Top 10 RB Rankings + Waller Watch, Target Goblins - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/11

If you saw the video of Rashad Bateman trying to leave the field where he just slowly went further down, went down to a stopped walking, went down to a knee, eventually laid down. It looked rough, so this is great news. Every muscle group. Yes, he did. Yeah, I don't know that I would describe it as great news in the sense that.

He's missing camp, missing preseason might not be ready for the start of the season. He's just not missing his whole rookie year. That's why it's great news. Sure. It's good. Cup half full, Jason. Days not weeks would have been better than weeks not day. Yeah. Maybe that would have been great. Hours, not days would have been better. And while we've been bringing up, you know, the Lizard King, Sammy Watkins, being kind of the last man standing, the truth is Mark Andrews is the actual.

Last Man Standing first target in that offense. So he gives me, I have a little bit more confidence in redraft leagues in that fifth round area. Here's a little bonus smokefire challenge here. Chris Mortensen reporting this morning, Carson Wins is trending to start week one after undergoing foot surgery at the beginning of August. Do you believe this? Well, given that the timeline was anywhere from now till the end of time.

Right. What they laid out for their expectations on the injury. This fits within that timeline? Five to 12 weeks. Chris Mortensen is a very respective reporter. So I'm going to take him at his word that this is really what he is hearing. Maybe Carson Wentz is not ready to go week one. But this is nice that it sounds like Carson Wentz will avoid going on the pop list, avoid missing an automatic six weeks. They're going to hold on to them. And maybe after, you know, by week three, we have.

Carson Wentz. And it brings me at least a little bit of hope for all of my offseason drafting of Michael Pittman. I just don't know how this would be possible. Like, how would you know this quick after the surgery that he's trending to be back on the shorter timeline? Like, what? It just, I, the report was Quentin Nelson, too.

Right, right. It's like both guys are looking great. But it's like a week after the surgery. They haven't tested anything. Like I don't, this is smoke to me. It's hopeful smoke. Like, oh, look how beautiful that smoke is. It's great looking. I'm sure they're sending, you know, messages. But I don't, I don't put stock in this. I'm not. That was a good smoke. Smoke signal joke. Yeah, it was a smoke signal joke. If I were a surgeon, this is what I would do. I would say, look.

Normal surgeons when they give this type of a repair, the recovery is five to 12 weeks. And then when the patient comes back in two weeks, like, I am the greatest surgeon alive. I have fantastic news for you. The ultimate under promise. Tell your friends. I don't think this smoke is as positive right now. Darren Waller missed, he's missed multiple days of practice. The quote from John Gruden, because there's no formal update.

The quote is, I think he's going to be okay. We're being very careful with him. I think he's working out very hard with the trainers. Johnny, I don't like that. You think he's going to be okay? When you talk about the different personality of coaches around the league and whether they're going to try to play the games and try to use everything to their advantage, they don't have to be honest. You know, some of these coaches, you watch and.

They're very forthright. It's basically same as in season. They'll tell you exactly what the injury is, what the timeline is. That scares me. Like, I would not trust him. Like, if he knew that Waller is going to be out the beginning of the season, he'd probably say, well, I think he's going to be okay. We're just being careful with him, you know? So I will say this. If I was drafting today, I would probably not take Waller in the third round. Really? I'm just, there's.

There's great players in the third, like great, phenomenal players in the third. Sure, but I get it. There's great players in the third, but there are not a bunch of elite tight ends. And sure, maybe you're saying pass and go to Mark Andrew Ridley, you know, and Darren Waller right there in the third. Why not let this split the difference? Yeah, exactly. So how many games would it take for, let's say Waller is going to miss two games?

Yeah, that's enough. That would be enough not only because of total games missed, but just the fact that if you are injured, there is always a chance for reaggravation. You know, if it turns out this was some kind of bigger hamstring pole or something, and he's back in week two. That doesn't mean he's, you know, at zero risk like someone who's healthy right now. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to read too much into the quote. But if I wanted to read too much into the quote, it would be.

We think he's going to be okay. We're trying the trainer route right now. Hopefully we don't have to do something else. T.J. Hawkinson, Lions Tid in, banged up during Tuesday's practice, exited early, undisclosed injury. We'll keep you posted. Zach Moss talked about him yesterday. Suffered a hamstring injury. Oh, man. Whoops. That's unfortunate. You had your time to shine. It was yesterday. Sean McDermott helping us all out, saying the bills are going to go one day at a time.

with the injury, which is really the only option he has. That's better than one week at a time. Okay. Am I right? Okay. All right. So this is great news. So campstering injury for Zach Moss. I believe that's it. Brooksie, do you got anything else? That's it for now. No other injuries during the news segment took place. Not that I know of. All right. Today's news and notes was brought to you, as always, by Sleeper. Sleeper is the largest dynasty platform out there. Customizable.

Do exactly what you want to do with your league. That's why we love Dynasty is you can, I don't know, you can do what you want. That's right. And you're playing all year long. And also my team is awesome. Your team is ridiculously awesome. I was talking to Jason late last night. I'm sorry, we're going to bring this up. I hate you. People wonder like, oh, are you guys friends? No, I hate Andy.

Now. Oh, we were great friends. We were great friends. Very thankful for him in my life. And then sometimes you regret trades. And he really regrets our dynasty trade. With the terrible one that I implied that he is an awful dynasty manager after the trade happened. That's the one. And late last night, I'm trying to talk about the company, some things that we got going on around here. I'm trying to really keep it on, you know, keep it on point. Keep the company going the right direction. Yeah. And.

Jason was clearly just tilting from the trade because he watched hard knocks. Oh, man, Zeke looks good. He does. He looks thin. He looks thin. He looks committed. Yeah, and I didn't like. Oh, man. He's on my team. I didn't like when he was on the screen. I didn't like watching him because I was like, oh, man, what have I done? So I came back to my Slack and he said, can you please?

reverse the trade. Can we trade back? He's a give me Zee back. Trade backsies. And I let him know that while I'm not willing to do that, A.J. Green is available. Oh, thank you. In our dynasty. In our dynasty league. I can, uh, he's, he's got several good games left. That's right. I just need to remember my. The best kind of dynasty. Days not weeks. Right. Yeah.

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footballers to start growing your savings. Go to Wellfront.com slash footballers and get started today. And before we jump into running back rankings, I have a question for Jason. Do you ever feel like you want to punch something? Oh, yeah, all the time. Pretty much last night watching Z. I was like, what if I die? I need to punch something. Fight camp brings the boxing and kickboxing gym right into your home. You can take out your bad trades right there. While getting fit. Imagine this.

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Half PPR rankings. These are our consensus ranks. If you want more detail beyond the podcast, all of the running back rankings, all of our projections, like the stat projections for each player, and our tiers, Ultimate DriveKit.com. Yeah, and there's a write-up on every single player, an outlook, short-term, long-term. Yeah, it's where all of our thoughts and details go. All right.

Jason said it at the top. The running back position is the most valuable pick in fantasy football. There are seasons from some of the top men that feel like you have two players. I mean, Christian McCaffrey, he's our number one back. He is two players if he plays the way he most recently played. Alvin Camer is in that category too, 80 plus receptions for four straight years. You're getting a running back and you're getting a wide receiver.

That being said, if you whiff, that hurts the most because you're investing the highest draft capital on these players at the top. And frankly, three, at least three of the top 10 will get injured or not retain their values. So you've got a, at minimum, over the last decade, three of the top 10 guys we talk about today aren't going to pan out either by, you know, chance, I would say, with the injuries or just not being the value we thought they were.

So Christian McCaffrey comes in at number one. We all have him at number one. He's a good football player. He is a tremendous football player that, I mean, you can try, maybe you want to ask the questions of, is Christian McCaffrey in the new system with Sam Darnel? Will it really be more of the same of what you saw two years ago from Christian McCaffrey? We only saw him in three games, but in those three games.

absolutely dominant, averaging about 25 opportunities per game. That's an unbelievable amount of usage for a running back. And he came through in a big way, scoring a rushing touchdown in each of those three games, two in his first two. I'd like to find a contrarian way to look at Christian McCaffrey, but I don't think I...

can really have an honest conversation with myself of say, like, is there a chance that Christian McCaffrey's work goes away? And it's, I don't think that exists. No, this regime is paying him a ton of money. We saw him used last year. The contrarian argument is one of two things, right? It's either, well, he spent all year last year injured, multiple injuries. Why are we drafting this guy this high?