Early RB Rankings: 11-20 + Mike’s Shattered Dreams - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/15

put the pieces of the puzzle together for Echler's season because of the injury. But there was two games where he had a single target. And that's, you know, that can mess up an entire average. One was week one with Taylor as the quarterback. And that's when we all, we all. That's when I took my victory lap. Yes, you took your victory lap. I as a supporter of Austin Echler last year was really, really freaked out. But then week two, the unfortunate, uh, uh, uh,

shot injury to Taylor turned into Herbert starting for the rest of the year. And the other game where Echler had a single target, it's because he got knocked out at the very beginning of the game in week four against Tampa Bay. But other than that, I mean, his utilization in the passing, it was absolutely outstanding. So if we could just get those.

Let's get Echler. There's a couple of rushing touchdowns over here. Haven't you spoken a lot, Jason, about believing that the Chargers defense will vastly improve and change some of the pace of play stuff? Yes, I do think that. And that's where I'm a little bit down on the passing game. On the Herbert side? On the Herbert side from the step forward upside. But I don't think that will affect the running game that much with the improved offensive line. All right. Let's...

Put a couple of running backs together here with similar stories. 12 and 13. 12 is Antonio Gibson. 13 is J.K. Dobbins. We all agree. We all have Gibson at 12, so consensus 12 makes sense. And then on Dobbins, you guys both have them at 13. I got them at 16. I'm a little less bullish as of right now. So Gibson is a player where I think the layup easy argument against Antonio Gibson. Oh, it's easy.

It's the touchdown. Yes. Disproportionate level of touchdowns. 11 touchdowns on 170 carries. I am more excited about Gibson because of what he did last year on the limited amount of work where I'm not too concerned about it. I think he gets more opportunities this year. I think it's a great team. And I think when you look at how running backs are utilized year two under kind of a veteran head coach.

who needs to have some trust built. I think that's part of the J.D. McKistic experiment. And part of what he did as a head coach was, look, I'm not going to put this rookie in the position to be my third down back and pass protect. I'm not going to put him in the position to be who were fully dependent on every snap. But you earn that trust, camp, year two, Antonio Gibson, with the limited amount of work even in college, this is an opportunity to get to 220, 30, carry-wise.

And yeah, maybe the touchdowns are seven, nine, whatever. You're going to be happy.

He's going to be so freaking good. I mean, he's going to be so unbelievably good for fantasy. I've got him at 12, but he could, he's a guy that in my view could finish as a top five guy. He is so talented. It reminds me so much of when we were singing the name of David Johnson comes out. He had limited opportunities as a rookie, but was still outstanding. I think he finished in the top 10 because he had crazy touchdowns. Yeah, David Johnson did.

very similar to Antonio Gibson. And there were, well, you know, the touchdown rate will come down for David Johnson. And maybe the touchdown rate comes down from Gibson. But I expect him to be the guy. I mean, McKissick was out there in large part because of a combination of the fact that Antonio Gibson was a rookie. Andy, you just eloquently stated, like not putting him in those positions mixed with Alex. It was eloquent, wasn't it? It was so eloquent. But mixed with Alex Smith, who all he does is just like. Mm-hmm.

Check down, check down, check down. Like, that's not happening for McKissick this year with Fitzmagic there. I think that the offense is so much improved with Ryan Fitzpatrick and the addition of Curtis Samuel that Antonio Gibson is going to be awesome. The truly sad part of last year was Antonio Gibson was just starting to like really, really cook for the, uh,

coming into the fantasy playoffs before the unfortunate turf toe injury against the Pittsburgh Steelers. And that was like we didn't get to see it where Gibson had just spent five weeks straight beating the crap out of bad defenses. You know, I knocked, not knocked, but you got to highlight David Montgomery's end of season because he was matched up perfectly with this, with multiple games in a row against poor rushing defenses.

Gibson had that too, with multiple games against Dallas, the Giants. And then the real test was going to be the Pittsburgh Steelers and unfortunately got hurt right at the beginning of the game. But I'm with Jason that Gibson is so interesting where the argument, the argument in the draft coming out of the draft was, did Washington just draft a wide receiver? Did they draft a running back? No, he's running back. Okay, well, Gibson has never seen X amount of carries.

He immediately comes in his rookie year and sees 170 carries in 14 games. The ceiling for Gibson is a top five player. If they truly unlock his skill set in the passing game, I don't know if that skill set will be fully unleashed because McKissick is still there for another year. But Gibson's future, it is just, it is.

very, very bright. I expect there to be plenty of eye roll moments this year with McKissick on the field when you hope that gives us. Certainly. And those will still exist. Now, moving on to Dobbins. J.K. Dobbins is a very, very talented player that is going to, I'm afraid this is like the rhetoric that will continue with Baltimore for years to come. There is a pie problem for J.K. Dobbins, potentially. He is a dynamic, explosive player.

Lamar is just a pie eater. He's a pie destroyer. And he is the part of the problem here. Part of what's wrong with loving J.K. Dobbins for me and why I'm a little bit lower is simply because he might do something great on his 12 opportunities or his 13 opportunities, but he might not. And when you have lower opportunities than other running backs in the same range, you may be disappointed. Their running back one is Lamar Jackson. The running back two is probably...

J.K. Dobbins, but they like Gus Edwards. They're willing to give him the rock. And so when you talk about, this reminds me of Cam Newton with like Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams. So you got potential goal line issues from just variability, right? Like is Lamar going to run it in? Is it going to be, you know, how big is that goal line pie going to be? And then two hyper talented players like Jay Stu and DeWill were where it's like, oh man, did I pick the right game? So that would be my.

concerns that put him slightly outside the RB1 category for me. But he's a great player. He certainly has more worries than some of the other guys we've talked about. But I loved his college tape. And then when we saw him take the job over for Mark Ingram, he was just great. He was absolutely fantastic for fantasy. Didn't have any bad weeks pretty much, you know, once he came back from the injury game in Pittsburgh and was outstanding. You look at the Baltimore Ravens. You say, okay, the passing game is

not great for fantasy, but their offense is great for fantasy, and that's because of the running game. You go back two years, Mark Ingram was the running back eight. And so now, you know, there is a top 10 running back fantasy option on this team. The offense is capable of producing that. J.K. Dobbins is talented enough. So I like J.K. Dobbins here, but I do concede that he's not going to catch a ton of balls, which stinks. And then if the touchdown regression happens, which.

It probably will. A little bit. You know, you could fall out of the top 15. It will definitely happen because he was scoring a rushing touchdown on every 11 carries. That's not sustainable. No, that is certainly. Didn't Ingram do something very similar to the year before? Yeah. I'm in on Dobbins. I think he is going to be solid that and you'll, you will get.

vultured by Lamar Jackson at the goal line several times throughout the season, but that's just part of the ride that you're signing up for. Or vultured from the 50 yard line. Yeah, or that too. But the Dobbins, what he showed as a college player, it immediately showed up as a pro. 9% of his rushing attempts were for big gains. So 9% of his rushes were 15 or more yards on the ground. He has home run hitting ability, which I mean, even the couple years ago,

When Mark Ingram was solid for fantasy because he was scoring a bunch of touchdowns, Ingram didn't, his home run years were long gone. But Dobbins is young and he is, Dobbins has juice. I would be afraid to have him as my one. I agree with that. I don't want him as my running back one. I'm curious where he will end up going around draft time. Like when you look at him and Cam Acres, what separate, because there's three away in these early rankings. Right. Like what separates them?

I think the hope of a passing game for Acres puts him ahead of the pack. Like that is ahead of these two. I think both go in the second. Okay. All right. Let's look at the next couple names on the list here. Joe Mixen and Clyde Edwards-A-Layer. Yay. Joe Mixon, I'm the highest, I guess, by a lot.

Last year, average 24 opportunities a game, only played six games, 20 opportunities a game the year before. I like where Cincinnati's going. No, Gio Bernard, Joe Burroughs' second year. Joe Mixon is still young, and it's his opportunity in this offense. Over the last 16 games played for Mixon, he's got 1,300 rushing yards, 8 rushing touchdowns, 42 receptions. Those numbers are great. Can he stay healthy? Well, I'm going to presume health for Joe Nixon. I don't think he's in the category of...

eternally in need of repair yet. So people want to talk about the offensive line. It's a huge problem, but it could be three-fifths different this year. I mean, Jonah Williams, their top pick is coming back. They signed Riley Reef, and they could spin the fifth pick on Sewell, and those three things could make a humongous difference in this offense, its ability to move the football. So I'm still a believer that Joe Mixon is a top 12 talent fantasy wise.

Yeah, I don't blame you. There are numbers that would support a pro Joe Mixen fantasy finish. And there are numbers that would support, you know, letting him pass at his ADP and take someone a little bit later. When you talk about opportunities, you know, his numbers, which, you know, we used 2019 because he was injured in 2020, he would have had the fourth most.

you know, touches opportunities in the league on a per game basis. And actually, if you look at the value of passing over that, it was top three. So when you're getting the ball that much, you're going to be great for fantasy. But, Mike and I have a little game. This game, it's a fun one. Yeah. Well, this is going to be a nightmare because the amount of games Joe Mixing has missed in the last couple of years.

There's going to be names that come across. Joe Mixon or like Jerry Seinfeld. I mean, I don't even know what this is going to be. Jerry Seinfeld much funnier. Yes, that's true. Joe Mixon or Chris Carson. Now here's the thing. You're right. Joe Mixson's missed a bunch of games. This is the setup. But Chris Carson has two. How dare you? This setup is actually in your favor. Since 2017, they've both had four seasons. Joe Mixon has five more games played than Chris Carson. Great. 50 to 45. So.

Yeah, 50 games. Who has more top 24 weeks, Joe Mixen or Chris Carson with five extra games to mix it? Chris Carson. That is correct. Yeah, I mean. Oh, thank you, Mike. Yeah, one for one. Okay. Top 20 games. So we're just going to take, we're going to keep walking this down the ship. How about this? Top 15. Top 15 games more for Joe Mixen or Chris Carson.

Top 15, but you're going to, I mean, this is all Chris Carson, I'm sure. Well, yep, it's Chris Carson. Top 10. Oh, they're tied. You guys like Chris Carson? I do like Chris Carson. I think he's going to be a good value in this year's draft. So I didn't even know we were going to fully make that into a game, but. Oh, did you just invent that just now? Yeah, the play games, first time. The game had to show up because you have Joe Mixing at 10 while you have Chris Carson at 22. Yeah.

That's disgusting. Okay. I accept that. Wait, let me ask the computer. Yes. Disgusting? You are disgusting. Good, thank you. There's a long way to go between now and then. I don't really have any, I don't have any guilt defending Joe Mixon as a top 12 guy. When I'm looking for opportunity at running back, and this is just the way I play fantasy. I look for opportunity on a player with a high amount of the teams.