Fantasy Football 2017 - RB Rankings Pt. 2 + Sleepers

But now they're completely off of Miller. Well, it seems like the public are more apt to give Todd Gurley another chance. Lamar Miller was solid. He was, he was nothing special. Absolutely. He really only had two just abysmal games where he hurt your team. Other than that, though, I mean, he was still a startable running back to, he was an RB1 or to 71% of his games. And that's, here's the key.

14 games still over 1,000 yards, almost 1,100 yards in 14 games. And so you give him his full season. He's fantastic for you. So that's hyperbolic, but he's very good for your team. Meanwhile, only five touchdowns with the amount of carries he was getting. It just, it seems like there is, there is an easy way for that to move up, at least a few touchdowns, which, which helps gives you those bigger weeks from time to time. Yeah.

As the resident Lamar Miller lover, truther, I will say I am not confident in more touchdowns this year. I think if he ends up this season with five or six touchdowns, I won't be in the slightest bit surprised because I don't see the offense being a high.

production, high scoring offense. I don't think Brock Oswald are leaving and the combination of Savage and Watts of being able to actually help this team score any kind of, you know, jump up in points. So with that said, I do think Lamar Miller is great at the place he's going right now because when you drafted him last year, he was going about seventh overall in your draft and he disappointed that.

very similar to Todd Gurley this year when he's not your RB1. Yeah. You know, you talk about 70, over 70% of the time he was an RB2 or better. That is great, but people were disappointed because of the lack of his top 12 performance. He was just every week. He was like the 14th, 15th best running back. And that's not good for your RB1, but for your RB2, you can't really ask for much more than that. His 16-game pace would have been 1,400 yards.

So he can get it done. And if his efficiency returns to anywhere near his career average and he gets the volume, I agree. It won't. It won't. And this is my only problem with Lamar Miller. Everything you said is 100% right. If you're listening to me out there, Lamar Miller deserves every bit of the value he's currently providing in drafts because he's starting running back on a team with great opportunity. He...

will produce for your fantasy team, regardless of how efficient he is, regardless of the yards per carry, which I don't care about in this situation. The problem that I have with Lamar Miller is you did have a transition from Miami to Houston last year, and the increase in carries will nullify that efficiency because I don't think Lamar Miller, and I think this is why people are more off of him than maybe Gurley, I don't think Lamar Miller is necessarily made to receive 270 carries.

made to do more than, look, he made his hay on straight line speed and being that breakaway guy. Last year, he was one of the worst players in all of football in terms of yards after contact per touch. He was like 69th in the league. So when he's being hit, when he's going between the tackles, there was some problems. And so I think when people project Gurley and Miller, I side with Gurley because I say, well, look, here's a player who's.

younger and the big playability returning for him seems much more likely. And so I'm just choosing higher ceiling with Gurley. Lamar Miller's going to give you fantasy value. There's no doubt. No doubt in my mind. Yeah. The only question for Miller is just will the touches remain the same? Because this is what Lamar Miller is now. He's a volume play. And...

Bill O'Brien did say over the offseason, they want to get Lamar Miller, or they want to decrease his touches. They kind of spoke with that in the draft when they took Deonti Foreman, but who, I mean, he showed up to camp out of shape, which, I mean, really, really most rookies do that, but then he had his incident with the law. We're still waiting, or is that actually, has that been resolved? I don't think there's anything to worry about that. Yeah, I don't either, I'm just saying, but it's still there. And so there's just a couple.

there's already some strikes against a rookie. So it takes a little bit more time for him to get acclimated into the offense. It's all I'm saying. All right. Isaiah Crowell comes in at number 12. I'm waiting for. Now, Jason should do it out. Oh, it came out. That's you, Andy. You're the, you're driving this bus. I am driving that bus. I have Isaiah Crowell. It's on my top 10. I'm number nine. Jason has him at 14. Mike at number 12.

Last year and under 200 carries ran for 952 yards, seven touchdowns. Caught the ball 40 times. I think that was surprising to everybody who owned him. Especially Duke Johnson. This is my job. Yeah, I think you see Crowe on the field a lot and those receptions. They're a result of being on the field. 319 yards on those. No touchdowns through the air. So look, Isaiah Crowell, if you want him to end up in your top 10 like me, you have to project more carries. You have to project.

more dependency on the run. And that's a complicated equation for Crowell and for the Browns because, look, you can want to do something and then you can be down three scores. And then you don't get to do it anymore. And that was the situation a lot last year. And you've heard Hugh Jackson come out and talk about, look, I really wish I had leaned on the run more. It's one of my biggest regrets. It's not giving the ball to Isaiah Crowell more. But does that chancelly. Look, you say a lot of things. I project a very good season from Isaiah Crowell, obviously. Where do you guys see him?

Do you think that the volume increases? Do you think that because of how improved the offensive line is there, the efficiency and the volume increase? How can I get you in a fresh Isaiah Crowell? You know, Isaiah Crowell, early in the offseason, we were high on him when he was, I feel like he was like eighth round. I mean, he was pretty much an afterthought. A lot of people were high on him. There's so many reasons to project a step up. And you named a lot of them.

Their offensive line, way better. Their head coach wants to run more. Isaiah Crowell showed enough. But then the opposite is equally true from the standpoint of this is a team that is not able to run the ball in the fourth quarter. And I think Isaiah Crowell's success is going to come down to the quarterback success, you know, as it does for a lot of teams. If the quarterback play in Cleveland is not good and the games are getting out of hand,

Crowell's not going to be able to run the ball in the fourth quarter. You know, that's the biggest problem I have. And if I am honest, I can't project the Cleveland quarterback play to be anything other than, like, the best I can project is mediocre. Like, you know, maybe they'll be middle of the pack. So that's why I've got him the lowest of us. I think his range of outcomes, he's the first guy I see that we talked about in our, now in our top 12, where.

If he finishes the year outside the top 36 running backs while healthy, I won't be shocked. I'm not, I mean, he's my number, he's my number 14. I like him. I think he's good, but his team situation scares me more than all the others. I'll say a pretty solid comp when you're talking situation here is Jordan Howard, who we have ranks slightly higher than Crowell because they're both good running backs. I think Howard's a better running back, but Crowell is good.

Very strong offensive line, probably better in Cleveland. They've made some offseason moves to shore things up. But when you talk about the volume, here's an interesting stat for you. Among running backs, carries. Cleveland was last in the league with 279 carries to their running backs. There were only three teams that had under 300 carries to their running back or for their running backs. I mean, that's a...

You're going to need a really, really large jump in carries for your running back to feel secure in Crowell. He was the top running back when it comes to getting your fantasy points in gouging runs, similar to Todd Gurley two years ago where the majority of his production was on these huge plays. That's what Crowell was giving you last year. So if those fall off, then I see in the range of outcomes for Crowell being that low-end running back two.

So I have concerns about Crowell. I do have them at 12, but I don't know if I feel strong about that. Fun fact, he averaged an extra yard per carry after contact than Lamar Miller. Yeah, no, it's good. But he also had those huge runs where Lamar Miller did not. If you compare, like Todd Gurley's on a bad team, right? Todd Gurley last year had 278 fourth quarter rushing attempts.

The Cleveland Browns had 279 on the season. Wait, what did you just say? Rushing attempts in the fourth quarter. What? That's not accurate. That's not possible. Oh, what? You're looking at the box. No. What time frame is this? Total on the year. Are you talking about Todd Gurley's total carries? Yes. I mean, he gave me Todd Gurley. Fun fact, Gurley had over a thousand carries last year and broken down by quarter. Oh.

Thank you, Jason. Yeah, that's what I'm here for. Much appreciate. Maybe move on to before we move on to the next running back, why don't we talk about flea flicker for a second? You know, a lot of times people are all, one of the most common questions we get is, you know, where's a great place to play a league? You know, you're a commissioner, you're wanting to check someone out. Flea flicker, they've been around for a long time. I remember playing flea flicker, you know, a decade ago, and it's a great.

system that is completely free. You can have league sizes ranging from four teams. You know, you and a couple buddies want super teams.

all the way to 24 teams, you know, so it's perfect for family, friends. They've got, you know, features like email drafts, and time management is a breeze with them. So you can go there. They've got great live scoring through the season and easy-to-use interface. Cool blockbuster trade features, and they even have a new mobile app for this season. So if you're thinking, hey, where should I start my league? I would definitely give Flea Flickr a chance. Plus, flea flicker, you know, is...

one of the people that have been around for a long time. And so you know they've kind of worked through some of the issues and you're going to have a smooth process. So pick Flea Flickr for a better fantasy football experience is fun and easy, fast and free. Just go to fleaflicker.com slash footballers today. That's FLEA flicker.com slash footballers. And we also want you to check out pristine auction. Pristine auction.

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But when you make your account, let them know that the fantasy footballers sent you. Now, we will talk about each of these running backs, but I don't, I want to get through as many as we can. So I'm giving you guys the heads up. I want to try to fly through as many as we can because I think people want to see all of the rankings. So we've talked already about Isaiah Crowell. We talked about Lamar Miller. So Miller was 11. Crowell's 12. At number 13.

We're talking about Marshawn Lynch. Welcome back to the NFL Marshawn Lynch. I have him at 12. Jason has him at 12. Mike. You have him at 15. We know about the offensive line. The offensive line in Oakland is outstanding. Ranked 7th from Pro Football Focus. Yeah, it benefited Derek Carr tremendously. Latavius Murray.

was great in short-yarded situations. He had 12 touchdowns. He missed some time. He still had a productive fantasy football year. What's the real ceiling for Marshall Lynch? Because I haven't really heard either of you guys discuss that. I think you both, obviously you're showing you're on board with the ranking. He's inside your top 15, Mike, Jason, top 12. All the reports out of camp, look, if you go back, let me say this real fast, if you go back a few years when he was in Seattle, the end of his tenure in Seattle, you talk about the potential for injury and things.