The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - The ONLY Running Backs You Need in Your 2026 Fantasy Football Drafts | Round-By-Round Analysis (Ep. 1984)

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Join Joe Pisapia, Pat Fitzmaurice, and Jake Ciely as they highlight the running backs that you NEED to target in all of your 2026 fantasy football leagues! Timestamps: (May be off due to ads) Intro - 0:00:00 Tailgate YouTube - 0:01:01 Jonathan Taylor - 0:01:59 Ashton Jeanty - 0:05:30 Derrick Henry - 0:09:06 Kyren Williams - 0:15:40 RJ Harvey - 0:18:15 David Montgomery - 0:23:24 Hard Rock Bet - 0:25:33 Rhamodre Stevenson - 0:26:59 Blake Corum - 0:29:08 Tyler Allgeier - 0:31:50 FantasyPros Discord - 0:34:23 J.K. Dobbins - 0:35:01 Chris Rodriguez - 0:36:08 Dylan Sampson - 0:38:59 Helpful Links: Hard Rock Bet - All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet. Hard Rock Bet is giving out $25 Bonus Bets throughout the tournament if a team you bet to win or cover hits a buzzer beater. If you haven’t joined Hard Rock Bet yet, now’s the time to check in the game. New signups can double their winnings on their first ten bets – max fifty dollars. That means if you would’ve won a hundred bucks on your bet, now it’s two hundred. 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 1-833-PLAYWISE. 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. 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 and everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football Podcast. It is me, Joey P. Joe Pee Zappa. Today I've got Jake Sealy from the Athletic and my Patty Cakes, Pat Fitzmorest, hanging out, talking to a little football. And today we're going to take a deep dive at some running backs and give you the running backs that you need for 2026. We're going to go round by round. And what this means is we're going to try to find our favorite target, our best, value in every single round to go through because you have lots of different approaches to your running back position this season. You can go with the early RBs and you can go with the mid-R-Bs or

you can go with some late RBs. However you want to do it, we're going to help you find the path to victory. And I know it's early. I know it's March. And everyone's talking about college basketball, but I don't care. I want to talk about football. And you do too. And that's why you're listening to the show today. So we're going to get after that in just a moment. Don't forget, subscribe to the channel. Drop your comments below. We love having you here on the channel with us of fantasy pros. We're trying to get the 300,000 this year. And speaking of football, if you love football, hit up the tailgate. Again, the tailgate, our new YouTube channel, Tailgate NFL is here for you. It's mostly right now, myself, Debrough, and Andrew Erickson,

just talking ball. We've got some great mock draft episodes on there. We've got some great breakdowns and post-free agency. We've had Jake Celia on. I'm sure Pat's going to come on and hang out with us, too. But we're getting a lot of guests from the industry as well, just for the football world. You have folks from NFL network come on. We had folks from pro football focus come on. So it's going to be a huge channel for us in 2026 and beyond. And it's not really fantasy. It's not really wagering. It's just football. So if you like football, and I know you do, because you're listening to the show, go check out the tailgate right now over on YouTube, subscribe. And of course, ring the bell to let go's ding. So we're doing about a show

or two a week right now. And of course, as we get closer to NFL season and even draft season, we're going to do an even more content over there. So go check out the tailgate. All right, gentlemen, let's start with round one. Jake, you drew first blood here. So go ahead. You get to pick your round one running back. And I'd do a double take because if I had Pat taking the round one running back that we love the most, I'm pretty sure you would have taken this guy.

So I don't think Pat's can have any objections whatsoever. So Celia, let's talk about your round one pick, your favorite guy, Jonathan Taylor. Well, it's a favorite guy for value because if you have the one, two, three pick, I mean, Robinson or Gibbs feels obvious. And there's only going to be, basically, if you're not, drafting inside the top three or four, you're not going to have a play at this one. So I was looking at the next tier. And out of the next tier of James Cook, A. Chan, if you want to throw CMC in there, whatever it might be. I think people forgot that through week 10, Jonathan Taylor was destroying the

running back position. Then it was about 26 fancy points per game, almost five more than the second closest. And yeah, Daniel Jones did play a few games after that before missing the rest of the season. But I think just Jonathan Taylor's upside if we have a healthy Daniel Jones for most of the year. the touchdown equity is going to be there. The touches are going to be there. Everything's going to be there where if people are worried about the volume, I get that that's going to be an argument for if you want to chase these running backs or not. But if I'm looking at this next group for somebody who could get into Tier 1,

which is what we care about. When you're drafting at the back end, middle round of the first, and you're saying what running back can get into that group with Bejohn and Gibbs, I think the obvious and only answer in this group is Jonathan Taylor. And that's why if I have a pick, I'd rather be drafted like 9 or 10 because I feel like he's going to be there. and a lot of people are going to go back to CMC, a lot of people are going to still chase A. Chan and the more touches, now that he has nobody left on that team,

I'd rather just take Taylor. I'd rather hopefully get him as the last of that second tier. All right. I know, Pat, you're probably not going to argue against Taylor, but I want to throw out a curveball to you because we are in the precipice of opening day for baseball as well. Fantasy pros MLB, by the way, go check that out. Anyway, Pat, if Jeremiah Love should be around at the turn,

is he a better investment potentially than Jonathan Taylor due to the fact of age difference, or would you rather have Taylor knowing the situation and what we've seen from a little bit of us all in the fantasy community getting a little too excited too early about rookie running backs regardless of landing spot? Yeah, in redraft, I'd rather have Taylor, and that's even as someone who's maybe more willing than most to invest in rookie running backs in the early rounds. So even if Love went to an optimal spot, I think, like maybe Washington would be a good place, pairing with Jaden Daniels, I would still rather have Taylor.

Taylor. And I know maybe some people are going to be a little scared off that Taylor's production waned a little bit after the Daniel Jones injury. Daniel Jones was hurt in week 14. And from week 14 on, Taylor averaged 3.1 yards per carry. But then again, I think that might have been more due to the defenses that he played. Taylor, like, faced a murder's row of run defenses late in the season. It was Seattle, Houston, and Jacksonville twice during that end of season stretch. I'm not sure that had as much to do with Jones as the caliber of defenses he was facing. I'm totally cool with it. I know Jake is an honorable man and I didn't want to cop out by, you know, or he didn't want to cop out by taking the guy who's 101 or 102 in ECR, but I probably would have

chosen the dishonorable path and gone with Bejohn Robinson. Well, it's good to know who you are deep down, Pat. You know, behind that lovely Midwestern exterior, there lacks, there lies a villain there. very angry Matt. Go ahead, Seeley. I was going to say, don't forget, he faced the Chiefs in Houston before that stretch run, too, Pat, and those are two deals. I mean, like you said, it was a murder to finish that season last year. All right, Pat, let's take a look at round two. Who is your favorite value at the RB position? It's Ashton Genty. His ECR right now is 15 overall. He was just put in such a bad situation last year. The Raiders' offensive line was short on talent. To begin with, they lost Colton Miller to a season-ending knee injury, or

I'm not sure if it was knee. Season ending injury really early in the season. So Gentie averaged 1.6 yards before contact per attempt. The only running backs who had 100 or more carries and averaged fewer yards before contact per attempt were Quintan John Judkins and Chris Rodriguez. The Raiders passing game was a mess. So the offensive environment for Genti just was putrid. They averaged 14.2 points a game. No other team averaged fewer than 16.4 points per game.

Raiders ran the fewest offensive plays of any team in the league. So things are going to be better for Gentie this season. Colton Miller's going to be back. The Raiders signed one of the best centers in the league and Tyler Linderbaum. Fernando Mendoza, I think he's got to be an upgrade over Gino Smith, even though he's a rookie. So it's just even with the fierce headwinds he was facing last year, Gentie scored 10 touchdowns and managed to churn out 1,300 yards from scrimmage. And he had 55 catches.

is. Like there's a lot more meat left on the bone for Genty this year. And I think there's a good chance he gives you first round value with the second round pick. Well, it's funny, Jake, because we're just talking about Jeremiah Love, right, and talking about, you know, these rookies we get excited about and we go from liking them to all of a sudden they go way too high in ADP. And now we're getting a situation where Ash and Genty in year two, you're kind of getting a pass, but you're getting a second opportunity to reinvest in him at a pretty decent cost better than last. year in some drafts too, which I think is interesting because as Pat's pointing out, it seems like Gentie's going to be in a much better position to succeed this year, especially with a new offensive coordinator too. I mean, God, what a train wreck the offensive coordinator situation was last year there with Brian Kelly.

So what are your thoughts on Gentie? Yeah, I'm positive on the, excuse me, the entire Raiders. And Pat knows this because we had a big fun argument with Scott Bogman. And we're talking about Dynasty. If I needed a one-off QB3 for Dynasty, I'd buy Gino Smith for free. because I look at the opportunity, like everybody hated, I know this new team, but to be clear of why everything went wrong with the Raiders last year from the offensive line, from the play calling, from the offense as a whole. So I hate to be like 100% on consensus right now, but

like Beijon through, I'm looking at Barclay at 9, I'm right there. And that means that Gentie's at 7 for me, which I think that if you would have said this this time last year after how much of the disappointment was, you're like, wow, that might feel a little bit lofty. But 12. point nine in what everything went wrong. Like, let's be clear about what Genty was. To go to Pat's point, through the first five weeks, the dude had over 100%. It was like 105% of his yards after contact because he had negative yards before contact through week five. So it's just a real testament to how bad things went wrong last year. So I'm in, I'm in Gentiland. This is what I would actually prefer. You're going to find this out later. Pat and I were talking

to Slack too. We're going to get into like the theme of drafting running backs this year. I'd rather almost double up at the end of first and get another early in the second because of how this is going to fall. I hated the odd rounds. You gave me the odd rounds. It's like, you get to go first. And I got to three and five. And I'm like, man, that just sucks. I don't want any of these running backs.

Well, let's stick with a theme because the guy you picked in the third round is another player who has a new coach, new offensive coordinator, but a little bit more track record than Ash and Genties. Derek Henry is the guy in round three, which I agree with. A couple fumbles and some weird spots last year, which we're not used to seeing from Derek Henry. And also some weird reactions by Harbaught 2 those fumbles. Like, that's Derek Henry. I don't care if he fumbles four times. You put them back out there in the game. It's Derek Henry.

You have them signed here to, you know, extension a couple years ago, too. So talk to me about Henry and this value at the third spot because of somebody who likes to draft early wide receivers, this is typically where I'm starting to look at the running back rooms in my drafts. Yeah, at round three, I'll be in on Derek Henry. I think that's really what it comes down to. If he gets back into round two, I feel kind of iffy, just because we are getting to the point where it almost feels like you're going to be left holding the bag. It's going to be like,

oh my God, it finally is the end of Derek Henry, although he's a freak of nature. So we've been saying that about other players like Mike Evans is a wide receiver. We were waiting for Mike Evans to finally fall off the cliff and he won't. And Derek Henry's just a beast. You bring up all the things we've been talking about as fantasy and NFL watches for the longest time. Why don't you throw out two or three screens a game? You see what happens on like 10% of the 20% of them and he's gone because nobody can take him down when he gets into space because he's a freak. all that will be said, this is a new coaching staff. Mentor's coming in.

I know there's been brave reviews about Declan Doyle, but he didn't really call the plays with the bears. I know Comet, Cole Comet, the tight end was talking him up. But again, he hasn't called the plays. And we haven't seen, I don't really think they're going to do much in the draft because they have other needs. But what if they do? Like right now, I would actually feel better about Derek Henry if this is the roster when they opened day one. Because there's basically nobody behind them and not worried about. Like, Keith Mitchell, I thought was their biggest threat if they brought him back.

and, you know, Roshan Ali and all the rest, like, no, it's still Derek Henry's job. So round three, I'm okay, but we know his ceiling in PPR isn't, you know, the best because just the fact that they won't use them in the passing game. But all that being said, round three, I'm okay. Round two, I would be off this one. Like, if this switched, I would have been 100% with Pat on Gentie. I wouldn't even look twice at Derek Henry if he was in the second round. Pat, I feel like also the Derek Henry equation doesn't factor in enough that the amount

of time that Lamar Jackson missed last year, too, where the offense was just became, you know, extremely predictable and you know you're in a spot there where you don't have lamar you're you're really taking away what sort of offense you can run really and how dynamic you can be on the field so i know derrick henry's another year older do you think round three is still a safe territory for him i don't envy jake and i know jake wasn't thrilled to be dealt the odd numbered rounds um if only knew if i'm if i had known i still would have given jake the odd rounds oh you would actually done on purpose that i know if only jake had known how to how easy it was to bribe you, Joe. Three canoles, and I got my choice of even-numbered rounds.

It was perfect. All-dakes. Dessert for the family, and I was all good, best money I ever spent. Yeah, so I felt like Jake was in kind of a bad spot with Kenneth Walker, Derek Henry, and Josh Jacobs being 28, 29, and 30 overall in ECR. And Brees Hall was the only other option in round three at 36 overall. I just, I think all those guys are a little bit overpriced at those things. So, yeah, Lamar Jackson was hurts. And Henry's still at a really good season. I actually had Derek Henry in a redraft league for the first time ever last year because I had always just, I like running backs generally who catch passes. That's kind of taken Henry out of my wheelhouse and drafts for years. Finally took him last year. It wasn't his best season, but he still took me to a championship game and I got

Bryce purdied or Brock purdied in the championship game against the Bears. I was saying, a championship game Shouldn't you have been Derek Henrying somebody? I did Derek Henry someone, and then they Brock purdyed me back, and I lost a tight one. Oh, my God. I got, in Jake's Flex League, I got Derek Henry to end Bijon in the same week by the same team in the finals. So at least I knew I had no chance. Like, no matter what I did, I was like, well, this is not going my way. I think the biggest problem with Henry is that he became roller coaster-ish last year.

Yeah, but I think that's also because of the health of Lamar, he became roller coasters last year. He was, even before Lamar got hurt the first time, he was, because I had Derek Henry and because you were, we were all like, yeah, Derek Henry, why has nobody wanted Derek Henry in the second round last year? And I had him in a lot of spots. And the beginning of the year was a little bit up and down where it's like, oh my gosh, I don't remember last time Derek Henry got single digits in a game. And it happened like two or three times. He was still scoring eight or nine, but it used to be the year before. The floor was like 14, 15. And last year, it was just that, and yes, Lamar did come into play. But at the end of the year, that that 40 point game, that, that, that, I

kind of help things if you're able to enjoy that. Well, it's a reminder, too, like, hey, Derek Henry's still good at football, and a matter if you're in PPR or half or four, whatever, yards, yards, touchdowns or touchdowns at the end of the day. By the way, I just wanted his fourth rounder. That's what it was. I just really wanted his fourth and a sixth rounder. I tried to steal both.

I just want to make that clear. The age 32 thing doesn't bother you guys with Henry. I mean, I know he's like a different species of human being, but like 32 is the age. That's kind of the age where some guys who have. very, like, productive, Hall of Fame-type careers sort of went over the cliff. Guys like, I think Emmett Smith and

Eddie George, like, this is kind of around the time they lost their mojo. We're definitely close to it. I mean, if he wasn't 6.5-250, then yes. But I feel like even if he loses a little bit of his speed, that's not the area I was ever concerned with when it came to Derek Henry anyway. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.

What's the news, huge news? We create. our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to our... 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 do 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 broke 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 head writer, 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. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, quiz for everybody. What makes a canoli elite? Do you know? This is not a joke. This is serious stuff. Nothing. No, no. Well, it makes a canola elite. I don't like the ricotta. I don't like it. Well, look, there's different kinds and people, you know, the different fillings. But see, when they... I'm sorry, I'm sorry for Italians out there. I don't like the regatta. There you go. No, no. It's ricotta. That's what it is. It's not regatta. You know, I'm from Brooklyn. That's just Italian-American nonsense there. You know, but what makes a... the canoli truly elite is when you get a place that puts the chocolate chips all the way through. You see, when you see a lot of places, they sprinkle them on the end.

Yeah, you see, they pipe it and then they dip the ends. No, no, no, no, no. What you do is you mix the chocolate chips inside of the filling, and then you pipe the entire filling through, and then you do the chocolate chips on the end. That's what makes a canoli truly elite. Last question before we move on, Joe, full-sized or the minis? You know, the minis, because I like the ratio better. The full-size is too much cream.

The shell-to-cream ratio. I don't love them because I don't love like that cheese. No, no, but I will eat the minis. I actually do like the minis. There you go. Put that on a t-shirt. All right, let's get to round four. The guy that Jake likes so much.

So Pat, I assume that's the guy that you chose. Kairn Williams, over the last three seasons, Kiron has averaged 97 yards from scrimmage per game with 44 touchdowns and 45 regular season games. He's finished RB2, RB10, and RB11 in PPR points per game those years. He plays in one of the best offense. in the league with the Rams, designed by one of the best offensive minds in the game, Sean McVeigh. I have been guilty of underranking Kairn Williams in recent years. He had kind of an inefficient

season in 2024. It hasn't always been a metric starling. But man, if I can get a guy in the fourth round who's averaged about 100 yards and a touchdown per game the last three years, and he's going to have the exact same role in a top offense? Yes, please. Kyron Williams, Jake, I feel like every year people making excuses of why not Kyron Williams, but it seems like those excuses have been wrong every single year. I don't know what it is about the Rams, but I joke about this all the time. I have never seen a running back more hated that continues to produce than Kyron Williams. Everybody wants to do what Sean McVeigh does every single year.

Take a new running back, talk them up, and then not really do anything with it. For everybody that's concerned about Blake Horm, guess what, Karin Williams, once again, inside the top 10. In percentage, not number, because this is what the part matters when it comes to everybody worried about Blake Corm. Percentage of his team's rushes from goal to go. He is still top 10. They still turn to him. I know we talk about pass blocking when it comes to rookies. But one of the reasons the Rams trust him so much is because he's one of the elite pass blockers in the NFL and the Rams trust him.

Sean McVeigh has been doing this for eight years talking up Zach Evans and all the other, Gibronies that he continues to draft. Yes, Blake Corum is a good running back. It's a pretty actually above average good running back. But he's not a threat to the workload and the fact that it's not going to be anything more than 60, 40 for Blake Corum. And I will continue to draft Kyron Williams. I wanted him in round three. The fact that he's in round four is criminal. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And look, you always take Corum later too if you want to make sure you have all the backfield, because we know, unlike a lot of other circumstances, the guy who's the backup is actually really good. So he can handle the workload.

And so often we get into a situation we're talking about handcuffing running backs and all this stuff where you're not pivoting from Derek Henry as we're talking about to the next guy. The next guy's not going to do it. But if Kyron Williams should go down, Placorum is going to get the workload and is going to be pretty damn good doing it. So that's one thing to keep in mind. There's certain circumstances where it does matter. Let's go to number five on our list here. Round five. Who was that guy for you, Jake Sealy?

Because it looks like you chose a guy where the backfield we thought might change a little bit year over year. but as of right now, before the NFL draft, it looks exactly the same situation. So I looked at round five, and to go back to my point earlier, I'm not drafting running backs in round five. Let me make that clear, because I'm looking at round five, and I don't want any of them for their value. I'm drafting wide receiver because I've got at least one running back at this point, maybe two. But the point being is I'm kind of sitting out this area. We did this last year, Joe. You and I talked a lot in pre-draft time, talking about rounds five and six looking better for wide receivers or even chasing a quarterback or a tight end, because we get to these.

committees, we get to these time shares, it's questionable situations. And this is what this round is. And I'm looking at him like, you know what? Cam Scadabotabot coming off an injury. Quinchon Junkins, we love the fact that he could be a bell cow, but he's on the Browns. I don't know what they're doing with their offensive line. I know they kind of plug the holes, but they kind of plug them with, you could argue. I'm not an offensive line guy, but I've seen people report that you could argue it's worse than it was last year for the plugged holes. And maybe it's better. Who knows? But I'm looking at it's like, I'll just take the last one. And the last one is R. R.J. Harvey. and only because when we talked about this on the previous show is that he's properly priced at this point.

Like R.J. Harvey with J.K. Dabonds coming back. J.K. Dombins is a threat. J.K. Dobbins was better. It was best of his career before he got hurt. But J. K. Dombins hasn't played a full season and what forever? I don't think his career. So at some point, we could get back to R.J. Harvey, who was an R.B.1 at the end of the season when it was all him. It's just to start the year. That's probably not going to be the case because Sean Payton brought everybody back. and he makes four running backs active on game day. But at this point when we're talking about these running backs, at least I know that, you know, if something happens to, you know, I don't want to give, well, Dylan Samson, we're talking about him later. But if something happened to Dylan Samson,

it's not like Quincy Juckins is going to rocket into RB1 level. If something happens to Tyrone Tracy, Scataboo, just by that injury, isn't going to rock it to RB1 level. He might get it on his own. RJ Harvey of this group is the one where the injury next to him, along with Trevion Henderson and the only two of that, if the injury happened to the other running back, they would get to RB1 production.

All right. So there you have it. Pat, what's your thoughts on the Bronco situation, too? They brought back Dobbins, but obviously I think we know Dobbins' limitations. And typically the limitations, I mean the second half of the season, typically is a limitation for him. So how do you rank or value R.J. Harvey going into this season, considering what you saw out of him towards the latter part of 2025?

This is maybe end of the fifth round is maybe a little earlier than I would be willing to go for him. And yet, J.K. Dobbins, not durable. We know that. But when Dobbins was in there, he averaged 15.3 carries in the 10 games he played last year. And R.J. Harvey was averaging five carries a game while Dobbins was healthy. So I just, I don't know if Harvey showed enough to change Sean Payton's backfield deployment. I think it's going to be a lot like that again. And that makes Harvey unusable. And we kind of didn't get RB1 production from him after. Dobbins got hurt. Like I just didn't think Harvey was very good. He certainly wasn't very efficient. Like in this round, I know he goes eight spots earlier in ECR, but I would rather take my chances with Trayvion Henderson. He has a usage obstacle too. And maybe Remandre Stevenson is a more worrisome obstacle than Dobbins just because Stevenson is more durable. But unlike Harvey, Henderson actually showed out when he got a chance. Like he made four starts and he averaged 103 yards from scrimmage and scored five touchdowns in those four games. So, like, he proved that he can do it if he gets the chance to be a lead guy, whereas I don't think R.J. Harvey really did.

It's good points. Good points all around there, too. The Patriots also seem to be pretty committed to running the football, too, Jake, I'd say. Harvey was RB 7 weeks 13 through 17. That's what I was referencing there. So there's definitely the RB1 upside. I'd say it was more for because he was very consistent in the midteens. But that's the point I was referencing with Harvey once we had the J.K. Dobbins out. and at the end of the year usage. That's the usage. But that's a huge question. I don't disagree that much with Pat. Basically, the tie break between Henderson and Harvey for me was Henderson's the beginning of the round. Harvey's the end of the round. And I just, I don't want to take anybody in this round anyway. So Harvey actually was, I was mistaken. I didn't think he produced like an RB1 post-Dobbins injury. I mean, it's only five weeks, but it was like 20, 12, 20, 16, something like that in that range.

Yeah, I think with R.J. Harvey, part of it is also format that you want them into. You know, like I, you know, in standard formats or even half, I think, you know, sort of look at it the other way a little bit, maybe more negatively. But in the full point PPR, I think there's a universe there. And it's another year older for J.K. Dobbins, too. So, I mean, just put that on the tab as well for him. It's a guy who's had trouble staying healthy. And every year into the NFL career is not make that typically a better situation. I think we've all learned that the hard way over the years of doing this. Round six, let's talk about a guy here, Pat, who has a new location, new address, but it could actually improve his fantasy value. Let's talk about David Montgomery. This is your selection here.

So talk to me about Montgomery in this new situation with the Texans and what it means for his fantasy value. Yeah, I think Montgomery is a solid round six value. Like, I don't think anyone's pulses are going to quicken over drafting David Montgomery. But he's going to be the primary early down back and primary goal line back for the Houston Texans, who are one of the best defenses in the league and are therefore going to provide the offense with a lot of run-friendly game scripts. Yeah, Monty's role slightly reduced in Detroit last year, but that was mostly about the lines wanting to give Jimir Gibbs more work, which is completely understandable. Not so much about Montgomery being ineffective or inefficient. Like he averaged 4.5 yards per carry, 3.1, 3.1,

seven yards after contact per carry. He was just fine. He was the same, David Montgomery, turns 29 this summer. He's getting kind of close to the age cliff, but I'm not going to worry about it until he turns 30. I just think he's really a solid sixth round option. The other guys in this round with ECR were Jalen, Warren, and Bachel Tootin. I don't hate the value on those guys, but I think Monty is a better value. Pat, does this give you kind of the same vibes that we had last year? And I got to give you credit, because you were the one who was definitely on him more than anyone when I knew and took a ton of shares of him and all the mock drafts, at least that we did. Remember Javante Williams last year where it's like, well, it's not really exciting,

but he's kind of the guy. And that turned out to be a really good situation for fantasy managers. Are we in kind of a repeat potentially there with Montgomery? I think Montgomery is going to be slightly more expensive. Okay. All right. People were just not trusting the Javante Williams thing last year. And I think people are going to regard Monty as the clear leadback in Houston.

So I think he's going to be what was Javante? Like, I was getting Giovante in round nine or ten sometimes. He was just, like, so cheap, just kind of on the discard pile. And no one believed that he might be the Cowboys lead back. Yeah, it turned out to be a pretty good return on that investment. That's for sure in 2025. All right, let's get to the rest of this list before we do. Shout out to our sponsor.

And that is Hard Rock Bet. Today's show is brought to you by Hard Rock Bet, Florida's sportsbook. And we talk a lot of football in the show. But of course, it's Pat's favorite timing here. He loves the March Madness. So he's been watching the college basketball like a crazy man, staying up to all hours of the night for everything going on. And if you're like Pat, and you've probably had your bracket busted already,

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We spoke a little bit about a Patriots running back, but not the one that you're going to talk about, Jake. Who is it? No, just the other one. Yeah, Andre Stevenson, just because it is round seven. And I'm looking at the second half, mostly late in the year, especially the playoffs, the Stevenson-Henderson combination. And I looked at the Patriots all season. We talked about this on the free agents.

She showed that you and I did with Andrew. And I was like, you know what they did? They added Reggie Gilliam. And, oh, by the way, they're going to continue to run the bowl. They're going to continue to lean on this backfield. I know they added Romeo Dobbs. And I know Drake May, you could pick a metric out of a hat and he's top five in the league in downfield throwing, which is why Great Romeo Dobbs is a very interesting addition. but they're not going to get away from what also works,

and that's balancing it with the run game. And for everybody that might think, and I'm not saying that people are saying this, some people might assume they're going to see Stevenson's production to be like, oh, well, they probably were giving them all this work. Actually, the worst game he had late in the season was his biggest carry total. That was his worst game. It actually worked better with this timeshare in the backfield,

and that's why, because if I only have one running back by this point, I went wide receiver, zero RB, whatever it might be, Ron J. Stevenson, you can plug in as your RB2. There's going to be single-digit games, but we're talking about round seven, and we're talking about somebody who week in and week out because the Patriots are who they thought we thought they were, who they are, is they're going to continue to split this backfield to give Stevenson touches. I will take Henderson over Stevenson every single time.

I'm not saying that I wouldn't. But if I can get Stevenson as my RB2 and I went wire receiver heavy or zero RB with that weekly 20 points per game or 20 points upside any given week, I'm going to take that as my RB2 position because if I go that strategy with my roster, I'm not looking for a running back who averages eight points per game. I want the one who could potentially win me a week because the difference between eight and four is nothing at my RB2 positions. The difference between 8 and 20, that helps me win that week where maybe I needed some help.

All right. No more Patriots running backs to talk about now because we're talking about both of them there. And look, it is right now too with the way the wide receivers are structured. I think it's going to be a pretty run-heavy team. So Ramandre is a good one. Pat, going back here, we had a little discussion earlier about Kyrin Williams, and look who showed up in Round Aid. It's Blake Corum. And so if you have Karend Williams, certainly Kauram is an interesting addition to your team, and I would say an advisable one.

But if you don't have Karen Williams, I would also say he's kind of an advisable pickup here because something should happen to Kiron. We saw some flashes of Kauram, and we saw them have a nose for the end zone last year, too, that really panned out for us in fantasy in some limited opportunities. that he did get where he was getting that weird time share at certain points. Yeah, I'm not a big handcuff guy in drafts. I don't generally like dedicating two roster spots to a single position on a single team, especially when they're both single digit round picks. This is less about that. It's just about the ceiling, Joe.

And I know some people would have an issue with taking Blake Corm over Chuba Hubbard, who might be the lead guy in Carolina, or Tony Pollard, who might be the lead guy in Tennessee. see those two backs are also round eight picks and eCR the appeal with quorum is the potential upside if kairn williams were to go down we would be ranking blake quorum as a top 10 if not top five running back every week that kairn was out in our weekly rankings and i know maybe there's like a two percent chance that korem actually outperforms kairn and takes over the lead running back role on the merits i doubt it i think there's a a minuscule non-zero chance of that happening but it worst, you are getting a hyper-efficient backup who you can play in a pinch in by-weeks, even if

Kairn is healthy. But again, if Kyrn gets hurt, Blake Korum's ceiling is the Sistine Chapel. It's glorious. And like, I had Tony Pollard in leagues last year. It was terrible. Like, he was, he was RB 32 for the first three weeks. 13 weeks of the season. When he was like, they smelled those incentives at the end of his deal.

All of a sudden, things started to wake up a little bit for Tony Pollard, too. I had Pollard in our in-house fantasy pros league, and I was getting trucked at the RB2 position every week, like getting outscored by double digits consistently. It was terrible. Yeah, I made the finals in that league, too, and I lost a Bogman who Pooka Nakuid me because it was the week before the regular finals. We ended a week early. I could not catch a break last year, man. Just just one embarrassment after another in finals, but at least I got to the finals. I guess that's a good thing. Whatever, losing sucks. Anyway, Jake Seeley, I like the next guy you're going to talk about here in your round nine selection because you complain that the odd

rounds aren't great. But I think this is actually a better one than people realize. I think the value of this player is going to be suppressed quite a bit because there are some other names in this backfield. But I really don't think any of them are real competition at this point for the guy that came in this offseason to the Cardinals. And that's Tyler Algier. Yeah. And I have a lot of great names to choose from, one in this group. Zach Charminet might not play 2006. So I thought about Aaron Jones briefly, but that's the timeshare where, you know, I was surprised.

A lot of people were that they brought him back and restructured. But if you look at that Jordan Mason split, you know, I could see that skewing more towards him. So, yeah, it comes down to Al Jir, who I think can lead this backfield. And they restructured James Connor to keep him around. That surprised a lot of people. But I think the signing of Al Jir and the restructuring to keep. keep Connor around tells us that they have very low confidence in what Trey Benson can do at this

point. We're not quite to the Marshall and Lloyd territory, where his career might be over before it starts because of the injuries, but we're close. Like if they drafted somebody in day three and Benson, Benson doesn't even make this team at this point, it wouldn't be a shock and that really sucks because I know a lot of us, including myself, like that talent, but they signed Al Jure to be the lead. Now, the downside is the passing game, but I think that's why they kept James Connor around. I think they transitioned James Connor at this point of his career into the pass-catching option alongside Tyler Alger to lead this backfield.

If it's only 220 touches and most of them on the ground, sure, that lacks a little bit of appeal and a half of full point PPR, but we are talking about round nine and if James Connor isn't on this team himself. And all of a sudden, we're looking at Tyler Al Jir his rookie season before Bejohn got to Atlanta

and he was a top 20 running back. He can do it. It's not the most impressive, but as a volume play, there's upside where Algear can easily just, if everybody stays healthy, he should outperform this value. And then if something happens to Connor, Benson never comes back, you know, we can see him being a top 24 running back as a probably middle-low on RB2. What are your thoughts about the Cardinals backfield, Pat, right now,

the way it's currently structured with the names that are there? Are you high on Alger? And do you think he's a value here at nine? I do think he is a value at nine. Solid value. I don't know if he's going to leave James Connor in the dust. I agree with Jake that this, the, the, the, the Algier signing does not bode well for Trey Benson's future. Plus the restructuring of James Conner's contract. So I think Alger is going to get a majority or at least a plurality of the running back touches in Arizona. And I do think he's going to give you at least like RB3 value for fantasy. So this is a good spot for him, I think.

All right, Pat, let's take a look at round 10 before we get there. A reminder, too, Pat's doing shows on our Discord. If you haven't been on the Discord in a while or you've never joined. There's a great opportunity to do that and keep that conversation going with NFL all year round. The NFL draft is around the corner. If you go to Fantasypros.com slash chat, it's free to join. It's fun. And Pat and Worm and Pat and Pogs are doing shows there.

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Pat, number 10, it's another guy from our backfield we already discussed. So why is J.K. Dobbins an intriguing selection here in the 10th round in terms of value? Because I think he might be more valuable than RJ Harvey this coming year and he's going much later. You know, just going back to when Dobbins was healthy last year, he was the Broncos primary early down back. And he was giving his investors solid RB2 production. Dobbins got hurt in week 10 through the first 9. weeks. He was R.B. 18. And that was in PPR fantasy scoring, which isn't a great format for Dobbins, since he doesn't catch a lot of passes. He was RB 16 and a half point PPR fantasy points per game.

I just, I don't think Harvey showed enough after the Dobbins injury for Sean Payton to alter his running back usage that much. And Dobbins is good when healthy. Obviously, he is an injury risk. if you're drafting him, like, you can't keep your head in the sand with regard to his durability or lack thereof. So, yeah, you have to insist on a discount. I think round 10 is a suitable discount. All right, Jake, you got one more round to be miserable about it, but I think it's an intriguing selection that you have here because this guy is now a Jacksonville Jaguar. Travis H.N. is now somewhere else. So a lot of people love facial tootin.

But Chris Rodriguez did sign there, has a history with Liam Cohn. And he didn't necessarily sign for the veteran minimum kind of situation, right? There's a little bit more in terms of the incentive. So it's a little bit more complicated of a contract, which maybe points out that this backfield isn't completely settled and it doesn't all belong to Bachel Tutin. I like to think that it does, but I also want to live in the real world. So let's talk about Chris Rodriguez and see if we can find some sort of common ground here about how we should approach this backfield in Jacksonville.

Yeah, he actually signed for more guaranteed money than Giovante Williams and Rico Dattle assigned for last year, by the way, combined, just again and give you an idea. So if you look at the fact of what Rodriguez was given, like, no, I don't think he's going to run away with his backfield. And in this range, around 11, I'm pretty much the choices I had, like, I don't want any of them. I'm going to start taking flyers. There's one other. I was interested to see if Pat took it. He's actually going directly behind Rodriguez. They're down at 166 and 167 undrafted right now. It's Jonathan Brooks because we saw Chuba Hubbard, who by the way, Hubbard might go the Peyton Hillis route. It's going to be one season and they're all like, oh, that was really cool.

They know what happened. That was the only season that made sense. Because if you look at Peyton Hills as in Chuba Hubbard's careers right now, almost identical. But anyway, I'm saying that to say is like maybe Jonathan Brooks is finally healthy. But Rodriguez and Brooks are some of my favorite free ones because, yeah, you brought it up. Is that Rodriguez was given to the contract. He was given the contract to be the lead. And maybe it's me confirmation biasing myself here is the fact that I just think Bayshalt-Tooten is a timeshare piece. And that's not a bad thing. He is more explosive. He's more exciting than Chris Rodriguez. I'm not saying he's not. But I don't think Bayshall Tutin is equipped to ever be somebody in the NFL who's handling 15, 16, 20 touches a game. I think he's better as a complimentary piece. And that's where you get the best out of him. So I think Tutin is an interesting play. But for the fact that he's free and Chris Rodriguez, you could take him around 11, 12, 13 as of right now, he's the lead option, which a team that's going to have plenty of goal line opportunities as this offense has finally turned around under Liam.

Cohen. And yes, Tutin got a handful of them last year. So it's not saying that Tutant can't handle him, but you don't bring in Chris Rodriguez and talk about him the way you do to not kind of give him that role. Could it only, this is going to go back to the other conversation we had early. Could it only be 200 touchdowns and somewhat touchdown reliant? Sure. But what if, what if Bayshall Tutant got hurt in like week three? And all of a sudden, Rodriguez is looking at 16 touches every single week. It's a free play. And the best part about this is when you take these shots this late, waivers come around week one, two, three, and Rodriguez is a full-blown committee in only getting 11 touches, you cut them and move on because he didn't really cost you anything.

All right, Pat, let's wrap things up here with round 12. Who is a guy that you think is an intriguing value at the running back position? I think Dylan Samson might be a worthwhile flyer in round 12. I know we don't like the offensive environment in Cleveland, but as of now, Dylan Samson is the Brown's number two running back behind Quinstein Judgett who's coming back from a dislocated ankle and fractured fibula. And at a minimum, Samson is going to be the primary passing down back for a team that's likely to be playing from behind all season.

Jake, what are your thoughts on Samson? Just that curiosity, do you have a thing on him? I think it's very interesting for what Pat just said. You're talking about the fact that we don't, we are assuming Jekin should be okay, but that's a lot to come back from. And if he's not, I mean, at worst, we think this would probably be like, in my opinion, a 65, 35, maybe 6040 split where Samson is going to be a past catching option. I'm going to see some work.

You have Switzer coming in to run the offense who comes for the Ravens. So, like, I know people are arguing. Well, that means more Judkins. There's Jenkins for Henry. Just people work with the talent they have. It's just somebody who's proven. I say that for Switzer is that can lead a run game and lead a run game well. So they get the best out of Samson and Judkins.

So at a timeshare, that's cool. Round 12, sign me up. If something is where Judkins isn't 100%, then we're going to be talking about. Like, if we knew today, Juckins is not starting the season healthy, not even out the field until like the end of September. Samson would be like around 7-8 pick because people would be taking the chance that we might not ever see Junkins back on the field 100% this year. Maybe Andrew Barry, the Browns GM, is a running back hoarder because I think there were some people who really liked Sampson as a prospect last year. And then he gets drafted by the team that already drafted Quinton Jodkins. and that obviously was a big, you know, splash of cold water on the Sampson stands.

What are you going to say? Like, did Dary and Price round two? Yeah, I mean, I don't know if they're doing that, but if someone they like maybe slides to round four, I could see them going running back again, and then all of a sudden, Samson becomes a lot less appealing. Oh, yeah, then we're just throwing this all out the window. Pat, what do you think about the Jacksonville backfield, too? I didn't get your take on there. So is Chris Rodriguez somebody that you want to target late?

is it just really, hey, we're familiar with this guy. We believe in this guy. And if Tutin doesn't just run away with the job, at least we feel we have some insurance. I get why the prices are what they are. I think Tutin offers the greater upside. And like if I had to cast my lot with one or the other, I'd go with Tutin. But it should be acknowledged for the Tutin advocates that Rodriguez is the inconvenient truth of that backfield. Like, he's going to have a role for sure.

He's probably going to be the goal line guy. but I know in PPR I'm just like Rodriguez is a guy I'm just scratching off my board. I'm not drafting a guy in PPR who averages like one target a month. So like standard and I'm I'm in old fogy so I still play in a couple of standard leagues. Like I might be interested in Rodriguez. The fact that you still call it standard. Yeah. Non-PPR.

Well, that was a that was a whole marketing's ploy by the PPR advocates to refer to standard as non-PPR. PPR, like shifting PPR. But hey, I'm all for it. I'm all for it. It's time to evolve. You know, I remember when I was like 10 years ago pushing the envelope for Super Flex leagues and people looked at me like I had three heads. I'm like, why are we have the guys who score the most are the most important part of the NFL

just floating around the way of wire? It's dumb. What are we doing? Should be super flex leagues. That should be the new standard, to be honest. But, you know, one thing at a time. We have to slowly drag everybody along with us. But while we're doing that, you might.

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