0:00Good morning, friends and enemies.
0:02Welcome back into the week 14 running back preview, all right, where I'm going game by game through every fantasy relevant running back, ranking them as a
0:09start, a sit, or a flex, all right? This is a big, big, big day and a bigger week. So, let's jump in to Thursday
0:17night football. We do this every single Wednesday. We do the wide receiver version of this video every single Thursday. So, if you want to watch those
0:24going forward throughout the fantasy playoffs, make sure you subscribe. Put the D in that button. So, we've got Dallas at Detroit. Thursday night
0:30football, incredibly high total here, 54 and 1/2 point game. Detroit, three-point favorites at home. So, borderline a pick'em if they're at a neutral field
0:39here. Dallas is red hot on offense, obviously. Detroit kind of faltering a little bit. They need I mean, both teams need this for the playoffs, obviously.
0:46And I will say before we dive into the actual rankings itself, as you know, all of my rankings, the only place to get
0:51them is on bdge.co if you are a big dog member. So, go there if you don't even want to watch these videos and you just
0:58want the rankings straight up. we've got Jahmyr Gibbs. He's going to go into the must-start category. Jamaal Williams, a little bit more of a tougher ranking
1:04here. Again, not a guy that I want to overthink because he gets such a high majority of the touches. He's just not
1:10seeing a ton of touchdowns go his way, especially not on the ground. But, this is a very, very tough match-up. As you
1:14can see, the Lions have allowed the fewest fantasy points to the running back position on the actual season. So, tough defense to run against here, but
1:22we're not overly concerned about that.
1:23He's going to get a lot of touches. It's really whether or not when they get inside the 10 or 5-yard line, do they
1:28pass the ball? Do they throw the ball?
1:29Jamaal Williams, if you got him, you start him. The tough one here, I think would be David Montgomery. You have a
1:33good match-up for him against the Dallas Cowboys, obviously a high over/under.
1:37Every once in a while, they just put Jamaal Williams in inside the 5-yard line to let him get a touchdown, which
1:42we saw on Thanksgiving night. Dan Campbell kind of let him rock, but at this time, at this point in the season,
1:48David Montgomery does not really look great anymore. I don't know if it's old age. I don't know if it's just like him
1:52not getting enough work to really get going, but he doesn't look elusive. He doesn't look overly powerful. He just doesn't really look like the old David
1:58Montgomery, to be honest with you. And Gibbs is getting 70 to 75% of the snaps.
2:02I don't really blame him, right? With Amon-Ra St. Brown kind of trending towards not playing in this game, you're going to use Gibbs a lot. You need these
2:08pass catchers to really step up for you.
2:10Overall, Jamaal Williams probably floating somewhere between the dub flex and the shaky flex category. He's like a lot of those running backs right now,
2:17you know, the Kareem Hunts, the Chris Rodriguezes, where you're going to get eight to 10 touches. You're going to get a probably a very low floor unless you
2:25get a touchdown out of him. And maybe there's some, you know, tin foil hat conspiracies about Amon-Ra possibly not playing and Jahmyr Gibbs running some
2:33more routes from the slot, opening up the backfield to David Montgomery. I I feel like that's kind of a weak argument
2:39to land on. And right now, I'm just talking to avoid having to choose a slot for David Montgomery. I'm not going to
2:45lie to you. I would say overall, I feel okay. I think I'd probably throw him, despite a really good match-up, closer
2:50to the shaky flex tier, probably towards the top of it. I mean, Vegas has his line at 32 and 1/2 rushing yards. So,
2:55hard to be overly optimistic about it.
2:57But, let's move into the 1:00 p.m.
2:59slates here. We've got James Cook going against the Cincinnati Bengals.
3:02Buffalo's at home in this one. 52 and 1/2 point total. Joe Burrow, obviously back. Five and 1/2 point favorites for the Buffalo Bills here. A minus 200 line
3:12for anytime touchdown James Cook. His rushing yards total at 98 and 1/2, coming off of a 35 touch game. Now, James Cook was kind of their entire
3:21offense. The Bengals defense is obviously an incredible match-up for any fantasy running back here. So, he's going to go right into the must-start
3:27category. Chase Brown, he saw a lot of volume here, but you can notice one thing, right? It's a good match-up against a a weak Buffalo Bills run
3:35defense, number three in fantasy points allowed to the running back position on the year, four in EPA per rush allowed on the year. So, they're just not a good
3:42rush defense. We did see Samaje Perine come back and play a lot of snaps. Like, on the base downs, it was still very
3:47much in favor of Brown, but Samaje Perine's playing in a lot of like obvious passing situations. The Bengals ran an absurd number of plays last week.
3:54It was somewhere in like the 80 range, which is not typical, which allowed both of them to get a lot of volume. But, you
3:59could see Vegas putting him at 52 and 1/2 rushing yards. That's kind of indicative of the split that they're expecting with Samaje Perine, which was
4:06the case prior to Perine's high ankle sprain. So, really, that's just a conversation to say that, you know, is Chase Brown a must-start? Probably not,
4:14but he's still going to go into the feels good category. He's playing very well. Joe Burrow definitely helps open up lanes for him. Very involved. And
4:20we're not starting Samaje Perine, obviously, but I do think the conversation is worth having or or a note worth kind of leaning on here. Next
4:27game up, we've got the Colts at the Jacksonville Jaguars. 48 and 1/2 point total, which is a pretty healthy number there. The Jags are 1 and 1/2 point
4:36underdogs here. The Colts have Jonathan Taylor, of course, who's going to the must-start range. The backfield in Jacksonville is a little bit trickier.
4:43Etienne had a down game last week, too, and is taking a lot of the goal line work. So, it's hard to predict a
4:47touchdown for him. When he gets carries from like the 10 or 15-yard line, I feel like a lot of his work gets done there
4:52in terms of rushing touchdowns. I do still think he's definitely the overwhelming favorite to be the guy on base downs. And I do think this offense
4:59will actually perform pretty well against the Colts cuz the Colts have DeForest Buckner, who is a stud on their defensive line, on the IR. He has to
5:06miss at least one more game, so he'll be out for this one against Jacksonville.
5:09Obviously, they lost Sauce Gardner to the calf strain here. So, they will be far from full strength on defense. And I
5:15think Jacksonville's playing pretty well on offense. They're getting, you know, a lot of their guys healthy and back for this one. So, they have Jakobi Meyers
5:21and Brevin Jordan and Brian Thomas Jr.
5:22So, they're playing pretty well on offense right now. I think they won't have too much trouble moving the ball.
5:26Interesting that they have Travis Etienne's line at 58 and 1/2 rushing yards. And Chase Brown's at 52 and 1/2 because in my rankings, I'm going to
5:33have Chase Brown securely above Travis Etienne inside the running back rankings here. I expect him to get more work. I expect him to catch more passes. I
5:42expect him to just be more involved in a much better match-up here. Travis Etienne, I won't say I feels good about
5:47him, but I will say he'll go into the dub flex category, definitely at the top of it cuz he's always capable of, you
5:53know, breaking off big plays and just having big games in general. But, he's also just not getting enough work. And you're just kind of banking on a lucky
5:59goal line touch there. So, he's going into the shaky flex category. Miami at the New York Jets. So, you've got Miami
6:05as two and 1/2 point favorites in New York. 40 and 1/2 point total, of course.
6:09Raheem Mostert going into the must-start. We've got Breece Hall. I'm going to throw him into the must-start, as well. And we're just going to move on
6:13with that game here. New Orleans at Tampa Bay. We've got Tampa Bay as eight and 1/2 point favorites. 42 and 1/2
6:20point total. We saw Bucky Irving return from his long absence last week. They kind of went into a hot hand approach,
6:27and Bucky just got out to a hot start.
6:30And ended up getting near 20 touches, scored a touchdown, had another one called back on a penalty. So, it is Bucky Irving's backfield once again,
6:37which is huge news for all y'all that have just been sitting on him and waiting for him to return. I will say
6:42the snaps, if you actually look at the snap counts, were a little bit closer than the actual touches. Bucky only had,
6:47I think, like 55, 53% of the overall snaps in that one last week, but I still think as the season progresses and we
6:54get later into the fantasy playoffs, like, it's just going to become more and more Bucky's backfield. So, if you got Bucky, this is a relatively good
7:00match-up on paper, given the spread here, eight and 1/2. But, I will say, New Orleans New Orleans Saints defense has been a little bit better than
7:06probably given credit for on the season, 25th in EPA per rush allowed. Overall, though, again, if you have Bucky, like, he's he's for sure going into your
7:14lineup, somewhere between the must-start and the feels good, but I'm not overly thinking that one. The other side of this coin is a little bit more
7:20interesting cuz you got Devin Singletary, who took 80% of the snaps last week for the New Orleans Saints backfield with Alvin Kamara out. And I
7:26don't think we should be expecting Alvin Kamara to return for this one. And Taysom Hill got almost no work last week. Evan Hull got more carries, which
7:34was kind of surprising. I was expecting Taysom Hill to get a little bit of work in that backfield, some goal line
7:38touches, whatever, but it was almost all Devin Singletary. And he's like good enough in all three downs that I expect the opportunities to continue to go his
7:45way. It's not an easy run defense by any means. The Bucs, they're very much like a pass funnel defense where you want to
7:50throw the ball as much as you can against them and not run that much. So, I don't anticipate a a ton of stuff on
7:55the ground here, but I don't want to overthink the opportunity share that Devin Singletary has. I expect him, again, to see somewhere between 13 and
8:0315 carries and somewhere between three and five targets. And overall, definitely going to land into the dub flex for me. Like, despite
8:12the low-level production last week, I wouldn't move away from him in fantasy if if you need a flex this week. I think
8:17he's a a pretty solid start. Pittsburgh at Baltimore. Huge AFC North match-up here. We've got the Ravens as six-point favorites at home. We know Lamar Jackson
8:27has been struggling, but I still like Derrick Henry in this one. You would have liked to have seen higher ceiling games over the last couple weeks from
8:33Henry, obviously, you know, playing against Cincinnati, playing against the New York Jets. A little bit more involved in the passing game in terms of
8:38production, at least. So, I, you know, it doesn't matter. It's just Derrick Henry, and he's not leaving my lineup.
8:43So, he's going into the must-start category for me. And then, you have Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell on the other side of things. Now, they're
8:49basically splitting this up into Jaylen Warren getting the base downs. He's getting the carries. He's getting all the goal line work, as well. I wish we'd
8:57see him get a little bit more involved in the passing game because he's really good in that aspect. Like, throw some
9:02screens his way, but it's all going to Kenneth Gainwell. I guess the way I'm looking at this one, I think the Ravens
9:06defense, again, is is starting to become underrated at this point as all of their guys continue to get healthy. They're not great, great in the interior, like,
9:14stopping the run. But, I like Jaylen Warren enough. I still think he's very much the lead back here, despite the snaps kind of being split and Gainwell
9:20playing obvious passing situations. I would go Jaylen Warren as a dub flex. I would go Kenneth Gainwell as a shaky flex. And that feels like the right spot
9:27for both of them. Seattle at Atlanta here. Atlanta, seven-point dogs, despite being at home. 44 and 1/2 point total here. We all know Seattle's run defense
9:36is incredibly stout here. Regardless, though, you will just never sit Bijan Robinson, of course. His rushing yards line is pretty low, 65 and 1/2. But,
9:45we've seen games where the rushing game kind of goes to [ __ ] A lot of it has to do with the offensive line is, you know,
9:50no one cares at this point of the season, but we lost Kaleb McGary very early on in the season. And obviously,
9:55Drew Dalman, who was our center last year, who was a great run-blocking center, this year running the ball. He's like one of the highest graded run
10:01blocking centers or offensive lineman in general in the entire league. So, that was a big hit for us. Obviously, Bijan's just so involved in the passing game
10:07that it usually does not matter in terms of production. The other side of things, nothing really new here. I will say I I
10:15feel confident Kenneth Walker getting a pretty big workload in games that don't get away from Seattle. Like, he went into last week, there was a lot of
10:21rumors about or there were a lot of reports over the last couple weeks that Kenneth Walker to continue get more and
10:26more involved and continue to get more work, and he's earned that and all that kind of stuff. And it's great to hear
10:30over and over again, and you don't see a lot of production to kind of back that up. I think a lot of that just does have
10:35to do with the weird game scripts that Seattle's had this year where they just beat the [ __ ] out of opponents because
10:39of defensive scores and short fields and all that kind of stuff. But, in the beginning of the game last week against
10:44Minnesota, it was all Kenneth Walker for like the entire first half, and then they got up big, and then it was like
10:48Sharbonnet second half. He got the goal line touch again. So, with Kenneth Walker, he's going to go into the dub flex category, and he's definitely
10:54bordering on that like dub flex feels good. I feel relatively good cuz the Falcons run defense is is ass this year,
11:00and I think Kenneth Walker, as long as this game doesn't get away from them, will get a decent amount of work. Zack
11:05Charbonnet, you definitely need a touchdown for him to come through, so he's going to go into the shake flex category. And then Algier, yeah, this is
11:10just not the match up that we want to depend on Algier for 22 and 1/2 rushing yards. Like, he needs to get it done
11:16purely on the goal line, purely through rushing production. So, I don't feel great about that. Tennessee at Cleveland, we've got Cleveland as 4 and
11:241/2 point favorites. They are at home. I think there might be some sloppy weather in this one, a 33 and 1/2 point total.
11:31Quinshon Judkins, of course, is the guy here. Judkins is sneaky and not sneaky in an absolute smash spot. Obviously, if it's bad weather conditions with Shedeur
11:40Sanders starting again, like Judkins is expected to get 20 to 25 touches. His rushing yardage line is up at 80 and
11:461/2. Dylan Sampson is dealing with a calf strain that reportedly day-to-day.
11:51So, I don't know if he's going to miss this game. I don't have any practice reports. Obviously, I film these early
11:55in the week, Wednesday morning. So, we've got no news on Dylan Sampson yet, but typically calf strains will keep you out for at least a week. And Jerome Ford
12:04would obviously take a little bit of that work that Dylan Sampson was getting, but I do think it would mean more snaps overall for Judkins and
12:09seeing some dump offs go his way. So, I do think he's got a sneaky very high ceiling, especially in this match up
12:14against the soft ass Tennessee Titans who have been a little bit better against the run, I guess, recently with Jeffrey Simmons and Teair Tart Sweat in
12:21the middle there. But, I actually love Quinshon Judkins this week. So, he needs to be in your lineup. Yeah, we are are
12:26not starting any of the Tennessee Titans backs against this Cleveland run defense. Washington at Minnesota here.
12:33So, we've got Minnesota. We don't have lines up yet because we don't, I guess, have any word on Jayden Daniels who is
12:40not cleared for contact yet cuz he's coming back from his Oh, I lied. They're refreshing in real time here. It looks
12:47like the Commanders are 2 and 1/2 point underdogs here with a 41 and 1/2 point total in this game. They are in
12:55Minnesota. Aaron Jones dealing with the shoulder sprain. He is reportedly day-to-day. Not sure if he suits up. It does sound like he can suit up, I guess,
13:04if he wants to play through the pain. He did that in week 10 with a similar injury in his shoulder and ended up
13:08playing through it. It's a great match up on paper against the Washington Commanders, fourth most fantasy points allowed to the running back position,
13:15seventh in EPA per rush allowed, number five in just overall points allowed to the other defense. So, it is very much a
13:21split backfield at this point between Jones and Jordan Mason. I, you know, I trust Aaron Jones far more than I trust
13:26Jordan Mason. It's just not coming into a lot of production because the offense overall is so stagnant with the quarterback position. J.J. McCarthy will
13:33be starting for Minnesota. I don't know if that's a good thing. I mean, it can't be worse than Max Brosmer there, I
13:38guess. Overall, I would say that because the match up is so good, like I do expect a heavy heavy dosage of the
13:45running backs in this game because Kevin O'Connell's going to want want to hide whoever the quarterbacks are. So, I'm going to throw Aaron Jones into the dub
13:51flex category. He's definitely going to be towards the bottom of it and honestly teetering on that shaky flex category.
13:56If Aaron Jones does miss this game, I would throw, you know what, maybe not into the feels good, but damn close to
14:02it. He would be closer to the top of the dub flex category because again, I think his workload's going to be huge in the
14:07games that Aaron Jones missed early on in the year. In those four games, Jordan Mason saw at least 15 touches in all of
14:12them and had some explosion games against really bad run defenses, which would be the case against the Washington Commanders here. Xavier Scott would play
14:19a little bit of a role, but he I don't want him in my lineup. On the flip side, we see Rodriguez getting more touches
14:24than J.C. McCloud and Nickles kind of combined here. Definitely not going to throw him into the dub flex category cuz he needs, you know, he's like Zack
14:30Charbonnet. He's going to get 10 to 12 touches. He needs a touchdown to end up coming through, so he'd be a shaky flex
14:35here, and I don't want to start anybody else. Next up, we've got the Denver Broncos at the Las Vegas Raiders, and
14:41this way this might be one of the mismatches of the year here. You've got the Las Vegas Raiders offensive line is
14:46just so so so so so so so bad, and Denver's defense is obviously incredible here. So, Ashton Jeanty's got his work
14:52cut out for him here. The Broncos are 7 and 1/2 point favorites. They are on the road, 40 and 1/2 point total here.
14:58Ashton Jeanty, do I feel good about him?
15:00no. So, I don't think I can throw him into the into that category. The good part about Jeanty is like, you know
15:06you're getting the work. If they get down near the goal line, he'll get some carries, but usually those plays get blown up. He's just very very involved
15:12in the passing game right now, which is kind of saving his floor. He's, you know, he's seeing five, six, seven targets a game. So, he's going to go
15:18into the dub flex category, you know, definitely towards the top of it cuz he's obviously a really good player, but that offensive line makes him like just
15:24so so so unappealing at the moment. On the flip side, you have R.J. Harvey who really not running very well, and the
15:31production is not sky high at all. You can see Vegas's projection for him is only at 42 and 1/2 rushing yards. He's
15:36getting a ton of work though, and he's getting the goal line work, which is really important cuz we saw him score
15:41two touchdowns against Washington last week. And him getting the goal line work is really what matters here in this match up where we do expect them to kind
15:47of dominate the game script and be on the goal line at a pretty high volume here. So, with R.J. Harvey in this match
15:52up, I would throw him into the feels good category despite Vegas's projection for him being low, relatively involved in the passing game, and he could hit a
15:58big play at any moment. But, as long as he's getting the goal line carries here, which I do expect him to get going
16:04forward, got all three of them last week, I think he'll give you a high floor with a pretty, you know, nice
16:09ceiling for him. Next up, we got Chicago at Green Bay. Now, there are no lines populating for this game for whatever
16:17reason right now. The Packers are 6 and 1/2 point favorites at home with a 44 and 1/2 point total despite the Bears
16:23being first place in the NFC right now.
16:27Good match up for Josh Jacobs and the Green Bay running game despite him being less than 100% likely. We'll have to
16:34see, you know, what the practice report for the Bears are. And honestly, despite them being without their three starting linebackers, played well against Saquon,
16:41and I mean, everybody's playing well against the Philly run game right now, but it was encouraging to see nonetheless. But, I do think, listen,
16:47Jacobs against Chicago is just a a good match up. You want him in your lineup, of course. The tricky part of this game
16:52is on the other side of things with Swift and Jamaal Williams, obviously coming off that monster game on Black Friday against the Philadelphia Eagles
16:59where Swift and Jamaal Williams both went [ __ ] bonkers, both running for like a buck 20, both scored a touchdown,
17:05both with around, you know, 20, 22 touches in that one. It really just is the same. It It's been this drive by
17:11drive, Swift and Jamaal Williams, Swift and Jamaal Williams, Swift and Jamaal Williams. So, there's not a lot that I could tell you that we don't know at
17:18this point. The Packers are a tough match up, so that does make it a little bit scary for a match up like this
17:23where, you know, if Swift and Jamaal Williams, if they don't dominate the game script, if they don't dominate the run defense of the Packers like they did
17:30to the Eagles last week, could be a game where Swift and Jamaal Williams both end up with like 12 touches. And if they
17:34don't break plays, if they're not overly efficient in yards per carry, could be a low number for both of them. So, I don't
17:40think either of them playing obvious, you know, passing situations, you might give the lean to Swift in like two-minute drills, but I think they've
17:45shown that they trust Jamaal Williams in passing situations as well. I'd even say like it does kind of feel like Ben
17:49Johnson might trust Jamaal Williams more in running situations that are like short yardage. So, I could see a world where over the next four or so weeks,
17:57Jamaal Williams does become a little bit more of the goal line back here. Right now, the lines for Swift are up, but not
18:04for Jamaal Williams. He's at 46 and 1/2 rushing yards. Jamaal Williams's not posted, but I I'd bet it's probably around like 40 to 41-ish. It's going to
18:12be, you know, a relative split here, and because the run game is just so good right now, and their run blocking line
18:18is so strong right now, and I have a team where I have both of these guys. I have Swift and Jamaal Williams, and I'm
18:24starting Swift over Jamaal Williams. I just I I think that's like what you have to do. And you could get unlucky, and
18:29it, you know, ends up being the other way around where Jamaal Williams scores a touchdown, Swift doesn't. But, I trust Swift a little bit more right now. I'm
18:34going to put Jamaal Williams in the shaky flex category, but definitely feel like okay about him cuz we know he's going to get touches. But, I just like
18:40Swift right now. I think he's proven that he should be in lineups more often than not. Moving to the Rams at the
18:45Arizona Cardinals here. We've got the Rams as 7 and 1/2 point favorites, a 48 and 1/2 point total. I think the Rams
18:50are going to have no problem moving the ball here. Kyren and Blake Corum definitely sharing carries, definitely splitting drives here. There's
18:57definitely a little bit of a split here.
18:58Kyren Williams definitely still the lead back here. So, I I like the match up a lot. Going to throw him into the feels
19:03good category. Blake Corum could definitely get into the end zone. He's going to go into the shaky flex category. On the other side of things,
19:08it does not sound like we're getting a Trey Benson return. It does not sound like we're getting an Emari Demercado return, either. Keep an eye on practice
19:15reports for those two, of course. It does leave the backfield to just Zonovan Knight, to just Michael Carter, and I would throw Zonovan Knight into the dub
19:23flex tier if the match up wasn't so brutal. They're obviously playing against the Rams. This does not favor a run heavy script for a guy like Zonovan
19:29Knight who plays on, you know, the early downs, the base downs, gets the goal line carries here. Yeah, the Rams are
19:34just really really really really really good on defense. So, I'm going to throw Zonovan Knight into the shaky flex category. Like, you're going to get
19:40volume with him. I don't have a lot of confidence that it's going to be useful volume here. So, Michael Carter's also
19:45going to go at the bottom of the shaky flex category. Next up, we've got Houston at Kansas City. This is the
19:50Sunday night football game. You've got Houston as three and a half point underdogs in Arrowhead. 41 and a half point total. Both of them are scrapping
19:58for their playoff lives. Woody Marks continues to dominate the backfield in terms of touches. Left for a little while last week with, you know, a foot
20:05ankle thing. Ended up returning, so I'm not really concerned about his injury designation going into the game. Nick Chubb did get the goal line carry, did
20:12get into the end zone here. Woody Marks, like on paper, should be producing. He's just not for whatever reason. He's not
20:18seeing a ton of dump offs his way. He's not seeing a ton of like goal line carries here. So, he's not really
20:24producing despite seeing a very, very heavy workload here. And this is not a great matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs defense. So, Woody Marks, on
20:31paper, should be in the Dove Flex category, but I definitely think he should be more catered towards the shaky flex category where you're deciding
20:38like, "Oh, Woody Marks or David Montgomery?" I think that's a realistic sit start decision that a lot of people will probably have to make this week.
20:44It's like matchup versus usage. How do you feel about that? On the other side of things, we saw Pacheco return last
20:49week, but he was very much outplayed, outproduced, outsnapped by Kareem Hunt.
20:53And honestly, I think they just trust Kareem Hunt a lot more. And we haven't seen Pacheco really return to form since
20:58last season early on. And I kind of expect in a game like this, they're going to go with the guys that they
21:03trust. So, I think Kareem Hunt is definitely the guy that you want to be starting if you're starting anyone in this backfield. He didn't get the
21:09touchdown against Dallas last week, so he ended up having a relatively disappointing day. But if he did, he's in that like 15 PPR points range. And I
21:16think that's, you know, what you can expect against the Texans this week.
21:19Much tougher matchup. Of course, the Texans defense is very, very, very, very good. But I think Kareem Hunt's definitely in that conversation as well
21:24to be in your lineups. While Pacheco is a guy that needs to prove it to me before he's sniffing any sort of lineup
21:30action here. Philadelphia at the Los Angeles Chargers Monday night football last game of the week here. So, we've got the Chargers as three point
21:39underdogs here despite being at home. I think we should be expecting Justin Herbert to play in this one. Everything sounds like it's trending that way, but
21:47definitely not a given at this point.
21:48We'll have to, you know, look towards practice reports. If Herbert doesn't play, it does make the backfield a a bit of a mess. I do think their game plan
21:55with his hand or with Trey Lance will probably have to lean very heavy into the running back situation. Regardless, it's sounding like Amari Hampton's going
22:04to be returning in week 14. But I also don't want to take that for granted either. These long layoffs are hard to
22:09predict an exact pinpoint dates. Though they've been saying week 14 has been the plan. This is when he's going to come
22:14back. So, we will see. If Amari Hampton is back, this makes his backfield extremely difficult to decipher. I'd imagine it's going to be something
22:22similar to the Bears, something similar to Tampa Bay last week where they're splitting drives. And it's just going to be a hot hand approach. Is Hampton the
22:30guy that gets hot? I don't know. Is Kamani Vidal the guy that stays hot? I think he's probably earned a role here for sure. And I don't think
22:37they want to put Hampton right back into like a 20 touch or even like a 17 touch role immediately here. So, it makes both
22:43of them extremely difficult starts right away in a game that has a projected total of 40 and a half points. Honestly,
22:50if I have both of these guys, I don't feel good about either of them. So, they're both going to go into the shaky
22:54flex category for me until we see what this backfield split looks like. I could see them just going drive by drive and,
23:00you know, both of them ending up with around 12 touches. And then it just becomes kind of a nightmare. The good
23:05news is this matchup on paper doesn't look as bad as it did in the beginning of the year. The Philadelphia Eagles
23:09have been just getting their [ __ ] pushed in by opposing run games at this point.
23:12On the other side, Saquon Barkley, yeah, I don't really know what to do at this point. Like, honestly, I get I guess
23:17we're going to throw him into the feels good category over the must start at this point. The Chargers run defense, not very good, but not very bad either.
23:24Surprisingly, they were really bad in the beginning of the season, but have gotten a little bit better. Maybe it's a little bit more matchup dependent
23:29because of some of the schedule that they've gone against. But nonetheless, Saquon and this offensive line cannot get any, any push. Their offense It's
23:36just brutal to watch. Their offensive coordinator stinks. So, yeah, Saquon, like, do I even feel good about him?
23:41Probably not, but I don't think I could throw him into the flex category at this point. So, we will wrap things there. I
23:46will let you see the poster mode so you can see everybody on the screen at once.
23:51That is all the week 14 running backs and how I am looking at the slate and ranking the players going into Thursday
23:58night football. I hope y'all enjoyed this one. Again, tomorrow will be the wide receiver version. So, subscribe to the channel if you are new here and you
24:04want to see that. And again, if you just want the rankings, you can go to bdge.co and sign up to be a big dog member. I
24:11love y'all. See you tomorrow morning.
24:13I'm out of here. Smoochies.
24:28>> [music]
