Early Top 10 RB Rankings + Ball Boys, Yeti Analysis - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/12

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Fastest is based on analysis by Ucla of speed test intelligence data of national speed score results for the second half of 2025. The best mobile network in the U.S. is based on analysis by Ucla of speed test intelligence data, second half of 2025. Derek Henry, the man, the myth, the legend. The Yeti. Just unconscionably dominant when he played last year. He was the highest.

odds of winning your week was when you had Derek Henry as one of your starters. He didn't even get to the winter. I know. He didn't get to transform. I can't imagine what kind of monstrosity he would have been in the cold weather. When the snow started falling. He was so good. You cannot forget. It's so easy to forget how dominant he was because he wasn't around the entire second half of the year. Jonathan Taylor's all the rage. But.

Goodness gracious. Running back 11, 11, 4, 1, 112, all top 12s and three running back one overall finishes within a six week stretch. He had seven healthy weeks, still finished third and evaded tackles. He missed 10 weeks and finished third and evaded tackles, 10th and carries. He was still an RB1 points-wise until week 16. And...

Yeah, if you faced him, you were terrified. Should we really call another player bouncing off of you in evaded tackle? Right. Yeah, it's just... He's not evading anything. No, he's just powering through. I think it was Warren Sharp that tweeted out. He got me on a rabbit hole of searching Derek Henry high school videos. Oh, yeah, those are the best. But did you look at it? Not for those other children, Jason. He was the same size as he is now. And...

Do you know how many touchdowns he had in his senior season, Mike? Are you aware of this? I've heard the... I didn't realize it was that, or didn't remember. I've seen them from time to time. 55 touchdowns. He had a game where he was like 468 yards and six touchdowns. But it was not fair. How would a child tackle that man? It's not fair. You would not. That is, that's not a business decision for a high school safety. That's a life decision. For the well-meaning of my future, I am...

I am going to let Derek Henry go. Yeah. If you, you have to check your assisted suicide laws in your state because that's what that decision would be. I think that people got in trouble in high school because you know, like when you watch a train, you don't realize it's moving that fast. Right. Because of its size. I think they're like, I got this. Oh, no. Oh, no. He's so fast. Well, here's what's important. Derek Henry, will he be the same? Matthew Betts, our injury expert, breaking down the injury, the Jones fracture.

It occurred in week eight. He did return. If you remember, in the AFC divisional round against Cincinnati, 11 weeks later, wasn't great. Wasn't great. But it was great that he was able to sit out 11 weeks. That was awesome. And then get an entire offseason of rest. And one of the questions about Jones fracture injuries. Hibernation. Is that what he does? Because he's a Yeti. Because the Yeti's hibernating. Oh, absolutely. You ever seen a Yeti in the summer? So they hibernate during the summer.

So they do the inverse bear hibernation. They really only exist where it's always winter, though. Yeah, like Siberia. Yeah, the Himalayans. Ah, thank you, Mike. So no, I did, to be clear, no hibernation for a Yeti or is there? They would. They would if it was ever. Like a month? Yeah, maybe. Maybe it gets a little warm. All right, listen.

Refracture rates drop from 20% to 10% on Jones fractures when the athlete waits at least 10 weeks to return to play. So he came back 11 weeks later. So that amount of time in between the injury does reduce his risk of re-injury. Plus the full off season. Right. So it's still going to be, look, you're 28.3 years old right now. Foot injury, the age, the workload. As fun as it is.

to pretend he's immortal and impossible to hurt. He did get her last year. I mean, you finally saw an injury. He broke. And it's not as simple as, ah, you turned 28 and so he broke. It's just something that happens with workload. You've had running back after running back after running back. When you pile up the touches, you're piling those odds against you. Do you guys realize his pace? Like, because, so Derek Henry.

which was, it was already a bit of a concern. He was coming off of multiple seasons of 300 plus carries, 303 in 2019, 378 in 2020. I do know his pace. And this past year, he was on pace for 17 games, 465 carries. And 507 opportunities. I mean, that's, he was catching the ball. He was on almost 40 reception pace. That is running a dude into the ground.

Or and other dudes into the ground when, I mean, with him. Yeah. It's, again, he's an outlier. We say that over and over again. But that's the concern. The concern with Derek Henry is time will catch him. And when it actually does, I think it will be swift. Yeah. And the time could have caught up. So this is a decision you're going to have to make. I am, I am betting on him being healthy this year. He's, you know, at 28, he is not past that.

31 year old like death knell to running backs there are certain running backs like you want them early you want them first contract 24 years old is when i like my running backs but there are the great ones who have a long career played till the they hit that like 31 year age market and clearly derrick henry is one of the great ones so i'm in on derrick henry i'm not too worried about the injury this year it feels like their window is right now

This year. Like if things go, they were the number one seat. I want to give them credit. They were incredible, even without Derek Henry, piecing wins together. But if it doesn't go well this year, if they regress, you've got a almost 30-year-old running back and you have a fatigue with Ryan Tannehill that already led to rumors this past off season.

So longevity is not what I'm looking at here with this Titans team. I'm looking at a run to the Super Bowl this year. There have been rumors of them being kind of a surprising team to take one of the top running backs in the draft. It makes sense. The weaponry, you know, in the holster where you're basically what happened with Derek Henry, right? He didn't play the first two and a half years because he was behind DeMarco Murray. You know, if they draft Breece Hall, ugh. I mean, good long term, but like.

He won't be your first pick in that situation. Austin Echler comes in at number four. Mike and I have him at four, Jason at five. We had him on the show last year. It was a filthy liar right to our faces. He just hinted that maybe touchdowns wouldn't be a big part of his game. Echler. Went up and got 20 of them. 12 on the ground, 8 through the air, 94 targets, 70 receptions, 911 yards on the ground.

missed a week due to injury. So he had 12 rushing touchdowns this past year. That is right. That is correct. His career heading into this season? Last season or the? Yeah, so he got 12 this year. But before that, just in his career total, nine, nine rushing touchdowns. Yeah, yeah, Melvin Gordon there for a while. I mean, it, it's great to be part of a great offense. It's great to have received a massively upgraded offensive line.

Things worked out very well for Austin Echler, and he was able to stay healthy, even though he seemed like he was injured 20 times through the year, but he played through it. He did a great job. The reason I have him five and not four, like you guys, is the touchdown outlandishness. Eight receiving touchdowns is a lot. Both of those, 12 rushing touchdowns for Austin Echler and eight receiving touchdowns. You know, if you said,

How many touchdowns should he have next year? I'd say he should have 10 touchdowns. That's a good number. 10, 11 touchdowns. Nice and round. Yeah, that's, um, that's going to, whenever we look, like, it's one of those things where going into the season, you always assume that what happened last year and how would happen and that they repeat. And then you go back, look year over year over year at these touchdown, these great touchdown players.

Like the next player we're talking about is Dalvin Cook, who's a touchdown machine? I do think that... Except last year. Yeah, I think the receiving touchdowns are more predictable to me for him. Because if you're looking at Justin Herbert and you're going to get 40 touchdowns out of Herbert, it's just not going to happen without 8 to 10 from Austin Echler in the passing game. And when you get 90 targets, right, you say, Justin Herbert, you've got one of your receivers who gets 90 targets from you on the course of the year.

I don't think that that's outlandish. He had eight touchdowns in the receiving game two years ago before he missed six games the next year. But the rushing touchdowns, I think those can come down. That's funny, because I think the complete inverse of that, where looking at the death chart of, you know, currently we have Larry Roundtree and Joshua Kelly are the other two running backs on the Chargers' depth chart. So, yes, I mean, Austin Echler.

proved himself as the goal line back. I would think he retains that, although I think the Chargers are a team to watch in the draft of one of the higher pro, maybe Isaiah Spiller falls in the draft and ends up going to the Chargers and people get really mad about it. That's something that could happen. But for now, I think Echler is safer as the goal line back where receiving touchdowns, it's not like.

It's not out of control for his skill set, his quarterback, and the volume for him to end up at the eight touchdowns. Just historically, it's running backs hitting that number and then sustaining that level production is not what we see. Well, and they've been rumored to, I mean, a lot of mock drafts have them taking a top tier wide receiver in the first round. So adding to that repertoire, so that would hurt. So that would hurt. Big workload last year.

Incredibly, all 20 of his touchdowns came inside the red zone. So it was more than just 20 touchdowns. It was 20 touchdowns when they were trying to score on that play. He was part of the game plan, is what I'm saying, inside the 20. And you brought up the competition. Not a lot of it. Dalvin Cook comes in at five. Jason, you have them at four. Mike and I at five. Despite only playing 13 games, he had the fifth most carries in football.

20 or second most 15 plus yard runs. Yeah, I mean, he's really, really good. We know that he's been a top running back for the last several years. When I looked at these two guys who I love both of them, it's just a matter. It really came down to touchdowns because Dalvin Cook's a guy who's had 16 touchdowns, 13 touchdowns on the ground. And then this last year just kind of, it didn't happen. What did he have? Six touchdowns, I believe. Yeah, it was just.