Early RB Rankings: 11-24 + Buy/Sell, Elastic Life - Fantasy Football Podcast

gone for a lot of those. And so I just don't believe that the team sees Miles Sanders as a workhorseback, as a three-down guy who can carry the load. And so my ranking is based on what I expect the Eagles to do as a franchise, as a team that's always been heavy RBBC. He is talented. I mean, I don't think ranking a guy at 20 is, is,

really that bad for a guy who, you know, unless he's getting 265 carries. But I don't think that's going to happen. Yeah, he was, he finished at RB 15 last year, despite the slow start. This is the home, this is where I want Carlos Hyde to go, just for the record. I'm petitioning Carlos Hyde to arrive in Philadelphia. And that would make me feel very secure in my top 12 ranking of Miles Sanders if that would to happen. So I'd move Sanders up a little bit. That, that's such a good place for him. He's just like,

All right. He too great. Carl's hiding in Philly. And he, Miles Sanders was another player like Josh Jacobs that I think there was a confidence level in the rookie running back versus, you know, a guy coming in in his second year. So we'll see what happens there. Was always impressed with Miles Sanders at Penn State and obviously impressed with those rookie numbers. But hey, who else is going to be part of that committee? Todd Gurley comes in at 15.

Mike's got him down at 19, I have him at 16, Jason at 13. We've talked a lot about Gurley, so we don't have to linger here very long, but obviously goes to Atlanta. It's an ideal situation for him, considering the possible outcomes from leaving the Rams. We know the history. It's illustrious. It's great. It's awesome. We know what Devanta Freeman's look like in Atlanta the last few years. And I do worry a little bit about whether we're going to relive some of those.

type of seasons with Todd Gurley, but the opportunities before him on a high-powered offense. So 16 feels fine to me. It feels fine. Oh, man, I feel like if I left a draft with Fournette and Todd Gurley, that will just be the most math I've ever felt about anything. It's probably fine, but you just are not, you will not.

feel like you're reaching for the stars. You're just like, yeah, I've got, me. I know how it feels like Gurley in the fifth round and then I'll feel better about it. I know how it feels. My dynasty team, my two running backs are Todd Gurley and Leonard, four net. I'm like, oh, okay. I'm back to back champ. I'm back to back jam, but, uh, oh, this is a reward, a reward ranking. Is that what that is?

No, this is not a reward ranking. Where was Fournet? Let me see where Fournet was for Jason compared to. Okay. All right. Mike was a little higher. All right. No, this isn't. Number one and two. Yeah, exactly. No, I think that Todd Gurley has plenty left to give. The offensive line last year was horrendous. And they're bringing him in on a one-year contract.

There's no reason not to... Which line are you talking about? The Rams or the Falcons? Yeah, both. Well, they're both bad, but my point is last year, the Rams' offensive line completely fell apart. The health of that line, do you remember at one point, they were trading for guys backups to immediately come into a starting role because they just had nobody to play, and then those guys got injured.

So I don't think all of it was on Todd Gurley last year as far as his efficiency coming down from the years prior. You know, he played 16 games. And I think that when you look at the beginning of the year, how they were really taking it easy on Gurley versus the second half of the year when they said, hey, we got to make the playoffs, we got to go. And they really used him. And he was very good for fantasy. He was a top 10 back during that stretch. Atlanta has him on a one-year deal. Go use the guy.

See what you got. You've got Dan Quinn here, who is, you know, you talk about Matt Patricia needing to win. Dan Quinn, we were waiting every single week this last year for him to get fired midseason. It didn't happen. Edo Smith is a turd. He's not good. Oh, no. Yeah. Shout out to you, my man Rex. Is that our Rex Ryan is speaking right now? No, that was a, good. No, that was a shout out to my bud Rex out there.

Look, Eto Smith is not good. And so they're going to give Todd Gurley the work. What about Turr-Gurley? That's, it's funny. I will give you that it's funny. But no, I think Todd Gurley is going to be. It's up to you, Todd. What you become. A good asset here. I mean, the biggest issue for Todd Gurley was all of his receptions disappeared this last year. Well, Matt Ryan is going to utilize Todd Gurley in the past. It gave me utilized Devont Freeman for years. They lost Austin Hooper. So, yeah, I think Todd Gurley has enough work. I'm not.

That scared of the knee. Maybe that's foolish. But 59 receptions last year for DeVantza Freeman in spite a, you know, despite a very bad year. Wow. Seriously? 59 receptions. I do not remember that. Just 6.9 per catch, though, because they didn't go very, very far. Because he was done. And only 31 receptions for Todd Gurley last year, who is clearly a very good pass catching back as seen the two seasons previous. We talked about it. It might be the right.

exit strategy for the Rams and still a good situation for Gurley for a year. Mike's got him at 19. He's got him the lowest. Say something bad about him for a minute before I move on. Well, I can say that the utilization of the running back was interesting over in Atlanta. They had 11 carries inside the 5. And to put that in perspective, Frank Gore himself had 11 carries inside the 5. Wow. Yeah.

it's going to come down to those touchdown numbers and how often Gurley can get on the field, whether they end up sharing the load a little bit of whether it looks like it does right now that he'll have the majority of it. Damien Williams, Mike, I saw when you were going through your initial running back rankings. Damian Williams is our number 16, by the way. Jason and Mike both have him at 15. I saw you at him at 15, Mike. I hadn't seen your rank yet, Jason.

this is another player. You put, you know, you got those three second year guys that have question marks about their value. And those guys are ranked, by the way, in order of confidence for me, really. I have most confidence in Jacobs. Then it's Miles. Then it's Singletary. But Damien Williams, I don't know. Yes. I don't know what kind of situation you are in where you have confidence in Damien Williams. Well, so Damien Williams, as I was building up the stats and, you know, remembering it.

It was a wild ride with Damien Williams and trying to remember all the intricacies of what actually happened for Kansas City. They go into the offseason. They declare full confidence in Damian Williams. He gets hurt. He starts missing a whole bunch of training camp. And they have Carlos Hyde there. And all of a sudden, the reviews of Carlos Hyde and training camp are absolutely glowing and so glowing that they traded Carlos Hyde away.

Damien Williams comes in as the starter. He finally gets back on the field, is the starter, gets hurt right away, comes back, doesn't seem to have his job, which was strange because, you know, Shady's doing okay and Darren Williams is there. But eventually he does get his job back, and he was actually excellent. He was excellent for fantasy purposes down the stretch of the regular season, and then the freaking playoffs.

Holy crap when he puts up 46 carries for $190.46 for 190. Apologize. 46 for 196 with four touchdowns. 94 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns on 20 targets. He did the Sonny Michelle. He did the Sonny Michelle playoffron? Yes. And what was interesting about it is you look at his actual snaps. When he's on the field for offensive plays, that skyrocketed.

absolutely skyrocketed in the playoffs. In the regular season, he had never seen more than 73%. He saw no fewer than 85% of the offensive snaps during the playoffs. When it was time to win, they went all in on Damien Williams. J.D. McCoy became a healthy scratch. I went with the ranking of 15 because he also could go very, he could go way up or he could go way down. This is all based on the draft. What kind of capital do they spend?

It's too high for me because... What if they don't draft anybody until the fourth round? What if they don't draft running back at all? Then I'll probably come around like you guys convinced me to do last year. But there were five games that Damien Williams was valuable for fantasy owners last year during the regular season. And the reality is the second Andy Reid had the opportunity to bring somebody in, there seemed to be frustration with the injury situation for Damien Williams. I highly doubt that they want to be in that frustrating situation again this year.

So my confidence of putting him there is based on the evidence of last year. I know the playoff run was great, and I have no doubt it's Kansas City. Insert name here as full-time running back, and they belong in the top 15. Well, and what you just said is synonymous for Damian Williams. It's just an insert name here. That's who he is. I've long stood that he's not a very good running back. Are you seriously still holding on to that?

Did you watch the playoffs? It depends on your definition of good, Mike, because if you play five games, if you give fantasy owners five out of 16 relevant games, that's not good for fantasy. I'm not talking about fantasy. We're talking about Jason has held.

onto this. He grasps as he's falling off the cliff saying that Damien... He's not a good between the tackles runner compared to a lot of runners. Is he a good running back? Is he good football play? I'm saying what Andy is saying. He's not a good quintessential running back, but is he super fast? And when you get him the ball out...

on a screen when the whole defense is looking elsewhere. Oh, my goodness, he's fantastic. Look, I, I've got him where you got him, Mike. He had a hundred rushing yards in the Super Bowl against San Francisco. He was awesome in the Super Bowl. He was awesome. I mean, I've seen bad players have great games. I'm not saying he's a bad player. I'm just saying I've seen it before. Between Derek Henry running the football and Damien Williams. They do it differently. That doesn't make him bad. It just is, it's not prototypical.

Mike, you and I have them at the exact same spot. We've both got them at 15 because I think the value for fantasy is clearly evident and is there. And you combine that with the fact that the chiefs only have five picks. So it's a matter of, are they going to use that on a running back? The fact that they only have five says it's going to be more difficult to do. Maybe they signed some undrafted guys or get some older vets like they tried to do last year with Carlos Hyde and shady. We did this all last year. This is all a repeat.

We did all of this last year. He finished RB 35, so he doesn't get that placement in my rankings. That's why. He had a great playoff run. He probably should have been the MVP. He made Mike see visions of what he could have been during the season if he had been healthy and gotten the ball every week. But I'm not doing the same thing this year. That's fine. But then it just sounds like you're projecting Damien Williams to get hurt. No, I'm projecting Damien Williams not to be leaned on. They didn't have a choice but to lean on him in the playoffs.

And right now... They didn't have another option. Right now they're going to put themselves into a position to have another option. Well, and then my rankings will change because right now they just don't have anywhere else they can go. Last year, I was so resistant to him and I just started moving them up and up and up as we got closer to the year because it seemed like he would have that opportunity. And maybe you're right. Maybe it's really more... Maybe it's Burns. Maybe it's Fantasy Burns that are...

Biasing me a little bit. That is totally fair. Look at the final five games of the regular season. Running back 8, running back 16, 64, because he got hurt in that game. If you want to hold that against him, that's fine. And then he comes back, running back 14, running back 4. That's how he ended the year. Yeah, no, you're right. It was just a span, it was spanning eight weeks. Yeah, I was going to say, that was a month-long gap you left out there because he was injured, and that's why he finished running back 30, whatever.

Look, this started off by saying he's a very difficult player to rank, period. I want more information. I need more. I need more from the drafts and I need some more of this offseason. But I get it. Right now, he's a Super Bowl champion and he's the guy in the backfield. Here's another hard player. All right, let's talk about Lev Bell, Levion Bell. Last year finished as the RB17. This was a...

troubling year from Lev Bell, 245 for 789 and 3, 66 receptions, which is respectable, but just 461 yards on them and one touchdown through the air. The toughest thing when you look at his consistency over the course of the year, yes, he finished as a relevant fantasy player pretty much every week, but no, he didn't really give you a weak winning performance ever. I mean, he had one finish in half-point leagues inside the top 10 and