Early RB Rankings Part 2 + C.J. Trolls Jason

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The Fantasy Footballers podcast back again, Andy Mike and Jason. It's Thursday. It's April 4th. We're just a few short weeks away from the NFL draft. And these are the early ranking shows. In fact, it's the second early running backs rankings show. And it is going to be a fun one. I actually, you know, part one, stellar. Great. The sequel's probably better. Right? Well.

Which is a rare. It's a rarity. You usually, Jason and I had this discussion a couple days ago about trilogies. Yeah. And the entire point of the sequel in a trilogy is just to make sure that the third movie is always the best. Yeah, set up to succeed. The sequel, it brings you down. But not this one. No. Not this one. Because there's no third. Right. We're not going into these RB3s yet in the early rankings. But the reality is.

Like when we talk last episode, we go into some specifics on, you know, why the top guys, maybe why to avoid some of the top guys, but they're all pretty excellent. Like that's why they're in the top 10. These for fantasy, I feel like this is, this is so much more important to discuss the guys that are those RB2s. Can they be an RB1? Are they going to fall out?

There's so much more disparity between our individual rankings on these guys, running backs 11 through as many as we can get through today, probably get to 25 guys in total. So I'm excited. There are several players that, I don't know, we're probably five, six, seven spots off on. And so we'll debate a little bit more on the show today, the merits and where these guys belong. Very excited about that. Make sure you.

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Also, there are a couple of brand new articles. If you are just itching, like the draft, you know it's coming, but you're like, I wish it were here yesterday, and I need to read about some of these guys. If it was yesterday, I would have missed it. Because you didn't have the channel on or what? No, because if it's yesterday, then today is today, and that was yesterday, and the draft's already over. I missed it. Where did they go? Where did the good players go? I don't know. Oh, because I missed it. I didn't see any of it. Just a bad joke is all.

Notre Dame wide receiver Miles Boykin, Ole Miss, wide receiver, AJ Brown, both of those reception articles up on the website. Here is the quick question for the day. This one comes in off of Twitter from Jake. He says, which remaining free agent are you most surprised, has not found a home? We're about to jump into the news. We're going to talk about a couple of free agents that did find homes between last show and today.

But who are the most surprising names that you can't believe they're out there? I mean, teams are missing out. You know, there's... Jason stole mine. There's not too many people out there that I'm like, man, how have they not signed? Except for one, to me, it's T.J. Yeldon. I mean, T.J. Yeldon is a serviceable NFL running back who's 25 years old.

He was four picks away from being a first round selection in the NFL draft. He is a pass catching back. So in today's NFL where committees are happening and they want to bring in a pass catching back, he's a big bodied, young, highly drafted guy. I don't know if he's asking for too much money or just waiting for the right opportunity. Maybe he'll wait until after the NFL draft. But I am shocked. He hasn't signed. I literally just drafted him in our startup dynasty draft.

Super yucky because he doesn't have a team. But I'm like, if he had signed with anyone, he goes several rounds earlier. Here's why I think he's unsigned. He doesn't really fit one role well. He is a depth back. He is not a great between the tackles runner. He is not a pigeonholed pass-catching phenomenon, right? He's not going out there, although last year he did have.

55 receptions. But he kind of does everything fine. Now, that's why it's shocking. That being said, it has got to be depressing to T.J. Eldon, the person that Alfred Blue now has a job, and he doesn't. He has his job. Yeah. And that's, yeah, he has his job. Okay, so T.J. Yeldon's yours. Mine is J. and Jai. Although I know teams are apprehensive about the knees. He's still, to me.

a more proven game-changing type of running back than T.J. Eldon is I'm surprised that he doesn't have a home. He visited the Colts, but I do think teams, I guess they're just questioning the durability. Yeah, the problem with JHA is, what you said, is the problem is his knee. Zzz.

And you said that. But it's like, if it was just his knee, he's coming off the, of the knee injury that took him out for the season, except it is knees. Or if it was just the other knee with arthritis. Right. But it's both. Not the bee's knees. No, no, no, no, no. Not at all. If he had the beast's knees, he'd have a team. Mike, who is. Who is your, uh, surprising free agent that hasn't found a home? Delighting the young demo with bees knees references.

Well, I agree with one of yours and disagree with the other. That's fine. But try to guess which is which. It was T.J. Yeldon is who I'm surprised. But for a couple wide receivers that I'm a little surprised, they haven't found a landing spot yet. Chris Hogan and Michael Crabtree. Yes, I know, Andy, you think that Michael Crabtree is 100% done. I don't think he's done. He's not what he used to be. He's not even probably 80% of what he used to be.

But the NFL needs pass catchers. And to be a possession guy, Michael Crabtree, I think, can still get that job done. And Chris Hogan showcased here and there with the Patriots what he could do. But I guess if the Pats didn't want him back, then nobody wants him back. Yeah, I don't know how much either guy has left in the tank. I feel like Chris Hogan is more competitive than Michael Crabtree is from what we've seen. And so I tend to think that Hogan will find a job before Crabtree does.

But we'll see. I don't think either one's going to change a team. I don't think either one's going to make you happy in fantasy. Crabtray and Hogan are the two most surprising wide receivers at this point that haven't been signed. And I think that shows you how incredibly bad this year's free agent pool of wide receivers were. Yeah, we need the draft, guys. We need the draft to come. It's a good year. It's a deep year, I feel like, for wide receivers. Record deepness. News and notes from Around the League, presented by Sleeper.

All right, the Lions have signed running back C.J. Anderson, formerly of the Rams to a one-year contract, nothing gave me more joy than knowing that Jason's patroness, his very, his spirit animal, C.J. Anderson, has gone to disrupt his favorite player. Yeah, this. Although I don't think he really will. No, I mean, look, part of me is really excited.

Just because, hey, my two guys are together. They're hanging out. They're hanging out. They're probably best friends. Yeah. But it also sucks for both for fantasy a little bit. I mean, look, we knew, you know, when Malcolm Brown signed the tender or the offer sheet. The chicken. With, uh, yeah, man, Mike, you were having an off day. You were having a rough day. When, when he signed the offer sheet with the lions,

You know, I said this is pretty much best case scenario because you knew they were going to bring someone in. Then Malcolm Brown got signed, you know, by the Rams. They took them back. CJ comes. And what's the difference, really, between C.J. Anderson and Malcolm Brown. I mean, they're both okay guys. Neither one is a true game changer that's just going to demand 15 carries a game. And we'll talk a lot about Carry on Johnson today.

because he's in our rankings and he's one of the guys. Not anymore, not after this signing. He's one of the players that we have the largest disagreement on. Now, the nice thing is, is we don't have a precedent with Matt Patricia of using some kind of okay oversized bruiser to disrupt the workload of carry-on. Especially when he's just inefficient.

Inefficient. Inefficient. We keep giving the ball, especially at the goal line. If we had that precedent, yeah, Mike, at the goal line, I'd be concerned. Now, real quick, to interject, Legerrett Blunt was also like BFFs with Matt Patricia from his Patriots days. There is no such personal connection between C.J. Anderson and Matt Patricia. How do you know? I have looked it up.

I'm paid to know. What, do you think they're logging their diary entries here? And second, Kerry-on-Johnson, in limited games, had a great utilization around the goal line. So if we feel like Legerat-Blunt was already getting that, then... Here's the reality. Regardless, whether it was Blunt or Anderson or Malcolm Brown or anonymous draft pick X, Carrie-on's workload was going to increase, his production was going to increase this year.

He is going to take a step forward. If he stays healthy, he will be an impact player. We'll talk about him later. Duke Johnson's rep has asked the Browns to trade him. Probably the only player that wants out of Cleveland right now the way that the hype train is going. Browns have been in no hurry to trade Duke Johnson because his cap number in 2019 is only $3 million. And they don't really have a rush job to do so. The cap hit doesn't change a whole lot if they trade them before or after June 1st.

And so do I guess I should ask the question. Do we want Duke Johnson as fantasy owners to be traded? In week eight. That's what you want? When Kareem is back, you mean week nine? Yes. In week nine, when Kareem Hunt gets back, we say, well, Duke you did your job. Go get us a draft pick. I'd like him to be traded because I think Duke Johnson has fantasy value. He has a lot to offer teams. If he found the right spot, I think he's a good running back. He's a great pass catching running back. I'll take dude Johnson.