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

And I was very excited at the beginning of the year that he made it through our, if you heard us talk about our keeper lottery, Miles Sanders was one of the guys that I put into the lottery. I was able to get him back. And back into the draft from my team went, Kareem Hunt. You know, a couple weeks into the preseason, that seemed like, oh, that's spectacular. I got Miles Sanders. I'll just talk about him being a three-down guy.

Week one, he's hurt. He's already hurt. And Kareem Hunt comes out and dominates. And then Nick Chup goes down. How is this happening? That I was so excited from Miles Sanders. And Kareem Hunt is the guy that I should have wished I ended up getting. Now, Miles Sanders came back and he had some very strong games to start. Then it turned into a dumpster fire in Philadelphia. A couple big games at the end of the year. Jason, I have no idea.

I have no idea how to feel about Miles Sanders. Because, yeah, he was the running back three against the New Orleans Saints because he had an 80-yard rushing touchdown. And that was the only thing that saved him from having a stretch of six straight games of being a complete dumpster fire for fantasy purposes. And he had a great game against Pittsburgh because he had a 70-yard rushing touchdown. Otherwise, he had a terrible game. Now, you can't take that away from Miles. Like, that's baked into...

who he is as a player. He has a big playability. But I feel like I am a hard out on Miles Sanders right now. I think it's because you dealt with the burns. I mean, when you touch the oven when it's on, you don't want to go back to the oven. You know, and the way that I see it, I did have a lot of shares of Miles Sanders this year. So I'm not, you know, I had to, thankfully I was wearing the mittens. So my hands didn't burn on the stove quite as often.

But the reality is this is a cash-strapped team that does not have the draft capital to go out and acquire another running back. I think they're going to come back into this next season with Sanders. They have offensive line problems. They have quarterback problems. Oh, they certainly do. However, we did see that, you know, with Jalen Hertz, he was, you know, a quality running back. Now, granted, it seems like it's Carson wins. There's just so many question marks around the team. We're going to have to wait to see how it plays itself out.

I believe I will be in on Miles Sanders next year. And I believe the reason is because it will be talent plus opportunity. I don't think there will be another guy there to truly split the workload. If there is, if they sign someone good, I think they will be a full committee because the one question with Sanders was, can he hold up through that work? He missed the beginning of the season. He missed the middle of the season, dealt with injuries in the first opportunity he's been given to really be a true workhorse.

And so you've got to, you know, if I'm Dr. House, if I'm Hugh Laurie, the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, I have to worry about that. I have to say, you know, do I need to bring in another back? So I think we've got to wait. But the talent's there. You see that on a play by play basis. But with the coaching changes, quarterback changes, and not knowing who's going to be in the running back room, it's too early to call. All right. Is there any more players that you want to highlight? I mean, there's.

There's still a lot of guys to talk about, but we are up against the clock. Who's your favorite? The last player that I think is really important to talk about is one of your favorites. It's the gas man. Oh, yeah. And more so than just the gas man. Savon Ahmed was the consistency ranked 25th player. He was better than that. If you take out the games, he was completely uninvolved in. The point.

is that the Miami Dolphins, the utilization that they had of whoever the running back was is exceptionally valuable for fantasy. Now, what's ironic here is they're in the running for Deshawn Watson. And if they get Deshawn Watson, then they probably don't have the draft capital to spend on a really good running back. Right now it looks like, oh, they've got the draft capital to go after a really good running back. So the gas man could end up playing for...

The Deshawn Watson led Miami Dolphins. So like if I'm in a dynasty league, offseason trades are happening, I take the shot. You know, because right now, if they don't get to Sean Watson, I don't think Miles Gaskin's a thing next year. I think they spend high draft capital, you know, whether that's a late first. I think they've got multiple first or the second rounder on a great back and bring them in a true three-down skill set.

Miles Gaskin, you know, I made fun of him on our serious XM show the first game because... You did. You disparaged the gas man. I did disparage the gas man. And you know what? I hope you feel ashamed. I don't at all. I believe it's fair. His utilization was awesome. For fantasy, he was great. All that's true. He averaged the seventh most touches per game. You have Miles Gaskin getting 18 plus touches a game.

That's right behind Zeke. That's ahead of Alvin Kamara. If you give those touches. They're keeping the tank full. If you give those touches to a true quality back, it will be an elite fantasy player. And every time I watch Miles Gaskin, he's fun, he's electric. You just hope nobody's right next to him because they will smash him to the ground. He's an itty-bitty thing that can get tackled by anyone out there on the field. 80% good.

Zero percent bust. Exactly. He had the same amount of touches per game as Zeke. I mean, when you're touching the ball that much, it doesn't matter if you're efficient. It doesn't matter if you're, and the best part is it was in the past game too. So I loved the gas man for fantasy. I love the role on the offense. And if, you know, if ETN shows up here instead of the gas man. I mean, that's just going to be an incredible spot.

And I got one guy I want to highlight before we get out of here because this player was the running back 27, and yet he had a consistency rank of 11. 67% of his games were good. He only busted 17% of the time. He was good. It doesn't feel like it. But David Johnson was very good for fantasy purposes. The reason it doesn't feel like it, I think a huge part of that is...

That early season, we talk about it a lot, the early season stamp weighs heavier than it should. But we spend an entire offseason talking about guys, you're really excited for football. And if someone craps the bed in those first couple of weeks, you get upset about it. But David Johnson was very solid for fantasy purposes. He ended up with 46 targets. We don't know yet what's going to happen with Deshaun Watson.

Will he be back on the Houston Texans? Will he not? We don't know what's going to happen with David Johnson or Duke Johnson. If you take a look at their contracts, and I mean, you've got a whole new regime here in Houston. If you take a look at the contracts, both, either one of those guys, David or Duke, could be a cap casualty, creating a huge opportunity for fantasy. But with the world that he had last year,

David Johnson had enough volume. He had enough work in the passing game. Just don't forget about David Johnson. That's all I'm saying. He will not be a fun draft pick by any stretch of the imagination, but he might be just enough to just add some solid weight, some strength to your team. Sure. I could see that. He surprised me for how well he looked, how good he looked on the field.

He actually looked healthy, looked fast, he looked strong, all the things that we used to love about David Johnson. But since we don't know who his quarterback is, we don't know who his team is going to be. Obviously, he's under contract, but he's only a $2 million dead cap. And I feel like this team kind of, I could be wrong. But I think they regret the trade of DeAndre Hopkins for David Johnson. And that's kind of like this leftover, it's got that leftover stench. You know, it's like that food in the fridge that's been there too long. And you've got to, sometimes.

Like, it's delicious, but you got to throw it out because it's stinking up your house. So too much, I think, could change to know what to do with him for next year. All right, that's going to wrap it up for the truth about running backs. That means that next week we're going to be talking about some wide receivers keeping the truth series rolling. Thank you for listening to the podcast. We will see you next time. Stay safe, everybody. Goodbye.

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