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

Mixon is not going to go and jump up to 70 receptions or be one of those type of players. But improvements on the offensive line, right? Yeah. Collins came in this offseason. And so, you know, the schedule gets tougher. Per Warren Sharp jumps from the third easiest last year to the seventh hardest at that Super Bowl hangover. The offensive line of help. I like him in, you know, 11.

Yeah, I like them where I've got them at eight. Yeah. So they got Alex Kappa from Tampa Bay and Lowe Collins from Dallas. So their offensive line is going to be better. I agree with you. This isn't going to be a guy that's going to be a 70 reception back. But the offense, to me, has just the arrow pointed up with Joe Burrow.

What happened towards the end of the season, Joe Burrow catching fire, them taking the Super Bowl run. We'll see what the Super Bowl hangover does to this young team, but they have really improved the roster. And if Joe Burrow just takes the expected continual steps forward in his career, this is an offense that should be putting up tons of points. I think you want pieces on it.

If he ends up, you know, if you say, okay, what running back has the chance for 15 rushing touchdowns? He's one of the very few that could really be up at a massive, you know, scoring threshold. And so that's why it's more team-based here. And obviously he's super talented. You know, he's been someone that's always, his issue's been staying on the field, I think. But when he's been on the field, he's been productive. Win total for Cincinnati is it seven and a half? What? What? Sorry, I thought.

We're at nine and a half. Nine and a half. Okay. That makes more sense. That would be some disrespect. No, it's going to be tough. It really is. It's going to be tough for them to combat. I don't disagree with you, Jason, of like, of teams that when you're, you know, looking at the ceiling in the floor, the Bengals have a ceiling that they may not have hit last year. Sure. But they were still seventh in points per game, you know, tied for seventh. So like.

how much higher can they actually go? 16 total touchdowns was his career high by a lot. So in the range of outcomes, Mixon is one of those players that could surprise, but a lot of things would have to shake out right for him. James Connor last year, 15 rushing touchdowns, three through the air, got the new contract this off season, Chase Edmonds, departs from Arizona, and everybody's kind of scratching their head with James Connor because you would kind of, all but.

Fantasy buried him in terms of a top-tier option. This wouldn't have been a strange place to have him ranked in Pittsburgh a couple of seasons ago before we felt like, and maybe that had a lot to do with that offensive line in Pittsburgh being atrocious. But James Connor had seemed like his better days were behind him. Then he shows up last year and delivers 18 total touchdowns, a great fantasy finish, a difference making.

week to week for fantasy players and ends up the running back five. I mean, he was, he was the running, that's his highest fantasy finish ever. So even in the year where he kind of stepped in for Lev Bell and delivered those profound totals, he finished at RB6 that year, then dipped to 33, then 26, then last year at RB5 and, you know, doesn't have competition from Chase Edmonds. The Cardinals are.

missing some draft picks in this draft. I don't expect them to invest one at running back, me personally. I think that they're more likely to sign a Darrell Williams in free agency than to draft somebody, and that would be a depth piece. So in a single season vacuum, doesn't it seem like Connor has this entire role on lockdown? It does, and he should dominate with it. I mean, you saw him dominate last year when you're the running back five. That's great. But Connor had five games without Chase Edmonds.

His opportunities went up, his targets went up, and he changed from 13 fantasy points to game to 20 fantasy points per game. This is an offense that projects to be extremely high-powered with Kyler Murray and Hopkins and Cliff Kingsbury, you know, trying to push the tempo. So all things you love, I do worry about, you know, his injury history. He's never played a full season. And if he gets all the work, he's there, but he's a tough player. I love James Connor. I don't.

You know, I liked where I had Joe Mixon at 8. I don't like that I've got James Connor at 12. It's kind of some pessimism of, well, they've got to bring in another player and he's got a bad injury history, so I'm kind of hedging. But if he's on the field for this offense, he should be scoring touchdowns and they use him in the passing game. He's a really well-rounded back who looked great last year. Connor had 15 red zone touchdowns. Over the last decade, 43 different running backs had double-digit red zone rushing touchdowns.

Only five of those 43 repeated them the following year. Yeah, so it is very hard to repeat, but looking back at the system that Kingsbury has been utilizing here, like when they traded for Kenyon Drake a few years ago, Kenyon Drake was seeing, you know, at least one carry inside the five per game. The next year where Kenyon Drake had a bunch of touchdowns in, you know,

In 2020, he had, pull up the number. He had 10 rushing touchdowns that year. He was averaging about 1.3 carries inside the five. James Connor, that's right along his average as well. So there wasn't like an outrageous jump in volume this particular year for Connor compared to the way that Kingsbury has let his primary goal line running back go. So the opportunities are going to be there. And Kingsbury's favorite play.

When he gets to the goal line is run it up the middle. Do you know the snap percentage for James Connor through the first eight weeks? I'm going to guess it was not high. I'm going to guess 40%. 42% for the first eight weeks of the season. And after that, it jumped up to 75% of the snaps.

So he was still the goal on guy at the beginning. It was the receiving work that took him to the next level. Yeah, his touchdown pace at 42% snap count was 17. Which will be interesting if they signed Darrell Williams because in your mind, when you think of Darrell Williams, you think of a big bruising guy, not realizing that Darrell Williams this last season was one of the leaders in running back receptions. I think he was sixth, something like that in running back receptions.

And was a goal line back? He would take over a decent amount of the third down work immediately. He was a pretty good back. But it almost feels like this James Connor season from last year because he wasn't, it was a lot like Naji. He wasn't impressive on a yards per carry, but was heavily involved. And this would be the dream season for Naji is put up the 15 rushing touchdowns. You just need an offense that's.

much, much, much better than we had last season. There's your top 10. Incredible. How was that number four? It was as impressive as you had said. I told you. Austin Echler, not a surprise. Brooksie, what do we got coming up next episode? More running back. Oh, gosh. More interesting names too, right? We get to move on, we get through maybe 24, 25. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

All right, that'll do it for today's show. Make sure you like, subscribe, follow the show. And we'll be back. We'll be debating some more players and maybe we'll have a nickname for the guys. This is going to say for Andy, Jason, and the ball boys. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers.

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