Fantasy Football - Top 10 RB Rankings + Undrafted Gems - Podcast for 8/12

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in Tuesday, August 12th, the Fantasy Footballers podcast, Mike the Fantasy Hitman, Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway. Now, I'm looking at the show doc here as we get started. Mm-hmm.

And I'm not sure I trust one piece of information. It says this is show 17,800. Oh, man, we've been at this a while. Was I in a coma for about 15,000 shows? You don't remember when we started at 12 years old. Yeah. That was, I don't think that's right. First of the podcasting game. I don't think it shows 17,800. But it is the second show of the week. We welcome you in. I do know that Adam Thielen will still be playing. When we get to... When we get to 17,000. I don't know what that would mean for how old we are if we get to 17,800, but it's probably... It probably means AI has made some scientific breakthroughs. And our floating heads are still talking about fantasy football. Was that our voice? We were robots. We became robots? Yeah. Okay. We got a running back ranking show, the top 10 running backs today to talk through. We got some important NFL news to break down.

Undrafted gems. We're going to talk about some more players this week that we think are interesting and will not be drafted, but you should pay attention to them. And we are still announcing the big deal. Yes. Go ahead, Mike. Take it away. UDK. For Life. Oh, are you doing the... Yeah. Getting hyped. Look, if you already have a UDK, UDK Plus, Ultimate Food Clan membership, you're already... Your eligibility is already set. We do this once a year if you want to get in. Look, you're going to get the ultimate draft kit. Grab it right now, and you're entered in this contest to get an ultimate draft kit for life, which will culminate and we will announce on a big live stream this upcoming Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern. Also giving away a signed Jamar Chase jersey on that live stream as well. So looking forward to it. Ultimate draft kit.com.

You can check that out. I do want to say, yes. Everyone, make sure you stay tuned to today's show because at some point during the show, I won't tell you when, a gigantic super pop star is showing up to announce something huge. You talk about our podcast war, Mike? I don't know. What? What are you talking about? I'm just talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm talking about we just for no reason at all. There is a super mega celebrity on this show and they got a big announcement. Oh, yeah. Announcing a new. I put, we put the Kelsey's on blasting and then all of a sudden. Yeah. Weird. Weird how that happened. Overtake us in the rankings. Nonsense. Keanu. Keanu. Keanu. Just stay back behind the door for a little while. Mr. Reeves. You say our counter to the Taylor's. Yeah, you're darn right. Yeah. He's announcing the next three John Wicks. Oh, I blew it. Oh, no. Oh.

Oh, okay. Mr. Reeves, you don't need to be here anymore. We, we spoiled the surprise. Dang it. There will be more wicks. I tagged Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Patrick. Are they coming on the show? I'm sure they're going to answer me soon. And then we can counter punch. This, this darn Kelsey is called Dantavian. Is it? Dontavian wicks? There. Oh, gosh. This time he can't catch. Goodness gracious. But yes, stay tuned for that. Undrafted gems presented by Walmart. During the month here leading up to kickoff, we are identifying some late round undrafted players to keep an eye on. As preseason rolls on, we've had injuries as well. So suddenly some other players are becoming maybe more interesting, but give me a name. Well, injuries and holdouts for mine. I want to bring up Ray Davis, a name we haven't really talked a lot about. Not enough. This offseason, the Buffalo Bills.

One of the best offenses, obviously led by Josh Allen. You expect them to score a ton of points. Last year, 16 rushing touchdowns from James Cook. There's a lot of fantasy value here. Right now, James Cook, trending towards the right direction to get back to practice and play. So, you know, I don't think he's going to hold out into the season and miss game checks by any means. But we have seen people that are skipping practices holding in. All of a sudden the season starts. They're not fully ready. Maybe their body isn't ready. Injuries can happen. Yeah, you fat Thor. Yeah, you fat Thor. And Ray Davis. That worked out so perfectly for you. Yeah, I really did. Josh Jacobs. That year doesn't make sense. He was that bad. And then all of a sudden he's great again. So don't fat Thor. Don't fat Thor. And maybe don't James Cook. So Ray Davis currently is just involved in a three-way time share.

And it's not great, but I do think that he is a very good player on a great team. Really liked his tape. He was a rookie last year, and he showed some flashes. You know, he didn't play as much as you would want, but when he got the opportunity, he was pretty good. And in fact, I just want to remind people there was a game James Cook missed last year. First of all, in the preseason that we saw where James Cook didn't play. With the starters, Ray Davis was like six of eight snaps. He was really involved. And in the one game last year that James Cook missed, all of a sudden, Ray Davis, who had to that point, you know, been playing very few snaps came in, 20 carries, 97 yards, three receptions for, oh, 55. He was a really valuable running back that week. So, you know, I just like targeting when you, you're not going to necessarily draft them, right? This is undrafted gyms.

But pay attention because if week one something happens, I do think Ray Davis, even though it will continue to be a time share, he is a good player on a great offense who would have opportunities, good pass catcher, able to be used around the goal line. So he's someone to pay attention to. Last week we talked about Zach Kurtz, Woody Marks, the backup running back for the Texans, Austin Echler was Mike's pick. Mike, who do you have this week? So I mentioned him last. What, last week, I guess? It could have been yesterday. Yes, one second. I don't. This just shows 17,800. I have no idea. But we did a mock draft, and I brought up at the very end, Braylin Allen, and then I mismanaged my mock draft, and should have drafted him instead of my second quarterback. But it's Braylon Allen running back for the New York Jets, which, fun fact for Braylin Allen. He has the most rushing yards ever for a running back before turning 21.

Because that's what he is. He's just a, he is a baby boy. He's a humongous baby boy. But he is the Incredible Hulk, like athletically gifted. And coach Aaron Glenn of the Jets, they have been talking pretty much the whole offseason about how this is going to be a timeshare. It's the reason we're concerned about Brees Hall's ADP. And so we need to look at the other side of that pendulum of Braylin Allen's ADP is way too low. Now, it could turn out that it's. really Davis, Allen, and Breece Hall, the three of them, and then we got a big problem. But if it just turns into his version of the Lions, with Braylin Allen being so young and so strong, there is a chance that he really carves out a role in this offense. All right, the name I'll bring up Torrey Horton, wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks. He was a fifth round pick out of Colorado State.

The camp vibes have been so positive. He's turned heads. He's making plays every single day. He caught a touchdown in the week one preseason game. And he seems to be winning the starting outside wide receiver job over MVS in Seattle camp. I think as the years go by, and I have, you know, in League of Record, I have like so few picks every year. Yeah. I'm just becoming more and more addicted to taking shots on rookies later in the draft. I believe your second pick is in the seventh round. We don't need to be specific about my draft. There's a cost. That's not hyperbolic. No, no, no. These are called facts. Also, all the rookies will be gone by your second pick. Well, not Torrey Horton, though. Maybe not. He's 6.3.196. He's a 90th percentile size guy, 441.

speed looks apart at least so far. And you have like this situation there where you've lost some stalwarts in the receiving game. You know, Tyler Lockett no longer a part of this offense. D.K. McKaff is gone. We talk about that every time we talk about JSN. But we don't talk about it necessarily in the context of somebody else stepping up, opportunities. even though a phantas gun right we're figuring out the a j barner and a royo thing so i i think there's some opportunities you look like a man that's like ready to push a button well we just talked about him on the uh dynasty nasty boys episode um and you know the tory horton yeah tory horton oh okay he was subscribed to that uh yeah you should listen great show um but it's is one of those things mics brought this up a lot where it's like jsn is a slot player

Cooper Cup is a slot player. They're not sure how it's going to work out. Does Cooper Cup even still have it? Right. So all of a sudden you've got this guy, Tori Horton, their rookie drafted by, you know, this regime that he's an outside guy and he's pretty much got that role locked up. So it's pretty cool to see. He's going to do his best and forget the rest. That's, there it is. That was undrafted gym sponsored by Walmart. Who knew that you could get what you need in as fast as an hour? Get free delivery on your first. Express delivery order with the code express. Valid for first express delivery order, $50 minimum, subject to availability restrictions apply. News and notes from around the league. Presented by progressive insurance. Well, the Reaper doing work. Look, look, the reason Jason said that, look, Jordan Love is going to undergo a procedure on his left thumb to address a torn ligament. He's expected to be ready for week one. Surgery today. So.

This now combined with the news that Jaden Reed may or may not be available for week one. You know, Jordan Love last year dealt with injuries the whole season. And it restricted... This is non-throwing thumb, just to make sure people won't know. Yeah, and it's not his legs, which he says he wants to use more this year. But it's not great. You just don't really want to see injuries like this happen. You want to get off to a hot start. Jordan Love has been one of my favorite values in the draft. It's not necessarily... you know, fully changing that. But it's just, you know, you want to get off to a hot start and you don't want to be recovering from surgery as you go into game one. We have, look, our injury guy, Matthew Betts, he says he's not concerned with, and Matthew was saying, you might see more handoffs to the left side of the line in the first two games. But overall, not worried. Yep. So, but I agree. You don't love hearing that as we're entering.

real draft season. Yeah, a reminder that Packer's schedule is one of the reasons why I loved Jordan Love. They're favored in the first eight games. I think that team is very, very good. I believe two of us picked them to win the division. Yep. I know I was one. Bro, you think I remember that? That was over 15,000 shows ago. Yeah. But, you know, now Jaden Reed banged up, Christian Watson. He's going to probably start the season on the Pupp list. No surprise there. No, that one is, that one was expected, ACL injury, additional damage. All right, here's somewhat potentially significant news. We need some boots on the ground here. Malik neighbors still not practicing, did not practice on Tuesday. He hasn't practiced, I believe, since the sixth when he came off the field said this is part of the plan. And the plan, oh, he's resting. He's one of those. He's fine. It turns out a lot of NFL teams this year.

they are planning to not have their players play. Like their plan is to have players not practice. So, so if you come out of your draft and let's say you've got like Matthew Stafford and Malik Neighbors and Kenneth Walker, like are these all, are you happy? You're like, oh, my plan is to have no one week one. Like, no, I'm planning for this. So you're okay. Can you rest them in fantasy? Does that help them? Right. Yeah. I get double points next week. I was going to say that would be a funny format is if you sit a guy, you get like points in a half the next week. But Malik Neighbors, this is a shoulder injury is what's being announced. And that is not like the toe is what he's been managing since college. So this is something we need to follow up on, but we want to surface it right now. It's, you know, Malik Neighbors is a high draft capital pick. You've got to spend a first round pick to get Malik Neighbors in a lot of leagues, maybe second round. And I,

I'm still good with my recommendation, Mr. Neighbors, of just pop that toe off. I would not duplicate that advice for your arm. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Sean McDermott telling reporters he's confident James Cook will practice today, and he did, and that things have changed. It said that they had some discussions and conversations around the contract. So now he's back out there practicing. The yo-yo offseason of James Cook. continues. Does that insinuate that he's about to have a contract come through? I don't know if I'd go that far. Or they said, you will not get a contract. And he said, oh. Or we'll work. Who knows? We'll work really hard. We'll continue to work hard, but we need you on the field. That's part of the equation getting ready for the season. I don't know. I'm not there. And James Cook, he's playing by some new rules. You know, he could walk off. He could be walking off the practice field right now.

Yeah. And we would not know. And that could be his thing. Like, ah, you thought I was practicing. I do half practice. Yeah. You pay me half of what I deserve. I do half practice. The 49ers. Goodness gracious. You know, Brandon I, you on track to be back around week six. That is a long time from now. That's why he's been off our board pretty much the whole offseason. We knew that this was an injury. He was going to start on the pop. Which also. Let me just throw this out there. Another player that we said, hey, maybe they'll go back for week one. That doesn't look like they'll be back for a while. Darno Mooney of the Falcons. Yeah. He's also in this camp now where it's like. Yeah. Like last, didn't they say we hope to have them this season? Yeah. And well, that I mean the most recent comment was like, yeah, he should be back at some point this season. Yeah. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're back it up. Escalated quickly. But what I was getting to, Jordan Watkins, another wide receiver, a rookie for the 49ers is now out a month with a high ankle sprain. They currently.

have Ricky Pearsall back, who was hurt. John Jennings is hurt. Ayuk is hurt. DeMarcus Robinson played in the preseason game. He should be suspended. He could have a big role, but he's probably going to get suspended. Jacob Cowing, hamstring. Watkins now high ankle sprain. But that doesn't even speak of the running back room where they've lost Garindo and Jordan James. And now Amir Abdullah is on injured reserve. Oh my gosh, Abdullah. I mean. He barely... It's like he walked off the plane and tripped down the thing off the plane, like the stairs. You guys remember an old Marty Short movie, Pure Luck? No, we don't like it. No, we don't. Okay. Well, everyone at home, just enjoy how good that reference. Maybe not everyone. Maybe not everyone. Maybe just Papa Josh. I'm sure you remember that old. This is when we were kids. Kyle knows it. Thank you. Okay.

Goodness gracious guys. You got one, Mike. Come on, he gets stung by the bee and he starts swelling. But is the principle of this that does bad things keep happening to him? Okay. He has unbelievable. What is the name of that? Pure luck? Oh, I do. Yeah, yeah, you do. You do. I will. The bee, the bee sting reminded me. Okay. I'll wait for my appell. That was the beginning of Glick. Yes. Jiminy Glick. The 49ers, the offseason, the injuries, the. I mean, it's just year after year after a year we go through this. Listen, Christian and George stay in a bubble. Okay, you're the two most important fantasy assets there in San Francisco. Don't even hang around people. I was going to say both have been hurt before quite a bit. So it's like maybe practice somewhere else. Matthew Stafford, the latest word there, Sean McVeigh saying the team will be, quote, flexible and fluid when dealing with him recovering from his back injury. That's kind of how we are with the deusers when they have to leave.

in the middle of the show for bathroom breaks right we're flexible they're fluid right yeah yeah defluiting he was supposed to practice on monday but ended up being out it would look it's all going to plan it's the play the plan is that we're flexible the theme of 2025 really is it's like plan instead of you know it's all glass half full dude i have a plan for about 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. today guys then take a nap okay Yeah, that's resting. You and Kenneth. That was news and notes. Sponsored by Progressive Insurance Quote today at progressive.com, progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third-party insurers. Not available in all states or situations covered subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We'll take a break. We'll hit the countdown. Running backs. All right, it is time for our countdown, the top 10 running backs by consensus rankings. We're looking at half-PPR rankings.

A reminder, all of our tiers and tier-based rankings are in the Ultimate Draft Kit along with customizable scoring. So you can import your league, printable cheat sheets that are compatible with your league. And again, that's on mobile. There's the new Value Scout tool, the draft analyzer, a lot of resources. You can learn about that at Ultimate DraftCit.com. Let's begin. Number 10. Well, he's healthy right now. Josh Jacobs, 27 years old. dominant season last year in Green Bay. I've got him at eight, Jason at 12, Mike at 11, comes in at 10 in our consensus, being drafted as the running back nine right now, Josh Jacobs. Yeah, I don't mind it either. I mean, this is a guy who finished as the running back five last year. And if you look at how the season went along, there was a point last year after, you know, a quarter or a third of the season was in where we were talking about Josh Jacobs not getting touchdowns. It's hard to even remember.

Like, you know, he was like due for touchdowns because then they figured it out and he got a touchdown every single week. He was so consistent, so dominant. It's part of the reason why I've been kind of down on Andrew Luck. I've been kind of down on Jordan Love a little bit just because what they did around the goal line was so effective with Josh Jacobs towards the end of last year. If that were to continue, if that was the plan, they just figured out how to utilize his skill set and their offensive line scheme around the goal line where it was pretty much unstoppable. If that continued, Josh Jacobs would be a great pick. I don't have any problem. I've got him a few spots below where his ADP is ranking-wise, but he can absolutely, like I don't see him being drafted at his ceiling at running back nine. Well, the three checkboxes yesterday, right? Touchdowns, workhorse role, winning team, those all.

are there for Josh Jacobs, the fourth most carries last year, fourth most red zone touches, led the NFL, 14 rushing touchdowns inside the 10, so they went to him like you said. And I think it's almost interesting that you, you know, you kind of brought up the fat Thor for a second. But if you look at what his resume is, that season where he played 13 games and it was a disaster for Las Vegas and he left the team, that was very much the outlier of his career. And the offseason. demand for Josh Jacobs and free agency showed that teams recognized that this just wasn't what Josh Jacobs was all about. You go back the year before he was the running back three and you know in Las Vegas that team was not checking all the boxes. Yeah I mean it was 17.8 fantasy points a game but last year back up to 16.2 his second highest of his career two of the last three years he's been just a fantasy force so we know that potential I don't feel like he's as he's not James Cook.

in the touchdown regression fears because James Cook's workload is so much less. And there's so much more like history of not scoring in Buffalo and the three-headed monster there. They have other options. The fourth checkbox for me, if there was a fourth, which there isn't. We can add as many checkboxes as you want. Then the fourth checkbox is to have injury prone worthless backs behind you. Yeah. I mean, there's no competent, like my worry about Josh Jacobs last year. was that this is a system that has always been, you know, a time, a committee situation. And, you know, they've talked about that. Like, that's their preference. But you can't do that if you don't have the personnel. They can't go into the season and have a 50-50 time split here. They don't have the other running backs. Marshaun Lloyd is made of the same stuff that Kendra Miller is made of. It's like laughy-taffy. You just can't stay healthy. And so.

Josh Jacobs is going to be a workhorseback for a good offense. Yeah, my coming into the offseason, all my concerns were does Marshaun Lloyd show why he was a third round pick? Does it swing back for Green Bay where in 2023, 24% of their touchdowns were rushing touchdowns. And then that jumped all the way up to 45 this past year. So it was like seeing what LaFleur has done with Jordan Love, they like to throw. They like when they're getting in closer. But now you have the Jordan Love injury to start. Marsha on Lloyd is hurt. They just signed, I don't know if you guys saw Tyrion Davis Price. Ah, a name from the past from the relics of the San Francisco draft era. So like, Lord Tyrion. Yeah, they've added another running back because they're probably concerned about Lloyd. So I've gotten to the point where I, I'm with Jason, if I'm slightly behind the ADP, but I don't mind Josh Jacobs as my RB1.

Just said it with Jordan Love, like they're favored in their first eight games of the season, projected win total of nine and a half. A lot of the times I worry about backup running backs making an impact win. There's a reason for the team to go away from what happened last year. He played 17 games. He could handle the workload. He had 344 opportunities, which was 60 fewer than he had in Las Vegas when he played 17. So one of the true workhorses, over 1,300 yards on the ground, it was. pretty incredible from week five on for them once they figured it out. And again, it was a little slower start. You say they figured it out. Part of that is just you're a brand new member of a brand new team. And part of it was the Jordan Love injuries from last year. He got hurt in week one. And then he sustained an injury a few weeks later that he played through. But it definitely affected how they were choosing to do things. All right. Moving on. Number nine. Chase.

Brown. Chase Brown comes in at number nine. I got him at 12. You guys both have them at eight. I think we're all excited for Chase Brown and the potential in that offense. You saw it last year. It was on display. This was a player that leveled up from a talent perspective. We went into the season thinking, well, they invested in Zach Moss, who had played well in Indianapolis. The team went into it thinking that Zach Moss was, he was the guy for the first couple of weeks. Yeah, snap counts for Chase Brown, 33%, 20%, 24%. uh those first three weeks just three four and seven attempts on the ground he is not um he's not a prototypical like between the tackles workhorse he's in austin ecler he absolutely is he's capable between the tackles but he can also be utilized like he can have a game where he gets 10 or 11 carries but still gives you a really nice fantasy day because of utilization in the passing game what's crazy is he wasn't getting 10 or 11 carries when he became their starter he was getting 17.7

carries a game. That's a 300 carry pace his last seven games play. Basically when Zach Moss went down. So Zach Moss goes down. This team got off to a slow start. They lost a ton of games and they tried to fix it and make the playoffs. Remember, they went on a great run towards the end of the season, won a bunch of games. That was, Chase Brown was a huge part of that. Yeah. And as soon as that happened, you have Chase Brown on pace for 94 targets for over 1,200 rushing yards, over 600 receiving yards. a true dual threat back. I care more about those. The targets. Yeah. I mean, that is absolutely outrageous. And that's what I am going to project for the Cincinnati Bengals moving forward. Yes, Samanjay P. Ryan will take some snaps away from Chase Brown. But like, they do not want him at 85% snaps. That's an insane. Yeah. Insane number. That was, remember they added Clayle Herbert at the end of the year and they'd already lost Moss and they lost backup players like,

I don't know, was it Kyron that ended up having those kind of snap counts for like three or four years ago? Massive, both last year and the year before. You don't generally see snap counts in the 90s. No, no. That was Kyron. It was basically Kyron, Christian McCaffrey. So to your point about like taking some snaps here and there, that makes sense. But this is their guy. You will get games like, I mean, you would expect three to four targets as your floor. for him. And then you have ceiling games where it just works out that this is how the Bengals are going to attack the defense. And Chase Brown is going to have eight or nine receptions. And he just, it. There's a fourth, there's a fourth checkbox here. What's that? There's a four checkbox. Somage P. Rhine is the main backup. Yeah. Tomajie P. Ryan five years ago. And when they get close to the goal line, they just keep throwing. So give me the receiving back. Yeah. And let's, let's hope that, I mean, this.

To be fair, the only thing in the back of my head tucked away hidden is they constantly gave Samajapirine work when Joe Mixing was supposed to be on the field in their playoff run. But this is two years, three years removed. They've got to be smart about it. But we expect that. Joe Mixon is one of the things that gives me even more faith than Chase Brown of Joe Mixon was their guy. I mean, for years and years and years, it didn't matter how. Inefficient. Was Joe Mixen having a great game? Was Joe Mixen having one of his stinkers of a game? It didn't matter. They still kept going to him. How early is too early to draft him if you're in love with Chase Brown? He's the RB12 off the board. You guys have him at eight. What I love is that his ADP is in the third. That is spectacular. I would take him in the second. Okay. Keep it in the third people. Yeah. Mock draft season. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't pull the trigger on Chase Brown. Draft season. Manipulate the market. Yeah.