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

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And Mike Wright. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the podcast. That's the fantasy footballers podcast, if you're nasty. I'm your host today, Mike the Fantasy Hitman, Wright. Andy is off for the day. But you know what that means? Oh, yeah. The best friends are back. We are the best friends, and we're going to talk about football.

We're going to talk about the top 10 running backs for this season, which is always a fun topic. We get to hear from Kyle Hughes checking. We got a bear. The cardboard bear extraordinaire is back holding it down. Now, Jason, you had missed a show a little bit in the past. Yes. And so, of course, Jay Gris, he shows up. He has to hold it down. And we end up talking about Jay Gris in his book that he always travels with. The Salmon Way.

And word got out to the author of The Salmon Way. And we were thanked for the nice plug of their book. I hope it's a number one bestseller. Just, you know, keep the children's eyes away. You know, it's a graphic, brutal book. So crazy, small world, how that happens. Welcome in, ladies and gentlemen. It's the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Please follow us on social media.

At the FF ballers on Twitter. Jason is at Jason FFL. I am at FF Hitman, and you can find Andy at Andy Holloway, the three of us. Same handles on Instagram, but the main show is Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers. My best friend, he said it. We're going to be talking about our early top 10 rankings. We are also joined by the juice.

The juice, Kyle Eusecheck of the San Francisco 49ers, superstar fullback. Great friend of the show. Great friend of the show, superstar fullback. Kind of wish he was a Cardinal, but he's on the 49ers. Great player. We're going to talk to him, get his takes on his offseason, talk about a little bit of fantasy. But we're going to get into the news, Jason. News and notes from around the league. A little bit lighter on the news in terms of this.

Nothing here is real heavy hitting. But at the same time, there could actually be repercussions from a few of these. Veteran running back. G.O. Vani Bernard, who was freshly released by the Cincinnati Bengals, he is signing a one-year deal with the Buccaneers. Personally, reached out to by Tom Brady and Bruce Ariens, who had just...

hyped up Kishon Vaughn as having a breakout year. And then he's like, oh, wait, I didn't know Gio Bernard was available. Do we have a timestamp on that statement? Yeah, I was like a week and a half. But it had to be before the cut happened. It was before the cut happened. And this does have fantasy repercussions. Yes. Ronald Jones, Leonard Fournett, these were interesting mid-late round picks who now, you know, look, my dynasty team were I was the champ champ. Right.

It's tough in the streets, man. My wide receiving core is amazing, but my running backs are right now, David Johnson and Leonard Fournett. So Giovanni Bernard has not been kind to me today. And you could see many times the visible frustration on Tom Brady's face as his running backs let him down in the passing game. I mean, Ronald Jones, that's just, that's not who he is as a player. Leonard Fournett can catch the ball and everything, but.

Giovanni Bernard is at least a pass catching running back. I think he just muddles things up far more than he'll have standalone value. It really feels like an indictment and a whoopsies on the Kishon Vaughn draft pick, third round pick last year. Seems like the bucks are just going to try and pretend that that did not happen. The Eagles have re-signed Jordan Howard. It's a one-year contract. This one...

I'm not, you know, it is what it is. You've got to have some depth. Miles Sanders is still the guy. You're talking, this is a new regime that's going to be calling some place. So we'll see if Jordan Howard has anything left for them. You mean the Dolphins leading touchdown rushing score last year? Jordan Howard? I was going to say it more eloquently than that. But you came in and you swooped in and you crushed it. Thank you. The Patriots have, I got to read the quote the way it came out. The Patriots.

have terminated the contract of wide receiver Julian Edelman. He's listed as a failed physical. Unfortunately, Jules had burned really bright and has just been, his body has betrayed him. His body no longer wants to play football. And he will be signing with the Buccaneers in three. Maybe. If he does, if he goes anywhere, you know he's going to the Bucks. However, there is expectation out there that.

This is a technicality, and he's going to retire. That makes sense. I would not blame Jules at all if he retires. And here's a fun bit of news. Free agent running back, James Connor, is visiting with the Cardinals on Monday. And they have to, Cardinals got to bring him in because they have to get a physical for James Connor because he had to undergo surgery to repair immoderate.

moderate turf toe. Oh, no, I don't remember him dealing with that much last year. He did not. He did not deal with that. I mean, he had plenty of other injuries. Yes, yes, he did have those. But this injury of the turf toe occurred while riding a recreational vehicle. Full recovery expected by June. Oh, good. Now, I will say this. Watching James Connor last year was not a treat. It was watching someone who was injured. Yeah. And now he's getting injured driving cars. So it's like,

Now, as a Cardinals fan, I am not excited about the prospect of signing James Connor. Like this doesn't have to, we can talk Chase Edmonds too really quick, but a recreational vehicle, that's not necessarily, like it doesn't have to be a golf cart, right? This could be, he could be on an actual like a go cart or something that actually has speed. Yes. So it's not, we're joking about it, but there's, there's vehicles out there that go fast enough that I'm sure I could.

get turf toe on it. You could, unfortunately, you could die on a recreational vehicle. But that's not as funny as getting turf toe. Yeah, Jason, this is a lighthearted show. I don't know why you went right to that. Well, I'm trying to keep it in the turf toe level. So, you know, that's hysterical. Okay, okay. But so let's talk implications. If James Connor is to sign in this week, how does that change your view of?

Chase Edmonds, is Edmonds the guy? Do you see timeshare? Is James Connor the guy? So my view of Chase Edmonds would skyrocket if James Connor was actually signed. Because I think if Connor comes in, you're going to have a time share. You're going to have a 50-50. I couldn't even tell you which guy would be in the lead. We'd have to see the money that they're paying James Connor. But you add to that.

the fact that Connor hasn't been able to stay on the field. He's not going to get much money. And in which case, if Connor is, if Connor stops them from drafting a high draft capital running back in the draft and then he isn't on the field, Chase Edmonds is going to be very valuable for fantasy. And when I say he skyrockets up my board, I mean that by comparison to where I currently view Chase Edmonds, which is not as the starter, even though he's clearly right now the only guy in town. But I expect the Cardinals.

right now to use a day two pick on a running back. Yeah, I'm with you that if you bring in someone like Connor who has had success, if he's healthy, I think that Connor can still get it done. That's a big F. But if the Cardinals do bring in James Connor, that seems like a big enough addition to the running back room that they might not use the second round pick on one of the running backs if one of the big three happens to fall.

to them in the second round. So I'm with you that it would improve the outlook for Chase. What about the value of James Connor? Would he have any? I mean, where would you be drafting James Connor? What would your expectation for his, let's say hysterically that he plays the whole season? Sure. What do you think he would finish? Because you saw King and Drake have an enormous amount of opportunities. Yes. And James Connor would immediately become a incredibly interesting zero running back target. Like if you're out there

playing in best ball right now and you're like i don't i don't know where connor's going in bestball if he's being drafted at all but if you're grabbing him with with your last pick where you know we're talking about running backs and as we're looking at all the running backs jay what was the number of the top 20 finishing running back last season they're the top 20 running backs in fantasy football how many of them actually played 16 games the answer is two

Only two of the top 20. Running backs don't play 16. I mean, that's just the reality. We'll talk about, oh, this guy did it in 14 games. Yeah, because that's how many games running backs play. That's not going to stop me from being excited about saying someone did it in 14 games. Oh, no. The numbers sound better when you extrapolate it to 16 games. But yeah, I think James Connor could be mildly interesting when he's on the field. But he did look like he lost a lot of what he used to have. And we know he's dealt with a.

an enormous amount of injuries um so yeah i'm not excited about this as a cardinals fan yeah but he would be in line for a huge opportunity bump should he actually signed to the cardinals and he like if he doesn't sign with the cardinals there who else is going out signing james connor right now one other piece of news uh it's not in here i find it interesting more for our dynasty players faddius moss

has, this is, tight end, Thaddeus Moss. That people have probably, not many people know. Son of Randy Moss. People know who that is. People know who that is. He was released from the Washington football team. He was claimed through the waiver system by the Cincinnati Bengals. That puts him back with his college teammate Joe Burrow. That's where he was, you know, a really highly touted college prospect at the tight end position. So, you know, that doesn't necessarily take them.

out of the ability to draft Kyle Pitts, but I do think if, you know, Sewell or Pitts are on the board, and now they've got Thadis Moss from... Well, Injamar Chase is one of their targets as well. So it's just interesting to me. All right. Let's talk running backs. Running bags. Number one, Jason, who do he thinks at the top of the list? I think it's the same person for you, for me, for Andy, for Jay Gris. Even he won't put David Montgomery ahead of him.

Christian McCaffrey. That is correct. He's so good. It doesn't matter that he was injured. Like we said, a lot of running backs missed games. And Christian McCaffrey is so far and a way better for fantasy football than the next closest player. It's really, really, really not fair. Yeah, 100%. I agree. In 2018 and 19, he played over 90%.

of the snaps. He is averaging over 100 receptions in his three full seasons. He's the number one guy. He will be played like that. If you look at what he did in just his three games, I mean, the coaching, we don't have to worry to me. That sample is extremely small, but large enough for me to say, okay, head coach Matt Ja Rule is all about.