Top 10 Running Backs + Late Round Steals - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/8

Yeah, yeah, he is. He's pretty darn good. He might not be as good as he was his rookie season, but he's not an elder statesman by any means. He's 26 years old. He's still playing like he's in the prime. He was great last season, you know, missed a game, finished as the running back six. So to me, there's very little to worry about here. You know he is a workhorse back. You can count them on one hand right now in the NFL, so I'm all about taking Sequin. That four Derek Henry is still. Here, still doing it. Mike and I both have Tennessee winning this division. They seem rejuvenated. Hopkins, Traylen Berks, healthy. Ryan Tannahills back. Derek Henry, we have them ranked three spots ahead of ADP as a group. And look, everyone's waiting for the shoe to drop. But last year, all you did was get a season with 6% busts, despite the fact that the team was bad. They have a bad offensive line, at least according to Pro Football Focus, going into the year.

but he still ended up as they are before. Yeah, it's, Derek Henry is a fascinating player. I mean, one, the checkmark in his, in his favor, last year we saw 41 targets. Like, this was the first time ever that Derek Henry has seen a 10% target share. It has climbed the last three years, seven, eight percent, 10%. And Derek Henry is, he is going to be a polarizing draft pick because it's just you have to, make your decision of this guy who's going to turn 30 on a team. While I have them winning the division, I don't think this is like a, this isn't a juggernaut of a football team. They drafted a, the backup running back, Tommy J. Spears. He was a third rounder. Am I right on that, Kyle? He was a day two pick. So there's that going against Henry. And it's just make your choice. Are you?

Looks like you made yours. Do you think that Derek Henry has one more year to transform into the Yeti and wreak havoc for fantasy football? And that's just where my projections have gone. You got him at number two right now, which makes perfect sense. Nick Chub comes in at three. That's exactly where I have. Jason at four, Mike at five. We talked about him at the top. He's going to have every opportunity. I think the offense is going to be vastly improved personally. Nick Chubb is. as proven as it gets on the ground, like you know he's going to get chunk plays, breakaway plays. The question is, can he ramp up that receiving work? I think you will have opportunities. Now, there is a chance that it doesn't work out as well for him as we'd like. It's one thing to say, hey, I'm going to throw the ball a lot to Derek Henry. It's another thing to kind of, every once in a while you chuckle because it deflects off his hands. He's not the most elegant pass catcher. So is it Nick Chubb's greatest strength? It's not.

But if those opportunities come, like he proved last year even without them, he was the best pick in fantasy at running back for the first, what, 9, 10, 11 weeks? Yeah, something like that. How many weeks was it until Deshaun Watson came? It was very correlated. Yeah, it was 10. Yeah, and he just struggled with touchdowns after that point because this team was not down around the goal line. So, you know, he's the Browns last year with the struggle at quarterback at the end of the season for a good example of what? could be a red flag for a bejean. Yeah, but he's got the insulation of pass catching. Yeah, the pass catching here for Chubb is the really exciting thing in 2023. You've lost Kareem Hunt's 40 plus targets and you have Chubb right now.

You know, obviously it's small. It's anecdotal. But, you know, you keep seeing a video out of camp right now, catching the pass out of the backfield. And it's just nice to see that they are involving him in that way in camp right now. I've got him going just 10 more targets than last year. He had 37 last year, 47 this year. 47 would be great, though. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like if you're telling me he's around 50 targets when he's a 1,500 yard 10 touchdown rushing machine. Yeah, I'm fully in on Nick Chubb. The rushing machine is the best name you could ever give Nick Chub. I'm making a note. He is the rushing machine. Yeah. You just put a coin in and you get the same thing every game. The dude for his career. He's played five years in the NFL. Is he still over five? He's at five point three. He's still over five. He's played for five years. All right. At number two and number one, I'm going to lump them together here, guys, because they do the same stuff.

which is everything. Austin Echler at number two, Christian McCaffrey at number one. That's why Bejohn is Bejohn. It's like the only guys in the league to do everything is Austin Echler and Christian McCaffrey. And take one and Bejohn. Yeah. And also the draft capital for Bejohn, like the players that are drafted there, they always seem to do it. I mean, I guess Fournette really didn't. But he still had a pretty good rookie season, right? But McCaffrey did. Zeke did. Those early running backs do at Berkeley. But Austin Echler last year, dominant yet again. He's at 36 Red Zone touchdowns in two years. You know, his own quote on how important this season is because he's looking for that cash money. Yeah. And he said this season will be one of the most impactful seasons I've ever had. Like I believe him because he's got that capability in this offense. Variable, new offensive coordinator, kind of he's been a.

extreme efficiency touchdown score. That's the thing that Mike's brought to light. I mean, Jason and I haven't met two. Mike's got him down a little bit. I have to believe that that is entirely related to a little bit of regression touchdown wise. Yeah, it's just, I mean, yeah, he's done it for basically his entire career, but just betting on a little return down to more of a league average, not that Austin Eckler is any, an average player by any stretch. But just take some of the efficiency down and then some of the targets down, which his targets last year were absolutely incredible for fantasy football. But you were missing Keenan Allen for a huge chunk of the season. You would miss Mike Williams here and there. They made the investment on Quentin Johnston to kind of back that wide receiver up or the wide receiver room up and have a healthy guy out there on the field. So that's all that's happened for me. But Echler is a like,

You want to take Echler number one in the draft? It doesn't bother me. My ranking is not a besmirching of Austin Echler at all. I just have some other guys projected a little bit higher. When you're great and there's no one else on the depth chart and you play for a great offense with a great quarterback and a nice offensive coordinator, you're just safe. And that's what he is. He doesn't. He's not going to catch as many passes this year as he did last year. What you're talking about, Mike, when he was on the field with all, with Mike Williams and Keenan Allen healthy, his target share was vastly different than when one of those were missing. But he doesn't need to. You know, he had 127 targets this year. Two years ago, two years ago, he only had 94. That's probably closer to where he'll be this year. But he was the running back too. This defense has always been a defensive promise, not return. And so because of that, they've had to come back in games. And he is the quintessential.

He can get you eight receptions on like two drives at the end of the game. It's so nice. And so if the defense isn't stepping up, that's my area of like if they're in the lead of more games, I think you're going to see a couple things with that clerk. Less pass catches. Is that even a phrase? Less past catching. And also potentially some time off the field. I mean, they do want to try to work people in. McCaffrey comes in at number one. His quote this offseason, it's great mastering the 49ers offense rather than learning it on the fly. A recent article from the athletics said the 49ers dedication to throwing to their tailbacks this summer makes you think 1,000 a thousand as well in the cards for Christian McCaffrey. It's been the major theme of the offseason. I've talked often about finding the time to cash in on a running back in dynasty for huge halls. I thought about it with McCaffrey. I then thought about it again.

And so I unthought about that. But then you were like, I'd like to win though. I was like, this year is going to be so, so, so good yet again for Christian McCaffrey. He's better than everybody else. People want to bring up the fact that in the games that Elijah Mitchell played, he wasn't as good. That does not concern me at all. There is touchdown variables that were in play in those games. He is going to be so incredibly dominant. And I'm not telling you anything you don't know. No, he was, the splits with Elijah Mitchell and without Elijah Mitchell were real and they were drastic. They were snap percentages, carries across the board. But with Elijah Mitchell, he was the running back one.

It was just without Elijah Mitchell. He was the running back zero. Yes, he was the running back zero. He currently hurt again, Elijah Mitchell. Right. There's no worries with Christian McCaffrey. He's my number one overall pick. I'll take him over Justin Jefferson, which is not what ADP is doing right now. I just like having a player that is like no one else. I applaud the fact that that statement is what the 49ers team thought. I would like a player that's not like anybody else. Let's go get the best player in the game at the position and just put them on our football team. Like this is the most fantasy football move ever. It was. Like just we need to go and upgrade this part of our team. So, yeah, McCaffrey at number one. That'll do it for today's episode. On Wednesday, we got the quarterback rankings countdown. Thursday. We're into preseason power up. We're going into a full week of preseason football. Hold your breath on the injuries.

Try to enjoy the eight snaps the starters get this week. We'll be looking at what some of these rookies, the opportunities they get, the fact that you're going to see the Taj Spears and other backs like that, get a chance to, Roshan Johnson, get a chance to get on the field and see some snaps the way we did with Israel, Abanakanda and company. Mock draft on Friday as well. Live show in L.A. on. August 26th, come see us, bowlerslive.com. Yeah, and then check out the Ultimate Draft Kit if this wasn't enough for you today, which I know it wasn't. It's just an hour. Never a night. You've got more hours in the day. Ultimate DraftKit.com back tomorrow with another episode. Goodbye. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FF ballers.