Early Top 10 RB Rankings + Kyle Juszczyk Joins the Show - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/13

Trying to get out on Chubb right now, or do you think that Nick Chubb has multiple years left? I think he's got at least two this season and the next season, I think are going to be good. Okay. So you wouldn't necessarily be trying to trade him? Maybe after this year. Signs a big contract, looks good. As soon as you get into that second contract, that's when I try to unload those guys. Number nine, Johnny Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts, the rookie sensation, who has launched himself up.

the dynasty rankings. This was a surprise, I think, to all three of us, where when my rankings were done, and again, these are initial very early running back rankings, but it's fun to do. I put Jonathan Taylor, I put him at nine. Yeah. I want to put Jonathan Taylor higher. I want to in my heart, but I couldn't. And then I'm like, man, where are the guys going to have Jonathan Taylor?

It's nine's across the board. I had the exact same experience. I was like, oh, I'm going to be so much lower on JTT than Mike and Andy. Because we did the, you know, our ranking separate. And then we put them together. And I couldn't believe that all of us had him at nine. I think that's going to be below where he's drafted, below his ADP. When you finish the season the way he did, people are hoping for the next great breakout.

But I think that there are some major concerns here. Carson Wentz being, you know, the number. At the top? At the top. Yeah. You know, he's a question mark as far as, is he a good quarterback? I don't know. We're going to find out. But the problem is I like to know that it is a good quarterback. But more importantly, Philip Rivers is the king of dumping it off to the running back. And Jonathan Taylor, who.

He has the ability to be a pass catcher, even though he didn't catch a lot of balls in college. Everyone's a pass catcher when you play with Philip Rivers. Because he's throwing the ball, you know, those little checkdowns left, right and center, and I don't think that's going to happen. How many times would you be just furious watching Carson Wentz over the last couple years when you've got a wide open running back? There's nobody near him, and he launches the ball 30 yards down the field. You are just going back to...

me last year with Miles Sanders on my team, screaming that Miles Sanders is wide open and you should throw him the ball. I'm with you. Jonathan Taylor at 9. He's still solid. I would still like to have him on my team. Do you make anything of this, Jason, for his role on the team. This is another situation. Jonathan Taylor is an elite running back. He has elite talent. And his offensive line is excellent. Although Anthony Costanzo left tackle did retire.

So it's gotten worse. It has. But it is still good. It's still going to be an excellent offensive line. But you have Naheem Hines there. Marlon Mack is also back on a one-year deal. He's coming off in Achilles injury. That remains to be seen how involved the team Marlon Mack will be. But do you make anything of this stat? Jonathan Taylor only averaged 45 rushing yards per game in Indianapolis losses.

You know, what I make out of that is... That's called being game scripted out. That's exactly right. He's not the pass catcher, even though he was catching passes from Philip Rivers because everyone was. Nine Heinz was the pass catching back. So if you're really in those two-minute drill situations, those come from behind situations, that's not... That wasn't JTT. Now, whether it will turn into that, that's why I think he's going to be overdrafted because people are hoping it turns into that. And if it does...

He won't be overdrafted. His talent is good enough to finish as the running back won if the opportunity is there. I think that team really likes Heinz. Yeah. Yeah, he does. Hines, if you go to like running back, you know, whatever it is, 2830, he also played 16 games. Oh, did he? It's rare to do, but he did it. All right. And closing out our top 10. Oh, brother, here we go. Mm-hmm.

You and me. The hype train is already leaving the station. It's not just us, but it's our show. So it's us. But it's us right now. I have him at 10. Jason has him at 10. Andy has him at 11. Cam Acres from the Los Angeles Rams was a rookie last year.

But I believe that all three of us see the same thing. You saw the utilization of when they made the transition to Kamakers and they said, you are the guy. And the opportunities went to full Todd Gurley scale. It was, how many times can we get Kamakers the ball? It wasn't always pretty. It wasn't always effective. But they kept going to him over and over and over. The target share was not what I would want.

But now Matthew Stafford is in town. Matthew Stafford is the franchise quarterback for the Rams, and Stafford has a long and storied history of like Philip Rivers, loving to check down to his running back when the deep shot is not there. So I got Acres at 10. How confident are you, Jason, that Acres is going to be a running back one in 2021? And what could possibly go wrong?

I've got him as a running back one right now in my rankings, but if I had to bet, I would bet against it in the sense that, you know, when you take the field, it's scary. I think this is the scariest high ranking I have because...

You don't know for certain that it's going to be the Kamaker show. You know, he was injured in week one after 14 carries, which was great to see as the rookie. He comes out, gets 14 carries, gets injured, misses a couple games. Wow, I forgot that. And then doesn't really see double-digit. He gets back in week five and then doesn't see double-digit carries again as the season goes on. Darrell Henderson is going well and it was kind of a one-two punch and Cam wasn't even the one.

But later in the season. And then Henderson got hurt. Henderson got hurt. And Cam showed what he can do, which was electric, was outstanding. He's a young guy, and I believe he converted to running back. I want to say he was a quarterback. So he didn't have a lot of experience at the position. He's still only 21 years old. He's younger than a lot of the rookies coming out. And if he is given the opportunity that we saw at the end of the year.

He will be awesome for fantasy. It was Todd Gurley's role, and he's not peak Todd Gurley, but he is capable enough to be a top five running back. But how it goes wrong is simply it's a time share. That it's more what we saw in the middle of the season with Darrell Henderson. That's not out of the question. Yeah, that's why I was throwing in there. Then Darrell Henderson got hurt at the end. Was the transition?

simply a product of that? Or, I mean, what was it? Acres was a second round pick. So, I mean, there was clearly a plan from Los Angeles that they needed to revamp the running back room and Cam Acres was going to be a very large plan. Once he really took over from week 13 moving forward, including the playoff games, I mean, he's averaging well over 20 attempts a game. If you can see that 20 attempt mark.

while getting the target increase from Matthew Stafford. The volume is going to be absolutely incredible. The volume has the ability, I agree with you, that top five is in the cards for Acres. But it is a scary proposition that perhaps the transfer was more related to an injury. But right now, I am betting on Acres. That's going to wrap up our top 10. Let me run it back real quick. CMC, Dalvin Cook, Alvin Camara, Derek.

Henry, Sequin Barkley, Aaron Jones, which you guys are too low on, Ezekiel Elliott, Nick Chubb, Jason, terrible ranking. Thank you. Jonathan Taylor, great job. Oh, I appreciate it. Great ranking. And Cam Acres. Let's talk to Kyle Eusechick. You talking to me? All right, the fantasy footballers are extremely excited to welcome in five-time Pro Bowler Harvard grad. Fullback extraordinaire. Kyle Eustech to the show. Kyle, how are you doing?

I'm doing great, man. So excited to finally come on here. I've been an avid listener for probably three years now. So I'm stoked to be a part of it. Oh, my goodness. So an avid listener of the show, very likable dude. I've heard you talk many times before, done interviews, and you still re-signed with our arch rival, the San Francisco 49ers. Do you know how awkward that is for us on this show?

I know. That's the one tough part about listening is listen to your guys' Cardinals fandom. That's the one thing I've got to push through when I listen. Oh, does it come through on the show? I had no idea. Yeah, just a little, just a little bit. Well, I, you know, we would, if you wanted to formally request to trade to the Cardinals on the show today, I wouldn't stop you. You know, I'm not a big fan of the whole 10 personnel, so.

I don't want to interrupt your guys' love for D'Andre Hopkins and Larry Fitz and everybody else out there. Well, we're thrilled to have you on today. You know, the fullback position, that is, that's a position. There's a lot of dirty work involved. We've got Ron Wolfley out here on the air all the time, and, you know, he talks about his time as a fullback. I remember watching Vanta Leach. Like, that's one of the names that jumps out to me.

lead blocking for Arian Foster in Houston. And there are certain fullbacks that are just really fun to watch play the game. You're one of those guys. And I really appreciate what you do on the field. Talk about returning to San Francisco. How certain were you when the season ended that you were coming back? Yeah, well, before I get in that quick shout out to Leach, because that was my mentor. He was in Baltimore when I got drafted there.

I got to spend a year with him and learn under him. So big time mentor for me and really helped me transition and kind of figure out what it's like to play fullback in the NFL. But return to San Francisco. It was a whirlwind of emotions, man. When the season ended, I genuinely did not know if I would be back or not. A lot of things were coming into play. I'm older now. I'm married. I want to start a family soon.

We're all out on the East Coast. My family's from Cleveland. My wife's family is from New York. And so being on the West Coast, it can be difficult, you know, from a real world perspective, not just playing football. So that was something I was going to have to weigh into my free agency decision this time that was a little different than when I was 24 years old and just finished my rookie contract. So I had to think about that, had to think about, you know, just where.

where I felt our program was going in San Francisco, and, you know, we had a lot of free agents, and it looked like the team could look a lot different this season. But ultimately, you know, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to play in Kyle's offense and stay home where I've been and feel so comfortable and just so genuinely happy to go to work there every day. And luckily enough, our team ended up.

basically we're looking about the same as we did the past couple years, added a few additions, but they did a really good job of resigning all the free agents that we had come up. Yeah, and I want to talk a little bit about Kyle Shanahan in the offense here in a couple minutes, but, yeah, I do think that people forget in the free agency period, especially fantasy players, because, you know,

Like it or not, we're so dialed into stats and how players perform for your team. And I mean, you listen to the show, so you know that aspect of it. But I do think we forget all of the real world implications for these moves. You know, there's a person, there's a family, you're living in one place, you're raising a family. And, you know, I just remember talking to.

to David Johnson out here a while back about those factors and how they come into play. But, you know, you listen to the show. You know the fantasy football world in general. How do you view fantasy in the context of, like, your experiences with it and with fans and the NFL in general? Yeah, you know, I've been playing fantasy football since, man, when I was, I feel like in middle school or early high school.

And I've always enjoyed it for what it is, man. I think it gives a lot of people more reasons to watch the game and maybe watch games that you wouldn't normally be interested in. You know, all of a sudden you got, you know, I don't know, a Carolina Panther tight end on your team that before you never cared about the Panthers. But all of a sudden, now you have something invested in it. And so I think it's fun, man. And I think it brings more fans to the game and just, you know, brings more excitement to games that maybe.