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

of questions. Thank you. It's a barrel. I forgot you. You are familiar with the barrel term. Look, two years, $16 million. The question marks are just so outrageous of he has been an inefficient runner his entire career. Yes, teams view him as a guy who can handle the workload, be a true three-down running back, but he has made his fantasy points with touchdowns.

And he has made his fantasy points with receptions. Like looking at the Austin Echler situation of, oh, whoa, holy crap. You know, his targets are going to go way down. Why is that? Because he doesn't have Philip Rivers throwing him the ball anymore. Melvin Gordon also does not have Philip Rivers throwing him the ball. We saw a very small sample of Drew Locke. But in that small sample, it was, I don't throw to my running backs. And Philip Lindsay has been great for two years. A thousand-yard rusher.

both seasons, if I'm remembering that correctly. Meanwhile, you have Melvin Gordon who's done that one time. I know he has the money. The money says the Melvin Gordon's the guy. Because I think people don't realize this. Melvin Gordon was so tremendously good last year. He is, like you said, it's on the receiving area. Yeah. He had to contend with Austin Echler last year, still ends up the RB9 on a team that was going downhill to the point of drafting Justin Herbert in the first round.

RB 9 from week 7 on contending with Austin Eckler. I think the reason we're much higher than you is because we expect just about all the receiving work to go to Melvin Gordon in this office. Is that what you believe, Jason? Yeah, they've never utilized Philip Lindsay as a pass catching back. They brought in Melvin Gordon, I believe to be a more diverse skill set. I mean, they paid them a lot of money. And I think they know that they need that outlet for Drew Locke.

That is the difference here. It's just a matter of will he get the receptions or will he not? He has his entire career. He's being paid to do what he's done in the past. Not a great offensive line situation. I think that the team is better with Melvin Gordon. I really do. I know he's not efficient. But, you know, some players have a nose for the goal line and he always has. He's well-rounded. He can carry.

you know, a heavy workload. So I do think that they are moving on more from Phil Blenzie. Not that he's not going to be involved, but he's not the past catching guy, and he's not the goal line guy. And if Melvin Gordon is both of those things, then, you know, you might not love the offensive outlook. So does he get 250 touches, Mike? 250 total touches. Sure. So then it comes down to touchdowns.

Yeah. So we brought that stat up before where 95% of running backs over the last 25 years, when they hit 250 and eight touchdowns, that makes them top 15. Yeah. So does he get to eight? But is it, you know, is he averaging five targets a game like he did last year? Yeah, I mean that. To me, the answer is a resounding no. Right. But if he gets 250 touches overall, that's going to do enough damage to probably have him higher than where you have him ranked right now. Melvin Gordon is, he's just one of those players.

I accept my fate. If I'm wrong on Melvin Gordon, so be it. And that's one of those lessons for fantasy football. You're not backed into taking any of these guys. I mean, just because they're in an ADP list or on the UDK rankings. If you don't believe something about a player, it's your team. Please don't take them. Move on to. And I won't. There's enough running backs in this tier of sadness. Oh, I just remembered he's on my League of Record team.

Congratulations, Mike. We said, oh, I won't, but he's one of your keepers? Yes, he is. Well, that'll be, I mean. It's terrible. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of win-win for you now, right? If he does great, at least he pays out for you in fantasy. Look, Melvogor is going to be amazing. Yeah, change your, hold on. Give me a whole new perspective now that you rediscovered him. I think it's called a win loss. Like, it's just hedged because he's going to lose somewhere. It's a hedge. Yeah.

Yeah, you're either going to be right on your prediction and your team's going to suck or you win. Let's talk about a guy that Mike loves. Todd Gurley. Take it away, Mike. Tell about how great a receiving back Todd Gurley is. What the guy? We've been here, done that. Yeah. Gurley at 19, by the way, James Connor at 20 to round out this episode.

Gurley, I almost want to refer people just to the Fire and Ice episode. That's exactly where you need to go. We had a huge discussion on Todd Gurley. Mike is not a believer. If there was a, you know, we have our My Guys every year. If we had the like negative version of that where you picked three busts for this season, I guarantee you Todd Gurley is in Mike's. You are 100% correct. In his not my guys. That is correct. Your guys. Todd Gurley, Melvin Gordon, and Todd Gurley.

Do you guys want to try and make the case for him? Of course not. I would rather be dead. I kind of do. I know that I stand apart from you too, but I do think that he is a, he is way, not close. I think he last year, just as a player, realized he was inefficient. He wasn't being thrown to on the routes run, but he's still way better than Devonta Freeman. Devonta Freeman looked like.

a running back who was DUN completely incapable of doing anything on the field. They moved on and they're going to need him. There's a lot of vacated targets. He is, he is, his depth, the depth chart is just him. So this is a good offense. And Brian Hill. I am not worried about Brian Hill. I'm not worried about Edo Smith. I am, the depth chart to me is Todd Gurley and Brian Hill and fodder.

Sure. I mean, yes, that is the official depth chart, but I'm not worried about them. So if he does get passed two more, maybe he's not worthy of every single one of those passes, but it doesn't matter. If he ends up with 50 receptions, which is well within the range of outcomes for a team that's always passed the ball to the running back, for a good offense, and 200 plus carries, he's going to be valuable for fantasy.

Well, he's being drafted much higher than all of us, including Jason. He's drafted as the RB15. He's got great name value. He's going into an offense that we know will be good. It's all about opportunity for me. Does he get enough of it? Does Brian Hill exist, I think, is a question that has now been brought up. Does he have a role in this backfield? Connor at 20 rounds out this episode. I, you know, James Connor is an interesting case because I think you're going to

end up, his average draft position is probably not really where he's going to finish. I totally agree. And there are a handful of guys in that category. I would actually say Chris Carson is in the exact same category if we don't get any clarity on his health. Like if he just status quo right now, you'd be like, well, Carson's either going to be the guy and be much higher than this spot, which is the same case for Connor, or he's going to get hurt and fumble, which is the same, you know, if Connor gets hurt, which he's always done,

I mean, then you've got a huge problem, and he's not the RB 18 where he's being drafted. But if he's not hurt, he's probably not the RB 18 where he's being drafted. He's probably much higher than that. Yeah, he will get an absolute boatload of opportunity. He is the best running back on the team. Now there's whispers from the bushes that Jalen Samuels will not make the team, which, look, that's probably more a note for Anthony McFarland than it is for James Connor. But time after time after time,

Coach Tomlin has showed us who he is, and that's a coach that wants one running back on the field. Time after time. Thank you, Jason. You're welcome. That was excellent. And if James Connor is on the field all the time with an actual healthy Hall of Fame quarterback, Ben Rothesberger, then James Connor is going to be very, very valuable for fantasy. He does appear to be fragile, especially last year. It was rough. It wasn't just missed games. It would be.

Games you thought you could depend on him, and then he would leave with another nagging injury. When does that frustration boil over for the team if it happens early as well? Because they both the GM and the head coach came out and said, look, this is not what? They were actually frustrated with Connor. It wasn't like, oh, he had bad luck. It was like, this is not how, we can't have a running back. Right. Yeah. Look, ability to be on the field. Availability is an ability to coaches. Yeah. Very nice. Let me ask you this philosophically. Take the name out.

It's not James Connor. It's just an idea. You are in... I like it. I like it. Here you go. You are in the back of the third. You're at the turn. So you could... The last pick in the third round, first pick in the fourth round. And I say to you, I am your local wizard. And I say to you, I will give you a player who you have a 50% chance that he is a top five running back in fantasy.

And a 50% chance that you waste the pick. You waste the pick. Would you do that at the 3-4 turn? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's James Connor. So draft them because that's how I view them. I don't think the top five potentials there with the other running backs. And that would be my only dispute. Like if you said top 10 there? If he plays 16 games at his healthy all season, is top eight. I agree with that. I mean, he was the running back six in 13 games two years ago.

So he is talented. I just like other guys more. Sure. You'd have to be kicking Alvin Camara down the line or kicking, you know, Derek Henry down the line. But when he's been on the field and he's been healthy, he's been dominant. Yep. Will you get that? 50-50 might be generous. Yeah, I guess I guess that's that's maybe the real problem. All right. We're going to have to close this thing down. I don't want any explanation here. I just want an answer. Favorite running back outside the top 20. For me, it's David Montgomery. Mark Ingram.

Jonathan Taylor. All right. We want to thank Pristine Auction for sponsoring this show. You can check them out at pristineauction.com. Use the code ballers. You get a $10 credit, hundreds and hundreds of daily auctions on some amazing sports memorabilia. Mike just cracked open a Blake Jarwin jersey. I don't know if that's a secret. If you got $10 credit, oh, it's on the wall. Oh, my gosh. Guess it's not a secret, is it? Check them out, pristine auction.com. Goodbye.

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