The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - Week 3 Fantasy Football Running Back Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1715)

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Chris Welsh, Pat Fitzmaurice, and Andrew Erickson are breaking down Week 3's biggest running back ranking differences, engaging in debates, and highlighting the expert consensus for Week 3 Don't miss our deep-dive into this week's rankings, must-start options, and value plays to dominate your fantasy matchup! Timestamps: (May be off due to ads) Intro - 0:00:00 RBs 1-12 - 0:03:28 Jordan Mason - 0:03:52 Better Help - 0:07:51 RBs 13-24 - 0:09:11 Ashton Jeanty - 0:09:27 James Conner - 0:13:25 Kenneth Walker - 0:16:35 Omarion Hampton - 0:20:46 FantasyPros Premium Offer - 0:24:17 RBs 25-36 - 0:24:38 Isaiah Pacheco - 0:25:00 TreVeyon Henderson - 0:28:36 Cam Skattebo - 0:32:14 Outro - 0:34:55 Helpful Links: My Playbook - Sync your league instantly to My Playbook to get custom advice on how to manage your team throughout the season. See your league’s top available players, power rankings, and more for free! Check the “Are They Playing” tool each week to get the latest game-day availability odds for all injured players. If you’re premium – you unlock all kinds of helpful waiver, trade, lineup and league analysis tools. You can even auto-start your team’s optimal lineup each week with Auto-Pilot. Sync your league and dominate every week of the season with My Playbook at fantasypros.com/myplaybook or on the FantasyPros App 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 Better Help - Unwind from work and the stresses of life with BetterHelp, the world's largest online therapy platform. Our listeners receive 10% off their first month when they go to betterhelp.com/fantasyprospod 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 I-Heart 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. What's up, friends, and welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football Podcast, week three running back ranks. I'm Chris Welsh, and of course I am joined by Andrew Erickson and Pat Fitzmorest as we are going to be going through the top 36 running backs according to expert consensus ranks on Fantasy Pro's ECR. We're going to talk about some of the biggest names, hopefully answer some running back questions ahead of time that I know you guys are going to have, where ECR is moving. And I can tell you, things are a moving.

friends. We have a running back that we're going to talk about here in just a second. That was like 17 a day ago and moved all the way up to 12. So we have some high flying stuff. Hopefully we can catch all of it. And sometimes you wish we were talking about it off air, Erickson, that like, what some of these moves happen a little bit later in the week so we could take advantage of it. Jordan Mason on the betting front. But there's going to be some fun running back things to cover. Do you think running back feels weaker this week? Or do you think we've had some questions answered over the last two weeks that build a little bit more confidence in who you're going to be starting. Do you know what I'm saying?

And I'm alluding to like there's a Ken Walker situation last week. You know, Mason's a little bit more clear. Maybe you feel better about Warren. Do you think there's more clarity in our backfields or do you think there's as many questions as we went into week one with? Well, we have one less crowded backfield because Aaron Jones is not going to play. So that's why we like Jordan Mason. So we did get something out of the way. So that was one of the backfields where it's kind of muddied.

You know, it's one A, one B. well, now it's just Jordan Mason, Sisson. Like, that's what we have here. So I think maybe some more clarity. I think we're getting more confidence about some of the guys that showed out in week one, whether it's like ETN or Dobbins or Javante. Like they're starting to really separate themselves from those other running backs in those respective backfields.

So you can feel more confident about where you start them and also where they're being ranked now compared to last week and even before in week one where we still weren't sure how the back that was going to shake out. But with two weeks of a sample size, I think we do feel better about some of these particular backfield. Although the Seahawks backfield it's still it just continues to look like a headache. Everything clarity

maybe except if you're a rookie running back. And Fitsy, hopefully we're going to be able to tackle some of these questions because are you ready for the onslaught of rookie running back, who'd you rather's this week? Because I'm going to tell you right now, we're going to talk about Hampton, we're going to talk about Trayvian Henderson, but I mean, the

top end of running backs are disappointing. The bottom end cheap guys have kind of played. We're going to be inundated with a gojillion questions about what we do with rookie running backs this week. And hopefully what we do here, Fitsy, is going to, like, answer some of those questions, right? Yeah, we're going to bring a few of them up, Welsh. And I think people are wondering if this year's running back class was oversold based on how it was touted and it's collectively off to a really slow start. But I would encourage people not to give up just yet and don't be dropping. So you don't think it's oversold?

No, I don't. I think it's a really good class. And I think, some of these guys are going to hit before long. All right, well, let's see which ones are going to hit. We'll talk about them. You guys want to follow along. Go to Fantasypros.com slash rankings. Also, you could just do it throughout the week if you want to see the ups and downs of some of these players all the way up until kickoff. You can check this out.

And there's lots of cool features on there, whether it's you can check out projected points, how they score versus their projections. If it's an A, B, C type of matchup that's out there. And you can even click on the players' names to get more insights like, you know, which specific rankers have these players. other formats. Just go check it out. It's very cool. Fantasypros. com slash rankings.

And that is what we are looking at today. kicking off the top 12 running back, starting with number one, Bijon Robinson. Bejohn, not Bejohn. We now know. We figured that out from this week. He wants to be called Bijon after saying it was Bejohn.

He's going up against Carolina. We got number two, Christian McCaffrey, Sequan Barkley, Derek Henry, Jonathan Taylor, James Cook. That's your top six. Followed by Jemir Gibbs, Bucky Irving, Josh Jacobs, Devon A. Chan, Chase Brown,

and Jordan Mason. This was not the board. We were going to be doing about 12 hours ago. 12 hours ago, we have a guy that just got booted from the top 12 for Jordan Mason. And we were going to be talking about him in the middle of the RB2 range. The news of Aaron Jones has some of the new rankers submitting. And this is pushed Jordan Mason in as an RB one this week. You two gentlemen agree.

Fitz, you've got him at seven. Erickson, you've got him at 11. So Fitz, you're the high guy. Let's start with it. top seven back this week. Jordan Mason, unquestioned. No, Aaron Jones. Only Cam Acres is sitting out. So let's hear you're all in on Jordan Mason. Yeah, Aaron Jones out. He's on IR with a hamstring injury. That pretty much leaves this backfield to Jordan Mason. I know the Vikings signed Cam Acres. Re-signed Cam Acres to their practice squad. I don't know if Acres is going to be active

on Sunday, but if he is, probably not a lot of work for him. J.J. McCarthy is out. Carson Wendt in a quarterback for the Vikings. I think there's a good chance. Jordan Mason gets 20 or more carries this week, and you can run on the Cincinnati Bengals. I don't know how much you want backup quarterback Carson Wence, dropping back to throw when the Vikings are missing two key offensive linemen. Christian Dara saw their left tackle has not been able to return from his 2024 knee injury yet.

I don't know if he comes back this week, probably not. Viking Center Ryan Kelly. got a concussion last week and he's got a pretty worrisome concussion history. So I doubt he plays this week. I mean, if you're worried about your offensive line, you would have run more than you pass. Back up offensive linemen, I think you worry about less in the running game than in the passing game. So I really do think this is going to be a run heavy game for the Vikings and it sets up really well for Jordan Mason. Yeah, the context too of like having a quarterback, you know, a new quarterback come into.

the offense. And I mean, the Niners kind of dispelled it. I thought last week, it was like, maybe you don't want Mac Jones to throw the ball a whole bunch. You want to go to McCaffrey? Nope. They did that. I could definitely see that. But if anything, if they were to pass the ball, it's going to just probably create more of an efficiency side for Jordan Mason. And he just looks great. Like, we're all look at him, Erickson. We're like, just give him more carries. Well, guess what? He gets the carries this week. You've got him at RB1. Yeah. He's been one of the few bright spots, I think, in the Vikings' offense over the last two weeks. Like, he's added a lot of juice to this offense when he's gotten attempts. And again, he hasn't seen that much volume, but now the,

the volume floodgates are opening up for him with Aaron Jones out. So efficiency-wise, he's been top 10 in rushing yards above expectation through two weeks. And just to point out the specific matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, their run defense, specifically against inside tackle runs, 32nd in the NFL through two weeks. Travis E.T.M. was running wild against the Cincinnati Bengals on these inside runs. Jordan Mason, 5.2 yards per carry running inside this season. Yeah, I think it's Jordan Mason all wheels up, but I think that he can be used as a three-down bell cow. I mean, this is a reason I went out and got him.

Like, the Vikings did not draft a running back. They went out and traded for Jordan Mason because, like, this guy we can lean on. We saw what he did without McCaffrey last year, second the NFL in rushing yards before his injury behind only Saqueline Barkley last season filling in for McCaffrey. They know what Jordan Mason can do, and I think they're going to feature him.

And hopefully this does give this answer, because I would predict one of the biggest questions this week is going to be these big names, Jordan Mason or. Like, I'm looking at this, even in the consensus above, it's going to be Jordan Mason or Chase Brown. I don't know. Do you guys, just real quick, do you guys have Jordan Mason above Chase Brown this week? Yeah, I do.

Okay, so I agree. And then you're going to start getting like the Devon A. Chan's versus, and I think it becomes a question if you go like any crazy too higher. But like, hopefully this kind of helps in a comfort level for everybody. Because I know you guys are going to say some big names or Jordan Mason. and a majority of the time it is going to be Jordan Mason. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. We turn to some funny places for support, but not everybody is a therapist.

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provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Find the one with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Fantasy Pros Pod. That's BetterHelp.help.com slash Fantasy Pros Pod. 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 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. And we were thinking I'm originally calling it

one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers. 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,

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Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClace on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Let's look at RV2s for this week, starting with number 13, Ashton Genti, Travis EATN, James, James, Kyron Williams,

Brees Hall coming in at 18 as Alvin Camara, followed by Giovante Williams, Ken Woffie. at 20, Chuba Hubbard, Tony Pollard, Marion Hampton, and Jalen Warren. Ashton Gentie was the player that was bumped out of this. He was ECR 12 before Jordan Mason jumped in. And I think a very common question, Andrew, is going to be that do I start Ashton Jenty or Jordan Mason? And I think the clear cut answer based on your guys' ranks, clearly right here, is that it's Jordan Mason.

Gentie comes in at 13. You've got him at 16. Fitz has got him at ECR. You are a little bit lower. There's a lot of questions about Genties just, I mean, it looks decent when he's out there, but it's just overall efficiency. Dude can't pass block. You're going to have to get him out of pass blocking situations whatsoever.

They just can't get anything going. So what's your level of excitement outside of like, yeah, he's numerical 16 this week? What's your optimism on Ashton Gentie? I think that it's kind of lukewarm. I don't think that he has looked terrible as a rusher. I think that he's been as advertised in terms of his tackle breaking because every time that he touches the ball, he has to break a tackle. because he's not getting much front from a blocking perspective from his offensive line.

So I do want to mention that the Raiders were missing an offensive line in their Monday night game. Jack Powers Johnson did not play. So if he comes back, that's a boost for their offensive line. But I mean, when it comes to just tackle breaking on rushing attempts, he's third in the NFL in force mistackles. Bejohn, J.T. and Gibbs are the only other guys that have more force mistackles than Ash and Genties. So that was his calling card at the college level. So he's doing his job, at least from a rushing and breaking tackles perspective now, like you said, the pass pro could use some work.

He's still making some rookie mistakes. There was a play where Gino kind of went to hand off the ball to Genty, and he was going the other way. And then what do you know, he wasn't in on the next drive because they're like, all right, dude, you got to get, you got to figure out the play call. So I think that he's going through some growing pains as a rookie. And I don't think the commanders have necessarily been a, as bad of a run defense as they were specifically last year.

But where they have been bad this year is in the red zone. So I think Jentee can still find the end zone. I don't think the Raiders are just going to not score any points, especially if they're going up against a backup quarterback in Marcus Marriota. I think Jenny's going to get a lot of opportunities and he's going to see a lot of touches. So I think that the volume is there, but probably more of a floor play this week than super high ceiling.

We just need Jenty to get a soft defensive matchup before we really think I see him have a breakout spot. I mean, two of his matchups so far this year haven't been necessarily great. But I think you've still got to be patient with him. I think that there's enough volume where he'll be a floor play. I think the frustration is coming from like I'm a little surprised. I just thought he'd be used more in the passing game. Like just get him into some open field,

especially if you can't block. And I think that's where the frustration of the upside kind of lays. This is not a trade show, but I think we probably are going to agree, like, for the most part, like, he's just an ultimate bylaw right now. Like, I think there's just a lot of, like, negatives that are, all these rookie running backs, there's negatives built around, but Genties a little bit different because people, you know, getting sold on the idea that he could be the number one overall player, uh, A, he hasn't looked like it, be the offensive line stinks. You can't trust him in third downs. And he's not to be involved in past, in the passing game a ton.

If some of those start to alter soft defenses being involved in the passing game, that's where you know, like he is breaking tackles, he can be an explosive player. We're just waiting for it to happen. And hopefully it does. I think we're all buying. Fitsy, what do you think about Jente? You are a little bit higher. You're right on consensus. The volume really isn't the big question with him. It's just about, like, what does that volume end up doing? Doesn't help when Gino Smith throws like 1,200 interceptions in a game. But what do you think about Jenty? Yeah, I mean, I don't think anyone should be freaking out over Gentie's slow start. Like, yes, he's averaging 2.7 yards per carry. he's averaging half a yard per targets.

But as Erickson said, the Raiders run blocking has been pretty shabby so far. They rank dead last in FTN's adjusted line yards metric. And that's the biggest reason I'm ranking Genti outside the top 12 at running back this week. But do not doubt Ashton Genti's talent. Like he really is terrific. Well, as you said it, we've seen the tackle breaking ability. You know, and the contact balance is really his special sauce. They're big days coming.

maybe he has one against the commanders. I mean, it's not a soft matchup, but it's definitely not a matchup to fear either. So you got to just keep starting this guy. You guys have some questions, though, about ECR running back number 15, James Connor. James Connor coming in at 15.

You guys both hand in hand are saying 22. So, you know, it's not, you didn't boot him or anything like that, but you do not see, I think when your top like 15, 16, you're kind of like must start. When you start to get into the 20s, I think people can start to find

some justification fits. What's got you down on James Connor? Yeah, I'm, I'm surprised Erickson is so bullish. Normally, he's pretty good at, you know, wetting a finger and holding it up to see which way the wind is blowing. And, yeah, maybe not in this case. Because we are seeing James Connor lose work to Tray Benson. And Connor played only five more snaps than Benson in week two. Benson actually ran more routes than Connor in that game. I just don't know if we should still be viewing Connor as a workhorse. Like this might be more of a split backfield. It seems like things are starting to tilt a little bit in Benson's favor. Not that I think he's going to overtake Connor, but maybe it's more 55, 45, 45, 50, 50, than it has been in the past.

Plus, the road match up against the 49ers isn't an especially easy one? So yeah, I'm a little cool on Connor this week. Yeah. Well, Erickson, not bullish. Same rank as you. So 22. What do you think, Erickson? Well, yeah, I was originally higher on James Connor, and it was actually more of just like an overlap from last week when I went out of a limb and like put him really high against the Panthers.

And then he's a great matchup last week. And then he just did not deliver. And part of the route was just because the Panthers like had the ball the entire game because they just kept turning it over to the Arizona Cardinals. So, but that goes into why Connor needs to be viewed more as a RB2 than an RB1 because the last two weeks he's been RB20 and RB25 and half PPR, despite playing the Saints and the Panthers. Two really great matchups for James Connor, which is why I like drafting him and draft season, because, man, this guy has a perfect layout to start the year, easy matchups, and he's just been kind of okay to the first two weeks. His efficiency actually has not been then great in terms of success rate. Fitz outlined how they're using Trey Benson a little bit more. I thought it was kind of interesting.

Trey Benson took over that entire two-minute drive, which is why his receptions and routes run were so significantly higher than James Connor was. So again, yeah, Connor is going to get touches. he's going to get goal line opportunities still in this offense. But this is the toughest run defense that the Cardinals have faced, yes, with the 49ers. And when you look at them top and bottom, the only thing that we really struggle with is like quarterback scrambles. So you might see more Kyla Murray rushing around versus James Connor ripping off these big runs because we really haven't seen that for him through two weeks. So maybe showing his age just a little bit as an older running back. And Tray Benson has looked explosive.

So Connor definitely a more of an RV2 play. Yeah, I throw out too as like a contextual move 49er thing. But like the Niners are probably more likely to spy Warner on a Kyler Murray, which creates opportunities for McBride because when Warner was not doing coverage, Joanne Johnson was kind of eating the Niners up a little bit. He had a couple big drops when they were just putting safeties on him. So if you're going to put safeties or like an Upton Stout or something like a nickel corner on McBride, that's actually a really good opportunity for McBride this week because I would assume they're going to spy. So just as a little aside there had nothing to do with Connor, by the way, but it just made me think of that. We had to talk about this guy because how one week has completely changed. Not completely, but it has changed like the tone of how we talk about Ken Walker. We were out in week one. We're kind of back.

ECR is 20. It's adjusted itself. It was actually, I believe 17, just a day ago. He's moved down to 20. Both of you guys are higher than consensus. The snap percentage was worrisome. It was low. But what he did when he got his touches was big.

So, Erickson, you've got him at 16. Fitz has got him at 17. what's your level of com. I mean, your rank speaks for it, but like, where are you at in an actual level of confidence with Ken Walker this week? I think you've got to trust the talent with Ken Walker

because from a workload perspective, we have no idea how the Seahawks are going to deploy their players. I mean, have you ever seen a box score where the leading ball carry had 15 carries for 10 yards and the other guy had 13 carries for over 100 yards?

Like, that is just, that is absolutely bogers. You have one guy running for over 8 yards of carry and then one guy below one. And by the way, and by the way, if you then blindly showed the snap percentage and then the stats, you'd be like, what? Like what? I just throw that out there. So, so really, it's really hard to project exactly what the touch workload is going to look like, but we do know the Seahawks like to run the football. I think that Charbonnet and Walker are going to get enough touches where if one of them is efficient, then that player will be a good play in this particular week.

And that's what we saw from Ken Walker. The Seahawks we're talking about. We want to run more of the outside zone. That's what Ken Walker. Walker is best at, and that's why he thrived in this past matchup. So I think that's still the right move in the right direction to go into because of how well he's been running in the outside zone. So I like this particular matchup for Ken Walker to expose the defense he's going up against versus Charbonnet, who I don't think fits nearly the type of scheme that Kubiak is running as good as Ken Walker does.

And so even though the snaps were in favor of Charbonnet last week, and that is always a concern if Sharbonny's out snapping him, how is Ken Walker going to score as many points? Well, you're just, you're just banking on an explosive player that fits his rushing scheme, hitting on a few big plays. And that worked last week. So, I mean, Ken Walker's first in the NFL and success rate through two games. I think they're going to continue to feature. Again, if I had to make a bet on who's going to probably buy more snaps this week,

and it would probably be Ken Walker if they go back and watch the tape, like, yeah, we probably should get Ken Walker the ball more. Yeah. And Fancy, I think of anything, it's just like, I feel like we know a little bit more. Like we saw him be, you just wanted to see Ken Walker be successful. Is he going to be the primary guy? No. You just feel like we've got a better grasp of what Ken Walker is and what is a pretty good matchup here. Is that kind of a relative push to where you've got him ranked? Yeah, I mean, there were so many questions in our fantasy pros discord last week about Ken Walker and getting out snap 30 to 21 by Zach Sharbonne in week one. But I told people like I think it was largely related to Walker dealing with some foot soreness in August. And the Seahawks feeling enough confidence in Charbonnet is a really good number two, or, you know, at least the one B to Walker's one A, that they could like give him more snaps in a game and not fall off as a result. And I think that's what we saw. But like Walker was plenty busy in week one, like 21 snaps and he touched the ball on 13 of them and either carried the ball or ran a route on 19 of them. And then last week we saw him do a terrific job. Erickson said it. The Seahawks got that outside zone going last week, and they just ran over the Steelers with Kenneth Walker.

I think it's still going to be a two-man backfield this week. I kind of expect something close to 50-50. And even though Zach Charbonnet didn't play well against the Steelers, I don't think we should read too much into that. Like, I've still got him ranked running back 30 this week and a really good matchup against the Saints, where the Seahawks are favored by more than a touchdown at home. should have a run-friendly game script. So I think Walker is a must start this week, the Kubiak running game. Like, I'm a big believer in it.

It's just a really good spot. And I don't think Charbonnet is a bad play either. Oh, Omerian Hampton, you come in at ECR RB 23, the last one we're going to talk about in the RB2s. Fitsy, you've got them at 23. Erickson, you've got them at 26. I think there's just a lot of frustration, a lot of stuff on, like, you know, on film, too, that people look at and they're like, what are we doing here?

Fitsy, can you sell us a little bit on Marion Hampton? You mentioned at the top of this show, just underperformance just in general from the rookies. Naji Harris getting a little bit more involved. Much confidence level on a Marion Hampton. Yeah, I'm going to say it's a hard case to make. Well, like my circle of trust with running backs in week three goes about 22 running backs deep, and I've got Omerian Hampton ranked RB 23. I'm still bullish overall on Hampton.

But it's fair to be concerned. about his week three outlook against a pretty tough Denver defense. Hampton ate eight carries for 24 yards against the Raiders on Monday night. Didn't look good. Coffed up a fumble late, although the NFL wrongly charged the fumble to quarterback Justin Herbert. They should not have. That was clearly a Marion Hampton's fumble. The snapshot for Najee Harris went from 18.5% in week one to 34.5% in week two.

but I do think Hampton investors should be patient. At least prepare yourselves for the possibility of another lackluster game from your rookie running back. But that said, I still think Hampton is a terrific prospect who eventually gets going. Erickson, what's your take? What do you think here? I mean, this is a bad matchup, snap percentage going in the wrong direction. Stats are going in the wrong direction, fumble. To me, it has everything that you don't cut.

Just get them on the bench and don't let them do it this week. That's kind of my take on it. think I'm going to have Hampton very high because I think you probably better suited taking some shots in some other directions, especially with the defensive matchup. I'm not saying you're doing that. You got him at 26. This is still like relatively close to startable range. But what do you think? He's definitely something I'm trying to find other alternatives than starting on Marion Hampton to some of the points that fits laid out. Just the optics of the situation haven't been great. And the thing that's most frustrating about Hampton and why we were excited about him was this was his

chance to really take this running back role and run off with it. Like he was teed up because Anagy was a non-factor. They're all training camp through the first couple games. Like this is Hampton's backfield. Well, he had his chance. He had a shot and he blew it. Like he like didn't convert. He didn't end up making the type of statement to take over this backville that we thought that he might be able to do as a first round pick taking out the running back position. The other thing in the issue is with Greg Roman, he has been really involved in the passing game, which was one of the bigger things he did at UNC, and Greg Roman is kind of doing the same thing that he's done in past offices where he's not having Justin Herbert check the ball down to his running backs.

And honestly, I don't blame him, because Justin Herbert is really fun to when he throws all these wide receivers making big plays down the field. And then when Herbert's not doing that, Herbert's running with his own legs, which is also contributing to the fact of the lack of a target share for these running backs. So I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see even more of Najee Harris, unfortunately. And it goes back to kind of like, I think our consensus take beforehand was that Najee Harris was going to be in the thorn. to the side of Hampton. But this was all before the eye injury thing kind of happened.

And then we kind of adjusted our expectations. Well, it's like, well, no. Now he should be teed up to start the year as the guy. And now I think we have to go back to what we thought before. The injury happened with Najee Harris and his eyes. So, yeah, I think he's going to be frustrating to start the next couple weeks. But hopefully he can turn it around. RB's 25 through 36 are RB3s coming up.

But first, dominate your fantasy football league with fantasy pros premium now available, free for six months when you deposit and place your first wager on one of our partner sports books. This is the easiest way to get access to our top fantasy tools all season long. Don't miss this opportunity and go to Fantasypros.com slash premium to get started. Our final RB's here, starting at 25, we've got J.K. Dobbins, DeAndre Swift, David Montgomery, Bill Kroski Merritt, Nick Chubb. Coming in at 30 is Isaiah Pacheco. Remandre Stevenson, Trevionn Henderson, Quinchan Jutkins, Zach Charbonnet, Bayshund, Tootin, and Cam Scatabu.

Slow it down a little bit here. Isaiah Pacheco. Let's talk about the Pacheco here for a minute. He's actually, he was 29. He's moved down to 30 on this list. You guys are a little bit split on him. I still see nothing that makes me feel good about. I'm just going to continue kind of holding my take on Pacheco the entire way through.

But Erickson, you are the positive one. You've got him at 29. Fitsy, you've got him at 33. Let's get the positive take on Pacheco for week three, Erickson. I mean, is that rank really positive? I mean, I heard it myself say it, like positive, air quotes. It's very relative to, you know, what the expectations are very low for Isaiah Bacheco. This chief's offense is still looking like it needs answers and it needs guys to step up. I don't think that Pacheco has necessarily looked nearly as bad as his box score would suggest it is.

They talked about on the broadcast of the chiefs and evil. game that the team feels like he's back to having similar juice he had prior to his leg injury. So I don't think that the team is totally like, all right, we're ready to commit to Kareem Hunt as the bell cow because we know that's not going to happen. Like, Kreme Hunt's going to have his role. He's going to stumble around, pick up some yards, maybe score some touchdowns. I still think they want Pacheco to be the same guy that he was again prior to the injury. And I think this is one just based on the matchup. I mean, the Giants have given out the most rushing yards per game allowed this season through two weeks. So it's almost kind of that now or never.

if Pacheco is ever going to turn back at the clock, he's ever going to show the juice. It's got to be when all the chief receivers are hurt, Patrick Holmes leads the team in rushing. They need answers, and Pacheco has to be that guy. So maybe we see it on Sunday night. I would love to see it as someone that was investing into Pacheco

having a couple of dynasty spots as well. So I think that he's worth the flyer. That's kind of why I'm quote unquote bullish on Isaiah Pacheco. But again, sometimes you just got to lean into those matchups, even if the running backs are underperforming because sometimes it's as simple as, well, he faced the Giants and they can't stop. the run. So, yo, Pacheco.

Erickson's just sitting here in his white dress talking to R2D to just be like, help us, Isaiah Pacheco, you're our only hope. This is it. Well, if, real quick, because I want to get fit to stake, just because you said that, if he fails this week, is he a top 36 running back the following week? I don't look at the matchup. Don't even care about the matchup. I don't care about that. I think he's, I mean, unless Kareem Hunt is the one, so only, unless Kareem Hunt's the one that, like, takes advantage of the Giants match up. I'm saying he gets his 10 carries for 34 yards this week against the Giants.

I think he's just, I think he just cut him. Okay. That's what I, that's why I wanted to jump ahead of. Yeah, exactly. All right. Fancy, you've got him at 33. No, sir, 27. Oh, yeah.

You know what? I apologize. I looked at that completely wrong. That's my bad. He's ECR 30. Erickson had him at 32. Fitsy, you are 27. That is my bad thing.

So you get a little bit more of the positive take on here for Isaiah Pacheck. Yes, it is matchup-based, which is why if Isaiah Pacheco does face plant this week, yeah, we have big concerns about that because the Giants, they rank 32nd in DVOA against the run. Jacori Kroski-Mert, averaged better than eight yards per carry against them in week one. Giovante Williams looked like pre-injury, pre-knee injury, Javante Williams against the Giants in week two. Like, this is a get-right spot for Pacheco. So yes, if he does not get right, you have reasons to be concerned. I love that. Actually, now you kind of fired me up a little bit.

I'm kind of fired up about like this is get right situation. Going to be paying attention to him in the prop market. And at least there's more confidence like if you needed to start him. All right. Another rookie that we've been talking about, Trayvion Henderson. Trevian Henderson in ECR is now ranked below Remandre Stevenson this week. Comes in at ECR 32. Fitsy, you've got him at 33 a little bit lower.

Erickson's a little bit higher. Fitts, I want to get your take on Trayvian Henderson. As you do it, though, who is higher? Henderson or or Stevenson for you this week? Oh, Ramandre. I think he has to be. I mean, he played, what, 20 more snaps than Henderson? Actually, I've got them side by side. Side by side, remandre one spot higher. And that's how the, that's exactly how ECR and the ranks is going as well. Yeah. And maybe it should be, if anything, I mean, it should probably be a bigger gap in Stevenson's favor. Like, pass protection was really one of the selling points for Trayvion Henderson as a prospect. Like, he's good at it, even though he's not a big guy, or at least he was in college,

but he's really struggled in that area so far. I wonder if it might keep his usage down early in the season until the Patriots are convinced that he can capably protect franchise quarterback Drake May. So Henderson only played about 32% of New England's offensive snaps in week two, about half as many as Ramandre, and the Patriots gave 10 snaps to third string, running back Antonio Gibson. So Henderson had just five touches last week. I don't fear the matchup against the Steelers,

whose run defenses looked really bad so far this season, including against Kenneth Walker last week. But until we feel more confident about the workload for Trayvion Henderson, And it's real hard to just keep throwing them into your lineup. I think you've got to make other plans this week. Yeah, I think one of the big selling points, Erickson, you tell me if I'm wrong here, and maybe this is based on your rank at all,

is that one of the things the Steelers have definitely been doing is giving up explosive plays to like explosive backs. And that's something that Eric, that, say, Erickson, that Henderson definitely can do. You can see him as a guy that can bust out a 40-yard run, and maybe that gives the upside. But a lot of what Fitz was laying out kind of, makes me feel that direction.

What's your positive, you know, take on Henderson being a little bit higher than ECR? Leaning into the explosive element, like you alluded to. You know, if we had just played the running back, we played the more snaps before they faced the Steelers, then we would have played Jack Charbonnet over Ken Walker last week. And that would have been the wrong take. So why, why? So after one week, Ramonje, week one looked terrible. Week two, he looks fantastic.

You look at the Steelers, again, they're bad against the outside zone. Like, that is where they give up the plays in space. the broadcast, all I talked about with Trayvon Henderson, get this guy in space, get this guy in space. That wasn't needed necessarily against the Miami Dolphins. I think they're going to need that against Pittsburgh Steelers. When you look at the outside zone runs this year, Henderson, 5.2 yards per carry outside zone or outside the tackle. Ramandre Stevenson, 1.6 yards per carry.

So I'm kind of like afraid to buy into Stevenson because what if he puts up a Zach Charbonnet S stat line where he's not the one that's efficient because he's not ripping off the explosive plays. Now, we had some against the Miami Dolphins, but a lot of that was on inside tackle rushes, not necessarily out in space. Whereas, to your point, Welsh, the Steelers were getting gashed by explosives. Like, that's what Trayvon Henderson. That is who he is as a guy.

That's what he's used best at is generating explosive plays. He hasn't done that two weeks into his NFL career, but it's there. Like, so I think that they're going to see what the Steelers put on tape and realize, oh, man, like we put Henderson out in space, like they're not going to be able to stop this guy. So I still have Henderson ranked over Stevenson this week just because of the matchup specifically. Final running back we're going to talk about. I think it's a super fascinating one.

And it's kind of why like when I talk about the like clarity and the rookie thing, but the clarity thing of like, you're just having more guys. You feel your confidence level is rising up outside of, you know, maybe the travions and stuff. Is a guy like Cam Scadaboo?

Cam Scadaboo, we kind of thought this might be later. It took over as far as carries by by a wide margin on Tyrone Tracy. I think a lot of people are ready to, I wonder if we're too early on it, but people are ready to anoint him as the starter. Comes in at 36. Looks better than Tracy in general.

I'm kind of done with Tracy. And you guys tend to agree. Erickson, you've got him at 33. Fitz, you've got him at 35. Erickson, why don't you hit us with Cam Scataboo? The usage last week is enough for you to be able to put him in as like a flexy type running back, correct? Yeah, because I think that he has, at least from what we saw,

if they get into the red zone, he's going to get the rock. so that has touchdown equity attached to it. Again, you can move the ball on the chiefs with Malik neighbors as your number one wide receiver. And I mean, he still catches dump off passes and he's a bowling ball when he gets the ball on his hands, whether it's a rush, whether it's a pass. He's going to try to get every single yard possible. So you're going to get everything you hope for with scim with Cam Scadabo.

So that's for me. Like, yeah, I think that he's in that conversation of, again, the matchup is not great. Like the chiefs are one of the top tier run defenses. So that's always a concern, especially. when you are the Giants offensive line and we don't know if Andrew Thomas is going to play. So it's definitely a stretch, but he's definitely someone that you want to have on your roster and someone that I would definitely rather start than Tyrone Tracy. By the way, isn't it unfortunate?

How many times do you think he's called scam all the time? Like I call him, I do the same thing like scam badaboo. Like the you just, you can't do it. Cam Scataboo and it just, it's scam comes out. It's a really unfortunate name that's putting out there. But we'll go with bowling ball. Fitsy, do you think Cam Scataboo, aka Scam, is the backover tie run Tracy starting in week three?

I do, and I think the hostile takeover of the Giants backfield began last week. Skadaboo led the Giants backfield in snaps, carries, and routes, and he looked really good. Like, he had 11 carries for 45 yards and a touchdown, which does not include a 12-yard run where he absolutely trucked one of the Dallas defensive backs, only to have that run called back by a penalty. also had a couple of catches for 12 yards. Tyrone Tracy is returning kickoffs for the Giants, which strikes me as kind of a tell that the Giants see him as the number two. Like the only reason I don't have Scatibu in my top 30 this week

is because of the matchup against the Chief's defense that's always tough against the run. Well, if you guys got more questions, which I know you were going to end up having, if we didn't answer it here, A, you can go to FannieSteroS.com slash rankings, and you can check out where the rankings adjust and move. around for your start and sit stuff. But if what we talked about didn't answer your start

and sit, we've got a YouTube live for you where we are literally just sitting there for an hour doing your start and sit questions Thursdays at 3 p.m. Eastern, every Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern. So those on the pod go to YouTube.com slash Fantasy Pros. And if you subscribe, you can make sure to put on notifications. So you do not miss that. Those are your week three rankings. Hopefully we hit everything you guys want for Pat Fitzmoreson. Andrew Erickson. I'm Chris Welsh. And good luck this week. And we'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros. 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.

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