Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Top 15 Running Backs Part 2

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Ah, welcome to the show. There is something magical in the air this time of year. Man, when it hits August, it's just official. It's fantasy football season. When the calendar flips to August, mayhem ensues, and it is all good. I go outside there is a crisp 105 degree muggy weather. Yep.

Wait, that's just Arizona. We don't talk about the weather. We talk about the football. Welcome to the show Thursday, August 4th. We are the fantasy footballers. Welcome in. We have a great show ready to go. We're talking the running backs.

Our rank, we did the top seven running backs on Tuesday show. If you have not heard that episode, go back and listen. We debuted our consensus top seven. We've got eight through 15 today. So we're giving you the top 15 running backs this week, talking through all of their warts, all of their upside, all of their downside, everything we're expecting. We'll get into some debates today because, well, let's just say this. Doug Martin's a part of the conversation today, and I know.

That's some debates will ensue when Doug Martin is brought up on the show. According to our rankings, there will be some fire. Yeah, yeah, big time. So very excited about that. I have a good quick question for everybody. Like Jason said, I mean, August is here, and so everything is happening. And along with that comes a big giveaway we're doing on jointhefoot.com on Friday. Okay. So that's tomorrow. So we're giving away a ton of things on the website. If you want to be involved in that.

Go to join thefoot.com. Join our fantasy football community, and we're giving away some autographed jerseys and a bunch of other gear. Jason was wearing a bling ring, a championship ring. Yeah, it was. It makes sense. Yesterday. The YouTubers, they saw that on your hand. They said champ's going to champ. Yeah, they said they were blinded by the brilliance of the ring. Blinded. So here's a quick question, guys. We'll get right into it.

From at Philly AJ 5, which NFL offense is the most underrated heading into the season? Which NFL offense is the most underrated? Because look, we just talked about this on the last show, how important.

that offensive system can be toward when it comes to fantasy players. Those are the only offenses that I will stack a running back in a wide receiver on. Those are the only offenses that I will really indulge the quarterback wide receiver stack. So is there a very underrated offense right now? Yeah, I think that there is one that's underrated. And of course, when we talk about underrated offenses, we have to talk about offenses that are considered.

bottom half, right? I mean, can you really say that, you know, the Cardinals are underrated even if you expect them to out of the horn? No, no, certainly can. So here's one team that I think people avoid because of the offense, and I think it's unwarranted in 2016. That's the Buffalo Bills.

The Buffalo Bills, they don't pass a lot. They get knocked for, you know, they have, you know, not enough attempts. They pass the least. Exactly. Last year they passed the least. There's a lot of negative narratives. It's a Rex Ryan team and Rex Ryan's about defense and those type of things. But I see a lot of weapons there and I saw a different Buffalo, the second half of last year than the first half of last year. I believe that LaShawn McCoy is their most talented runner and some of the nonsense that's happened.

happened with the running back core is really going to just push him to be the guy. You have Sammy Watkins, who is great. They've got, you know, good tight end. They've got weapons there. And I think Tyrod Taylor...

is a very capable quarterback when it comes to fantasy football, being able to put up numbers. Even if he gets behind, we saw in a couple games last year he came out through a bunch of interceptions against the Patriots look terrible. And then in the second half, because they were down, went crazy on them and had a lot of fantasy production. So that's a team, I think, that might be a little bit undervalued.

They are looking at signing Tyra Taylor to do a long-term extension too, which would be a commitment to him. It would change the way I look at that combination of him and Sammy Watkins long term. If they were trying to build on that last year, like Jason said, I mean, they did throw the ball deep. That's the one thing they could do. When they didn't have a tight end in there, when they had three wide, four wide, they threw the ball deep more than any other team in the league. So even though they didn't throw it a lot, they did take shots down the field. That is a point in Sammy Watkins corner, which I think Jason should be thrilled to have me give him.

Yes. Because, you know, I haven't been the biggest Sammy Watkins fan over the years. Mike, do you have a team that stands out to you as an underrated offense? I have one. You go ahead. I think it's Baltimore. I think the Baltimore Ravens. Did I really? That's all right. We are an agreement. We can piggyback on it. I mean, look, Baltimore is a team that because the fantasy question marks are so large.

Who's going to be the wide receiver? Who's going to be the running back? Who's going to step into these roles? Is Prashad Perryman injured? Mike Wallace? These are the question marks surrounding the team fantasy-wise. But look, they passed the ball more than almost anybody in the league last year. More than everybody. They were number one, right? They were number one. More than everybody. All the camp reports, him recovering. They say he looks great. Joe Flacco looks like Joe Flacco.

You have Steve Smith that will come back towards the middle of the year. You have weapons in the passing game. You have weapons in the backfield. Mark Tressman. He's an offensive coordinator that has always produced fantasy stars. There is an interesting thing with him because I believe generally Tressman's team succeed early and start to fail later on in his tenure. So I'll be watching that. But I think this team, because of the fantasy question marks,

gets underrated because there will be production there. We just don't know exactly who it'll be yet, but I think they're underrated. You have echoed everything that was rattling around in my noggin, that people want to avoid them. Somebody will be the guy. Somebody will be the guy there at wide receivers. Somebody will be the guy at running back. I don't think, I personally don't see the running back.

Was the voice of public opinion was going to jump in? No, no, no. I was just going to ask. So all of this said, does that mean you're drafting them? Because earlier, I think Andy had given the advice, like he's staying away from the Baltimore situation. I agree. At the end of the year, we might look back and go, wow, Baltimore was underrated. But going into this draft season, does that mean take a stab? Does that mean? Yes. Yes. Yeah, you know, staying away means don't invest high draft pick capital on them. I'll take a stab at Kenneth Dixon.

I'll take a stab at Kamar Akken. Yes. And you know who, not that I've been rising at all on him because he's not my favorite player, but a guy who I'm now throwing into that, hey, from my second and last pick, because he's not being drafted, is Buck Allen. Sure. I don't think that Buck Allen is necessarily the guy. I like Forsett far more. Buck Allen was okay in his opportunity. But for a free pick.

maybe, maybe things just shake out through preseason that Buck Allen ends up as the starter. Who knows? That's the thing. We don't know. So take, if a guy is free, he could be a running back or a starting running back for Mark Trisman. Put him on your bench. Yeah, that's a really good point. And if it goes down to the wire, you will draft before you necessarily know. So if you take a shot on the guy that you believe, you know, I think back to the, who's the running back for Houston when Ben Tate and Aryan Foster, Steve Slater.

So back then... A.C. Slater? A.C. Slater was the running back. Steve Slayton, Ben Tate, Arian Foster, went in that mix and went down to the wire. If you drafted and took your shot on Foster late in the draft, like...

I did. I took a shot on Zach Morris. It didn't pan out. Zach Morris always pans out. Now we know you're lying. So we're going to talk a little bit more Ravens in the news and notes. So I won't linger there. If you want to follow us. Do so on Twitter at the FFBollers. You can follow Mike at FFHitman. Follow Jason at Jason FFL. You can follow me at Andy Holloway. We're also on YouTube. Go subscribe on there. If you want to see the, did you guys hear the retiring, the bumblebee jersey right after we hung it on our wall after Jason thoroughly insulted.

All those who do not like the bumblebee jersey. Oh, man. An article pops up that says people don't like the bumblebee jersey. Do you think they banded together after that and signed some petitions and got it? Jason pushed them over the edge. That's all right. And I guess this is the last year. It just makes our jersey hanging in the wall. It's limited edition. Yeah, it's, it's rare. That's the kind of jersey you don't want like an Eddie Lacey to wear, right? No. Honestly, Big Ben looks terrible in this jersey. He really does.

Yeah. You remember that meme of Big Ben's, what do you say? Like a hamburger stuffed into a helmet or whatever it was. It was not very nice. You're saying, I should not wear horizontal stripes for our combine approaching next week. Vertical. Vertical stripes. I guess I should mention that, too. If people don't know this, because it's going to be. It's going to be embarrassing. We made a deal with all the Foot Clan members that joined the foot that if we hit some thresholds over there, we would do a combine video.

competing against one another and all the combine events, some position drills. We've got this on lockdown. We're filming this on the 9th. We have a facility that we're doing it at. It's going to be amazing slash embarrassing. Amazing says the one who has a little bit more athleticism than the other two. Correct. Correct. Well, look, the pressure's on me. If I drop any of the drills, I think, are a foregone conclusion, like the 40-yard dash. If I wish to lose that,

to find some way to cheat i have to find a way to win the 40 yard which i know i can't do i've known jason for golly 15 years long time 15 years uh he likes to win and he is not ever like if he can win he doesn't care about the means no like at the end of the day as long as he says i won he's happy and i've never met somebody like that i agree i got a package yes i have bill bellichick i got a package recently in the mail