Fantasy Football 2017 - Top 10 Running Backs + ADP Price Check

compared to 7.5. He was absolute fire when he was on the field last year. He ran for over 1,200 yards. In 12 games. In 12 games. He had 94 targets, 75 receptions, and his pace was incredible. So if you want to take Levi-on-Bell before David Johnson, go right ahead. That's absolutely fine. I would take Levi-on-Bell over David Johnson if it wasn't for the possible injury risk. I view him as a slightly higher injury risk. And suspension risk. But I...

Yeah, I mean, I don't view him as a suspension risk, but you're right. I mean, maybe he is. I don't think he has the same track record to, as, you know, what he's been suspended for. It doesn't worry me. But his injury risk, his injury risk to me is the only reason, especially with him holding out right now, not being in camp, getting that later start, and you see that happen from time to time. If he was in camp.

I might take him over David Jones, just because he has a longer track history of doing this. He's always, when he's out there, he's the best in the league. Martavis Brian is healthy with Antonio Brown with Big Ben. He'd argue that this offense is better than Arizona's. You could argue that they'll be better this season. And with those weapons around him, as long as he's on the field, they've shown the willingness to pretty much run the offense front to back through Levi-on-Bell.

If you remember the Buffalo games last year, it wasn't like he was coming off the field when these were blowouts. He was still there. So that's what you got to love about Lev Bell. Look, it's not rocket science, these first two on the rankings. But that's why. That's why they're there. Let's move on to number three on the running back rankings. Now, this is going to be surprising. It might be. LaShawn McCoy is number three on our rankings here. I have them at three. Jason and Mike, you both have them at four.

This is obviously because I do not have Ezekiel Elliott currently. You have, you have crushed our Ezekiela at rankings. And just, just to be fair. Crush is hard because Zika's next. Just spoiler alert. And yeah, but I just, you need to explain this where you have proactively bumped Zique down. Jason and I haven't altered his projections yet. We're still waiting for the news to drop. But I, I do agree with Andy. I'm confident that something is going to happen. So Zique will.

likely end up as the four. That is correct. Back to Shady. Yeah, I've moved him down because I wanted to give people drafting right now a fair expectation of where I would draft him. So that's what my rankings reflect. So Lashaw McCoy, like I said, his ADP right now is the seventh pick of the first round. Love Shady. Shady did everything we could have hoped for last year. Played 15 games, had over 1,200 yards, caught 50 passes. What do you...

want to tell people about LaShawn McCoy. Expectations for this year. I think some people are curious about the potential offensive changes when you, you know, Rex Ryan's not there. They were so run heavy with Rex Ryan. How will McCoy be used? What are your expectations, Mike? Well, I expect the team to still be run heavy. They still have a fantastic offensive line. And similar to David Johnson, Levy on Bell, the team runs through LaShawn McCoy. The offense is powered by Shady. Now,

There are a couple red flags with Lishon McCoy in most notably his ability to go down with injury, but somehow recover, but it still seems like he's... He doesn't miss a lot of games. Yeah, but you think that he's going to be out for the season at least five times. Perkins and his touchdowns. There's been a massive fluctuation with Lishon McCoy's touchdown. He had 13 rushing last year, but...

2015, 3, 2014, 5. I mean, so it's, and he's had a year of 17 rushing touchdowns. He's had a year of two rushing touchdowns. He fluctuates, it's got to be more than any other high profile running back in the league. I still have tremendous amounts of faith in Shady McCoy. There was a hype alert saying, out of Buffalo saying that LaShawn McCoy could actually lead.

The team, yes, please get that train rolling. He could lead the team in receptions, which would be redonculus. Yeah, I mean, the fluctuation in touchdowns is legitimate, but if you look at their offensive line, the run scheme, what they want to do as a team, the fact that you had Mike Gillisly leave, I think you have to project that he has another successful season when it comes to touchdown totals.

Lashaw McCoy is as consistent as any, you know, outside of those top two guys, you look at, okay, Lishan McCoy over the last three years, 75% of his games, he's an RB2 or better. Over 50% of his games, he's an RB1 or better. I mean, that is. Or better. He's better than a one. Yeah, he's an RB zero. That is.

That is incredible. It's transcendent. And when you compare, okay, you know, the guys that are up there that have done that, at that percentage, you're talking about Jordan Howard, who, you know, has only played 16 games. Zeeke, who's only played 16 games. 15? Yeah, Shady has 43 games in the last three years, and he is that consistent. He's set up to win, and he is clearly the third or fourth back, depending on what you do with Zeeke, out there. And the question that I get more than anything is,

I'm the fifth pick in the draft, the sixth pick in the draft. Do I take Shady over Julio and Odell Beckham? That's the question that everyone is always asking. Would you, you're at five or six on the clock in a, let's just say, half point PPR league. You broke it for me. I was going to say PPR, it's easy. I still take the receivers. Half point PPR. What would you guys do? I think I would go receiver. I would still take one of the big three receivers. Yeah, certainly the chalk way to do it. I mean, if you want a running back, you.

Don't feel guilty taking. Yeah, certainly not. That's kind of the message, I think. Don't feel guilty taking Leshaun McCoy. If you feel like you can draft wide receiver later, you get a locked and loaded running back. I mean, his role is secure. I'm not sure the leading the league or leading the team in receptions thing is more a reflection on his ability as a pass catcher or the fact that Sammy Watkins can't stay healthy and they have now Anquan Bolden and Zay Jones on that roster and those catching receiving totals might not be.

Very significant. But yeah, LaShawn McCoy, that's the case. Number four, Ezekiel Elliott, I have him at eight right now as a reflection of the potential suspension. Jason and Mike at three, as we said. But just to clarify for the people, if it comes out, Zique has no suspension. He's right back at three. Okay. All right, 15 games last year, 322 carries. That's a big workload. 1600 yards, 15 touchdowns.

And I think the area that people are excited about, I don't know if they'd be surprised to see those numbers go down. Maybe he's around the 300 carry mark. Maybe he's at, you know, 1,400, 1,400 yards. I think you're really, really happy. 12 to 15 touchdown still seems very likely. But where people are excited about Zeke and his potential is the fact that...

On the 32 receptions, he pretty much led the league in yards per reception at the running back position. You only had 363 yards and one receiving touchdown, but there's room to grow. The top two guys in our list, the number one and number two, they're there because the receiving totals are so high. If you were just looking at rushing totals, if you were not counting receptions from the running back position, is Zeke the number one? Because I think he would be.

Yeah, I mean, you have to keep in mind that he did not play in the last week of the season when you look at his season totals as well. You know, 32 receptions, but that was in 15 games. I expect him to be up at least at 40 this year. His 16 game pace was 1740 yards, 16 touchdowns, another almost 400 receiving. Zeke is worthy of the third pick. If he's suspended three games or less, I'm taking him at three overall.

That's my view. I think he's that value. Now, historically speaking, since 2010, when you have a rusher go over 1,600 yards, like Andy was talking about, there's been regression where these guys, shady, was the only person to eclipse 1,300 yards after a 1,600 rushing yards season. Now, 1,300 rushing yards, I will, I'll take that. I will gladly take that. Just saying, he might have that due to suspension.

He may end up with 1,200 yards because he misses four games or something to that extent. But he's fantastic. He's still my three. I'm with Jason then. If he misses three or less, I would still take him third overall. We saw last year the penalty that people paid by letting levy on a bell drop in the draft. All right. Let's go ahead and anything else you want to touch on with Zika. I mean, people know the story. Nope. It's just waiting on the news. All right.

Number five on our list here is Devonta Freeman, running back for the Atlanta Falcons last year, 227 carries for over 1,000 yards, 11 touchdowns, and then made, wow, Brooks, you put this in here, very interesting. 54 receptions for 4,462 yards. Incredible. Yeah, he's good. Why isn't our number one? Yeah, we have made mathematical errors not putting him at number one. 54 receptions, two touchdowns through the air, had 65 targets.

Look, last year, he was an RB one or two, 81% of the time. This, in spite of all the doubt that people had about his workload, doubt about Kevin Coleman's workload increasing. What do we think about Devante Freeman repeating that this year? And should owners be exceptionally? Oh, his receiving artist went down to 462. Oh, what? That's a 4,000 drop. Yeah, that's disappointing.

Yeah. Are you disappointed in the fact that his receiving artist dropped Jason and is that going to make you move him? That won't make me move him other than from the number one spot. DeVotte Freeman is far and away to me. Like he is the next highest after Shady. There's only one other guy put in that tier when it comes to me personally.

Over the last two years, which is basically when Devonthe Freeman took over, the only guys with a higher percentage of RB one or two finishes are Levion Bell, Ezekiel Elliott, and LaShawn McCoy. Now, when you go, okay, we're projecting things forward, you've got all the talk there in Atlanta about still trying to work a long-term deal with Devonta Freeman. They love him. You watch the film on NFL Game Pass. Go back and watch games.

it's hard to bring him down. He is perfect for their scheme. He fits everything that they're doing. And yes, I have been the, you know, the Mr. Regression Alert for Atlanta. But I don't worry about him at all because he has been better when Tevin Coleman's on the field. And two years ago, when Atlanta was much more just a pretty decent offense rather than the, you know, straight Targaryen fire they were last year.

He was the number one back. And he is literally the only guy in the last two years that each year had a thousand yards rushing. I think he's consistent. I think he's necessary for the offense. He gets enough goal line work and passing down work where I have no fear in Freeman at all. Is Alex Max still there? Yes. Yeah. Devante Freeman's going to be excellent. I think why people have a problem with a player like Freeman over Murray or some of the bigger names because.

You know he has to be efficient to give you fantasy value. He doesn't carry the ball 300 times. But he catches at 50 plus. He catches at 50 plus. He was 73 receptions in 2015. If you just Google Devonta Freeman, you're going to be hit with the same old articles. Look, Numberfire article. Devonta Freeman is overvalue. Fan cited art. Fan cited article. Van cited article. Devonta Freeman is a fantasy football bust according to.

fan-sighted, 21 hours ago. This is the same story you get every year, but I think the baseline for him is so high because he's going to be over 1,000 yards. It'll probably be double-digit touchdowns in that offense, and he's going to catch the ball. So we love him. I think he's a little bit higher on our boards than he is some other people's boards, but his average average position is 1.11 right now? That's great. I mean, literally.

We get the question all the time. I'm at the, you know, the end of the first round turn. Who am I hoping gets there? It's always for me. It's Devont Freeman. If he gets there, that's why. For me, it's David Johnson. I hope he gets to the back of the first. Fair enough. Number six. That falls apart a lot of the time of pick two, though. Yeah. It's trouble trouble. It's doubles. Subbles. DeMarco Murray. Number six on our rankings. Uh,

Number seven on my board, six on both of your guys reports this morning that he's almost back out on the practice field, had a hamstring tweak. Last year, he was DeMarco Murray again, 293 carries, over 1,200 yards, nine touchdowns, caught 53 passes, was on the field on pretty much every important down for the Titans. He should be the stalwart in the backfield again this year. If you...