The TRUTH About Fantasy RBs in 2020, Part 2 - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/28

that are flashier. I'm more excited about him. And Zeke is going to drop into the second half of the first round. And I am at this point willing to scoop him up there and be excited about it. Are you with me on that, Jared? Do you still think that Zeke has some time left being a top tier running back? Yeah, the question entirely is just you're calling your shot on Zeke. Is he still great or has he lost the step? And he's starting to

you know, go the way that all running backs go. And you don't want to be the one caught hole in the back. And Tony Pollard had one game where it was just him and he dominated. I mean, he had a lot of his yardage was on one play, but Pollard showed and proved to the team that he's, he has value and he should be getting touched. Yeah, there's going to be a lot of talk. Look, the offensive line is worse.

Tony Pollard is now in play, so he's not going to be this, you know, 89, 90% snap guy like he's been in the past. He's older. He's got a lot of mileage on his legs, and he looked closer to washed at the end of the season. So plenty of people will...

be looking elsewhere. I will not. I'm 100% with you. If Dak is back and the touchdown opportunity and the offense is rolling, Zeke's great. He's paid too much. When I watched him, I didn't watch him and go, oh, he looks washed. He looks done. I thought he looked weird. He didn't necessarily look like in the middle of the season. But the final two games of the season, you're like, oh, yeah, okay. He can still play. No, I will, I will draft Zeke at the back of the first happily.

Yep, and you saw the rushing yards per game. I mean, his first three years in the league, he was 95 plus per. This was his worst at 65 rushing yards per game. We all know that, but I'm back in. Running back 12. My dude, Antonio Gibbs season came through in half point here. The beginning of the year was not ideal. It was a little bit rough.

But then things really heated up in the middle of the season. Unfortunately, it was derailed then by the turf toe injury, and you really couldn't play Gibson with any sort of confidence. But this show was about the truth and looking forward to the future. Jason, is Antonio Gibbs season, are we returning to Antonio Gibson? Was this kind of a fluky touchdown thing for you? Where are your thoughts on Gibson?

My thoughts on Gibson are that he is going to be phenomenal. And he'll be one of the best picks next year in the draft. If you look from, you know, he wasn't really involved in week one, right? Rookie first game didn't really get out there. Kind of like you looked at Justin Jefferson. He was like, oh, he wasn't involved in the first two weeks. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, yeah, we got to get this guy on the field. Right. And then he got that injury in week 13. But if you look at from weeks two through 12,

And this is while he was in a heavy committee with J.D. McKissick, he's still getting worked into the passing game more and more. He was the running back five in total points in that stretch in his rookie season.

he's only going to get more work next year, not less. I do have question marks about the quarterback position. Is it going to be Alex Smith? We all do, Jason. We all have those questions. That will heavily dictate what happens. But when we're, I mean, that's the whole point of the show, right? What was the truth about Antonio Gibson? The truth was he was awesome on a per touch basis. He was awesome on a per snap basis. His snaps and touches started going up and up and up, adds the coaching staff.

genuinely transparently said like he needs time to get more involved in the passing game he did they did that and then he got injured so you know the truth is he was a bright shining rookie that got off to us and it's perfect for the foot clan because he got off to a slow start and he finished injured so those are the two most watched times where it's like

The middle of the season, he was great, but that could easily get missed. So I think Gibson's going to be a great value next year. Yes, Thanksgiving was delightful. That was a very fun time for me and my fantasy team. Rookie running backs, Jay, with 11 rushing touchdowns or more on less than 180 carries. Prepare yourself for this list.

Okay, rookie running backs, 11 touchdowns on less than 180 carries. Okay. Gail Sayers. Hall of Famer, got it. Marcus Allen. Hall of Famer. Herschel Walker. He's got to be Hall of Famer, right? I don't know. I don't know if he'll make it in or not. Maurice Jones Drew. Okay. Antonio Gibson. That's it. That's a good, I know that's a cherry picking stat.

But I don't care because I like it. And that sounds really good for the future of Antonio Gibson. Let's get this man involved in the passing game. Janie McKissick is fine. But who would, who do you think a team would rather see catching the football? Janie McKissick or 230 pound Antonio Gibson who runs a 4-4. You would be terrified. Get that man in space. Seriously. All right. Number 13. Oh, goodness gracious.

He finishes the RB 13? I don't know how it's true. It's got to be a lie. It doesn't feel like it. His consistency rank was 24. His play on the field was, I don't know what it's usually been. I don't know how Melvin Gordon finished running back 13, but here he is. Melvin Gordon. The third. Running back 13. He did have his weeks. He had his time when Philip Lindsay was.

was injured, which Philip Lindsay was oft injured throughout this season. Melvin Gordon was a fine play. He was getting enough volume. Ah, man, I am just not in on this situation. Now, Philip Lindsay is a, I believe he's a restricted free agent. I'm not exactly sure what Denver is going to do at the backfield. You could see a situation where it really is Melvin Gordon and then Royce Freeman backing Gordon up, at which point,

opportunity does matter and then I'll be somewhat interested in Melvin Gordon. It gets a lot of work. But Jay, how are you feeling about Melvin Gordon and the truth of the running back 13 having a consistency rank of 24? The truth is he didn't help people a lot. There were only stretches where Philip Lindsay was out and he was fine and then a game here or there where he got a surprise touchdown. I don't want to play the Melvin Gordon.

gamble. I don't want to play the touchdown game. I don't believe in Drew Locke. I don't think they're going to improve their quarterback situation. I mean, if somehow Deshaun Watson shows up, okay, that's good, but it's not happening. Sorry Broncos fans. Yeah, and as a restricted free agent.

a hometown hero, a favorite of the fans, a better running back. Philip Lindsay will be back. And if Philip Lindsay's better, you think he'll be back in Denver? I do think he'll be back in Denver. Assuming he is, then Melvin Gordon is someone I will just let someone else take at almost any spot in the draft. Obviously, there's a value at a point where you've got a guy who can get the ball 225 times. I think he had 215 carries and 15 games this season.

where you'll take him and throw him on your roster. But I don't want, I don't, you know, it's like you don't know when he's going to end up with the touchdowns on a bad offense. And if he doesn't, it's just not that valuable. And you've said this forever, which is, you know, he's not that good. He's not that good. I will say this. He's fine. He's fine. He can carry a large workload, which is a.

special trait for NFL and for fantasy. Availability is an ability. Availability is an ability and he can catch the ball. And then he does have one special trait that is just flat out true. He has a nose for the end zone. Certain guys have it. Certain guys have that extra gear when they get inside the tin where they, you know, it's like, why don't you do this all the time? He's like, they're saving it up. I remember Joseph Adai was like that back in the day where it's like, oh yeah. This guy is a good back, but.

Goodness gracious, if you're inside the 10, he's going to score. And that's Melvin Gordon. But I will let someone else take the name value and the recognition and have a lousy running back. Running back 14. Your guy, Jason. Kenyon Drake of the Arizona Cardinals, he was being drafted last year right at the beginning of the second as the RB12. He finished as the running back 14. It's not too bad.

That's not too bad. Unless you see that he busted 27% of the time, he was only good in 53% of his games. Were you happy? Not happy. I won't even, I won't make you go that far. Were you satisfied with Kenyon Drake's performance where you had to draft it? In the end, I, or will you never be satisfied? I'll never be satisfied.

In the end, I think I was satisfied. I was so disappointed to start the year as everybody was. The first four weeks were a putrid abomination. His best finish was running back 17. It got off to slow sledding. But he had a long stretch of, I mean, I had him on several rosters, so I know the ups and downs of rostering Kenya Drake this year. And from week five through the end of the season in week 16, assuming you're a week 16er.

He was a really solid back. He was pretty much a staple in my lineup and always had decent games. They use them around the goal line. I wish he got involved in the passing game, the way that he did at the second half of the previous season. That does not look like it's going to be the case. Now, the truth about King and Drake is he was a volume play that was inefficient. Ninth most touches at the running back position. But was a decent RB2 for your roster. And...

We don't know where he's going to play football. He's an unrestricted free agent. This was a transition franchise tag he was playing under. My belief is that the Arizona Cardinals will sign him again. I think he'll be back. Andy does not believe he'll be back. Yeah, I land that I don't think Kenyon Drake's going to be back. If he's not back. You can't pay Kenyon Drake 10 plus million dollars a year. You can't pay that much for that, for what he gave you.

This year, he wasn't a difference maker for the team. He was, in fact, I mean, we are Arizona Cardinal fans on this show. We watch all the games, maybe a little extra special eye on our home team. He was not a difference making player for this offense. He held them back tremendously at the goal line. I mean, the fact that he had 10 rushing touchdowns with the.

amount of carries he saw inside the red zone is a travesty. This dude should have had 15 plus rushing touchdowns easily, but he kept getting stuffed all the time. I don't know how much you can blame him versus the play calling of look like you're going to run it up the middle, run it up the middle. And you know I'm all about that. I hate the jump. I hate when the team lines up jumbo and then just tries to out testosterone people on the front lines. But.

I do agree with you that there are players that are just better at that tiny fraction of the field of play like Melvin Gord. Very good at getting into the end zone. So a player with that ability could make an impact for this team. And Kenyon Drake, I don't think can. So he's not worth the $10 million. So I don't believe he will be back. I think they'll do something. Maybe they bring in a different free agent. Maybe they just make a.

a day two selection on a running back and they pair him with Chase Edmonds, but I don't think that Drake is back. Okay, okay. Well, we'll have to wait and see. They would have to replace him with something. Chase Edmonds, you know, Benjamin, I don't think is enough to go into this season. So now we get to the point where there's a bunch of different running backs we could talk about. Yeah, Mike Davis was the running back 15, but you don't really need to know the truth about Mike Davis because the truth is he, one, he's a free agent for the Carolina Panthers, too.

Christian McCaffrey were healthy. Mike Davis is not going to see the field very much. But I guess the truth is simply just talking about the Carolina Panthers backfield real quick that there's value there. If Christian McCaffrey, we talk about high value insurance running backs, I'm not sure who the backup is going to be for Christian McCaffrey this year. But they might be worth a look at the very end of drafts. Ronald Jones was the running back 16. We already kind of.