Top 10 RB Rankings + Best Ball Breakdown - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/7

success earlier with Mark Ingram also having success for that team. And Latavius Murray, aside from the two games, you know, in the middle of the season where Camara was out, he's only, Murray was seeing maybe an average of 10 opportunities per game. Camara is still the main guy. You saw his five zone carries drop from 13 down to eight from, so two years ago, 13, last year, only eight. I'm still.

good drafting Cameras as a top. Yeah, I mean, you can kind of make the argument however you want. I mean, Latavis Murray's played on the team for one year. And even though he's had success with Ingram, the team may use Murray in a different fashion. Those five zone carries are more of a reflection of a confidence in Latavius Murray. Well, Murray only had four. I've got him buried at eight. So I can see why.

Why you guys. Well, we have to fight about this. Yeah. Number seven. Fight, fight. This is our big differences on this show. Derek Henry comes in at number seven on our consensus top ten running back rankings. Last year, 303 carries 1,540 yards, 16 touchdowns on the ground. Didn't do any damage through the air. 18 for 206 and 2.

But he is just such a volume hog and an efficiency hog. And this is an offense that is built entirely around him. Now he's been paid. And, you know, he's a beast of a man. He led the league in yards after contact. He led the league in 102 yards a game. You're going to get 100 yards a game from Derek Henry this year. The only question in anyone's mind is, do you get 16 touchdowns again?

And that's what you need. You need a ton of touchdowns. Not 16. You know, if he comes through with 13, he's going to be great. But you do need the touchdowns because the- 12 the year before in 2018, 16 last year. Right. And I presume, and I have statted him out to get, he is my league leading, you know, rushing touchdown in projections right now. He-

Last year had seven games where he was a top five running back. And that's including the fact that, you know, the first six weeks of the season, he had Marks Mario, the team wasn't that good. The ceiling for Derek Henry, I do think even without the passing game, could be that running back one. You know, if he gets 20 touchdowns, there's not a lot of, you know, how many backs out there could you, without laughing, say, yeah, he could get 20?

It reminds me so much of Marshawn Lynch when Seattle ran the ball the way they did with Marchion, where the games were ended with March on Lynch. Lynch will give you the two or three touchdown games because the third and fourth quarter were just hand the ball to him, and it still worked. You still picked up first downs. You still picked up big plays. Henry's shown the ability to have breakaways, but there is unquestionably more risk to him because you do not have the kind of risk, you know.

broken up between, okay, he didn't run well this game, but he got the passing yardage. If the game scripts start to flip, if the Titans aren't as good of a team. If Tanahill is not as good, then that will be a problem. Because Jason, what you were talking about, when Mariotta was in, Henry was getting 70 rushing yards game, still very solid. But that number jumped up to 125 rushing yards per game when Tanahill was in there. I mean, Tanahill was absolutely dominant for Tennessee.

So that's the question is that his success does ride a little bit more on other players of his team than these other running backs that we're talking about. And then, you know, the offensive line, they did lose Jack Conklin on the right. So there is some concern, but I'm not betting against Derek Henry. All right. Josh Jacobs comes in at number eight. He is number six on my rankings, 11 for Jason, nine for Mike,

Josh Jacobs is a flag plant for me this year. Yes. I believe he makes the jump into the upper tier of fantasy running back. I believe he sees an increase in passing work, and he showed us in spans last year what he was capable of doing, and more importantly for fantasy, the willingness of the head coach to...

give him sufficient opportunities to be in the upper tier of fantasy running backs. Now, are you reading it at all into the hype train piece that Coach Gruden was allegedly upset that Kyler Murray took home rookie of the year and Josh Jacobs didn't? Because Jacobs easily could have taken home rookie of the year. I was worried.

As a Kyler fan. As a Kyler fan, I was like, I don't know if Kyler gets this because of Jacob. I don't think people understand how good he was. Go ahead. And you say, there's whispers in the bushes that Gruden was very upset about it and that he is going to use this year to set out to prove that Jacobs should have been that guy. Well, to answer your question of... I mean, stroll along narrative streets. Have I considered that? No, because I did not know that. Oh, well, now you know. That's not part of my consideration. But what is, is he had a...

an incredible rookie season that is kind of forgotten about because he missed weeks 14, 16, 17, played with injuries in weeks 12 and 13, yet still finish the rookie year with over 1,100 rushing yards, seven rushing touchdowns, and just, you know, wasn't heavily involved on third down, running a lot of routes in the offense, had a six game or a five game span in the middle of the season where he was on pace for 1,600 plus yards, has shown, you know, and 400 opportunities. If that's the way that John Gruden.

is willing to use him for a span last year. You know, maybe that gets a little bit more regular in 2020. Dalvin Cook made the jump last year. I think Jacobs makes it this year. And they involve him in the passing game a little bit more of his number one attribute coming out of college. So he's a great pass catcher. And that's the, that's the question, right? Is he going to get more involved in the passing game? It was infuriating last year watching him dominate.

NFL defenders, just make them look silly, run through him, run around him, and never really be involved in the passing game. And unlike Todd Gurley, who was running routes and was just not getting the ball thrown to him, not getting open or whatnot, he wasn't involved in the passing game.

Now, hopefully that's because he was a rookie. They used him as a first and second down running back and didn't want him to have to, you know, shoulder that kind of knowledge and responsibility and pass block and all this stuff as much. His shoulder was hurt, so that was harder. There you go. Hard a shoulder when you got a bad shoulder. So, but it's common. This has happened before where extremely good rookie running backs who were explosive on the ground, had more than 1,100 yards rushing.

and fewer than 30 targets, you see them take that jump next year almost across the board. I'll give you a few examples. You had Cadillac Williams, who ran for 1178 yards, only 25 targets in his rookie year, went up to 44. You had Marshawn Lynch, 1115 yards, only 26 targets, went up to 67.

targets the next year. Todd Gurley, you forget rookie year 1100 yards. Only 26 targets went up to 58 targets. Sometimes these great running backs aren't utilized in the passing game their rookie year. And the coach goes, well, they're really great. So I should, I should involve them. There were some miscalculations last year. Gruden does have the old school. When I get around the goal line, it goes to my running back mentality, which whether you bemoan it as a fantasy or as a NFL fan, he just does that.

And so I think that gives him a rushing touchdown ceiling as well. Miles Sanders at number nine. I got him at 13, Jason at 7, Mike at 10. To be honest, that feels ridiculous to me, that I am somehow the lowest on Miles Sanders. It is a little bit strange. The drumbeat of the past two years in my confidence that Peterson would eventually submit to a workhorse. But.

That's where the projections go. And that's what we do here on the show is we project stat lines. And if they line up a certain way, that's how they line up. Jason, you have them at seven. You've talked a lot about him recently. We probably don't have to spend forever on Miles Sanders. Go to the fire and ice episode. And you'll hear my fire earlier this week. Monday's show?

That was Monday's show. Just go back and you can hear me talk. It's enough fire to last through the week. I'll tell you that. Absolutely. And it's a great episode anyway. So I won't say much other than to say I truly believe that there is no chance he is not a workhorse back. He will be one of the few workhorse. Now, how good he is with that, with this offense. That's.

TBD. So you've got a bit 30 receptions. I mean, that's, you've got to admit running back 13. That's, he could be a workhorse back and finishes the running back 13. Yeah, David Montgomery. That's very, you know, in the realm of outcome. But I am confident that he is a workhorse back this year. He will get the majority of the carries and enough targets be on the field a lot. So I like him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you've made the case. I, I don't have any objections to the fact that.

This is his backfield at this point in time. Last year, 179 carries 50 receptions. If he's given the opportunity so far in his young career, he's proven he can do it. I do like this team note here from maybe Brooks, maybe Kyle. It just says Jay Howe is gone. Has he ever been called Jay Howe? Jordan Howard. He's Jay Howe. He's not been able to stay on one team. Spice him up a little bit. Jay Howdy.

Howdy. Jay howdy. Gross. All right. I'm sorry, Jordan. I'm going to hand the baton to Mike here as we wrap up our top 10 running backs. But Aaron Jones comes in at number 10, not disrespected after that monster finished last year. And definitely more up and down than other running backs, had some disappearing weeks, just how the game flow went. In fact, he had five weeks, I believe, or four weeks that were.

Not what you expected out of a running back that ended what, number two? I believe that's correct. Two or three. I think it might send on scoring. Yeah, 16 touchdowns. It did not come in the same fashion that Derek Henry's touchdowns came in. But 474 yards through the air, three touchdowns. Aaron Jones, why do we have trouble not just awarding him that top spot again? You tell me, because I still have him as a top 10 guy.

Yeah, I mean, I've got him as an RB1, but he is my last RB1 at running back 12 and a half point scoring. The reasons are I don't trust Matt LaFleur, and I do think AJ Dylan is going to eat some of these touchdowns away. Now, the touchdown regression was already coming. I mean AJ villain? AJ villain, that's right. Oh, no. He's going to bolt to these touchdowns. Yes, thank you.

It takes a little longer to find new drops, Mike. You know, the reality is he was, he's not going to repeat, you know, 19 touchdowns next year. And that was without A.J. Dylan. If, if he was down at 10, that's still a great number. Now if A.J. Villain takes two of those and you're at eight, it just pushes you back a little bit. I expect him to be more involved in the passing game this year because I think A.J. Dylan will eat into.

Jamal Williams role a little bit more. Jamal Williams is much more of a pass catcher than AJ Villan. So he'll make up some ground in the past catching work. He is electric. He's very Alvin Camara-esque as far as talent on the field. If he was playing for the Saints, he would be my running back four. Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah. I mean, with a little bit more clarity in the backfield, a little less dependency on the super high touchdown totals.

I think it's a fair summary. A little better offensive line. Mike, you're a big Aaron Jones fan. Yeah, I like Aaron Jones. I think he's a spectacular talent. I like the fact that I will have a running back that can hit a home run. He can take a 50-yard reception to the house, 50-yard carry to the house. You saw him. His target share went from 6% up to 12%. And if he's even more involved, Jay, as you're projecting. That's what we asked for.

It is. Like rarely fantasy football players in the off season when we ask for things, do they come true? And this was one where it was like, yeah, we are going to use them more. And he did have a lot of touchdowns. So perhaps the opportunities drop. You know, he had 13 carries inside the five. Those 13 carries turned into eight touchdowns. Wow. Which, I mean, it sounds pretty egregious, but, you know, like.