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

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in Monday, August 11th, the Fantasy Footballers podcast, Jason Moore, Mike Wright. I'm Andy Holloway. Thank you for joining us. It's a big week. In the world of fantasy football in the NFL, we got the first week of preseason football in the books, not without its own slew of injuries. Yeah. Which, you know, they just, you know, I'm not saying anything breaking news here. They just suck. They just, injuries are the worst because they disrupt so much. I mean, for the player themselves, thank goodness they get these guaranteed contracts and get the money because.

Their bodies get broken all the time. It's a brutal game. It really decides, I mean, not only fantasy football, but it decides the NFL. Like when you look at the end of the year, it's like, oh, who got lucky and was healthy this year? Well, guess who made a playoff run? Yeah, I mean, if you just look at injuries for like Super Bowl teams, the teams that get to the Super Bowl usually have extreme injury luck. um historically speaking so yeah i mean it's it's a real thing and i think the biggest problem with injures obviously players health is one thing but the biggest thing is our analysis can't be proven right or wrong and you know what i mean like that's why you just check it up is right just broaden that out to everybody not just ours like the your your draft you can draft the perfect team and be disrupted like i so many things have happened this past week that are that throw that little bit of

fear into your mind about certain situations. You love the running game in Los Angeles with the Chargers. And then Roshan Slater goes down. And like, I am a big fan of Jordan Love and what he can bring to the fantasy world. And then you hear about Jaden Reed being hurt and didn't look great in week one. So our job here is to help you sift through the under and over reactions. I had a quick laundry list of takeaways from the weekend. I'm going to just blitz these. You guys give me any feedback or if you have anything else. I'm going to take a quick nap. Started with Shadur Sanders. Obviously played well enough to hopefully make a roster there. It was nice to see. Trayvion Henderson. Oh. That's very, very bad for his draft price. Why? What happened? He was very good. His first NFL touch, 100-yard kickoff return. Weird. Very, very good.

But he also, I remain unsurprised. Yeah, he, he looked great. He was dishing out pain in that game. Well, him and Ramondri both looked very good in that game. The next takeaway, the Giants defense might be unstoppable. Their front five. I mean, it's pressure on every play. Like if I had to pick like a situation that no one sees coming, that team has a horrible schedule, an offense we don't have trust in. And I am not, I will not be surprised that the Giants defense just carries, carries. Jason won't like this takeaway. I don't like it already. I watched, I watched the film. I watched every, every snap, not just every touch, twice. Not impressed with Caleb Johnson in Pittsburgh this weekend. I thought, I thought in particular, it was like the most solidifying for Jalen Warren situation.

in the passing game he had a brutal drop he had two more jordan howard catches is what i'm going to call him that did not look natural to me and then i i thought he was fine otherwise um but didn't look special uh taj spears the injury yeah that's a big that's a big one a high ankle sprain yeah i mean that's and this is kind of been taj spears storyline it's been opportunities about to be there and then you get banged up yeah but tony pollard How often have we talked about Tony Pollard in the last six months? Not very much. And I just, I kept seeing him like feeling uncomfortably high in the rankings. And I'm like, oh, Tony Pollard's still still up there where I'm telling people to draft him. Yeah. But now we maybe bailed out by that Spears injury. Yeah. So Spears, it's a high uncle sprain and we'll deal with that. Justin Fields. It was a nice debut for Justin Fields. And then, of course, ends the way Justin Fields ends drives with.

a rushing touchdown so it was a nice start for fields for new york uh i don't know did you guys watch all the r j harvey uh touches i have not watched them yeah i i saw them yeah i to me that that was another situation where i was like i mean he had some good plays but from a reading the defense standpoint this looked like a college player to me like he did not ever take what was in front of him and he only bounced it outside it takes When running backs are more special players, it takes time for them to realize they can't get away with certain things. And that was, I think the biggest surprise, based off of what boots on the ground in Denver were saying, the biggest surprise of the weekend was the complete inverse of, well, RJ Harvey is taking all these snaps and it's like Dobbins is filling in on third. Could it be Helmutgate?

Getting the start, you know, Jake Hobbins couldn't find his helmet, something like that was going around. I've heard that being tossed around on Twitter. I don't know for sure, but that was the most... You get Wally pipped? Just by... With a helmet? Just with the helmet? Like, I forgot my helmet and I never make it back on the field. But that, like, that's a huge deal of Harvey's ADP remains high. And then we got, we have breaking, ironically, the last thing on my list from the weekend now has breaking news attached to it. But I was going to talk about Ollie Gordon.

the Dolphins, the running game, the offensive line struggles on the goal line. And then I was going to talk about Madison getting hurt. Yep. We just got breaking news. Did they actually? Alexander Madison underwent season ending. Oh, no. Season ending neck surgery. Oh. He actually had to go to a hospital after injuring his neck during the game against the Bears and is done. And he was like the whole storyline with the dolphins this offseason was like, like we took Jalen right away from our sleepers. Yes. A couple, maybe he goes back, I don't know, but a couple days ago, although he played terribly. Because Madison was having such a good camp. Yeah, the drum beat was very steady, very loud. I saw, before I heard that, Andy, they were working out Jamal Williams. Oh, they're definitely adding. I thought they'd add it back just with a short-term injury to Madison. Now they definitely will. So that is a situation, huh?

Yeah, we'll see. And Ollie Gordon, I think, is a name that's worth paying attention to. There hasn't been much buzz because it's been Madison, but he, like, I think he's a better player than Jalen Wright. He looked good. He's not as, he doesn't have the, the same explosive high-end speed, but I think he's a better player. He was a really productive young college running back who was expected to be like a very big draft pick and then had kind of a disappointing. He fell off, yeah, yeah. last season, but he's worth paying attention to. The only other notes I would add in, Breece Hall seems like he's full-time share. You know, he was, he was splitting just like we feared. And we might have, it might be three dudes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Braylon Allen and Davis. Like, and if that's the case, ugh. Do you guys see that the Isaiah Davis, uh, 5,000 IQ play on the touchdown by fields? Yeah. Where he like, uh, he was, he was out there running around. He was one of those situations where he knew his quarterback was about to run.

So he just faked like he was getting a wheel route and the defender just bit and chasing down the field. It was awesome. Do you see, Marvin Mims was actually playing a full slot of snaps with an offense not being used as just. A slot of snaps? Like was he in the slot? No, just the point is he wasn't a gadget guy coming in every sixth play. Gotcha. For, you know, it was like with that and the Harvey, I guess Sean Peyton. giving us the Joker. He's just tricking everybody. Probably. Yeah, he's kind of the worst. But they'll be good. They'll be very good. We have a very big announcement. It's that time of year. It is August 11th, fantasy drafts on the horizon, and we have a very special giveaway, the premier one of the year, one week only, the ultimate draft kit for life. We're giving away the UDK for life. We've done this every year.

and if you win it, it's good until you die. So the ultimate draft kit for life plus a Jamar Chase signed jersey. We're giving them away on a very special live stream event. The way you enter, if you've already bought the UDK or you're already an ultimate foot claim member, you already entered to win. So congratulations. You've done very well. You're already there. You've got a shot to win. If not, you just need to get the UDK, UDK, UDK Plus, or become an ultimate member. by next Monday at Ultimate DraftKit.com, get the UDK. We'll do a live stream event. We'll answer questions and we'll give away a UDK for Life and that Jemar Chase, Jersey and maybe some other stuff on the live stream event. So very, very excited about that. Ultimate draftkid.com if you want to take part. If you want to follow the show, we're over on X at the FF Ballers on Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers, and you can watch the show, YouTube.com slash the fantasy.

footballers. Believe it or not, we have more news. News and notes from around the league presented by progressive insurance. Well, I mentioned Tajay Spears. He's going to miss a few weeks with the high ankle sprain. And so once again, we won't get really a fair dynamic in terms of like, who's going to start the year and would this have benefit? This same thing happened kind of. Like, would it have been a 50-50 display? We'll never know. because he's going to have to come back slowly again. And he's not as talented or at least wasn't last year. No, I don't think he is as good as Pollard. And this is one of those offenses where when you've got the new 101 rookie quarterback coming in with Cam Ward, you can see how the offense changes from one expected to be terrible to one that's like, oh, maybe it's a top half offense. So I don't mind taking a shot on Tony Pollard in drafts trying to get off to a hotter start. Also, it's worth noting Chigaconkwo.

He played more snaps as like a pass catcher. He wasn't rotating quite as much. He played 100% with Cam Ward. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, a sleeper, tight in, someone to pay attention to if he has a decent week one, pick him up. Mike's chuckling? Yeah, just. It was a great end of the year. We've been there with Oconquo, like, three straight years. But the reason we've been there with Oconquo is because he is talented. They haven't used him as a full-time pass catcher, which is stupid. Now they are. Great. He's had a terrible quarterback. A little bit like the Joku situation. Yeah, now they might have a quarterback that could get him the ball. So I do think it's still worth paying attention to. Rashad White left his first preseason game with a groin injury. Todd Bulls said that Mr. Richard White, Dick White will undergo further tests day to day. And Sean Tucker. He's got some juice. And buggy, of course. Yeah, it makes, it could make that little safer. Groin' Dix is popping.

Right now, guys. The groin injuries are, I don't know, people's groins were not warmed up before the preseason. Alex Pierce, Rashad White, Rushie Rice, Jordan Murray, Marshawn, Lloyd. Rashi Rice back at practice. Yeah, Rice goes back at practice. Well, I don't care. He's still on the index. He's still on the index right now, groin index.com. And we have a more, we know whether it's really hurting. 100%. Uh, Jayden. Because we got the quotes from the players. Yeah. Oh, I thought we had like, what was what did Richie Rice say? That was right quotes. My groin? Yeah. My groin. So look, you got to listen to the players. Jaden Reed was seen in a walking boot on his left foot. He's dealing with a foot sprain. Matt LaFleure actually came out and talked about it. Said it's something different than what they put him on NFI list to start training camp. Hopefully we get him back before the regular season. Is that good or bad? This is a totally new injury. I guess that's good. When asked if Reed could miss week one, LaFleur said potentially. So that sounds like.

Oh, that turns into a likely for me. Yeah. So here's here's the way that, you know, going into preseason, going into the season, you get a lot less updates and clarity on injuries as you do once you're into the season and practice report. So I get a little hesitant with all these guys with Tajay Spears, with Jaden Reed. I will definitely avoid drafting them at their current ADP for sure. And I will expect that they might miss week one. We did get more positive, or some positive news finally, about Matthew Stafford. He worked out on Saturday through about 60 passes and is expected to return to limited drills in practice on Monday. So the plan, if the plan was managed, Stafford so he can play, going according to plan, maybe? Yeah, I think going according to their new plan. Okay, all right. Alan Lazard injured his shoulder. He plays for the Jets in case you were curious.

Keaton Mitchell missed Saturday's practice with an undisclosed injury. This was after a preseason kind of break out there. They signed Miles Gaskin. Does he run too fast? Is that the issue? He's Mitchell? Yeah. He is very fast. So fast. Slow down, you're thinking? Yeah. Go one leg? I would still use both personally. Miles Gaskin, the gas man, worked out for the team signed with the Ravens. Anthony Richardson was seen participating in individual drills on Saturday. That's good. Uh, is it though? No, I think it's great. I know, I know. I just, he was looking really good. You want to drag out the process of Richardson not being the starter? Do you want it just concise and quick and easy? No, I want Richardson to be the starter and I want him to be good. So in order for him to do that, that's those two things are mutually exclusive. He has to, uh, he has to be able to play football. That's a, I do not want him to be the starter. I want Daniel Jones to be the starter. I know is that because of Josh Downs. Yeah.

James Cook, not willing to play in Saturday's preseason game. That was the quote from Sean McDermott. So, like, he was able, but unwilling. Oh, man. He dressed, took part in warmups. Is he just trying to do the most, like, be the biggest nuisance? Like, you get. It's a strat. You get dressed, you get ready, and then you go, uh, are you like your first foot goes over the, I'm not going in. What if he goes out to the huddle and then runs back in. Oh my God. Or runs backwards out of the huddle, just. Out the back of the stadium. My tummy hurts. Just takes a knee. Just gets the ball and just goes knee. Just sleeping. I mean, just the problem is I just don't think he has the leverage he thinks he has, but whatever. Maybe. Well, he might have the leverage he thinks he has, which is very little. That's why he's going with plan operation nuisance. Jeff Wilson, Kishon Vaughn, both signed by the 49ers who. Soon to be injured.

Yeah, he's like Jeff Wilson and Q's jump on are like, should we sign this contract? Because I don't want to go on an IR. But Garando and Jordan James currently out. And I saw that Giovante Williams is still getting the most reps with the starters this morning. That was another piece of news. You had Jaden Blue getting hurt. You had Miles Sanders banged up. So right now it's kind of, if it's everybody's job is nobody's job. Yeah, it's how it sort of feels. I think that's why it's George Pickens and C.D. Lamb's job. All right, that was... Well, no, there's one more, Andy. Someone didn't practice today. Romandre. Oh. You don't... This is a problem, guys. You're not going to be able to get him. This is a problem. You're not going to be able to get Treveon Henderson. He won't be available to you. He's going to start skyrocketing. He's going to go in the... He's going to go one overall. The early adopters are being punished. Well, if you already had chairs, that's good.

Yeah. In your dynasty league. Yeah, because the value has gone up. But we know nothing about why Romandre didn't practice. So we will get you that info when we get it. And he played well, looked well. Which one? Remandre. Romandre, he had a good game and didn't see what he got. You know, look good. It was well, Campbell. I mean, goodness gracious. Yeah. That's why you, that's why you draft that way. Yeah. Right. Like, uh, I mean, two, he had two times, I think once with Romandre, once with Henderson. where he pulled and demolished the entire left side of the field. It was beautiful. All right. That was News & Nodes sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers. Not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits and conditions. It is a ranking show, believe it or not. We've been talking so much preseason and news. We'll take a break and we'll jump into our running back rankings.

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coverage subject to policy terms limits and conditions all right it is uh running back rankings today and tomorrow let's get it started running bags all right we just went through our top 20 wide receivers consensus rankings uh on our last couple of episodes uh before the mock draft when you're looking at running backs before we kick off the rankings i mean there are question marks throughout i'm sure we'll have some good discussions what makes a top 20 fantasy running back historically over the last Four years, 70% of top 20 running backs average at least 18 opportunities a game. It's a lot. Need workload, right? 75% of them. So three quarters of the top 20 fantasy running backs needed at least nine total touchdowns. So, you know, get a couple through the air, get at least seven on the ground, you're good. But at least nine total touchdowns, that's what you normally need. So there's some luck and some variation there that happens, and you need touchdowns.

And then the last one, the top 20 running backs were on NFL teams that average 9.4 wins. So those in that group, at least 9.4 wins. It's one of the things I love to focus on at running back. It's a differentiator between two players. But you want to be on a team that can win. Yeah, I mean, there are certain players that are good fantasy assets on bad teams, but they are not usually running backs. It kind of goes hand in hand with 75% of them have at least nine total touchdowns. if you score a lot of, you know, if your team wins games, you score more points. And you know what it is too? It's in those of us that have played fantasy for a long time and watch the games. It's those darn first downs, man. Those are just the demoralizing drive killing. Like the bad teams, it's like, oh, awesome. You're going to be the three down back for this team. Cool. You get like one third down for one drive. And then you're off the field. That's what the most frustrating thing is. When I watch these games and I look at running backs, it's like,

Move the chains. Oh, great. Now you've got another first and second down to hand it off. You just need teams that are effective at moving the football. It's not that there aren't outliers on bad teams and situations that works out. But that's a big deal. So we're going to be looking at workload. We're going to be looking at team potential. We're going to be looking at the ceiling and floor outcomes for players. And let's kick it off right now, just hanging on by a thread. Last year's number one running back for the first. 14 weeks or whatever it was. It's Joe Mixen. Joe Mixing comes in at 20 on the dot right now. It's 20, 23, and 21. That's where the three of us have them ranked. Finished at 11 last year. 15.9 fancy points per game. He's at 20 because we need to hedge against injury right now. Where Joe Mixon has an injury that, you know, it sort of seems like the Jaden Reed thing. It's like potentially he could miss time. Potentially he could be back.

So how are you looking at him in your drafts today? Because it feels like a nerve-wracking pick. It really comes down to where he's going to fall in my draft. I am definitely happy to have Joe Mixon on my roster. He fits everything we just talked about, right? A 9.4 win team. Okay, the Texans seem right there. A huge workload. You know he's going to have that. Touchdowns he was on. pace for 13.4 rushing touchdowns last year. He fits the bill for everything you want in fantasy football other than currently injured as an elder statesman. So there's risk when you draft him. And if that risk is going to cost me James Connor, who's currently healthy, I'm not going to do that. If that risk is going to, you know, go down to the sixth round where I'm going between him and Isaiah Pacheco, who might not even, you know, really get the volume and the work he might be losing.

opportunities goal line passing work to cream hunt okay then I'm definitely willing to take the risk on someone who like you said Andy the first half of last year he was the number one running back in fantasy football I think the biggest mistake I think you pay attention to the injuries you look at the team you look at the depth chart the biggest mistake I think would be to like retire him too early when, you know, Sequin's 28, we have confidence in him. Henry's 31. We have confidence in him. CMC is 29. Mike has tremendous confidence in him. So I'm not worried about the age because we saw what he could do on the field last year. I'm worried about injury. The injury he's coming into the season with. He's not off our board. Like some guys, I think we've talked about Chris Godwin, who you're not sure if he's going to be there week one or not. And this is kind of a somewhat similar situation where Joe Mixen, you're not sure if he's going to be there week one.

Godwin's off my border. I don't think I want to struggle with him getting back. This wasn't a season ending injury he's coming back from that he's been rehabbing. This is an offseason ending injury. Off season ending injury. The first ever off season ending injury. Does that mean he, but that would mean he plays now? I don't know. We're in the off-season. I think that this is one of those situations that you know what it will be like if he was healthy and on the field and you have a lot of good stuff around him. The offensive line is still a huge issue.

I think their defense will be tremendous, like one of the best in football. So you could have a lot of situations where you are leaning on the running game, but will the offensive line hold up? They tried to rebuild it. It's not projected to be good, but maybe they can come together. At 19, it's Kenneth Walker. He is just 24 years old, almost 25. We have a... Pretty big disparity in ranking on Kenneth Walker. He comes in at 19 by consensus. I've got him at 25. Mike at 16. 25. Jason has him at 20. So yeah, Mike, I guess, is disgusted by my ranking. I am. I'm personally offended by it. Well, it's really just, I'm just projecting him to be Kenneth Walker. He finished.

running back 28 last year in 11 games. Correct. I'm predicting him to be Kenneth Walker. That is the issue. Identically. But that's silly. He was 15 games in his first two years. And he was averaging almost 14 and a half points a game. There's tremendous, tremendous upside for Kenneth Walker. Everybody's got players every year that they're like, I'd rather lose with somebody else or win with somebody else. Kenneth Walker has the potential to be a breakout top 12 running back. He is a very weird, enigmatic running back, not only dealing with injuries, but dealing with inefficiency and yet tremendous tackle breaking in capability. I don't really know why a number one force tackle rate mixes with, you know, the inefficiencies.

Bad offensive line. I mean, you're getting, he is breaking tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Yeah, the scheme has been bad. See those numbers and then see who did not retain their job for a winning football team. Like the OC was, was fired. Like that, when that happens, it's pretty wild. They were a, what were they, nine wins? What am I, nine wins last year? They, they tied 10. Yeah, they tied with. A 10 win team fired their offensive coordinator. Well, and look, Seattle's a perfect example of bringing in a new offensive coordinator doesn't always make it better, right? Literally last year, it was a brand new office coordinator. We had the same storyline in the off season. Yeah, that's fair. This guy's going to take advantage of the skill set of Kenneth Walker. They still have a 30th ranked offensive line. That's still a question mark. And he has not, he has missed time in every season he's played. So 15, sure. I want more than that. And I definitely want more than 11. You know, if I tell you that Kenneth Walker's missing,

Let's just be conservative. Let's say he misses the minimum he's ever missed, two. Does that change anything for you? If I knew he plays 15 games, I would draft Kenneth Walker where he is. I think he is. Where he's going where he's going right now. Yeah, I mean, this is this is a player who I do think that the scheme, we have insights, right? Changing coordinator doesn't always help everybody. And I don't think it helps necessarily the passing game here. But I do think the running game with baby cubes coming in, the fact that they are bringing in a fullback, we've seen that implemented in preseason and in their draft, they want to establish it and help the running game get going. And I think they've got a proven track record at offensive coordinator to get that done. So if he's healthy,