Early Top 10 RB Rankings, McVay Cologne, Dinner Bells

This is what we're going to build around. This is what we want to do. But, Andy, you said it best in the studio. I think it was Friday before we left. If he, if Derek Henry sucks, it don't matter. Like, they want to build around him, and they want to give him the ball. But if they give him the ball 22 times and he's running at, you know, 3.6 yards per carry like he's done for most of his career so far, they're not going to be able to keep doing it.

I will say this. I think he succeeds. I think he's got fresh legs. He is a beast. They're figuring out how to use them. Reading more into it. The tight end coach taking over for the offensive coordinator role talked about the zone scheme that works well with Henry's style and that that was part of what they found last year. And they're going to implement that and build the offense for Henry because Henry can't run in every style. You can't just plug Henry into any team and have him succeed.

But what he's good at, he's great at. And so, yeah, I am, I'm a believer. I think that's well said. And we have to. It only took three and a half, wait, 3.75 years in the league. Is that his yards per carry? Oh, it's both. All right. More high train news. GM of the Colts. Oh, man, my guy. Chris Ballard.

Says the team believes Marlon Mac can play on all three downs. Do you buy the Marlon Mac hype? There's been talk of Jay Jai coming in for a workout. Oh, no, he's out. Marlon Mac now has the hype. We are undefeated. Mike, speak to your guy. What should the Footland do about Marlon Mac since you are the Marlon Mac guy? All I care about is who's playing running back for the Indianapolis goals. You've said that time and time again. And if it's going to be Marlon Mac, he's going to be very successful. Is Naeem Heinz going to be underdrafted? No.

Okay. Yes. My, yeah, I was going to say. Who weighed in there? Brooks did. Brooks is a huge believer in Naim Hines. Tried to get me to draft him in our dynasty league. I did not. Good for you. Thank you. But I know Brooks, he does not chime in on his own often. Only when he's so compelled internally. He is a true believer. And I will say this. Brooks, you're a very good fantasy football player.

You've had a great dynasty team. You've got a good eye for this. Uh-oh. Where's this going? So, maybe. All right. One more piece of hype. Jay Gruden. He is excited for second year wide receiver. Trey Quinn is, quote, ready to watch him jump into the slot roll and dominate the position. We don't just take above average play here. We take domination to the bank. I think he could. Trey Queen was a great college player. Massive, massive production. Just didn't fit the correct profile for...

NFL teams. I think he was Mr. Irrelevant back last year or so. I mean, he was very, very, very late in the draft. But I think he's a good player. We'll see if he can succeed with Case Keenham or calcium cold tone in the ball. Yeah, Case Keenum loves him some shorts. He does. Yeah. He wears the shorts. He loves shorts. He loves jorts. Cargos. It doesn't matter. And he likes Trey Quinn in the slot. Yeah. Because about eight yards from line of scrimmage is his.

Power zone. A lot of, a lot of targets in that area, obviously vacated targets coming with James and Crowder going away. I mean, Trey Quinn is a guy where I am personally happy that we are recording this the day before because I plan on my next round. I'm in like the 1560th round. Are you going to grab him? I'm grabbing Trey Quinn here in my draft. Now, to be fair, Jay Gruden also said that Jordan Reed was going to buck the trends and be back and be a great player again.

Yeah. Yeah, was he wearing the light detector test on that one? I don't know. All right, don't forget, switch your Dynasty League to Sleeper. Download the Sleeper app today. You can get news. You can get one of the best platforms that exists, and they're always improved. And before we jump into the rankings, want to remind you about our rankings. You're very excited for the rankings. Very excited. Remind you about the side pod entertainment.

That's the name of the game on the Spitballers podcast. We just have a good time answering absolutely ridiculous questions. New episodes drop every Monday. Right into work in style. Hit the gym. It's a gas. Have a laugh. Just don't listen to the spitballers while doing heavyweights. Sure. Not good for health. The Spitballers pod wherever you listen to your podcast. All right. It's time to get into the early top 10 running backs. Running bags. See? See? We're getting into running backs.

All right. This is the April 2nd episode of the show. Here's our early running back ranks. We've all ranked out our top 15, 16, 17 running backs at this point. Put them together in a spreadsheet. Figure out the consensus. This excludes rookies. Although I don't anticipate that. I don't either. I don't anticipate that any rookie is going to pop into top 10 running backs this season.

Yeah, I think you're fair to say that. I think that's right. There is no Sequin entering the NFL this season. Number one, let's start it right here at the top. Ezekiel Elliott. I think people will be surprised. Number one, I agree with you. I think they will. He is number one for Jason and Mike. He is number two on my list.

What is there to say about Ezekiel Elliott that hasn't been said? And why do you guys have so much confidence in him at the top of the ranking? So for me, it's all about the transition of the Dallas offense. Zeke turned into a pass catcher. The pass catcher, we knew he could be from his tape back in college, but they wouldn't use him that way for whatever reason. And then they finally unleashed him, 95 targets.

I mean, he had four fewer targets than Alvin Camara. I mean, that's absolutely ridiculous when you're talking about Ezekiel Elliott, who since he has entered the league, has led the league in rushing yards per game on a per game basis in all three years that he has played. Plus positive regression coming in the touchdown area. His rookie season, he scored a rushing touchdown on about every 21 carries. That's pretty frequent.

But then the next year it balanced out. It was to 34. And then last year, every 50 carries, he scored a rushing touchdown. I don't think that holds up. The offense has improved with the addition to Mari Cooper. So Zeke is my number one guy. Yeah, it's pretty much exactly what I believe. It's the security. Zeke has held up. He has proven. I mean, he was a top 10 back two years ago.

When he only played 10 games, and you look at his 16-game pace last season of 1,530 rushing yards with only six touchdowns, it doesn't make sense. So to me, it's a matter of like, okay, maybe Gurley's ahead. I don't want the risk right now with Gurley. I don't want the risk of a putrid offense. Dallas's offense is good enough. Zeke is the center of it. He's going to get the ball. He holds up.

You know, and I think the touchdowns are going to come. If he gets back to his normal touchdown pace, then he should be a lock for a top three. And when we look at our risk ratings inside the ultimate draft kit, Zeke will have one of the lowest for me. No, it was a complete wildfire of Zeke points from weeks 10 through 16 to in the year. I mean, just monstrous numbers, 34 fantasy points, 30, 23, 23, 25. You guys make a compelling argument. He led.

The league and rushing attempts with 304, and that was the lowest for a league leader at the position since 2000. So you need to count on receptions. The question is going to be, is the 77 repeatable? Are those going to change if they feel comfortable with Randall Cobb and with Amari Cooper, who weren't in the fold for the entirety of last year? But I don't blame either of you for making that pick. It's a very narrow decision for me. I have them at two.

So when I say he's not my number one, he's my number two. But I went with this guy, Sequin Barkley. He had 121 targets, caught 14 more receptions than Zeke did, and it just comes down to what I think is more guaranteed in the passing game. I think they're going to get very similar volume in the running game. Obviously, Seekwan had the 11 touchdowns last year to Zeke 6, and I agree the positive regression makes sense with Zeke.

But it's, look, it's a narrow margin here between the two. They both put up a, quote, unquote, good game, 94% of the time. They both were absolutely dominant. Sequin never busted in his rookie season at all. He led all running backs in scrimmage yards. You know, the question for him is, is he bulletproof? What chance does he have to regress in your minds? And does it, you know, Eli's not special.

But he wasn't special last year. Don't tell that to Dave. My goodness. Dave G. Yeah. I mean, 2020 they got him penciled in already. Break that pencil. I mean, yeah. The issues with Zeke are basically the offense. If there are fewer touchdowns, I mean, he had a lot of big, huge breakaway play touchdowns. And while that makes sense because of his talent and, you know, his ability to break away.

Those are the stats that are usually the least sticky. Even for players who have great talent, you can't bank on 50-yard breakaway touchdown runs because he did it last year. So that's the issue. I agree with you that, I mean, if this was, so we kind of put our rankings together in half point PPR leagues. If this was full point, would you make the switch? Sequin would be my number one, because I do expect Zeke to slightly go backwards in receptions. Whereas Sequin, I mean.

It's hard to imagine him going up from 91 receptions, but I think he might be their number one wide receiver now. So with O'Beckham out of the way, yeah, I mean, nobody's going to be disappointed with either of those two backs barring injury. Yeah, yeah. You know, Sequin impressed me so much last year because of the percentage of stacked boxes he faced. I mean, he faced eight plus in the box more than almost anybody in football and still found a way to have those breakaway runs. I agree those are hard to bank on.

We've seen that year in and year out. It doesn't matter how good you are. Those are hard to factor in, but just sheer volume. I mean, they're both absolutely outstanding players. I believe teams this year will start doing the first 11 man in the box defensive formation against the Giants. Against the Giants. You're not worried about Sterling Shepard outside? I'm not worried about Eli Manning behind my 11 in the box. Cover negative two. Yes.

Wow. Christian McCaffrey comes in at number three. Mike, you have him at three. I have him at four. Jason has him at five. All this for the number one most consistent player at the position last season. He finished with 219 carries in 1,098 yards, 7 touchdowns where he made his money in the passing game. 107 receptions, 867 yards and 6 touchdowns on 124 targets. For me, the big...

Not concerned because I don't have great concern over Christian McCaffrey. He belongs. He's cemented in the top five. But my biggest question, I should say, and I'll toss it to you guys, is a little bit to do with the offense. With Cam Newton, Cam Newton's health. Does DJ Moore take a step forward? What does this offense look like next year? And will they...

decide to maintain the high workload. Will Christian McCaffrey be able at his size and stature to stay healthy through the duration of the year? Those are the questions that I have in terms of Christian McCaffrey. Last year there were four games that he didn't even miss a single snap. Which is impossible. Yeah, he's an Iron Man. Yeah, is he an Iron Man or is he bucking up against the odds with that kind of a workload? You know, players do that for a while.

Um, what do you think? Mike, you have them the highest. Yeah, long term heel will eventually wear down and they're the rumblings, the whispers from the bushes this off season have been, we got to get somebody else in there to replace Christian McCaffrey. At this point, it's Cameron Artis Payne. I was going to say Cameron Ars Payne raised his hand. Who is back on, on the team. Yay. Yay.

Is he 31? Is he 28? We don't know. But he's back on the team and he is the primary backup right now for Christian McCaffrey. I think it's safe to say that C.J. Anderson had something to offer and they didn't want it. They cut him. They cut him last year. His role in the past game is so secure. I can only hope that DJ Moore takes the next step because I want the offense to be better.

Only seven rushing touchdowns for Christian McCaffrey. That can go up when a guy has 200 plus carries. And I think that his passing volume is super safe. So it's like Zeke and Barclay, where Christian McCaffrey, I have him at three right now. Maybe he's five. Maybe he's six. But he's going to be incredibly consistent. I think he's very safe. Yeah, I've got Christian McCaffrey, the lowest of the three of us, based solely on Ron Rivera.