Top 10 Running Backs + Preseason Fever, Xena Battles

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Coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, we're back again. We're back with so much energy. Football is almost here. That makes up for your skipping out the other day. I got a fever. You got a fever? And the only prescription is preseason football. Jason, how are you doing?

I'm doing great, man. I'm so excited to be talking about running back. Preseason football is the cure all. You've got a problem. You have a 10 minutes of football. You have a football problem. Yes. And the prescription is the preseason. Only to, you know, kind of satiate the very deep desire for any type of meaningful game action. And even if it's just a quarter, it's a quarter more than I had yesterday, Mike. That's a quarter more than I had last week.

And there's a lot of different games going on. You get four games. It's like you saw one, right? Four quarters make a dollar. I say it in chess because I am not one of those poohers of the preseason. Of the preseason? You're not a season ticket holder anymore. No. I don't have to pay for those extra two games. That's nonsense. You charge me full price? Get out of here with that. Yes. I love the preseason. You learn a lot.

They should charge in proportion to, they charge you the exact pro-rated amount that the starters play. Ooh. That's how they should do again. The starters play a quarter, you pay a quarter of the price. The starters pay like a quarter and a half. Pro-rate me, bro. I'm going to run that by the billionaires and see what they have to say about it. Is that how billionaires become billionaires by pro-rating? Hold on. They've said no. Oh, darn it. Well, welcome in to the fantasy footballers podcast. Danny Mike and Jason back once more today.

We're digging in the top 10 running backs. We're here to equip you to win your fantasy league in 2018, and I'm ready. I'm ready for action. Let's jump in with the quick question. By the way, if you want to keep up with us, you do. And you do. Trust me, you do. Subscribe on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast. Follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers on Instagram, which is we're fantasy footballers on Instagram.

and the website is The Fantasy Footballers.com. We always have new articles and resources and information all throughout the year to get you primed and ready to win each and every week. So a quick question. The fever. The fever is here? It certainly is. The season week one is here. Who are you most excited to see tonight? There's no question for me. I mean, it's a low-hanging fruit, but it's the ripest, most juicy fruit, and that is...

going to get you. That's going to move you. Oh, is it? Yeah. Juicy fruit is going to move you. Oh, man. I was trying. I knew it. No, it's, it has to be Andrew Luck. You're also missing a ski slope and doing water skis. There's all sorts of doing super gnarly tricks while chewing your gum. The flavor lasts for about 10 seconds. Yeah, if you're lucky. Flavor lasts for about 10 seconds. Do you remember juicy fruit?

Oh, I do. Yeah. It was a great couple choose. The Percy Harvin of Gum. It was so sweet at first. Anyway, speaking of lucky, Andrew Luck is the clear-cut guy I want to see the most. I, you know, does he have the velocity? Velocity. I was going to go into a tangent of like, you know, does he have the velocity? I'm not going to be watching for any of that. I just want to watch it. You know what I mean? Like, I just want to see him play football. I'm in a weird place with Andrew Luck because I, I,

can see that argument, but I'm going to be like holding my breath and biting my nails and like a father watching his son play. Like I'm just afraid of something bad to happen to Andrew Luck because I want him to come back. He even admitted that he wasn't sure that it was going to happen 600 days without a game of football. Yeah. And can you be as great? I just want to know that. Like are these athletes able to miss 600 days and be the exact same player?

Well, according to you two fellows, Josh Gordon can, but I have Andrew Luck lower in my rankings than where... He's played within 600 days, Jason. Sure. I'm sure he had 600 days off at one point. He also proved last year that you can't. And then he torched Casey Hayward after those 600 days. I have Andrew Luck right now, I believe as my quarterback 13, which is a little...

a little low for where he, you know, usually is ranked. And, and that's part of that is from the time off and the injury worries. So I'm excited to see the Colts do nothing but hand the ball off for the first quarter tonight. It's, it might sound rough. I want to see Andrew Luck could hit. Oh, that he can get up. I want to get it out of the way. You know he's nervous. You know everyone's nervous about it. Take the hit. You're going to be fine. Get up. Move on. Be a dominant quarterback.

I am selfish with this pick. I want to see Josh Rosen play. He isn't until Saturday, but I am excited to see what the Arizona Cardinals rookie quarterback can do. I'm going to go with the rookie running backs. I think Darius Geis, you know, the hype train is real for Darius Geis. Alex Smith came out, said that he doesn't see any weaknesses in his game.

And there are other rookie running backs. I want to see what Ronald Jones can do. I want to see Saquan on the field. I want to see Rashad Penny. So I'm very excited to see those guys. Why did you leave out my boy? I want to see Kerry on Johnson. You know what, Jay? Give it to me.

I was going to say I'm going to raise his ADP because you kind of interrupted me. Look, at first it was treacherous waters, but people have got my back. They're sending me screenshots of them drafting Marlon Mack and the 6th or whoever. They're not mock drafting Kerryon Johnson. We're going to tear that ADP down. We're going to distort reality. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that ADP. Oh, my gosh.

We're keeping the important things, the important things here. He just went Ronald Reagan in here. Is that what just happened? That's a fresh reference. That's a fresh reference. Oh, man, the Boris Yeltsin of references right there. Well done. That's what I'm here for. Okay, let's get into the main events. Running bags. Stay tuned. We got a good Roosevelt coming up. Oh, my goodness. Eleanor. Both of them. Mr. Gorbachev.

Well, we're going to talk about running backs today. Let's start with an overview. If you are just getting back into fantasy football preparing for 2018, I get this question all the time, all year long, up until the drafts.

How important is the running back position? What would you do if you were in my shoes and drafting at the turn at 12 and the first pick of the second round? And do you go wide receiver wide receiver? And look, those questions are going to come. And I want to answer them now with the reality of the running back position, which is when it makes sense, I always take a running back in the first round.

and it almost always makes sense, at least for me personally. The drop-off from the top-tier running backs to the next level, to the next tier, it's a big drop-off. When you say the top tier, you're actually speaking of the top two or three tiers, not just the top four. When I say the meaningful and impactful running backs, the RB1s, down to kind of the waiver wire crop.

It's just much more difficult to find a running bat. They can contribute regularly to your fantasy team. It's hard to find running backs that are able to carry a workload, right? Last year, I think there were only nine that ran for over 1,000 yards, which you say, okay, that shouldn't be very hard. 60 yards a game and you get to 1,000, only 9 of them did it. So it's difficult to find. Certainly. And I think that, you know, if you look at average draft position,

It's no big surprise. Everyone is believing this theory. Running backs are locked and loaded in the first 24, 36 picks. The vast majority is running backs. And to that point, I would just say this. I am 100% in agreement with you, Andy. I'm almost always a running back first round. Oftentimes running back first and second round. That's what I do in my drafts. That's what I would recommend to most people listening to do.

that I believe this is a good year because of what's happening with ADP, because of what a down year it was for wide receiver touchdowns last year, if you're out there and you want to attack the zero RB theory, which is this, it's an anti-

fragility theory where instead of taking guys that are taking so much damage because they get the ball so much early and can get injured, you stockpile the best of the best wide receivers. This year you could have a Julio Jones and an Odell Beckham in your first and second round. Which is ridiculous. That's ridiculous. And then follow that in the next round and get, you know, get five star.

wide receivers where you have clear cut the best, and then you load the back of your draft up with past catching backs, if you're in any kind of PPR format, that will always outproduce the expectation, like a Duke Johnson. And then the theory with that is, as the season goes on, those second string running backs actually become more valuable as guys ahead of them go down, whereas the third string wide receivers, they don't really, you know, they don't get rewarded as much should someone go down in front of them.

No, thanks. No, thank you. Here, there's two ways to get to my destination. There's the really straight road that's paved and beautiful, and then there's the really treacherous mountainside drive with no guardrails. I want to take the straight line road. I don't want to go on that adventure, so most often I take running backs. Look at this. Most common players in the ESPN fantasy finals last year. Seven players.

ahead of Antonio Brown, including Alvin Camara, Todd Gurley, Jamal Williams, Kenyon Drake, running back, running back, running back. I think you're proving the zero RB that you just listed three waiver wire running backs. No, Alvin Camara, Todd Gurley. Alvin Camara was a waiver wire running back. That's how you're treating him? Yes. Well, last year, you know, if he was drafted, he was drafted late like a zero running back. Let me reinforce this with there's 20 plus players ahead of DeAndre Hopkins, the number one wide receiver last season.