REAL Preseason Takeaways + RB Rankings, Jason’s Mixon Love

Even Joe Mixon, who I have ranked behind Shady right now, just because of the, what could happen. And what could happen to Shady is he doesn't play football at all this year. No, we're not a. You're lighting your pick on fire. Yeah, not a just, oh, he's suspended for a few games. He literally does not play. And you have just thrown your third or second round pick into the garbage. All right. I really, really want to talk about. Oh, no, we have to.

We have one more guy before we get to the guy I actually want to talk about. Number 17 is Darius Geis. I think we are all going to drop him based on the news. The fact he's going to miss some camp time. We can still wait for the MRI to confirm what the timeline looks like for Darius guys. He looked great on the field. You know, I'm coming out with my 32 bold predictions article, and I was pretty close to putting Darius Geis as a, you know.

top 10 running back so it's disappointing to see injury maybe get in the way of that but we don't know enough i mean what do you guys is what is there to say about guys other than that he looked good and he got hurt that's exactly the the takeaway i he is the monster i believe he can be but now as a rookie you have to you have to work your way up to the top of the death chart unless your name is sayquan barkley

Yeah, we didn't bring him up because he looked like Saigon Barclay. Because then you come out and your first touch is a 40-yard carrier or whatever it was on an incredible play. But second round picks, they have to work their way up. And Geist was no different. I think he's going to have to work his way up. And you miss camp? You can't do that. Can't make the club if you're in the tub. Yeah, he did look good. Again, if you're just, you know, joining us now. He.

I don't expect him to be a pass catching back in the NFL. He'll, you know, he'll get 25, 30 balls. But I think 30 is basically his cap in this offense with Jay Gruden, with Chris Thompson there. So that's where I think we disagree. I've got him a little bit lower at 19. He can get it done on the ground. He's a talented running back, but I just don't project him to be one of those valuable. You know, you talk about putting him in the top 10.

He could do that. Alfred Morris did that without catching the ball. Jordan Howard's done that without catching the ball. So essentially your comp for Geist is Jordan Howard. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good comment. Here's the situation I want to talk about, and it probably should have been, I don't know if it was a takeaway just from last night, but this is more of a trend that is happening. And I am rising immensely on Alex.

Collins, who comes in number 18. Ironically, I'm the highest on Alex Collins in our rankings, despite your love letters repeatedly. But here's why. Kenneth Dixon did not play last night. He took the field. He took the field in full uniform during pregame warmups. Then he wasn't suited up by the time opening kickoff came around. He's been banged up. Alex Collins, he only had two carries, but he ripped off.

a 23-hard run last night, and he's the guy. I want to be very clear. He's the guy. I went, sometimes I do trade offers real quick in the preseason. Alex Collins is one of those guys that last night with the way it's training for Kenneth Dixon, with the fact that, you know, the gap between Alex Collins and Gervorius Allen, Buck Allen is very big to me. Alex Collins is the guy on a team that wants to run the ball, and he's good. Yeah, I agree. The concern was that,

Dixon would threaten that, and he's not going to. I agree with all of those takes, even saying there's a big gap between Alex Collins and Buck Allen. But Buck Allen is a thorn in your fantasy. In your buck. But, but. Now you missed me up. What do you mean? I mailed it. He's a thorn in the buck. He's a thorn in your buttocks. And he's going to be obnoxious.

Assuming that the team moves on from Dixon, you're going to look up and go, boom, PI, pass interference in the end zone, Alex Collins free time. Buck Allen! Yeah, Buck Allen will be a little bit annoying. But Collins will be, you're going to see, a value pick. I'll predict a value pick. You're going to see Buck Allen in two minute drills, he'll be the only running back on the field. Yes. That's the kind of thing you're going to see, and you're going to be like, man, where's Alex Collins? And it's going to be Buck Allen because they trust him and third downs.

And third downs. Buck Allen's a sneaky pick right now. Here's a tweet from Ben Cummins last night. If you don't follow Ben Cummins. He's on our fantasy footballer's DFS show, does a lot of writing for him at Ben Cummins' FF. You should give him a follow. For us. Yes, for us. He does a lot of writing for himself. He writes to himself. Ever heard of him? No, this is his tweet, and it got my eyeballs. Last year, Buck Allen saw more targets per game than Rex Burkhead.

and Devante Freeman, more total opportunities than Derek Henry and Tevin Coleman, more red zone carries than Leonard Fournette, Alex Collins, Derek Henry, and Alvin Camara, same amount of 10 zone carries as Jordan Howard. Yes. What? Do you know who? He will be obnoxious. His photograph is in the corner of T.J. Eldon's mirror. That's who he looks up to. Like, T.J. Yeldon wants to be that thorny. Yeah. That's the same comp for me.

Number 19 and number 20 on our running back consensus rankings. Jay Ajay, Rashad, Penny. I feel like I've talked about Rashad Penny. Adnosium. Yes. We're not skipping them. No, we're not. But Jay Jai kicks it off. What do you guys want to say about Ajay and Penny? Ajai, he's been a slow roast, a slow burn for me over the off season of what I believe that he can do for fantasy football.

You're the highest on him right now of our group. But with his offensive line being dominant, I am just, I'm very confident in J. Ajai. He's going in the fourth round right now. Yeah. So both Jay Ajai. He's the first pick in the fourth, I think. If Brooks is correct, which we know from the 2,000-yard mixing situation, he's not always accurate. He's actually going behind Alex Collins. Not that I see a huge gap between those guys,

Both of them are those are the running backs in the fourth round that I'm very interested. Yeah, I think he's a great pick there. I have him at running back 25, and I feel like that is definitely too low. Philadelphia does not pay up for running backs historically. He's on a contract year. Unless you're Ryan Matthews. They will use him a lot.

on a great offense with a great offensive line. He looked good last night. You know, he had one breakaway run. You know who else looked good last night? Corey. Oh, yeah. Corey Clement. Yeah, we did it. Five for 30, six a carry. Just saying he looked, he looked mighty fine. Ajai, he looked great too. But you're right, Mike. Pro football focus projects the offensive line in Philadelphia to be number one. So he was what? For those of you that don't speak Spanish, that means number one.

Rashad Penny. Yo soy El Niño. Rashad Penny at 20. His current average job position is 509 in PPR leagues. It's even lower in standard leagues. And Rashad Penny is dropping due to Chris Carson fire. I love it. I love that he is dropping. I can finally get me some Rashad Penny. Him and Chris Carson, if you watch that first drive, they were both in on it. They were going back and forth. You know, a lot of times you see whether or not.

You see some plans. Like is this like in Green Bay. Green Bay last year, Green Bay preseason, they give a drive. It's like Jamal Williams gets this drive. Then they're going to put in Aaron Jones or they're going to put in Time Montgomery. This was like. If you want to grief, if you're going to grief, Derek McKinnon, you got to agree for Shad Penny. Eight carries for a shot penny. He gained a total of 16 yards. McKinnon had negative yards on three carries. All I'm saying is that be fair to your.

to your player because Rashad Penny, this is the problem, right? This is not a good offensive line. Chris Carson averaged six and a half a carry on his four carries last night. Rashad Penny averaged two a carry on his eight carries. If you watch the film, I think that he showed very well on the touchdown pass at the end of the drive. It was Rashad Penny's pass protection that opened up.

Russell Wilson to be able to find Venet. Oh, yeah. Who did he find? Dude. Look, I immediately went and had to do some research because Venet was one of my takeaways. He was looking at Venet's way all the time. However, that's also because Ed Dixon is not even playing right now. And Dixon's not, it's so I, but I.

I have at least opened my, uh, I appreciate my hate block, my, my, my shades like, you're peeking through. I'm looking at the possibility of Vinette being there past catching tight in, but I want Ed Dixon to be there. Number 21, Royce, oh, by the way, I, I'm drafting Chris Carson in leaks. I mean, he's, he's going solo with the upside and potential. I know Pete Carroll is, is a hype machine, but Chris Carson looks good. Chris Carson looks good.

Royce Freeman at 21, Dionne Lewis at 22. Royce Freeman, what do you think about his opportunity? It's still projection for Freeman because the Broncos have not played yet. We're waiting to see what they're going to do. Reports out of the mountains are that DeVonte Booker and Freeman will be sharing.

during the first two drives, and then they're going to get the other guys involved, see what they can do. It's normally a really good sign for a, for the rookie to share. I mean, it's a good sign for Rashad Penny that that happened. It's a bad sign for Ronald Jones that it didn't happen. It's a good sign for Royce Freeman. If it does happen tonight, because that you never. Outside of Sequin's situation, right, when you're the top five pick, it's extremely rare.

to see a rookie come in and get all the first team work. I mean, that's just not going to happen. So your best case scenario is that you go in in the incumbent and the rookie share time. That's how a rookie running back becomes a day one starter. That's the means. Dionne Lewis at 22, we have them ahead of Derek Henry who ends up at 26 later on. But Dionne Lewis, I have him at 20, Jason 23, Mike 26. I think that we're going to see.

in efficiency from Derek Henry this year, and I think Dionne Lewis is a better overall runner. Tennessee's first team offense. 7.1 all-purpose yards per touch for Dionne Lewis last year. Yeah, they looked pretty good to me. I was happy with Marcus Marietta. He was actually looking like he was running well and accurate on the move. They had a nice drive. Derek Henry. Just five carries between the two of them last night, so not a lot to see. No, but the reason there wasn't a lot to see is because their first drive, they came out.

They play great. They march down the field. They score. You guys are done for the night. That's what you want when you're projecting an offense to take a step forward. So I did like seeing that. And for Derek Henry, I don't agree that he will be inefficient. I think he will be a good fantasy running back. However, his draft price is, it's really all I focus on these days because it's too high. His draft price is too high.

Don't take Derek Henry at the back of the third. There are better options there. I mean, if you're talking back of the third, that means you're passing on Alex Collins and Jay Ajay at that point to grab Derek Henry. I would not do that. I believe that Henry and Lewis come the end of the season, are actually going to be closely ranked with each other. And each will have their big games. Yeah, back in the third right now, you can get Doug Baldwin or Larry Fitzgerald.

And then we have Jay Ajay or Alex Collins. All right. The last guy I actually want to talk about is Kenyon Drake. We've talked quite a bit about Sunday Michelle, Rex Burkhead, and that backfield. So I want to talk about Kenyon Drake for a minute. You can see all of our rankings at the Fantasy Footballers.com. So you can go well beyond what's on this show. You can listen to yesterday's show for the top 10. I want to bring up Kenyon Drake is one of the takeaways that I wrote down on paper that didn't put in the show doc was the performance of Kalin Belage and the amount of work that Belage had in the show.

in the game yesterday. Yes, he made a rookie ridiculous hurdle fumble that was embarrassing, but he showed explosiveness. He showed chops in the passing game yesterday. I am a big fan of Kalin Belage running back for the Miami Dolphins rookie running back. When I was asked on the Fantasy Pros podcast yesterday, who I would regret drafting, I brought up Kenyon Drake's name for his current draft position. So between Drake, Gore, and Belage on a team that I don't think is going to have a lot of fantasy weapons.

I'd love to hear you guys weigh on on what you saw from Belage last night, Mike. Jason, what do you guys think about the situation for Kenyon Drake and company? Kenyon Drake, to me, looked good, and then they took him out of the game pretty early and gave everything to Belage, who showed a lot of, you know, what he showed in college. He's explosive. He's a guy that's got to get ahead of steam, though. I mean...