And, but that's the only time they lose Super Bowls is whenever they get destroyed by a team that can beat the shit out of you with four guys up front. And then they just, they just don't show up. But they drafted a guy, what, 31 overall, didn't they? Yes. A first rounder. I can't remember if it was Josh Simmons or the other guy.

Yeah, I didn't make a note of it. Yeah, no, you're right. They did. They're paying. It's not something that Andy Reid's going to let slip. Dallas, on the other hand. You know, some of these. middle of the pack teams i'm not going i'm not like say okay oh they got an 18 and

indianapolis this is 16 so i'm just going to shoot these middle the route these middle of the road guys i'm not overvaluing the offensive line position to the point where it's going to make me choose but when you're talking about a top 10 or a top 5 o line versus of one of those uh bottom five that's when i start paying really real close attention to it so uh we'll get i'll get to the top 10 here the chargers were in the top 10 maybe we're going to bump that down a notch After the loss later, and then that's a huge loss. But they actually had addressed that in a draft, so they actually, one of the few teams that could actually replace a tackle,

an all pro tackle that, you know, they are one of those few teams that have kind of gotten ahead of that. It's like they knew he was going to get hurt. Nine, Chicago, eight Baltimore, seven Atlanta, six Minnesota. I think I pretty much, I'm not going to. I'm going to have you guess them because you kind of know who they are. Detroit is one of those teams that has fallen a little bit.

Ragnow retired and then Kevin Zitler left for Tennessee. He was their best run blocker. And now they have a center in Graham Glasgow. He started 16 games last season at Left Guard. He was PFF's worst guard and pass protection at Left Guard. And otherwise they're relying on a second round rookie at center at Tate Ratledge. if he ends up winning that job so it could be a little worse than five PFF had him 14 so they're not the same unit they've been the last few years which is uh if you're jumping all

over a guy like Jemir Gibbs and you're trying to compare them to you know some people have Gibbs I bet you there's people out there who probably have Gibbs one and very invoke to make him your 101 and when comparing him to be John Robinson uh that is something to consider for sure And this is why I actually, that was probably the, I don't, I didn't have him tied, but I had him pretty close, but that, that was a nice separator. And then Tampa at four, although worse could be missing some time. I think he'll be okay. Like, he's not going to, he'll play 10 plus games. But, yeah.

Yeah, they're going to start off. They could start off slow. And in Buffalo, again, like I said, sometimes they'll start six. When I first kind of heard him talking, you know, people talking about that, I'm like, today's football they're starting six they'll throw out six offensive linemen and when you see josh allen running around with all that time when they're in the goal line it kind of makes sense um they finished top five and running back yards before contact last year um there's so i'm james cook guy and one of the big reasons why is that uh denver we talked about i got a little monitor

situation i got to turn this back on here denver is a team they are very heavy on the run blocking like all five of the guys created out you know some of the best in the NFL and then everybody knows who number one is and that's Philly they have the best they have the best offensive lineman uh in football and they didn't lose much uh see they lost they've got an injury though landin lincoln's hurt though right i don't know if that's a long-term thing or not but no i haven't that i haven't gotten as a is he is it how long term are you saying or how what's the prognosis on it because I hadn't heard that let's see

while Mike's pulling up is Jordan Milato's left tackle in need procedure he might be back week one he might be back week one but he had a neat procedure okay we'll keep an eye on that they lost Mackay Beckett into LA which is why the charges were still kind of hanging on in there and you know not some not a team you need to overly worry about even though they lost their best one

Juergens and Lennon, as you said, Dicker's center back. This is Jurgens' second year at center. It was first year last year at center, and he played it in Nebraska. We talked about it last year in the podcast, but he had a ton of experience. And he just showed up and just walked into a pro ball spot. That's just what they do in Philly. And I think it's their third year, maybe fourth year in a row on this top five list. and yeah that this is why sequoan is expected to turn out another top five rb finish this year

and why i'm very high on these Denver running backs um i i don't see any really we talked a little bit about the running backs but Denver's going to run the shit out of the ball this year that's why i think they will i just the thing that creeps me out about denver is like did a good offensive line last year and you can tell me every single running back they had suck shit and okay that's cool but then you're saying like every single running back that possibly played for the Denver Broncos like sucked ass behind a great offensive line so I'm not like I don't know something's not computing for me that's why they brought in two new guys that's why they drafted one and brought in dubs yeah i guess but i don't know that was uh it's it's weird to me

that they couldn't get anything going last year it was just like it made no sense um and maybe they just maybe it's just that simple that's like uh yeah devonte's washed um and i can't remember the other back was last year estimate isn't it estimate and jill mcloffin's not it um that's possible but I've also seen I don't know especially with Denver of like a decade of just seeing like fucking postal service workers go in there and get like 1,200 yards

Ruben drones my kid or something you know what I mean just seeing that uniform and them not being able to run the ball is just like I don't know double compounding like the fuck is happening to my reality it was a hot yeah Shanahan it was like Shanahan offensive line

equals fantasy success yeah Yeah, and yeah, they just weren't worth a shit last year, running the ball, and no matter what back they tried. And I thought they were going to, it's one of those things where you're like, okay, eventually this car is going to start. And they just never fucking did. So maybe it does this year. Maybe they run for 1,800 yards combined. And we're all just like, yeah, it was that easy.

Any surprises on that list for you guys that were your, or, you know, maybe have changed your thoughts a little bit about some of the guys you're, into at the position running back and wide receiver it's a little concerning that the Cowboys keep dunking first round picks in the offensive line and they can't get higher than 18 to whatever yeah

just keep picking first round picks named Tyler and we'll eventually have a good offensive line and I don't know if that's the way and they're already hurt like two of them are hurt PFF had them 23 actually so yeah you can't dump that

yes it's a fucking position and it not be a difference maker like that is like 101 on sports management lose a hall of famer yeah so yeah no that's interesting stuff um i don't know so who is run off bottom five again so i can avoid those running backs i'll give you the things on those i'll give it getting getting hot jacksville in miami so you know know some of the you know we definitely talked about Devon A chain but you know Miami Miami sort of avoids the way they run their offense you know they throw so quick it's like no teams don't stack the box against them but Giants that's a problem New England Seattle Kenneth Walker CINCII everybody Houston

unanimous said I think when it really it's home for me is when it's a running back that has a bad offensive line that I'm already like not questioning their talent but like not completely sold on their talent and they also don't catch the ball like Kenneth Walker Kenneth Walker I'm like yeah man I know you can like break 50-yard runs like left and right i've seen them do it plenty but i'm like you can flat line you just flat line for weeks at a time um and they're stretching the seasons where defense figure them out well even the passing game too just being able to move the ball down the field like a lot of you know they're running a lot of um 11 and a lot of play action which he kind of needs to have

need to have an offensive line to be able to protect for your slow-ass slow-footed white Sam Darnold. Maybe that's why they got Jalen Milrow, you know. I don't know if they're going to do some weird shit with him. But, yeah, there's some troubling things about that Seattle offense. But I do love a Kubik system, just like a Shanahan system, what it does for a running back. So, you know, maybe that can offset some of that. But I do have quite a lot of questions about how's it going to look? when they get it and they start playing a top shelf defensive line.

I think I know how it's going to look. I think I'm pretty familiar with how it's going to look. Yeah, I think that's like a very realistic crater situation in Seattle, just overall. J.S.N. can still get 100 balls. I think he's kind of, I don't know, Teflon from all this, but. When I was looking at them, I, you know, especially the running backs. Initially, I probably would have had Kenneth Walker as my guy, as we're going to get to later,

but I took him off the board for this and other reasons. But I've just soured on him, just enough where I'm like, I think he needs to drop another 10 spots where he is for me to jump on him. I could regret saying that, but we'll see. Yeah, he's, I don't, it's one of those dudes where you're just like, I'm trying to do something different. And I've seen guys that are in the industry, they get paid to do this, pick Kenneth Walker enough

is like a breakout or whatever. And I'm like, okay, explain to me what you're seeing. Explain, explain it, explain what is leading you to believe that Kenneth Walker is gonna take over and be like a top, top five date running back this season. And it's just trying to do something different than everybody else, I think, just a boredom, a boredom pick um but if you look into enough angles of it and see all the inputs

it's pretty obvious he's me a fine like high-end rb2 congratulations like way to go and then when he misses that month that he misses every year you're going to start souring on the guy and start sending trade numbers for him like i've lived this experience for a couple years ago so i guess milro they brought him in to do um to do the tush push yeah in the preseason and they what they there's a third round draft pick which i thought was incredibly high that was a third round yes did i hear that right i believe that seemed i remember when i saw his name take off i like whoa jalen milrow third round i just did i not just did i not allegedly doing push pushing who tyler warren i mean tyler warren will probably

eventually do that but uh mandrews yeah Oh, well, we knew we saw that in the playoffs last year. Yeah, add that wrinkle to his game and have some fun there. But just have Eric Henry do it. Yeah. Interesting concept. Awesome. Well, cool.

Thank you, Fitsy. So I've got a question that I think will spark some conversation and it's just a fun thing for me. If I could know the end of season stats. for one player at each position that would unlock the most information possible for me about how this position plays out or the board shakes out who would i pick um so i'm going to throw this to you guys at the running back position if you magically reveal the end of season stats for one running back this season you can do it today you just hit a sim it tells you Chuck, who are you picking to reveal the stats?

Well, the easy answer is Christian McCaffrey, and that's mostly going to be a function of his health. And I think if there's one guy who is potentially mispriced, despite the fact that he's a consensus first rounder, it's him. Because if he plays 17 games or 16 games and gets the workload that's expected with all the injuries they've had at receiver, and he's healthy. I don't think there's a way that he doesn't finish near the very tippy top of the position and probably in all of non-quarterback scoring. And so that's, I think, the free square.

Fitz, what about you? Oh, I certainly considered Chris McAfrey. I just figured we'd be talking about him a fair amount because he's the first rounder. I, this is a guy we all had last year very high. I think all of us said this is our running back one last year, which Breeze Hall. I have really, really,

I really don't even fucking know. Like, we all were just sure last year that he was, we were like, okay, maybe he's not ahead of Bijan, but I think we all thought he was probably our pick if we had a gun to our head. We're going to take him over Bejohn and it just fell off a cliff and, you know, there's a lot of blame to go around. Maybe it was the blocking scheme or maybe it was in a Aaron Rogers is calling audibles to himself at the goal line.

But by all counts, like they were run blocking pretty well last year, but they also were giving these other dudes touches, a lot of touches. We didn't see coming and look up, and Breece Hall's not even finishing. And I don't think he finished in the top 20 last year in running back fantasy points for game. It was alarming. And now it's it's now they got a running quarterback. Maybe they have a whole different philosophy, but these running backs are still there in the same backfield. and are they is it just going to be a complete committee or is he going to go back to being the guy that after his nine months after an ACL Terry he finishes a RV three or whatever it was

yeah brees hall is my initial pick um because it does feel like he's he's living on a little bit of borrowed time um he wasn't drafted by this regime that they have there right there there's a change with Aaron Glenn taking over and haven't heard great things from Briss Hall quite honestly over the last year. I think we all think the talent's there and we all think he can be that dude. But right now I don't know if he wants to be that dude

or if that's possible. The only thing that's keeping me on the hook, I think, is that with a running quarterback and whenever you do enough read-option stuff, I mean, I read the stat last year, whenever we're getting into it and there aren't that many read-option quarterbacks left. outside of like lamar and jaden daniels i guess josh does it a little but if you have an option

read on a running play you had one yard on average seems pretty simple justin fields is the running quarterback he can run like almost nobody else besides maybe lamar jackson um so i'm going to leave the door open. He does make my my guys list because I like the range he's going in. But if I had to pick a second dude that I'm like, tell me the end of your stats and I'll tell you I'll be able to win every league I'm in. A chain is definitely high on that list. And then our guy that we're all kind of debating whether he's worthy of that range or not Trevion would be really nice to know the end of season trivia on. Anderson stats. That'd be fun. And then I could just take them in the first or just ignore them depending on what's going on there. There seems to be no in between. Yeah, it seems to be, seems to be no in between. But I thought that was an interesting exercise. My real answer to that question might be D'Andre Swift because he's being pushed up into this range where, you know, he's kind of a honestly a dead zone type archetype now just a veteran running back that's going to get a bunch of projectable volume but there's all these moving pieces in the in the chicago offense that we're not really sure what to do with the past catchers we think the offense is going to be better but camp buzz on Caleb is not great so you know as a proxy for what the offense is going to do maybe it's maybe it's jondre swift and if you tell me that he finishes as a low end rb1 then okay they're they're having a great season they're in

scoring position and touchdown yards abound but if he doesn't you know he's he's healthy then maybe that the Seattle you know renaissance that are not Seattle but the Chicago renaissance that we're all expecting isn't happening that's a good one too yeah does rochon feel more comfortable in that system which is what I've been here and and if that's the case does he just usurp them all together I I can't imagine he's going to completely nuke swift but he's he's been a coordinator for him before didn't exactly go great to be honest so he's obviously very familiar with d'andre swift we'll say that yeah your guess is as good as mine and how that shakes out which is a which is why chuck brought that up and it's perfect because i've

i've gone back i first i think highlight him as a guy who i had who could be a pop here for him you know he's he's a he's a guy who can catch balls out of the backfield he just seems like the he might be able to get some free yards in that bin johnson system but then you start breaking it down like i don't i don't know how much they're going to run the ball which is one of those quite i know you're going to talk about in the y receiver portion when you ask us about the offense they're going to throw a lot and that that theirs came to mind for sure um i don't know how much they're going to they're going to run the ball this year yeah the dandre swift experience is um you take him against your will and then you ride out like that incredibly just horrendous stretch of the season and

then you get rewarded for it because he's going to have like a decent stretch in there where you're happy router uh that seems touch high but maybe late early six let's see where he is i just looked at it just a second ago he's early six yeah 63.8 right now 63.8 right now um on on fantasy pros so he's that dude that you can't wait to get off of when he's down and he's not doing it and then the guy that you're really trying to add if he's having a hot stretch late in the season trying to buy off that team that isn't worth a shit you know um so it's a wild ride there's no that about it but i don't know if i could see like the game by game projection or game game by game season stats that'd be super helpful um okay without further ado are we ready to reveal

our guys at the running back position i'll uh i'll let fits go through his first um and then chuck and then myself but i'm going to throw them all up at one time if that's okay and three or two one magic happens now there they are oh i and the way i approached this was i looked at the round and looked at okay who am I getting value at at the position and even Bijon at I don't you know I think I've most of drafts you said have Jumar Chase going one overall and I think fantasy pros right now has Sequin Barclay ahead of Bijon and both have great offensive lines as we just discussed I just discussed I just like the fact that Bijon doesn't have a quarterback that's gonna steal 13 or 14 touchdowns away from

the goal line. going to catch obviously a ton of balls and he's the youth is on his father time is on his side right now and and what Atlanta does best at blocking is run blocking so that's kind of how I was was leaning towards be jean I don't really don't see too many there's you talk about you when you went we have a one-one you're like well who has the fewest flaws I don't see any flaws and anything that they're doing that would make me want to and he's getting every he's getting all the touches that you want them to get. So I've taken him 1.1. And if he's going even one spot below that, to me, that's enough value for me to put him on this list. And then Derek Henry, now here I have, Francie Proz has

has him 12. Is that what you guys are seeing? Yeah, depending on the platform, he's a back half of the first or, you know, early mid-second. Yeah. Can you guys explain that one to me? Why are we still 28 years old and doesn't catch past. Didn't you say that last year? One of these years, I'm going to be right. That's the thing. I mean, look, I was fading that way. I was kind of leaning that way, too.

I mean, I wasn't going to jump all over them because we hadn't seen it yet in this offense. But I'm like, oh, Lamar Jackson, one of the best running quarterbacks of our time is taking. You just talked about it. Like with the option, you know, with Justin Fields, having an extra guy in the box, having to look at the quarterback. ways he going to go. All he did was hand off to Derek Henry last year. It's all I did. You look at the splits inside the five-yard line. I think Derek Henry had 95% of the carries. I don't think if I'm really, I think they had 18 carries inside the five-yard line and Lamar Jackson had zero. All they did is hand off to Derek Henry. I mean, can you right now, if you had 13 and

a half touchdowns for Derek Henry, would you take the over or the under? probably the over not by much time i'm probably on the over too yeah i think so here's the thing about eric henry the last time well the one year in which he had 378 rushing attempts and at the 2000 yard season he dropped an entire yard in yards per attempt the next year did not get back above 4.4 until last season with the Ravens, where he was 5.9 yards per attempt on 325 touches. So if you tell me he's going to get 325 plus touches again, like, that's cool. I'm expecting like 4.5 yards per touch or per carry. And then we're talking about like maximum of a 1,500 yard back that doesn't catch passes, which is still really good. Like I'm not

arguing that Derek Henry is a really good football player when he's running running the ball I just and when you get that many touches like there is an extremely long track record that dudes lose a yard per rush attempt like that's they all do like it's just like sake it's going to happen to say one most likely imagine number 370 touches yeah that we've yeah yeah he didn't quite get there no he didn't get there last year but he's not that Jonathan Taylor is a billion years old yeah sure no i i i that i 000 3505 rushing it to him so that man's body that's nuts he is such a beast yeah he's he's he's a freaking nature though he's like the

he's like that unicorn and just to jonathan taylor you mentioned the like a 1500 yard that's what jonathan taylor was last year was 1431 um and doesn't catch you know much at all uh yeah even pot more than derrick henry did last year and he finishes the rb5 uh i just look at that i'm not Like, these are layup, these are layup fantasy points to me that are unorthodox in the way that, you know, people are drafting for half point and full point PPR. But they just keep fading Derek Henry, but it's like, points, however you get him, it doesn't matter how you fucking get him. You just got to, you can look at a guy who's got 1,900 yard coming up a 1900 yard rushing season. How far down is they going to fall? I just don't see it falling that far.

and to just completely ignore it and just be like, it's like you're just looking to the other way when there's, you know, the explosion in the sky and we don't acknowledge it. I'm like, okay, I again, I've never owned him, but this is the year where if I'm, if I'm in a snake draft and I'm drafting late and I want, as I said,

in the first podcast we did, I want one of those top shelf running backs. To me, he is a top shelf running back. And I feel a lot better about calling his name out than I do, I know, Kairn Williams. Devon A. Chain, you know, whatever your flavor is.

You're kind of running out of names at that point. I don't see any... Are you guys taking him behind A-Chane? I've never drafted Derek Henry, but even in like a standard league, I'm going to have to capitulate that he's, you know, he's on the first round fringe. I'm probably not taking him over Gentie. And then you're into the Christian McCaffrey, Sequin, Barclay, Gibbs, Bejohn,

and I'm not taking him over any of those. no and i'm not i'm not taking them over those uh yeah no i'm not taking them over gibbs now then a standard maybe maybe i just don't play any leagues in which it makes sense to take like i'm in so many dynasty leagues and i've i've actually experienced this one whole revolution around the sun ago in which derrick henry flatlined that i was holding some bags of derrick henry and just trying to get fucking anything for Derek Henry and Dynasty is just, I don't know, pull out all my teeth with like the worst pair of pliers. So there are a lot of people that have experienced that or don't want them in Dynasty

and those Dynasty players also play redraft or play big contests, right? We're not just like, oh, here's my one little dynasty league. But then in FFPC, like, and then FFPC is a big tournament. So most people that play that, play other bigger tournaments. And they are what we would call Piss Boys. I draft wide receivers all the damn time. So there's just like such a slim fraction of the audience that's like, fuck yeah, Derek Henry.

Like there's no fits is out there that are just like getting rocked up for for Derek Henry. It's so few people that it's almost like an insane marketing efficiency, but then you're like, nah, I'm not doing it again. I know. I know. I've done the same. And I have my touchdown league and that he will be probably the first player

taken. It's certainly top three in that league, heavy on the touchdowns. But just the last thing about him, number eight, offensive line. Yeah. Okay.

So other my guys, Jacobs. I know Chuck, Chuck was given his shit two years ago as we like Jacobs. But then last year, if you doubled down on them, you got paid off pretty nicely. I, they're going to,

I know they're not probably going to, going to run the ball with him as much pretty damn safe floor though would you guys agree with that i've always been a josh jacobs guy i've i think it's two or three years in a row where i'm like what's wrong with this guy and there's like nothing wrong with him um and he finishes as like a fringe rb one and you get him for way less cost than that um i'm not excited to take him like it doesn't bring me any joy but then i i look week eight and i'm like yeah josh jacobs is for 14 goddamn points nerds i feel pretty good about that sixth easiest run friendly schedule this year uh for jacobs uh another another reason to take him um just he feels just so safe to me

that and i know we've talked about it before i know chuck is really big on this this that floor when you're going those first two rounds it's all about how high is that floor um this one i know is pretty controversial right now. It's James Cook because of the obvious touchdown regression is likely coming. But a third round value for him with that top shelf offensive line and a quarterback that's in Josh Allen that's his rush totals are decreasing by the year. Still feel pretty safe about it. And then when you look at that contract, that 30 million guaranteed contract that he just signed, I don't think they're going to be. handing it to Ray Davis, you know, 40% of the time.

I'm pretty confident that Cook is going to get in the end zone at least eight times with the offense that they have. I don't, and I think he's going to get more volume. And like, as he said, machine, when teams show you and they, what their, what their intentions are, you know, out of their pocketbook, I can't, I feel, I feel pretty safe with his floor. Now, and he also, he is one of those kind of guys that could, you look up and you're like this guy could win you a league he is he has that sort of ability will they rely on them you know like as much as it's your mirror gives no probably not but um he's got that first round ability to me and so i'm i'm like fucking i'm gonna i'm gonna see those

touchdowns for what they were i know they're not going to probably repeat but i think he can get a lot of those um maybe 60 percent of that and that would put him probably in the second round value to me and he's going in a really nice range this year he's one of the last guys that i'm comfortable if he's my RB1. Mm-hmm. He's kind of become Diet Coke, Jemir Gibbs, which I mean that because people get frustrated because he doesn't just get a boatload of carries or a boatload of touches a game. But he does also have nuclear weeks.

Like that's kind of like a James Cook fun little trick where you're just like, well, you know what you needed this week? James Cook for the three touchdowns and 125 rushing yards and like, one receiving so i mean i loved them last year it seems like a really dumb oversight for everybody to let that guy fall i kind of feel the same i do worry about early season rust um just because all this people just have off years sometimes whenever they have this going on or um a suspension or a holdout or whatever uh he was a hold in at least that's the he was there aspect of that yeah i think i think it'll probably be fine i wouldn't surprise me if he's just

80% of what he was last year um which is exactly where he's being drafted if he's exactly what he was last year then he's demolishing that right yeah and last yeah the last thing biggest positive one of the biggest positive schedule flipped for NFL offenses for the bills um okay uh tuba what are your thoughts on chuba because But I personally haven't seen any reason to fade him. I feel like it got away with a magic trick last year with Chuba. And I don't, I feel greedy going back to it. Like, to be honest, that's like my feeling about it.

Because I had a lot of Chuba across the board. And I feel like I'm like asking to get burned if I put my hand on the stove again. I don't know why. Like, that's not logical, but that is like, a fantasy thing you know what i mean we all wanted we all wanted brooks last year to be the guy and when he got when he got hurt but the whole year chuba was just putting up fine rb2 low end rb1 numbers week after week it wasn't some fluke thing and he and he did it the year before he was doing it too he was solid the year before we just didn't want to believe that he wasn't

you know some not a top not one of those top guys that we're calling off every year it'll probably never be that, but what is he, what do you guys have them right now? Let's see here. Overall fantasy numbers or a 80. 41.2 right in front of Resol right after Camaro. Yeah, fourth round all day for me. I mean, and they got a good line, you know, 20th on this one, a solid line. I'm not a bad line. I guess it's a better way to put that out. They had a little bit better line, a higher rated line last year um but and they added a piece with tett and i like the way bryce is uh looking um i think just more the touchdown volume is going to be there he catches a fair amount of passes not a ton um but enough to be irrespectable enough he had 54 targets last year not a lot of yards i really

like low i think it was four the average four point yards of reception um but in a ppr format that'll play yeah i think the i think the bear sorry the bull case for him is improved offensive line better offensive environment and if he gets you know something like a not exactly james cook type touchdown positive touchdown regression like you could easily end up as a higher end rb too are you guys taking it in any format where he's going i mean i'll take him um He's not preferred in that range necessarily, but I think he's like, I think it's a fine pick. I don't have a problem with it. I think the efficiency overlords would tell you like he wasn't that good last year, just got buried and touches.

And I don't know, they just expect everyone to act logically moving forward. And if you aren't getting a giant yards per carry or if you're not going to be in game scripts where people would just, let you move the ball on the ground in the second half because you're down by 21 points. Everyone just assumes like... Which that shouldn't happen this year. Yeah, I don't think that'll happen. But they also assume like if you're just like not a super efficient running back, you don't get the whole pie next year.

And I would like to introduce you to Karen Williams and fill in the blank how many other running backs that exist because teams are fucking stuff. stubborn sometimes so i don't know assuming teams are going to get super woke on how to use the running backs is a it's a past time that isn't probably worth the effort the 14.7 fancy points a game go ahead but he finished 12th and is who goes around him see he goes in a range where worthy pickens, Terry McLaurin, maybe not him, Jamison Williams, and R.J. Harvey's the next running back by ADP on what I'm looking at. I usually just like other names. It's not Chuba himself. It's, I just, they're shinier toys around him. Yeah, for me, it's a bit of a running back

drop off to me when you get to, from him telling R.J. Harvey, I like him better than those names you kind of peeled off, but that's a, you know, it's just a kind of a personal choice. But true but for me it's a good rb2 guy fourth round if you just got one and he went two receivers or tied in and you're sitting in the fourth round and you need a stable running back he had 250 carries last year um all you know 4.8 yards of attempt just solid numbers to me all the way around and that very repeatable it's not like there's really doesn't seem like there's anybody that's really going to steal a ton of volume from him um on first and second down at least so i got he's not sexy but he got he is so safe to me i love his floor and i'm very comfortable calling his

name out um next guy speaking to the double r j harvey so if i miss on chuba and i'm in the fifth round and i need that second back or if i really want to get greedy and i got a flex position and i'm looking to really nail down a potential what i think it's a potential league winning situation is the denver backfield should one of those guys go down i'm always i'm definitely trying to get r j harvey in that fifth round range or fifth round value if you're in an auction league and then getting J.K. Dobbins later. It's a plan. I can't remember what you play. I don't know if you had a name for it, Mike, but there's something I feel like every single year, you have a couple teams where you're like that's something you're circling going into drafts that you want to nail

down one of those sort of undervalued team running back positions. And that's the one for me this year. Yeah, it's one of those situations that happens in fantasy whenever you have a either rookie or younger running back that is going ahead of an established veteran running back, at least an ADP. It always ends up like where you're going to get a lot of points out of it. Because those guys are going to start like, for some reason, the younger back is everyone sees the potential in them and so does the team and that starts pushing the veteran back and sometimes it doesn't always flip but whenever you do flip a backfield and it is the rookie guy starts taking over then they've they've earned it they've done all the things to become a good running back and that's

kind of like the point of what you're looking for right like i think davens is probably going to get leaned on early in the season but by the time you care about starting rj harvey and he's worth starting on a weekly basis and he's getting like week to week decent projections he's going to have earned that job and it's going to be fully his job and so i don't know there's always those there's always a couple where they're like these running backs are going within four or five rounds of each other of a of a handcuff and you can own both at a decent price and week to week setting your lineup you have a running back that you trust And so I'm sorry that I stole high round guys,

but maybe that's the best way to talk about them. Big reach in real far. We got one guy outside the fifth. Both you, both you fuckers. I didn't have any parameters on this. That's where the value is at running back. This is kind of a throwback year for me where I'm really very comfortable and maybe even planning on coming out of the first three rounds in most home leagues

with two running backs, and that's unusual for me. Are you going to jump into you guys, Chuck? Yeah, I only have two as the resident running back hater of the crew. And it's discussed them to take more than two on an easy. And I'm going to do these in the opposite order. I think my biggest is Omari and Hampton, not the least of which, because they do have a good offensive line. I realize they lost Rishon Slater, but they've got.

get to replace him with Joe Alt and, you know, in a Greg Roman system, even though he doesn't always have the most expected points for the running back position, they're going to have a good run game. They're a smart team. They drafted him in the first round. And if you did nothing, if you did no other prospect profiling or scouting other than just drafting first round running backs, you're going to end up with an RB1 more often than not in that rookie year. Oh, by the way, his backup only has one eye. That's your guy. That's your guy, Najee Harris.

I still don't believe that. I refuse to believe that I clicked Naji Harris as a my guy last year. I don't know. I think it would surprise no one if he finished the season somewhere between RB7 and 12. Like, is there any disagreement on that? I mean, Fitz is the only one that didn't put him on his list. to think of what guy he kind of reminds me of i drafted him in my auction league um i didn't expect

to get him but yeah i sure i mean he's great well the what you talked about the one-eye situation for people that didn't know is that not he had a fireworks accident i didn't really read into the story but it fucked up one of his eyes and then apparently like it's actually not that big of a deal if he just stays you know doesn't do anything i don't know what his workout regimen's been like, but apparently you can't do very much with this, according to optometrist, that I think just it just requires rest. And within what I've been hearing is that by the start of the season, maybe a week in, he should be fine.

And there won't be any problems. But what that does tell me is that there's no way he's going to be in football shape. And talk about throwing a rookie into the fire right away. Amarney Hampton is going to get that. And he could just take the job and never give it up the entire year. or at least get a good 60% of it. I don't think any of us have been very impressed by what Noggi's done, except Chuck, I guess, because he did have him as my guys last year.

He did. He wrote it down a lot. He made me put it on that list. I don't think that's true. But I forget what I was going to say now because you guys are just pounding me with Noggy hair. Something about it. Hampton kind of feels like,

i don't know he's not quite the pedigree of like jonathan taylor but it feels like very jonathan taylor to me to where it's like he could have a peak season around the corner not this season um but like year two year three where you're like yeah man that's the top three back and if he's challenging for the rushing title that that that makes a lot of sense um he's not quite what Jonathan Taylor was at Wisconsin, where he was his, like, you know, destroyer of worlds. And that's a different program than what UNC was last year and the years before. But I just see a lot of, I see a lot of the backs that have reached that echelon out of a Marion Hapton. He runs through a lot of trash.

That's the one thing I loved about his tape. And then my second guy. was Trevian Henderson no surprise based on our intro pod but if there's like traits that I will always just be trapped by it's young fast running backs who get highly drafted and catch passes and unfortunately everyone else knows it now because his first two preseason games are just jumping off the screen so I don't think there's that much more to say about him the offensive line concerns I agree are you know somewhat of a pause but he is the best pass blocker in the class

at the running back position. Yes. That's a very good point. Though I like Romandre Stevenson a little bit, I'm not afraid of him. And I expect Trevianna Henderson's talent over the course of the season to win out. Oh, and oh, by the way, the Patriots have a very easy schedule. Yeah, he's fun. I just hope he doesn't leave him on a team that's uh you're having to start him and he starts a little lame through the first month or something told daddy variable says like you're ready or whatever um yeah i hope number two

running schedule everybody that's great as you said yeah number two easiest running back schedule yeah well i mean i hope he's as fun as everybody wants him to be because he's a lot lot of it's a lot of shares of a lot of expensive teams that have put very high picks into them okay I'll I'll shift to my guys we just talked about Reese Hall it is a draw forward Uno card at this point I have no fucking idea what's coming out the other side but there is a lot of volatility and I think most of it's good because of they're not going to want justin fields throwing that much they're going to learn that really quickly uh and so add an option quarterback add a lot of running into this situation um and that just

makes more yards per carry for brees hall i'm not banking on him being a top 10 running back but he's also not getting i don't think he's being taken in the top 10 right now um not even close he is 40 41.8 overall uh so okay i can live with those prices i'm taking him I'll take him before Camara. I'll take him before Kenneth Walker. That's kind of like easy. Easy stakes for me. He and Chuba, I keep taking Brise Hall over Chuba, I think.

So just where he's going, I'm more comfortable with Brise Hall's talent bet. And then where this offense is going as compared to where it's been, it seems like the most miserable shit that's ever existed the last couple of years. And it might just be like fine. It might just be an okay. offense and some level of professionalism and i don't know i think people thrive whenever they get the fuck away from erin rogers too like seems seems like a good place to be um number one running back schedule near jets jets nice yeah love to hear it um yeah but i guess i'm

the only one that's not afraid of rees haul and that's fine i'll take him he's getting cheaper all the time and that's a dipperino that i'm slurping over an hour 17th running back to work that in there omerian hampton uh same reasons chug just laid out um yeah i think hardball is going to have a longer than three-hour erection like after the first game that omerian hampton plays in which he gives him like 18 carries he's got to call his doctor um Caleb Johnson I don't understand I know he talked about it in the intro I don't quite understand what's going on here didn't quite get the draft capital you wanted but also it's the most loaded running back class ever on Arthur Smith offense which if there if anything is going to go

well for Arthur Smith, it's going to be the running back production. Jalen Warren does not scare me one bit. The dude that just couldn't wrestle touches away from Najee Harris consistently is standing over there and he's going to son Caleb Johnson. I don't know, dude, he was a really great prospect, didn't catch the ball. So that just people double count the living shit out of that a lot of the time. So I don't know. I like Caleb Johnson as a prospect. I didn't love the landing spot in Pittsburgh, mainly because see above Arthur Smith. There's a cap on that offense in general of how many touchdowns are going to score. But dude, it could it could be 800 to a thousand for Caleb Johnson and like, I don't know, five to seven touchdowns.

And you're like, I got a lot of playable weeks in the second half of the season of Caleb Johnson. And I'm glad I took him in. Jesus, where's he going? 71.6 overall. Yeah. Yeah. I'll do that. Two running backs ahead of Jalen Warren, actually.

Yeah. I'll do that. I'll own a lot of Caleb Johnson this year, if you all allow me to. Any fight on Caleb Johnson before I move on to Mason? I'm not overly, like, sold on fading him. I mean, his ADP feels right. And it sort of had a, not an epiphany, but definitely he thought. about him a little bit more today actually it was like you know what i'm not really paying a ton of

attention to him but it makes sense that arthur smith loves to run the ball now what that's going to mean with aaron rogers is his quarterback i have no idea um you know what what is it aaron rogers is he to blame for breeze hall's decline last year i don't know but uh we'll see i mean like you said he doesn't catch passes which but i do love your comment about double counting it like we're just looking for a guy who can get me 70, 80 yards and pop in a touchdown every other week, and now he's worth an RV3. So if that's somebody you can get at that price, it's worth plugging in your lineup and hey, let's roll it out there.

And you might, you know, he says he's probably not going to spike too many weeks. But, yeah, I mean, he's going around with DeAndre Swift, Aaron Jones, Senior, Caleb Johnson, Tyrone, Tracy, Jalen Warren. And I could definitely see taking him in front of all those guys. Yeah, I think his wrist is Aaron Rogers, who's going to play very, very slowly. There is some implosion risk with the offense itself, and that could drag him down. But I don't really have much else bad to say about him. He's fine.

Yep. Jordan Mason's next on the list. I just kind of see a very clear path to him getting the majority of the running. running work. And then the four to eight games that Aaron Jones misses each season are going to be just lock and load, throw Jordan Mason in your starting lineup. I mean, it was really good last year. First half of the season. He was kind of the guy you needed before. He got hurt. So the talent's there. Vikings have a really good offensive line. I don't know how their overall offense is going to be, which is going to be one of my flip the card over things later. But, yeah, Jordan Mason, where he's going, seems like a pretty easy cheat code for me, and I can almost work backwards if I know I'm willing to take Jordan Mason.

Let's see where he is going, 87.3, if I'm willing to take him about, I don't know, five to 10 picks ahead of ADP. I know my RB2 is locked in there that I feel pretty comfortable with. And I don't know, it kind of feels like free money at this point for Jordan Mason. So maybe I'm wrong and he's just the guy that wasn't that good when he got drafted and the talent just isn't there consistently. And it was a Kyle Shanahan magic trick, but I'll wait to be proven wrong on that one. Any strong feelings on Jordan Mason?

I did see a comment that made me think more about him, as he said, Jordan Mason is David Montgomery, but 50 picks cheaper. I don't think it's quite 50 picks anymore, but it made me think, I'm like, you know, Detroit's going to regress a little bit, and Jordan Mason is going to be that between the tackles, you know, first and second down kind of guy, and maybe end up stealing some red zone goal line touches from Aaron Jones, and I'm here for it. I actually have, we'll start paying more attention to him in my auction league in my auction draft next week. But yeah, I'm, I'm warming up to him for sure. And I'm kind of glad you brought it up because it's not something I've thought much about until, you know, last few days. And especially with Aaron Jones, Jr., like he's got to be, what is he 30 now, 31? At least, yeah. And he's either going to miss time or they're going to limit his usage to the point where he stays healthy.

those are the two options of the Aaron Jones experience at this point in time like sometimes he will get those hundred yards in a touchdown off those 10 touches like that's phenomenal but that also doesn't hurt what's going on with Jordan Mason it's either use Aaron Jones until he gets hurt or use Aaron Jones to the limit before he gets hurt that leaves a lot of running back touches and then I I just don't think they're going to be a team that throws the piss out of the ball with the quarterback that's getting his first couple starts. It kind of looks like what the team is built to do is grind you in

and then let J.J. McCarthy kind of like ease into what he's doing and hit Justin Jefferson on some like really select shots. That offense is just it doesn't seem like there's any real reason they will ever regress because they got a coach calling the right shit like i just love i just i just love what he's able to figure out even with you know seemingly subpar quarterback play he's like i got the best receiver since jerry rice and we can just start there and we'll work around it and we're going to make this thing hum yeah next on the list is is is a free free square of uh cam skedaboo um you know going 114 outside the top 100

I don't think this is an early season play. I think it's definitely later in season play whenever they get tired of Tyrone Tracy shit. Yeah, he's already hurt a little bit. But, I mean, I don't, I don't, who, he reminded me of somebody. I mean, it's like Kairn vibes where it's like, you know all the physical limitations, but then the coach can't stop using him. Like, you know Kairn runs like a 4-6-5 and like Sean McVey's like, I don't give a shit.

I love that guy. like dable already loves the dude um and then i just don't think tyro and tracy is like that stronger competition and i think the last month i don't know more of the season they're not going to be playing for anything and it's going to be let's see what skedaboo can do on the ground and through the air um so very good pass catcher um abysmal and past protection but uh yeah i think he was a badass at college for a reason and i think the coaches are going to fall in love with him because that's what people do with Camp Skadaboo. It's interesting you've chosen three guys in the most ambiguous backfields

that are out there. And honestly, to your credit, that's one of the keys of figuring out fantasy football and one of the ways that you get value over draft or acquisition cost is planting your flag on these ambiguous backfields like Caleb Johnson, Jordan Mason, and Cam Skadaboo are all going pretty close to their backfield mate on the same team. And one of them is going to way outperform their ADP. And, you know, I think I love that you're being aggressive and planting flags on these guys. I think the only.

Yeah, I don't either. I think the only one that I'd be like, take both in the Denver kind of style that we were talking about is probably Jalen Warren, Caleb Johnson, where I'm like, take both. Somebody's going to get the majority of the touches. That offense is not going to be high octane, but I also don't want to like take Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason, assuming you have an RV2 and then Aaron Jones is just dead. That's definitely a possibility. So, yeah, I mean, I think I have a read on some of these muddy backfields.

And then, you know, I like Bill. Bill seems like fun. If he's the starting running back, get the commander. I think there's a lot of fantasy goodness to be had, a lot of points to be scored. They're going to need something, man, if Terry's out for a while, that's going to be a horizontal ass offense with Cliff Kingsbury and whatever there is to get out of that running back position, it'd be really fun if he did it.

So it's more of a fun kind of storyline thing. But, yeah. I'm going to go piss real quick. I'm just going to keep it recording, and I'll pick up right by I picked off, okay? Well, yeah. Okay. I don't want to piss in my backpack over here. Is there anybody who's off your board, like guys that you're not even thinking about?

Because there's two free squares out there right now, mixing and Jutkins. But anybody else that you're just... Yeah, to answer this question, like just guys that you're not even... thinking about drafting oh uh that are considered to be draftable um you know it's marchion lloyd who is the back up in green bay not considering him at all but i didn't realize he was going so late i hadn't even thought about him rheim mostert no interest he's getting drafted at 160.9 are we going to how low you're talking about no i'm just mean like Like, somebody that you don't understand their ADP at all.

I see. I'll go higher. Any position you mean? I mean, this is the running back show, so let's stick to running back. Let's see. Tyrone Tracy, just zero interest in him. I'm not taking any shares of ETN. It's really tough to settle.

In Jacksonville, then. Who's my running back? It's a tank. Yeah, like, all right. I like his call on Scataboo. Scataboo is, I mean, you probably'm sure you saw the Arizona State, Texas game, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, A, I didn't know he could catch passes like that.

B, he's one of the toughest motherfuckers I've ever seen. Like, he will play in an NFL backfield and he will be able to run through linebackers. He is going to be a tough motherfucker to bring down. And when they get on the goal line, that's what they're going to do. He was really impressive, man. And I, you know, he just has this wonky name. And it's like, oh, people, I thought people loved him because he had this weird name. And then I watch him, like, this dude's for real.

And I love that call by Mike, by putting him in there. This, like you said, a very ambiguous backfield. And what, I mean, what round is that? That's got to be 10th round for Scataboo. Yeah, he's going early 10th. Love it. Love that call. The other thing is Braylon Allen is just like nobody is, people are fading Breeze Hall

and his ADP is super low, but nobody's doing anything about bringing Braylon Allen's ADP up. What's something's not right here? That's a big reason why. There's talk out of Jets camp that they're going to mix him in and give him some maybe early down work. Yeah, you've got to put your bet on somebody. Like you can't just like say, uh, Brise Hall's dead and then, okay, so who's benefiting

from that yeah my my guess my guess i think i said it briefly was that it's just going to be a committee you know like who's the third back i forget who who's the third guy in new york isaiah davis yes yeah and he you know he looked pretty good too i think is i think his efficiency stature we're good last year so they with i i got i really wonder like is it going to be like a west virginia you know like a spread option kind of offense that they may just run it and just just narrow it down to tied in and a one and a receiver and there you're just going to run and throw to those two guys and that's going to be your 90 to 95 percent of your offense and running with Justin Fields and it can work you can make that work you can't win a title

with it but you know Pittsburgh basically got to the playoffs last year um running just a really jerk off offense like that yeah i mean you can get 20 points out of it a week if you your skill position guys are are fine um rest in peace dk matcalf sorry about sorry about your life this year that's about to happen not a fan yeah like i just you said the you said pittsburgh last year and i was like yeah it's going to suck uh the i'm proud of both of you that i left the room for two minutes and you start talking about joe mixon somehow so no well we actually brought them up but the question all you guys Oh, God damn it.

So the question while you were gone was who's off your board? Because I think that's just as important as who you're highlighting. And I said there's two free squares, one of which is Joe Mixon. Oh, God damn it. I knew you all are going to get around. I know, but they just can't help yourselves. Who's off my board? I can tell you, I can do this real quick.

Chase Brown's off my board. Hmm. Spicy. I haven't taken him anywhere. Pacheco's off my board. I should have said that. That was the first one that sort of made me think about it. But yeah, that's a good one. Aaron Jones, Sr. probably.

Etienne's way off my board. Yeah, that's the guys that matter, I guess, that I will just have absolutely zero of. Yeah. Chuck I mean they're going to be they're older guys the the most dopamine that I can feel in a in a room is when someone takes Derek Henry ahead of me so I don't have to think about it the second round yeah that does feel good and you're like all right don't have to rationalize passing on the guy that's going to run for 1,700 yards so I told you

I've never owned him for all the same shit that you bring up. Like, I just never have pulled that trigger. But this year, it's like, okay, what are we doing? I don't see myself pulling the trigger on Gentie anywhere. Can't balance. I love the kid. Love the kid. Love everything about him.

Hate the offense. Yeah. That one's super tough. Okay. So if you could, I call this, if you've paid. attention to previous years uh this is a little bit of a drafting in reverse where i have a read on the guy whether it's um bucky last year year before i think was where he mostert these dudes that are going rounds 10 plus where i'm like i don't need to fuck around with

r b2 because i found one and no one else sees this um drafting in reverse or knowing that you're walking into a draft with a guy preloaded on your team because you're willing to go around ahead almost that is outside of the top 100 at the running back position um cross cue merit's a fun one but do you have a guy that you're like this is the guy that's going to catch me whenever i'm falling at running back outside of the top 100 that you wish you could preload on every team i'll ask chuck i guess first uh yeah i've got three names um i'm cautiously dipping my toes into the jaden blue waters just because i don't trust anybody else in that backfield and i think the cowboys are going to throw it a lot and who's going to benefit

from that jaden blue uh i like dylan sampson a lot i liked him a lot as a prospect hated when he got drafted behind jutkins and uh suddenly quenchon judkins no longer a problem uh and then the last one I am also kind of reluctantly kind of waiting into is Woody Marks just because that offensive line and that running back were both disasters and somebody's going to be somewhat valuable. So why not Woody Marks? How about you, Fitz? You see any guys down that or do you have six running backs already by the time you get

to 100? Well, I probably am. And I mentioned earlier, J.K. Dobbins, he's not free, but pretty close to it. in the backfield as you we've kind of beat this horse dead but yeah he's pretty he's an automatic click for me if he's still sitting around especially if i have r j harvey but even if not like j j k daubbins could easily get over a thousand yards this year with that with that um offensive line he's going to get it i he may get volume on all three downs um especially if r j harvey's having problems with past protection and then you know why not have some fun with

bill all bill all the time let me load up the adp screen so we can look at it while we do it um i think the guys the two guys that interest me the most if i could just preload them on every team is the outside of the top 100 if i can get charbonne and if i i can get tooting i feel pretty good about my running back room like as long as i didn't completely fuck around and leave myself like an empty bag if i have two running backs before i get to that point so you know someone in the first through third and then someone a little bit later and then i'm like okay time to time to clean this up time to tidy this thing up a touch uh if i get Charbonnet and then Tutin I'm like there's the upside there's this stability because

every time Zach Sharpernay started he's a hit it's a big hit so those are my two guys I think that'd be fun to preload those guys on every single team but there's your there's your guys that are going a little bit behind in 100 in that range Naji Harris down there at 142 Chuck if you I'm surprised didn't go after go after that and we might all be singing the records of Quintan Junkins later in the season whenever he's just like being a badass like week six or seven but I don't know we'll have we'll be in the same boat I guess so I don't know who the guy the guy is that's just screaming from the mountaintops to take Judkins at this point yeah that's going to be a hard one to figure out if he does sign I mean at the time we're taping he hasn't but uh yeah who's gonna who's going to steal that backfield somebody going to do it yeah i don't know how much there is to gain but somebody has to all right that is our running back preview any closing thoughts on uh on the position this year um before we before we step off and head to the wide receivers

draft derrick henry don't don't just don't honestly like fading derrick henry last year felt fine fading sayquan felt horrible like watching him you know so i vividly remember sitting watching i think it was monday night football week 14 and i was it was down to the wire and i I was watching the, I can't remember who they were playing. And I remember going, all right, as long as he doesn't score another 40-yard touchdown, I'm going to win this league, they did. But I never had that feeling with Derek Henry last year. There was no, like, massive, weak winning league tilting performances.

It's going to happen again. You're going to be fine. You're going to be fine. I just remember watching Sequin do that and I remember all the discussions we had last year and I didn't really have to bring it up because it was out there for all to see you know like every week you felt it

and I did have them in my auction league and it was good feeling man he was cheap he's not cheap anymore and that's when you want to get him before they the year they do pop and maybe that's Jemir Gibbs this year who knows yeah

fuck there cannery all right on to wide receivers we go see on the next episode