Fantasy Football 2018 - The TRUTH About Fantasy RBs in 2017, Part 2

taking advantage of the bottom half defenses. Well, he just got paid. He is young, and I think you look at this as just a down year. Moving forward. To be fair for Devante Freeman, he missed two games. Right. And if you, I don't mind pro rating out over 14 games with a guy who has his consistent level. His rushing numbers in 16 games would be very comparable.

to what he put up the past two years, attempts and yards, maybe down a little bit on the touchdowns. And the receiving would be close to last year. That's where things were huge for him in the previous two years, 73 receptions, 54 receptions. So that has come down under Sarkesian. And also the, what has come down under Sarkesian is the level of.

intuitive and smart play calling around the goal line where you have one of the best goal line backs in the league over the past few years and you go, well, we're going to run this little tricky play and then flip it to Tehran Ward, they'll never see it coming. Because it's- Taran Ward didn't see it coming. 36 receptions is troubling because you counted on that from him. And like you said, that's something where you can look at Sarkeesian and say, well, that might be something that changes.

Maybe they're not using them the same way that you'd hope they would. It's interesting because Freeman, McCaffrey, and then this next guy, Dionne Lewis at 14. I mean, Lewis has very similar numbers to Devonta Freeman this year. But the draft capital, what you invested in the player is not in the same stratosphere. I mean, Dionne Lewis was 100, he had 180 carries for 896 yards and six touchdowns, 32 receptions for 2.14 and 3. He wasn't as consistent as Devonta Freeman.

But he also wasn't as established in that offense. Yeah, it took some time. You had James White, who really carried the load for them over the first quarter of the year and then kind of got washed out. You also had Mike Gilsey who started a few games and then he was benched with Rex Burkhead's return. And Lewis had to kind of get back into game shape from previous years injuries, but he played 16 games. He only busted 25% of the time. And most of that was early. He was pretty darn good. Yeah. If you look at.

I mean, he's one of these guys where Dionne Lewis was actually really consistent once his role was established. He came in. Everyone remembers week one. Who's it going to be? Oh, you know who it's going to be. It's going to be. Mike Gillisley. He's the guy to have for the Patriots backfield. I thought it was Burkhead. Did Burkhead get the first snap? Yes, the first snap. And then it was all the debate. The tilt. The point is it looked like it wasn't Dionne Lewis. It looked like they had signed two new guys and they weren't sure about Deon Lewis's health. But as the season went on,

They realized their best back is Dionne Lewis. The other guys got injured, and he has done what he did. He's just more versatile than all of them. First half of the year. First half of the year, because they had a buy week right in, right at week nine. First eight weeks, Dionne Lewis averaged 6.2 fantasy points. He basically wasn't used as a fantasy capable running back. He wasn't given the opportunity. After that by week, 16 point.

three on average, which is fantastic. So he was consistent there. The issue with him now is always the Patriots. Yes. Are they going, what, who's going to, who's it going to be week one next year? And also, he's not under contract. He's an unrestricted free agent. So you don't even know where he's going to be right now. Yeah. You can look at, you can see the change in the box score for Dionne Lewis. The first five weeks, never over double digit carries.

The remainder of the season only once under double-digit carries and put him on pace for 234 attempts once they finally started using him in week six. I'm with Jason that it'll be interesting to see what he does. I have this feeling that Dionne Lewis will be back, and Rex Burkett is the wild card, I think, for the Patriots running game, because Rex Burkett was a one-year contract.

Will they try and bring him back and go move forward with Lewis, Burkhead, and White? Interesting. Duke Johnson, 15th in rank 15th in consistency, kind of lost in the Brown cloud, so to speak. 16 games, really a wide receiver. Only 82 carries on the year, but 74 receptions for 693 yards and three touchdowns. He was never great.

They never had a great week. That's exactly why. The top five week. Duke Johnson never got the credit that you think the 15th ranked running back should get. But he just was, you would plug him in. You'd feel, eh, I'd feel okay about this. But just a never, never a great game is unfortunate that we didn't get an explosion. He, Crowell was relinquished to fantasy waiver wire fodder.

31st is where Crowell finished, just for the record. I was going to bring him up because he got a lot of publicity in the preseason from myself as well because of the improvements of the offensive line. Well, and the coach. Yeah, and the coach. But what happened was what always happens. They're losing games. They were winless on the year. And when you're down, you don't get to commit to the run. You pass the ball in 74 receptions to a very capable pass catching back. You know, Duke Johnson is a tough case moving forward.

Yeah, he really is because you have so much change on that team. You expect there to be a new quarterback. The one thing that won't change, though, and it does give me hope to draft Duke Johnson late again. Duke Johnson, despite finishing 11th in PPR leagues, he's still going to fall in drafts because he never had those big monster games. The one thing that we know will stay the same is that the Browns will be bad. And so they will be down and they will be losing. I have a new idea, by the way. They will need a pass catching back.

I wanted to bring this up, and we're talking about the Browns. I think they should draft. Get this. Two quarterbacks. I've heard this theory before, too. Have you? I thought about it this morning, because you always hear about, you know, Josh Allen and then Saquan Barclay at one and four. I think you draft two of them. Give yourself a shot. Dude. Let two of them compete against each other. A quarterback is so important. Don't mess it up. I know what I would do. I would go hard in the paint.

after Alex Smith, and I would use those first two picks on defense and actually have a team. Because I promise you this, if they grab, if they had the first five picks and they drafted the top five quarterbacks, then all fail. The thing about Saquan Barclay, though, is that you've seen Fournette, Ezekieli, instant contenders when you bring in a guy like that. That's who they probably should draft. I just thought it would be funny to just stack them up.

Just let them compete with each other. You could then trade one away later on if you need to. Back to dude. It's outlandish. I realize that. No, no. I like it. I don't think it's a terrible idea. I think it's there's some smarts behind it. For Duke Johnson, the problem though with Duke Johnson is, I mean, when you're finally thinking about it, okay, you got him on your bench. I can plug him in. That's when you get wrapped up in, well, there's this waiver wire guy who's.

producing solid numbers and you want to play them over Duke Johnson. So do you have some comfort Jason you were saying? Yeah. Duke Johnson is just I don't know if I look Duke Johnson is theoretic. That's he's one of these guys where.

If you need to drop them, you can, but I usually don't ever drop a startable running back. I'll stash them on my team. I'll use them as a flex week, a bi-week guy. If I don't like my matchups, I'll plug him in for, you know, around those 10 points. You're never excited. You were never excited to play him. No. But you could. You could play him. He didn't really fail you. He just didn't win you weeks. Lamar Miller only won you one week. He was a bust 19% of the time. Good 50% of the time. Consistency rank of 21st.

After finishing the year at 16 overall, 238 carries, three touchdowns on the ground, had three touchdowns through the air on only 36 catches. And his case is interesting, too. You had a season with Deshaun Watson. Obviously, a running back is going to perform better when the team is in the red zone. And that's when his great game came. But what's left in the tank? I mean, this team showed a willingness to play Alfred Blue over Lamar Miller at times. You had Deonti Foreman.

who I think would have had more and more opportunities towards the end of the year had he not been injured. And Lamar Miller is just kind of there. Lamar Miller is there. That would be the best way to put it. Probably will be what round do you think he goes?

I want to see if he's even on the Houston Texas. Right. Yeah. Will you look up his contract situation? Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they did move on. But if he is back and he's their number one running back, he'll probably go in the third round. And he belongs there. The reality is if he is back, he's still not too old. And when he had Watson.

He was actually really good. You look at, you know, his splits the first half of the year, which was with Watson, say, before week nine, he was 13.8 on average. He was okay. After that, from that point on, he averaged 8.9 points a game while, you know, it was pretty much just the DeAndre Hopkins show. We're down. We can't run the ball. So this is a situation where I...

It's a matter of if he is back as the starter, I think he will be okay. He'll be what you saw the first half of the year, which is not something special. He really does not look great. Like just studying film, watching. He never does anything that impresses me. And I was the Lamar Miller truth. He's at the bottom of the league for yards after contact again. Exactly. I mean, he never. But he did look. In those games with Watson, he had juice. He had like, I care again. It was kind of like what you saw with.

with Todd Gurley in 2016, where it just looked like he just didn't care. He's just, I don't want to try harder because these guys are always behind the line and our team sucks. The factors for me are Deonti Foreman. It was a torn Achilles in week 11. He could be ready.

Probably won't be. To start the year, but that's a tough injury to come back for him, especially that late in the season. Certainly can't bank on him to be your starting next year. Absolutely. The contract situation for Lamar Miller, if they cut him, it would be $2 million in dead cap, but they would save $4.75 million in space. They'll probably keep them. All right, I want to move through some of these names a little quicker. C.J. Anderson, 17th, you know, by the end of the year, finished strong. Consistency rank was only 31st, though.

He busted 44% of the time. So almost half the time you put C.J. Anderson in your lineup, you walked away with a frowny face. Oh, you felt it too all year. To play him on the right weeks was near impossible, except at the very end of the year when it became apparent there giving him the ball. But you look at his game line, it's like, oh, he scores 28 points, then 5, then 13, then 1. I mean, he destroyed you if you tried to play him.

In my dynasty league, I tried to play him. Yeah, unfortunately, even if you're like my two colleagues who believe in the talent of C.J. Anderson, when push came to shove, you could not lean on him in any way, shape, or form this year. It'll be interesting to see what happens when they get a quarterback in Denver and what they do in the draft. You have Devante Booker there. You had Jamal Charles there. But I wouldn't be surprised if they brought a free agent in to compete. They may. But Anderson was...

That's what he was. 31st most consistent, 17th best. Three out of the first four weeks, you started Anderson. You were very, very happy. The problem was the middle of the season drought was very long. We're not talking Kareem Hunt was you could still play him. You were getting devastated. You never knew when to play him until about the final month of the season. I don't know what the Denver Broncos are going to do with CG Anderson. He could be a cap casualty.

I still, like Andy said, I still strongly believe in the talent of C.J. Anderson. And he made it. He made it all 16. He did it. Sure. Sure. Took some time off in the middle. Well, yeah, a little bit. Alex Collins was number 18, a waiver, wire wonder. Alex Collins, 18th in fantasy productions, 26th on the consistency charts.

He busted 33% of the time, was good 40% of the time and was great 13% of time. So that's a pair of games in which he won you a week because he had such a great performance. Almost 1,000 yards on 212 carries, 6 touchdowns and then caught 23 balls. Did not play as well against good defenses. He was down 5.3 fantasy points against good defenses. Some of that, though. And did not get the boat of confidence from John Harbaugh.