Fantasy Football 2018 - Rookie Review: 2017 RBs & QBs

forces like these early guys will now he averaged 7.1 targets per game that was the number one at the running back position overall you have a team and a player in cam newton that did not have an offense that featured the running back the way that they tried to feature mcalfrey this year how do you see mcalfrey projecting forward because i think he has the the widest range right and i think he has the opportunity to where

Whether you'd take him over Fournet next year or not, he absolutely has the ability in a half-point league or a full-point league to outperform Fournett. So what do you see for his future? In a full PPR, I think you can have that as a real conversation of Christian McCaffrey or Leonard Fournett in 80 receptions this year. We featured this in the truth episodes, but he had the most running back targets.

But that only translated to the third most running back receptions. His actual catch percentage was not what you had hoped. And I don't think, I don't really put that on Christian McCaffrey. But I'm not going to say Cam Newton can't grow in that role, get an off season, a second season getting used to that. So Christian McCaffrey in full PPR, he's going to be, I think, closer to Fournett, but he doesn't have the same touchdown.

Oppside. We saw him, you know, he did score. Five receiving touchdowns is great. Jonathan Stewart is still going to be back. Jonathan Stewart is under contract. He is a cap hit of $5.2 million or a one and a half million dollar dead cap. So they could save close to $4 million by cutting Jonathan Stewart. My point in saying that is even if they do that, I think that they will draft a big bruiser guy because they don't want.

You can't give him 260 carries. They won't do that with Christian McCaffrey. He has such massive success running. It's as a runner in college. So it would be interesting to see what he can actually do. It wasn't. That is where he struggled this year. It wasn't great this year. No. The next two running backs off the board in the NFL draft were Delvin Cook and Joe Mixing. The two running backs after them, Camara and Hunt finished three, four in fantasy.

But I think Cook and Mixin are the most interesting from a fantasy perspective. You got to be fair for Dalvin Cook because if Dalvin Cook doesn't tear his ACL, he's an absolute beast. Absolutely. And you have a situation in Minnesota. Derek McKinn is a free agent. He wants to be featured. He's not going to be involved if Cook and Murray are back. And Cook has that job. And he has the skill set to be three downs. So.

You have the question mark coming off the injury, but it was an earlier injury. It wasn't late in the season. Yeah, it was week four. He's already jogging. I expect Daven Cook to be back. When you have to make the decision on Cook, are you making it as though he's a top 12 guy? Yes. The top 12 fantasy running back. Yes. And are you picking him over, Joe Mixon, who should have the backfield locked up?

in Cincinnati. Yeah, but he still, Joe Mixen still has Marvin Lewis. He still has that offensive line. He still has that offense. I know the Vikings are losing Pat Schumer to have lost him, I should say. So there will be changed and who's the quarterback from Minnesota, but I know they. Blake Bordles. Oh, wait, sorry. He's playing every team's quarterback. He's such a beast. He has a monster. But Dalvin Cook, he moonlights for other teams.

That would be awesome. It's a quarterback. He's co-owned. Nobody wants to pay that salary to want. They all split it and he's the backup for five teams. There you go. Oh, starters down. Can we get Blake this week? That's right. No? You got him? Oh, all right. We'll figure it out. He had to pay for his own surgery. Did you hear that? Bortles did. He actually, no, he did it. He did his own surgery. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, left-handed.

This is very, very impressive. Dalvin Cook coming into the year. Dalvin Cook is, I feel conflicted about my... He played four games last year. Well, I'm talking about my analysis of Dalvin Cook coming into the league because early, early in the off season, when you're talking for Dynasty and everything, the Combine hasn't happened, draft hasn't happened. Dalvin Cook and Leonard Fernette were the two...

most talked about running backs, and Dalvin Cook, when I watched everything, Dalvin Cook was by far my favorite running back. I liked him more than Leonard Fernette. Then the combine happened, and I let that poison me when Dalvin Cook showed up and just bombed everything. Because I think that I weigh all of that stuff. I don't just weigh watching a guy on tape, breaking down. How is...

How does he look? Is he a good football player? And that's what Cook looked great. Yes, he looked incredible. But then he just stunk so bad at the combine that it poisoned me. And in Latavius Murray there. But once the Latavius Murray injury was like, he's not going to be ready. Then I was I was fully back on with Dalvin Cook, but not fully the way that I was earlier in the off season. So that felt bad. That felt that hurt my soul.

A guy who I had is my number one running back, I moved him. It's kind of crazy. I mean, you see the impact that the rookie running backs have had in the NFL this year. These top, you know, outside of Cook's injury, I mean, you pretty much plug-in played these top six guys. The top six running backs are all going to be what they hoped for the most part. Right. And if you're looking at free agency this year and you're looking at.

Do I draft a running back or do I go pay for one? Teams are going to draft running backs. You have to. Joe Mixing, there was good and there was bad and there was ugly. He was only 3.5 a carry. That's ugly. He was 10.4 after the catch, which was third best in the league. And that's with guys like Chris Thompson, who in your mind, you see Chris Thompson, you think, catch the ball, elite pass catcher. Todd Gurley, what he did this year, was number two.

And then you have Joe Mixon, who was actually ahead of Geo Bernard, who was ironically fourth. So they have a guy there. Yeah, that's the problem with Joe Mixon. But Nixon was good. He was elite out of the back field. But here's the problem. Geo Bernard. And Geo Bernard is very cheap. They could, you're talking about drafting versus paying a Rooneyback. They already signed Geo. And they have them for the next two years, roughly over $4 million cap hit per year.

That's a guy you're going to keep for how good Gio actually is. So he just had inefficiencies running the ball for Joe Mixing. And he had 15 carries inside the 10, three touchdowns, three rushing touchdowns on those carries. That's bad. He only had six games of over 15 carries. And really only two of those games were you'd consider a good rushing game against Cleveland. Had some injuries at the end of the year. Yeah. But, I mean, the final game against Baltimore.

to knock them out of the playoffs. Joe Mixon did show up, so at least you're finishing on somewhat of a strong point. But why I liked Joe Mixen as a dynasty pick was the skill set to be a three-down back. It can be a runner and a pass catcher. Jeremy Hill is likely gone, but they're not going to get rid of Geo Bernard. And if Joe Mixon isn't going to get all those targets, I mean, 30 receptions for 287 yards, that's fine if...

if he's getting 250 plus carries. Do you think he's going to get in that 250 range? Yes. Okay. I think it'll be right around there. 250, 260. So then you can have some confidence. This offense needs to bounce back. I mean, if you're lying and your quarterback play and what we saw last year, I mean, the nice thing is they ended strong, but.

And there is something to be said about like sort of the nice thing because then now Marvin Lewis is back. Right. I'm as I'm going to say, there is consistency there, but he'll be interesting. Yeah, it's like consistency and like a, like a sludgy drink. I was going to say it's like if you go, you're like, yeah, well, it's consistent. It's consistently gross. Well, I'm going to keep drinking it.

Yeah, we're going to have to keep drinking it as fantasy owners. Camara. Alan Camara. Camara. I do it all the time now. Because you got the Super Camario in my head. Oh, okay. I always used to say Camara, but then we threw the Super Camario out there. I think we need a judge's ruling. Oh, Judge Diomati. Where do we land? What do you want me to say from now on, Judge? They're both fine. Dang it. The judge is riding the fence. Yep. Oh.

All right, so Super Camario into the year number three. What's there to say about him? What do you want to touch on in this episode? I just want to point out the incredible, incredible efficiency, which is the concern. That's the red flag. And it's good and bad. Right. Yeah, but you can't take away from what he did. It's like Matt Ryan last year. Exactly. Or Carson wins this year. You have to expect regression because.

Even MVP players can't perform like that every single season. He had eight rushing touchdowns. Eight. Mark Ingram had 12, but for him to have a rushing touchdowns is a lot. Here's the problem. Like we said, not really, it's not a problem problem, but it's a concern for a guy who's going to go first round. Easy. The concern? Let's, let's be clear. Well, I'm going to break down the touches. Go ahead. Go ahead.

24th in running back touches. He was tied with Jerich McKinnon in terms of touching the ball. He had the third most fantasy points in the running back position. Only two running backs in the top 10 of fantasy points weren't in the top 10 of running back touches. Ezekiel Elliott, who was 13th in running back touches. Alvin Camara was 24th.

24th in running back touches. Jordan Howard and Frank Gore were the only running backs in the top 10 in terms of touches that did not make it in the top 10 for fantasy points. Can Alvin Camara do it again? I feel like you're asking me is Alvin Camara Jamal Charles? Sure. Because Jamal Charles. That's a fair point. We're not saying it's impossible. It's just unlikely. And I just wanted to add context there in the sense that you're looking at the situation.

and you're trying to evaluate cost versus fantasy success. Like I don't have any doubt in my mind whatsoever that Alvin Camara is going to be a fantasy monster assuming he's healthy for years to come. But that efficiency, you know, 24th in touch is number three running back. When you have that, you're going to pay a lot for it because you're going to want the reproduction of that. And what you're going to need is the touches to go up.

unless you expect them to average like eight and a half per touch. And maybe, I mean, we always said that about Jamal Charles, right? Like, how can a player average five to six yards per carry for his entire career? And he just did. And Camara could do that. But there is a bit of a, just a warning light. And what happens is when push comes. Yeah, it's a check engine.

Yeah, when push comes to shove, am I going to draft him over somebody else as the more guaranteed touch? Am I going to take him over Zeke? No, I'm not. Someone will. Yeah, I know. All right. Kareem Hunt, number four this year. We've talked, go listen to the running back show. We talked in depth about his consistency. We talked in depth about what happened. He was a third round pick. He led the league in rushing. Yes.

And here we have an established role for Cream Hunt next year. Now, you did bring up on the running back show, Spencer Ware could return, could have a shared backfield to some extent. But Cream Hunt, this is his job. You feel confident with him. I do. I do feel very confident with Cream Hunt. And yes, you're going to get the weeks where the head coach comes out and says, I don't know how he only got five carries. That's going to happen.

But he's going to be a running back one. And I think that Cream Hunt, in my projection, he will go after Alvin Camara in drafts, which... You would take the better value there. Yes. But I'm just saying it's hard to invest a pick, a higher pick in a guy who got the 24th most touches compared to Kareem Hunt, who I know is going to give volume. And you could even...

even see his role expand. Yes, Spencer Ware will be back. We'll see how good Spencer Ware can be coming off that injury. But if it's Pat Mahomes, how much do they want to put on Mahomes versus the running game? Exactly. That type of thing. And, I mean, Cream Hunt was pulled for a lot of third downs for Sharkandric West. Maybe Cream Hunt gets a little bit more of that third down roll. All right. Let's talk about the more interesting names at the back of the running back list here. Deontif Foreman.