Early RB Rankings Part 2 + Champion Challenge - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/14

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He made me sad last year. I really thought he could have just an absolute monster season. He missed three games from injury, but to come through with only eight rushing touchdowns, it felt like a season that Nick Chubb should have just truly dominated that statistic. Finish the RB 11, one of the players that can dominate in the NFL and yet not dominate for fantasy.

You can put up 1,200 plus rushing yards, eight touchdowns, but isn't involved in the passing game, won't be. Kareem Hunt has a role carved out there. He's a tackle breaker. He's one of the best pure runners in the league, but I think you're going to have fatigue here too. Sure. And I think it's not just fatigue. It's like he's good, not great for fantasy. And his sophomore season, he.

He was the running back seven. But again, only eight rushing touchdowns. He's had eight rushing touchdowns and three out of his four years. Had the 12 rushing touchdowns two years ago where he seemed like he was on his way, but then only played in the 12 games. And now with him, like Kareem Hunt is the pass catcher. And, you know, Deerness Johnson, it seems like they're going to bring him back.

You have Deshawn Watson coming in as the franchise quarterback. And in three full years as a starter, in Houston, Deshaun Watson threw to the running back position under 15% of the time, which was dead last in the NFL for those three years. Like, that's a big concern. And we know why. Watson's a scrambler. He's always looking to take the shot down the field. He doesn't want to check it down. And if he's, he'd rather run if he's not going to.

He'd rather run instead of checking it down. So there's a lot of issues here for Nick Chubb with the platoon, with no targets. They should score a lot more with Deshaun Watson. But then again, what's the suspension situation for Deshaun Watson? There's a lot of variables and unknowns here for Nick Chub. Well, and you would anticipate with a $230 million guaranteed investment that you might let that player throw more than the...

Baker Mayfield experience and that type of system. That's part of it, right? I think that if you had dropped Derek Henry onto the Cleveland Browns last year with Baker Mayfield in their offense, he would have produced a 228 for 1259 and 8 number. I think Nick Chubb has been hurt by not being able to function in a real play action pass offense where there's a real threat.

to drive the ball down the field because Baker didn't represent that. So in a perfect world, the best case scenario for Nick Chubb is Deshaun Watson plays the majority of the year and you've got a 15 touchdown season on the ground. That's not impossible. You know, is Nick Chub better than James Connor? As a player? Yes. Yeah, tremendously, right? Yes. James Connor was what, the RB3? Is that number right? RB5. RB5. Oh, you idiots. I know.

That's my point, though. If the Cleveland Brown's offense becomes effective to the degree of the Arizona Cardinals, which is not a far cry for Deshaun Watson to be able to take it, you're going to need those touchdowns. But they could come, but they're not going to come in the passing game. They never have, they never will. Antonio Gibson, commanders running back. Now, Mike, we are turning the page. This is a conversation about the next season of fantasy football. Yep.

Historically, Antonio Gibson has been your champion. Now, everybody knows the champion rules. You must renew your contract once per season with a champion. So they don't stay your champion for life. They must be renewed. So I am coming to you now on this show to ask you whether or not he is still your champion. Well.

He'll always be the champion of my heart. That's the lifetime contract. That has been signed. That sounds like the kind of conversation you have with an employer you're about to let go. You'll always be hired in my heart. I just need to have a new champion. That's all. Is this a retirement? No, it is certainly not a retirement. Antonio Gibson is a great player. My thoughts on Carson Wentz are.

Well documented over the course of this podcast, Carson Wentz, like Deshaun Watson, doesn't throw to the running back position a lot. J.D. McKissick smooches is back with a vengeance. I'm waiting. Oh, wait, you win me? I was. No, I don't want it to happen, but I know it's going to happen. You're taking the fun out of me interrupting you, though. Oh.

Fun for who? Perfection. Yeah. And Antonio Gibson, you know, over the first half of the season, he was okay. It was, you'd call it worse than okay. Yeah, okay, you're slightly disappointed. Where, you know, over weeks one through eight, running back 19 in total points. That's not great. That's not getting it done. And then.

McKissick goes down. He starts getting a whole bunch of targets, which, to be fair, to Antonio Gibson, he was getting more targets than in the first half of the season than he was the previous year. But when you, for that brief window of time that J.D. McKissick was a Buffalo bill, it felt like all of the hullabaloo, all of, and not driven just by fantasy analysts, all, like.

The coaching staff of the manders kept talking about, well, yeah, we could see Antonio Gibson being a Christian McCaffrey type of player. See, that's the problem. Can't we just accept the different type of ceiling for Antonio Gibson? Yes. That's the key to this, because he finished as the RB 10 despite the ups and downs last year, despite J.D. McKissett, despite nobody a quarterback, finishes RB10. Can we just accept that I think everybody wanted.

to believe that Antonio Gibson had perennial top three ability. Yes, we did. So why not just move him down a peg and just accept that he's more, I don't know, Josh Jacobs ceiling than somebody else? And that's where we have it. We have him at running back 15. Oh, that's got to hurt. It does. And the dude has finished at running back 12 and running back 10. Yeah. He's been incredible when the opportunity presents itself.

You also have some offensive line changes, shuffling, and that's not necessarily a great thing. So Antonio Gibson is still solid, but seeing the ceiling that I have hoped for for the past two years. It's not happening at least this year. I do have the official champion test with me. Do you want me to run through it? It's only a single question on the test to determine whether or not he's still your champion. Okay.

Would you play me or Leonard Fournette? That's the question. That's the only question on the test. That's gross. So if you answer Leonard Fornett, they unfortunately are removed as your official champion. Okay, so let's move on to David Montgomery. Okay. David Montgomery of the Chicago Bears, just under 25 years old, missed a bunch of games last year, still ended up with 51 targets, 42 receptions.

Now, this one is extremely interesting to me because you and Jason have, in these early rankings, you have David Montgomery, I have a 15. I'm down at 21. I am going to, he'll be sliding down to your range soon enough. I say you, the way that you, your inkling of the way that the things are going for the Chicago Bears. It's the, it's the James, it's the James Robinson universe, though, for David Montgomery. He is literally their best player on both sides of the ball.

I think. He's a good player. I think he's their best player. He, so by way of no other choice, like you're not getting anywhere with the Pringle Mooney offense, I'm afraid to say. So I think by sheer volume, right, even after he came back from injury last year, they literally said, well, we have no choice but to use you. 86% of the time with the running back rush attempts. This was coming back after a run.

for his backup whose name's escaping. What, Khalil Herbert? Kalil Herbert? Right, who had a nice run during the season. So when you talk about talent, he's their most talented player. And that's why I think he could still happily end up in that range. I think on pure talent, he's a very good player. Catch the football. So 74% of the running back targets. But I do think the Bears suck and are going to be really, really bad. And I am really sorry because I know Bears fans.

will not like hearing they're working on something they're they're work you might be murdered by the end of the show they're working on something for future seasons yes and unfortunately i think it might it might take just and feels down with it because this is something that happens right if you're rebuilding for two years and he's your tribute like he might not be their future so that is not who we're talking about though you got a new head coach

You've got a team that has jettisoned away a lot of talent. And so they could surprise me. I think their win total is six and a half, Kyle? It's seven. But it's been bet down. It's been bet down. Yeah. So I don't know, Mike. Does David Montgomery, what's his highest possible finish in your mind? The highest possible finish for Montgomery would be that running back 12 area. And the questions of the new coaching staff, like Montgomery.

You know, Matt and Aggie seemed to love David Montgomery. True. This new coaching staff was, do they share that affection for David Montgomery? No choice. Do they, well, no, like, Khalil Herbert is. He could have some of the load, you're saying. More of a committee. That's the thing to watch is Kalil Herbert had just a handful of games, but I believe one was against the Buccaneers last year who were an elite run.