Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Early RB Rankings, Sleepers, Mailbag

The two-game suspension doesn't scare me at all. If he does move to a four-game suspension, I've heard some guys say, well, that doesn't scare me either, and I'm thinking you're crazy. It'll change my number. You're missing a third of year or a fourth of your season. Yeah, you still got to make the playoffs for it to matter. Yeah, exactly. And if you're in a competitive league, which hopefully you're in a competitive league, it's more fun, you've got to win those first four games. And if you're in a position to draft Levyon Bell, you're in a position to draft any of these guys in your top five. And so why not mitigate the risk of losing four games? But if he's only out two,

He's a workhorseback, like Mike said. It's just so much opportunity for him. And they have been very blatant about their willingness to use him in that role for the time being. And like you said, DeAngelo Williams doesn't scare me. He's a viable backup. Yeah, and DeAngelo Williams is even a guy, let's say you take the risk and you take Bell with the first overall pick. When you're getting into rounds, maybe six or seven.

where you're starting to the talent has really come off the board go ahead and grab williams you know he's a guaranteed starter for two games assuming the suspension goes through and then you have a guy who like andy said is a quality backup in case something happens it's good to have that insurance policy if you're zero r being and you're waiting for that waiver wire go ahead and grab d well for your first two games that's that's very good point any other thoughts on levion bell

Do we expect to see anything else change in that backfield or their philosophy this off-season? He seems pretty solid. Yeah, I can't imagine it does. Big Ben, I believe, just got to just re-uped his contract. That offense with Todd Haley really caught its stride last year where you, this previous season before last, you saw it coming, it really exploded last year. I would fully expect the Steelers' offense to.

be one of the more high-powered in the league with Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant really coming on. And those guys, to me, only help take pressure off Levy on Bell. And Bell had the second most targets of the running back position. Last year, 105 targets, had 83 receptions. That's hard to repeat from that position. Yeah. But I have them pretty close. You want to talk about our next guy? Do I? Eddie Lacey. Fat Eddie.

Fat Eddie. Yeah, Eddie Lacey's our number two. As a consensus, he's actually number one for two of our guys, Jason and Mike. Yeah. So what do we love about Eddie Lacey? I love the offense that he's on, first and foremost. I think I love when I've got a running back that I can trust the quarterback of. You know they're not going to be stacking the box. I also love his age. He's young. I love his weight. He's fat. Which is the most of it.

No, it was just so funny to hear how much grief he gets on that side that has no relevance because he doesn't perform like T. Rich. He doesn't perform like these guys that are... There was one really unflattering photo, and it has... It's changed the landscape of Eddie. It's so funny, though. Eddie, if you're listening, I apologize. It's all about angles, people. Yeah. It's all about angles. That's why we like radio. No, but he catches the ball.

He can play every down. He's on a great high-powered offense. He's young. He's tested. He's proven. The thing that I love the most, and the reason that I put him number one is not just because he's proven that he can put up number one-worthy numbers, but because there are so few question marks. I feel like almost everybody else outside of Levi-on Bell and Eddie Lacey, I've got...

plenty of question marks on all of them. I can come up with, you know, question marks for Jamal Charles, Marshaun Lynch, Adrian Peterson, Aaron Foster, all these guys. I've got huge questions about them, even though I like them. But I have no questions of like, well, what about James Starks? You know, that's not popping into my head as far as like going to...

drop him from a top tier running back. So I have no problem with Eddie Lacey. I haven't met number four, actually, which is a little lower than you guys. But why does he take the leap from finishing sixth overall last year to number one for both of you? Mike, why is he jumping all the way to number one? What's different about them that makes you think he can do that? Because for me, when I was projecting him, I love him, but I projected him very similar to last year. Right. I think they did start to trust him in the passing game a little bit more, but there are question marks, a little bit of question marks in that.

They like to give him a break at times. You know, James Starks does come into the game and score touchdowns occasionally. So why is he making a jump from 6 to 1? To me, the biggest factor is his attempts, he actually had about 40 lower attempts last year than his rookie year. However, with that lower of attempts, he was only, what, 40 yards?

below his rookie season pace. So his average went up a half a yard. He didn't even have double-digit touchdowns on the ground, which I think is an easy thing for him to up. Of course, touchdowns are harder to project. Well, for a guy like him, it's more Lynch-like. You know what you're going to get at the goal line. Exactly. And you know the Packers are going to score. I believe that he can easily go into the double-digit touchdown category. And his hands...

are a very underrated part of his game, which I have to imagine has something to do with that picture, where people think... Well, you mean perception-wise, not for the actual team? Yeah, no, I'm talking about the fantasy community, where you perceive him as to be a lumbering guy, he's round, he's slow, but he's none of those things, and he can catch. He had a couple of game-breaking.

receptions where you get him into the open field and he's cascading from side to side all the way down the field. And he caught 79% of his, that was his catch percentage last year, which is extremely good from the running back. Levyon Bell was 83%. The stat that, and I believe he only had two drops. So of catchable passes, he had the highest completion percentage on the team, which on a team with superstar wide receivers,

That's a good stat to own. Yeah. And for me, Andy, to answer your question, I would say the reason I've got him number one is not so much because I think he's going to take the leap and absolutely finish number one. It's because I have the best chance. Absolute confidence that he doesn't finish below, you know, top four. And I can guarantee, you know.

To the best degree, exactly. You know, here's some names from some of the top, you know, 10 running backs off the board last year, you know, in the 2014 ADP. You've got LaShawn McCoy who underwhelmed Jamal Charles, Adrian Peterson, Monty Ball, you know, you've even... Don't get me started on Monte Ball. Well, we'll discuss that in a little bit. But my point is...

Every year is like this. Every year, your top five guaranteed guys. They're just so good. You're going to have guys in there that absolutely wreck your year, sometimes because of, you know, a crazy injury or like AP, a crazy suspension. But oftentimes it's just because they lose momentum. They're, you know, old as Aaron Foster, let's say, Andy. But...

on my number two. We're already getting at it. But I see none of those with Eddie Lacey. So it's not so much that I think he's going to absolutely finish number one. It's just that I love my confidence in him being a rock, solid, steady force for my team to help me win a championship. And my number one pick, if I'm at the top of the draft, and I don't get to pick in a snake draft for a while, I can't have that be a bust. Yeah, all very good points. And Lacey's a guy who you can just lock in load.

He had a little bit of a slow start last year, but they love him. And what were you going to say, Mike? The one, if you have any kind of concern about Eddie Lacey, it's the slow start. Concussion. Well, there was the concussion, but so 12 for 34, opening week, Seattle. Next week. The three best defense. Yeah, so that's what I'm saying. 13 for 43 against the Jets. 11 for 36 against Detroit.

And then the next game, which was the most concerning of them all, is 17 for 48 against Chicago, which was one of the worst run defenses in the league last year. So he had a very slow start, and the one concern about him is those three games when those teams we didn't know at the time. Well, you knew Seattle wasn't very good defense, but you weren't sure that the Lions had a top running defense in the league when your player doesn't perform.

adequately against the top running defense. You have concerns. Having said that, I still agree with Jason that Eddie Lacey of the top drafting, the top picks in the running back position, I think him and Bell have the least bust potential. And where I said that guys in the top 10, I can even shorten that to guys in the top five. And I will almost say that at least one of the top three running backs will bust.

Yeah, I agree. You see that happen. I have my tier at those two guys. After those two guys, there's a tier for me. After those two guys, I'm drafting gronk or maybe even a wide receiver one. You're on that gronk in the ground guy? Yeah, I am, because I've got too many questions on the rest of these guys. Wow. Okay, that's interesting. I'm sure we're... Yeah, that's for a later time. We'll be touching that again. What? So, um...

We're moving on to the number three consensus guy. We all like Eddie Lacey. So you got Bell and Lacey. Moving on to number three is a guy that has been a perennial top running back, but has a little bit of a coaching issue at times. Jamal Charles. Jamal Charles of, I think, 209 attempts last year. Is that the right number? That sounds stupid. Somewhere very close to that. He... Did someone get Andy Reid on the phone and we'll just let him know how good he is?

Jamal Charles? Yeah, I believe it's 1-88-the-wallis. If anybody wants to call him right now. Wow. Brutal. It's the mustache, really. Yeah, he has a problem trusting running backs at times. He obviously brought in Jeremy Macklin this off-season, which can't give you... He likes to throw the ball. If it was up to Andy Reid, I think he'd throw it every single play, which doesn't necessarily kill Jamal Charles because he's so valuable in the passing game. But...

I have him at my number five overall. Jason has him at number three. Mike has him at number eight, and he's our consensus number three. So Mike, tell me a little bit why you have him lower than we have him as a group. It's all about volume for me, why he's a little bit lower than the other guys. You don't think that was an anomaly last year? Those carry numbers? I unfortunately, I don't. Only 26 carries last year. He still averaged five a carry. He still scored nine touchdowns. He had 40 catches. When you have...

a coach more than once in a season a game will finish and he'll come, they lose and he comes out, yeah, we should have gotten Jamal the ball some more. If that happens more than one time, then I am going to have extreme question marks about a coach's willingness to ride the running game. And like Andy said, you have a, Jamal Charles is...

What's his lifetime average? It's got to be over five yards. Five point five. The guy is a beast. The guy is, he's dynamic. He's super fast. He's amazing with the ball. For his size, for his size, he's doing things that should not be done. He's like Chris Johnson, if Chris Johnson cared about football. Yeah, if he maintained what he was doing. So, Jamal Charles.

Even though I love him, he's fantastic, I just don't see the coaching staff getting him the work that he needs to be in the top five. Now, it's worth saying that last year he started, he only had seven carries in the first game and he only had two in the second game. He had injury problems at the beginning of the season. He had some, a little bit of a time coming back from those injuries. He also ended the year with only, wow, those are some bad attempt numbers. 10, 10, 12, 9, 13.

That's where the fear comes, right? And you have, you have Jamal Charles, of what you think of him. How many games did he get over 100 yards on the ground? One. Man, that's brutal. And yet he's still performed at a fairly high level and not until our expectations. He makes up through it. He makes up by catching the ball. And that's a fantastic way to be in an Alex Smith offense is...

taking... He still was the number... He was still the number seven running back. With taking dumps again. He almost said it again. Jamal Charles is going to be a dump king. But yeah, he was still number seven, right? And he had so few carries, so few attempts. And keep in mind that their offense in general was not that good. So you want a guy on a higher power offense, but you got...