Top 10 RB Rankings + Austin Ekeler Joins the Show! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/9

most worried about is Derek Henry because of the cost. Like James Connor may be more likely, but I get him in the third. I'm having to take Derek Henry up top, and that one scares me. Any of these guys that you would look to trade in a Dynasty League with the window closing right now? Oh, yes. When you have older running backs, you should, it's very difficult emotionally, but you should always be willing to trade. Like Aaron Jones, he's almost 28. Seems like his contract is great, except... The team could get out of it pretty easily after this year if they want to and they don't want to carry that cap. Yeah, most of these guys? Yeah, it's like Derek Henry. Dalvin Cook. Like Christian McCavry. Yeah, I mean. Try to get a haul where you get a younger stud running back and other assets. But yet none of those younger stud running backs are in the top 10. Right. You go get DeAndre Swift plus.

There you go. And I think you'll be happy in a dynasty. Yeah, potential omission here in the top 10. DeAndre Swift, we'll talk about him soon. But first, we need to talk to great friend of the show, one of our consistent guests. Yeah. And fantasy football lover, Austin Eckler. You talking to me? All right, the fantasy footballers are privileged to welcome back. Yeah, baby. Not good friend of the show, great friend of the show. Three time. Austin Echler, how you doing, buddy? Yo, it's good, fellas. It's good to be back, man, for the three Pete. That's right. That's right. Man, we had you on last year. You're talking about how much you appreciate the fantasy community, how much you were paying attention to it. You had the privilege of doing the Echler's Edge show on Yahoo last year. You were even further entrenched into the fantasy community. As we kick this off, just tell me what your experience was diving in deeper last year.

Wow. I guess I can see it starting to play out every time I'm out. I think it's like 10 to 1 people come up to me and say I was on their fantasy team other than people who are like, hey, I'm a big charter fan type of thing. So I see it playing out and I see the appreciation of my appreciation of fantasy football starting to play out into the community, which. was my goal from the start. So 20 touchdowns didn't have anything to do with that either, right? Yeah, that always helps. Yeah, not only I'm on your team, but I'm trying to carry that thing as well. So yeah, that definitely helps. Yeah, it was, it was great. Had you on last year, we, you know, you were almost a my guy. We've got our my guy episode coming up here in a couple weeks, and you were almost a my guy, but I asked you a question. And I said, when are you going to talk to the coaches about goal line work, getting used in that red zone?

And you said, and I quote, you know, it's the coaches, there's players and there's coaches. Sometimes they want to put in a missile just to go through the pile. And so I did not make you a my guy, Austin. And then you go out, you score 20 red zone touchdowns. You ruined that. So how can I trust anything you say now? You're right, man. You're right. That's what's great about fantasy, man. Sometimes it's a roll of the dice, you know. You've got to stick with your guys and, you know, hope for the best. So speaking of the incredible year, which congratulations, you dominated on the field and for our fake football teams as well. Like how is that running back room shaking up? We know you got what looked like a real draft a steal with Isaiah Spiller there in the fourth round. He was a guy. I don't know how if you get into draft Twitter or not. It's a crazy place. But they loved Isaiah Spiller and they were super stoked to see him drop to the Chargers.

And just how was he coming along? What's that, what's that tandem looking like so far? Yeah, man, you know, he's a young player, not just because he's a rookie, but he's also 20 years old. I think he was the youngest player in the draft. And so I can see that just the maturity as far as just how he's going to have to learn. It happens with every rookie, right, coming in and chavid to. basically catch up to everyone else like myself that's been doing this for five years. I'm talking the mental part really right now. So there's always that barrier as you're coming into the league and trying to learn. So it kind of slows you down a little bit on the field because you're thinking a little bit more than you would like to be, which is definitely going to impair your play.

Right now, it's still early. I haven't seen anything live yet. But as far as right now, he's been really receptive to the information, asking good questions. And so that's where I want to see him start. I don't know his impact on special teams yet, which I know that'll be a big part of his role as a rookie, especially coming in. So there's still a lot to play out, but I still think that he's in the right spot as far as learning, understanding. Now it's just a matter of fact, seeing in these preseason games, if he can actually apply it to a real game situation.

You've got a lot of continuity on the team coming from last year. You've added some great pieces, but for the most part, you know, the offense is intact? What's different this year in training camp so far that you've, you know, is there anything of the feel or kind of the goals of the team? Is there anything that has felt different this year? Or is it just more like we're back at it again or big changes? I mean, we're definitely back at it again, but there's something to build on. You know, you say that continuity, we have something to build on with a lot of the same pieces coming back. I think the most important part of that is the Joe Lombardi and Justin Herbert piece, you know, them to being together for the second year. You know, Justin's only going into his third year. So.

him as a quarterback you know from my experience i was with philip for three years who'd been there for 17 years he's calling plays changing protections doing all this stuff he's running the show to a guy that's just starting to figure it out and trying to be able to be into that chief role so I know where he can get to. I know where he's at right now. And so him having another year and having to grow on that is going to make us a better team. So I would say that's the biggest change from last year of this year is one year together and especially the growth of the quarterback spot that we've been seeing. And we know how special he is. And now we have the pieces that are around him yet last year that are back. And so we're also going to be making plays. And now he's going to be even smarter with his game as he continues to get better. So yeah.

I feel like our offense is just going to be better because we're going to be more consistent. Yeah, I can't wait to see it out there. You've got two great wide receivers on the team, obviously, I mean, a bunch of them. Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, unbelievable. I want to know you as a fantasy player, the way that you play. Obviously, Mike Williams has been huge, monstrous games. Keenan Allen, the more consistent. If you were picking the way that you play in a half PPR league, which one are you taken first? Keenan for sure. Oh, all right. Okay. For sure. This man, they're going to get 100 catches. Are you kidding me? And you got Joshua Palmer. Yeah. You're two. A lot of buzz. Jalen Guyton. Those guys, more weapons for Justin Herbert in this offense. Josh's looked really good, man, in camp. You know, it's just one of those situations where we do have Mike and Kenan that are the main guys. But, like, man, if Josh is, you know, continuing to rise,

I can see him, you know, getting a spot somewhere on a roster as a number one sometime. Like, he's really turning it on. And there's a lot of firepower in the division overall. So you're probably going to have some big time games needing some lot of points on the board with the quarterbacks and the whiteouts in that division. Talk about your new tight end, Gerald Everett, arriving on the roster. Yeah, gee, we call him G. Gerald Everett coming in. Yeah, he's, I love him, man, because he likes to talk. It's not like trash talk or anything like that. He just loves to get to know people just talk to you like in the locker. He's a good locker room guy. And so that's what I look forward to new guys just coming in in general. Like, hey, are you going to be a good teammate?

And so him coming in, just being a guy that he was the one to introduce himself to me coming in talking, hey, respect the game, love it. Like, I love that. All right, we can build off of that. He's not, you know, just to himself, like, thinks he's everything. So I like that part of it. And then actually on the game, we actually had our first scrimmage yesterday and he was making some plays yesterday. So I love to see that. I love to see how elusive he is for being a tight end. You know, tight end, I feel like aren't.

really the most athletic, more so technical. And, you know, Gerald has definitely got some elusiness to him. So I like to see that. And just, it's another weapon for Justin, too. Justin was throwing the ball a few times yesterday was making a play. So like, man, if we can continue that and he continues to catch those balls, like, I mean, you have to guard everyone on the field because everyone has played making ability. So it's looking good so far. That's awesome. Yeah, the weapons. There are many, many, many. There are many weapons. I want to circle back to you. There's a fantasy show. Biggest workload of your career last year, delivered for everybody, you know, over 200 carries, 70 receptions. Is that your wheelhouse? Is that where you want to be? I mean, I know that I guess most running backs are going to say, hey, give me the ball every single play. But when it comes to keeping your body fresh and staying healthy and all of those components,

Is that what you're aiming for this year? Or do you think the staff is going to try to take a little bit of that away? I think it's my job. It's kind of both. I think it's my job to make myself as valuable as possible on the field, right? That's a deficiency, you know, make all the plays do that. And that is my mindset. Like, I want to be that person. And so if I'm able to do that and I get to a certain level where it's like, man, we want to have Austin on the field all the time. I could see my load.

continue to be really high you know if they're like oh like we feel like okay there's might be a drop off right or we don't feel like it's as consistent when awesome is not in the game right that's my job to make that situation i'm trying to be the best on the damn team on the NFL and so at the same time i also understand that i want to continue to play for a few more years so i also want the guys in the room to step up to step up. So that's like, man, we want to get Joshua Kelly some reps because he's doing his thing too. And we like what he brings to the table. So as a, from a personal individual standpoint, I basically am trying to be the best that I can that makes Austin like, hey, we want him on the field the entire time. But as a team aspect, I want the other guys in the room to step up. So they're like, hey, we want to see these guys take some drives here and there too because they are good as well. Yeah. No, that makes sense. You have to answer one question for me.

as an elite running back in the NFL. Fantasy players, we watch the game. We see someone break off a big run, and then they get the fantasy football players. Their worst nightmare, they get the one play where they get the blow. They get the break and somebody else comes in for the next play. The question I have for you, Austin, it's very simple. Do you need that break or not? Look, man, but we're out there and you have a big run. where you made a guy miss and you're exerting 100% of your energy for more than like six seconds you definitely need a break all right you do you do unfortunately like and our team we're different too we might rip off a big runner pass and we'll get up to the ball and run one right away because we're trying to take advantage of that there you go better shape than you

The worst, they're all going to be tired after that. So I love that. That's what we did a lot last year. We've seen the shirtless pictures. We know. We know you're very in shaping. That leads me into the next guy I want to talk about. I want to talk about Coach Staley. Does he know or is he aware of like he is becoming a folklore hero among fantasy football players among Twitter because. There is finally someone who is in control of a football team that's looking at numbers going, you know what? We should probably go for it on fourth down a little bit more. Like, is he, is he aware the groundswell of support that he is already receiving from the community? I don't really think he cares. But he'll take it. I mean, he'll.

Take it. You know, he's not going to turn that away. You know, he's human too. He feels the motions of the crowd and things like that. And you guys like it too, right? I'm sure you like the aggressive. There's love-hate relationship, let's just say that. Okay. All right. Oh, no. You're trying to punt. No, no, I'm not saying. Austin Echler wants to punt. Is that what we're taking away from? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm not giving you that sound bite. No, okay. No, I'm saying it's like a. It's a love, hey, as far as like for offense, I feel like we'd love it. Because it's like, hey, this guy is trusting us. So we do have the players to get it done. And statistically, it's like when you have a short yard of situation, it's like, okay, yeah, you can probably get this if you have another down.

And then it's just when you don't get it, you start to stir up, stir up some guys on the team that are the biggest fans of it, right? And then it's very divided. But trust the defense crew, right? Trust the defense. Yeah. Right, right. Well, look, we wish you the very best heading into the new year. Appreciate your time on the show again today. And I know every fantasy player will be. excited to see what the Chargers have in store for this upcoming year. I know we are. And again, thank you for joining us. Wish you the best. Yeah, no doubt. Thanks for having me on, boys. I appreciate it. All right. That's going to do it for today's episode of the podcast. Hope you enjoyed the conversation with awesome, excellent. But we'll be back. Another episode tomorrow. Make sure you check out the community of Jointhefoot.com. The DraftKit is ultimate draftkid.com. It's going to be a fun ride in 2022. Thank you for joining us. Talk soon.

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