Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Early RB Rankings Part 1

300 plus touches. The other six were running back once. Todd Gurley was not. I had to go back to 2012 to find a running back who had over 300 touches and was not a running back one. And that was Chris Johnson barely squeaked out of running back 13. And that was that, the Ben Jarvis Green Ellis here. I don't know if you recall that, but that's, they're just, he was so inefficient and so bad with, despite getting all that work.

And for me, what has changed that you think he can bounce back? Well, look, a lot. A lot has changed. Sean McVeigh is a head coach. Sean McVeigh builds offenses around players' strengths. Jeff Fisher builds... He builds around the punter. He builds around the punting game. Sean McVeigh and the offensive line has been strengthened. Part of the equation last year was nobody was hit faster.

than Todd Gurley, okay? That offensive line, his yards before contact was incredible. Now, you either buy into Todd Gurley as an elite talent or you don't. Sure. And you can say, hey, 2015, it was number seven and he only played 13 games. Last year, piles and piles of touches. What does he do if he's more efficient? Everything you said to me, you can bend both directions. Anemic, despite that number? Oh, my gosh, he was bad.

Wow, anomalous despite that number. Almost everybody with those numbers ends up top five. He didn't last year. Things didn't go the right way for that team. Carousel at quarterback, Jeff Fisher, horrible offensive line, out of sync. A lot has changed. I have made it public. I'm buying into that. And I went out and I traded for him in Dynasty. And I don't, here's what I don't think. I don't think you draft Tide Gurley and you end up with a neutral result. I think you're going to get.

You're going to be hot fire or you're going to be sadness. That's what I think. Yeah, I don't know that I agree with the last point, but I agree with almost everything else you said in the sense that where we have him ranked, where we have him ranked consensus because you guys are, you know, hot and cold on him.

puts him right about where I've got him right. I think this is where he finishes. You're the baby bear? I think he'll finish as a low-end RB1. So you're saying we balanced each other at the point where we actually are benefiting our listener? Yes. Yeah, you know, because you do have an improved offensive line. You did get rid of Jeff Fisher. However, Lance Dunbar is brought in, and we've seen the past catching role have been used by this coach. And so if you lose the 40-plus catches that Todd Gurley had last year, that hurts his fantasy value. At the end of the day,

clear centerpiece of an offense that I don't think is going to be very good. And so I think he'll be, he'll have the opportunity to be productive for fantasy. I don't think he's going to completely crap your team. Even last year when he was as bad as possible, he was still the 17th running back. And people.

feel like because of their expectations that he crapped their team. He didn't. He crapped your team from the sense of where you drafted. Right. And so this year, if you end up getting a better value, I think he's going to split the difference and he's going to be all right. And we talked about Andrew Whitworth coming in, their left tackle from Cincinnati, one of the game's best blockers. We'll see. We'll see what happens. It is worth at least saying because we want to give the information to listeners. There is a chance that Todd Gurley.

I'm just throwing this out there. There is a chance that Todd Gurley is done. I'm just saying talent-wise, when I watch, yes, he got done. He's what? Here's why I think that. When I watched the film on him, yes, the offensive line was bad, but he had plenty of opportunity to break one tackle and get away, and he never did. His first five games, when he came into the league, I mean, the first game wasn't a start. And then in his first four games, he averaged 141.5 yards per game.

Zeke was amazing. He averaged 108, 141. But since that time, the last 24 games he has played, he's only averaged 59 yards a game. So I think he will finish as a low end. If I didn't have headphones on, I'd plug my ears. There you go. That's fun. I'm just saying that for it. It has to be said. It has to be said because the possibility exists for those things. Look, I feel like these conversations were had about Darren McFadden when he came into the league. And it was like,

boy, get him into this scheme and get him under these blockers and give him, oh, he needs to be healthy. Look, sometimes guys, look, all the excuses fade away after a couple of years. And this is going to be a telling year. Are we going to come back here on the early running back ranking show next year and say, he bounced back. He was a top 10 guy again or, all right, two bad years for Todd Gurley, you can't take the chance on. But 23 years old.

Should be interesting. We got to round this out here. Melvin Gordon number 10. Last year, number seven overall, despite only playing 13 games. So very similar to what Gurley did in 2015. He had a monster year in terms of being a centerpiece of that offense. No more Danny Woodhead in Los Angeles. And what do we expect from Gordon? And would you take Gordon or Gurley individually? Which one do you guys want to take the chance on?

You're either betting on a return, a positive regression for Gurley, or you're betting on a regression regression for Melvin Gordon? I would personally take Melvin Gordon, and I think that I'm probably the lowest of the three of us. I still think you're in the majority on that decision, though. On Gordon over Gurley? Yes. And I have concerns on Gordon. I have concerns on the inefficiency. What's funny is just how much his situation mirrors Todd Gurley. I mean, they were taking...

picks apart. They were both just fed the ball last year until they vomited. And they were both extremely inefficient. However, one of them is on a much better offense. And that's why I lean towards Melvin Gordon. What's funny with him is so running backs with 220 plus carries, he joins Todd Gurley as the only one under a thousand yards. In people.

have destroyed. Jeremy Hill was destroyed last year. People hated him. Jeremy Hill had 32 less carries than Melvin Gordon, but over 120 yards more than Melvin Gordon was not efficient. But he just, he, I just, I want people to, I want to take that just the blinding shine off of Melvin Gordon. That's all I want to do is don't be blinded by his fantasy production because the guy was.

He was just getting touchdowns every single week. It was unbelievable, man. He went from no touchdowns his entire rookie season to, oh, yeah, I'll give you touchdowns. And I expect it's going to land and finish somewhere in the middle. If I have to choose, I'm on the clock between Gurley and Gordon. I like Gurley's opportunity better, but I like the offense better for San Diego. So similar to you, I would take Melvin Gordon by a hair. All right, we got to wrap it up, guys. We're hitting that hour mark.

You know what they say? There's always another episode. That's what they say. And Thursday we'll be going deeper. Thursday is an even more exciting show to me to talk about the running backs where it's like, okay, we're going to disagree even more on some of those guys. Oh, yeah, we are. After I looked at Mike's rankings.

He put up, did you do the dartboard again this year? He put all the faces up on the wall. He's a truthers, truther. You just threw the darts. Ryan Weiss has a great article on the fantasy footballer. About being a truther. It's like a little fun quiz article. Go take it and see if you are a Mike Ray truther. If you did the dart game, I feel like you put me, made Belal Pal's head huge on the wall. So it was really easy to hit. It's very popular. We'll talk about it on Thursday.

All right. Hey, make sure you stay tuned on YouTube for the show. After the show. We're going to talk more Las Vegas Raiders. That's a strange thing to say out loud. Figure out their abbreviation. We'll do all of that on the show after the show. Subscribe on YouTube. And again, a reminder, head over to Ultimate DraftKit.com and get your hands on the pre-order for the 2017 Ultimate Draft Kit. It's going to be awesome. You won't find it any cheaper. No. That was the time. Look around. Just do your best. Try to figure it out.

All right, that is it for today. And we will catch you on Thursday. Make sure you head over to fantasy jocks.com. Check out some trophies. The promo code is Footballers. We'll see you on Thursday. Peace. 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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