Fantasy Football - RB Rankings Countdown: 20-11 + Preseason Reactions - Podcast for 8/11

I do believe he scores quite a lot of fantasy points. The issue is, you know, we talk about, oh, Kenneth Walker's being Kenneth Walker, he's going to miss a bunch of games, he's always injured, hard to deal with. Right now, currently dealing with, you know, resting or whatever, but he's missing practices all the time. It's just not a good sign. It makes me very hesitant to take him like right now he's going ahead of Chuba, ahead of James Connor, and ahead of Joe Mixon. The upside case of all three guys hit their ceiling. I don't know if Kenneth Walker. Yeah, I would say mixing, then Walker. So I guess right now the issue is do you like him more than those guys with the risk baked in that he has with his history? And the fact that when you get hit a lot behind the line of scrimmage, that might be harder to stay healthy. Do you know what I mean? That's fair. I think what was frustrating about the injuries is it wasn't just like one injury in a little stretch too. It was kind of the storyline of the season. He missed two games.

comes back when you get hurt right away after an injury like when you're on your return and then you just get hurt that is that leaves a mark in your memory no you're right I mean that was kind of that was kind of like Joe Mixing at the end of the year too both these guys were not part of a fantasy title team because he had an oblique injury the first his first injury last year missed two weeks with that then it was a calf ankle injury then it was IR with calf injury so look stay healthy I don't think we've had any conversations about

who would benefit if this scheme is amazing, but he gets hurt. I mean, it's like, I don't think we've mentioned Zach Charbonnet's name at all. Charbonnet. Damien Martinez. Charbonnet finally learned how to kind of step up for fantasy purposes in Walker's absence. I do believe he's a worthwhile pick later in your drafts. Yeah, that's fine. If you're worried about Kenneth Walker. Would you actively pursue him if you're the Kenneth Walker manager, if you could get him with your last pick? Like, I know we don't often do that, but like, are there a couple situations, whether it was Garindo with CMC or, or, you know.

This one in particular? Possibly, if it's a deep enough roster. Because if you like the running strategies of this team, maybe that makes sense? Yeah, I mean, I know, and we obviously could be wrong, but we did all currently pick the Seahawks to finish last in this division. So while they were a 10-win team last year with Gino, whether or not they fit that bill of the top 20 running. Maybe I'll go with Cardinals in last place after watching Kyler's pass. That's fair. That's fair. Can I change my projection? Sure, absolutely. You didn't like the no look? Honestly, I was thrilled to find out it was no look. Thrilled. I'm thrilled because I thought it was just a pass. Not a no look pass. I thought it was a to the defense. It was the kind of pass that made me want somebody to go out there and just say like, you're done.

You're done with football. He's beta testing some stuff, man. It's like a baseball, like we're going to bring in the reliever. Like, you know, you just call me like, uh, you're done today. The manager should come out and pull the quarterback in that fashion. Yeah, that's that's what I mean. And they make them give you the football. Uh-huh. And then they walk off while the crowd booze. Um, it's, look, no look passes are not as easy as my homes and staff or make them look. I can't. I watch that play like six times on replay, not knowing that it was a no look. Yes. And I was like, I.

could not figure out what his attempt, like what were you trying? You could always see like, oh, he overthrew a guy or he thought the receiver was going to go one way. I was like, what were you trying to do? Where were you trying to throw this football? To be fair, I mean, this was something we didn't talk about in the preseason, but Kyler like, he completed every other pass in the entire game. But when that play happened. Like 50%? Um, no no he was like eight for nine but who switch no i don't get it you he completed every other pass he went with it was a dad joke yeah every other pass okay no that took me yeah we got there man i'm glad i'm younger than you um but literally when that play happened i was like i hate you i was like i hate that i'm stuck with you it was a heat check man yes you what did you ever seen him jack up from the from the logo that was his that was his logo shot stop

He's like, oh, I guess I'm not on fire. You don't need to. Yeah, you're not on fire. Did you see the other comments this morning from, because the Cardinals lost their offensive line coach. And then Schottenheimer came out and was talking about the Cardinals O line coach when he's the OC in Dallas. And he's just like, some weeks would, I mean, he like was so candid about it. He's like, yeah, he just told me that Kyler doesn't want to run sometimes. Yeah. And then he's just like some weeks, he's like, I don't feel running today. That is not surprising. Watching him play. It's what it looks like. Having a superpower.

and you're just like because nah not today he he i'm going to give him a nickname it's moody murray he's moody he's like sometimes he's in a good mood and he runs and looks great and he's an MVP the next week he's like moody murray moody that is perfect i'm not gonna run that is perfect because you know who's moody little babies they are so moody oh oh his picture he's got his jersey on our back wall today oh wow and some look it it it was down We have a my guys. Get the reliever in here. We got a my guys show on Friday. It's a relieve the jersey. What name was on the board for me as a my guy for the entire offseason that's not on there anymore? Marvin Harrison. That's why. Yeah. That is why. Not because Marvin shouldn't be great and Kyler shouldn't be great because sometimes he's just awful. I'm just so frustrated by it. Do you think he knows? Do you think he's walking like to the game? He's like, I'm in a bad mood today.

I'm just not going to play well. Yes. Yeah, he's like, oh, I lost like three matches in a row. All right. Number 18 is Breach Hall. This one is wild because he's going at 13, so we're already way below ADP. I'm at 22. I would love to have not talked about him today, but you two have forced me to. He's still going to catch some passes. He should catch a lot of passes. You know, I know Mike's brought this up before, but there's a lot of data to show. So usually mobile rushing quarterbacks are very, very bad for the past catching running backs. Justin Fields is kind of an outlier there. He has a history of targeting his running backs in the receiving game. That's where Brees Hall thrives. Breece Hall is playing for a contract here. He's playing to audition for free agency. He wants...

to do everything in his power to have the workload. Now, I don't think he's going to get it. As I say, don't show the other teams for your contract pursuit, the clips of you on the bench. Because that's going to happen for some of this year, too. He's going so high. He's almost a RB1. Yeah, I do not like the draft price, but the case for Brees Hall for it going well is he is, you know, designated as we got to pass. So we got to have the best player for. that type of a play. And if you think that the Jets are just going to be stinky, I mean, they can want to have their Detroit Lions more defined running back scheme. But in the second quarter, when you're already down, second quarter, second quarter, we're talking to the Jets, man. That's fine. When it's the second quarter and you're down by 10 already, then you know what the second half is going to be. So that's what could go right. I still don't like the.

RB 13. I'm not going to be drafted. He's always going to be drafted high because he's 24 years old. Two years ago he was the running back four. You know he is an explosive athlete that can go out there and have near 100 targets like he had two years ago. There's a lot of ways to see how it goes right. The issue is we do not believe he's going to have a massive workload and he's not on a winning team. So you look at the top 20 running backs how we started the segment. You average a bunch of touchdowns. Can Breece do that on this Jets? I don't know. You average a bunch of wins. Can the Jets do that? Probably not. And you get a massive workload. Should the Jets give it to Breece? Maybe. Will they? Probably not. It's like three strikes. He is the number one player that I will not draft this year because of the price. We can have a whole discussion about Breece Hall's potential upside. That's fine. Kyron, Chase Brown, James Kokomari and Hampton, Calvin Kamara. Those are the five players.

Some before, some after Brees Hall. I want all of them over Brees Hall. Yeah. It just feels like the positive case, yeah, maybe it's there, but I don't think it's top 12. And the negative case seems really scary. Yeah. I'm just trying to say something nice about that. I can't wait for next year, Brees Hall. I do think he goes out and gets a contract as a high workload player. It seems harder, though, to have that be a certifiable guarantee if this year doesn't go well. And those jobs are just few and far between. There's four straight years then. If he doesn't, like, four straight years of decline in terms of production. Yeah, but I mean, general managers really value their pre-NFL scouting. And I think if someone else looks at Brees Hall as like, this was my favorite running back in that draft class and we can go get him now on the free agent market and they weren't using him right. Yeah, I think it'll happen. It would be, we call that the DeAndre Swift case. Yeah. And I know things, look, things can change rapidly, but it's like.

The amount of teams that are going to have that spot open, it's not many. Yeah, last year was 209 for 876 on the ground, five rushing touchdowns, but then 57 receptions. So look, he can still give you production. I just don't like what people are paying for him right now. 17 is Chuba Hubbard? who we got to see a little bit of in the preseason Bryce Young looked well looked good as well the least sexy player in fantasy football yeah I think I agree with that he deserves so much more I got him at 16 Jason at 14 Mike at 20 comes in at 17 looked great in the preseason snaps that I saw again he's 14.7 points per game last year finished at RB 13 on a trash team you talk about he had the workload check mark he had the touchdown check mark he did not have the winning team check mark do you believe

Carolina could become one this year. Yeah, they certainly could. I don't project them to be a 10-1 team by any means, but if you look at the things that turn around a team, first of all, their defense was historically bad last year, and it was bad on purpose. Two years ago, they sold their defensive pieces and did the rebuild the right way. Now they've, you know, they're still young. They should have a slightly better defense, but Bryce Young is really the heart and soul of this team. Will he step up and be? You know, if he takes a step forward from the step forward we saw the second half of last year, he could go out there and be a franchise quarterback. If that's the case, they'll win more games. Truba should be good. He was the running back 13 last year and only 15 games played. So that was, you know, 14.7 fantasy points per game. My issue with him is how ineffective he was in the receiving game. Yeah. But he was still utilized in the receiving game. So I just hope that doesn't go away. Like that was, that's what I was going to bring up for Andy is the.

We're back. Rico Dowdle played a lot with the starters. I know we're talking, it's preseason week one, but we're just trying to gleam whatever we possibly can. And Rico had seven snaps. Chuba had six. No, that's four routes for Rico Dowdle. And it looks like, it's not everything, but it's like Rico will probably be the third down guy. And then probably the two-minute guy. So it comes down to... Is it for sure Chuba on the goal line? I would project it to be, but is it for sure? I feel very confident about it, yeah, on the goal line. The third down, you know, we talked about it the other day, is that as valuable as you think it is. I mean, Chuba would catch the ball and fall down practically. He's not a big yardage guy, but he's still going to be out there on first and second down. So last year he finished at 13. We're all back behind that number, so I don't think we're being.

You know, in a lot of ways, Dowdell's safer to me than the situation you ran with Jonathan Brooks, right? Jonathan Brooks was this young, up-and-coming potential takeover guy. Dowdell is very, very, like they just paid Chuba. They paid Dowdell a backup contract. It is very defined. But Brooks got injured. If Dowdell plays the whole season, he should eat into a little bit of the workload. I'll grant that. But you brought it up, and the contract that they just paid Chuba says, you're our dude. They just signed him to, what, like a $33 million contract. So my question for him is just like, you know, the season opens. Obviously the Panthers are trying to figure out who they are, but it's like Chuba is in 54% of snaps, 58%, and then the number start going, going up. And he's catching like, while it's inefficient in the receiving game, you know, he's getting like,

five targets in a ton of these games catching four of them for no yardage but that's still you know you give me four for 20 yards that makes a difference to your your bottom mind of fantasy and if that gets cut because Rico Dowdle is the one out there yeah taking those types of checkdowns that's why he is being drafted at RB18 I wanted to look at that do you feel like that's the right price I think that's right around where he's I'm a little bit lower in my projection yeah because he just You have some Dowdolls? Yeah, nice. I don't know. He just, he is a player that I can see it, even with the contract, going wrong for a fantasy. And they did draft fourth round brother of, yeah, the other ETN. Oh, did you see his first touch? I did not. Yeah, it was a kickoff return. He fumbled it. Fumble for loss. James Cook at 16, Mike's my guy for last year. Hey. Who finished at RB8.

who was tremendous and is currently pouting. Yeah, should we have our analysis be like his preseason? Like we say we're going to give it, but then we don't? I don't want to do this. Oh, yeah. I don't want to be here anymore. I had some stuff to say, but, yeah. Yeah, I don't really want to say it. Is he going to play week one? I don't know. I really doubt he is going to sacrifice game checks since his goal here is money and his outlook in the future. What does it look like then? Are the coaches like? Oh boy, James. We know it was a little bit rough there. St. James Cook's team. This is Josh Allen's team. Yeah, the coaches know exactly how to utilize James Cook. You're going to see exactly what happened last year. I know he's if he's missing a lot of camp and he's not playing the preseason. That's 16 touchdowns. I'm saying utilization wise. Obviously the correlation between touchdowns. That's not very sticky. But the utilization is important on a really, really good offense. You want to say, okay, good offense? Yes. Touchdowns, yes.

Are they going to win? Yeah. Is he going to have the workload? Probably not. I mean, he didn't really have a great workload last year. 207 carries 1,000 yards. I want to know what you put in your projections for the UDK in terms of rushing touchdowns for James Cook because I have my number that I have in there. Yeah. I have nine. I have eight. Do you have a number, Mike? Hold on. I'm trying to pull it up. It's hard to have someone, but that was a real outlier. For a guy who. You know, total touchdowns, I have him at like eight and a half. I have 10 total. I have him at 11 total. I was talking just rushing because he's 16 on the ground. I got I got 6.8 for him. Okay. All right. So, I mean, look, he's a big play guy. He had a lot of those last year, four plus four touchdowns of 40 plus yards. That was only, it looks like him and Saquan. But they also are willing to utilize other guys. Like, there's.

definitely i want to be clear because we've talked about all this regression stuff like it's super possible for james cook to just go out there and have a an upper echelon fantasy season inside the top 10 and especially maybe even more so like we never talk about that what if he gets paid what if it comes to an agreement and it and the money says sure the money really says more about him being the one and everyone else being the two a and b than anything else. I mean, that is a, that's an outcome. What if he doesn't get paid? And they're like, let's just use him up. Yeah, no, I, it's true. Back to back years, he's been a top 12 fantasy running back. So I don't have any problem drafting him where he's going. At the beginning of the off season, when we, when we left last year and started drafts early for 2025, he was so high. I was like, this is, this is going to be my brief hall. This is the guy that like the touchdown regression is obvious. The three way time share is obvious. I'm not going to.

be in on James Cook. Now he's kind of fall into a place and drafts where I'm okay taking him there because he's not being drafted at his ceiling, which he obviously has, you know, the last two years running back eight, running back 11, but it will take hyper efficiency, which I don't love banking on. Makes sense. He's good. Like that's the thing that can overcome the other check marks, which you ran through him, Jay of he's got all of those where he doesn't have the workload is he is he's good. He's the best running back on the team. I think by a lot.

So if you want to bet on that efficiency, it's at the, what, the back of the third? He can't kick field goals like Ray Davis, though. Did Ray Davis kick a field goal? Yeah. No, that's awesome. All right, we'll take a break and we'll get our 15 down to 11. This episode is brought to you by prize picks. Preseason football is underway. College football is just starting, but you can already make season long more or less picks for the 2025 season on prize picks. Get your picks in before week one kicks off. Prize picks is so simple to play. You pick more or less on two to six player stat projections. If you get the picks right, you can cash in and win up to 2,000 times your money. Prize picks is also available in California, Texas, Georgia, more than 30 states. And they put their members first. All withdrawals are fast, safe, and secure.

I was looking this morning. Right now I see Josh Allen's, he's set at 27 and a half more or less passing touchdowns. It's been six years since he hasn't done that. So yeah, more. Download the app today. Use the code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, run your game. At 15, Omari and Hampton comes in. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, Matt, you're bringing up a good point. We didn't have this at the top of the show because this is a pretty anti-kicker show. Yes. But when a felon goes out there and pulls out the bazooka boot, boom. And you kick a 70 yard or that, I mean, from my estimation, you probably had a couple yards on there. Yeah. Like Cam Little. I knew he'd get here at some point. Dude, that's awesome. But oh my gosh. I mean, he's.

Definitely getting that shot during the year, at least once. That is. Yeah, right before halftime. Oh, yeah. We're here. Let's just try it. Sir, it would be an 85-yard kick. Put him in. I want to see it. You're on your one-yard line. It just doesn't seem fair that that doesn't count as the NFL record. It's the same. It's a preseason game. I get it. I know. I know. But 15. Amarion Hampton. I got him at 10. Jason at 18. Mike at 19. I don't believe he played in yesterday's preseason game at all, just further cementing the RB1 status. Yeah, the status of Marrii. Did Noggi play? I don't think Noggi can play football. I just say if we're going with this as the analysis. He definitely, I mean, Noggi hasn't played any preseason. Naji, you got that video, the clip of him, the photo. He definitely can't open his left eye. Like that's obvious. It seems like it. At least if he had chosen to take a picture, I imagine he would have opened it if he could have, but.

We don't know if Naji will be out there for week one or not. I think that's very up in the air. But Hampton comes in at 15. He's being drafted as the RB 15. He was the RB 18 off the board a few months ago. So it has definitely moved in the direction you'd expect it to move with a Naji Harris fireworks injury. And with the fact that all the vibes, the comments, the camp, it's all positive around Amari and Hampton. Yeah, we are, we're rapidly closing in on. the point where you just, Andy's already done. Andy, you pushed all your chips on Hampton. I made myself a note. I got to move him up because if Najee is not there in week one, then the chances of O'Mary and Hampton just taking the job and being like, this is mine now. Nagy, thank you for, enjoy your money, I guess, the guaranteed part of the contract that you got. Because the issue with Najee was, okay, if he's in training camp,

and Harbaugh. It'll start out. It'll be the veteran. And we'll have to have some time for Hampton to work his way up. But for a first round running back to now be on a team that checks a lot of those boxes we've been talking about for these fantasy running backs. Still a very good offensive line even without Slater. Yes. We are rapidly closing in on you just have to embrace what is going to happen. And what's the latest on Najee of, oh, there's a chance he's ready for a week one. Yeah, you got a. I think it's chips all in on Hampton time. Yeah, you have, what, in the last eight years or so, you've had, well, I guess it goes back a little bit further with Trent Richardson, but you had so many rookie running backs finish inside the top 10. They're very good bets for fantasy. You talked about the team. There's just a lot to like here. If JK Dobbins can come out last year and give you RB4, RB4 for the first two weeks of the year, five finishes in the top eight.

on a weekly basis, and it's J.K. Dobbins, at this stage of his career, a 22-year-old, versatile kind of do-it-all running back seems like a good bet. Yeah, and this is a player who I know pre-draft-wise, like Andy and I were madly in love with, just looked like a bona fide NFL three-down workhorse back. He is good at every part of the game. You can catch the ball. Great. And you know we've seen with Austin Echler that this is a quarterback who knows how to get the ball into the hands of the running back in the passing game. The offense looks so good. I think Keenan Allen being there just helps move the chains, get him closer to scoring range. I've got him right now is my running back 14. I'm happy to pull the trigger on him early. We expected him to take over by the end of the year. Yeah, eventually. But now he gets to start with the takeover.

He's not going to let go of it. James Connor at 14. James Connor's 30 years old. Any, you know, he's being drafted as RB20. So if you look at the value scout tool in our draft kit, you'll see that Connor is one of those higher value players compared to ADP. He is the engine to the Cardinals offense. I do think the Cardinals' offense will be predicated on a great running game. There was, you know, some impressive play by Trey Benson this preseason so far. There's a lot of comments around Trey Benson. Do you have any concern of Trey Benson taking too much from Connor to make this a mistake? I don't think he could take too much to make this a mistake because Connor, I still believe, will be the goal lineback. And he is really the heart and soul, the leader of this team. However, I believe he, Trey Benson will take more work than last year. We can't just look at last year's utilization and, you know, put that out for 2025. I believe it will be.

not a 1A1B, but it will be a 1-2. And last year was kind of just a, this is James Conner's team, his offense, and then we give him breathers. You hope that maybe that helps James Conner's efficiency. You know, as the season goes on, keeps them active and healthy. I think James Conner is still a very good pick, but you need to need to be aware of Trey Benson. I think Trey Benson, given James Connor's injury history, is in his own right, one of the few targets to have at the end of drafts. where you go, okay, this guy could be more involved without injury, and then an injury could actually make him really valuable. At 13, it's Alvin Camara. We saw Tyler Shuck have the most yo-yo debut performance possible, pick six, followed by a 54-yard touchdown throw, very up and down.

I should have mentioned maybe Jackson Dart, too. Some of the rookie quarterback play that we've got to see in the preseason has been fun to watch. And Jackson Dart had some impressive throws as well. Alvin Camara, though, Tyler Shuck, Spencer Rattler, quarterback situation. He has been a machine. Camara since 2017, just a year-in and year-out automatic start. He had his highest fantasy points per game since 2020 last year. But he missed time at the end. He was one of those players that you didn't win a title with. He might have got there. He might have got to the playoffs with him. But Mike, how do you feel about Camara right now? I feel like we haven't talked about him in a while. So, Jay, you called Chuba, like the unsexiest pick. Like, I think it might be Camara because it just feels gross. Even looking at our rankings, it all makes intellectual sense of,