Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Top 15 Running Backs Part 2

We know that Drew Breeze likes to dump it off to the running back because we've seen guys like Travars Cadet have value. Pierre Thomas was led the league in recessions. These guys have Reggie Bush going back. All those guys. And last year they said, hey, we're going to form that squeeze it into one guy. And that's why Mark Ingram was so great. And also I just, I just checked. He actually only played 12 games, not 13. So he did all of that in 12 games. If he is going to play 16. Was it?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, because, yes, week 11 was thereby. You're right, 12 games. So let me make, I've been a little bit, like, because everybody makes the decision on Ingram right now based on your rankings. Mike has him very high. So obviously, Mike is making the decision he will be that back. I am. I have been of the opinion that they will spread it out a little bit more. That being said, they have a small window with Drew Breeze. They don't get to play around. They have a small window to be successful with Drew Breeze before he's not Drew Breeze anymore. So.

If all the confidence is firmly in Mark Ingram, if they don't see anything from Spiller or any of the other backfield mates that Ingram has, maybe he's going to move up for me. If that's what preseason looks like, you go, oh, man, they really don't have anybody else. You've got to move him up because not only did he perform as the RB3. He was weak to week consistent like nobody else. Because of those catches. He caught five balls. And the goal line. He gets the goal line. Yeah.

I like Ingram a lot. Ingram last year helped lead me to a championship. And you saw when Ingram went. Did you win last year? Yes, I did. Thank you, Tim Hightower. But you do have Tim Hightower there again. Should Ingram go down, they re-signed him this offseason. And I think he would fill into that role. So Ingram, to me, is safer than his injury risk, is my point. Yeah, and if you did want to.

uh handcuff him high tower is free right so levy on bell is number nine which is you know saying those two things doesn't make any sense but when you guys suspended for four games he he dumps down the list right now levi on bell is going to miss the first four games none of us have any confidence that that's going to change and so you have to draft levi on bell right now with that in mind look this is one of the hardest conundrums in all of

fantasy football when guys we talked about the all suspended team yesterday when guys are missing games but offer the elite upside of a guy like levy on bell look our mock draft that jason and i just did we ended up with hulio jones in the first lev bell in the second i love that sounds great on paper might really hurt for four weeks well here's the thing that we have to keep in mind with levy on bell you are not getting zeros for four weeks

You are still plugging a player in there. What you're getting for four weeks is a wasted bench spot. And so you have to find some flexible guy. He's got to be able to touch his toes. I was good to say. Some guy who's normally a flex-worthy guy in a good matchup and plug in, you know, find 10 points a week for those first four weeks that you can plug into that position. I'm confident I could do that. I'm confident you're listening to this and you could do that. You could not touch your toes.

No, that I cannot do at all. I can't get close. I can't get to my socks if I wear like high socks. So the combine is going to be, I mean, I am the most. Can you please wear high socks to the combine?

Maybe. Short, short story aside here, when I played basketball in high school, I went to the physical where they lay you down on your back and then they lift your, they say just relax and they lift your like foot up until your knee naturally bends. And the doctor did not believe me. He's doing this to hundreds of kids and he goes, stop. No, you got to let it bend natural. I'm like, I'm just relaxed. And he thought I was bending my knee because it was like it got like.

I feel like 12 inches up. My foot got 12 inches up and my knee starts to bend. Anyways. Impressive. Yes, thank you. Levy on Bell. I apologize, listeners. Levy on Bell, when he comes back, he will, when he's out there, he's going to be the number one scoring running back. He is involved in an asinine amount of plays for the Steelers. He's involved in the runs. He's involved in the past. He is the number one running back to have. If you can.

be confident in filling those four weeks with someone that will help you to, you know, just plug in a couple of points. I think taking him in the second is a very good pick. All right. Let's move on. Let's talk about my man, not Mike's man. Nope. Doug Martin, right now I have him six in my rankings. Mike has him at 15. We need to talk about Doug Martin. Sure. Jason has him at eight. So closer to sanity there.

Look, I'm not insanely high in Doug Martin, but I believe Doug Martin is an elite running back. I believe he's a guaranteed barring injury, a fantasy football number one running back. Doug Martin only had, you know, he had 28 carries for 1,400 yards and 6 touchdowns. He had the most yards after contact of anybody in the league that's more than Adrian Peterson, 9233 yards after contact last season, number one out of 137. That's by a mile. Third place on that, I think, had what?

six or 700 yards, and he's 900 and some odd yards after contact. Doug Martin is a great running back when he is motivated. To me, the question is, will he be motivated this year after having got the big contract? My problem is that Mike's, I feel like Mike's belief in Doug Martin is, or unbelief of Doug Martin is more arbitrary because you have this confidence.

the Eddie Lacey, who had a bad year, is going to come back and give you a great year. You love James Winston. You love the fact that Dirk Cutters running the offense, the Mike Evans. You love Charles Sims. But Doug Martin gets a pass because he was bad a couple of years ago, as opposed to Eddie Lacey, who doesn't get a pass or who, you know, who had a bad year last year, but you have him rated really high. Well, I'm confused. I don't care that just because you had a bad year last year, that doesn't.

That does not completely alter my belief in a player. But if you had a bad year two years ago, it does? Yeah, well, Doug Martin had a bad one two years ago and three years ago. So it's not just one bad year. If you're comparing Lacey to Doug Martin, I've seen greatness, greatness consecutive years from Eddie Lacey. I've not seen that from Doug Lacey. Well, one of the hardships. You've seen multiple great years from Doug Martin. Yes, you have. I've not seen multiple consecutive.

Well, regardless, that's exactly what I said. The Eddie Lacey comparison is a good comparison because we're talking about the slightly intangible thing where you can't see it on film, you're not going to see it, well, you will see the repercussions of it in the box score, but...

It's that contract year thing. Eddie Lacey is coming into a contract year this year, and he's slimmed down and he's looking great. So I think that's part of the reason, that is for me, part of the reason why I believe he is motivated. He's going to fight through injury. He's going to get everything he can. Last year, he was not motivated. He just thought, I'm great. I can do it. I don't need to do anything above and beyond. He was overweight. We need to get back to Doug Martin. We are. We are because. We're not in their heads.

We have, you know, you're not in their head. Sure. You don't know. Eddie Lacey can have every tweet from Tony Horton in the world. We don't know what, he showed us last year what not motivated looks like. Last year, Doug Martin was an elite running back that won people leagues. Yes, and he was. And I also don't like chasing a career year from a guy. Well, that, that's fine. And, like, I don't think there's any, any way Doug Martin.

puts up numbers close. I mean, he was almost five yards of carry. Oh, I think he puts up. I think he can easily do it. Because he only had six touchdowns. He only had six touchdowns last year. I don't see a situation where his touchdowns go up. They saw that Charles. Would you not agree that Doug Martin? I mean, they can go up a couple, but they're in the right median range for me. Doug Martin was the same situation as Mark Ingram. We saw it in the preseason on film. Right. You said, whoa, something is different about the way Doug Martin is playing.

Here's the thing that's interesting. We like Charles Sims. That's the thing. If you had to get, okay, so no, that's what I'm saying. I'm going to counterpoint that. Okay. 1400 yards for Doug Martin. Guess how many of those yards came on first down? Try to guess. I cannot guess. If I had to guess without knowing anything on that, I would say 600? 936. That comes from inside edge. 936 yards on first down. He doesn't need it.

He doesn't need to be there on third down. Without a high quantity double-digit touchdowns, only six, without third down, because Charles Sims has that. He still got 288 carries dominated on first and second down. Most yards after contact. I'm in the Doug Martin camp. And his rookie year, his rookie year, he had 11 touchdowns on the ground. It was the rookie year. He was the only show in town. And that's why we loved him because he was also getting crazy targets. You know who you sound like you're talking about. The guy who crushed on first down, is a two-down guy.

uh it was amazing a couple years ago sounds like talking about jeremy hill okay that's who it feels like okay for for me this year and they saw this should be simple though before i i and this is just fun to talk about we got to move on you have eddie lacey at 11 uh okay you have doug martin at 15 i have i have uh i have uh doug martin at five uh six sure

And I have Eddie Lacey at 13. So, I mean, clearly you're willing to water. I am 100% willing to do that. Waterbed. I thought you were going to try and work some stupid stipulations. I don't need a stupid stipulation. Head-to-head. Doug Martin versus Martin. Yes. And half-point league. Put that in the in the dock. I will do that right now. I'm just going to weigh in and say I actually like both running backs this year.

But I do have Doug Martin ahead. I think he's talented. His opportunity is there. They paid him a ton of money. And so long as his motivation doesn't go away with that money, the team is committed to him. And he's a talented back. And this time of year we often make water bets. If you don't know what that is, we have a little rule around the studio here. You put your, what, you put your water where your mouth is?

Maybe. It depends on what the wheel says. You put it where the wheel says. There's a wheel of water we spin. And if you lose a bet, you have to, which Jason just did, by the way. Lose a bet you get wet. You lose a bet you get wet. We actually put it on a free iOS app if you want to go spin the wheel and send us your videos of watering one another on bets. It's really fun. It's the wheel of water app. And we are getting that onto Android this year. So all of the angry people who want it on Android. Don't you make promises you can't keep in. No, I'm going to do it. I'm getting it done.

But that's a lot of fun. Jason already lost one this offseason because apparently... Oh my gosh. I mean, when I heard the bet, I didn't believe it. I didn't remember making that. This must have been back in like February or March where you... Jason thought that Doug Baldwin's ADP would be higher than Brandon Cook, so I took that bet. Truly, this is a testament to fantasy football players getting better or me not having enough respect in the casual fantasy football player because I thought they would take a look at what, you know...

What Doug Baldwin finished at and just extrapolated and say, oh, you're the best. And that's coming from someone who actually is a Doug Baldwin believer. So good job, people. You got me wet. All right, got to get to the next five guys. Devanta Freeman comes in at number 11. Last year, he was the number one running back in fantasy football. Absolutely won four weeks for their owners. Oh, by himself. Those four weeks, if you had Devante Freeman, I would guess the win percentage is in the 90% for those teams. You can bench your team. Yeah, just.

bench the rest of the game. So, Devante Freeman in 2016, what do we got? He is, I think he is the hardest guy to gauge this year. I know that, look, completely dominant for a stretch run, like I've talked about for the, for the back half of the season was just, he was not very effective when it comes to running the ball. And you have Coleman there.

who is a third round pick from this regime. So that's why Devont de Freeman is difficult for me to gauge what he's going to do. And what the interesting thing for me when I'm looking at Freeman's numbers is week 13 through 17, averaging just over three yards per carry, which that's Joyke Bell levels of bad. Yet in those contests, he's still averaging about 12 fantasy points per game, and that's in standard leagues. So that's not just getting a PPR bump. So I...

I think for the way that I see the split coming, I think that Freeman is still the main guy, but Coleman will be worked in more than he was last year. So that's why I have him ranked, not just a say, oh, he finished number one, so you're top five. What do you think, Jason? Yeah, early in this offseason, I tried to dedicate some time to figuring out if Tavin Coleman.