Top 10 RB Rankings + Duke’s Out, Chubb’s Up

I do think that if Peyton's coming out and saying he's going to play the same role, that validates our value glance at Latavius Murray, does it not? Yeah. There's a role carved out for Latavius. And it's not Camara's role, and Camer's role is not that role. Yeah, certainly. I mean, Latavius Murray is going to be in the Mark Ingraham role, which has always been.

Good for fantasy over the last couple of years, certainly for where he's being drafted. But Camara is the guy. And if Latavius Murray is a little bit less effective than Ingram, then Camara will get a few more touches in a game. And whenever he gets a few more touches, I mean, you saw that when Ingram was out first four weeks last year. Not only was Alvin Camara, the number one running back over those first four weeks, but he was the number one running back, three of those four.

first four weeks. He was dominant. He was on another level. He can certainly do that. All right. Let's talk about Zeke. Ezekiel Elliott. Cowboys running back. Extraordinaire. Mike and Jason. Maybe. Both have them at four. I got him at two still. Last year in 15 games, 304 carries. 77 reception. I want.

I want Zeke's so bad. Like, he's my number one. I want, Brooks, can we, can we please get that specific soundbite carved out for social media? Thirsty. I'm just telling, like, like, settle down. Look, think about all the arguments we've been making. Sayquan. Oh, ho. Kitty Elliott here. Look, look, sayquan.

has the talent and the volume, but he's on a bad team. Camara has the talent, but he doesn't get the volume. Christian McCaffer, you know, it's like, but Zeke has all of it because he's finally a pass catcher. Last year, after Mari Cooper got there, he was basically pacing with Christian McCaffrey and targets, which is incredible. And I think Zeke is just the way that I said Christian McCaffrey is the best pass catching running back. I think Zeke is the best pure running back.

in the NFL. It all comes together. I was so excited to make him my 101. He's easily, I think, the best pick in fantasy if he plays 16 games. Just say, just get on the field and play football. Now, I mean, that's a lot of work. 381 touches last year. Do you, I mean, the team is raving about Tony Pollard.

Dak is raving about him. Is there a chance that if he's on the field, Pollard steals some of that illustrious target total? It's funny because you said, Zeke's a pass catcher now. And to me, that felt like an upgrade in a video game that you don't get to take away. But you can take it away. I mean, you can take away what he did last year if you want to keep him off the field or whatever the case may be. So maybe talk to me a little bit about that fear and then a little bit about whether you actually expect him there on week one.

Go ahead, Jay. So the fear of Tony Pollard, I think that they're going to use him, you know, in more of that Tavon Austin role. And obviously Tony Pollard will be very involved if Zeeke isn't out there. I still fully expect Zeeke to be there week one right now. I did move him down to number four because last year was a great indication. No matter what you think is going to happen, until a player is there, they're not. And so you have to treat him as it's incredible in sight.

Deep wisdom from Jack Handy. And the reality is, you know, these things can blow up quickly. I mean, for the worst. That's what happened with Love Bell. A report came out where the teammates were talking trash. And then Lev Bell's feelings got hurt. And it was like, okay, I'm not coming in. And it was like, and the whole thing blew up. And I think Zeke has shown tendencies that...

could mirror that. So I, I, I certainly was crazy. Yes. The target jump was 38, 39, 95. Yes. Yes. Yes. And not just 95. Because if you, if you realize what happened when, you know, they had their by week, they changed the offense. And Amari Cooper came. He was on 123 target pace, which is, I don't expect. No, I don't either. It gets you more hot and bothered.

It just gets me more hot and bother. That's exactly right. To your point, Andy, Tony Pollard does have pass catching in his college production profile. I mean, last year, he was teammates with Daryl Henderson, and he put up 39 receptions to Henderson. That's a lot in college. That is a whole lot. Six foot, 215, a lot of hype out of camp. Then again, I mean, if I were Jerry Jones, I'd be putting all the hype on Tony Pollard out that I could. But they say, you know,

the most exciting player at camp. Yeah, of course. But then here's what you need, the context, right? Let's say Zeke is back week one. It's probably on the back of a whole lot of money. No, you're right. And they're going to be like, okay, get him back out there. And the team is just better. If Zeke can do everything and you don't know what's going to happen and you bring Pollard out, oh, well, they're going to pass the ball. And here's an area of positive regression for Zeke. Should the pass catching come down?

Last year, he averaged a touchdown every 50 attempts. 50. You average out his first two years. It was every 38 attempts. And I believe in their offense. We talked about this yesterday on the show, right? Kellen Moore, they were a bottom third offense last year. Yeah. And his rookie year was every 21 and a half attempts per touchdown. I don't think he can get to that level. But you get down to that 38 mark, that's a huge amount of touchdowns for a guy.

an increase of touchdowns for a player who should carry the ball over 300 times. And they're getting Travis Frederick back, one of the best, not the best center in the NFL right now. I mean, we don't know how he'll be coming back off of, you know, his. So they have another lineman banged up right now, Brooks? Zach Martin was hurt, but I don't know the exact. Yeah. Why don't you look at that, Brooks? I think he's okay. Yeah, I'll double check that. David Johnson comes in at number five. I have him at six. Jason and Mike haven't at five.

Zach Martin doesn't expect to miss much time. Last year, David Johnson, I asked on the live show, I asked fantasy owners to forgive him because Mike McCoy, what he did to David Johnson was inhumane. You guys remember back in the early 90s? We had the FBI's Most Wanted. We had that TV show. Yeah. Oh, certainly. Yeah, Mike McCoy earned a number 10 spot on that list. Yes. It wasn't good.

I mean, it was bad. They ran him right up the middle. They didn't target him. He was the number one pass catcher in football two years ago. People need to forgive him, but the burns are real with David Johnson. I believe that this year, at a minimum, the pace of play change will afford David Johnson more opportunities, and more opportunities is all he needs. Last year, just 50 receptions. That number can't stay the same to validate a top five finish.

But I don't think it will. He's just too valuable in the passing game. Right now it feels a lot around Cardinal camp. It feels like it's, you know, Kyler's going to throw it to Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk and blank. I mean, there's not another guy emerging. And the guys that are there to emerge are rookies. David Johnson is going to be used in the passing game. And this offense is going to run more plays.

At a minimum, even if they're not the best team in the league at doing so. Yeah, I don't expect him to go back to the days of the 2016 touchdown totals where the Cardinals were one of the highest scoring teams in the NFL. They still have a rookie quarterback. You have to keep that in mind. No matter how excited you are at the prospects of Kyler and his fantasy goodness with rushing, I don't think he is going to be that running back one overall due to touchdowns.

The sheer pace, the sheer number of plays run last year versus this year, last year where he was the running back 10, there will be an increase and it's going to be so much more creative in space. David Johnson was a wide receiver in college that converted to running back. That's why he's so good at it. They will utilize that. You know that from Cliff Kingsbury in college. He always targeted the halfback. He was, I believe, top five in all of college football at that during his time.

So it's a perfect marriage, and I think he deserves to be at the number five spot. There's no question to me after the top four. That's where the break is, right? Those top four guys are unbelievable. You're at the five spot. To me, it's clearly David Johnson. All right, number six is Todd Gurley. That's where you would go at five, right? Correct. Yeah, Todd Gurley, I haven't at five. Jason, you haven't been eight. Mike at seven. Oh, voice of public opinion.

Have you heard that Todd Gurley's got a pretty bad knee injury? What? Yeah. Oh, no, I'll move them. I'll move them down. It's not actually an injury. It's a condition. Condition. Thank you. I believe, look, talk out of camp is that Gurley looks explosive. Efficiency will not be a problem for the running back in the Los Angeles Rams offense. Correct. So Gurley does not have to.

put up the kind of volume numbers that you're going to get from Saquan Barclay for him to still be in that Camara type of category. I'm warming on Todd Gurley. You cannot say a thing about him without acknowledging openly the risk. You know how you have to sign a waiver? I feel like when you drive Gurley as a fantasy owner, they need to bring out a waiver for you to sign saying, I acknowledge that at any moment in time, Todd Gurley may disappear due to unforeseen swelling.

I may be in a bad mood after that. Whatever needs to be on the waiver, you've got to sign that when you draft him. But the thing is, is right now in a lot of drafts he's slipping into the second round. So if you're at the turn and you can grab a top tier, if you can go Julio Jones, Todd Gurley to start your draft, which people can do right now, the risk is worth the reward to me to secure a guy that as long as he's healthy, to me is a top 10 running back. When it comes to touchdowns, Todd Gurley has not been good.

He's been otherworldly. So since McVeigh's been there, the last two years, his 16-game pace average, taking both years in, do you know his 16-game pace total touchdown numbers? 23. So, yeah, Alvin Camero got 14 rushing, and you're like, but he doesn't have enough volume in this offense.

It is very feasible that Todd Gurley can get 14 rushing touchdowns instead of his 17 he had last year. He could take every other game off and still hit 14. So it is one of those where I think Todd Gurley when he's out there is going to be a top five back. I do believe that. I don't think he's going to drop down to being a terrible back. The reason that I'm more down on him is the risk of, okay, he's killing it. He's crushing it. Week one, week two, looks great. The knee swells after practice.

Now they need to give him time up. Now they need to rest him. We just, we saw that last year. They've been babing him so much. We're not going to see him in preseason. So look, it could all be smoke. It could all be, you know, for nothing. And he is fine. But the roster moves that the Rams have made bringing in Daryl Henderson, Darnel Anderson, and, you know, Malcolm Brown, who's the actual backup. Yes. Say that.

They're concerned enough to say, we need a backup plan at the least, if not an ever-game Batman and Robin plan. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's massive risk there. Number seven, Levy on Bell. Lev Bell, question marks, changing teams, returning from a year off, a year just to reflect and to think about things. Is it going to look good and green?

is the question that people have. Well, yes. I've seen it. He's a great color for him. What do you think of the new jets? Uniforms. No, I'm all about it. You like them? I'm undecided when I first saw them. I was like, eh, they just kind of were plain. Yeah. Oh, they certainly are. But I don't know. That doesn't bother me that they're plain. They just made me, you know. They are clean. The problem is it didn't hot and bother me, Mike. And I want to be hot and bothered by these uniforms. Yes, like Zeke.

I just want the NFL to bring back to Kelly Green, Philadelphia Eagles. That's all I want. That's all I want in this life. That's it. It's a noble goal. I would aim a little higher, but live your life. The last time we saw Lev Bell, he was okay. 321 carries for 1,300 yards, nine touchdowns, 85 receptions for 655 yards and two touchdowns. I do believe.

in the dark horse New York Jets. I do. I believe in Sam Darnold's progression and evolution. I say whatever you want about Adam Gays. Okay. Many things can be said. Which you will, mismanagement of running backs, things like that. But this team, they can't be more committed to two players than they are with Sam Darnold and Levion Bell.