RB Rankings Part Two + Bag O' Money, Time After Time - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/10

It's in the back of your head. You can't think of Nick Chub without hearing Cream Hunt, you know, running onto the field in the back of your head. But the inefficiency at the touchdown, you know, with the touchdowns over the second half of the year was so bad that I think it also unfairly distorts Nick Chub's season. Like this was a top five type of season if the touchdowns came. In fact, even in the first half of the year, he's on a 1,600-yard...

you know, 13 touchdown pace until it just drops off in the second half. He scored two rushing touchdowns in the second half of the season. Like that's, that seems impossible. It's preposterous for the amount of touches and yards that he was still getting. He was getting the same as Christian McCaffrey was getting in opportunities inside of the red zone. He just literally, he got up to the line and took a knee.

Right. But the fear... Actually, his offensive lineman, like, pushed his knee down to the ground. The defense just magically appeared. The fear, though, is that second half when, and not just the second half of the year, specifically from week 10 on, when Kareem Hunt was on the field. At that point, the touchdowns didn't come. The usage was still there for him to be great, but what we saw was the running back 15. And at the same time, over those same games and half point scoring,

Kareem Hunt was the running back 19. So he wasn't that much behind him. And so that's where the fear comes. People are like, well, he doesn't catch passes. So if the game script gets bad, I don't usually like a non-pass catching running back. And what if the utilization is lower due to Kareem Hunt? But I think what we believe is that Chubb's talent requires a heavy workload. You can't run a team that has Chubb on it and not give him.

a ton of opportunities to help your team, you know, just on the field. So the talent and the opportunity will be there for Chuck. And it's a different play caller. This is a different regime now running the Cleveland Browns. You have Kevin Stefanski coming down from Minnesota who loved him some runs. He didn't allow Kirk Cousers to throw the ball hardly at all. He's going to, in my opinion, do something very similar of limit.

the opportunities that Baker Mayfield has, and he's going to force feed the running backs. And I like Kareem Hunt a lot, but I still believe that Nick Chubb is the primary benefactor from this. I mean, we're talking about with and without Kreme Hunt difference in pace of 1,382 yards rushing versus 1,600 yards resting. 1,300, what a loser. And if you believe. What? Why?

What was that accent? Have you been heckled in that tone of voice before? Jason, what you were like? Jason. It was like Swedish. I was the Swedish chef. It was, uh, you don't know what you're talking about. Big sum of a blowout. But this is what I mean about like it's getting, it's putting a bit of a haze around Nick Chubb that I don't think belongs there. They 288 carry pace versus 306. I mean, this is a player. I believe Nick Chub can finish as the number one overall running back in fantasy.

I believe he's one of the players that can do that. And if you believe, like Mike does, that Baker has a bounce back, that this offense has a bounce back, that there are more scoring opportunities. And the law of averages, for a player that got more opportunities inside the five than anybody, except for Christian McCaffrey, persists, there is a world where, like, Nick Chubb is in the 15 touchdown world. He's in the 16 touchdown world. And then all of a sudden he's Derek Henry. He's not, you know. Nick Chub. And so Kareem Hunt's going to be a big part of the offense, but I don't want people to, you know, if you take.

Nick Chubb and you get him, you know, in the second round, that's a steal to me. I think that there's an opportunity there. It's nice because you, right now where, you know, you're drafting him, you can get him as you're running back too. You know what I mean? We've seen that quite a lot where he falls into that second round and you can go running back, running back. I am not as bullish if I'm going to draft him as my running back one. I know I've got him right now as RB10, but because of the,

lack of pass catching and the consistency that I want. You know, you look at that second half of the year where it was like he was the running back 24, 26, 12, great, 27, 5, great, 34. It was kind of back and forth because he didn't have the baseline of receptions. I only want Chubb as my RB2. Sure. Yeah, and I feel like we're in a situation here that we're in with like the Rams, the back half of the year. How much of the end of last year, how much of that recency?

is prescriptive with the new head coaching staff and how much isn't. And people don't know because the team was falling apart at the same time. I think Nick Chubb's going to run all over everybody. I have them too low. Yeah. Yeah. When the offseason started, he was higher on everybody's board. Yeah. And then over the course of the off season, he doesn't... You start letting the doubt creep in. Yeah. Yeah. So, and obviously you believe in Baker rebounding, and I'm starting to...

And the offensive line. The offensive line is. That's exactly what it is. You have an offensive line reconstructed, projected to be great. You have a play caller who wants to run the ball. You have Nick Chubb who is a top five talent at the running back position. When it comes to running, the formula is there for success. And I'm going to stop doubting it.

Joe Mixon at 13. Speaking of doubt. Joe Mason comes in at number 13 on our consensus rankings. I have a 9, Jason at 12, Mike at 14. He was absolutely unstoppable over the second half of the season. The first half, very stoppable. Super stoppable. One of the most stoppable running bags. It was in fact droppable for fantasy football. Well, he just, he had a couple games where he had what?

two or three carries or something of that nature. Like he was barely utilized. But this is a team that I actually believe is going to be better than people think. I think Cincinnati's going to be much improved with Joe Burrow and AJ Green returning and their offensive linemen that they basically, you know, they drafted him and he couldn't play and he comes back. And so now we're in a situation where how much of a step forward is Joe Burrow for this offense? You know, you talk about end of season, talking about Nick Chubb, if you take the last

Eight games of Joe Mixon, he was one of the best in football. So where are you guys with his, I guess, ceiling and floor in Cincinnati? You know, look, he's a very talented running back. He can catch the ball even though they didn't pass it to him a lot this last year. And the coaching staff has said they want to utilize him, get him more involved in the passing game. Really, if you look at the...

the tail of the two halves last year, you had a real difference in opportunities. The second half of the year, he was on pace for 394 total opportunities. That's targets plus carries. Whereas before that, he was on pace for 252. So you're talking about 152 more opportunities. And so when I look at this team and I try to figure out, okay, what does Zach Taylor want to do? One, he learned.

that Joe Mixon was really talented, needed to get the ball more. Great. But also, he kind of had to give Joe Mixon the ball more as time went on, as the receiving core got injured, as the quarterback was having problems in Dalton, and you're going to backups, and you're like, my only consistency here is Joe Mixon. So I think he lands in between those numbers when it comes to carries. I don't believe that the second half,

of Joe Mixon's season where he was, you know, on pace for almost 400 touches is going to happen in 2020. But he is good enough. And he is the, he is the, you know, the workhorseback for this team where I see him as a low-end RB1. I'm not super bullish on him. I don't think that Burrow is going to turn this team around in his rookie season. So I guess I, when I look at him,

I have my doubts. I certainly don't want to bank on Joe Mixon's second half of last year as prescriptive for success this year. Yeah, I was super impressed with him over the back half of the year because everybody knew that they had no quarterback. And he was playing teams like Pittsburgh and New England that, you know, you shouldn't be able to go out and do anything against when everybody knows you're the whole part of the offense. And week eight on, 1,600-yard pace. It's not like he wasn't great the year before. People forget that.

So I'm a little more bullish. I think he has great potential this year. We'll move on. Austin Eccler. The final thing is there was a new quote from the Bengals O.C. Brian Callahan who said Joe Mixon is a volume carrier saying he gets better as he gets more carries. So regardless of it being true or not, if the team and the offensive coordinator believes that I get Joe Mixing the ball more and he gets better as the game goes along,

If they believe that, Mix is going to get more opportunities. 21.6 carries per game from week eight on. That's a lot of carries. Austin Eccler, coming in at number 14, 14 on my rankings, Jason's ranking. Oh. Mike has him at 11. I got a lot of, we'll call it guff early in the off season for not having him as an RB1. For our no guff policy? Right. Yes. But now I see that I'm not.

Not only do I have him not as an RB1, but it's the same exact ranking as you, Andy. Welcome. 14. But I think didn't you have him at like 17? Oh, three spots lower. I'm just saying you guys have met in the middle. Well, I imagine Clyde Edwards Aller had something to do with his ranking going down a spot. Sure. He jumped over him. I don't know if anybody else did. But Austin Echler, a lot more question marks around.

what to expect from him, then we do other running backs. And that's why he's at 14 on my list. It's all about risk. And Austin Echler had a tremendous season, 92 receptions for 9, 93, and 8. That was how he did his damage. Can he score eight more times through the air? That might be difficult. No, he cannot. Tyrod Taylor looks to be the quarterback for the foreseeable future. I think probably for a little while. The way the team talks about Tyrod.

The way that this offseason has progressed, the very limited amount of work that Justin Herbert is going to be able to receive, and the fact I think this team might surprise and have more wins than we think they will with that defense. I believe they will. And so if you are halfway through the season and this team is 500 or better, Herbert's not going to get on the field. Agreed. So in that case, it's going to be tie rod. It's going to be Echler. It's going to be Keenan Allen moving this offense forward. Melvin Gordon is gone. Now, the first half of the year, a lot spicier for Austin Echler last year than the back half.

in terms of the fantasy output. We knew Melvin Gordon wasn't there. So the real question is, is do you trust Austin Echler as an RB1 on your fantasy team? And do you believe that Justin Jackson slash Joshua Kelly is going to take enough of the early down work to relegate? Because if Echler gets 150 carries, we're having a down year from last year for sure. Go ahead, Jay. Yeah, I mean, because he's not going, I don't see a world where he gets a hundred. Mike just said that with the saddest voice I've ever heard. He just said,

Go ahead, Jay. Yeah, I'll dig the hole and then you can jump out of it, Mike. He's not going to get 108 receiving targets again. He's not going to get eight receiving touchdowns. So to me, I like Echler. I'm fine with him as my RB2. I told Mike earlier I've been rising on him because he's exceptionally talented. He's very talented and he does the things that matter for fantasy specifically. So.

That's why we call him awesome Echler. But we have to be realistic here in the sense that they're going to be a slower-paced team. They're going to check the ball down far less without Philip Rivers. And I don't believe that Austin Echler is going to be a 200-carried guy. If he is, the carries to me are what, you know, is actually going to be his fantasy relevance. If he gets 200 carries,

then he will absolutely be a top 12 running back. I think that this is a three-headed timeshare where each running back could end up in a hundred-carry count world. And if you have all three running backs involved, I just think that really hurts Austin Echler from getting on the field, getting the receptions that he needs. And so his upside is capped to me because of the offense. So that question about whether you feel comfortable as you're one? No. No.

He's my running back 14. I think I would feel skittish with him as my RB1. I know Mike wouldn't. I'd feel a little bit like, man, I don't have a prototypical guy here. I missed out on Nick Chubb by a pick who's going to have 288 carries, and then I'm going to go with Austin Eckler who might have 130 or 140. Sure. It comes down to what do you believe about the targets? Sure. The targets are more valuable. And when you're talking about checkdowns, Jay, like a dude who, a running back who.

in his career averages more than 10 yards per reception. That guy's not just getting checkdowns. He's also running out of the slot. He's running those fancy Kansas City wheel routes where he's getting deep receptions. It's not just, oh, crap, two minute offense, check it down to Austin Echler over and over. I do believe that when you give a player a bag, the size of the bag that they gave to Austin Echler.