RB Rankings Countdown: 20-11, Kamara Suspension - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/7

There's no clear, like there's not the juggernaut of that division right now. It seems like anyone right now, if things break in the right direction for that team, if they are the healthiest team, they can win the division. And they can win the division with seven or eight wins. All right. Number 12, my favorite running back at this bunch today, Joe Mixon, back in Cincinnati took the discount to come back. The RB 17 by ADP, Jason talked about it, lagging ADP. I think that's going to be the case leading right into the season. This one is like the most flashing light, obvious, better than ADP situation in my mind. You're on a football team that is expected to compete for a Super Bowl. You don't have anybody currently competent in the backfield beyond Joe Mixon, who has had productive fantasy seasons.

who is a talented player. He may not be the most talented, but this is that like Josh Jacobs of last year right in my face situation where I have him at nine. It's not insane. I'm finished at 12 last year. Three the year before. Yeah, I just like, you know, Trayvion Williams is hurt. Chase Brown's a rookie Chris Evans. He's a jag. He's come in at times and just filled the role of giving a breather. I mean, Somaget-P. Rine's a good player who earned third downs all the time. Joe Mixen is going to catch so many more passes than you think he's going to catch this year. That's my opinion. I just... I think people would be surprised to remember that last year, Joe Mixon had 75 targets. He was extremely involved in the passing game. 60 receptions. Yeah, and now you lose Somaget P. Rine. Joe Mixon is going to get...

an immense amount of volume for a great offense. There's not much, I mean, you could only say, well, he was inefficient last year. I don't believe he's getting better. I think he's getting worse. I think he's going to be inefficient this year. If he's inefficient this year, where you're drafting him, that's where he's going to finish. That's like his floor. He's being drafted at his floor. And even though that's kind of where I have him ranked, I completely see the risk reward here is you're drafting him. basically where he finishes if he plays poorly and if he plays good or even just gets lucky opportunities you know touchdown wise because you know two years ago he had 13 rushing touchdowns that's super in the cards for him again with the joe burrow lead bangles the target total you gave is with him missing games due to injury i mean his target pace on the year was 90 for just last season that we had him with some ajy run

He would have caught 73 passes. Still, you know, he was not efficient on the ground. I mean, that is the truth of the matter. But this is like, you're Joe Burroughs guy in the backfield. You're going to play, as far as we know, you're going to play on third down. That's the variable. For some reason, they pull them off for somebody else. But I don't know. This one of my favorite values in the draft right now. Yep. I'm not going to disagree. You have them ranked right around 10, too. Yeah, I think last year, Mixing was what, like an early second?

round pick. So there's possibility that that is also baked in a huge over the summer. We didn't know is Joe Mixon even going to be on this team. So I think that's the biggest contributor to why his ADP is so low. But for what is supposed to be like the dead zone of drafts, this is a clear starting running back on a high powered offense. There was news that came out that he's going to be civilly sued. Sure, yeah, yeah. And then that could open them up to a NFL suspension. Not now, but later. The way that the NFL has handled these types of cases, this seems like even if he is like everything, he loses in court, the suspension would likely be next year. Number 11, the last name will talk about it running back today. Najee Harris, Steelers running back.

He was, he's being drafted at the RB 12 right now. Jason has him at 10. I've got him at 11, Mike at 13. So we all are pretty comfortable with that spot. He feels, I think one of the challenges here with Najee Harris is it just doesn't feel like the sexy pick. Yeah, that's fair. It doesn't feel that way to me. I don't take him in Mox because I'm staring down Jamir Gibbs or something. And it's like, oh, I want to take the unknown, younger, more explosive, more efficient. opportunity, whereas Naji Harris is the pick that my league mates make, and then they just get week-to-week production from, and I'm just like, I should have done it. That's kind of what happens. And right now, he's going to be the guy. I know Jalen Warren, we like him as a sneaky opportunity type of player, but Naji Harris has a pretty strong stranglehold on this backfield. Yeah, he's going to get a ton of work. I love Jalen Warren. I think you can like both of these players.

at their ADP to succeed. Last year, he had the foot problem, midway through the season, got the plate removed, and all of a sudden... From his shoe. Yes, from his shoe. He took the plate out that he was playing with. He said that was the last step to kind of be recovered from the injury, and he was really good, the second half of the season. Now, a lot of that came in touchdowns being there, whereas they weren't in the first half. So maybe it wasn't just all efficiency, but I think that that gives you an example. What he did the second half gives you an example of how good he can be with Jalen Warren on an offense that will score more this year than they did last year. I think we can universally agree that that's the most likely outcome is that the Steelers' offense is just simply better this year than last year, not necessarily that they're going to be great. But that's more scoring opportunities for Najee. He catches the...

The ball. He's just a really well-rounded running back. And I agree he's not sexy. I don't think he's got top three upside, not on this offense. But he's going to get the ball a lot in every which way. Yeah, he's like, he's like, I don't know, Walmart Nick Chubb. I mean, I'm being, I'm being honest. Like it's the volume you're into. Like I was just, you won't like the comparison here either, but like looking up Cedric Benson. Like the efficiency numbers are very similar to what Najee's was, but guess what? 321 attempts, 273 attempts. Like, Naji has a nose for the end zone. And they also just give him the ball in situations where I think maybe the efficiency will never show up on the stat sheet. You know, it's the fourth and one dive play. It's the goal line. Like, he's probably never going to be a five-a-carry type of guy, but he's always going to be on the field. And we need to respect that.

from as a fan, and I'm talking to myself, like I need to respect it as a fantasy player. Yeah, to me, he's, the comp for me has always been Melvin Gordon. Obviously now that feels bad because Melvin Gordon's older, but Melvin Gordon, you know, his first couple years in the league, 3.9 a carry, 3.9 a carry, 3.5 a carry. Also the running back seven, the running back. Also had Austin Eckler coming in and stealing something like it. There's a lot of comps there where it's just, this is an actually talented running back who for not fantasy, but for. NFL purposes, he's moving the chains. He's getting it done. He's picking up the yards he needs to. He's just not necessarily ripping off a 30, 40-yard run and house calling for awesome fantasy value in an exciting play. But he will volume his way to being an effective fantasy asset. And the Steelers offense should be better. Like over that second half where Najee was better for fantasy football, it's what was the...

What's the real reason behind that? Was it the, he took the, the play out of the shoe, he was healthy and ready to go? Or did that contribute to, like, that was a big factor of the Steelers' offense being better? Or was the Steelers' offense better? That made Najee better. But Kenny Pickett, just a remarkable rookie season. 1.8% of his passing attempts turned into a touchdown. That is the lowest since 1990 of quarterbacks who have started 12 games. But that should. That should positively regress to, like, even if we get league average from Kenny Pickett. Even if you get well below league average. Like if you get well below league average, it's a huge increase. Yes. I, the division is brutal. Yeah. The division is really annoying in a lot of ways because it's like you could see any of the teams run in the division. Like legitimately. Like even I have my order and I can see it going completely differently because it's just a brutal, brutal, like.

Pittsburgh could dominate it, and I wouldn't be shocked. Cincinnati should run away with it. Wouldn't be shocked. Baltimore, great opportunity. And I believe that Cleveland has what it takes, defensively, offensively. It's going to be really wild. Tomorrow we have the top 10 running backs on the show. We'll be moving into quarterbacks later in the week. We've got preseason power up on Thursday. We've got a mock draft again this week. So much going on. And please, like we said at the top. Go check out the ultimate draft kit. It's going to equip you to win on draft day. Drafts are coming. I planned a few this past week, scheduled some times. It's go time. We're going to have full preseason football here soon as well. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.