Fantasy Football Draft Rankings & Tiers | Running Back Must-Have Targets, Busts to Avoid & Sleepers (Ep. 2029)
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1 hr 3 min
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May 20, 2026
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Wed, May 20, 2026
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Full transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. It's smart to always have a few financial goals.
0:05And a really smart one you can set? Earning cash back on what you buy every day.
0:09And with Discover, you can. Get this. Discover automatically matches all the cash back you've earned at the end of your first year.
0:16Seriously. All of it. And we trust you to make smart decisions.
0:19I mean, after all, you listen to this show.
0:22See terms at discover.com slash credit card. Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros.
0:26This is the Fantasy Football Podcast. It's me, Joey P.
0:28Joe Pisapia. And today we're going to continue our series.
0:31If you missed yesterday's show on the quarterback version, we'll go back and watch it on demand on the YouTube channel.
0:37Subscribe to the YouTube channel. But today we're moving to the running backs and the early tiers and the early rankings that
0:43you can find on fantasypros.com slash rankings. Again, easy to remember.
0:47So go check it out there to help us parse through these tiers of RBs, who you want to move up, who you want to move down.
0:54Who better than my two best friends, Andrew Erickson, Mr.
0:57Big Pot Energy. And of course, D-Bro Derek Brown, the King of Bros.
1:01Fresh from a beard consortium meeting too with all of his good friends in the beard community.
1:06So I hope that went well for you. I hope you enjoyed that.
1:09I hope you brought lots of fun creams and lotions and oils home.
1:13I assume you did. I imagine your bathroom is just slick with all the beard products, right?
1:18Is that what it is? I felt like this conversation was going to make a very weird left turn there.
1:23I think it has. I think it has. But yes, we had a long conversation.
1:28There were many, many PowerPoint presentations about fade and Italian beards and the construction of those right now.
1:33Next year, we're hoping to get Andrew Erickson in the door, but he's got to prove that he can grow a beard
1:39first before we allow him into the meeting. So we shall see.
1:42That sounds like a shot at you, Andrew. I'm just saying it's an accurate one.
1:47It's not. It's not for me. This is from the consortium.
1:50I'm just speaking for the collective. Very precise. Spot on.
1:53That's some top tier accuracy, D-Bro. There you go.
1:55Well, that's what it's all about over here. The accuracy of the rankings.
1:59We're going to get into all that stuff. And if you enjoy this kind of nonsense, well, you know what's for you.
2:05Our new channel, Tailgate NFL. So right now, go over, find it on YouTube, Tailgate NFL.
2:10Search it in there. Subscribe. We're giving away a Jamar Chase jersey over there, by the way.
2:14For subscribers who comment, so go watch some of the amazing videos.
2:18We've got a whole series of stuff coming out at you, too, over these next few weeks.
2:23We've got a lot of fun stuff just talking football.
2:25It's not fantasy. It's not betting. It's just football.
2:28So it encompasses everything. And we just kind of lose conversations and have a bunch of fun there, too.
2:33But we're going to have fun here today as well.
2:36So we're going to get to these running back rankings here.
2:39And let's start at the very top with the tier one guys.
2:43Obviously, no surprise. We got Jameer Gibbs at number one.
2:46Bijan Robinson at number two. I know some people will debate Bijan over Jameer.
2:50I'm team Jameer. I don't know if anybody wants to, like, stake a claim to that.
2:54Do you guys feel passionate about it one way or another?
2:57Or should we just move on from the one and two, D-Bro?
3:01I'll team Bijan. I'm team Bijan. But I'm not dug in passionate about it.
3:05But I am team Bijan. How about you, Erickson?
3:07Are you team Bijan here? Or are you team Edward?
3:10I mean, team Gibbs. I think I was. I was definitely team Bijan to start the offseason.
3:15But I feel like I do want to adopt the team Gibbs as we progress throughout the 2026 fantasy football draft season.
3:21I added Isaiah Pacheco. That's it. And we talked about this on a lot of the shows, including the tailgate.
3:27How do we feel about the Lions? How do we feel about the Falcons?
3:31We talked about the Falcons as a team that could be potentially picking a quarterback next year.
3:36What does that mean for Bijan Robinson? Where we're talking about the Lions as easiest schedule.
3:40Oh my God, this team's going to bounce back.
3:43They're checking off every single regression model you could look at for a team that's going to perform better in 2026.
3:49So if the environment is that much better in Detroit than Atlanta, that also leads me towards Jameer Gibbs.
3:54I just feel like we're going to get a 1000-1000 season out of Bijan.
3:58Without Algier, all the touchdown equity should go his way.
4:01That's the only reason why I'm team Bijan right now.
4:04Without Dave Montgomery, though. Without Dave Montgomery. I mean, we've seen that before with Gibbs.
4:08And he turns into a Daniel Lane Tomlinson. But what if they just turn Pacheco into the new Montgomery?
4:13That's the other side of the corner. Or if they turn Brian Robinson into the new Tyler Algier?
4:18Different coaching staff, homie. I want to see how far we can push that.
4:22This is great. Different coaching staff. I'm really enjoying this.
4:25Well, what if Lydanian Tomlinson becomes Earl Campbell? What if Tua becomes the new Matt Ryan?
4:30Erickson. Have you thought about that? Tua only wishes he could be Matt Ryan.
4:34I guess the idea is you really can't go wrong with the one of the two running backs.
4:39Is that the moral of the story there? Pretty much.
4:42It's choose your own adventure with those guys. Now, that's going to be even harder for me to pick a cover board for the Black Book.
4:49Should I just pivot to Josh Allen? Because we can't decide between the two running backs?
4:54I don't know. I've been going back and forth that whole day.
4:57You make an AI hybrid of Gibbs and Bijan?
4:59I don't want to use the AI hybrid stuff.
5:02We could just call it B. Gibbs. You should put Brian Robinson on the cover in a Falcon.
5:07You're going to see if people know this. You know what I wanted to do?
5:11I'll be honest. What I wanted to do was put Jameer Gibbs on the cover with his old number 26.
5:17But then I thought I would get heat on that, right?
5:20Because it's the 2026 edition. People won't get that.
5:23That would go straight over their head. They won't get that.
5:26I know he's zero now. That's why I didn't do it.
5:29It's not the right number, Joe. The right number.
5:32What are you doing? You don't even know what number he wears.
5:35Anyway. Whichever one's not on Madden. That's what I would do.
5:38Whichever one's not on the Madden cover. Fair. But I don't think I'll know that in time.
5:43That's true. Look, they're both good at football. They both have situations now where they have one less guy to worry about.
5:49So, I mean, it's a great situation for both those guys.
5:52Jonathan Taylor is coming in at three. Christian McCaffrey at four.
5:55Or James Cook at five. So, Andrew Erickson, we'll start with you here and James Cook.
6:00My most drafted running back last year was James Cook.
6:03We had a lot of conversations about him last season.
6:06And I kept coming back to the same thing, which was they didn't add anything in the offseason.
6:11So, therefore, I felt really good about James Cook.
6:13And everyone kept talking to me about the touchdown regression of James Cook.
6:17And how he couldn't repeat this. Blah, blah, blah, blah.
6:20And, you know, when all is said and done, it turns out that James Cook was still pretty productive and fancy.
6:26Now they did add DJ Moore. So, does that change any of the calculus for you coming into this year on James Cook?
6:32If it makes the offense score more points, then yeah, sure.
6:35It's a good thing. DJ Moore can be another piece that makes this Bills offense continue to be prolific.
6:41The offensive line, I think, is still in really great shape.
6:44You still have Josh Allen leading the pack. It's going to be a top 10, if not top 5 scoring offense.
6:50And I just kind of feel like James Cook is being disrespected after leading the NFL in rushing yards last season.
6:56I know. That's crazy. 1,621 rushing yards. And to your point, Joe, every year he just checks off another box of, well,
7:02he can't be this efficient two years in a row.
7:05Well, he is. He can't score as many touchdowns a year in a row.
7:09Which is what he does. He just scores more touchdowns.
7:12And I think that the last piece of the puzzle with James Cook has been this pass catching.
7:17Where at Georgia, that's what he was known for.
7:19He was touted as this electric pass catcher out of the backfield.
7:23And although he does have a 44-yard or 44-catch season on his resume, 445 receiving yards, he hasn't really done it the
7:29last couple of years, just the way that the Bills have used him.
7:33So I still think, though, that there's more meat on the bone here with James Cook.
7:37He's in his uber prime. Some of these other running backs, okay, Gibbs and Robinson at the top.
7:42But Taylor and Christian McCaffrey are both older than James Cook.
7:45They have way more wear and tear on their bodies.
7:48So I like James Cook as my RB3. I think that he has a really high floor.
7:53I like it. And if he can get that, I mean, worst case scenario, okay, he doesn't get the receiving.
7:59All right, fine. Well, he was RB6 last year.
8:01And he can lead the NFL in rushing yards again.
8:04Ain't scored double-digit touchdowns. Oh, no. Why did I pick this guy?
8:08So I like James Cook. Well, D-Bro, that was the whole thing, right?
8:11And I know you're doing the write-ups right now for Black Book.
8:15So you're like knee-deep in all this stuff, right?
8:17Which, by the way, comes out in June. So go check it out.
8:21It's on Amazon. Go order it. It's going to be great.
8:24First week of June. 1,000 yards rushing in 2024.
8:2716 touchdowns rushing and then two receiving. So 18 total last year.
8:30Of course, he wasn't going to have 18 touchdowns again.
8:33Instead, he only had 14. Oh, woe is me.
8:35How will we ever survive? But he added 600 more yards on the ground, which is an impressive number for sure.
8:41And again, as Andrew pointed out, the receiving kind of stayed the same.
8:45So making an argument at the age and the situation that James Cook is in where you have such a mobile quarterback
8:51in Josh Allen, I think he weakens those defenses, too.
8:54That makes James Cook's life a little easier because chasing around Josh Allen and trying to tackle that monstrous human being is a chore for any defense.
9:02And then you get James Cook, you know, just blasted by you.
9:05It's no fun. I don't disagree. And James Cook is my RB3 as well.
9:09So I'm with Erickson on that. And yes, if you get the past game utility for James Cook gets unlocked here, guys, like say he runs for 1500.
9:17If we add like another two to 300 receiving yards, and I know that sounds like a lot, but I think the
9:23other part of this conversation that we haven't even explored yet is what could this offense?
9:28Are there going to be offensive changes with Joe Brady now being the head coach and Sean McDermott is not over him
9:34saying, well, I'd like you to do this. What if Joe Brady is just like, look, I'm the head coach, dude.
9:40I can do whatever the hell I want. But and he unlocks this part of James Cook in the passing game.
9:46Can we all sit here and say right now that cannot happen?
9:49No, of course it can. And look, last year he was it fancy boards per game for James Cook was he was sixth overall with 16.8.
9:57It's pretty great. I mean, he was only behind Gibbs, HM, Bijon, Jonathan Taylor and McCaffrey.
10:01Let's talk about Jonathan Taylor for a second, though, because he had just, I mean, an incredible beginning to the year, too.
10:07And then everything obviously fell apart when the quarterback play fell apart in terms of health.
10:12But man, for the first, you know, 10 weeks of the season, it was crazy.
10:16It was just touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. There were three touchdown games.
10:19He had one, two, three, four, three touchdown games over that span from week one to week 10.
10:24It was just crazy. You could just bet every week.
10:27I'm going to bet Jonathan Taylor scored a touchdown.
10:30And if I'm feeling good this week, maybe two.
10:32And you would just walk. I mean, Andrew Erickson, I did that a couple of times.
10:37I feel like last year we felt pretty good about it.
10:40But what do you feel about him coming into this season?
10:43I know with the Daniel Jones injury and that recovery, do they lean on him even more to start the year?
10:49Potentially your D bro. I don't think they're going to lean on him more because I don't think there's any way where
10:55you're really going to like the can lean on him more.
10:59Like, do you really want to load him up with even more volume at this part of his career?
11:04Which I know with the Colts there and win now, or maybe we're all losing our freaking jobs kind of mode.
11:10But the other part about it is like with Daniel Jones, he was the RB two and fantasy points per game.
11:16He had 21.7 touches per game. That's a crap ton of workload, man.
11:19And like, I just, my problem with Taylor is not a Taylor problem so much.
11:24It's, it's, this goes back to the whole, it, I don't hate players.
11:27I hate ADP. Like ranking Jonathan Taylor as the RB three right now is saying, well, whatever we saw from Daniel Jones
11:34or with him with Daniel Jones, when he was the RB two and fantasy points per game, that's just going to all
11:40repeat with Daniel Jones back on the field. That's just all going to happen.
11:44And I'm like, does it happen? Does it happen?
11:46Because with Daniel Jones was out of the lineup, he was RB 22 and fantasy points per game.
11:52If Daniel Jones is not the fully healthy version of himself.
11:55And I think we could all say collectively, he will not be a hundred percent for the whole entire season.
12:00If at any point in 2026 for the Indianapolis Colts.
12:03And how is that going to affect their offense, both from effectiveness, as well as you're losing Michael Pittman in the passing game.
12:10Now the passing game gets squeezed down to Alec Pierce.
12:13And we're going to run him out there as the true wide receiver one.
12:17Can he be that? Can he handle that? If he can't, what are we going to do?
12:21So it's quarterback play. It's how is the passing game operating the ADP price that people are having to pay for Jonathan Taylor.
12:28And this isn't even talking about the, also the fact of yes, he is not a 23 year old running back.
12:34Yes. He does have a decent injury history with him.
12:37And that has impacted his effectiveness on the field.
12:39So if they want to run him into the ground more, can he sustain that for an entire season and truly be effective?
12:46There's just, there's a lot more questions that I have about Taylor than versus the consensus where it's like, I think Jonathan
12:52Taylor is still a top 10 running back. Like I have him at RB seven, but I sure as hell will not
12:58have him as like a top three back. Well, that's fair.
13:01I'm just out of curiosity for both of you too.
13:04Speaking of like massive workloads, Christian McCaffrey, is he a tier one running back for both of you guys?
13:10No. How about you, Andrew? I didn't think so.
13:12I'm worried. I didn't want to choose violence on this show.
13:15I just wanted to talk positive about James Cook and that's why I don't have Christian McCaffrey.
13:20I just, we do this conversation. I think we should just bring it up because I think when all three of us agree on something, that's an oddity.
13:28All three of us agree on James Cook and all three of us agree on CMC.
13:33So I think that's worth, that's noteworthy. I mean, Debro and I basically went to blows on the quarterback show about Lamar Jackson and fought it out there.
13:40Comments are still flying. Love it. Can't get enough of it.
13:44And then I've seen him in those comments too.
13:46That's right. And then some people doing the Lord's work over there and supporting me on the pro Lamar Jackson side of the world.
13:53But I think it is difficult to put him in that tier one based on the amount of workload that he had
13:59last year and based on another year and age and all that.
14:03Like all those other factors are like, it's just very hard to copy and paste.
14:07And I feel like copy paste always gets us in trouble with fancy football.
14:11I mean, Andrew, just instead of choosing violence, just give people food for thought about CMC.
14:15Saquon Barkley last year, Josh Jacobs the year before.
14:18Just these guys that see these 450 touches. Which is the next season they just don't repeat.
14:23And Chris McCaffrey is no stranger to this. He's been in this situation before where he's coming off this monster year where he has a billion touches.
14:30And then the next season he's not nearly as reliable.
14:33The rushing fell off a cliff last year. His efficiency was not nearly as good.
14:37So, yeah, for those reasons, I'm going to be lower on McCaffrey.
14:41And it's at least nice for me to look at a player like James Cook and see that he goes later in some of these drafts.
14:48And I just love James Cook's floor-ceiling combination. Yeah, if McCaffrey stays healthy, then the receiving, he can't really be beat.
14:54But can James Cook close the gap a little bit?
14:57New offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. Again, Joe Brady stepping into that head coach.
15:01Pete Carmichael. You know where he comes from? New Orleans.
15:04That threw the ball to Alvin Kamara a ton.
15:07So if anyone's going to add some additional insight on, hey, maybe we should use James Cook in the past game.
15:13He was pretty good at Georgia. Unlock him a little bit more.
15:16And maybe James Cook has yet to reach his final form.
15:19Speaking on that Alvin Kamara comparison, also, you can make a really easy comparison of where CMC right now is at in
15:25his career is the last few years for Alvin Kamara.
15:28Where he's incredibly inefficient on early downs, but he's going to get the volume.
15:32Right. He's still one of the best pass-catching backs between the tackles.
15:36You saw the lag between the tackles last year.
15:38It was not there. Those metrics are not good.
15:41No, it wasn't there. And visually, you could see it, too.
15:44And at this point, can we say, like, it's probably not going to come back, like, at this juncture of his career
15:50with the injuries, the age, all that kind of stuff.
15:53So it's like, OK, like, I'm fine with, like, Alvin Kamara 2.0.
15:56But is that somebody I want to be drafting, like, to carry my team with all of these other kind of risk factors?
16:03Not so much. And that's what it is. It's all the risk factors you're weighing in every single year.
16:08And last year, Christian McCaffrey was a league winner.
16:11Doesn't mean he's a league winner, obviously, or first slam dunk overall pick either, where some people will take him one overall.
16:17I guarantee you that will happen in drafts that you're in.
16:20Also, a little bit of news just came across the wire.
16:23I don't know if you boys have seen this, though.
16:26Rushy Rice violated his probation after testing positive for marijuana and was 30 days in jail.
16:31Boy, I'm glad I traded him in a first-round pick for A.J.
16:34Brown in my Dynasty League. And now everybody that hated on the fact of it, because when I put out my updated
16:40Dynasty, everybody goes, you have Rushy Rice outside the top 30 wide receivers?
16:44Oh, I have a low, too. And I'm like, he's not young.
16:47He's in a contract year, and he cannot stay.
16:50His quarterback is hurt. Like, there's a lot of issues coming into the season.
16:54Like, in the offseason, he cannot stay away from doing something freaking stupid.
16:58Take a page out of Kyler Murray's book. Just stay home and play Halo, bro.
17:02Just stay home and play video games. He can't.
17:04He can't. That's what I gotta do. Just don't get in trouble.
17:08Anyway. Anyway, let's go with Tier 2, see if there's any trouble we can shake the trees with here.
17:13Number 6, Saquon Barkley. Then we have Ashton Gentty.
17:16Devon Achan at 8, which I think is an intriguing value, because he's pretty much the only offensive weapon they have.
17:22Derek Henry at 9, who annually gets disrespected and then keeps dropping 1,500-yard seasons.
17:26And Omari and Hampton at 10. Erickson. Omari and Hampton's the guy I circle here.
17:30This is the guy that I'm willing to go out on a limb on at the end of the first round.
17:36I almost did it in the CBS Experts draft.
17:38We were on there a couple weeks ago. Jake Seeley and myself drafting with the CBS boys.
17:43And we had a great time. But Hampton was a strong consideration for me.
17:47But I was at 9, and Justin Jefferson fell to me.
17:50So I'm like, well, I'm not passing on Justin Jefferson.
17:53But I would have taken Hampton. I was that comfortable with Hampton.
17:57So is Omari and Hampton somebody that you are comfortable with kind of taking that leap of faith?
18:02Because you do have to do a little bit of that this season.
18:05Or are you concerned about the Chargers schedule being kind of a rough one?
18:09I know Warren Sharp just laid out a whole thing like they have the toughest, quote unquote, in terms of days off and things like that.
18:17And that does kind of enter into it, especially for a team that had a lot of injuries last year.
18:22It doesn't really affect my outlook for Omari and Hampton because I think that he's a three down all purpose running back.
18:29And I think that bringing Mike McDaniel as the offensive coordinator just further emphasizes what Omari and Hampton flashed during his rookie
18:35year, where he had to overcome a lot during his rookie season.
18:38The offensive line was gutted by injuries. He was dealing with his own injuries.
18:42Justin Herbert was playing through injuries. But we saw these spurts of what this guy could do with a full workload.
18:48He played four games with at least a 79% plus snap share, averaged nearly 18 fantasy points per game in half PPR.
18:54He had matchups where he averaged 17.3 touches per game.
18:57That was top 12 at the position. And he had four games at least five or more catches.
19:02He was seventh in receptions per game at 3.6 as a rookie running back.
19:06PFF rated him as the eighth best graded rusher, finished 11th in yards after contact per attempt.
19:11So it was really rocky to start. Like it did not look good on tape.
19:15It did not look good in the advanced spreadsheets for Omari and Hampton.
19:19But he figured it out again, finished his rookie year RB 16 in points per game in just nine games played.
19:25But as I alluded to and just talked about, it's a really tough situation for him to overcome.
19:30But you have the offensive line upgraded healthy in 2026.
19:33McDaniel, his target shares the last four years as a Dolphins head coach to running backs third, seventh, third and third.
19:39I mean, Hampton is going to get peppered with targets in this offense where we have a lot of McConkie.
19:45How does the rest of the targets kind of shake out here?
19:48You have Quinton Johnston. Keenan Allen is gone. Like he was a big, he was the target leader last year for this team.
19:55As crazy as that sounds, that was true. So you have vacated targets available for a player like Omari and Hampton.
20:00And I'm not overly concerned about Keaton Mitchell. I think that he's a three to five touch guy where, hey, he doesn't
20:07need a lot of touches to get that explosive element to his game.
20:10He is the lightning to Omari and Hampton's thunder.
20:13And I think that he can also generate a lot of big plays.
20:17Again, really athletic player, tested great at the 2025 NFL scouting combine.
20:20So I like Omari and Hampton a lot. I think that he's poised for a year to break out.
20:25D bro, Saquon Barkley last year, I went on quite the diatribe.
20:29I had production people make videos of me talking about it.
20:32I screamed from the rooftops. I even put a special section in the black book about it, about Saquon Barkley and the
20:38long list of guys for the last 20 plus years that wouldn't have 400 carries.
20:42The next year just doesn't go very well for them.
20:45Statistically speaking, it was something to be concerned with.
20:48And at the very least, even if it went okay, he wouldn't finish as an RB1.
20:52And guess what? He didn't. He finished as RB14 in fantasy points per game and fantasy points overall at the position.
20:58He was 14. So now that we have put that to the side, right?
21:02We didn't have a long playoff usage for Saquon Barkley either last year.
21:06What do we do with him this year? Are you comfortable with this ranking?
21:10No, I'm not comfortable with this ranking. It's like people just pretending like last year didn't even happen, Joe.
21:15Like, like. Well, but we have seen the bounce backs too.
21:18That is one thing. No, that's fair. It's definitely the year following.
21:22But then we've seen after the year following, the guys do return.
21:25I mean, there's been guys who have done it.
21:28But that's priced in. Like Jamal Lewis did it for multiple seasons, right?
21:32But the season after he did the 400 plus carries was either an injury or a bad performance year.
21:37But that's priced in. Like right now he's RB six.
21:40So you're pricing in like, where's the ceiling there?
21:42Okay. Well, he has to be RB one, RB two overall.
21:45And that's what the bet that you're making. Like if he was, I have him at RB 13 right now.
21:51I have him as like a, like on that edge of low end RB one, high end RB two, because I just
21:57don't understand where people are looking at the Philadelphia Eagles and saying, okay, he had three in the historic season that he had in 2024.
22:04He had 3.55 yards to contact or yards before contact pretend.
22:08So basically breaking that down for people, he was getting almost four yards up the freaking field before he got contacted.
22:13That is an unsustainable number. It's insane. That led all running backs by a decent margin.
22:18And last year, one of the reasons was the fall off of their offensive line where they weren't an elite top unit
22:24of the entire freaking NFL top three, top five.
22:27I don't see that the Eagles are going to return and be a top three offensive line.
22:32Can they be okay? Can they be good? Can they be top 12 to 15?
22:36Sure. That's fine. But a lot of questions health being one of the big drivers there.
22:40And the last year, the big fall off from that metric where he was getting almost four yards up field before he got contacted that fell to 2.1.
22:48That wasn't a horrible number. That was 23rd amongst 49 qualifying running backs.
22:52That was league average, basically. So I'm kind of saying, okay, well, I think they can reproduce that.
22:57And at where Barkley is at in his career, we kind of know like who he is.
23:02Like he's an explosive play machine. But if the offensive line is not elite, are they going to consistently get him into
23:08the second level to have those explosive plays? His missed tackle rate hasn't been amazing.
23:12His yards are to contact per attempt ranked 35th and 39th over the last two years.
23:17It fell last year too. So his age kind of creeping up on him.
23:21He's not going to be heavily, heavily utilized where we're talking about the other guys that like in this top tier, like even him versus Hampton.
23:28Like, is he going to get the same type of pass game utility that Amari on Hampton sniffs that even Christian McCaffrey,
23:35all these other guys, James Cook even has the upside to get.
23:38I don't see it. So no, I cannot draft Saquon Barkley at freaking RB6.
23:42Like I think low end RB1, high end RB2 is absolutely appropriate.
23:45If he goes there in drafts, I'm fine, but I will not press the button at RB freaking 6.
23:51Nope. That is fair. All right. Before we get to the third tier running back, shout out to the sponsor of our show.
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26:42We have some big news. What's the news, Nick?
26:44Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas.
26:47We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.
26:50We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts.
26:53Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend.
26:56But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys?
27:01I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.
27:06Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers.
27:12This is how you guys remember it going down?
27:14Yes. I have a very different memory of this.
27:17We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey Jonas, and then
27:23I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.
27:29But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
27:35Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.
27:37All right. Let's get to the next section here, gentlemen.
27:40And let's talk about the RB3 tier, starting at number 11, Kenneth Walker, who I feel like I'm investing in.
27:46I mean, he wants the ball. He's going to get the ball.
27:49They're going to, especially the first four weeks of the season, I think there's going to be a lot of Kenneth Walker in that offense.
27:56Chase Brown at 12. I might be too low.
27:59We'll talk about him in a second. Josh Jacobs at 13.
28:02Jeremiah Love at 14. So it's a bigger tier here.
28:05We got Kyron Williams at 15, who annually just gets dismissed for some reason.
28:09Javante Williams at 16. Brees Hall, who, Andrew, you're going to love this.
28:13I'm buying back in at Brees Hall here this year at 17.
28:16I know you'd enjoy that. Gino Smith, let's go.
28:18Let's go. Well, that's why I'm buying back in on Brees Hall.
28:22Just despite Gino Smith. Just hand the ball off to Brees Hall.
28:25And then Bucky Irving at 19, who's got some issues too, some injuries that do not make me feel warm and fuzzy right now.
28:32At this stage, we are in May. And the injury news on him is not great.
28:37And that makes me want to buy all the Kenneth Gainwell I possibly can.
28:41We talked about that on yesterday's show too, because that came up.
28:44So, Debra, we'll start with you on this one.
28:47Javante Williams last year was basically a free running back.
28:49And credit to Pat Fitzmorris, because of all the many mock drafts and real drafts that we all did together last year.
28:56In all the ones where he had Fitzy, he kept saying, eh, just get a dig Javante Williams.
29:01And you know what? It was right. Because he just looked at the room and said, I don't think any of these other guys are any good.
29:08I think the offense will still be productive. And he was 100% correct.
29:12So, what does that hold for Javante Williams this year?
29:15And do you like the ranking currently where he is right now as the 16th guy off the board?
29:20I will toot my own horn. I was big into Javante last year.
29:24I said he could have been last year's J.K.
29:27Dobbins. And that was proved absolutely right. I dealt with all the haters that said he was washed.
29:32He was garbage. Yeah, you liked him too. Fitzy, I feel like, was number one.
29:36You were close. Everybody said Jaden Blue is going to take the job and blah, blah.
29:40And Miles Sanders and all that. Whatever, man. But again, we're going back to people just pretending that Javante Williams wasn't the
29:47RB11 in fantasy points per game last year. And while it looks like on paper he had a fall off towards the
29:53back end of the season, the deeper metrics were totally fine.
29:56It was really just bad touchdown luck. You had Javante Williams in weeks one through eight.
30:01He scored nine total freaking touchdowns, guys. He was the RB8 in fantasy points per game.
30:05And then weeks nine through 17, he only got four touchdowns.
30:08So if we think the Cowboys, again, are going to be an improved team this year, the defense is going to be better.
30:15They're playing with more positive game scripts at the end of games where Javante Williams is getting loaded up.
30:20He is. Nothing has changed about that damn depth chart.
30:23He's going to be the unquestioned RB1. He was an RB1 in fantasy last year, yet we're ranking him as an RB2.
30:29Well, look, he finished his RB12 in fantasy points per game at 14.1.
30:33Okay. He did have 11 rushing touchdowns last year.
30:35It was a good season. Lots of room for more touchdowns there.
30:39There are. There definitely are. I would say this with Javante Williams.
30:42I feel like if you are somebody that, like me, who drafts heavy wide receiver early, then Javante Williams ends up being
30:48your third round guy that you start building your running back room around.
30:52You can do worse. That's how I feel about him.
30:55Andrew, I want to get your gut feeling about another running back in this grouping here, and that's Chase Brown, because he's a 12.
31:02And if we're all into this assumption that we're living in this beautiful fantasy land that I hope comes to fruition in
31:082026, that Joe Burrow stays in the field the whole time and the Bengals have good health and they actually perform up
31:14to their capabilities for an entire season, not just little patches of it.
31:18That Chase Brown might be really undervalued here. Is that a correct assumption?
31:22I almost picked him, too. So I wanted to leave him for Erickson because I felt like we were going to be handholding here.
31:28Well, I was going to pick Javante. I was going to say, Jay, but you gave him to the bus.
31:34You guys. A Cincinnati-Dallas Super Bowl. We're going to see you, boys.
31:38It's the love fest on the Fantasy Pro Show.
31:40Oh, my God. I can't wait to live stream the Bengals-Cowboys Super Bowl.
31:44It's going to be absolutely electric. I love Chase Brown.
31:47Things that will never happen this year for 1,000.
31:49Bengals-Cowboys Super Bowl. You know what happened? I want to cut this.
31:53You can cut this if I'm wrong. I want to go back to this.
31:57And run it on social media all February of 2027.
31:59There is no universe that we live in where everything goes right for both of those teams to get into the Super Bowl.
32:06I want to go bet both the Super Bowl odds right now just to do it.
32:10I got to go bet those exactos. Do it.
32:13Bengals-Cowboys Super Bowl. You know, better than that, just give me your money and I'll put it in my savings account.
32:19That way it can just grow. Back to Chase Brown.
32:22Chase Brown, RB1 season. Honestly, I think he can finish the top five running back.
32:26Yes! I think that his ceiling is so, so high.
32:29Look at last year. Slow start because Joe Burrow was not the quarterback of the Bengals.
32:33He was injured. After he came back week seven onward, Chase Brown finishes the RB7 in points per game.
32:39He was the overall RB5 in terms of expect fantasy points per game because Zach Taylor in this offensive scheme, they feature
32:45Chase Brown as a three-down workhorse for the most part.
32:48And I know that there were some scary splits last year with Samajay Pirine kind of eating in.
32:53I don't really care about that because even though Pirine was taking snaps away from Chase Brown, it didn't really stop his production.
33:00Like he was the RB3 in weeks 13 through 17.
33:02So Chase Brown basically left for dead, killed fantasy manager to start the year, over 20 half PPR points per game weeks 13 through 17.
33:09So when it mattered the most during the fantasy football playoffs and championships, Chase Brown was coming up huge.
33:15And this is how we reward him. This is where we're going to rank him as RB12 when he should be firmly inside the top 10.
33:22I think that with Samajay Pirine as his main competition for targets and touches in this backfield, it's a contract year for Chase Brown.
33:29And I can't help but think that Chase Brown to me reminds me a lot of Kyron Williams, where I wasn't woke
33:35enough to adapt Kyron Williams as a thing that Sean McVay really loves this guy.
33:39And I was really slow to kind of coming around on Kyron Williams.
33:43And I still have been, I've been wrong on him seemingly every single year.
33:47And I don't want to make that mistake with Chase Brown, who also a day three pick, Zach Taylor came from the Sean McVay coaching tree.
33:55They found a gem in Chase Brown. And I don't see why they would not run him into the ground in his
34:01final year when he has improved every single year of his NFL career.
34:04Joe Burrow loves him. Zach Taylor loves him. They talk about how talented of a ball carry is.
34:10He's improved as a pass blocker and he's improved as a receiver.
34:13So I love Chase Brown. And to your point, Joe, if you're going wide receivers early in your drafts, Chase Brown is my hero RB.
34:20That's the perfect start for me. That's a nice wide receiver, wide receiver.
34:24And then Javante and Chase Brown for the monies, baby.
34:27You know what's funny? We put this show together yesterday afternoon about the time that we're recording it in the afternoon.
34:33And I just looked at it now to see what the updated ones are.
34:37And he's actually moved up a little bit in the half PPR rankings.
34:40He's up to nine now already from the 12.
34:43Where do you have him, Erickson? I guess all three of us must have updated rankings or something yesterday for the show.
34:49That's what it kind of feels like. We got to move the needle a little bit too much.
34:54So I don't know how long this is going to last, but enjoy it while it does.
34:59And best ball season at the very least. All right, let's go to the RB tier number four here.
35:04It starts with Cam Scadaboo at 20, Travion Henderson at 21.
35:07Then you've got David Montgomery, DeAndre Swift, who continues to be productive despite everybody passing on him.
35:12I feel like this is a guy that I'll end up with a lot of shares in PPR leagues of DeAndre Swift because there's nobody wants him.
35:20And I'll just be like, okay, I'll just do it.
35:23Quinjohn Junkins at 24, Bachel Tootin, which is unknown.
35:25It's a question mark. Janarian Price, who I don't think is much of a question mark, at 26.
35:30Jalen Warren at 27, Chuba Hubbard at 28, Enrico Dowdle at 29.
35:34I feel like Chuba Hubbard and Enrico Dowdle will also be guys that I have shares of.
35:39Debro, I want to get to you here about the guy on your list, Travion Henderson.
35:43So let's talk about him because I feel like this is another polarizing player.
35:47I think the talent and the explosiveness you saw in spurts last year, you also see that sometimes the Patriots continue to
35:53want to be boring, play defense, and run room Andre Stevenson a lot.
35:57I don't know how much is going to change year over year.
36:00What do you think changes with this Patriots backfield?
36:03I don't think anything changes. That's why I think this ranking for Travion Henderson is egregious and wrong.
36:08I don't see what happened last year, and I'm going to go through it here.
36:12What happened last year for anybody to have faith that as long as Romandre Stevenson stays healthy, how does Travion Henderson take over this backfield?
36:19I do not see it happening at all. Romandre was the guy, remained the guy, and should be the guy because if
36:26you look at every single metric that I care about on paper, Romandre Stevenson was better than Travion Henderson.
36:31Explosive run rate, better than him. Missed tackles forced, yards up to contact per attempt, yards per route run, all better than him.
36:38Romandre Stevenson bested him in every single one of those categories, and people want to talk about, okay, well, Henderson's pass game utility.
36:44Okay, Romandre Stevenson was better than him in that.
36:471.4 yards per route run versus 0.9 pass blocking snaps.
36:50Romandre Stevenson had 112 of them. Travion only 48.
36:52He had a better pass blocking grade. He allowed zero sacks in those 112 pass blocking snaps and only five hurries.
36:58Travion Henderson in half the sample, 48 pass blocking snaps.
37:01Three sacks allowed, eight hurries. You also take out of the equation of two with Travion Henderson.
37:06He had two massive games and that floated basically his entire season long value in the sense of he was RB 24 in fantasy points per game.
37:13You look at his production in weeks 10 and 11, 28, 32.3 PPR points per game.
37:18That was 60 PPR points per like totality. You take out those two freaking massive games.
37:22And I don't like to do this for every other guy, but when it's two outlier game versus the entire smorgasbord of
37:29the rest of the freaking season, Travion Henderson falls from RB 24 in fantasy points per game.
37:33He would have been the RB 33 in fantasy points per game.
37:37I have Ramondre Stevenson ranked ahead of Travion Henderson because I think that is the appropriate ranking and everything else is just
37:43based off of hope and hype that I do not see paying off.
37:47I like a good smorgasbord. I'm not going to lie.
37:50I don't know if I've ever actually eaten from a smorgasbord.
37:53Have you? The Swedish buffet. I stick to charcuterie boards.
37:56I love a good charcuterie board. Every Sunday I do the charcuterie.
37:59It's just me and the kids. It's just me and my daughters on Sunday.
38:03I will get like a good loaf of Italian bread early in the morning on a Sunday before shows and stuff like that.
38:09I'll go to the store, whatever I'm making, and then I'll buy a bunch of nice cheeses and fruits and do that little charcuterie board.
38:17It's a beautiful thing. But the smorgasbord is a variety of hot and cold dishes.
38:21So it's a little more Scandinavian. So I don't know if I've ever officially done that.
38:25That sounds like a Flex League thing we need to do at your house this year.
38:30Tell Sealy. Oh, I was going to say make Sealy do it.
38:33Oh, make Sealy do it. Yeah, at the drop.
38:36Let's put his ass to work for a change.
38:38That's really fair. He's not doing anything. Organizing the league.
38:41Big deal. Before we turn the page on this, I got to.
38:45Are you asking the two Patriot fans how they feel about Sealy?
38:48Yes, I want the Patriot side of this. I want the Patriot side of this.
38:52I need to know what the homers say. I don't care about the Patriot side of this.
38:57I like the logical side of this. Anybody who can't put their fandom aside for this job is bad at their job.
39:03Okay? Erickson, I put you on the spot now.
39:06What do you think about Travion? He paid him into a corner, man.
39:10Well, but I think I want to venture to say, I don't want to speak for him, that he probably thinks along the same lines you do.
39:17He's a little afraid of him, but maybe not.
39:20No, definitely a little afraid of Travion Henderson at RB21 because I think that Ramondre, especially if he's going to be a
39:26thorn in the side of Henderson, it's going to be to start the year.
39:30So, I think the only thing I would push back on with Henderson and Stevenson is I want to allow room for growth for Travion Henderson.
39:37Like, we know how explosive this guy can be.
39:40We know how good of a pass. We know how good he can be in pass protection.
39:45It's just really hard for rookies. Again, he was heralded as one of the best pass-walking running backs coming out of college in years.
39:52He was. And yet, he struggled in that area, too.
39:54So, sometimes it takes guys some time to... It's because Will Campbell was what the turnstile would be.
40:00Yeah, because Will Campbell wasn't helping him out in any capacity whatsoever.
40:03Guys on the Texans and Chargers were running late.
40:05But if Will doesn't get any better this year, then...
40:08Trust in the known commodity that's good in pass pro?
40:11Or the rookie you're hoping could be? I think it would take an injury to Stevenson to really unlock Henderson in 2026.
40:17I agree. That's why I think this ranking is ridiculous.
40:20I really don't want to draft either guy, to be honest.
40:23I don't want that much. I'll take LeMondre where he's going because he's going to get disrespected.
40:28Nobody wants to draft him, guys. No, he's not fun.
40:31He's not fun. I like fantasy points, though. I like fantasy points, too.
40:35All right, let's see if we can find some more fantasy points.
40:38Let's talk about Rico Dowdle because I made the...
40:41I went out there on the limb and I felt like, hey, Rico Dowdle is a guy...
40:45I'd rather have him than Jalen Warren, even though Jalen Warren is ahead of Rico Dowdle in draft rankings right now.
40:51Do you think that's a crazy center? Really choking you up, Joe, about these Steelers rankings.
40:56No, it's not that. It's just this is old people problems sometimes.
40:59We're just all of a sudden just like going to take a tums after the show for no reason at all.
41:05Jalen Warren two spots ahead of Rico Dowdle. Two spots.
41:08Gave him reflux. No. No, but the Steelers are going to give Scott Bogman a lot of acid reflux throughout the season.
41:14I can tell you that. Yeah, Drew Allard will do that to you.
41:18So, well, let's talk about this situation because Rico Dowdle is not unfamiliar with the head coach because it's the new head
41:24coach that was his old head coach, right? Mike McCarthy.
41:27You've got Aaron Rodgers back for however long his body continues to cooperate, dumping off passes all day long.
41:33This is a running back situation that I want to be a part of here, Andrew.
41:37Yeah, it's a bit of an ambiguous situation because we don't know exactly how things will shake out.
41:42But I see an opportunity for points here like you kind of hit at the top.
41:47Rico Dowdle. I think he's Mike McCarthy's guy. I don't think it's by accident that McCarthy went out and signed him to
41:53after they lost out on Kenneth Gain. Well, Pittsburgh Steelers did not bring him back.
41:57Dowdle had a breakout year in 2024. I mean, Rico Dowdle.
42:00I think another player that maybe we need to put a little bit more respect on again that he's been a journeyman for the majority of his career.
42:08He's going to be entering his age 28 season.
42:11He has 672 touches on his resume because he did not play a lot during the beginning of his career.
42:16He was either dealing with injuries buried on depth charts, but he's earned his touches the last.
42:21Yeah, he was behind Ziegle Elliott too. Like that was just never going to happen.
42:26He's earned his touches. I mean, the last two seasons, he has not opened up as the RB1 on any depth chart,
42:32whether it was on the Dallas Cowboys or the Carolina Panthers.
42:35He took Chuba Hubbard's job last year and made it so even when Hubbard came back, sorry, like we're riding Uncle Rico
42:41here, like to the promised land, like let's go into the Panthers winning the division.
42:45Rico Dowdle. He does have, despite all these things, he's got back-to-back thousand yard seasons.
42:50The last two seasons, he's been a top 21 running back.
42:53Like he's been a fantasy RB2 over 4.5 yards per carry, totaled 78 catches.
42:57And I think it's really telling that he was given nothing, right?
43:00He had to earn all these touches based on his practice play and what he did with his limited opportunities on the field.
43:07So I really like Jalen Warren too, but we've seen multiple coaching staffs not view him as a bell cow, as a three down back.
43:14Whereas with Rico Dowdle, I mean, over 1300 total yards from scrimmage last year among 49 qualifying running backs, he was 17th
43:20and missed tackles force per attempt, 10th and yards after contact per attempt.
43:24The guy's just good. So I get that he's a little bit older, not the traditional running back that we like to gravitate towards.
43:31But if I'm picking a Steelers running back, I want to pick the guy that is boys with Mike McCarthy and has
43:37been really productive over the last two seasons. So although I don't know how much of a split is going to be
43:43with him and Jalen Warren that will maybe keep Dowdle out of RB1 territory, I would not be surprised if he's a RB2 for the third straight season.
43:51Let's play a game. Who had more fantasy points per game last year?
43:55Rico Dowdle or Kenneth Walker? Rico Dowdle. Dowdle. That is correct.
43:58Who had more fantasy points per game last year?
44:00Rico Dowdle or Brees Hall? Rico. Brees Hall. Brees Hall, but not by much.
44:04Yeah, I know my Brees. I know my Brees.
44:07I know. I know it's your boy. It's your boy, Blue, but close.
44:11Right. Very close. They're just interesting. Question. Do you guys have Rico ranked ahead of Jalen Warren?
44:15Because I do. I do. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, and I think this is a very similar situation that we were talking about just with the Patriots.
44:23The sexy pick is Jalen Warren. The right pick is Rico Dowdle.
44:26And it's Mike McCarthy's boy. Dude, I love Rico Dowdle.
44:29OG truther. I've got prospect tweets about Rico Dowdle out there in the ether.
44:33So I'm with all of this. God, please. I beg everyone.
44:36Don't search for those on Twitter. Don't. They're out there.
44:39It's not a prospect coming out. Look, I mean, Rico.
44:42I like Erickson's point, too, which is despite the fact he's a little older, I don't think he's got the same tread
44:48on the tires as a lot of guys that age.
44:51So I think that's what makes him so intriguing.
44:54And the situation makes him intriguing, where even though we know Jalen Warren is going to be a part of this offense,
45:00there's just going to be enough of this offense tailored towards dumping balls off to the running backs that I just want to be a part of it.
45:08Aaron Rodgers is not, you know, the arm talent he once was.
45:11He's just not. And that, you know, befalls all of us.
45:14We saw two running backs be top 20 last year because of the amount of dump off passes from Aaron Rodgers.
45:20It's not going to get better this year. Although shout out.
45:23Congratulations, Aaron Rodgers on the big nuptials, too. He got married.
45:27Good for him. Maybe I'm sure that'll make it.
45:29Do we know who his wife is yet? Was it in the pictures?
45:33I don't know. Was it just a dark screen?
45:35It's like his wedding. The wedding pictures are just a black screen.
45:39Live look at Aaron Rodgers' wedding put up on the screen.
45:42This is why you watch the tailgate. Again, everybody, if you just, look, if the three of us are your cup of tea, just watch the tailgate.
45:49This is literally the show with no agenda. It's just us talking football like this.
45:54They come home from the honeymoon and somebody has painted a mural of their wedding pictures and all it is is a black wall in the living room.
46:02Just blackness. All right. All right. Let's talk about this last year.
46:05Before we do, I want to remind everybody, too, if you've got Dynasty Drafts coming up here, you got full mocks you
46:11can do in minutes with the Draft Simulator and our MVP and Hall of Fame subscribers.
46:16If you're one of those, you can even test out the trade scenarios so you can get ready for all your drafts.
46:22And best of all, right, you can actually get the upgraded premium subscription right now for three days for free.
46:28So a couple of days before your draft actually starts or goes down, you go lock it in at fantasypros.com slash Dynasty 26.
46:34That's fantasypros.com slash Dynasty 26. Use the premium tools for the draft.
46:38And then when you realize you're so great, just up for the rest of the season and let us take you through
46:44the rest of 2026 so you can crush all your redrafts and all your Dynasty and everything else in between.
46:50Go to fantasypros.com slash simulator today. Go check out the draft simulator.
46:53Get ready for all of your Dynasty drafts. All right.
46:56Last year we're going to talk about today. And this one is a mixed bag.
47:00It's a potpourri, as they say. Some guys that I'm really curious about.
47:04Some guys that I really like. Uh, and we'll even talk about some guys after this tier as well.
47:09If you guys want to throw something out there, Blake Corum at 30, I think was one of the best guys you can invest in.
47:16I don't like taking handcuff running backs or guys, but I am sold on Blake Corum last year in the, on the waiver wire show.
47:23I don't know how many times we had to have the conversation about Blake Corum and people still wouldn't roster him.
47:29And we kept looking at each other like, what are you doing?
47:33There's a role for him here. He's scoring touchdowns.
47:35And if you have to hit that emergency to break open glass, Blake Corum can be useful for you.
47:41Kyle Manongai, another guy that I really liked and I'm getting a lot of shares of this year.
47:46Ramondre Stevenson at 32, what you talked about. Uh, RJ Harvey at 33.
47:49I don't know how D bro feels about him this year, but we'll find out.
47:54Tony Pollard at 34, JK Dobbins, then JCM, Ja'Cory Kroski, Merritt, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason.
47:58I love whenever rankings of guys like that on the same team are back to back because it just tells you that
48:04everybody in the industry also has no idea what to do with them.
48:08It's one of my favorite things. I can't get enough of it.
48:11Just put them together because we all know about the Minnesota Vikings backfield.
48:15It's right. We don't. Nobody does. So be careful.
48:18Zach Charbonnet at 39 is hilarious that he's ranked this high because he's not going to play for possibly the season.
48:23I mean, not gonna play till November. So why is right this high?
48:27I'll never know. Tyler Algier at 40. Rashad White at 41 might be too low.
48:31Kenneth Gainwell at 42 is too low. I can tell you that right now.
48:35That's crazy. Woody Marks at 43 and then Chris Rodriguez at 44.
48:39Speaking of Chris Rodriguez, this is the guy that I'm most intrigued by.
48:42Andrew, you've sold me on a couple of our conversations about the connectivity with him and Liam Cohn.
48:48I am not 100% sure about how much they love Basial Tootin because of the amount of money that they're paying Chris Rodriguez.
48:54It's not a massive amount, but it's more than just like a, you're going to come here and just be a part
49:00of the cog in the machine amount too. So I think all of those kind of lean me towards, I'm going to
49:07have some Chris Rodriguez shares in 2026. And I just drafted one in that CBS draft I referenced earlier.
49:12So talk to me about Chris Rodriguez this season with the Jags.
49:15Yeah. I don't like Chris Rodriguez as a pick because I don't think he's very good.
49:20Um, as I've kind of looked at this a little bit more citing the relationship with Liam Cohen, that's really about it
49:26for me when it comes to having faith that Chris Rodriguez can really have a useful and focal point in this backfield,
49:32because although he does check off some of the advanced metrics, 18 yards after contact per attempt, 8th in rushing success rate
49:39in 2025, I just looked at what Basial Tootin did in those similar metrics.
49:43And they're basically all the same. So Basial Tootin was already as good as Chris Rodriguez, who is 26 years old, journeyman
49:49running back that was splitting touches last year with Ja'Cory Krosky-Merritt, a seventh round rookie running back and Jeremy McNichols, who again,
49:55just another player that has not really established himself as a, Oh, this is a guy that NFL teams need to feature in some capacity.
50:02Basial Tootin has way more juice than Chris Rodriguez does.
50:05He's a zero in the passing game. He has three catches last season, six catches in his three-year NFL career.
50:11And something that I can never ignore when it comes to day three rookie running backs, when they force their way onto the field without an injury.
50:18And I think it was extremely telling that last year, the Jaguars took Travis Etienne off the field to put Basial Tootin in goal line packages.
50:26I think that that is very encouraging for what Tootin's outlook could be in 2026, that they were taking Travis Etienne, who's
50:32having, he had a monster season last year, got paid by the Saints and they were taking him off the field to
50:38put Basial Tootin in goal line packages in the red zone.
50:41And that's where you get fantasy points is in the red zone.
50:45So I think that the Chris Rodriguez hype or love has actually gone too far with his connection with Liam Cohen, because
50:51besides that, I don't see how he's going to outpace Basial Tootin.
50:54I think Tootin's going to run circles around this guy, to be totally honest.
50:58I'm going to take the other approach here. And I'm going to tell you this.
51:03Agreed. I don't think he is good. I think you're right.
51:06I don't think he's special. Okay. Okay. But like, shouldn't that should matter the most?
51:10He's not good. It should matter the most, except I don't, I think that Chris Rodriguez is going to be on the
51:16field more than anybody in fantasy wants him to be from a football perspective.
51:20And he's going to be there around the goal line.
51:23And to me, that is where I think he might win out a little bit.
51:27Again, maybe I'm wrong. We're going to watch how this hashes out.
51:31I think August will be very interesting to see, you know, some of those preseason games and some of the looks and
51:37situations that we get to see a little bit of.
51:40And it'll be telling, look, I'm somebody that has Basial Tootin in the dynasty league.
51:44That's very important to me that I want Basial Tootin to do well.
51:48Believe me. But I am, I was kicking the tires on trades to see what he might be worth out there.
51:54And I think the fact that I didn't get a lot of buzz and a lot of interest in him tells me,
52:00I don't think I'm the only person that's kind of has big questions about Basial Tootin going into the season.
52:06Joe, can I just follow up? Please. Please. How different is this situation from Zach Moss and Chase Brown?
52:11Moss. Where it's like, Zach Moss is the guy, like they brought him in.
52:15Chase Brown was entering his second season. That's good.
52:17And you're right. Zach Moss was really annoying to start the year.
52:21But what did we say every single week? It's like, you got to buy Chase Brown.
52:25Andrew, I want to hand you this microphone. I have this microphone and I want you to drop it on me because I think you just did.
52:33Oh, that was very good. Let's go. That was very good.
52:36Here it is. That's for you. Go ahead. Take it.
52:39Take it from my hand. Thank you. That was very good.
52:42Very good. That was very good. I like that.
52:45All right. I don't even want to do the rest of the show now.
52:49I'm just depressed. All right. And that's it. We're going to see you next week.
52:53I got Zach Moss. I got Moss. You got Moss.
52:56I got Matt Moss. You got Moss. The worst kind of Moss.
52:59If these are going to Moss me, Randy Moss me.
53:02Don't Zach Moss me, bro. That's gross. All right.
53:05D, bro, talk about Tony Pollard because I don't know what else to do.
53:08I don't. Why are we, why is Tony Pollard an RB three right now?
53:12Who's taking work away from him? Trying to get his money and he got it.
53:17He got paid. But that's why. Who, who, who's taking work away from him?
53:21Nick Singleton, Tajay Spears. I don't believe it, man.
53:23Like, I think he should be ranked as an RB two.
53:26I have him as an RB two in my rankings.
53:29I, we're talking about, like, we've talked about this on tailgate where we're all collectively high and, and really think that like the Titans can surprise people.
53:37Uh, the offense is going to be better with more pass catchers, hopefully improve quarterback play from cam ward.
53:42We don't think that like, I don't believe that, uh, his job is in jeopardy at all from Nick Singleton, who is
53:48entering this process coming off a foot injury. Tajay Spears, who cannot stay healthy and on the field.
53:54Tony Pollard was hampered by an offense last year.
53:56That was 32nd and red zone scoring attempts per game, 30th in points per game.
54:00I think we all collectively believe those numbers are going up this year and quietly the Titans had an offensive line that
54:07was 13th best in yards before contact per attempt.
54:09And yet Tony Pollard is an RB three in rankings.
54:12No. Why did you go full Dr. Evil at the end of that?
54:16Cause I feel like it was a ride. Why?
54:18Cause he's, he's all the way down there. Right.
54:21Okay. Somebody needs to tell me. All right. Well, look, I, I look, Tajay Spears injuries have really hampered his ability to take over.
54:28And, and I think with the rookie, we all kind of feel the same.
54:32There is like a wait and see kind of scenario.
54:34The other thing too, Tony, Tony Pollard being a free agent, you're unrestricted free agent next year is intriguing.
54:40This is a chance for you to go cash in.
54:43You know, it's Travis Adrian. Like look at him.
54:45We're putting Blake Corum, Kyle Manon guy, Ramon Dre, RJ Harvey, Rico.
54:49Well, a lot of those guys are younger. The ghost of Chuba Hubbard, Jalen Warren, like all these guys in split backfields above him.
54:55Well, I understand the youth factor of those guys.
54:58There's a guy that isn't on any of these lists right now that both of you earmarked to talk about.
55:04It's a guy that's had not one, but two ACL tears.
55:07So I can't wait to hear about this, about Jonathan Brooks.
55:10Talk to me about why you two Yahoo's wanted to talk about Jonathan Brooks here.
55:14Cause Chuba Hubbard is horrible. He already lost his job once.
55:17He lost his job last year to Rico Dowdle.
55:20He's probably going to lose his job again this year.
55:23If Jonathan Brooks is fully healthy and the guy that they spent a second round pick on, but after they took all
55:29the time in the world in the same knee, like he's 22 years old.
55:33I'm not talking about the, the, the entirety of the rest of his career.
55:37I'm talking about 2026 and Chuba Hubbard last year amongst 49 qualifying backs guys, 49th in explosive run rate.
55:42He, he legit had zero explosive runs the entire season.
55:45He was also dead last in miss tackle rate.
55:48He was 47th. So not dead last, but close and yards of the contact per attempt.
55:52So he's lost his job once he can do it again.
55:55And if Jonathan Brooks can even be 80% of the guy that he used to be in college, he could take the job.
56:02As a prospect out of college, you and I agree on Jonathan Brooks.
56:05We like Jonathan Brooks for sure. But two ACL tears is, is too much for me.
56:10And I think the Panthers have done a bad job to be honest with you filling in with the Rico Dowdle absence this year.
56:17But, but isn't that also a feather in the cap and also a quiet signal for Jonathan Brooks that maybe he's further along.
56:23It's just a bad organization that doesn't know how to cover their ass.
56:27No, they made so many moves this off season, dude.
56:30They made a ton of moves all season. But you only have so much cap space to fill every, you know, glaring issue that you have.
56:37And I thought this was a glaring issue as a backup for him.
56:41And I don't know if Trevor ATN doesn't do it.
56:44Is he, by the way, did Trevor change his name to Jonathan Brooks?
56:47Did Trevor change his name too? We don't know yet.
56:50He has gone radio silent since his brother's big announcements.
56:53So he's going to have to do something of relevance.
56:56I'm going to call him Trevor ATN then until something else changes.
56:59Andrew Erickson, do you have anything to share here on the Jonathan Brooks scenario?
57:03Just wanted to add that he is coming off those major knee injuries, but he is 22 years old.
57:09And we're seeing guys come back faster and faster from ACL injuries.
57:12One of the biggest mistakes I made was writing off Christian Watson last year.
57:16Like this guy's not going to play towards ACL in October, November.
57:19And then he comes back and is the most efficient of his entire NFL career.
57:24Now, maybe that's just Christian Watson, but I don't want to bet against the player that had that much talent at the
57:30college level that even when he has played in the NFL in 2024, before he re-injured his knee, he was immediately soaking
57:36up targets as a rookie after Chuba Hubbard was already on the field.
57:40So Hubbard has broken down the last two seasons.
57:42Did you ever just kind of list it out?
57:45I just don't like the idea of investing in a player like Hubbard when the coaching staff has already given his job to somebody else.
57:52Like it's already in their mind. It's like, so if Jonathan Brooks looks good one week, it's like, well, maybe we should give him more touches.
57:59We took away Chuba Hubbard's job last year. Like let's get Jonathan Brooks more involved.
58:04That just concerns me. So maybe it's not just about drafting Jonathan Brooks, but it's trying to be very cautious about Chuba
58:10Hubbard and and maybe his lock on that RB1 job is not really as secure as the contract would suggest like it was last year.
58:17Last question, guys. Sure. Is Jonathan Brooks this year's Javante Williams from last year?
58:21No, because Javante was clearly the lead for the starting role going in.
58:25So his capital. So all we need is one news blurb saying that Brooks is ahead of Hubbard when we're in camp and then you're there.
58:32I would also say Javante Javante had a good rookie season in the NFL.
58:36Like Jonathan Brooks has done nothing in the NFL.
58:39Like even though I just talked about like he got targets.
58:42It was hardly a sample size. I mean, remember Javante?
58:45But I guess his second year was him and Melvin Gordon.
58:48I'm framing this as talented running back coming off devastating knee injuries.
58:51Talented running back coming off devastating knee injuries. That can be the undisputed lead back for their offense.
58:56And yet it's not priced in at all. All right.
58:59I did a little homework here where you guys were yapping about Jonathan Brooks to find some other guys who have done this twice.
59:06It's again, it's not too easy. It's the same knee that I'm really focused on, too, because that's the thing that bothers me the most.
59:13Okay. So on your side, Frank Gore in 2002 and then 2003.
59:16But again, that was very early in his career.
59:19Okay. So maybe that's okay. And then he played for another 50 seasons after that.
59:23So you're telling me Brooks is on the Frank Gore path.
59:26See, you told me. I was like, that's the good one.
59:29All I'm hearing is Jonathan Brooks. Hold on. Frank Gore.
59:32Wait, wait, wait. What's that? What's that? I just heard another mic drop, Joe?
59:36I led with the positive. Another mic drop. Not a mic drop.
59:40I led with the positive. All right. Zamir White.
59:42Also 2017, 2018. Dalvin Cook, 2014. But he was in high school the first time he did it.
59:47So it's a little bit different than again in 2017.
59:50I think after that 2017. Made it to the NFL.
59:53Good career. I mean, if you gave me three comps of Frank Gore, Zamir White, and Dalvin Cook, I know it's two I'm taking to the bank.
60:01Two out of the three ain't bad, baby. Two out of the three ain't bad.
60:05But two of them was very early in their career, too.
60:08Like one was a high school. Okay. Well, Jonathan Brooks is sweet.
60:11He was 20 and 21 years old. He's 22.
60:14Some of the guys that got drafted this year.
60:16Exactly. Perhaps. There you go, everybody. Draft Jonathan Brooks everywhere.
60:19He's a baby in the NIL era. I bet when everybody started this episode, this is not where we thought we'd end up.
60:26But that's why you take the journey with us.
60:28Here at Fantasy Pro. Subscribe to the channel. Drop your comments below.
60:32How early are you taking Jonathan Brooks? No, but seriously, how early are you taking some of these guys?
60:37Who do you think we're right about? Who do you think we're wrong about?
60:41Who do you think that is going to be your target, the running back position?
60:45Drop your comments below. We love to have this debate.
60:48We love to hear from you. And we like to interact with everybody here on the YouTube comments, too, because we're a
60:54show of the people here over at Fantasy Pro.
60:57So go check it out right now. By the way, I found Aaron Rodgers' wedding photo.
61:02There he goes. I found it. It's here. It is.
61:04Very nice. Excellent. Well done. All right, everybody. Make sure you go check out the rankings for yourself over at FantasyPros.com slash
61:11rankings for all the positions and continue to watch the rest of the series here as we go through the wide receivers and tight ends as well.
61:18That'll do it for us. But the story of the game goes on.
61:22For Derek Brown and Andrew Erickson, I'm Joey P.
61:25We will see you next time, kids. Subscribe to Tailgate NFL 2.
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61:46This episode sponsored by HeadShop. I genuinely did a double take when I found this out.
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