PodcastFrom Fantasy Football Today
2026 RB Tiers EXPLAINED! Rankings, Projections & Draft Strategy (07/14 Fantasy Football Podcast)
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 10 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Jul 14, 2026
Published
Tue, July 14, 2026
10
Player insights
10
Players mentioned
Topics
Bijan RobinsonChase BrownChristian McCaffreyDe'Von AchaneJames CookJonathan TaylorKenneth Walker IIIKyle PittsSaquon BarkleyZachariah Branch
Player analysis
Player insights
Bijan Robinson
PositiveRole0:17
Bijan Robinson had 103 targets last year with a career-high target per carry rate, but his target volume could decline under the new Stefanski offense, which is less geared toward throwing to running backs compared to his previous system.
Insight pageChase Brown
PositiveProjection0:23
Chase Brown is included in a seven-man tier with other running backs, positioned as a mid-tier option in the running back rankings.
Insight pageChristian McCaffrey
PositiveProjection0:18
Christian McCaffrey is positioned as a tier-one elite running back alongside Jonathan Taylor, with both averaging over 20 PPR fantasy points per game last year.
Insight pageDe'Von Achane
PositiveProjection0:18
Devon Achane is positioned in a tier with elite running backs and is expected to be a first-round caliber player in fantasy drafts.
Insight pageJames Cook
PositiveProjection0:14
James Cook led the NFL in rushing yards last year and is positioned as a potential first-round running back with upside if he gets more involved in the passing game.
Insight pageJonathan Taylor
PositiveProjection0:18
Jonathan Taylor was the number one running back per game in non-PPR and number two per game in half-PPR last year, with projections showing he is 2.5 points higher per game than James Cook this year.
Insight pageKenneth Walker III
PositiveProjection0:23
Kenneth Walker is included in a seven-man tier with other running backs, positioned as a mid-tier option in the running back rankings.
Insight pageKyle Pitts
PositiveRole0:06
Kyle Pitts' target share could be negatively impacted if rookie Zachariah Branch becomes the second or third target option for the Falcons, as projected by the team's beat writer.
Insight pageSaquon Barkley
PositiveProjection0:23
Saquon Barkley is included in a seven-man tier with other running backs, positioned as a mid-tier option in the running back rankings.
Insight pageZachariah Branch
PositiveRole0:06
Rookie wide receiver Zachariah Branch could be top three in targets for the Falcons, potentially second in targets, which could hurt Kyle Pitts' target share if the projection holds true.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00This past summer, my wife and I took my parents, our son, and our granddaughter on vacation to Tennessee.
0:06We wanted to get out into nature, so we found the perfect cabin on Airbnb where all four generations could stay together.
0:14The amenities really made the trip special. We had our own hot tub with a mountain view, a fire pit for late night s'mores, and a full kitchen.
0:23When you're traveling with four generations, eating every meal out gets expensive, so it was great to make bacon and eggs for
0:31breakfast one morning and grill steaks for dinner another night.
0:34Booking a stay like this gives you the flexibility to vacation how you want, where you want, with the people who matter most.
0:42But it got me thinking, Airbnb isn't just great for finding places to stay, you can also list your own home when you're away.
0:50It's nice that the same platform I use to book family vacations can also help me earn a little extra money during
0:57high demand weekends without having to upend my daily life.
1:01Honestly, listing my house feels like a smart thing to do because it's just so incredibly practical.
1:07I'm already going to be traveling anyway, so why not earn a little extra money to put toward an upcoming vacation, help
1:14offset the cost of my flights, or upgrade my travel gear?
1:18Turns an empty house into an easy opportunity while you enjoy your own time off.
1:23Your home might be worth more than you think.
1:26Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
1:31What a play! Can you believe this? I had no idea.
1:35It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet.
1:41He's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
1:47Running back tears on Tuesday, July 14th. As we welcome you to Fantasy Football Today, we'll talk about the best of the best, B.
1:55John Robinson, Jameeric Gibbs. But really, go down the draft board and talk about, at what point are we talking about backup running backs?
2:03How many running backs do you want in the first five or six tiers, for example?
2:08Adam Azer, Jamie Isenberg, and Heath Cummings welcoming you to the show.
2:12What did you guys learn about quarterbacks yesterday? Did you learn a lot?
2:17Did you have a nice educational session? Yes. It was great.
2:20Yeah. It's really, I was so mad last night, because I had my FSGA, I'll talk about this a little bit later
2:28when you ask one of the running back questions, but I had my FSGA Champions League draft last night.
2:34And I just totally didn't do the thing that I said I should, because it was a 14-team draft, and I got
2:42to round five, and there was nobody I wanted to draft.
2:45And so I drafted Drake May. And then I hated myself seven rounds later, because Jared Goff was still available in round 12 of a 14-team draft.
2:54You did the right thing. Just wait. You did the right thing.
2:59You know what I was so happy about last night?
3:02What? And everybody needs to do it again. Wish Dave a happy birthday.
3:06Oh, yeah. Yes. Oh, Thomas, do we have that picture that someone made?
3:11I think we can pull it up. Did you see that?
3:14It was pretty rude, really. Yeah, and me look like, well, accurately, the weakest person.
3:20I didn't even see you. Oh, here we go.
3:23Oh, yeah, you're really straining to lift up his calf.
3:26Jamie and I are just holding Dave like 90% of his weight, no problem at all.
3:31And Adam can barely lift up his shoe. Yeah.
3:34Happy 50th. Dave looks the same since the first day I met him.
3:39He looks the same in that picture, too. Yep, he sure does.
3:43All right, so Dave's turning 50 this month. Keep wishing him a happy 50th.
3:48Yeah, but don't say it's from us. Yeah, I'll get blamed for it, apparently.
3:52Don't tag us. Don't do it again, so just got to be new people.
3:57News and notes. Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson will not face felony charges for domestic violence, but he still could face discipline from the NFL.
4:06All right, more importantly, well, no, sorry. Shouldn't have said it like that.
4:10I guess more fantasy relevant. Baker Mayfield played through a lot of injuries.
4:14He talked about it on the Netflix documentary. All right, so it was a sprained MCL and PCL and a bone bruise
4:22in his knee in week two, and then a bicep slash tendon injury in week three, and then he aggravated the bone
4:29bruise in week seven, and then Mayfield had an AC joint, which is a shoulder injury, in week 12.
4:36And his former teammate, Levante David, said Mayfield had an oblique injury, and he also mentioned other injuries.
4:42He still somehow managed to rush for more than 22 yards per game for the second consecutive season.
4:48Mayfield's previous career high was 10.3 rushing yards per game before 2024, but Heath is someone who has been, I guess, low
4:55on Mayfield, a little wary of the bounce back here.
4:59What do you make of all this? This was, according to him, according to Levante David, a really, really injured year for
5:06him, and he played through it, didn't miss a game.
5:09Yeah, I mean, I think it's a, if you want to bet on a Baker Mayfield bounce back, that gives you all the ammunition that you need.
5:19And you're not any more convinced? Oh, I'm bouncing, I'm betting on a little bit of a bounce back.
5:25I don't think anybody should expect 2024 Baker Mayfield, because that was the best season of his eight-year career.
5:31Yeah, okay, fair, yeah, fair enough. I am very intrigued about the rushing yards.
5:36I mean, that's one thing I did not think he could repeat in 2025, and he did.
5:42Pretty cool. Okay, Jamie, let's talk about a couple of players that, you know, the Athletics said could have maybe bigger roles
5:49than we thought, just their beat writers. And I don't know that would make them necessarily fantasy relevant, but it could hurt guys that we like.
5:58So one of them, Daniel Popper, who covers the Chargers, thinks that Charlie Kohler is going to get more opportunities in the
6:06passing game than he did in Baltimore. This is a tight end, Charlie Kohler, rarely used in Baltimore.
6:12Now with the Chargers. And Josh Kendall of the Athletics, who covers the Falcons, thinks that rookie wide receiver Zachariah Branch will
6:19be top three in targets, and maybe even second in targets.
6:23And I assume that right now we think it's going to be London, Pitts, Bijan.
6:28Certainly London won, and then I don't know about Pitts versus Bijan.
6:32But if Branch is top three in targets, maybe that hurts Kyle Pitts.
6:36Anyway, what do you think about the Kohler and Branch speculation?
6:40I'll start with Branch. I think he could be third on the team in targets.
6:45It's not hard to see him getting 110, potentially, if they're going to be a little bit more pass-heavy, and Bijan doesn't
6:53get to 109, I believe is what he had last year.
6:56So you could see a little bit of a decline in targets for Bijan Robinson, especially if they maybe try to limit
7:04his touches a little bit as he's getting one year older and trying to see if they have a playoff run in them.
7:12So I could see that one being more realistic than the other one.
7:16I mean, Charlie Kohler being better than he ever has in his career, sure.
7:21I mean, if he catches, what is it, 25 passes maybe?
7:24Like that's something that's realistic. Is he going to impact everybody else on the team?
7:29I mean, I think once you get past the top two receivers, there's probably an opportunity for somebody to be third.
7:37I don't think anybody would say Charlie Kohler over Arande Gadsden or David Njoku or Trey Harris or Omari Hampton or Keaton
7:44Mitchell, like you go down the line. So sure, if we see a lot more 13 personnel and more tight ends on
7:51the field, then he could be a factor. To ruin the other guys, no chance.
7:56I mean, it's mostly just that we hope both of these guys are wrong.
8:01But yeah, if like I was looking at the Kevin Stefanski thing and he's, Dave, I think has talked about how tight
8:09end targets and running back targets often negatively impact each other.
8:12And it's been about a 27% target share for tight ends and 16% for running backs in the Stefanski offense.
8:19So I would expect if Branch is third, and I hope he's not second, but if he's third, it might hurt Bijan a little bit.
8:28Okay. We got a lot of other podcasts in case you want to keep listening to great podcasts or start listening to great podcasts.
8:36I'm going to show you if you're on YouTube.
8:39Go to cbssports.com slash podcast. Deep waters. This is a fighting podcast.
8:43We'll go ultimate combat sports, MMA, deep waters, new podcast.
8:46Check it out. Call it what you want. Soccer podcast.
8:50We got fantasy baseball today. The early edge, a daily sports line betting podcast.
8:54Eye on college basketball. Some garbage here. Fantasy something, whatever.
8:58Fantasy football today. Dynasty beyond the box score inside college basketball.
9:01Now with the first pick NFL draft podcast, pushing the pile with Kyle Long and Mike Renner.
9:07This is an NFL podcast with some great insight.
9:10Cover three for college football. Attacking third, another soccer podcast.
9:14Kicking it with Kate Scott. And you can see the rest of the list.
9:18You got to scroll back up. Keith, you need a little bit more of a description there, man.
9:24Wow. That is, well, fantasy football today. Dynasty podcast.
9:27That pretty much covers it all. That's a very.
9:30I'm surprised that they fit the beyond the box score description in that little tiny box.
9:36It's, it's kind of fitting really. If you think about it.
9:40Yes, it is. I was on beyond the box score and like Jacob had to stretch to get us to 20 minutes,
9:47but I would, I would really, we have wide receivers coming up tomorrow.
9:51We'll talk about some of the things that Jacob and I talked about, but we really spent, we spent 20 minutes on
9:59say flowers and I only got more excited. And Jacob and I will be talking about Trey McBride next week.
10:06We were going to do it yesterday, but we're going to do it next week.
10:11All right. Back to the running back tears or let's begin it here with just one question.
10:16I had a bunch of questions about tears yesterday with quarterbacks.
10:20It's a little bit different with running backs here because you're drafting so many of them.
10:26You should have at least two running backs by the time you finish.
10:30Which tier, Jamie? Five. Okay. I would say ideally six, but I mentioned last night I was in that a 14 team
10:37draft and I started with a Munra St. Brown at the eighth pick followed by Rashi Rice in round two, followed by Zay flowers at 36th overall.
10:47And so I had to go down into tier seven for my second running back.
10:52But if you, if you're able to draft three top 12 wide receivers, then maybe it's a little bit lower, right?
10:59There are no rules, just guidelines. Be flexible. Tier five for Jamie.
11:03He said, you should have two by the time this tier is done.
11:07Javante Williams, breeze hall, cam Scadaboo, Travis, ETN, HN, Quinn, John Judkins, Deandre Swift, and David Montgomery.
11:13Tier six for Heath is, uh, uh, similar names.
11:16Uh, some of them Scadaboo, Swift, Judkins, Javante Williams, Travis, ETN, HN, and Jeremiah love.
11:21Who is, are you going to say both of those last names?
11:25I don't know the entire season. I want to say ETN because I think it just, it's just so confusing.
11:32I think for people, I mean, if I say Travis first, it's not, but I like, I used to say Alvin Kamara, Camara.
11:40So I guess it kind of, then somebody try to correct us and say it's each hand and HN.
11:46No, it's not. He said HN. He said HN.
11:49Didn't he at his press conference said exactly the same way that Devon HN says it.
11:55It used to be Devin HN. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, uh, once you get to, let's see.
12:00So that would be like, you know, 20, 22, 23 ish running backs.
12:04Try to have two of them. I was actually, uh, speaking of pronunciations.
12:09Um, so as a baseball tournament this past week and for the championship games, um, which my son advanced to for West
12:16Boca baseball and Mark Ingram son advanced to for also West Boca baseball, different teams.
12:21Um, um, so I'm standing next to Mark and I was telling them a story that, uh, when I was in the
12:29dolphins press box many years ago and they were trying to pronounce the Vikings in-house press box guy was trying to learn the pronunciations of the players.
12:38And I was trying to learn at a Wally Ogunli is name to say it correctly for when he made a play
12:45and just was butchering it left and right. And the dolphins PR guy at the time was trying to correct him.
12:52And I was just laughing my, my butt off.
12:55Um, uh, and I said to Mark, I'm like, do you ever have any like struggles that he was like, this is
13:03the reason he's not in doing play by play.
13:06He said, I doesn't, he doesn't want to butcher names.
13:09Like we should just come up. Like we don't have to say correctly for our purposes to people.
13:15Like you just say Travis E people know you're talking about.
13:19I guess I could do that. But yeah, I, I think pronunciation as someone who's had his name mispronounced basically my entire life.
13:27When I graduated college, they said Adam Scott easier.
13:30And it really, yeah, it's a I Z. They asked us to write it out phonetically on a card.
13:36And I don't remember what I wrote, but what I wrote confused her.
13:41So she said, but I just, I, I like to pronounce people's names, right?
13:45If I can. Um, what do you think they called my sons?
13:50What do you think they called my last name when they announced his name?
13:54It was Simon Eisenberg. No. How could it be anything other than Eisenberg?
13:59Uh, Ellsberg. I was an L. Oh, that is good.
14:02I'm telling you, this guy had the roughest day of his life trying to pronounce these names.
14:08All right, let's get to, uh, some running back stuff.
14:11Here are some group chat stats. I'm just run through them here.
14:15B. John Robinson had only 11 touchdowns in 17, 17 games.
14:19He still averaged 22 PPR fantasy points per game.
14:22That is the fewest amount of touchdowns for a running back who averaged 20 or more points per game since Ezekiel Elliott in, I want to say 2019.
14:31He had nine touchdowns in 15 games and averaged 22.1 points per game.
14:36So B. John Robinson, amazing season. And he only scored 11 total touchdowns.
14:40Jameer Gibbs in seven games in his career without David Montgomery has averaged 28.6 PPR fantasy points per game.
14:47It's insane. James Cook led the NFL in rushing last year.
14:50That's, I think, fun trivia. I'm not sure how many people would have, would guess that no running back has won consecutive
14:58rushing titles since, of course, Derek Henry in 2019 and 2020.
15:02And speaking of Henry over the last seven seasons, Derek Henry has been first or second in rushing yards per game in six of the last seven seasons.
15:11He's amazing. He has been top three in total yards per game among running backs in five of the last seven seasons.
15:18He was seventh in total yards per game last year.
15:22So those are some group chats. That's about some of the best running backs in football.
15:27Here is a dreadful email of the day. It is from Lance in Phoenix.
15:32He has another idea for breaking ties in overtime at the end of overtime.
15:37Kickers kick field goals from 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 yards team with the most field goals wins.
15:43How many times have we had? What's that? What was this person's name?
15:48Uh, Lance. I just want to know what John's, uh, John breach.
15:52How many, how many ties have we had in like the last five years?
15:56We had one last year. They're pretty rare. We're solving a problem.
16:00That isn't a problem. Yeah. Well, this is not the solution.
16:04Lance love, love the enthusiasm. Hate the call. We'll be right back with running back tears on fantasy football today.
16:11We are supported by ring. Know your home is safe when you're away this summer with ring it's protected.
16:17There's nothing worse than worrying about your house when you should be relaxing on vacation.
16:22Luckily ring battery doorbell lets you keep track of deliveries at the door.
16:27So your packages will be there for you when you get back.
16:31If you want to check in on what's happening in the yard, you can zoom in to catch every detail with clear
16:38retinal 2k video on outdoor cam plus for total peace of mind.
16:42You can also know if unexpected motion is detected and arm your security system from anywhere, right in the ring app with ring alarm subscription required.
16:51I know for me, I've been traveling a lot this summer for baseball tournaments and just to know that my packages are safe.
16:59And if anybody tries to come close to them, I could just talk to my ring camera and say, bye bye buddy.
17:06These are mine. So having ring is definitely great for your peace of mind when you're traveling.
17:12Travel without worries this summer, knowing your home is safe with ring.
17:16It's protected shop cameras, doorbells, and more right now at ring.com.
17:20You know, Jamie's been kind of asking like, what should we do for Dave for his 50th birthday?
17:26We could get him a new hamster. That's true.
17:29All right. Tier one is a two player tier.
17:32Jameer Gibbs and Bijan Robinson for both Jamie and Heath.
17:35I will ask one quick question and then we'll move on.
17:39Heath, would you argue it's easy to argue it with Gibbs?
17:43Would you argue that both of these players, their situation has gotten better this year compared to 2025?
17:49Probably. I think Brian Robinson Jr. is closer to Tyler Algier than Isaiah Pacheco is to David Montgomery.
17:55And I think there's some risk that the Stefanski offense means fewer targets for Bijan than he had in the offense last
18:02year, which was really geared towards throwing to the running back.
18:06So I'm not, I'm not as sure about Bijan, which is why Gibbs is, is our consensus RB one, but probably.
18:13Yeah. He had a career high target per outrun rate.
18:17It could just come down. He had a hundred and three targets, Bijan Robinson, but I think we expect the touchdowns to
18:24go up again, only 11 touchdowns, seven rushing for receiving.
18:27Okay. That's tier one. Tier two is slightly different.
18:31James cook is in tier two for Jamie, but not for Heath.
18:35It's Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey for both of them.
18:38And Jamie, you have James cook joining Taylor and McCaffrey in tier two, whereas Heath does not have cook into your two.
18:45He has cook into your three with Devon H.
18:48And why did you put cook in with Taylor and McCaffrey, Jamie?
18:52These are all my first round running backs. So I think all these guys belong in round one, Gibbs and Bijan being
19:00the first two overall picks for me. And then Taylor, McCaffrey cook, whatever order you think they should go.
19:06I think they should go in the first round and would not be surprised if by the time we get to August,
19:13I have cook ahead of both of those guys.
19:17I just think that there's so much upside for him.
19:20If he does get a little bit more involved in the passing game, which is something you're hearing a little bit out of Buffalo.
19:28And Heath, you have just McCaffrey and Taylor. Your next tier has cook and a Chan.
19:33I, I tried to do mine just kind of so they'd be a little bit different.
19:39The first five or six tiers don't have much as much to do with my rankings as they do with my projections,
19:46just to kind of highlight where those big breaks are in the projections.
19:51And Taylor was three and a half points per game, better than James cook and cooks career year.
19:57And Taylor's pretty much always been a couple of points better per game than James cook.
20:02And he's two and a half points higher in the projections this year than James cook.
20:08So these Taylor and McCaffrey, like they're not safe and Taylor could see his workload come down or he could have another
20:15one of those years where he doesn't get the ball thrown to him as much or Daniel Jones could go back to
20:22being Daniel Jones, but it just looking at a mean projection, there's a big gap between McCaffrey and Taylor and James cook.
20:30Taylor was the number one running back per game in non PPR number two per game and half PPR.
20:36And Taylor was number four per game and full PPR.
20:40But there were really like five elite running backs last year.
20:43And that was McCaffrey, B. John Gibbs, Taylor and H and all averaging more than 20 PPR fantasy points per game.
20:51Jake Seeley gave an interesting stat on Thursday show with Dave.
20:54He said that Taylor averaged 30 fantasy. I hope I'm not misquoting him.
20:59If I have the number slightly wrong, the concept is the same.
21:0330 fantasy points per game and wins 10 points per game in losses.
21:07And they were identical basically, whether it was Daniel Jones, the quarterback or whoever else, Phillip rivers, whatever they were using at the end of, of the year.
21:17And then I even went back to 2024 and 2024 Taylor averaged 22.6 points per game and wins and 13.7 in losses.
21:24So I don't know what to, they're not going to go in 17, but they're not going to go 17.
21:31No, they're not gonna go 17 and no, but it is two years in a row, pretty big splits.
21:37I feel like that's a little fluky. And it's also a little bit of like a chicken and egg thing.
21:44Cause when he has good games, they're more likely to win.
21:48Um, but he, what do you make of that?
21:51Like looking at their schedule, it doesn't scream hard at all.
21:54Um, I, I'm not saying it's necessarily one of the easiest schedules.
21:59They do have both the Titans and the Browns in the fantasy playoffs.
22:03They also get to play the giants and the Colts and the Titans again, and the Steelers and the commanders.
22:10Like they've got, they're probably a 10 win team as we look at them right now.
22:15And so if I just kind of expect, maybe you're going to get 10 games where he's at 24 points plus and seven, where he really struggles.
22:24I think that the two big things for them is one, will Daniel Jones stay healthy the entire year?
22:31And two, you kind of alluded to this, Adam, will he be more involved in the passing game?
22:37Because this is really the first time you could see an easy path to that happening.
22:42Well, he had 46 cats. Taylor had 46 catches last year, which I think is great.
22:48I mean, I used to, I think so. He's, he's been on pay.
22:52I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, has a seven-man tier of Devon A.
23:01Chan, and then Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, Hampton, Gentie, Barkley, Derrick Henry.
23:05First thing to note, Gentie on Fantasy Pros is RB4, I believe.
23:10He's going eighth or ninth overall. He went fourth overall in the draft I did last week.
23:15Wow, Gentie, wow. We're definitely lower on him than most.
23:19But as we look at this tier for Heath, James Cook we already discussed, A.
23:24Chan is in tier three for Heath, but obviously it's a two-person tier.
23:28So I think the question is, Jamie, why do you have A.
23:32Chan, who was one of those five elites last year, in a tier with Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, Omari and Hampton, Ashton Gentie, Saquon Barkley, and Derrick Henry?
23:42So these are all my round two running backs, and I think you kind of know the theme already for A.
23:49Chan if you've been listening to us for the majority of the offseason.
23:53The Dolphins could clearly be terrible. That does not mean he's going to completely fall off because I think he'll probably be
24:01the entire offense or the majority of the offense and hopefully still be involved in the passing game.
24:07But I think, again, we kind of expect, I expect his role in the passing game to decrease a little bit.
24:14I don't think he's going to score many touchdowns based on the win totals for the Dolphins, what Vegas is telling us, and certainly what the personnel suggests.
24:23So when you have a quarterback like Malik Willis who's probably going to look to run a lot more than Tua Tungabailoa
24:31did when you have a different coordinator and different play caller, and we saw that at the end of last season when they switched quarterbacks with A.
24:40Chan that is just targets and opportunities went down a little bit in the passing game.
24:45So I think he'll be good. I just don't think he'll be great.
24:50I certainly don't think he'll be elite. I would still take him in round two.
24:55I just would not take him in round one.
24:58And Heath, I think it's so interesting the way you break up that seven-person tier for Jamie.
25:03Obviously, you have A. Chan as your favorite, but Chase Brown, Derek Henry, Saquon Barkley are in tier four for you, and
25:11Hampton and Gente are in tier five for you.
25:14And I think that's... Oh, and Ken Walker. Where's Walker?
25:17Oh, also tier five. So basically, you look at Jamie's tier.
25:21You have A. Chan ahead of the pack, and then you have Chase Brown, Derek Henry, Saquon Barkley, and Josh Jacobs, who
25:29we'll get to in a bit, and then you have Hampton, Gente, and Walker lower than Brown, Barkley, and Henry.
25:35So talk about that. Yeah, I mean, I've said it before, and like Jamie, I think, has focused maybe a little bit more on the negative with A.
25:45Chan, and I'm just kind of terrified to be too high or too low on him because as bad as the offensive
25:52environment in Miami might be this year, they were like 25th in yards, 26th in points, and 31st in plays run last year.
26:00It was a pretty terrible offensive environment, and he averaged over 20 fantasy points per game.
26:05I hate Malik Willis' history of throwing to his running backs.
26:09Also, Malik Willis has nobody else to throw the football to.
26:13And so I have a hard time discounting A.
26:16Chan too much. Basically, to put him in the James Cook range, I've kind of discounted him 10% because he was about
26:2310% better than James Cook was last year. And then I probably didn't totally stick to my projections only by not including
26:31Barkley, Henry, and Jacobs because they are pretty close to James Cook and the projections behind him for sure.
26:37But they have, in my opinion, far more risk than James Cook does.
26:42Are you showing a little hesitation with Gentie and Hampton, who you have in your fifth tier with Brees Hall, Kenneth Walker, and Kyron Williams?
26:50I mean, I think just seeing, you don't have to show it yet, Thomas.
26:55We'll get to it. I'm sorry for jumping around.
26:58But I think if people just saw your fifth tier of Hampton, Gentie, Brees Hall, Walker, and Kyron, they might say a wire.
27:06Those three, Hampton, Gentie, and Walker, in Jamie's third tier, mixed in with Kyron and Brees Hall.
27:11But are you just showing a little hesitation with those guys who have never done it before?
27:17Like Barkley and Henry have done it, but Hampton, Gentie, and Walker have never actually performed like a second round pick.
27:24I think it's kind of like what I said about Baker Mayfield, where I said, yes, I am projecting him to bounce
27:32back, but not all the way back to 2024.
27:35I am projecting Hampton, Gentie, and Walker to be better than they have ever been before, right around 15 fantasy points per game.
27:42Um, but I'm not projecting quite as big of a leap as not, not just Jamie, but for those three guys, a
27:50large part, I think I'm, I'm lower than the industry on those guys.
27:54And I mean, we know how this works. It's what probably is going to happen is that one of the three is
28:02going to make the leap that Jamie's expecting. One of the three is going to be somewhere in between and one of
28:09the three I'm going to be right about. Um, but those three are kind of the guys that it seems like most
28:17people are expecting to do something outstanding that they have never done before.
28:21I'm expecting them to have career years, but not take quite as big of a leap.
28:26And then Jamie, how do you balance that with Walker, Hampton, and, uh, Gentie?
28:31Walker's best finish was RB 12 per game in PPR, but that was a year where he had a ton of catches, which he hardly ever does.
28:40But Walker, Hampton, Gentie, let's just say they're clearly less proven than Barkley and Henry.
28:45Chase Brown, I understand why you have Chase Brown in this tier.
28:49You know, um, we talk a lot about him, but just comparing, uh, the three guys who have to take the next
28:57step to the older guys who have, you know, been 2000 yard rushers.
29:01How do you, uh, compare those two sides? Walker is kind of the wild card here.
29:07I think just because we don't know exactly how he's going to be used changing teams.
29:12I mean, everything, according to the reports this off season have been fantastic.
29:16You know, the fact that they like the way that he's being involved in the passing game, at least according to reports,
29:24uh, his uses in the passing game, surprising them a little bit, I guess has his pass catching ability.
29:30So that to me is kind of the wild card on top of the wild card, you know, kind of what, like,
29:38what is he going to do as a pass catcher?
29:41But you look at this team and 32nd and rushing last year, they invest all of this capital to be a better
29:49running team on top of the fact that arguably there's still the best quarterback in the NFL, top three by the ESPN
29:56rankings that just came out, uh, even coming off an ACL tear, but Patrick Holmes is coming off an ACL tear.
30:03And you look at the weapons in the passing game and there's so much volatility there.
30:09It feels as if you look at Andy Reid's history and with the Chiefs, it's been sort of pockets of success of these guys being good running backs.
30:18But in Philadelphia, he got amazing production out of his running backs and Walker's coming off this post-season run where yes, he
30:25struggled a little bit at times or struggled in relative terms, struggled to produce at a high end level.
30:32Like you said, RB 12 was best finished. But if you look at what he did in the post-season, you know, he
30:39was producing better than McCaffrey was last year. And so can we get somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 plus points?
30:46I think you can in this offense. So that's what I'm banking on with him.
30:51With Hampton, it's really just the McDaniel factor and the tackles being healthy.
30:56And I think, you know, you look at what he did at times last year, pre-foot injury, post-foot injury, involved in the
31:03passing game, not involved in the passing game. Really, it's can he just stay on the field for all three downs and
31:11not have a Keaton Mitchell potential problem, which I think a lot of people are sort of forecasting if you're anti-Imarion Hampton.
31:18For Gentry, I get the upside. Look, he's, you know, prospect-wise, one of the best running backs coming into the league.
31:25And you look at what he did at times last year, you know, there was the, I think Bill Barnwell had the
31:33tweet yesterday or post on X about comparing him to Trent Richardson, which was disgusting.
31:38But he did. I don't think that's fair to say.
31:41What was that? He just chose his stats. I don't remember what year it was for Richardson, but it was, it was gross.
31:49But, you know, then the pro-Gente people were pointing out, well, yeah, look what he did against the Texans defense, for example,
31:56you know, when he had 188 total yards and two total touchdowns.
32:00So you get Linderbaum, you get a healthy Colton Miller, you get hopefully better quarterback play, certainly better coaching, at least on
32:08paper, like the Ashton-Gente rocket emojis could be well worth it.
32:12So I get the chance, I get the idea of taking a chance on all three of those guys.
32:18For me, they're more round two picks, early round two picks, but I would not take any of them in round one as of now.
32:26All right, let's take a look at the next tier here, tier four for these guys.
32:32Jamie has Josh Jacobs, and so does Heath. Kyron Williams and Jeremiah Love, but we're at, Jamie, are these round three running backs for you?
32:40These are round three, yes. After this, I believe is where I start to group the rounds, but I just feel like
32:48when you look at the top 15, 16 guys, those are all players that I think we see go in the first three rounds.
32:56All right, so again, for Jamie to round, sorry, Heath, Jacobs, Kyron Williams, and Jeremiah Love are the tier four running backs for Jamie.
33:04Those are the guys who'll take in round three.
33:07For Heath, it's guys that you're going to see in round two, for the most part.
33:12Unclear what Josh Jacobs' ADP will end up being.
33:16Where did he go last night? Do you remember, Heath, in your draft?
33:20I do not. Before, I had a chance to take him in round four.
33:25I'm relatively certain about that. Also, just to protect everyone, do not, under any circumstances, go look at Trent Richardson's rookie year compared to Ashton Gentis.
33:33Do not. Why? Don't. I mean, I think you have to now.
33:38I mean, it's just, how do you got it?
33:41Richardson had, what, four fewer, three fewer touches, and four fewer yards, and two more touchdowns, and 13 more fantasy points, in two fewer games.
33:49Oy. And, they averaged 3.6 and 3.7 yards per carry, and Richardson averaged 7.2 yards per catch to 6.3 for Gentie.
33:56So, I'm sorry. If, if Gentie ends up not being that good, and I'm, the next time an elite prospect skips the
34:04combine, I'm throwing up major red flags, because Harrison didn't run the 40, and he might have skipped the combine entirely.
34:11And, and Gentie didn't do anything, and I just, you know, for Harrison, I think he knew what he was doing.
34:18I think if he had gone to the combine, there's no chance he would have been taken ahead of Malik Neighbors.
34:25Anyway, Heath's tier four is Chase Brown, Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, and Josh Jacobs.
34:30These are basically the 16 fantasy point per game running backs in my projections.
34:34If there was no risk, then they would be borderline first round picks like Chase Brown is.
34:40And then you just, I think, have to assess the risk of Henry Barkley and Jacobs yourself.
34:46I, I may have Jacobs second on this group if it turns out that he's not going to face any sort of punishment.
34:5416 to me, just when you say it, it sounds low, but it, but it definitely is not.
35:00Chase Brown actually averaged 16.5 points per game last year.
35:03He has shown he can be over 20 in the right circumstances.
35:07Henry had one of his worst years in his last seven and he averaged 16.8 PPR points per game, but he was RB7 per game.
35:16So last year, 16 points per game would have made you top 10, you know, 16.8 would have made you seventh per game.
35:23And there's more, and we're further than that in, in the, you know, in the ranking so far.
35:29So 16 points per game is pretty good. Barkley had a bad year last year.
35:35He averaged 14.5 points per game, which is also what Ashton Genti averaged.
35:39All right. So, you know, look, a lot of it's the same names.
35:43We'd have to go through tier four for Heath looks a lot like tier three for Jamie with Henry and Barkley in
35:51there, but Jacobs, Heath has maybe a little higher on Jacobs than Jamie.
35:55I don't know, but splitting hairs. Let's go to the next, let's go to tier five here.
36:01Actually, let's go to break. Yeah, let's go to break.
36:04Love breaks. All right. We'll be right back after this awesome break on fantasy football today, and then we'll get to tier five.
36:12Enjoying the World Cup? If you want proper analysis, honest opinions, and plenty of laughs along the way, give The Rest is Football a listen.
36:21Gary Lineker, Alan Shear, and Micah Richards break down the biggest games, the standout moments, and everything happening on and off the
36:28pitch with brilliant guests joining them throughout the tournament.
36:31Whether you've followed football your whole life or you're just getting into it, they'll help you make sense of the drama, the
36:38tactics, the joy, and the heartbreak of the World Cup.
36:42Listen to The Rest is Football wherever you get your podcasts.
36:46Welcome back, folks. All right, tier five at running back.
36:49So, we're all over the place now. We have eventually reached the point where Adam gets super frustrated because he doesn't understand why these don't match up.
36:58Now you understand, though. You have more tears. You just have more tears than Jamie.
37:03I'm just trying to show where the big breaks and projections are.
37:07It may have made your life worse, which is kind of a nice added benefit.
37:12Yeah, I think so. So, you have Hampton, Gentey, Brees Hall, Kenneth Walker, and Kyron Williams in tier five.
37:19Jamie's had a 14 to 15. 14 to 15 points per game?
37:23Okay, in full PPR. Jamie, what do you think about Hall and Kyron being in the same tier as Hampton, Gentey, and Walker?
37:31He's got that potential, I mean, obviously. You know, and if you're buying the Jets offense being better, which it should be,
37:38and you're counting on Brees Hall being, you know, healthy for a full season and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, you know, not what
37:45Aaron Glenn wanted to show us last year and still saying this year about using Braylon, Allen, and potentially Isaiah Davis.
37:52You know, I don't think that's something to necessarily be worried about.
37:57It's really more like, can he get back to being involved in the passing game with all the new additions that they
38:04added, and can he be the best version of himself or close to the best version of himself, which we've seen at times, not so much last year.
38:13So, I think Brees Hall, I would rather have Gentey, Walker, and Kyron over Brees Hall, but look, Brees Hall, most likely,
38:21so I mentioned the previous tier for me, tier four, were the running backs I was taking in round three.
38:28That's me. So, that's Jacobs, Kyron, and Jeremiah Love, and those guys are early to mid round three.
38:34I certainly can get on board with if you wanted to take Brees Hall late round three, early round four, but these
38:41are guys that are basically picks 35 plus for me, you know, and so I kind of lumped in the running backs
38:49I have for the most part ranked, in rounds four and five in this tier, which is where I think Brees Hall belongs, early round four.
38:57And I think, Adam, it might be helpful to the people looking at the graphics if you just said, and I can
39:05look it up if you don't want to, how many running backs Jamie had in the first four tiers versus how many
39:12I had in the first four tiers because somebody said they was really shocked that I had, like, second round running backs in tier five.
39:21I had four, six, ten running backs in my first four tiers, so a couple of these guys are top 12 running backs for me.
39:29Are the tiers about to get bigger for you?
39:32They are. Yeah, like tiers six and seven are bigger for you, but we look at Jamie's tier five, right, and these
39:40are like the RB2s, and Javante Williams, Breece Hall.
39:43Breece Hall, the one guy that kind of stands out is Heath having him in a tier with Hampton, Gentie, and Kyron,
39:50and Kenneth Walker, and Jamie having him in this tier of the less exciting guys but the really good RB2s.
39:57Javante Williams, Breece Hall, Cam Scadaboo, Travis Etienne, Quinshawn Judkins, DeAndre Swift, and David Montgomery.
40:02Did you give any thought, Jamie, of not including Montgomery in there or anybody within this tier?
40:08Did you think about splitting it up more or you think they're all the same basically?
40:13Javante, Breece Hall, Scadaboo, Etienne, Judkins, DeAndre Swift, Montgomery?
40:16Montgomery certainly toes the line of, you know, which tier he belongs in and it depends on how you feel about Montgomery.
40:24I think, you know, again, for me it was a little bit of a slow process in coming around on what he
40:31could do in Houston and so, again, following Minicamp and some of the offseason reports about he's the guy, he's going to
40:39be the guy, we'll see what role Woody Marks plays.
40:42That obviously has to play itself out as we get to camp and, you know, the early part of the season so
40:49you want to make sure you're making the right choice in selecting him but I do think that if he does step
40:57into that role, he's not going to be Joe Mixon because I don't think his passing game profile is the same as
41:04Joe Mixon's or at least Joe Mixon's history when he went there but I do think that Montgomery can still be a potential 10 touchdown guy.
41:13I think he can rush for, you know, 11, five range for me which is where, again, these guys are being drafted.
41:20So this is where I start to tail off a little bit in the running back rankings by comparison to receiver and
41:28their quarterbacks and tight ends come into play and so it's really like I push up the first four tiers in the
41:35first three rounds and then it's more of a trickle down effect of late round three to really the end of round five with these guys.
41:44Keith, any thoughts on Javante, Brees Hall, Scadaboo, ETN, Judkins, Swift, Montgomery?
41:48I think you will see all of these guys except for Montgomery in my next tier.
41:54Okay. And I'm just, I think that the passing game thing, I'm probably a little bit more optimistic about Woody Marks' role
42:01doing that and I'm a little bit concerned about a 29-year-old running back who hasn't had the feature role suddenly filling that.
42:08Cool. Let's go to the next tier then. Tier six.
42:12By the way, if you're watching on YouTube, I don't know what happened to my camera.
42:17I'm sorry about that but you will just be getting my soothing vocals from now on.
42:23Many people are saying this is the best looking FFT on YouTube we've had in a long time.
42:29Yes. I could not agree more but that actually sounds like an insult to Dave so I could agree more.
42:36I disagree. Dave should be here for that. All right.
42:39Bucky Irving, Bejal Tootin, Chuba Hubbard, Tony Pollard and Travion Henderson for Jamie.
42:43And Scadaboo, Swift, Judkins, Javante, Etienne and Jeremiah Love for Heath.
42:47So I think you can kind of see that because Heath has more tiers now we're at the point where Jamie's like
42:54kind of one tier ahead of Heath or I guess I'm guessing tier seven is going to look a lot like Jamie's tier six.
43:03Kind of like what I said with Montgomery in the last tier.
43:07Every one of the guys in Jamie's tier six are in my tier seven except for Chuba Hubbard.
43:13Except for Chuba. Wow. All right. Back to Jamie's list in a minute.
43:17I know if you're listening there's a lot of names here but Heath's list is Scadaboo, Swift, Judkins, Javante Williams, Travis Etienne
43:25with all like the you know these guys as our RB twos like if you go wide receiver tight end with your
43:32first three picks maybe they're your RB one that's fine but Jeremiah Love being in this group let's talk about that.
43:39I have not had the nerve to draft him yet because I just I want a little clarity in training camp but
43:47where you at right now on Jeremiah Love a little lower than Jamie based on tiers.
43:52I think that like I'm not as low when it comes to ranking because I've got some FOMO with Jeremiah Love so
43:59I've got him I've got him ranked as a round three back but just looking at the projections in this offense that
44:07I think is going to be pretty bad and we still think Trey McBride's going to earn at least a 25% target
44:14share which could cut into some and we've got Marvin Harrison and Michael Wilson at wide receiver so I have a hard
44:22time projecting a lot of targets for Jeremiah Love I think he's really good at that but just the way this offense
44:29is set up and then I don't I really hope that James Conner and Tyler Algier don't matter at all but it
44:37kind of seems like they might matter a little bit.
44:40Okay so then unless you guys have anything else you want to say about Scadaboo, Swift, Judkins, Javante, ETN, and Love I
44:47think I guess I would say that Love obviously you just talked about the split there but Swift might be the odd
44:55man out in terms of workload compared to Scadaboo, Judkins, Javante, and ETN is that fair to say?
45:01There's certainly the risk for it you know if what we got from week seven on is the norm then there's going
45:08to be some weeks where DeAndre Swift is very frustrating and maybe a stretch of games where he's frustrating where we're looking
45:16at a potential trap back if he's not scoring touchdowns or being involved in the passing game or both there's also the
45:23potential of he's still the best running back on his team and Ben Johnson decides that he's going to continue to lean
45:31on him in important situations but last year it was kind of okay when did their success start to happen?
45:37Well I think it was when both guys were you know getting opportunities and I think that's going to continue so if
45:45you were to say at any point that you knew there was going to be a stretch of games where Kyle Mononga
45:52is out I think DeAndre Swift has top ten upside yeah but we just can't go into that thinking that top five in this you think top five?
46:02yes was it week seven when that started? because I was trying to get what his pace was after that oh I
46:09have it it was um I'm sorry I have it somewhere we just did this last week when we were talking about
46:17Corum and Mononga you said there you know I said it was a Spider-Man meme because it was week seven for both
46:24yeah his last 11 games for DeAndre Swift he averaged 13.9 PPR fantasy points per game which is good it's not great
46:32and it would have made him RB 18 for a full season and by the way that excludes week nine he missed
46:39that game so I'm just looking at the splits when they were both healthy for the last 11 games um and if
46:46I tell you 13.9 who do you have projected for more than 14 fantasy points do you have Scadaboo for more than 14?
46:54I mean this is right about the 13 to 14 point range I said the last group was the 14 to 15
47:02point range so that sounds about right I was looking at just touches he was at 15.6 touches per game in those
47:09last 11 games um which is about 260 265 touches he averaged 17 touches per game in the two playoff games so
47:17I don't I don't really know if you're telling me 270 touches I'm not confident that's gonna be a big outlier amongst
47:24this group yeah I think that's fair I think what it really comes down to is do how do the Bears pass
47:31a lot more and how much are they able to stay in that run heavy system they run a lot of plays
47:39that's that's the way they get around it it's the way they make everything work uh I think Jamie's tier six is
47:46where it starts to get really kind of tough for me anyway yeah you know I pretty much know with some exceptions
47:54like Jeremiah Love I feel like I know what to expect from most of the guys in the top 20 but we
48:01get to this tier of Bucky Irving Basial Tootin Chuba Hubbard who Heath is not going to you know group with these
48:09other guys Tony Pollard and Travion Henderson Bucky Irving Basial Tootin Chuba Hubbard Tony Pollard and Travion Henderson Jamie what's the theme
48:16with those five running backs uncertainty um you know Bucky is could be amazing but as we saw you know second half
48:24of last year after he came back from the injury and still you know I think I think he's healthy but still
48:31you know you got to factor in potentially fighting through a shoulder injury uh Kenneth Gainwell is going to potentially steal passing
48:38downs work and Sean Tucker potentially stealing goal line opportunities which happened last year so you know it could be the true
48:46definition of a trap back Basial Tootin is in a competition with Chris Rodriguez obviously unproven as his in his rookie campaign
48:53but huge opportunity Chuba Hubbard has the Jonathan Brooks factor to deal with and we'll see how that matters Tony Pollard new
49:01coaching staff plus Tajay Spears and potentially Singleton so that's something you got to factor in Trevion Henderson you know somebody put
49:08in the in the chat you know Chuba and Pollard I think it was ahead of Henderson no way look man we're
49:16all rooting for Trevion Henderson to be the guy I think that's obvious we'd love to see him be the featured running
49:23back for New England but as we saw last year it was a lot of plays a lot of snaps a lot
49:30of everything for Ramondre Stevenson and a lot of nothing for Trevion Henderson when Stevenson was healthy in their playoff push and
49:38the second half of the season so I think it's just looking at it as this is the group that I think
49:45could change a little bit in terms of like Henderson can take a huge leap forward if we're getting a lot of
49:53positive reports for what his role could be in this upcoming season Hubbard could take a huge step backwards if Jonathan Brooks
50:00is fully healthy I think in the case of you know just to touch on Jeremiah Love for a second I'm so
50:08hopeful you know Heath mentioned Algier and Connor I wish they would just trade James Connor and allow him to be maybe
50:15a clear cut number two somewhere and then allow Jeremiah Love and Tyler Algier to be that tandem in that case I
50:23think we would feel a lot better about Jeremiah Love and he may be pushed up into round two if that's the
50:30case so James Connor is really the wild card in the Cardinals backfield and maybe somewhere else you know where he can
50:37like go to Denver and be the backup to Javante Williams go to Jacksonville and maybe challenge to be the starter there
50:45like anywhere but Arizona right now to allow Jeremiah Love to be the guy and I think when you look at this
50:52group of Irving, Tootin, Hubbard, Pollard and Henderson unlike the guys before them I mean you're you're drafting the guys before them
51:00based on their week one outlook I think with this group you have to speculate you have to start playing out in
51:07your mind how you think the season is going to go do you think Bejal Tootin is just going to eventually take
51:15over that job you know and maybe he starts the season splitting with Rodriguez but he's just so good that he you
51:22know earns a bigger share do you think Chuba Hubbard fends off Jonathan Brooks Heath is pretty worried about that and thinks
51:30Brooks you know could just supplant Chuba Hubbard Tony Pollard I mean Tony Pollard is the lead running back you know Spears
51:37has a role Spears is the third down guy Pollard's definitely going to lead the team in carries I'd be shocked he'd
51:44have to stink I think for that not to happen Henderson you've got to play that out in so many ways right
51:52you've got to really wonder what's going to happen there can you highlight Andy's comment because I think it hits it right
51:59on the exactly what it is this is the grouping where depending on roster construction if you need floor or home run
52:07yeah you agree you obviously agree with that Jamie yeah do we all agree that Tony Pollard is the floor Pollard and
52:14Hubbard are the floor plays and I think the other three guys are home run plays not sure I agree with you
52:22on Hubbard and I'll tell you well I just feel like the way you phrased it might be selling his upside short
52:29a little bit because what if Jonathan Brooks a guy who was so unproven coming into the NFL and is coming off
52:36two torn ACLs is just not a factor at all you know what if he's just not that good not that effective
52:44then Chuba Hubbard is I don't think he's a very good running back I think he's pretty average but then we're talking
52:51about a guy who gets so many touches that he's probably going to stand out in this group but I also do
52:59think that if Brooks is a factor I don't think Hubbard disappears I don't think it's Jonathan Brooks is getting what did
53:06you say 275 for DeAndre Swift I don't even think that that's the case like I think we're talking about maybe 200
53:14total touches for Jonathan Brooks like they're not just going to throw everything on him because of what he's coming off of
53:21oh no but I'm saying what if he gets you know 100 touches no no I know you're going the opposite direction
53:29in the case of Hubbard but I think you obviously have to factor in you know you're talking about the week one
53:36outcomes like I think you have to factor in that Jonathan Brooks is there and I think if Brooks struggles like this
53:43is another team that can go looking it may not be the Connor Alvin Kamara type of running back you know just
53:51an aging veteran that makes sense leaving his team it could be you know Isaac Arendo like somebody like that who can
53:58still go in there and be that number two guy you know someone that's potentially off their roster because of their you
54:06know just role or circumstance I watched a lot of Bucky Irving tape last week or a couple weeks ago and I
54:13gotta tell you he was unbelievable as a receiver he made some phenomenal plays and since coming into the league 75 running
54:21backs with 30 or more targets over the last two seasons Bucky Irving is 7th in yards per outrun 19th in yards
54:28per catch 6th in yards per target he has 8 catches of 20 or more yards which is the 6th most among
54:35running backs the last 2 years and now they have Kenneth Gainwell and so I hope they continue to throw to Bucky
54:43Irving but he is super tricky it just logically doesn't make sense to do what?
54:48to throw him the ball as much because of Gainwell like Gainwell's coming off a 75 catch season like yeah it's first
54:55and second down catches you know you figure Gainwell is going to be the third down back is Baker going to throw
55:03to Bucky on first and second down I would also point out that you know when I was watching the tape I
55:10just thought man this O-line looks terrible and then I go check PFF I go check ESPN they had them 25th and
55:1827th respectively in run blocking way down from 2024 so I think their center missed all but two games worth start of
55:25the year on IR or PUP whatever it was I think the blocking could be better this year let's go to our
55:33next tier tier 7 mega tier whoa what round are we moving well you know first question Jamie how come you have
55:40Jadarian Price in this group with Jalen Warren Ramondre Stevenson Dowdle Dobbins the Commanders guys Ramondre RJ Harvey Jadarian Price is here
55:48instead of with Chuba Hubbard and Bucky Irving and Travion Henderson etc yeah he was he was easily in that tier and
55:55had a lot of those guys following the draft but then you know you're just hearing everything out of minicamp and just
56:02the potential role for him plus the fact that you have now the possibility of Zach Charbonnet being ready earlier in the
56:10season or even playing at all whereas following the NFL draft we thought that might not be the case so if they're
56:17not going to make Price a I don't want to say workhorse because I don't think that was ever in his profile
56:25right away but if they're going to use George Helani they're going to use Emmanuel Wilson they're going to use Charbonnet at
56:32some point then it just gets messy so for me it's more of the questionable even even more questionable guys but yeah
56:40you can make the case he belongs in that previous tier for sure I mean there's still so much upside for a
56:47team that will likely continue to have a similar type of philosophy again changing coordinators you never know how that's going to
56:54go but still a defensive minded head coach still a first round running back I think just if you take away the
57:02draft capital and we've talked about this time and time again in terms of what late first round running backs have done
57:09just because their first round picks do not necessarily mean that they're going to have success or immediate success or ever be
57:17successful I think just in the case of Price like for me it's more draft rounds is how I'm approaching this and
57:24Price is not worth drafting in the first six rounds alright I'm going to do my best for the audio people out
57:32there tier 7 for Jamie is how about this who are the who are the guys that you both have in tier
57:397 Jadarian Price this is this is the this is the the friendship tier because Jamie has both Steelers both commanders both
57:47Broncos I have both Patriots both Broncos and both Steelers yeah so yeah this is this is the the friendship tier so
57:54I think we both have Jadarian Price we both have Jalen Warren we both have Ramondre Stevenson we both have Rico Dowdo we both have J.K.
58:03Dobbins we both have I think Ramondre Stevenson might be in here three times we both have RJ Harvey so that's that's
58:10kind of how how it breaks down Ramondre Stevenson yes yeah we've pretty much caught up in terms of rankings at this
58:18point is he has this mega tier for tier 7 but he does have David Montgomery here so I guess you're a
58:25little lower on Montgomery you talked about that and you're a little lower on Bucky Irving I guess and I'm a little
58:33lower on Paul this is this is Jamie's tier 6 and tier 7 in my tier 7 basically and the thing is
58:40in rankings you're not lower on Irving but Jamie and Dave have him 23rd and you have him 24th so am I
58:47just so help me kind of reconcile here like I think when we got to tier 5 and I said I only
58:55had 10 players in my first four tiers that pretty much reconciles it yeah but okay Jamie had Bucky Irving grouped in
59:02a tier with Tootin, Hubbard, Pollard and Henderson so all those got is that similar except for Hubbard okay so you're pretty
59:10much the same on on Bucky yeah and then Hubbard is the guy you just don't see eye to eye you just
59:17don't like him as much right is specifically because you think Jonathan Brooks is gonna yeah I'm not sure I don't really
59:25believe that Shuba Hubbard is like has the the like maybe he could sneak into the top 15 to 18 but I
59:32think he has a bigger risk at just not being like I think Dobbins and Harvey are probably go both when they're
59:40both healthy both going to be flex worthy I think Dowdle and Warren are probably both going to be flex worthy Ramon
59:47Gray and Travion both going to be like those guys are and I am a little bit afraid not that Jonathan Brooks
59:54has 275 touches but there comes a point in this season where they're like you know what Shuba Hubbard is like 10
60:02touches per game and it's not that efficient and we just don't want to ever start him anywhere see I think I'm
60:09more in line with you Adam where like if Jonathan Brooks is not anything Shuba could be a great fantasy running back
60:17yeah he was he was a top 10 running back on a pro game basis two years ago from week three on
60:24weeks one and two he didn't really have the job then they gave him the job and he was actually had a
60:32very good year you look at his yards per carry you never know what you're going to get from Shuba Hubbard you
60:39could get 3.8 you could dominate his backfield but obviously the potential exists for him to not even be the lead running
60:46back so right and I think there's two there's two examples of that one 2024 when he was doing what he was
60:54doing and then they decided hey let's give him this ridiculous contract extension despite the fact that they had drafted Brooks and
61:01they gave him the contract section I believe before Brooks was injured and then they go out and they give they sign
61:09Rico Daudel who we kind of thought was oh this was a weird signing because he was coming off this successful run
61:16in Dallas and then all of a sudden Rico Daudel does what he does for them with the two 200 yard game
61:24so it's a little bit of a mystery in terms of what Chuba will do I sort of look at what the
61:31offseason moves have told us and I've said this time and time again is the lack of bringing in anyone of significance
61:39a telltale sign of they believe in Chuba Hubbard or is it a telltale sign of they believe in Jonathan Brooks or
61:46both that they think that this tandem is just going to work that well so I'm willing to take the chance on
61:53Chuba round six ish I prefer to get around seven or later but it kind of just the way the board falls
62:01all right so again this is a tier where we have the Patriots guys and Jamie has Travion Henderson a little bit
62:08higher than this but Patriots guys the Steelers guys the commanders guys for Jamie not for Heath did I say the Broncos
62:16guys you didn't they're in here as well Jadarian Price is in this tier which is noteworthy because he has moved down
62:23a little bit since draft night I guess I would say looking at these names I typically don't draft two of them
62:31now I personally think David Montgomery would not be in this tier for me so I might have him and someone else
62:38but I and maybe Bucky Irving too but I don't know for most of these names I probably wouldn't have two of
62:45them you guys agree with that or no no I think it depends on what your roster build is I prefer not
62:53to have two of them you know I think this is you know the type of tier you take a chance on
63:00one of them you know whether you think it's hey let me get one of the Steelers guys because I think they
63:08could be great or one of the Broncos guys or commanders guys whatever you want to break them up but you know
63:15if you go hero RB or zero RB I mean like these are great options to take chances on because if one
63:23or two of them do become the featured guy for whatever stretch of games they are those could certainly fill out your
63:30roster and make you a very formidable team yeah you're pretty much never going to see me doing zero RB so it's
63:38so like but if you go here RB I mean these are guys you know still gonna have I don't say want
63:45to target but you almost have to target yeah you can certainly get away with it you just take some chances and
63:52injuries are a big determining factor in fantasy football right so if you draft some guys that could be amazing if there's
64:00an injury then sometimes that's just how you win a few years ago I remember doing a zero RB draft and none
64:07of the guys got that I needed to get injured got injured and my running backs were terrible so it's you know
64:15it's a crapshoot I guess all right we have time for tier eight is our last tier tier eight Jordan Mason really
64:22interesting player because are we under the assumption that he is going to be the lead back Jamie so you have Mason
64:30Kenneth Gainwell Jonathan Brooks and then you've got Monongai and Coram who are the same exact person Mason Gainwell Brooks Monongai and
64:37Coram Heath has Mason and Aaron Jones here he has Jonathan Brooks and Chuba Hubbard here you have Kenneth Gainwell here as
64:45well and you have Monongai but not Coram how could you possibly Heath I will come back to Jordan Mason in a
64:52second but my head is exploding how could you have Monongai in one tier and not Coram I see just a slight
64:59edge for Monongai in the 1B that's almost a 50-50 split I think Monongai is going to be just a little bit
65:07closer to 50-50 than Coram is they will not throw the football to Blake Coram and I don't think that they're going
65:14to give the ball to Coram inside the five yard line very often and I think Monongai will have a little more
65:22of both of those things than Blake Coram and Kyron Williams has been much more consistent at what he is as much
65:29as I like DeAndre Swift I loved him last year I drafted him last night DeAndre Swift's kind of been all over
65:37the place in his career I find it a little bit more likely that DeAndre Swift just does something that moves Monongai
65:44into the 1A tier than Kyron does for the record I agree with most of what you said but Coram and Kyron
65:51both had eight goal line carries in the last 11 games of the season also Swift has gotten hurt much more than
65:59Kyron Williams too that's another thing you could factor in there let's talk about people who cover the Vikings one when Jones
66:06resigned and then one recently I think it was Matthew Collar who came out and said if the Vikings want to be
66:14the best version of themselves I'm paraphrasing here it's Jordan Mason being the lead running back you know average over five yards
66:21per carry not going to be involved in passing game let Aaron jones do those things on passing downs and he suggested
66:29he projected 1100 yards rushing and 8 touchdowns for Jordan Mason I don't think that's realistic but if they did commit to
66:36someone for me I agree with that I would commit to the 27 year old guy as opposed to the guy who's
66:44going to be 32 and miss time last year and in the games that Aaron jones missed time last year Mason averaged
66:51I believe over 13 PPR points per game so I'm expecting just a better Vikings offense as a whole because of Kyler
66:58Murray so more scoring opportunities I do think Mason has the potential to be a flex I don't think you want to
67:06trust him as a starter but if there is the risk of injury it's more so for Mason being a borderline number
67:13two running back now you have Claiborne who they drafted and we'll see what kind of role he plays but it feels
67:21as if he's still going to be third in one of these rookies like we like but we'll never really get on
67:28the field much until there is an injury or two I it seems like I'm a little bit behind Jamie but maybe
67:36that's where the tears just didn't catch up I think either one of them could be good and it probably comes down
67:43to and it's kind of the same thing with Tootin though he has a bigger opportunity because the competition isn't as stiff
67:51both of those guys showed things with the football in their hands that were exciting and both of those things had things
67:58in their second off season that they had to improve if they I think the case for Bill is similar to Jordan
68:05Mason like you know you're not going to get a lot of pass catching work you hope that he's the featured running
68:13back I think that's kind of how opportunities to make plays and prior to last year three straight years of 50 plus
68:20catches the last two seasons for Rashad White he was 4.3 yards per carry so for a guy that couldn't get over
68:28north of 4 yards per carry 3.9 was kind of pass catchers in Washington and the connection that he has with Jane
68:35Daniels the two of playing together at Arizona State so I wide receivers tomorrow tight ends Thursday mailbag we're going to record
68:43on Thursday not sure what time yet and it's going to publish the audio will publish on Friday but Dan and I
68:50will go abomination anymore thank goodness that of course would be ham and Swiss with tomato and Russian dressing on a cinnamon
68:57raisin bagel that's where the abomination part comes in I have a little bit of a dilemma now Heath maybe you can
69:05help me we talk about this before the show I think I want to go prove Johnny wrong and go get that
69:12bagel for lunch today yes you should I really want this parasite to go away I don't really know what to do
69:20about that I can't go get a bagel because in nine minutes FFT Dynasty starts so don't go anywhere okay don't go
69:27anywhere don't get the parasite and we'll talk to if you know the name of the movie you'd like to see just
69:35stream it for free on Pluto TV where all your blockbuster favorites are landing all summer long catch Anchorman The Legend of
69:42Ron Burgundy Fantastic The Matrix Trilogy Welcome to the real world Mean Girls Shut up Titanic I'm the king of the world
69:50and so much more for showtimes press nothing they're free 24-7 That is so fetch on Pluto TV stream now pay never
