13 Crucial Fantasy RB Rankings Changes To Make Right Now!
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 1 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 17, 2026
Published
Mon, August 17, 2026
32
Player insights
29
Players mentioned
Topics
Tucker KraftDe'Von AchaneAaron JonesBijan RobinsonBraelon AllenBreece HallChristian McCaffreyD'Andre SwiftDalton KincaidDevin SingletaryDrake LondonEmmett JohnsonGeorge KittleHarold Fannin
Player analysis
Player insights
Aaron Jones
PositiveRole37:01
Despite getting work with the starters, the source remains skeptical of Aaron Jones, citing offseason reports that he hits a wall at 150 touches. The source prefers Jordan Mason as a draft target over Jones, noting that Jones's role in Kevin O'Connell's offense may be limited by the team's high pass rate and Kyler Murray's goal-line involvement.
Insight pageBijan Robinson
PositiveProjection90:39
The source finds it easier to justify drafting Bijan Robinson than Kyle Pitts, citing the potential for rushing success under the new offensive line coach and Bijan's pass-catching capabilities, even if the team offense struggles.
Insight pageBraelon Allen
PositiveSleeper54:18
Braylon Allen is a freak athlete who has shown breakaway speed and strength. The source ranks him as a draftable player, noting his potential to climb rankings if there is continued uncertainty regarding Breece Hall's health.
Insight pageBreece Hall
NegativeInjury12:01
Breece Hall suffered a groin injury in practice, which has caused the source to drop his ranking from 24th to 32nd overall. While the source remains confident in his bell-cow workload and potential for a productive season behind an improved offensive line, the injury introduces risk and uncertainty regarding his availability for the start of the season.
Insight pageChristian McCaffrey
NegativeInjury33:26
Christian McCaffrey has missed a full week of practice due to 'tightness,' leading to concerns about his availability and potential for a lingering issue. The source moved Jonathan Taylor ahead of him in rankings, noting that while McCaffrey's upside remains elite, the vagueness of the injury reporting is a major concern.
Insight pageD'Andre Swift
PositiveValue82:00
The source views DeAndre Swift as a strong target in rounds 4-5, noting his improved running between the tackles and his role in the offense. Despite injury concerns regarding teammate Kyle Monungai, the source believes Swift has contingent upside and is a better pick than other RBs in that range.
Insight pageDalton Kincaid
NegativeUsage60:46
Dalton Kincaid did not draw the start in recent rotations, with Dawson Knox opening in 11 personnel, which the source finds notable for his usage outlook.
Insight pageDe'Von Achane
PositiveUsage24:57
Devon Achane played every snap with the starters in the preseason opener, reinforcing the source's belief that he will be a workhorse in the Dolphins' offense. Despite concerns about his size and the potential for lower target rates with Malik Willis at quarterback, the source remains bullish on his volume, projecting 23 touches per game and comparing his potential impact to Christian McCaffrey's high-usage seasons.
Insight pagePositiveUsage32:07
The source feels good about holding the line on Devon Achane's projection, noting that his volume will be too hard to ignore despite potential concerns about copying and pasting Miami's unique usage from last year.
Insight pageDevin Singletary
NegativeRole65:58
The source views the Giants' interest in Najee Harris as a direct indictment of Devin Singletary and Tyrone Tracy, suggesting the new coaching staff lacks attachment to the current backfield depth.
Insight pageDrake London
NegativeProjection89:03
The source expresses concern about the Falcons' offense being a 'brutal watch' and questions whether the current quarterback play will negatively impact Drake London's production compared to previous seasons.
Insight pageEmmett Johnson
PositiveDepth Chart52:17
Emmett Johnson has quickly ascended to the RB2 role on the Chiefs depth chart. The source notes the team's appreciation for his character and his ability to make defenders miss, making him a draftable asset in deep leagues with significant waiver-wire upside if the starter misses time.
Insight pageGeorge Kittle
PositiveProjection60:27
The source expects George Kittle to rise in rankings as he appears likely to return for Week 1, maintaining a high valuation on the veteran tight end.
Insight pageHarold Fannin
NegativeUsage93:41
The source is nervous about Harold Fannan's role, suggesting he may receive fewer manufactured touches this year due to the new wide receiver room and the team's shift in play-calling focus toward players like Casey Concepcion.
Insight pageIsaiah Likely
NegativeUsage68:30
The source has downgraded Isaiah Likely to TE17, citing concerns over his limited snap count in preseason week one, where he played only six of 12 snaps with Jackson Dart. The source fears Likely will be a part-time player in a run-heavy offense that prefers heavier personnel like Patrick Ricard and Theo Johnson.
Insight pageJadarian Price
PositiveValue78:29
The source remains high on Jadarian Price, ranking him RB24 (consensus RB26), noting his focus on receiving work in a Seahawks offense that is actively trying to increase pass-catcher involvement. Price is expected to rank highly while Zach Charbonnet is sidelined.
Insight pageJeremiyah Love
PositiveUsage2:00
Jeremiah Love dominated snaps (16 to 6) over Tyler Allgeier in the preseason opener, including third-down and goal-line work, signaling a clear-cut bell-cow role. Despite a high ankle sprain that will likely sideline him for the remainder of the preseason and potentially Week 1, the source remains high on his talent and projected workload, viewing him as a top-tier back once healthy.
Insight pageJonah Coleman
PositiveRole56:59
Jonah Coleman is viewed as a trustworthy runner who fits Sean Payton's archetype. The source believes he is a better handcuff option than R.J. Harvey because he is more likely to assume the primary workload if J.K. Dobbins misses time.
Insight pageJonathan Taylor
PositiveProjection33:56
Jonathan Taylor has been moved up to the RB5 spot, ahead of Christian McCaffrey, due to his consistent fantasy production and the uncertainty surrounding McCaffrey's health. Taylor averaged over 30 half-PPR points in games the Colts won last season.
Insight pageJordan Mason
PositiveSleeper37:06
Jordan Mason is viewed as a high-upside sleeper who is more likely to score touchdowns than Aaron Jones. The source ranks him significantly higher than the expert consensus (RB35 vs RB40) and believes he could win the job through explosiveness or injury to the starter.
Insight pageKeaton Mitchell
PositiveSleeper75:46
Keaton Mitchell is identified as a fantasy running back sleeper. The source notes that the team is actively learning what they have in him and that his profile is an exact fit for the Mike McDaniel-style running back role, projecting him for meaningful touches in a run-heavy offense.
Insight pageKyle Pitts
NegativeProjection85:47
Despite concerns about the Falcons' overall offensive quality and Tua's performance, the source remains optimistic about Kyle Pitts, noting he is likely the second or third option in the offense and could benefit from a shorter ADOT in the quick game.
Insight pageLuke Musgrave
NegativeInjury58:43
Luke Musgrave's status is uncertain due to a neck injury that has kept him out of practice, creating depth chart concerns for the Packers at the tight end position.
Insight pageMarShawn Lloyd
PositiveSleeper50:47
Marshawn Lloyd is considered an intriguing handcuff because he is fully healthy and could benefit from potential non-football suspensions affecting the starter. The source views him as a strong late-round target.
Insight pageMike Washington Jr.
PositiveBreakout42:20
Mike Washington is highlighted as a top-three handcuff with rare athletic traits comparable to Adrian Peterson. The source believes he is an electric prospect who would be a top-15 to top-17 running back if the starter were to miss time.
Insight pageNajee Harris
NegativeRole66:48
The source believes Najee Harris's potential arrival in New York would not matter much for fantasy purposes, viewing it primarily as a negative signal for the existing Giants running backs.
Insight pageRJ Harvey
NegativeValue56:59
R.J. Harvey's fantasy outlook has dimmed due to the addition of Jonah Coleman and his tendency to spend too much time behind the line of scrimmage. The source has moved him down in rankings, viewing him now as a niche pass-catching option rather than a primary handcuff.
Insight pageTony Pollard
NegativeRole17:27
Tony Pollard split reps with Tajay Spears in the preseason opener, leading the source to move him down to RB31 (84th overall). The source expresses concern about the Titans' overall offensive outlook and the potential for a 1A/1B committee, noting that Pollard's upside is capped in this environment.
Insight pageTucker Kraft
NegativeInjury57:48
Tucker Kraft has returned to contact practice, though he indicated he may be on a snap count until mid-season. The source remains optimistic about his role, noting the Packers' unproven tight end depth behind him and his unique ability as the team's best yards-after-catch threat, suggesting the snap count will likely be short-lived.
Insight pagePositiveProjection59:13
The source identifies Tucker Kraft as a significant negative regression candidate due to his unsustainable 11.4 yards per target against a 4.5 average depth of target. While acknowledging he is a 'model breaker,' the source expects his efficiency to decline from his historic levels.
Insight pagePositiveInjury95:24
Tucker Craft has returned to contact and padded practice. The source has moved him into a tier ahead of Pitts and Fannan, viewing him as a promising tight end option.
Insight pageTyrone Tracy
NegativeValue66:42
The source is low on Tyrone Tracy, ranking him RB46 and preferring players like Ray Davis or Ty Johnson who have clearer paths to needle-moving roles if the starter goes down. The source believes Tracy would only operate in a committee if elevated.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Preseason Week 1, we've never been back. Yes, preseason football means something to us.
0:04It means we have big rankings changes. Today it is running backs.
0:08Yeah, we react to the big injuries to Jeremiah Love and Brees Hall.
0:11Also, the split backfield use of the Tennessee Titans and the Minnesota Vikings.
0:15Plus, are we nervous about Christian McCaffrey? The dude hasn't practiced for a week.
0:19We covered all here on this episode, plus tight ends.
0:22Give it a listen. Big show for all of you, because preseason matters to us.
0:26Yes, we have massive running back rankings changes. Because after months and months and months of using the same stats and the
0:33same information to back up our takes, Hayden, now we have, you know, 16 preseason games to change everything around and rework
0:39how we want to draft these players. Yeah, lots of new news.
0:43We got injured players, of course. We have depth chart changes and then just even some just kind of tidying up some
0:49things that we learned from training camp and see if that's actually coming to fruition based off of, you know, the depth charts.
0:56So today is running backs and tight ends. Tomorrow is wide receivers and quarterbacks.
1:00I would say this is one of our most important shows that we do every single year.
1:05So hit subscribe, hit a thumbs up, because we're in the heart of draft season.
1:09And again, teams are honest with us by their wallets, by their draft picks.
1:13And I would even say by some of their usage here in preseason week when we're going to dive into all of it here.
1:20And that takes us to the Arizona Cardinals and Jeremiah Love.
1:23Hayden, the timeline is that the Cardinals selected Jeremiah Love third overall.
1:27He did not play in the Hall of Fame game, then gets 14 touches on 24 snaps, 72 yards, and then exits
1:33on that final touch with a high ankle sprain.
1:36So my question to Mike LaFleur is, was it worth it?
1:39But Hayden, my question to you is, what does this high ankle sprain do to your rankings where we're not going to
1:45see him for the rest of preseason and maybe even longer?
1:48Yeah, he's in question for week one, week two.
1:51I think after that, he's probably going to be back to where he was.
1:55I learned some things before that injury, though, that kind of caught me off guard.
1:59He out snapped Tyler Algier 16 to six. They had a couple of long drives and he out snapped Algier in each of those.
2:06Like it wasn't even like a rotation. It was just Jeremiah Love clear cut starter Algier mixing is like a change of pace guy.
2:13Love was on the field for a third and three play action rep from inside the 10 yard line too.
2:19So like that's maybe an indication that he's going to be the goal.
2:23So to me, if he didn't have this injury, I was going to have him like 15 16 overall and I was
2:29moving him up because we're getting somebody that's a really good football player that was evident.
2:34And we don't have to worry about the games.
2:36It just seemed like they were going to ride Jeremiah Love as the bell cow as they should because he's very clearly much better than Tyler Algier.
2:44Because of the injury, I'm keeping him at the two, three turn.
2:48I'm not 26 overall. I think that a lot of people are going to take his 80 ADP, which is right in
2:54that range and knock him because of the injury and not paying attention to the fact that he was a bell cow
3:00back in this preseason game, which we did not know was going to be the case based off how, you know, Hackett
3:07and the rest of those guys talked about this backfield.
3:10Yeah, it's one of those odd dynamics where you watch a player and you get very excited.
3:15So you want to move them up your rankings, at least I did.
3:18And namely, like those two angle routes stand out to me because those are basically designed manufacturer touches.
3:24Three wide receivers are pushing down the field and he's catching a pass, you know, five yards beyond the line of scrimmage versus three yards behind it.
3:31And that's exactly what we want out of this styling of a running back.
3:36And so again, that gets your juices flowing that I might move him ahead of that round two, three turn area.
3:42But then we get back to this point of, okay, they have Tyler Algier.
3:46They have this injury that they're going through now.
3:48What exactly is this usage going to be now that we get to week one versus if he was clean and healthy
3:55throughout camp, then you could see and envision the hot hand already being, you know, absorbed and taken by Jeremiah Love in the preseason.
4:02And then that manifesting itself starting in week one.
4:04Whereas now I think there's a delay and that doesn't even factor in maybe a lessened player because high ankles can linger
4:11for a long time depending on who the player is and how their rehab is good.
4:15I feel pretty confident that whenever he's out there, he's just going to be the bell cow.
4:20And I think that the Tyler Algier stuff is just change of pace.
4:24And just to me, the only thing I'm concerned about is just that he's not going to be healthy.
4:29He's going to miss some time or he's not going to be quite as explosive or he has a setback.
4:35It's like those are the type of things I think.
4:38I mean, you give them 16 touches or not 14 touches, but 16 snaps versus Algier six right away.
4:44Man, I think that's like we should be really leaning into that because like the only reason why he was available in
4:50round three is because we had workload concerns like I'm over that.
4:53Like they just they prove that wrong on this opener.
4:56Well, speaking of that workload, Michael for was asked why he played Jeremiah love so much and he responded with quote, it's a rookie who hadn't played.
5:04This is one of the most self-inflicted shots I've seen in preseason in recent years.
5:08It just makes zero sense to me to keep him on the field when you have removed Jacob or set and the starters.
5:15I mean, it's idiotic. It truly is like this is not something you do to give six 14 touches on 24 snaps.
5:22And this is why you have three preseason games rather than one.
5:25So it's frustrating to me. And you also lose Chase Basantis, Hayden, in what deep into the second or third quarter in another order.
5:32Yeah. In another game. And Chase Basantis was looking like one of the more promising guards.
5:37Right. You know, a second round pick and was going to emerge as a starter in this group.
5:42So that's we can go further and further down the list.
5:45The injury bug is hitting the Arizona Cardinals right now in a heavy way.
5:49Right. At least, you know, Carson Beck had a moment and then Jacoby Brissett got paid and stuff.
5:54So like maybe some of the quarterback concerns I still have, but may not to the degree that I had, you know,
6:01when we were talking about this about a month ago.
6:04So if Jeremiah Love did not have that injury, I would have him right next to Ashton Gentry about 16th, 17th overall.
6:10I have about a 10 spot discount on him because of this, this ankle sprain.
6:14We still have a full month to get to the season.
6:17I think he's questionable for the first game or two.
6:20And after that point, I think that he looks like one of the best running backs in the NFL.
6:26I'm going to hold where I have him ranked until after our next conversation.
6:30But you just mentioned that maybe you don't have as much pessimism on like the long-term outlook of what the Cardinals could be offensively.
6:37Like they might just overperform their expectation of being the bottom projected offense in the league.
6:41I do want to bring up their schedule. Okay.
6:44Weeks one through 11. It's an absolute nightmare. Chargers, Seahawks, 49ers, Giants, Lions, Rams, Broncos, Cowboys, Seahawks, Rams, Kansas City.
6:50So when we all look at projected points and we all see how few games the Cardinals are projected to win this
6:56year, all you have to do is look at the schedule to have those numbers make sense.
7:01Yeah, I get that. But I think that he's just going to be too good to ignore.
7:06I think that the touches are going to be outstanding for him.
7:10Yeah. And it is one of those things that they can escape the bottom three to five offenses.
7:15That does a lot for you. Just don't be a bottom three offense in the NFL.
7:19Okay. Speaking of injuries, let's go to Brees Hall.
7:22This one happened not during preseason games, but in Monday's practice.
7:25He had a groin injury, no contact, caught a pass in the flats, pulled up, walked off with trainers.
7:31And Aaron Glenn, the head coach, said he has now strained his groin, which is, you know, a big deal for cutting and accelerating.
7:38I mean, hey, we just saw him play 10 of 11 snaps in the preseason contest.
7:42The word bell cow was being used by beat writers.
7:45And here we are once again that three weeks until week one.
7:49But this throws a wrench in all of our plans.
7:52I think that Brees Hall, you could have taken him at like 24th, 25th overall after that preseason game where we had
7:58just like more evidence that he's going to have as big of a workload as he's ever had before.
8:03And I think that the Jets have a chance to be at least like watchable because the offensive line has gotten better.
8:10And Geno Smith's an upgrade versus, you know, Brady Cook and like those type of guys.
8:14Injuries, a bummer. Groin injuries, typically, you know, it's two to four ish weeks, depending on the severity of it.
8:20They say that it's not that big of a deal.
8:23You know, I always look at soft tissue injuries in training camp as something that we should take note of.
8:29I moved him down to 32nd overall. Like I said, I probably would have had him ranked like 24th overall.
8:35I got a slight discount on him. I think it's really it's a really tough debate.
8:39Javante Williams, Travis HN and then Josh Jacobs, Kyron Williams.
8:42I think he's now in that tier where I think after the preseason game, I would have said that he's ahead of that tier.
8:49And I think that as we learn more and get closer to Labor Day, I'll be moving Brees Hall up a couple
8:56spots down a couple spots, depending on how severe this was.
8:59Yeah. Unfortunately, this happened about an hour before we were recording.
9:02So we don't know exactly what the grade is or how severe this injury is.
9:06Hopefully it's something that he can stay on the sideline for a week.
9:10But I'm exactly with you. I now have both Jeremiah Love and Brees Hall behind Kyron Williams, where before this I had Kyron Williams behind them.
9:18Well, I mean, we've talked about Kyron Williams and in the offense, it's just touchdown scoring machine.
9:23But the question now is, do you move them exactly behind the tier that you talked about and Javante, Travis HN?
9:29And then like, does this even because you have the questionable, the red tags next to these names?
9:34Like, is this going to push up the Cam Scadaboos, the DeAndre Swift, et cetera, and drafts when it's always easier to
9:40draft, you know, healthy players versus injured ones? Yeah, I think I'm in general going to be buying the dip on both
9:47of these guys because they're good football players. And I feel even more confident about their workloads.
9:51And I think these injuries, there's enough time for them to get over it.
9:56There's just added risk. You have to move them down a little bit.
9:59But I was like, I was drafting Brees Hall like 24th overall in some drafts.
10:04Like if I had, especially if I like on some of those like Puka Nakua, Jamar Chase teams, and I'm looking for a running back.
10:11That was definitely the player I was taking. If Jeremiah Love was off the board, I was pushing Brees Hall all the
10:17way up to that tier ahead of like the Devontae Smith type of range.
10:21Now you have to move him down a little bit.
10:24But if he's back in two weeks, I'll go right back to about 25th overall.
10:29Yeah, I mean, I saw Brees ahead of Jeremiah Love.
10:31So I have Kyron, Brees, and then Jeremiah Love.
10:34That might be different than a lot of people out there.
10:37That might be different than you. But again, this is all adjusting based on injuries information that we have.
10:43And we'll see. Okay, next. Maybe perceived backfield that we had isn't exactly what we predicted it to be.
10:48Tennessee and the Titans. Tony Pollard and Tajay Spears split reps in preseason week one.
10:53With Cam Ward on the field, Tony Pollard played nine snaps, got five opportunities.
10:57Tajay Spears got 13 snaps and four opportunities. What was your instant reaction when you saw this?
11:02I had to close the gap between them. I moved Tony Pollard to 84th overall.
11:06He's my RB 31. And then I moved Tajay Spears, who I was not drafting really at all.
11:11I moved him next to the Woody Marks type of range, which was definitely a step up.
11:16He's my RB 44 at this point. Both of them looked good.
11:20Pollard scored a touchdown, cutback run. Tajay Spears had a nice spin for a nice game.
11:24I'm just worried about the Titans offense in general.
11:27So I think this is a good reminder of what exactly are we doing with Tony Pollard.
11:32I have him next to Ja'Cory Krosky, Merritt, Rico Dowdle.
11:35That type of tier. Clear committee backs. And I have, you know, the Basial Toon, Jalen Warren, Bucky Irving, Jadarian Price, clearly
11:41ahead of Tony Pollard at this point. It felt like for a lot of times this summer, Hayden, if you went, you
11:47know, zero running back, then Tony Pollard was people's favorites as one of those jammen men maybe can liven up your running back two spot.
11:55I know. And that's a danger. I mean, seventh round on Yahoo at this very moment.
11:59Rather than move Tony Pollard further down, because I still and only had him as running back 30.
12:04So it's not like that high. I just moved Tajay Spears up.
12:08I guess my question to you is, are we reading into this too much?
12:12Like we just talked about what the Cardinals did of, hey, they should have managed Jeremiah Love's workload more and given more to Tyler Auergier.
12:19Should we just be saying that the Titans did manage Tony Pollard's workload?
12:23Or is this a case where, hey, Robert Sala also, when asked about Nick Singleton earlier this summer, said, we have two
12:29feature backs in Tajay Spears and Tony Pollard. And we just didn't maybe see that play itself out in rankings and drafts so far enough.
12:37Well, Pollard last year was the RB 29 and RB 32 usage because the Titans were really bad.
12:42And that was when he was like clearly the top option.
12:45So, you know, the Titans have to get better for him to matter.
12:49And, you know, I'm not fully convinced that they're going to be much better this year.
12:53And then I think that the context of Pollard's an older player and Spears, a younger player.
12:58I do think we should be like reading into that a little bit where like there is a chance that he just takes the job away from him.
13:06Where I think the Jeremiah loves stuff. Why that stood out to me is because they were talking that, oh, he might be in a real rotation.
13:14They're talking about James Conner and these other guys.
13:17And then they come out there and he just dominates touches and plays a bunch of snaps with the first team.
13:23Where I think that was like a bigger indicator on that front.
13:26And I do think there's a threat to Tony Pollard being like, you know, the traditional dead zone back bad offense and
13:33a younger player behind him where I think you can get away with him in your flex earlier on.
13:38But I think that the upside is pretty capped.
13:41I've always enjoyed Tajay Spears' game. I mean, he makes people miss and phone boosts.
13:45He creates yards on his own. And we've seen him as a receiver create some really fantastic opportunities in that.
13:51I asked Justin Graver, you know, who was locked into every single Titans practice.
13:55Let's put it that way. And he said, quote, I think it's going to be a 1A, 1B situation.
14:01Potentially alternating drives. Pollard probably handles majority of goal line work.
14:04Even though in this one, Tajay Spears like played some inside the 20.
14:08And then after a few carries and a few snaps and they put Tajay Spears back in once they get to like the 8 or 9.
14:15So that's in the air for me. And then back to his quote, I think both backs will see plenty of targets.
14:21Who scores the touchdowns will matter big time. Assuming the Titans actually score some touchdowns this year.
14:26That's the bigger point at the end. Yeah. Yeah.
14:29I was not impressed with the, well, talk about Cam Lord, but I was not impressed with the entire offense.
14:35Big rotation in general. Talk about tight ends, wide receivers and running backs.
14:39It's almost like they're hosting a tryout this year.
14:41It's like a new rookie season for Cam Lord.
14:44I have my doubts. Yeah. Again, we'll have wide receivers and quarterbacks tomorrow.
14:48Hit subscribe. Big, big shows for you right now.
14:50Leave a thumbs up too. Okay. Back up the board.
14:53Let's go to the Miami Dolphins. Everything we've heard about Devon A.
14:57Chan from Jeff Halfley is, hey, we're going to give you 40 touches until the wheels fall off.
15:02We're going to bring you to the sideline. Well, what we got in preseason week one, he played every snap of the starters and that meant seven carries.
15:10What I liked from Bobby Sloick is we saw a ton of 12 and 21 personnel usage.
15:15We'll talk about tomorrow how that impacts the wide receivers and some tight ends.
15:19But at the same time with maybe this improved offensive line after they continue to add pieces to it.
15:24And again, more heavier bodies. I've always felt that Devon A.
15:28Chan was one of the more underrated between the tackles runners.
15:31And I think we're going to see that a lot this season too.
15:34Yeah. So we have all those running backs at the one-two turn.
15:38I have Kenneth Walker ranked the highest. And then I have Devon A.
15:42Chan ranked second highest right ahead of Saquon, James Cook, Chase Brown, Derek Henry, those types.
15:46So I'm buying in on this workload. I'm buying in on Malik Willis, like maybe being a little bit better than people think.
15:53I'm definitely betting on the offensive line being better.
15:56They have a first-round left guard who's definitely geared to be a run blocker.
16:00And then their center was maybe the best offensive lineman in the NFL.
16:03And then Patrick Paul, their left tackle, an emerging freak athlete who took a big step this last year.
16:09I think there's enough to work with. And I think that your point about the heavy personnel, fullbacks, two tight ends, all
16:15that type of stuff, I think it's going to make it even easier for Devon A.
16:20Chan to be a workhorse. They gave him the goal line rep as well.
16:24They don't even talk about any of the backup pieces here.
16:27I think there's a chance that he can have like 23 touches per game, including like, you know, five, six receptions per game.
16:34And even if they're bad, it's impossible to bust if you're getting that type of workload.
16:38Obviously, the fact that he's so small makes me a little bit nervous.
16:42But this is one of the situations where it like reminds me of like the Christian McCaffrey on the Panthers when they weren't even good.
16:49And just like all of a sudden he was just going absolutely crazy because he's touching the ball too much.
16:55He's too good of a football player. So I would draft him at the end of round one if I had to.
17:02The good news is you don't have to. You can just draft him in round two.
17:06I think I'm a little bit more nervous about the receptions than you are.
17:10Just because if we just look historically, the best scrambling quarterbacks are often do not target their running backs.
17:16Malik Willis targeted the running backs and it's a small sample at the lowest rate and scrambled at the highest rate.
17:22Now, do I think Devon H is going to touch the football a lot when it's whatever positive situations they have neutral
17:28and even slightly, you know, negative game script? A hundred percent.
17:31But this goes back to in my brain. I am basically changing how I order that running back nine through 12 every single day.
17:38I don't think I'm going to have just from an offensive infrastructure standpoint and for how much Chase Brown is playing Devon H ahead of Chase Brown.
17:46I just can't rank it that way. OK, but from the Martin Hampton, Derek Henry, Devon H in Ashen Jente tier, I
17:53am reordering that again every single week. And I loved drafting Devon H in last year.
17:57Hopefully all of you got Devon H in because of how we spoke about him last summer.
18:02It's just I mean, we're talking about one running back in Martin Hampton attached to Mike McDaniel.
18:07Big, fast. That's awesome. Derek Henry, 10, 12, 14 plus touchdowns every single year.
18:11H and wheels fall off. Awesome rusher. But maybe a worse team.
18:15And then Ashton Jente. Hey, second most work share last season.
18:18And that situation should improve a lot. So again, I'm taking all those guys very highly Hayden.
18:23I just don't know exactly how I'm going to finalize that ranking once we get to the time.
18:28Yeah, I'm looking at just how many receptions Devon H had that were manufactured versus, you know, like checkdowns.
18:33In so many of them last year, he had 55 targets within two and a half seconds.
18:38I was top five in the NFL. I don't see how they don't at least do that this year.
18:44I mean, who else are you going to be throwing the ball to?
18:48We got some Chris Bell news, which we'll get to tomorrow, which I'm excited about.
18:52But I think the manufacturer stuff is like too obvious.
18:55He's too good at it. You have to throw the ball to him.
18:59So I don't think that the receptions are going to drop all that much, especially that defense is up there for maybe worse than the NFL.
19:06So I think they're going to have to throw the ball to him in the second half of games anyways.
19:12I'd be interested to see how many receptions Joe Mixon was manufactured back in 2024 with Bobby Sloick.
19:17Again, different talents, different quarterbacks, even with CJ Stroud versus Malik Willis.
19:21But that'll show you because we know Mike McDaniel and the order of operations and actually utilizing, you know, Devon H as
19:27a legit wide receiver in number of ways, which.
19:30Yeah, that is, you know, a saying that is utilized across the league, but it actually happened last year for the Miami Dolphins.
19:36It's I was uncommon usage. And I know Sloick was on the rock on the team last year, but I am hesitant to copy and paste that.
19:44Joe Mixon had 28 targets within two and a half seconds that year.
19:48That was 17th in the NFL. So not quite as much as Devon H and but like I think there's a reason for that.
19:55Devon H is a superstar at that where Joe Mixon was like, all right.
19:59So I feel good about Devon H and holding the line here.
20:02I think the volume is going to be too hard to ignore.
20:06Next is a topic that we haven't discussed yet, and it might not be getting enough discussion out there and fancy football and.
20:13Christian McCaffrey has now missed an entire week of practice with tightness, and that's all we know.
20:17It's just quote tightness. So we know what the timeline has been over the last two seasons.
20:22And I am fearful that this is going to give not just me, but everyone out there nightmares about 2024 with the vagueness of this reporting.
20:30So, hey, I'm springing this on you, but is this impacting your thought process at all with CMC for this season?
20:36I moved Jonathan Taylor up. I didn't know you're going to ask me about this.
20:40I moved on Taylor to fifth and McCaffrey at six.
20:43I couldn't get down to a Monro St. Brown and JSN to put McCaffrey behind those guys just because I didn't like
20:50the crazy upside that McCaffrey have is still maybe a tier above what a Monro and JSN.
20:55But the longer this lingers, you could move them down to like eighth overall.
20:59But until proven otherwise, I got Jonathan Taylor ranked ahead.
21:01Jonathan Taylor has been very good at fantasy football, if you guys have not been paying attention to.
21:07Again, in games the Colts have won, Jonathan Taylor has averaged over 30 half EPR points last season.
21:12Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so like it's not like you're sacrificing upside by moving Christian McCaffrey behind Jonathan Taylor.
21:17There's plenty of upside with JT. I mean, we should have seen 2024 coming with how he was held out of all offseason activities.
21:24Basically, and then when we got to last summer, he was practicing a lot.
21:28He was involved a lot. I'll be it. We had maybe some shenanigans toward the end there heading into week one.
21:35But we got there and then he played and he was the only 49er that was not injured throughout the entire time.
21:41So it is on my radar a little bit like maybe we reset and reconvene next week at this time.
21:47If CMC is still not practicing and that'll be like, you know, a grade level seven versus where I'm at right now
21:53of like a little nervousness at three. I will say with both Nick Bosa and Christian McCaffrey, I wonder if their tightness
21:59is, you know, related to the contracts that they have.
22:02They don't have a lot of guaranteed money. The McCaffrey stuff pops in right after B.
22:07John and Jameer Gibbs are basically making like twice as much as Christian McCaffrey this season.
22:12So I could see all the soreness maybe, you know, is tied to my bank account more than more than anything.
22:18And at that point, I would move McCaffrey back up to fifth.
22:21Let's talk the Vikings backfield. It's the last one in drafts on any platform that you use, especially on Yahoo.
22:27So Aaron Jones got work with the starters and Aaron Jones looks springy, youthful and preseason week one.
22:32And that's compared to Jordan Mason. Now, this somewhat flies in the face of what we've heard all offseason, where all summer
22:39the beats have been reporting that Aaron Jones basically hits a wall and breaks down at 150 touches.
22:44And Jordan Mason, to some, has been the star of training camp and fits the outside wide zone system that Frank Smith has brought in.
22:51Does this change at all what you're looking at?
22:54Because, you know, Jordan Mason is ranked as running back 40 in expert consensus rankings.
22:58And I'm much more aggressive having him as running back 35.
23:01I'm at running back 38. It would have been a big deal to me if he was just starting over Aaron Jones.
23:08The fact that he's not does not make me move Jordan Mason down that much.
23:12I think that he's gonna have to win this job in the season and that Aaron Jones, you know, like the veteran, been here for a long time.
23:20He's gonna get the benefit of the doubt early.
23:23And then I think Jordan Mason's just ultimately gonna be, whether that's injury or based off of his explosiveness and power, I
23:29think ultimately he's more likely to score more touchdowns.
23:32Even last year, he was working at the goal line a little bit more than Aaron Jones.
23:36So I still don't really get the point of Aaron Jones in drafts.
23:40I got him ranked 132nd. He goes earlier across all platforms.
23:43I would rather take my chances on Jordan Mason.
23:46Do want to note this though. The Vikings have been top five in neutral pass rate pretty much every single season with Kevin O'Connell.
23:53And I think with Kyler Murray back there, you're going to lose some of the goal line stuff because he can mix it down there as well.
24:01So it's not like the most fantasy friendly role aside from, I think the offense will be good.
24:06But I just think how KOC gets there, it's through the quarterback and receivers a lot more than the running backs.
24:12Like among these kind of split backfields, the ceiling can only get so high with someone like Jordan Mason.
24:18So I think there's like the Jacory, Croste, Merritt types.
24:20I would just rather take a chance on those backfields.
24:23Maybe there's a little bit more upside and just based off like how the scheme's orchestrated.
24:28Yeah. I have Bill and J.K. Dobbins ranked ahead of Jordan Mason right now, even if I am quite high in Jordan Mason compared to the market.
24:36The most likely outcome here is we look back in December and say, hey, any conversation we had about the Vikings backfield
24:42was kind of a waste of time. Unless Jordan Mason, as you always term it, farts into the end zone for eight, nine touchdowns, which is possible.
24:50I can see that. That's why I rank him higher because one, I think the Vikings offense is underrated.
24:56We're getting a discount on what previous KOC offenses have scored in terms of points per game.
25:00And then two, he is just much more likely to me to score a touchdown than Aaron Jones.
25:06Right. I had trouble ranking him versus Rashad White, Keaton Mitchell.
25:09Someone like Chuba Hubbard might be falling in drafts to the point where you would have to consider Mason versus Hubbard.
25:15I think it's pretty clear that Hubbard has more upside capabilities than Jordan Mason just based off of like the previous workloads that he's had.
25:22So I think that's kind of where I'm drawing the line.
25:25I don't feel good about Jordan Mason or Aaron Jones, like as your flex options in a week one, like that would make me nervous.
25:33Okay. Should we talk about our favorite topic? Running back handcuffs and running back backups.
25:37I mean, it truly is one of my favorite topics.
25:40Here we go. My stance, the top three handcuffs in FASY football now are, and true handcuffs we're talking about here, Tank
25:46Bigsby, Marshawn Lloyd, and Mike Washington of the Las Vegas Raiders.
25:49I mean, that long run that Mike Washington Jr.
25:52had was absolutely electric. I thought he, coming out of Arkansas, had underrated vision and feet between the tackles.
25:58But what they did to give him that second level, and then he makes that move to slightly hurdle, a lunging tackle
26:04from 29, and then chain a move together where he runs over the safety number 36, stiff arm and peel away.
26:10I understand that Ashton Gentry had the second highest volume in terms of market share of his team touches last year.
26:16But Mike Washington is to the point, Hayden, where if something happens to Ashton Gentry, we are ranking him top 15, top
26:2217 running backs out there in any given week.
26:25He is that electric to me. Yeah, he is that electric.
26:28There is no competition for this gig. You're still on the Raiders, so I would probably still rank him next like Quinchon
26:35Judkins, I think would be pretty fair. He right now is like my RB21s.
26:39I think that's where his handcuff appeal is. Now, he has real upside because of his athletic traits, and I thought he
26:45was able to catch the ball fairly cleanly in college too.
26:48His closest comp based off of the combine was literally Adrian Peterson.
26:52Now, let's not get carried away here, but that's the type of rare athleticism.
26:56That was, I think, going to be one of the best runs of the entire season, that preseason run that he had,
27:02just like the explosiveness, but also like the stiff arm, a little jump cut in there.
27:07I think like a really, really, really strong player.
27:09So I see the same way. I've got Bigsby Lloyd, Mike Washington, RB46, 47, 48.
27:14Throw him at the end of your bench, especially if you're drafting early.
27:17Draft these guys. Like you never know if one of the starters goes down with like a season ending injury.
27:23It happens on occasion. And in that case, like these guys would be like the most mispriced players up there.
27:29So there's just like asymmetric upside to these guys.
27:32And I guess my question to you, and I don't want to get carried away here.
27:36Is the Ashton Gentey bell cow, like, I mean, he did not come off the field at all last year.
27:42Like that was like the case for him is like, you're on the Raiders, but he's not going to come off the field.
27:49Like at what point, not that they're going to, he's going to overtake them.
27:53But at what point is like, okay, Mike Washington deserves like legitimate change of pace snaps here.
27:58Let's like preserve Ashton Gentey to some degree here where maybe instead of, you know, 80% of the backfield, you know, if it's 70%.
28:05Yeah, like could this be like 90 to, you know, 77%?
28:08And like at that point, that's like where we're splitting hairs.
28:11We're talking about like Kenneth Walker, Saquon Barkley. Like we have to split these hairs.
28:15Like how much more evidence do you need for Mike Washington to think, okay, maybe that elite workload is just going to come down like this much.
28:23I mean, this is so different than where everyone else has him.
28:27I mean, in expert consensus rankings, Ashton Gentey is the sixth overall running back.
28:31We know in drafts right now, he's going as a 13th overall player on Yahoo.
28:35And I have him as running back 12, like the end of that entire group that I kept bringing up.
28:41And to add the stat that you brought up, he was 0.1% behind John and Taylor in terms of team running back
28:47usage market share last year at like 84.6%. I mean, that's a nuts of number.
28:52That doesn't happen. And it could theoretically go down.
28:54At the same time, I can also talk out the other side of my mouth and say, if it all goes right,
29:01then Ashton Gentey is a league winner this year at the exact same time.
29:05So I felt Mike Washington was an overlooked, underrated prospect because his game didn't necessarily fit exactly what you thought his body type would be.
29:12Like you look at him, this huge man that he'd just be running over tackles.
29:16In fact, breaking arm tackles in the open field was some of the worst things that he did.
29:21Instead, it was give him a crease, give him a lane, head is off to the races and out running everyone.
29:28So to see him between the tackle slalom ski these lanes and then chain two moves together and break away.
29:33Oh, buddy. Like that is that is some stuff that we actually haven't really seen from Ashton Gentey so far in his NFL career.
29:40You said it. I didn't. I agree. Well, you said on yesterday's show.
29:44And so I was just repeating what you said here.
29:47That's it. I got Ashton Gentey 17th overall. I think that's like, you know, we're nitpicking here, but we have to nitpick.
29:53Like we're talking about everyone in this range could be a league winner.
29:57Like to me, it's like Ashton Gentey could win your league.
30:00Of course. So could Kenneth Walker. So could Chase Brown.
30:03So could Derrick Henry. It's like all these guys could win you your league.
30:07Obviously, like Ashton Gentey has that in his range.
30:10And then at the baseline case, we have to nitpick these type of things.
30:14So like I, I think Mike Washington is so much better than the running backs that they had behind Ashton Gentey last year.
30:21Last year. It's not even close. Like this is like a real prospect.
30:24Real prospect. A hundred percent. It's funny. I thought the Seahawks would draft him because he's very John Schneider coded.
30:30And then obviously Kubiak coached with the Seahawks last year and now gets him.
30:34The seismic change is going to be Mike Washington was running back 64 in consensus rankings.
30:39And he's my running back 49. So it's going to be a massive jump up for him.
30:44Just quickly. What do you think about your guy, Marshawn Lloyd, getting all first team reps with the Green Bay Packers with Josh Jacobs sidelined here?
30:51I can't say that he was like awesome on tape.
30:54Like he, there's a little bit of like a excitement in his game, but he's healthy.
30:59And that's all I care about. The NFL handed out a bunch of suspensions.
31:03Now they didn't get to Josh Jacobs and Puka, for example, but those cases are pending.
31:07So like, that's where maybe they still could get suspended later on, even though that those suspensions were handed down just because
31:14you just, they can't suspend them in the middle of an investigation.
31:17So there's still like that upside case that Marshawn Lloyd has that, you know, Tank Bigsby and Mike Washington don't have.
31:23And that the starter could just be suspended for non-football reasons.
31:27And I think that's what makes Marshawn Lloyd so intriguing.
31:29He's, he's been awesome and he's been fully healthy in camps.
31:33Like, I don't think we should be discounting him too much at this point.
31:37Should Emmett Johnson, the rookie at Nebraska also be in this conversation?
31:40He worked really behind Rashard Smith in the first preseason game.
31:43But then we fast forward to today, Monday's practice.
31:46And he is now the second running back here on the Chiefs depth chart, actually showing some stuff that we saw at
31:52Nebraska in terms of like in a phone booth spinning and making a first man miss.
31:57And then he actually, to me, showed a little bit more in terms of acceleration and winning after that.
32:03Yeah, he looked a little bit bigger in the debut than I remembered him at Nebraska.
32:07I think that he's the RB too. I learned some stuff listening to the games as well, which I like to do,
32:14not just like look at the snap counts, like listen to, you know, what they're saying in the games.
32:19And the booth kept saying how much the team likes Emmett Johnson, the person, like what an awesome story he has.
32:25You guys can go look that up yourselves. But they've just really appreciated what he's brought as a rookie and versus where he was drafted.
32:32It's you don't see it all the time that they're immediately the RB to halfway into training camp.
32:38So I'm reading into this. I think Emmett Johnson in deep leagues is draftable.
32:42I think that he's not going to have pretty much any role when Ken Walker is out there.
32:47But the second I mean, get him ready for a thumbnail.
32:50If Ken Walker misses time, he will be like the leading guy on waiver wire.
32:54Yeah, he's my running back 50 and he's inconsistent rankings running back 61.
32:58I also want to bring up Braylon Allen because I forgot to mention him when we were talking about Brees Hall.
33:04Yeah. Everyone knows a year ago at this time, Aaron Glenn was pushing for a three headed backfield with Brees and Braylon Allen and Isaiah Davis.
33:12We know Isaiah Davis has actually missed multiple weeks right now due to injury.
33:16Braylon Allen reeled off a 31 yard touchdown. Let's remember he's still and will forever only be 22 years of age.
33:22He is big and strong and showed some breakaway speed here after dealing with injuries all of last season.
33:27And so Hayden, I actually have him ahead of a bunch of other former running back twos is like running back 54 right now.
33:34And that could even climb up based on this growing injury that Brees Hall has.
33:39I've ended up to running back 53. I think he's draftable, especially right right now while we have some Brees Hall, you
33:45know, uncertainty like him versus Brian Robinson. I think it's like a very fair debate, you know, like who's better at football.
33:51I don't know. It's about the same tier to me.
33:54I will never forget Braylon Allen, Wisconsin posted a picture of him when he was 17 years old as like a true freshman.
34:01It was the most jacked 17 year old you could put him.
34:04He was as big of a house back then.
34:07We're talking about like legit one of the freak athletes out there.
34:11So, yeah, I think he's draftable him versus Brian Robinson, Tyler Algier Charbonnet.
34:14I think that's the discussion for me. OK, let's get through some like split second backfields.
34:19OK, and by that, I mean like the Denver Broncos, for example.
34:22Let's talk through Jonah Coleman versus R.J. Harvey, because R.J.
34:25Harvey did get the quote unquote start here. J.K.
34:28Dobbins did not play, but then he seeded and gave way to Jonah Coleman.
34:32Did your eyes tell you that Jonah Coleman fits a certain running back archetype that R.J.
34:37Harvey might not for Sean Payton? Yeah, just like trustworthiness hit the lane and, you know, break a tackle.
34:42I think that's where R.J. Harvey, he has the athleticism to do, but like just cannot trust him.
34:47I thought both of Jonah Coleman's runs were nice cutback runs, had a little spin move on top of it, finishes hard.
34:54Like this is just what his scouting profile was.
34:56I think there's, you know, an athletic ceiling that Jonah Coleman's going to always hit, but not enough to like to reel
35:03him from like getting into the mix here. I did see Benjamin Albright did say as long as J.K.
35:08Dobbins is starting, it's like not even going to be close.
35:11Like he's going to run away with the touches.
35:14But in the event, and by the way, Harvey wasn't, you couldn't start R.J.
35:18Harvey when Dobbins was out there. So like the only reason why you're drafting Harvey and Coleman is if J.K.
35:24Dobbins misses time. In that scenario, like who would you actually want to start more?
35:28Jonah Coleman or R.J. Harvey? I think that's the discussion.
35:31And their ADPs, I think I just moved them closer together.
35:34I just keep moving R.J. Harvey down because I don't see the pathway for him catching as many balls with Jalen Waddell in the mix.
35:42And now you drafted Jonah Coleman. They were flirting with all of the free agent running backs.
35:46Like I'm looking at R.J. Harvey and being like, has he just like fallen out of the trust tree for Sean Payton?
35:53Aside from the fact that you can dial up some fun plays to him.
35:57He was vultured by the freaking fullback in both short yard situations in the preseason game.
36:01Like, I mean, that's not nothing. The big talking point, though, is last year, R.J.
36:06Harvey actually turned into one of the best fantasy assets from when J.K.
36:10Dobbins went down basically through your fantasy playoffs and help people win their leagues from that.
36:14But with Jonah Coleman now involved, that is unlikely to happen.
36:17It is very easy to assume that if something does happen to J.K.
36:21Dobbins, then Jonah Coleman will kind of assume that role versus R.J.
36:25Harvey taking the J.K. Dobbins role and then also still catching passes on top of it.
36:29So that's probably why they made this move. And then that really eliminates major upside here for R.J.
36:35Harvey, who on Yahoo is going back to back with J.K.
36:38Dobbins as running back 34 and 35. I now rank flat out Bill, Jordan Mason, Kalman Nungai ahead of R.J.
36:43Harvey. And I have Harvey next to or much closer to the Gainwell and Rashad White as like pure pass catching guys.
36:50And I could even make a case that Rashad White might have more carries this year than R.J.
36:55Harvey. Yeah, I don't disagree across the board. My Harvey note from just the offseason was he spent the second most time
37:01behind the line of scrimmage according to next gen stats per carry, which is like unacceptable because the Broncos were maybe the best offensive line in the league.
37:10There's just like no way to swear those two things together.
37:13So I think him versus like Kenny Gainwell, I think it's like a totally fair discussion.
37:17I think I would still roll the dice on R.J.
37:20Harvey rather than go with Jonah Coleman if J.K.
37:23Dobbins misses time just because, you know, the athletic profile is just like another tier above.
37:28But it would not surprise me if Jonah Coleman, you know, had 12 touches and then R.J.
37:32Harvey had 10 and they kind of split this thing.
37:35Like we see with a lot of backfields where like there's not a clear starter once the starter goes down.
37:41And we even have two more weeks of this, right?
37:44So if R.J. Harvey continues to play in preseason, but one of these games he maybe only sums in for passing situations
37:50and Jonah Coleman is in there on first and second downs, then I think maybe more of an adjustment is on the way.
37:57But his pass game role is not like third down pass protection.
38:01Plus, it's like literally just designed stuff. It's like a very unique role that doesn't exist in every single backfield.
38:06And it's one that you can get excited about like in highlights, but like the week to week projections get tough because
38:13he's only going to touch the ball so often.
38:15I will say for Harvey, it's not like he tried to bounce every run to the outside in this preseason game.
38:21Like everything still worked between the tackles and he was getting up the field.
38:25So it's not like he can't see in front of him and he's trying to bounce everything from the outside.
38:31It's all about what I felt from this one.
38:34Yeah. Okay, let's talk about the Giants then. Tyrone Tracy, a good block earlier.
38:38Jackson Dart double clutched in quick game and got a sack.
38:41Then later on, we've seen what the big highlight is that he was going out for a pass route, notices a blitz, slips, gets his quarterback absolutely decked.
38:49Jackson Dart winds up in the blue tent and immediately comes in Devin Singletary after this.
38:54And then Hayden, other piece of news just before we started hitting record.
38:58Najee Harris is visiting the New York Giants today.
39:00So what does this Giants backfield look like to you as Cam Scadaboo own the quote unquote starting reps in this one too?
39:07Started. It was more of a rotation than it was last year.
39:10So I think you could read into that as a negative.
39:14I think that's just protecting a player coming off of a serious injury.
39:17My takeaways from the game was number one, Cam Scadaboo looked the part.
39:21I thought that he was cutting aggressively as he does.
39:24He was finishing hard. It was like the same old stuff that made Cam Scadaboo a fringe RB one last year, even
39:30though the Giants weren't good at football. Francis Malinoa absolutely lit up Caleb Banks, a first round defensive tackle and one-on-one.
39:36I thought Malinoa had a decent game. I think that's going to be a big boost having a first round guard to run in front of Cam Scadaboo.
39:45So I think those are the wins. The offense is like moving to a hard boss, a Greg Roman scheme.
39:50Greg Roman's an awesome run game coordinator. That's the job that he has right there.
39:55So I think there's reasons to still like Cam Scadaboo.
39:58I think that the Najee Harris stuff is more of an indictment on Devin Singletary, Tyrone Tracy.
40:02I don't get the Tyrone Tracy click at this point.
40:05The new staff has no attachment to Tyrone Tracy.
40:08That was a good story. But Najee Harris gets in there.
40:11I don't think Najee Harris is going to matter all that much.
40:15We can be honest about what Najee is going to do.
40:18Greg Roman, albeit Najee Harris didn't play and he was with Greg Roman in LA.
40:22This one's interesting. Like I have Tyrone Tracy is running back 46.
40:26Pretty buried right now. And I've moved him and flipped him with someone like Tajay Spears, for example.
40:31And I have Keaton Mitchell and Chris Rodriguez and Blake Corum and all these types higher than that.
40:36Where are you at with Tyrone Tracy? RB 55.
40:39I got Braylon Allen, Ray Davis. Like I want the guys that I think if they're the starter, they got a chance to actually move the needle.
40:47Like to me, like Ray Davis is like maybe like an underrated version of this.
40:51Ty Johnson's missing time around the Buffalo Bills. Like I like that profile more.
40:55Mike Washington, I like his profile more. If something happened to the starter.
40:59Tyrone Tracy, I think he'd just be in a committee.
41:02So I have him really buried at that point.
41:04Can I bring up the tight end here? And we'll talk about this more tomorrow with wide receivers too.
41:10I am down to tight end 17 with Isaiah Likely now.
41:13And you can tell me if I'm reading into this too much.
41:16Okay. But Isaiah Likely only played six of 12 snaps with Jackson Dart.
41:20That was only one more than Chris Manhurts and Patrick Ricard did.
41:24And in fact, Darius Slayton, Darnell Mooney, Malachi Fields, Calvin Austin, and Theo Johnson all played ahead of Isaiah Likely in preseason
41:30week one in terms of number of snaps. I do want to say Isaiah Likely, there were six dropbacks and he was in for all six of those.
41:38So yes, as a receiver, but there were some things with the running game that stood out to me with how they're
41:44using Malachi Fields as an insert blocker on multiple snaps, which would take away some, you know, blocking snaps from Isaiah Likely.
41:51And then I brought up Manhurts and I brought up Patrick Ricard.
41:54And so it's not just, hey, this is Theo Johnson and Isaiah Likely.
41:58And that's it at tight end. There's a lot of heavier bodies that they can put out there.
42:03So I'm just nervous, Hayden. I don't want to, I don't want to be suggesting a part-time tight end and his contract.
42:10And when he joined, Isaiah Likely maybe wasn't viewed as a part-time player.
42:13And maybe he isn't once week one rolls on.
42:16But I just think with Malik neighbors looking 100% nearly, then even if Isaiah Likely is second as a receiver on this
42:22team, is it going to be meaningful? Like, is it going to move the needle?
42:27No. And I'm a bit more skeptical of that now than I was back in May.
42:31Yeah. So Patrick Ricard matters because this team could use 21 personnel.
42:35And that means there's only one tight end on the field.
42:38And I think that Theo Johnson is going to be their preference for run blocking plays.
42:43And then Chris Mannertz is also going to take some of the 12 personnel stuff because they want to run the ball.
42:49It's also like just a reminder, this team's going to be really run heavy just in general.
42:54Like that's what, you know, Harbaugh wants. I think it matches, you know, just like the profile of the personnel that they have.
43:01The ball when they do drop back is just like obviously going to go to Malik neighbors.
43:06Isaiah Likely, his hand was not in the dirt a single time.
43:09He might be one of these tight ends that only plays like an 11 personnel or not only, but like largely plays
43:15in 11 personnel on like strict pass passing plays.
43:18He got a couple underneath looks this year when he's competing with, you know, Calvin Austin, Darnell Moody and Slayton and stuff.
43:24So I was my tight end 12. I moved him down my overall rankings.
43:28I have Dallas Goddard, George Kittle, Dalton Kincaid ahead of him.
43:32I think him versus Travis Kelsey is interesting. Him versus Mark Andrews is interesting.
43:36I think this lowers his overall ceiling. I think this at the margins hurts him a little bit.
43:41And still, I would guess he's going to be second or probably second in receptions.
43:45And that's enough to, you know, hold on. Some names I have above him.
43:49Brenton Strange, Jake Ferguson, Juwan Johnson. Wow. Yeah. See, with Strange to me, that's just where there's so many other guys to
43:56get the ball to, even if he's going to get on the field more.
44:00Last year with all those other guys, he was still excellent.
44:03Yeah. I don't remember the excellent part, but I remember him being out there in the mix.
44:08So when he came back in week 12, he was the tight end five, tight end five, and then had weeks of
44:14tight end 10, 19, and five to close the season.
44:17Yeah. And some stinkers in there. I'm looking at the chart here.
44:21There's some stinkers in there. I mean, anyone that is around the tight end 12 or 14 where I haven't ranked, he's going to have some stinkers 100%.
44:29But he already has three top five scoring weeks, even with all those wide receivers on the field.
44:34Well, those wide receivers weren't on the field. Brian Thomas was out during that stretch and Travis Hunter was out during that stretch.
44:41He's a tight end too. I like Brent Strange as a tight end too.
44:45I don't think I am in the position to suggest part-time tight ends.
44:48And maybe I'm wrong that Isaiah Likely is going to be a part-time tight end in this offense.
44:54He will be. I just think it's a high wire act for part-time tight ends.
44:58Even if you don't get fancy points for blocking snaps.
45:01You know, you need to be on the field a lot.
45:04And this has been an issue with a lot of receiving tight ends that we've seen over the last decade that fancy people predict.
45:11Yeah, I agree with you. I still just think that he's got a better profile based off of the target shares versus
45:17some of the other guys that you listed. But he's not somebody I feel comfortable in week one being like, let's go.
45:24Where at some point, I thought Malik Nabors was going to be out for a couple weeks.
45:29And then I was going to be excited to start him.
45:32I think that, you know, you're punting it off.
45:34He's fine. But it's not my favorite draft strategy to be like, wait for Isaiah Likely.
45:39Two backups in Woody Marks. He sat with Dave Montgomery.
45:42Keaton Mitchell sat with Omar in Hampton. So neither of those RB2s played.
45:46Does that tell you anything? I think so. I think the more noticeable one would be Keaton Mitchell because Kamani Vidal played
45:52with the backups in Mitchell is new to the team.
45:55So there's not some just like, you know, incumbent.
45:58We know what we have situation like they are learning what they have.
46:01And it seems to me that they're learning that they really like what they have.
46:06So I think he and Mitchell is like going to be the fantasy running back sleeper.
46:10Things are have to break his way. I think that he's almost like too good to not get, you know, seven, eight, nine touches in a game.
46:18This team is going to be pretty run heavy.
46:21Just looking at the history with McDaniel. And I think Mitchell is an exact fit for what you're talking about with Mike McDaniel type of running backs.
46:29And then I think Omar in Hampton's a good player, exciting player.
46:32Some war to be really want to nitpick his profile where maybe Keaton Mitchell does get involved enough.
46:37But yeah, I moved Mitchell up. That was good news for him.
46:41Caleb Johnson. It's over. Done. Played behind Travis Homer and Lou Nichols.
46:44I guess it was the worst kick return in NFL history.
46:47It had to be. I mean, he lost his running back job because of a special teams play.
46:53Yeah. I mean, he ended with two carries for three yards.
46:56He didn't touch the field until the middle of the third quarter.
46:59So pour one out for some of your dynasty rosters that took Caleb Johnson there.
47:04My final note on running backs before we get to tight ends didn't happen on the field.
47:09But I just want to reiterate. I somehow bring this up with every episode.
47:13I'm going to do it again here. I want to stay ahead on Jadarian Price of the market.
47:18He's my running back 24. Consensus rankings running back 26.
47:21Again, I know he didn't play due to leg soreness and George Arlani did play.
47:25I was messaging with Robert Mace after his visit to Seattle.
47:28And he noted that the Seahawks last year were next to last in terms in the NFL of getting five pass catchers out in routes.
47:36And it seems to be something that they are actively trying to change.
47:39San Francisco has been near the top. Obviously, that's what happens when you have Christian McCaffrey.
47:44But this is something that Brian Flurry can bring to them.
47:47And that Jadarian Price has been a main focus of that.
47:50We saw during the Hard Knocks episodes and everything of them talking about his receiving work along with the beat writers.
47:56So, again, a lot of the fantasy community seems to be out on Jadarian Price.
48:01I think for as long as Zach Charbonnet is sidelined, and look, there's been some tremendously optimistic reports on that.
48:07He's going to return quickly. But as long as he is out, Jadarian Price is going to rank very, very, very highly.
48:13Because it was the touchdowns that Sharbs got instead of Ken Walker that led us to the pure 50-50 frustrated backfield.
48:19It wasn't a pass catching role, which is what George Arlani is really going to bring here on passing situations.
48:25Yep. I'm a Jadarian Price centrist. I got him 63rd overall.
48:28He's my RB 23. I'm right there between you and the market on him.
48:32We have a very high pick on a Super Bowl winning team.
48:35I do think the Charbonnet step will hurt eventually, but you never know.
48:39Hey, you say you're a centrist, but you're not.
48:42You're still well ahead of the market on Jadarian Price.
48:45I see Yahoo at 62nd. I'm at 63rd. Well, I just mean like the overall running back rankings because he's going 26th
48:51on Yahoo in terms of running backs. He's 26th in consistent rankings and you have him running back 23.
48:57Yeah. Him versus Bucky Irving. Those are the two guys that flip back and forth on the most right now.
49:02Okay. Also news from practice. Kyle Monungai went down with a knee injury.
49:06This was Sunday. Adam Schefter did report that apparently Monungai will be quote fine.
49:10Initial test showed his knee to be structurally sound.
49:13The team would do an MRI to confirm. I mean, Monungai has also missed other days and weeks of training camp so far.
49:20Hayden, it's one of those that you and I are not moving up DeAndre's because I think we're ahead of market on him already.
49:26But are you reading into this at all? Yeah.
49:29I don't know what fine this is. This is like my wife saying fine or is this like actually he's fine?
49:35I don't know there. This is a good reminder though that someone like DeAndre Swift, he also has contingent upside.
49:41Like even though if you're like the leader of the committee, if something happens to the other guy, we learn that it's Roshan Johnson as the RB3.
49:49Roshan's a special teamer. He's not a threat to DeAndre Swift.
49:52He would not be a good like scheme fit in the burst that they're looking for in this offense where if Monungai
49:58did not exist, why wouldn't DeAndre Swift be going next to, you know, Javante Williams, Bruce Hall in the third round, if not higher than that?
50:06He was paying off this ADP in this committee role, I think versus like the end of the round four wide receivers.
50:12I've got DeAndre Swift parked ahead of that. I think him versus Kim Skadaboo to me now gets pretty interesting.
50:18I think he's just like more of a reminder than anything else.
50:22Yeah. They are back to back in my rankings, Skadaboo and Swift.
50:25And, you know, I think a lot of people would just assume that Roshan Johnson would absorb what Kalmanungai did last year.
50:31I mean, Monungai outplayed Roshan Johnson last year. Roshan missed a lot of training camp.
50:36And then, you know, we are expecting Monungai to keep what he did last year in terms of overforming as a seventh
50:42run rookie and earning more trust and respect from that.
50:45But again, he's missed a whole bunch of camp and now you have this.
50:49Meanwhile, DeAndre Swift, we thought he ran better than he ever did previously between the tackles.
50:54And Ben Johnson, once they got to the bye week, figured out exactly how to utilize him in terms of the exact runs that were most successful.
51:01And then you bring in Ozzy Trappio, who returned to practice yesterday as well, which is a big, big deal for this team.
51:08So, yeah, never, ever has anyone loved DeAndre Swift heading into the season.
51:12He doesn't have many fans when he makes a big play.
51:15There's no big Swifts in the chat. But, hey, I will say it, if I need a running back in round four
51:21slash five, and I love all those wide receivers tremendously, he is the name I want to click ahead of the David
51:28Montgomery, Quinchon Judkins, Bucky Irving names, 100%. Yeah, he's part of that, you know, draft profile.
51:32You get Puka, Jamar Chase, you're looking at wide receivers at round two, round three, and then you're hitting DeAndre Swift plus Quinchon Judkins.
51:39And so, like, you have to figure out if you like that or not.
51:43I think that DeAndre Swift's going to be a good click, though.
51:47Let's talk tight ends to close this thing out, because Kyle Pitts, I'm nervous.
51:51Tua Tungvalu looked brutal last season. He looked brutal in this game.
51:54He could barely complete a forward pass. And when I zoom out on Atlanta, I think the Falcons just overall are looking towards 2027.
52:01It's like, hey, let's give a bunch of our young guys new contracts, but don't look at the actual product we're putting on the field.
52:09So, I don't know how much confidence I have, Hayden, that they're going to escape one of these bottom three offenses.
52:15And if we're talking about bottom three offenses, we're already taking someone's second overall in B.
52:19John Robinson and 17th overall with Drake London. That if there's a tertiary piece to this, it is Kyle Pitts is going 71st overall.
52:26Yeah, I can spin that as like, maybe we should pay more attention to the second overall and 17th overall picks than,
52:33you know, where Kyle Pitts is ranked so low.
52:35Look, I mean, Tua struggled, yeah, but he also threw the ball to Kyle Pitts four times right in a row.
52:41So, like, we've talked about it before. But Drake London and Bijan weren't playing.
52:45Yeah, for sure. Something that was frustrated us in the past with Kyle Pitts is that his ADOT's 12 yards down the football field.
52:52I think that's going to come down. We saw it last year, it came down because he's healthier and he can actually turn.
52:59And then this year is probably going to come down even more.
53:03And he's probably going to be involved in the quick game to some degree.
53:07And I think he's moving really well. So, like, yes, I think that the offense is not going to be good.
53:13I'm worried about that. Kyle Pitts also might be really, really good at football.
53:17And they're not going to throw the ball to Jahan Dotson, backup tight ends.
53:21There's not fullbacks that we have to worry about.
53:23It's like he's definitely the second or third guy in the offense.
53:27And I think that's enough. And, like, Tua stinks.
53:29But Tua is not so bad that he can't throw the ball six yards.
53:34And that's what we're looking for with tight ends.
53:36Well, okay. Then if the spin zone is Kyle Pitts is going to be okay because Tua is a short ADOT passer
53:43every single time, then the spin zone is how is that impacting the 17th overall player in Drake London that we're picking?
53:49If you guys want to break ties against Drake London in the back half of the second round over this, I have no qualms with that.
53:56Him versus A.J. Brown versus Nico Collins. Those guys are very close together.
54:00Drake London, since 2024, has been the wide receiver five and wide receiver five usage.
54:05I don't remember the Falcons being very good at football those last couple years in the quarterback play.
54:10Well, no, but we had big downfield patterns. And also underneath stuff when he was in the slot.
54:15And Zach Robinson, and they ran a ton of plays.
54:18You know, like I am nervous that this version of Tua is worse than what they've had with, you know, what they've
54:24had over the last couple of years. I am.
54:27Okay. Okay. Yeah. Again, I'm making this a Cal Pitts point when really it's an Atlanta Falcons point that I think they're
54:33just going to be a brutal watch all season long.
54:36Have you considered Jamar Chase or Puka over Bijon?
54:39And why not if you haven't? Well, because to me, the root of the Atlanta Falcons is their offensive line.
54:45And what Kevin Sofancy has done with poor teams in the past is have really great seasons from Nick Chubb, albeit he didn't even catch passes.
54:52So what if we get that type of rushing success with Brian Callahan or Bill Callahan, I should say, as offensive line
54:58coach, along with some pass catching capabilities from Bijan?
55:01So to me, the equation is easier to make for Bijon than it is for Kyle Pitts, who also we need touchdowns
55:07from Kyle Pitts because we've already seen a season of over a thousand yards and he really wasn't fancy relevant for us.
55:14I always just think there's an opportunity cost. Like, yes, it's harder for Cal Pitts to get home, but he's also, you
55:20know, an eighth and ninth round pick versus, you know, the second overall pick.
55:24So I've definitely considered Puka and Jamar Chase over Bijon Robinson.
55:27The builds, like after drafting teams like that, when you get to the second and third round, you're looking at a lot of wide receivers.
55:35And then like, do I really want to start wide receiver, wide receiver, wide receiver?
55:39Like then I feel really behind. So I haven't loved my teams, but it would not be a surprise if Jamar Chase
55:45and Puka have one of those seasons. And it's like, OK, it was almost impossible for Bijon to get there and match
55:52those seasons because we're talking about, you know, top five offenses versus a bottom five potential offense here.
55:57So I'm still working through that thought process, but I hear you on the Falcons.
56:01They make me nervous. Yeah, I've had Cal Pitts behind George Kittle and I'm going to keep it that way.
56:07On Yahoo Hayden, Cal Pitts is going in the sixth round.
56:10Like that's not eighth or ninth, that's sixth round.
56:13Yeah, all the tight ends go early on Yahoo.
56:15I've noticed that. Yes. Speaking of, I want to talk Harold Fannan here because I think he's in a massive role change versus what we got last season.
56:24And we'll talk about this more when we bring up Casey Concepcion, but how he was manufactured touches both, you know, carries
56:30and let's say rubber routes, vertical routes on the field.
56:33To me, Todd Monken looked at his pass catching group and said, I want Casey Concepcion.
56:37I want Denzel Boston. And when the Browns are going to have difficult times this year, they're going to have many of them.
56:44Todd Monken is going to have a section of his play sheet that's going to be, OK, what's going to give us a spark?
56:51Who can we manufacture a touch to? Casey Concepcion, whereas last year for Kevin Stefanski, that was Harold Fannan.
56:57And so I am nervous that Harold Fannan isn't going to get as many gimmies as he got last year with this
57:03wide receiver room and who selected that wide receiver room.
57:06Fannan was sixth in the amount of targets he had behind the line of scrimmage last year.
57:11So, yeah, maybe that comes down just a little bit.
57:14I think Casey Concepcion is going to be a really awesome player.
57:17So I share the same sentiment as you. I have Pitts and Fannan kind of holding hands in my rankings, but I
57:24have moved Tucker Craft and Sam Laporta into a tier ahead of them just based off of obviously the environments.
57:29And both those guys at one point were coming back from injuries.
57:33We've gotten good news on both of those guys.
57:35So I think that, you know, Laporta and Kraft to me are closer to Tyler Warren than they are to Pitts and
57:42Fannan, who are now to me getting closer to Dalton Kincaid, George Kittle and those guys.
57:46Yeah, where Yahoo's ADPs are, they're just pretty early on this tier of tight ends to me where I mean, I'm tempted
57:53to just like draft, you know, Colson Lovin and Brock Bowers and not have to like drag up some of these tight
57:59ends into the fifth and sixth round. I have it Tucker Craft, Sam Laporta, George Kittle, Cal Pitts, Harold Fannan.
58:05That's that grouping. I've had that for a bit.
58:08Speaking of, let's talk Tucker Craft. He returned to contact and padded practice on Sunday.
58:12He did have this quote that said they're going to take into account my rep range probably until halfway through the season.
58:18And they're going to just pat me on the ass and send me out there and send me to the wolves.
58:24So this is what we have to deal with, Hayden.
58:27Positive. He's returned. He's getting hit and he's still practicing through it.
58:31Negative. The quote of, hey, I'm going to be on a snap count.
58:35How are you handling those two pieces of information?
58:37It makes sense to me that they would want to do that.
58:41I'm also looking at their tight end depth chart.
58:43Luke Musgrave, like they don't know if he's going to play like just like he's like a neck injury hasn't practiced in a while.
58:50It's like Josh Wiley. We have to play a lot of snaps and like the depth behind him is like really unproven.
58:57So maybe Wiley, they can get out there to block enough.
59:00And like that's they're just going to take their lumps with that.
59:03But it's one of these situations where I do think once the bullets start flying, they're like, all right, Tucker Craft is
59:10you're just a freak of nature and like let's go crazy.
59:13Craft's difficult ranking because he's like the most obvious negative regression candidate.
59:16He averaged 11.4 yards per target, 4.5 average depth of target.
59:19Like that gap is like impossible. I will say Tucker Craft is going to be a model breaker forever.
59:25It's like you have to account that, you know, he's going to keep breaking models.
59:29He's just not going to break models at like the best of all time numbers as well coming off the injury.
59:35So him versus Laporte, I think is a very tough ranking to square, but I'm open to both of them.
59:41Yeah. If he's on a snap count, I think Tucker Craft will still be funneled like three or four receptions in his direction.
59:48And he's the best yards after catch player on the Packers.
59:51So when you get these downfield routes, then he's the one underneath that then has to beat one person for like a 12 yard gain.
59:58And he kept doing that and turning those. You can't tackle him on one-on-one.
60:02Like these safeties just bounce. So while I hate snap count stuff, I'm with you that once they get to the regular
60:09season, I highly doubt that that goes through halfway through the season.
60:12It might last a game or two. And then even if he is on a 60 or 70% stuff, then he will
60:19get things funneled in his direction because he is unlike any other pass catcher on that team.
60:23I'm noticing the young freak athletes are returning from their injuries quicker.
60:27Yes. That's something I'm filing away. Well, and the old freak athlete in George Kittle as well.
60:32I still want to be ahead of that timeline because again, I believe as soon as he returns and it seems likely for week one.
60:39He's going to jump up and I mean, jump up in rankings.
60:43All right. Hey, did I miss anything? I'm running backs or tight ends.
60:46Um, Don Kincaid selling at the same rotation. Um, and not, he did not draw the start.
60:51That was Dawson Knox and they opened up an 11 personnel and not that that's brand new information, but I found that notable.
60:58Um, but yeah, no, aside from that, we're, I think we're, we're in good shape.
61:02All right. Tomorrow it's equally as important, if not more in wide receivers and quarterbacks.
61:07And there's a lot to get into. So hit subscribe, leave a thumbs up, shout out to Mosho and Weaves behind the scenes.
61:13Shout to all of you for watching. We've got some other very, very interesting episodes on the docket this week, including the players.
61:20Hayden and I disagree on the most. We'll see you then up the villa.
61:24Talk to you guys soon. Bye. Bye.