The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - 2026 Fantasy Football Running Back Rankings and Tiers (Ep. 1967)

Episode Date: February 21, 2026

Join Joe Pisapia, Andrew Erickson, and Jake Ciely as they break down the Top 50 RBs in early consensus rankings and highlight players they are higher or lower on than the field! Timestamps: (May be off due to ads) Intro - 0:00:00 RBs 1-12 - 0:00:54 Trophy Smack Giveaway - 0:14:32 RBs 13-24 - 0:16:02 RBs 25-36 - 0:25:51 RBs 37-50 - 0:37:41 Outro - 0:40:03 Helpful Links: Hard Rock Bet - All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for Hard Rock Bet and make a $5 bet and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if you win. Head over to Hard Rock Bet, sign up and make your first deposit today. Payable in bonus bet(s). Not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in FL. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital, LLC, in all other states. Must be 21+ and physically present in AZ, CO, FL, IL, IN, MI, NJ, OH, TN or VA to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling? In FL, call 1-888-ADMIT-IT. In IN, if you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9-WITH-IT. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER (AZ, CO, IL, MI, NJ, OH, TN, VA).  Follow us on Twitch - The team here at FantasyPros is taking questions all week, every week on Twitch. Follow us on Twitch at twitch.tv/fantasypros and never miss a stream! Discord – Join our FantasyPros Discord Community! Chat with other fans and get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed. Come get your questions answered and BE ON THE SHOW at fantasypros.com/chat Leave a Review – If you enjoy our show and find our insight to be valuable, we’d love to hear from you! Your reviews fuel our passion and help us tailor content specifically for YOU. Head to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts and leave an honest review. Let’s make this show the ultimate destination for fantasy football enthusiasts like us. Thank you for watching and for showing your support – https://fantasypros.com/review/ BettingPros Podcast – For advice on the best picks and props across both the NFL and college football each and every week, check out the BettingPros Podcast at bettingpros.com/podcast, our BettingPros YouTube channel at youtube.com/bettingpros, or wherever you listen to podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football Podcast. It's me, Joey P. Joe P. Zipia.

And we are here for another series of our early ranks. We're going to look ahead to the expert consensus of 2026. Yeah, we know it's early, but it's never too early to have some debates and some conversations. And to say what might be right and what might be wrong about some of the rankings. And to help me do that, Andrew Erickson and Jake Sealy from the Athletic are back again. to have it out with the rankings and see who's right and who's wrong. Well, that's for you to decide at the end of day because you're going to be drafting these teams.

Don't forget to follow us here on Fantasy Pros on our YouTube channel and subscribe wherever you get your podcast as well. Gentlemen, we've done the wide receivers. If you missed that show, you can go back and watch it here on a YouTube channel or just listen to the show as well. So now it's time to break down the running backs because it was a running back Renaissance in 2025. Will it continue in 2026?

Ah, that's the question. So let's jump into the pool with two feet here. And let's start at the very top of tier. one, number one, bejean Robinson, no doubt about that. Nobody's really concerned about that one. Jamir Gibbs at number two, no surprise there. And then at number three, 30-year-old Christian McCaffrey coming off four thousand touches in 2025.

Now, I could be exaggering that slightly. I might not be, I'll let you guys decide. Number four in tier two, Jonathan Taylor, start off with a great season that unfortunately Daniel Jones got hurt and the Colts went south, way, way south in the AFC South. Devon A-Chad at number five. We'll see what a new head coach wants to do with Devon A-chan, James Cook, at number six. The Forgotten Man in drafts last year, except on all of my rosters, because he scored too many touchdowns in 20204, so he couldn't possibly be any good in 2025.

If you listen to the noise sometimes, you go deaf. Instead, just draft James Cook at number six. That's right, exactly. Ashton Gendi at number seven, maybe he'll get an offensive line this year for Christmas. O'Marian Hampton at number eight, and then Tier 3. You got Sequam Barkley coming off a year, where. he was being drafted as a very highly rated running back. And as I told everyone, anyone who has 400 carries in a season,

and never finishes as an RB1 the next year. Nobody wanted to listen to me. Unfortunately, he didn't finish as an RB1 last year. But he is back in that tier again this season. Chase Brown at 10. Jeremiah Love doesn't have a team, but that doesn't matter because the experts say he's going to be a top 12 RB and that Josh Jacobs at 12.

So let's start with Christian McCaffrey. Andrew Erickson, we've had a lot of early. discussions about this. He is ranked number three, but where do you have him in your early ranks? Much lower than the consensus rank of RB3. I have met RB10. It basically is my way of saying that if you're using my rankings that you just won't draft Christian McCaffrey in 2026. And I'm okay with that. I think that the stats that you brought up, Joe, in terms of the carry amount, it's really insightful. And that's something that I followed. I did my own research too with it in terms of just looking at the running back that led the NFL in touches one year the following

season. They don't ever fully finish as RB1s. Last 13 running backs to lead the NFL and touches. Only one of them was a running back inside the top five the next season after seeing at least 400 plus touches. Chris McAfre is coming off 450 total touches, including the postseason. So yeah, could be wrong, could get burned. This could be the year, the outlier where CMC has a resurgent back-to-back RB1 finish. But I trusted the process with this with Saquan Barclay. After he had the league in touches, Josh Jacobs the year before that, just don't want to draft these guys.

And then the other thing, too, is I felt like McCaffrey this season, even though he did force a ton of mistackles, let the NFL enforced mistackles. I felt like his rushing efficiency did fall off a little bit in terms of how effective he was. George Kittle, he's going to miss time to start the year. We cannot overstate how impactful George Kittle is. It's a blocker for this offense.

And we saw his rushing. splits. Again, during the beginning of the season, that's when McCaffrey was really struggling as a rusher. Kittle was out with one of those early season injuries. So for me, I'm just going in a different direction at running back in the top of the first round. All right. Let's get to one of your guys here. Ashton Genty, the ECR has him at seven, Jake. You have them a little lower. You have an 11, which feels conservative, but I think I understand why, which is you're looking at a rookie quarterback. You're also looking at a rookie head coach and an offensive line that's still very much a work in progress. What else can you add to this pile here for Ashen Genti to be a little bit

outside of the top 10? Yeah. And if you were watching the video and trying to figure out how far I could roll my eyes back into my head, you can jump over at the athletic and jump in the comments about the CMC discussion for a completely different one. Oh, no, no, no, you have them at one. Is that one? Oh, no, no, I don't believe in numbers in reality. Oh, no, I do believe in numbers. Are we really going to do this again? We've already done it once before. Like, like, I brought my receipts with me. I got a receipt so long. It's like CVS style. And I got the same receipt back. Ricky Williams, Ladanian Tomlinson for seven straight years, CJ2K, Tiki Barbers. You threw guys before the year 2000. They are all after 2000. Nice try. No, no, 2000 end. You didn't let me finish. I'll say what.

I will name three guys for every one you can if you want to play. That's not true. That's not true. Because you've already ran through it. I have it. I have. No, I've got my list. Aaron Foster, Clinton Portis, Tiki Barber, C.J. 2K, Lidane and Thomas from Ricky Williams, DeMarco Murray bounced back two years later with Tennessee. Everybody always talks about the not the year after, though, not the year after. And it's the year after is such a crutch. And it's the top five is such a crutch. It's like, what a surprise, a generational season doesn't get repeated this. Why? Because he's still an RB1 and RB8. Chris Harris. Why? Because are you bringing the crutch argument back? Yeah, because Arby.

Murray in 2014, Eddie George 2000, Sean Alexander, 2005, Larry Johnson, 06, Jamal Lewis 2000, Corey Dylan, 04, Edger and James, 2000, Curtis Martin, O'4, Ari and Foster, 2012, Amon Green, 2003, Jamal Lewis, 2003. Shall I continue? Yeah,

because Aaron Foster, on my list, you picked the last year, Larry Johnson, on my list, on my list, you picked the last year, Ricky Williams, on my list. Not the last year, the year, the year that they had 400. They had 400 before that, like, and that's the point. This is my point, is like, we, You can go both ways.

I'm not saying my way is right either. We already had this discussion in this argument is you can pick. If you can pick which side you want, it's just, I think the takeaway here is like, whatever, we're going to do the same thing as we did after this season. It's going to be like, it's going to be confirmation buys. At the end of the year, Christian McCaffrey gets hurt, Christian McCaffrey sucks. It'll be like, ha, ha, I told you. If is Christian McCaffrey- Okay, what about the age, though?

I don't care. Because, LeDaney Thomason did it forever. Christian McCaffrey is not the same touches. He's not the same kind of touches because I was going to say, this credit to Andrew in one thing. He is right. The rushing stunk, but that's not where Christian McCaffrey's value lies. That's what saves him. So I'm not worried about the 30 because he also doesn't have the touches that some of the other ones have. If we're not talking about Derek Henry and Derek Henry's been fine. So all that being said is the biggest thing is that I think people make in the industry

as a mistake. You might be right. I might be right. The biggest thing is if you go into this process understand like, we don't take the value at the end of the season and be like, ha ha, that's what I was right. You have to understand like the process of why you understand the risk here. So Christian McCaffrey, I do not have as my RB1. I don't, I went to RB3 mid round. John, you and I did the draft. We talked about it. I have wide receivers in front of him because I am associating a risk.

Sure. So what is your McCaffery? I mean, this isn't the guy we're going to talk about with you. Right. Since we're doing it. We might as well. We might as well. I think that ship has sailed a long time ago, my friend.

Well, we both have Chase Brown, so we don't have to spend the most time on him. Good. So, Chris McAfrey, where do you have him in your RB ranks? I have my three, four or five, but I am a seventh overall. Give me a three. Because that's what I'm saying. Three, seventh overall. Okay.

So if Jonathan Taylor gets a quarterback, I'm taking Jonathan Taylor and I feel better about James Cook just at this juncture in his career than I do about McCaffrey at the juncture in his career. Schedule-wise of the 49ers. So the kiddle point, I think is really astute. I'm with you. Hold on. And this is where I'm with you on this. So I have Bijan and Gibbs.

tier. McAfee, Taylor, A. Chan, Cook, Hampton, Barclay, Henry, you might even get Williams or Gentie. And that's my, I think, you set me up, Joe. This is what I'm so glad about, because if you disagree, that's fine. Because just take whoever lasts the longest towards the end of the first round, early in the second round, because the value with all those guys is going to be so tight that I don't have a problem if you really hate Christian McCaffrey. And that's what my takeaway is going to be. Like, if you hate them, fine. I agree with you. Take Taylor. If you hate both of them. If you hate both of them, take James Cook, take A-Chance, take a Marion Hampton. They're all going to be within the range of each other, and that's the biggest thing here. Can we talk about Ashton Genti? So he's not

going to be in the range of these guys. He's not going to be in the range. I know, this is why we goes, because you pulled it all the way back around. Jake and I have been friends for 15 years. Too long? This is just what we do in real life. Way too long. Way too long. Ash and Jentie, why do you have him so low? What's wrong with you? I hate Ashton Jentie. I hate the generational talent of All the yards after contact through the first three weeks, the guy actually had 103% of yards after contact. Let that sink in for a second because he was averaging negative yards before contact. He's still finished with nearly 90% of his yards after contact. And I understand we have Colt Miller coming back.

He didn't play most of the season. But Parham is a free agent, their best guard. We need to see that they address the offensive line more than just saying, hey, let's hope Colt Miller stays healthy and just swap par him for another player because they're probably going to still be bottom third of the league. And maybe not bottom, actually the bottom three teams, but maybe bottom 10, like 10th worst. And in that case, you know what? What did I bring up to you the other day, Joe?

I think Sequin Barclay on the Giants final season is a great comparison for what the potential is for Ashton Genty on the Raiders. It's still potentially going to be really bad. The volume offsets it. he was just 0.1 percentage points behind Jonathan Taylor and Arby Touch percentage for number two in the league, only behind Taylor. So the volume's already there. Coopiac's going to give him the same volume. He's not going to give him 93% of the touches. So I look at the offense, hopefully being better. But it really just comes down to that volume. We have to also see the offense taking uptick for Ashton Jenton to get inside the top five. So right now I have him in that tier with Carmen Williams and Derek Henry and the next guy we're going to talk about and even Barclay. But I can see him getting out of this. here higher if the Raiders make the right moves this off season. All right. Andrew Erickson, I need you to talk on this show more.

Chase Brown. I'm just saying back to join the show. Give me some popcorn. Let's go. This is classic Sealy piece of P. This is what we did. Jake and I did a show together five days a week for two years. I'm sorry.

So this is that those are the best days of my life, Jake Sealy. Award winning. I still didn't have hair then. Yeah, award winning. Frequent listener. Frequent listener, Andrew Erikson. That's right. That's right.

I'm also sorry. All right. Yeah, maybe we should make a formal apology. San Andrew, an edible arrangement. All right. Chase Brown is number 10 on the ECR, but you've got him a little bit higher, Erickson, talk about why you haven't an RB7.

Well, when Joe Burrow finally came back into the offense for the Cincinnati Bengals last year, even before he came back, when they got an influx of any type of good quarterback play in the form of Joe Flack. If there was a Joe under center, it was good for Chase Brown, RV seven and points per game

from week seven onward at 18.3. And then when we saw Joe Burrow return to the lineup, 20.6 half ppr points per game, RB3 from weeks 13 through 17. So Chase Brown, as much of a league loser he looked like after you drafted him in the second or third round, Joe Burrow gets hurt. It's a total disaster.

In the second half of the season, man, he looked like a league winner. Like he was dry, like the one team that I actually got to my finals, I had Chase Brown on it because I traded for him before the trade deadline. And he played a big role in kind of moving my team to advance into the postseason. So rush for over 1,000 yards at the first time in his career this past season, finished fifth among running backs, 69 catches, 437 yards. Through the last two years, he's averaged just five, 1,000 rushing yards per season, nearly 1,400 yards from scrimmage,

and during the final year of his rookie contract. I think Chase Brown's going to go out on a high note here and try to cash in on a bigger deal. It's a former fifth round pick. He's shown that he can handle belcal level usage. And I know that the concerns are, well, he was splitting touches and snaps with Samajai P. Ryan in the second half of the season, you know, is that concerning for what his workload could be? And I would acknowledge that. But at the same time, he was getting all this production with Samajai P. Ryan seeding snaps

because Chase Brown is good. He's good as a pass catcher. He's an explosive running back. And I want to buy into that, especially with Joe Burrow meeting the offense on a crappy Bengals defense. It's going to be shootout after shootout just like it was this year. So I love Chase Brown. Well, obviously, it's one thing we know.

Jake Sealy hates everything. So Jake, why do you dislike Chase Brown more than the ECR? Because you've got it at RB12. Yeah, we're on the other sides of this. And it really comes down to nothing that Andrew said it was wrong. I actually love Chase Brown, the player. This really comes down to I have a little bit of a dynesee hat in this thinking of if I am drafting today, I kind of want to avoid the risk.

And I say the risk is what Andrew just said. Samajai Piron was no great shakes, and they continued to use them 35% of the time. 35, 35. It was actually 65, 35, almost down the line when healthy. And not that players can't be productive because my argument for Kairn Williams is that with that workload, Kairn Williams is still a top 10 running back. Why does everybody hate Kairn Williams? So, teaser, by the way.

The thing with Chase Brown that I have is the concern is where I think the difference is is, Kairn Williams has this contract. I mean, I might as well just talk about Kiron Williams at this point. I'm jumping ahead for you, Joe. No, not yet. We're not in that tier. Stop jumping ahead. Then I'll just leave that there and say,

Chase Brown doesn't have a new contract. Chase Brown still has the threat of what is the possible, most threatening free agent running back class we've seen in some time. And I think the Bengals have more important priorities. But what if, just what if they brought a timeshare piece in there? And all of a sudden, we're looking at Kenneth Walker Charbonnet of the Bengals. So that's why it's only because who's in front of them,

Kyron, Gentie, Barclay, Henry Hampton. Has nothing to do with Chase Brown and everything to do with just the potential threat. All right, we'll get to Kyron Williams, I promise, in just a second. I want to remind everybody watching, though, we're giving away free stuff. The Fantasy Football Championship Belt giveaway is here again. And if you want a chance to win this symbol of ultimate fantasy glory,

well, there's one way to do it. And that's subscribe to the channel. Drop your comments below and you could win the trophy smack. Fantasy Football Championship Belt, the number one destination for Epic Fantasy Football Hardware is trophy smack in this massive gold-plated belt is built to make a statement. It's bold, it's heavy,

and it's guaranteed to turn hands in your league or if you can wear it out shopping or, you know, family events if you like. You can wear it to the club, go out there. Ladies, very, you know, very, you know, so the guys wearing the belt in the club all of a sudden get all the attention. Just saying, just saying, guys.

And ladies, same thing. Ladies walk into the club wearing championship belt. Guys just flock to them. It's automatic. So if you want to get that and wear it to the club, Again, subscribe to the channel, drop your comments below. The championship belt can be yours. It's very cool, though.

I've got a couple of them. Jake has none. Andrew's got a few himself. And again, we'll be announcing the winner here on the channel. So make sure you turn on those notifications so you never miss a chance to catch our show. And we can let you know if you're the big winner of the championship belt. I am being exaggerating. I think Jake has at least one belt.

Right, Jake? How many of the belt you got from the trophy smack? I think four or five. I got three. Andrew, got any trophy smack belts? we got to get you one. You also have a chain. I want you. I got to win. And I've got the chain. That's right. Because I'm a multi-time flex league champion. That's right. Because I don't draft 30-year-old running backs off 450 touch seasons. Next up here, Derek Henry at 13. Bucky Irving of 14. Pre-sol at 15. Kyrn,

Williams in tier 4 now at 16. Ken Walker coming at 17. Super Bowl MVP, Kenneth Walker. R.J. Harvey, Cam Scadaboo at 19. Trayvion at 20. Travis 18 at 21. Jvante Williams at 22. Quinn Sean Judkins at 23 and then DeAndre Swift at 24. All right. We waited Jake Sealy for the Kyron Williams. I'm going to set you up. ECR is 16, but you have him at 10. And I hate myself, but I agree with you.

I think he is much closer to 10 than he is to where the ECR has him. You know, the cliche meme joke. Love something as much as fancy people want to murder Kairn Williams value every single year. Like, I have never seen a player more productive in fantasy that people hate more than Kairn Williams. He has never not been top 10 in points per game. And he's actually been top 10 overall every single year and even the top three when he's played the full season. He was just nine. Lockstep with Chase Brown in points per game. By the way, I bring that number up. 64.6% of the touches in the backfield. Chase Brown actually had 7.1.5 because as we talked about,

Smasjy P. Ryan wasn't healthy the entire year. And yet lockstep with him on fewer touches. It's who he is. It's what the Rams offense is. It's what Sean McVeigh is. I don't know how much we have to do this. If Matthew Stafford retired, completely a different story. The offense is now in flux. Who knows what's going to happen? But the same argument where I agree, because I didn't get to chime in too much, but I 100% agree with Erickson under Devante Adams value as that he is a wide receiver one. I am 100% in agreement that Karen Williams still deserve to be a top 10 running back until further notice. Stop trying to make every other running back in the history. You know something else? You know what Sean McVeigh has done every single year he's been with the Rams and less need have done? They've

drafted a day three running back every damn year. And every damn year, somebody's like, this is the one that's going to take the job. No, he's not. Leave Kyron Williams alone. Well, as you said before, Jake, they're paying him, too. He signed that extension. Like, follow the money, bro. This is not that hard.

All right, Breece Hall, Andrew Erickson, you've got some feelings on him. He has ECR 15, but you've got him a little higher. You also have him as an RB1, just like Sealy has Kyron Williams. You've got him just cracking that group at 12. So let's talk about Breeze Hall and your expectations for him this offseason. He's going to be a fantasy RB1 on a team not named the New York Jets. 31 takers, take your pick. What if they franchise him?

Franchise and trade him. No, no, no. I'm legitimately asking you, if they franchise him, like, where would he fall? I'm assuming you drop him. I don't think he's going to play for the Jets. I think he's going to be like, see you. Answer the question. I mean, I think he would hold out.

I don't think he wants to play for the New York Jets. I think that he's done. What do the Jets have to gain from franchise tagging him and then letting him sit out He's 103 talents to have. Anyway, continue. I was just curious, I was just curious how much you would move him down if he got stuck with the Jets.

So if he was on the Jets, he'd probably be around RB 18. Okay. Probably around. Because that's where he finished last year. Okay. And I can't imagine that this, because the thing is he had a thousand rushing yards

to the first time in his career last year somehow. And the Jets offensive line, again, good tackles, like the interior needs some work, but they have so much cap space that, I think the Jets offensive line's not really the issue. It's obviously the quarterback play

was horrendous last year, especially with Fields and Tyrod and just Brady Cook, just an absolute mess. But Paul, we've seen a ceiling with him where he's been a top three fantasy running back before. And the former officer coordinator that was his coach in 2003 when he was fantasy's RB2, well, that guy's in Arizona now.

Arizona needs a running back because James Conner's going to get cut. So I can think of great landing spots such as Arizona, Kansas City, Houston, teams that need running backs that you could drop Bruce Hall in. He's a three-down superstar. We know what he can do in the past catching game. I think he has the top five ceiling. that he's already shown.

So I think he can be a fantasy RB1 as long as he's not on the New York Jets. All right. Now, a lot of people think that Jeremiah Love can be a RB1 right now because they've got him at RB11 overall, but you've got him a little bit lower. You've got an RB15.

So you're taking a little bit more of a conservative approach. Why is that we all think that love is a great talent? I understand landing spot is a lot to do with that. Is it just a place older for landing spot? Or is this just, I've been burned by the rookie running backs one too many times and I don't want to get too excited too quick. It's really more of a placeholder spot. I don't think that we can confidently say,

oh, he's going to finish exactly this when we don't know what team he's on. Right. You know, if Ashton Jentie goes to any other team but the Raiders, that was just so bad in terms of run blocking up front, well, he probably has a much better rookie season. Maybe he's more efficient, but then you could also look at it, well, maybe he doesn't get as many touches on a different offense. So the thing with Jeremiah, I love,

I kind of took this from a wider lens, looking at what I do in terms of rookie running backs taking in the first round, like, where is their average finish? It's RB 18. Like, that's historically where the rate has been. And if you look at last year, Gentie and Hampton, where do you think they both finished points per game? Gentie, RB17, Hampton, RB16. So it is kind of in that range where, okay, I'm going to put him here based on I know he's going to be a first round pick. Like, that's what I feel most confident about, but is he going to have 350 touches? It's a top 10 pick. I would presume that that would be the plan for a player of his caliber.

But, you know, some teams are looking at, we like using committee backfields a little bit more. We don't want to give it because we want him to remain super, super efficient. Does it turn into a kind of willing to play quorum situation? So there's a lot of different ways where this can shake out. And to have him at RB 11, no, I don't think that it's ludicrous based on his talent profile. But I think that, you know, we all get carried away sometimes with, oh, I want to get the rookie running back when maybe the better bet is for him to, you know, have a.

so-so rookie year, and then buy him in year two like Ashen Gentie. So that's kind of how I view love. Again, someone that I could definitely end up. He's going to move in the rankings regardless when we figure out what team he's on. But I just wanted to share from an overarching standpoint where these first round picks tend to typically finish. And RB11 is probably a little higher on that end of the spectrum. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what?

We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's so interesting because the oddity this year, Andrew, in this draft, is that you have perennially good teams like the Ravens and the Chiefs picking much higher than they normally do.

So if he ends up in a spot on a team, I'm going to say those teams specifically, but any of the better teams that don't typically find themselves picking in the top 15, that's very interesting because oftentimes we find these really high end running back of the Bejanne Robinson's

go to a bad team. Ash and Genty, obviously last year, you know, bad organizations, bad situations. There were some really good organizations that had bad years. So that's going to be a really interesting thing to try to figure out our brains too.

I know everybody in their brother is mocking him. to the Chiefs. I just don't see it because I think it's wish casting Jake. I think we'd all like to see that happen. I think it wouldn't be the dumbest thing in the world to be honest with you because at this stage in Mahomes' career, it would be nice to take more pressure off of him. And that's one thing that certainly would, especially coming back from an injury. So I don't think it's the dumbest thing ever, but I do agree with you. I think that's less, I would take the field over Jeremiah Love if you were betting on it. Also, if you're interested, why the chiefs

might be looking at maybe why there's a connection here. So they tried to interview the Raiders running back coach who used to be Notre Dame's running back coach who coached Jeremiah Love and Ingenery and Price. This is where we throw up the shot of Charlie Day from Always Sunny and Philadelphia. And that's my point. They could take price in the second, maybe even the third. So anyway, what I think the biggest takeaway here is everything. So I would rank them higher just on assumption period of who might take them because I don't

think. And you go back to Bejan. Bejohn being a disappointment as the RB2 that year in ADP was RB7 slash eight depending on your league. and that was seen as a massive disappointment, yet he was still top 10 running back in a timeshare because of Tyler Alarer. So I'd say 7-8 is fair on the right team.

The worst-case scenario, I think, is where Erickson has him, but I wanted to bring up the Chiefs. I'm glad you guys did because of one thing, if he does go to the Chiefs, people are going to draft him as like the third or fourth running back off the board, and that will be the mistake. Yes, it will. There's no way we'll stay level-headed after we saw a glad Edward's hilarious.

As a first round, 107. 107 that year. That was crazy. to me. That was, that was so nuts. I was like, oh, cool, he'll be a level-headed when he gets drafted by the Chiefs ninth overall. Bro, when that happened, I was like, oh, cool. He's getting, Clyde-Oers-Layer will be a really cool third round. And it was only because Williams decided to sit out for COVID. That was the only reason that happened. It was nuts. It was nuts. Um, but no, again, hard out if we get to that.

Cam Scadaboo, ECR 19, Jake. You've got him at 26. Is that because of style of play concerns? It's everything. Like, we're, we have Harbaal coming in and Harbaal might. bell cow him or he might say you know what I'm going to do the same thing that worked here with the mix of trial and tracy also because we want to keep scataboo healthy because play style is not going to change we how many times do we have to do this with tibo and cam new and i know those are quarterbacks but you go down the list at any position you want you try to hammer in their head a different way to play the game and i mean Robert griffin talks about it still to this day on his podcast how he wishes he would have just started to slide more and step out of bounds

and even as somebody in hindsight still didn't do it when he played i don't think you're going to change Scataboo going head first juggernaut into everything he possibly can, because that's part of what makes him so fun to watch and such a fun teammate is because he gives legitimately like there is no such thing as 110 percent, but the dude gives 200 percent because he's insane. So that's part of my concern is that it's a timeshare split backfield. He will be the lead. Joe, you and I talked about before last season, just like we called that he was going to take over as the lead this year, 2025, and will be the lead next year. But in front of him, some other time shares, but most of the running backs are clear leads.

And I think that's really why I have them as the rank that I do. All right. Closing out that tier at number 25 is Jalen Warren. And then tier five begins Kyle Menangai, 26 from Andre Stevenson, Rico Dowdell, Blake Corm at 29, 20 power to 30, patiential Tutton at 31, Chuba Hubbard at 32, Woody Marks, James Connor, Aaron Jones, and then at 36, Jacori Croski, Merritt. Andrew Erickson, you know one of my favorite things is Kyle Menongi. He's RB 27, but you've got him all the way that 38.

Why are you doing my dude dirty? What's going on? I don't know where to rank him. That's why. I really can't say anything negative about Kyle Mononga. I'm at 27. Honestly, not a bad number. Not a bad number because when I look at this tier,

I see there are a lot of different scenarios and levers and things that I can pull where I can move Monongai up because, oh, well, this is going to happen to the veterans in this group between Aaron Jones, James Connor, you know, Chuba Hubbard, what's going to happen with him. I guess I'm having trouble pinpointing exactly where I want him because he's not the starter for his team, but maybe I'm getting hung up on that a little bit when it's DeAndre Swift. Just because credit to Kyle Monongai and how excellent he was last year. Again, RB 29 overall.

He doesn't ever fumble. Never fumbled to college, didn't fumble this year in his first year in the NFL. Sixth overall in Russian success rate. He averaged in terms of crossing the line of scrimmage 10.7 miles per hour. Third fastest mark among running backs at least 100. carries per next-gen stats. Look, he fits the offense really well. Ben Johnson trusts him.

Ben Johnson loves him. We know what he can do if Swift were to get banged up. It's really, I guess, how I feel about D'Andre Swift that's kind of holding me back. I was trying to fade D'Andre Swift into the sun last year. And at the beginning of the year, it looked like a good call. But then he caught fire. Both him and Menungai were super efficient running backs. If Swift is coming back, though, how high can I move Menangai if Swift is still going to kind

to be the 1A to the 1B? I don't know if you guys have more bullish takes on women and guys is going to take over the backfield? Is that what we need to get on? Swift is owed 8.8 and they can cut them for basically one. Is he going to get cut? Like that they save over $7 million if they cut them. I think this is one of those wait and sees. Of course.

I think 26 is correct because I think he's a RB3. He's a flex RB right now. if that cut happens and he becomes the guy or it's, you know, they bring in somebody else to handle some of those third down duties, but he's more of the first and second guy and he's the goal line guy too. Look, Monagai's just kind of a tough runner. Like, he's just kind of a little bit more, I think, Chicago style like that you're going to have to get, you know, we get the Chicago style pizza. He's the deep dish running back. You can quote me on that. Bro, he's the deep dish running back.

You can quote me on that one and you can clip this for social media because that's what Kyle Menong guy is. So I think eventually over time He becomes a really interesting asset And I want him to stay in this range personally I don't want him to start getting into that Mid-R-B-2 because to Andrews credit I'm still not sure exactly how good it will be But I think it's a value where it currently is

We'll see how it travels over the off-season here Let's go to one of Jake's guys too Jake you have Tony Pollard here at 38 But his ECR is 29 now Tony Pollard finished the year pretty strong Brattle off the bunch of 100-yard games I know he had some incentives So motivation is

key, but why so down on him this year? Because just like Happy's finger paintings, they aren't any good. He's not any good. Like, it's just, he's Tony Pollard's replacement level. And it worst, I was going to say, let's say best case. Dable's coming in. What does Dable do? He splits the hell out of that backfield.

Like, if it's not Tajey Spears, which by the way started to finally look like Tadier Spears that we had hoped to see and flash towards the end of the season as well before he got hurt, like if that's a healthy situation, what if he's the Tracy and Pollard to Devin Singletary. Like, that's just where I'm already playing this, let alone, what if Daible comes in with Salon and says, you know what? We're actually going to go into free agency and forget Tony Pollard. He's going to now be the Devin Singletary to somebody else.

I just, I don't want a piece of Tony Pollard. I just feel like there's nothing but downside at this point. He's been a volume running back without the volume. He's been no more as an RB3. And that's similar to what Andrew was saying about CMC, is that when he doesn't get 70% of the touches, which would put him inside the top 10, I don't know, almost any given week.

He always finishes an RB3. That's just who he is. And that's why I'm saying this. That's, it's kind of a statement. Erickson, Romandre Stevenson, obviously a debatable player too, because we saw how that backfield New England worked this year. He's ECR of 26. You come from him all the way at 34.

Well, I mean, look, if you want to see more on that, we had a great show. Again, the sophomore seasons of all the rookies from last year, Lequan Jones from NFL, myself and Jake had a great conversation about all these guys. But obviously, Andrew, you're baking in that Travion has a much bigger workload from this ranking. He has to, right? Why? I don't think that. I want him to.

He has to. I don't know if that's the answer. I'm not sure yet. Sell me on it. This is your chance. Well, here's the selling point. The guy that a lot of people compared Henderson to coming out was Jamir Gibbs. What it was Jamir Gibbs rookie season?

It's a whole lot of Dave Montgomery. It's like a lot of Dave. A lot of Dave Montgomery, it is really annoying. And not to say that this backfield is the same, because it's not. But I don't think that they go into year two thinking, yep, we're going to run Ramadre back. We're going to have him play 70% of the snaps. Henderson's going to be used seldom in terms of packages. We're never going to use them on passing downs.

I don't think that's the case. We see a lot of young running backs take steps forward in terms of their pass protection. And especially a guy like Henderson, who was Harold, like, as a prospect coming out, Oh, this guy's so great pass protection, which couldn't have been farther from the truth during his first NFL season where that was part that he struggled and his reason why Stevenson was playing so many snaps. So, and I do think, too, that the playoffs in particular, we know that that doesn't necessarily always carry over. Again, this is winner and go home. Very different mindset versus, okay, we have an 18 or 17 game season to prepare for. If you look at just the last eight games between Henderson and Stevenson, it was closer to a few.

50-50 split in terms of the total opportunities. Henderson was at 46%. Stevenson was at 54%. So that's taking out Stevenson missed some time in the middle of the season. He came back for week 13 for that Giants game. So the last eight games that they played together, it was much closer to a 50-50 split. But if you look at just the playoffs, well, it was Stevenson blowing Henderson out of the water, essentially. So I think that maybe this ranking is attached too much to that in particular, especially like in the championship game when Henderson barely played. look, James White, that's another player that Josh McDaniels coached as a pass catcher. He saw his role grow outside of being a rookie.

And I think that we're going to see more of Henderson. I think that ultimately that's going to hurt Stevens. And not to say that Stevens is going to totally go away because I'm not in love with the Henderson ECR rank either. Like I think that these guys are really tough to pinpoint. But again, when push comes to shove, I got to pick up Patriots running back that could take over eventually at some point. I mean, it's probably going to be, they'd probably be Trayvian Henderson.

So that's at least my take. I'm a little bit lower on Stevenson. All right, Jake, let's talk about Rico Dowell for a second here, a guy that is right now ECR of 28, and you've got him at 33. And you need to throw Chuba into this conversation, too. I mean, both the Carolina guys, because I know you had some feelings about both of them from last year into this year. Chuba Hubbard, ECR 32. You've got them all the way at 42.

So walk me through your takes on those two guys real quick. I don't think either of another answer for anybody. And I know Rico Dattle is upset the fact that he went off in those two games and he looked great, and he looked better than Hubbard at times, which is. part of the reason for Hubbard is in the testament to that fact that they gave him that contract, but at this point is a little different than Carole Williams with the situation of their team and how they structured and everything like that. But point being is Hubbard didn't look good. He was outplayed by Dattle. And then Dattle faded it a little bit. And we saw the time sharing

his back and forth and it's the Panthers being the Panthers. And really what it comes down to Dattle's leaving. He's not going back to the Panthers. He said he wants to find a team that's going to give him all the work. Well, you couldn't find it the year before coming off the season from the Cowboys who went to Giovante Williams coming off 17 injuries that didn't look like himself for three years and gave him half a million more. What makes you think anybody's really going to do that? And like, I hope for him. Like, cool, maybe I'm wrong. Prove me wrong, Doudal. But at the same, I just don't think it's going to happen. I think he's walking to another timeshare. And he's walking into a timeshare that nobody's going to bring him in as the lead option.

Like nobody's out there, these teams that need running backs. And there's not a ton, which is why I brought up the fact that free agency is a big threat to a lot of people because there's a lot to overlap where people could all of a sudden go from when we did our show a couple weeks ago from players that could be like, hey, we're set right now, Chase Brown, and all of a sudden it's a timeshare situation where like love Woody Marks, Andrew Erickson brought it up, said, what if they bring somebody else in because he was remarkably inefficient? So there's a lot of threat to the jobs and I just don't think that'll stepping in anywhere to be the lead option. And I think the Panthers are going to do two things. They're going to see if Jonathan Brooks has anything

left, like because this is now two massive injuries, but maybe he comes back from them. Or they bring somebody in as a significant threat because Hubbard, like I said, he just faded last year and looked nothing like the Hubbard from the year before. Maybe he gets them back on track and this is too disrespectful. And if, Joe, I'll give you the one that we should always do in fantasy too, which was really telling about Giovante Williams and why he was such a good value last year. Do what the team tells you. If the Panthers spend this entire off season and don't address the back field, one, they're telling us they think they can get something out of Brooks, but they're also telling us that they think there's a bounce back for Hubbard. And then this ranking is way too low. that is fair enough all right uh real quick uh Andrew I know you have some feelings Woody marks is it 33 in this grouping here on ECR you've got them all the way of 44 is that because you think he's going to get replaced and if so uh I know Fitsy and I want to replace him with Mike Washington that's the guy that Fitsy and I've been talking about what a good fit for the Texans Washington would be a bigger stronger back is that what you think he just

Woody marks probably just gets replaced in the draft they're going to add some type of backfield competition and maybe put marks more into the past catching role that that's what he was looked at coming out as a college prospect, didn't really play that role in his first year in the NFL, and he was brutally, or as Jake put, remarkably inefficient for Woody Marks. Again, bottom 10 yards per carry, success rate, explosive runs, EPA per rush. Basically, any metric you look at advanced rushing metric, he was in the bottom percentile,

last among all running max and mistackles force per intent. So that's the one to highlight because, yes, the offensive line for the Texans was really bad. Nick Chubb's handholding Woody Marks and a lot of these, really bad rushing efficiency metrics, but miss tackles forced, that's on the running back. Like, you got to make a play and Woody Marks really failed to do that worst runaway at fantasy points versus expectation. He also had a lot of durability concerns. I mean, you look up in, oh, he's back in the blue medical tent, just constantly. So whenever he was trying to build momentum, it was really frustrating because he would never take all of the opportunities he was getting

and really take advantage of it. He's a former day three pick around for it. So he doesn't have draft capital to fall back on, oh, like, we took this guy in round two. We have to have to give him another year, that's not really the case. And the way that things are going to shake out with Joe Mixin, he's probably going to get cut from the Texan. So they just, Nick Chub's a free agent. So they have to bring in somebody to compete with Woody Marks. So I think best case scenario is like they just bring in like the dustiest veteran. I mean, they brought a Nick Chub last year. I mean, if they do that like that's best case scenario for Woody Marks. But I don't think that they go back into this season thinking, oh yeah, Woody Marks is going to be our bell cow. He never had a five catch game.

only had one of a hundred yard rushing game, and that came in the post season, whereas George Jordan and his first game that he plays immediately has 100 rushing yards and five catches in the first game he plays. It was against the Cardinals, so Woody Marks sort of smash. But like I said, he got injured in that game because I just don't think that he's a bellcow. All right. So running backs outside of the top 36, I'm not going to go through the list because, again, these guys are all kind of in that RB4-ish kind of range. But if there's one guy that's moving up for you higher than the ECR, I know, Jake, you've circled Sean Tucker. So let's talk about him. He's

ECR 61, but you've got him at 55. Yeah, this just comes down to opportunity, assuming that as of today, Rashad White's free agent, and unlikely they bring him back with what they have in Bucky Irving, and what we've seen from Sean Tucker, and there's been hope for Sean Tucker before, and we've seen Sean Tucker as the lead on this team and also the time of share on the upside that he brings, and actually, I believe, is a better compliment

to Bucky Irving than Rashad White ever was stylistically, because they differ, unlike Rashad White and Bucky Irving. There's a lot of talk about Irving with his injuries coming back from now shoulder and the other injuries. It's two injuries. We're assuming everything's going to be fine. We're hoping. But all it takes is one more.

And we've seen that Bucky Irving hasn't exactly been a super picture of health. So if he's Sean Tucker stays as like another one where they don't address it, like just kind of bring in a flyer as a third running back and he's the only backup essentially behind Bucky Irving. Honestly, 55 is too low. All right. Fair enough. And for you, Andrew Erickson, Tyler Algier, also a little bit too low.

He is 41, but you've got him all the way of 28, which. which means he's going to a good spot. He's going to go to the Texans or he's going to go to the Broncos or somewhere there where he can make a big impact. My guy's going to get the bag because I think that people are going to view him as a running back with not a lot of tread on the tires, right? He's been in a committee with Bjean for the last three seasons. But don't forget, Tyler Ajeer as a rookie in 2022,

rush for over 1,000 yards as a fifth round pick nearly five yards per carry. Trust me, I was there. I was all for it. I loved Tyler Ajeet because it was him and Cordarole Patterson in the Arthur Smith office. But then the next year they drafted Bijan Robinson. Tyler Asger gets screwed. It's not his fault. It wasn't necessarily a knack against his type of talent.

It's just, yeah, they just happened to find the generational running back that they won instead. And he's been a thorn to the side of Bijan at some times this year, especially in the red zone. So we know Falcons can't afford to give him starting running back money because they have to sign Bijan Robinson into a long-term deal. So I don't think they can justify paying starting running back money to two different running backs. They'll probably replace Tyler Arjeer with either a cheaper veteran or somebody in the draft to spell Bijan at times, but I think Al Jir's going to have a fair share of suitors in free agency, and I think that he's a really talented guy. It's not his fault that he's just been behind Bijan the last three years. All right, there you have it. That's the debate right now. Is anything settled?

Probably not, but we love to hear from you. Drop your comments below. What do you think of the early expert consensus rankings? Who's too high? Who's too low? Who's just right? Drop your comments below. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. You might just win yourself that fantasy championship belt from Trophy Smack. Gentlemen, great job as always. And if you want to on more debates, go watch the wide receiver version of the show or the quarterback and tight end version, all coming on our YouTube channel. So check them out as well. That'll do it for us.

But the story of the game goes on for Andrew Erickton and Jake Sealy from the Athletic. I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time, kids. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts at Fantasypros.com slash review or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash Fantasy Pros.

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