The TRUTH: Second Tier RBs in 2019 - Fantasy Football Podcast

Seven touchdowns, 37 receptions on 47 targets. When you look back at the season for Chris Carson, what are your takeaways? I mean, this was a pretty consistent player from weeks 1 through 10. He was the running back 7. What do you think? The story for Chris Carson for me is, number one, the dude's a beast. He fits perfectly in the system that Seattle wants to run. But the big story was the fumbling.

He had a stretch. The first three games, he fumbled in each of them. Pete Carroll seemed to weather that storm and say, well, he hasn't been a fumber before. A fumber? I heard fumber as well. He hasn't been a fumber. Which is true. I mean, he has not been a fumber. That's true. To this day. One time I caught a fumber. I don't recommend it. But he wasn't a fumbler.

I don't know. Okay. It's a creature. Yeah. It's a Pokemon. That's what it sounded like. Okay. You never leveled up your fumber? Yeah. Okay. To a fumbler. I mean, the second stage of the fumber is a fumble. Of course. He was a fumble last year. So he fumbled the first three games. They moved on. But then he had a stretch. Another three game run of four combined fumbles. And after that happened, that's when Rashad Penny got.

got his shot and Rashad Penny came in, had two monster games, was establishing himself as a huge part of his offense, unfortunately went down with a very severe injury. So that's the question for me on Chris Carson. Let's say Rashad Penny still isn't ready to start the season because with what happened to his knee, there's a very high chance that that happens. Will they bring someone else in? What type of resources do they use to bring in another backup?

Because they're going to have to bring somebody, and you can't move forward with another season of it. It's Chris Carson. Then we have guys. We have J.D. McKissick. We have just getting hurt behind him. You have to bring someone. I couldn't remember his name. Procise. What level do they bring in behind Chris Carson? And does Carson fumble again? Here's what I know. I know that even if Rashopinney's healthy, they're not going to look at a player coming off of that severe of an injury and say,

Well, this is your backfield. So Carson should have a role there if he's back with the team, which he should be. He avoided surgery with the hip injury. And so I doubt we go into next season projecting very differently a season for Chris Carson than we did this past one. Yeah, it's just a matter of if they make a splash and free agents here in the draft and get a running back that could possibly take over as the starter. This is a contract year for Chris Carson. Yeah, there's not a lot of money committed his direction. Yeah, there's he's, yeah, he's.

Not even a million dollars. I just think we'll see what happens with his ADP because he could be a very risky pick. Yeah, I mean, this last year, the truth about Chris Carson is that he was great. He had obviously the injury towards the end and the fumbling in the beginning. But if you look at the middle stretch of games, they talked about getting him more involved in the passing game.

And he was 15th most routes run at running back. So, um, had that sweet double catch touchdown. He had seven seven separate weeks inside the top 10 on weekly finish. Yeah, I mean, he was, he was a solid player, just a tough beginning, tough into the season. That's kind of what ruined his, uh, consistency going forward next year. If the, if the depth chart looks like it looks now, I'll be all in on Chris Carson. Sure. If the fumbling is so, so annoying.

It's so frustrating because it betrays, you know, this was not a player making the wrong cut or the wrong read or dropping passes or doing something wrong in the past protection. It was just like, here you are with this one part of your game that is stealing the ability for fantasy owners to stay confident in you. So it was a good, not great year for Carson. Here's where the truth really comes out. Number 12, Alvin Camara. He was actually number six overall in fantasy.

consistency at the running back position. I think that's insightful. I think that's kind of not how it felt. I think for a lot of people, maybe those weeks, 16, 17 weeks that Camara had really nice numbers on didn't matter for you at all because you didn't make the playoffs because you didn't get what you thought you were getting out of Alvin Camara. We looked at all our projections. Obviously, they fell short by a significant margin. We knew the touchdown regression was potentially coming, but, you know,

It was just an up and down year for Alvin Camaro, but the truth is he was still one of the best fantasy running backs for your roster. Yeah, and the, you know, the pendulum swung too far, you know, in the touchdown regression. Yeah. And so, you know, you expect, look, he's assuming Drew Breeze is back.

he's still going to be a phenomenal asset that was very good this year, just disappointing because of injury. And somewhat similar to Saquan, he had an injury where he was dealing with it once he was back for a while. You weren't getting those big, high upside games that you want to get. But I mean, if you look at both Saquan and Camara, they missed games, and they both had, you know, a similar injury and struggled through that, Camara was better.

as far as just being more consistent, not having, I mean, you brought up that line of Sequan's run of seven games where he was getting 17 rushing attempts and 50 yards a game. Camara was still solid, and I think that the touchdowns go back up. So I'm, you know, I think Camara is someone that you've got to wash away this season.

similar to Devante Adams and don't just say, oh, he took a step down and that's the direction he's trending. We're going to lower him out of the tier he was in. I keep him in the tier that he was at draft. I still have him as a top tier running back. His rushing yards were almost exactly the same. You can't say top tier anymore because that's a tier onto itself. I know what you're saying. A tier. A tier. A tier. A tier. Okay. There you go. A tier, S tier. Got it.

I know. It doesn't make sense, but this is where we are. So it's rushing yards per game, almost identical. His yards per reception, per reception, they dropped a little bit. Adam reshifter. Yeah. Yes. I got you. I got you. He was actually pacing higher in total receptions. The big thing was the touchdowns in 2018.

Camara had 13 carries inside the five that turned into eight touchdowns. That's good. He was having excellent success up there. Last year, only eight carries that turned into three touchdowns inside the five. So, like, where was the problem with Camara? Right there. And, I mean, you had Teddy Bridgewater for a good stretch of this season. The Saints, just their offense wasn't as strong. But.

I'm still all in on Alvin Kamara. If there's any type of dip where he's dropping to the back of the first, that will be nonsense. I think he's actually a good trade for a target. Sure. The people who had him were really disappointed this year with the injuries. They might have missed the playoffs. They might think poorly of him. But, you know, if you can get him cheaper than, you know, the tier he was drafted this year, which based on what he did this year, I think you can, I wouldn't hate that. So, like, are you speaking for Dynasty? Yeah.

Okay. So you still have him. He's still only 24 years old. Sure, but he'll be in a contract year. I'm pretty confident that this is Drew Breeze last year. Now that's just projection and speculation, but Breeze has signed through this year. Are you that comfortable paying up? Because there might be a slight dip, I guess, in Dynasty Price, but you're still going to pay for Alvin Camara. Are you confident in him moving forward for the future years? I mean, when Drew Breeze is gone,

That's going to hurt every offensive player for the Saints. But how can you project Drew Breeze's future career decision? I don't know. So I'm just going to take talent right now. I would say the one kind of interesting development this year in New Orleans was the just everywhere involvement of Taysom Hill, especially around the goal line, direct snaps, opportunities for him to get into the end zone. I wouldn't, you know, we can look very.

strictly at, okay, he regressed touchdown-wise and he regressed too far, but part of why that regression happened was other priorities around the goal line. It wasn't just handing the ball to Alvin Camara. So depending on the involvement of Tassum Hill, that could affect, you know, the positive regression. Tassum needs a new contract. Does he? Yep. Interesting. He'll get it. All right. Number 13, Joe Mixon, his consistency rank was 22. Now, does that...

Betray the truth of Joe Mixing because I think it's fair. This is a player that before the week 9 buy, 8 fantasy points per game, 54 total yards per game. After the buy, 17.2 fantasy points per game, 124 total yards per game. You're talking about somebody that had the fifth most carries in football, number one innovated tackles, passed the eye test on every play he took the ball to me the entire season, even the bad games.

He's a player that runs very hard. You know, I'm kind of in love with Joe Mixon. Yes. But look, from week eight on, he was dominant on a team that stunk. So he was so bad at the beginning of the year. I don't know if we remember. People cut Joe Mixon. Yeah. Joe Mixon, who was super highly drafted. I mean, those first seven weeks, he was so bad that it wasn't even just, I know I can't start him anymore. It's I don't want him on the roster. And that obviously, if you did that was a mistake.

If you take away those first seven games, when you say, does the consistency score betray his season? It feels like it because you look at the second half from week eight on, he would have been the consistency rank number six. He was hyper-consistent the rest of the year once the team realized we are going for that number one. It doesn't really betray it because we're looking at the season in totality, but it shows you the potential for Joe Mixon. And I think he's going to be somebody that, you know, in Zach Taylor's second season,

Like with Joe Burrow behind center, there's just a lot to like about what you got out of Joe Mixon over the back half of the year because you saw all the potential on a team where, you know, he had five touchdowns on the year, on the ground. Not heavy passing game involvement like we thought we would see because the office didn't have the ball a lot. The offense didn't move the ball a lot. And still, to put up all of those top ten finishes over the back half of the year, I think there's a lot to be excited about personally, even though you were disappointed over the first six games.

Are you concerned at all that he will slip, like in or not slip, sneak into the back of the second round? And is your confidence that high that you would draft him there? Am I concerned? I would love it if he did that. You would take him in the second round? Joe Mixon? I would. Yeah. Okay. I think Joe Mixon, he was in my top, my top 12 overall picks for next year. So for me, his value lies at the back of the first round for me. Oh.

So I think Joe Mixen is a player. What's his ceiling? I mean, the ceiling would be definitely a top 10 running back. If he gets involved in the passing game, you can talk about there's room for the offensive line to improve. They can't get much worse than they were last year. Room for the team to improve. You can't get much worse than last place. So, yeah, I mean, you know, I think there's ways to go up. I'm not 100% sure that Joe Burrow coming in is an upgrade for him, though.

You know, Joe Burrow might be great, but as a rookie coming in... Have you ever watched... Who filled in for Andy Dalton? I can't even remember his name anymore. Oh, my God. Finley? Was that... Yeah, Ryan Finley. Yeah. Oh, my word. And Andy Dalton... Sure, but Dalton still played the majority of the season. Let's call it neutral. I mean, let's call it neutral second season learning how to use the guy. Here's all I'm saying is you're going to be facing decisions in next year's draft about, boy, am I taking the Hopkins, the Thomas?

You know, the Devante Adams in the first round, I'm fine with Joe Mixing is my running back with my running back one. I'm excited about Joe Mixon as my running back one. So I don't know if that makes me a Joe Mixon, apologist or optimist, but I am both. You believe the second half of the year is more indicative of how they'll utilize him going forward. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't, look, we didn't know at the time.

I mean, but week one, you were in Seattle. Okay, terrible week. Week two, you were facing San Francisco. We didn't know what their San Francisco defense was going to be. Fair. You faced Buffalo the next week. They were strong. You faced Pittsburgh the next week. Strongly. You played Baltimore in week six. So between new coach, new quarterback for part of the year, and that offensive line, I'm making the excuses. I want to make the excuses for Joe Mixing. Because film.

tells me he's a top five talent in the NFL. He's unbelievable. Man, they just, they really started feeding him the ball over that second half. They did. Basically just averaging over 20 carries a game. Yeah, number one in a beta tackles according to player profile. I love you, Joe. All right, number 14, Todd Gurley, one of the more talked about players heading into this season. Number 14, finish-wise, consistency rank number 12. And guys, I have no idea what on earth you do with Todd Gurley moving forward.