0:00Running back is the most important position in fantasy football. What we're going to do is we're going to go through every round in fantasy football and we
0:06are going to determine the best running back to take in that round because obviously in round one, sometimes the best pick is a wide receiver. Sometimes
0:12in round two, the best pick is a wide receiver. Maybe you take Brock Bowers.
0:15We all know you got to start at least two running backs. It's nice to have a starting running back in your flex. So
0:20every round one through 10 with some of my favorite sleeper running backs at the end. And I'm actually going to begin
0:25with a controversial one. You guys are going to be mad at this. You're going to say, "Davis, you're so stupid. How could
0:29Christian McCaffrey be the best running back pick in round one?" Look at the data, brothers. 24 points per game last year. I am also going to wait this. I'm
0:37going to use the average draft position over on flockfantasy.com and say you got to have at least a 50% chance of getting
0:42this guy to be included as the best pick in the round. I'm not scared of Christian McCaffrey anymore than the average fantasy football player is
0:50because I think you know the deal with Christian McCaffrey, which is if he stays entirely healthy this upcoming year, you're going to have a great chance to
0:58win your league. 24 points per game last year. Multiple games over 30 fantasy points. If you just look at the history
1:03of his career, when the guy finishes a season, he's the number one player in fantasy football. Running back one, running back
1:10one, running back two, running back four, running back one, running back two, running back three.
1:15Everything in San Francisco is designed absolutely perfectly for him. He dominates all the work in the red zone.
1:21The team right now is losing a ton of their pass catchers. So I think Christian McCaffrey, frankly, it actually would not be surprising to me
1:28if his target numbers were actually better this upcoming season than it was last year where he generated a career high 129 targets. I could easily see a
1:38110 reception season from Christian McCaffrey. I think he could realistically lead the National Football League in receptions. You've got Mike Evans who can't finish a practice.
1:46You're counting on De'Shawn Shuffling who I do like for fantasy, right? But it's all setting up very, very well.
1:52Now, is Christian McCaffrey going to stay healthy for the entire year? I I'm not a soothsayer. I don't know. You don't know, but I know that in a 12-team
1:59league, you have an 8.3% chance of winning.
2:03That's pretty low. It's pretty low odds to be able to win your league with the 8.3% chance, right? Or 10% if you're in
2:08a 10-team league. However, your odds are a lot better when you have Christian McCaffrey because the guy absolutely scores so many fantasy
2:14points. So, Christian McCaffrey is going to be my round one favorite running back. We are going to go to round two,
2:20and I'm going to highlight one Mr.
2:22Kenneth Walker.
2:23If you're Mason Dodd, you probably already turned this video off. I think that Kenneth Walker is set up to have an
2:29all-time fantasy football season this upcoming year. If you look at basically the last time the Kansas City Chiefs had a good running back, it was all the way
2:36back in 2018. It was Kareem Hunt who had 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns before he got cut after 11 games as a result of a
2:44domestic violence disturbance. I think a lot of the pushback about Kenneth Walker is two things. The first is a lot of
2:49people remember his 16 fantasy points per game season in 2024, but they also remember him getting injured in that season. And they also have their most
2:58recent memories are, "Okay, I started Kenneth Walker in fantasy. He looks great. He looks like the best running back on the Seattle Seahawks." The issue
3:04is, Zach Charbonnet keeps coming in the game and playing on passing downs and scoring the touchdowns. I basically don't think that's going to happen at
3:10all in Kansas City. I would be very surprised if Emari Demercado or Emer Johnson kicked into that role at all.
3:16The way the team has talked about Kenneth Walker is that he is going to be a clear workhorse running back for this
3:21team this upcoming season. They're utilizing him in the screen game.
3:25I think you're basically getting a first-round profile on Kenneth Walker in the second round. Would not surprise me to see Kenneth Walker outscore every
3:33running back that is being drafted ahead of him. Like I frankly, in my heart of heart rankings, if I did not respect the
3:39fantasy football market at all, I would rank Kenneth Walker ahead of Jonathan Taylor. I think that he is a phenomenal pick. So, we have CMC and Kenneth Walker
3:47as our favorite running backs. And it's a great pairing there, right? So, if you start with McCaffrey, you can feel comfortable taking Drake London as your
3:53wide receiver two. And I actually think you can take a Justin Jefferson, Kenneth Walker, or CeeDee Lamb, Kenneth Walker, and still feel very good about your
4:00team. So, I think you can do the running back, running back start. I think you can do the wide receiver, wide receiver
4:04start. For round three, this is a really interesting area because there's a chance in your league Ashton Jeanty could fall to round three with the ankle
4:11injury. There's a chance Derrick Henry could fall to round three. I've actually seen Derrick Henry in round three. In fact, I took in a draft last night, a
4:18$2,000 entry fee draft, I took Derrick Henry in the third round of that draft.
4:22Then you have Breece Hall, Jeremaih Love, Kyren Williams, and Javonte Williams. I'm actually going to go away that probably a lot of you guys are not
4:29going to anticipate.
4:31And I'm going to go with Breece Hall who only averaged 13 fantasy points per game last year, had the one explosion week in
4:37week eight. I am actually more optimistic than kind of the average person about the New York Jets. There are a lot of great statistics about top
4:4510 running back finishes on bad offenses. I mean, first off, it can happen. It's certainly not the most likely thing. It's very hard to be a
4:51great fantasy football running back on a bad team. But, I think it's very possible that the New York Jets end up
4:56having a better than expected season this year. Geno Smith is one of the quarterbacks in the NFL who is most sensitive to pressure. If you look at
5:04his PFF grades and his fantasy points grades when he's under pressure, he's one of the worst. However, when he's not pressured, he actually is an above
5:11league average quarterback. The New York Jets offensive line projects to be one of their big strengths this upcoming year. We just got some great coach speak
5:18this last week about the offense viewing Breece Hall as a legitimate workhorse.
5:22The the coaches said that Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson were the workhorses for the team. Breece Hall also has one of the things that we love for fantasy,
5:29which he has always contributed as a receiver. In 16 games last year, 48 targets, but he has a 57 and a 76
5:36reception season on his books. I mean, that is basically the path. My friend Pat Corain writes this article called the legendary
5:43upside. And the big thing that you have to do to have a legendary upside season is obviously you have to score
5:49touchdowns. That's the thing that has been missing for Breece Hall's career up until this point, but you also need to have four targets per game, four
5:56receptions per game upside. And Breece Hall, we already know can do that, right? I mean, we we actually feel very, very strongly that he can be a four to
6:03five reception per game guy. So, I am just barely giving Breece Hall the edge over Jeremaine Love. I do like Jeremaine
6:10Love. Frankly, I think the third round is a pretty good running back round in general. I have no issues with Kyren. I
6:16have no issues with Jamaal Williams, but I'm giving Breece Hall my award here.
6:20Moving into the fourth round of these drafts, it's not names you like, right?
6:24So, the fourth round in this Block Fantasy Mock Draft was Judkins, Tuton, Etienne, De'Andre Swift, and Bucky Irving. Those are names where I'm like,
6:32man, I think I would probably rather take the wide receivers at that point, but if I did have to nominate a
6:37favorite, I'm actually going to again surprise a lot of you. And I'm actually going to give the slight edge here to
6:43De'Andre Swift over Byshell Tuton.
6:45Mostly because one, it's a price thing.
6:47You should be able to get Tuton in the fifth round in a lot of your drafts, but also something that I've realized as we get a
6:53little bit closer to the season, and something that I need to do a better job communicating in these videos to people
6:58who are subscribed to Maddock Fantasy Football, which by the way, if you are not subscribed to Maddock Fantasy Football, you like these videos, you
7:03like me, you want to help me out, just press the subscribe button, maybe even the like button on this video if you
7:09would like. De'Andre Swift is a verily, unfairly maligned guy because he was expected to be so much better than he has been, right? I mean, this is kind of
7:18always the way in sports. I mean, just fantasy sports in general. When someone is supposed to be the next great thing,
7:24and they're just okay, we end up really hating that guy. Like Marvin Harrison Jr. is a really good example of this.
7:29Like, Marvin Harrison Jr. is not a great receiver, but he's like a fine NFL wide receiver, but we all hate him. We all
7:34think the guy absolutely stinks because he's let down our expectations. The same thing has been true of De'Andre Swift, but 14 and a half fantasy points per
7:42game last year, that was without a real receiving role. I expect his receiving role to actually be increased this upcoming year. Kyle Manongai has a knee
7:51injury heading into the season. I personally anticipate a huge leap in production for the Chicago Bears as a whole. Still no 4,000 yard passer. I
7:59would be stunned if Caleb Williams does not pass for 4,000 yards this upcoming season. I would be stunned if the Chicago Bears are not
8:07I mean, I'd truly be stunned if they were not a top 10 offense in the NFL, but I think a top five, top three
8:12offense in the National Football League is certainly in the range of outcomes.
8:15De'Andre Swift should be the goal line back. He should be the passing down back. Again, I would be really, really surprised if 48 targets is where he tops
8:23out. And he scored 228 points overall last year, and I think he certainly can improve on that. And when I look at the guys next to him, I'm
8:30like, yeah, I like Bijan Robinson. I think Bijan Robinson is a good pick. I actually am kind of down on Zach
8:35Charbonnet with the Najee Harris signing. I like Bucky Irving, but I like Bucky Irving less than I like De'Andre Swift. I don't really like Travis
8:42Etienne. I mean, I think he's fine. If you had to draft Travis Etienne cuz these other guys were off the board, you
8:47know, whatever. It would be okay. And then Josh Jacobs, I mean, there's so many question marks about Josh Jacobs right now that I just can't feel that
8:54great about recommending him.
8:56My favorite pick in the fifth round at running back, this is the easiest one.
9:00You guys know I've talked about Zach Charbonnet price a ton in these videos.
9:03Zach Charbonnet price is coming in as the number one running back for the defending Super Bowl champions who have a great defense. The median points per
9:11game for a first round running back in the last 15 years is over 15 fantasy points per game. Obviously, that includes some huge bust, very similar
9:18actually a guy on this team, different coaching staff, different front office, but Rashaad Penny. But you get a ton of huge hits in there. You get
9:25some small hits in there. But frankly, at this price, I think that Zach Charbonnet price is probably a small miss, huge win player. I would actually
9:35be surprised if Zach Charbonnet price ends up giving a big amount of work back to Zach Charbonnet coming back from the
9:40ACL injury. That is why Price's injury is suppressed at this point. George Helani seems to be an afterthought for this coaching staff. They played him
9:47deep into some of these preseason games.
9:49He's playing in the third preseason game based on the last thing I read. If you were playing in the third preseason game
9:54these days, I mean, it is over for you, brother. You are not in the team's plans cuz that is the scrub of scrubs. We
10:00haven't heard anything from Emmanuel Wilson when he signed. I liked what I saw from J'Darien Price on film. I thought he looked explosive. He had such
10:08little receiving work at Notre Dame, I believe only 15 receptions overall at Notre Dame.
10:14But the little receiving work he did looked pretty strong to me. And the big thing is one thing that we've learned
10:19about research on prospecting over like the last 5 years or so is that kick returns end up having a huge correlation
10:26to pass-catching ability, evasion ability at the next level. And J'Darien Price was a stud kick returner at Notre Dame. I'm willing to stick my neck out
10:34on this one. I think that J'Darien Price is an absolute smash in round five. I think he's easily going to be the week
10:40one starting running back for the Seahawks, and I think he is going to clearly hold off Zach Charbonnet. Round six is where things start to get a
10:47little bit sketchy. You could go the Jonathan Brooks route. That's what Jinx and I did in the Flock league. A mistake
10:53we actually made, and I I would like to apologize to Junko and to the Flock league community right now. We should
10:59have taken Rhamondre Stevenson over Josh Downs. We didn't do it. Rhamondre is he fits a specific type of a build. You
11:05know, if I already had running backs, I actually would probably skip on Rhamondre Stevenson. He went at the 6.07 in this mock that I just did on
11:14flockfantasy.com right after TreVeyon Henderson. TreVeyon Henderson is currently banged up. I'm recording this on August 26th. He just injured his ankle. Doesn't sound like it's anything
11:23too severe, but it does, I think, further entrench Rhamondre Stevenson as the starting running back for the New England Patriots, which which was going
11:30to happen.
11:31We knew that Rhamondre Stevenson was going to be the starter. We knew that he was going to be the passing down back.
11:36They do not trust TreVeyon Henderson in pass protection at all. And in fact, if you look last year, even with TreVeyon
11:42Henderson as a second-round pick, there were very few times when Rhamondre was active where Henderson actually played over him, including completely icing him
11:52in the postseason. You know, I think that's one of the biggest reasons to be in on Rhamondre. We're certainly buying on the New England Patriots offense. I
11:58think one thing I would like to push back on though, is I I've heard a little bit of a reinvention of who Rhamondre
12:04Stevenson is as a player. Before Rhamondre came back this game where he scored 35 points against Miami in week 18, I actually remember tweeting this
12:12stat, which is that the first time that TreVeyon Henderson scored a 50-yard touchdown, which I believe was against Tampa Bay. I can't remember if it was
12:19against Atlanta or Tampa Bay, but the first 50-yard touchdown he scored was a longer play than any play of Rhamondre Stevenson's four-year career up into
12:28that point. Now, Rhamondre was awesome when he came back. You see that I mean, it's actually it's actually insane that he had 131 yards on seven rushes in that
12:37game against Miami. Like truly, truly incredible stuff. But, Rhamondre is not an explosive player. Like he not that he's not explosive, but that's not he's the
12:46thunder in a thunder and lightning tandem. And I think we like Rhamondre Stevenson, and I think he's a good part of a fantasy football team. I would not
12:54be chasing him up as far as I think he has the potential to go on draft boards. Like I would not take
12:59Rhamondre over Jahmyr Gibbs. Though I do think in my next date for my rankings on flockfantasy.com, you guys can get the
13:06season pass for $34 over there. I probably will I might even put Rhamondre and Henderson in like legitimately back-to-back spots in in my full PPR rankings. So, that
13:17gets us through round six. We have done Christian McCaffrey, Kenneth Walker, Breece Hall, D'Andre Swift, Rhamondre Stevenson, and Jahmyr Gibbs. Moving on
13:28now to round seven. I think there are a lot of different ways that we could go here. And this is also where you need to
13:33start thinking, well, my draft might be different than your draft. My league has different settings. My league has Oh, my league actually is pretty woke to your
13:41running back. But I'm actually going to go to the next guy on this list and I'm going to bring up not the Denver running
13:47back that you guys think I'm going to bring up, but I'm actually going to bring up RJ Harvey. I'm willing to stick
13:51my neck out on this one as well. If I were to tell you that there was a second-round pick running back who ran a
13:574-3, who scored 12 touchdowns as a rookie, and was cheaper in year two than they were in year one, I think you'd be absolutely floored. I
14:07mean, that is not the way that fantasy football historically goes. In fact, look at the New England Patriots. It took It took Trevion Henderson getting
14:16injured. It It took Trevion Henderson having this injured ankle for Ramondre to start to close that average draft position gap. RJ Harvey and JK Dobbins
14:23are going very close together. Harvey is obviously cheaper, and Dobbins is obviously cheaper. They're actually ranked back-to-back with each other on
14:29flockfantasy.com. And I'm not saying you you can't take JK Dobbins. In fact, if I were to guess who I'm going to have
14:36ranked higher in week one of the 2026 NFL season, there's a chance that I do have Dobbins ranked a little bit higher.
14:43There's a chance. I'm certainly not going to say that 100%. RJ Harvey is going to be the passing down back. I
14:49mean, I don't think there's any debate about that. I think even the biggest JK Dobbins bull at this point would say the
14:55passing down stuff is going to be all RJ Harvey. He held up well as a pass blocker as a rookie. He was the passing
15:00down back last year. He was efficient near the goal line. Now, the thing that people point out about RJ Harvey was
15:06well, the guy just wasn't very good last year. Like, he was not He was not super explosive, didn't break a ton of
15:10tackles, looked like he was actually kind of had the DeAndre Swift problem where he's trying to bounce everything to the outside instead of just taking
15:17what's there and breaking a couple tackles.
15:19But I think overall, the Denver Broncos' offense actually, in my mind, is going to be even better this upcoming season than it was last year with the addition
15:27of Jaylen Waddle. And over the course of the year, I've not heard too many people make this point. I think the people the
15:33point that most people make with the Denver Broncos' backfield is, "Well, there's no way J.K. Dobbins is going to stay healthy." I'm ready to make an even
15:40bolder claim, which is I think R.J.
15:42Harvey can just play better than J.K.
15:44Dobbins, and that we can see R.J. Harvey just naturally take over a larger portion of that backfield. So, I've got R.J. Harvey in round seven. In round
15:53eight, if you guys have been watching this channel for a couple weeks or a couple months now, you knew exactly who it was
15:57going to be, which is going to be my guy, Jacquory Croskey-Merritt, who had a 14-27-15-22-point game last year. He had 800 yards and
16:05eight touchdowns. The only additions the team brought were $2 million veteran minimum, Rashad White. They drafted Keaton Allen in day three of the NFL
16:15draft. And Keaton, hey look, man. He might have a role. If you want to stick Keaton in the last spot of your redraft
16:21league on your bench, I actually have no issue with it. But, I'll tell you right now, I'm planting my flag. You can come
16:26back to me and tell me that I'm a dumb idiot if I'm wrong. Jacquory Croskey-Merritt will start for the Washington Commanders, and Jacquory
16:32Croskey-Merritt is going to be a very good early down rusher for the Commanders. I think that he's going to have an expanded role in the passing
16:38game.
16:39In fact, I don't think I know. I know that he is going to have an expanded role in the passing game. Ben Standig,
16:44who is an awesome Washington Commanders beat writer, has been on this all off-season. Ben Standig was the first one who called Brian Robinson Jr. not
16:52being on the team when the season started, and he was also the first Washington Commanders beat writer to say that JCM would get the start in week
16:58one. This was months before the start of the season last year, and all off-season Standig has been telling us that JCM is
17:03ahead of every other running back. Jerome Ford is on the IR. It doesn't even look like Jeremy McNichols is going to make the
17:09team. You want Jacquory Croskey-Merritt on your fantasy team. And I think if he had not torn the fantasy community asunder last year, he would just be a
17:17fifth-round pick. He would just be going where Ke'Shawn Key Jenkins is going. I really truly believe that. But because it's so contentious to support Ke'Shawn
17:25Key Jenkins, people tend to disagree with me. So that is our round eight pick. Then we start getting into Well, your league is going to vary, right? The
17:33things that are happening in your league are going to be very different. Right now, I'm going to nominate one Mr. Woody
17:37Marks. I'm actually going to take him over Mike Washington Jr. And I'm going to do this for two reasons. The first
17:42being I think there's just obviously that Woody Marks has, which is he's going to be the clear passing down back for this team. So if you absolutely had
17:50to start Woody Marks in a given week, well, you could.
17:54Woody Marks was one of the worst interior rushers I have ever seen in the NFL. Last year he was really really bad.
18:00I don't think he's going to be any better this year. I don't think the Texans offensive line is going to be any
18:03better this year. Reports from the Texans training camp have been, you know, David Montgomery looks okay, but it's not like this is a guy who's
18:09reinvented his career. I think the market is definitely assuming that David Montgomery is 100% good to go. Don't you think there's a chance? I certainly
18:18think there's a chance that this is Nick Chubb part two, that they bring in David Montgomery, they build their offense around him, and then it turns out he
18:23doesn't have the juice anymore, which then brings us back to the exact same situation that we were in last year, which is even if Woody Marks is not up
18:30to the job, well, he got the job because there is not an alternative. I mean, D'Onta Foreman is not even on this
18:35roster anymore. So I guess it would be Dare Ogunbowale who would get a chance to try and run the ball on early
18:42downs. I mean, basically, I think Woody Marks is going to be just your bog standard about, you know, he's going to
18:47score about eight points per game. And he has chance to be a little bit better than that. Maybe there'll be some
18:52matchups where he's able to like run downhill. But Woody Marks is for most fantasy football teams, he just fits what you need at this spot in the draft.
19:01He just is going to be a very good pick at the range wherein he goes. And then cheaper than him, we will go to round
19:0810. I mean, I've I've honestly talked about Ke'Shawn Key Mitchell so much on this channel. I've talked about him probably more than any other player.
19:17I'm going to skip him. I'm going to skip you you guys know to take Keaton Mitchell. If you've been subscribed to
19:22the Madd Addicts Fantasy Football Channel, you're very hip to it. And I'm going to give you Marshaun Lloyd in round 10 instead. I I wonder if he's
19:29actually one of the most under-drafted guys in Fantasy Football right now.
19:31Again, it's August 26th. Josh Jacobs has still not returned. Isn't that crazy?
19:36It's August He still is not practicing.
19:38He still is not getting in full practices. Meanwhile, Marshaun Lloyd is out here scoring touchdowns in preseason games. Sounds like he went to the same,
19:45you know, institute of health that Christian Watson went to that allowed him to get back from his ACL injury and like finally have healthy hamstrings. I
19:53am buying Marshaun Lloyd in every single format. I think Tank Bigsby is another one to put in this range as well. But I
19:59love taking Marshaun Lloyd in Fantasy drafts right now. I think he's got a chance to earn a standalone role. This is one of the most valuable things in
20:06Fantasy, which is you draft a guy as a handcuff, but then it turns out that he's got an 8, 9, 10 touch per game
20:12role, so you could again start him if you absolutely had to. I wonder if he maybe earns some of the passing down
20:17work that a guy like Chris Brooks or Emanuel Wilson would have gotten in years past. I certainly think that is possible as well. I'm interested in
20:24moving him up my rankings even more. So those were my favorite running back picks in every single round. Christian McCaffrey, Kenneth Walker, Breece Hall,
20:34D'Andre Swift, Jadarian Price, Rhamondre Stevenson, RJ Harvey, Keaontay Ingram, Woody Marks, Marshaun Lloyd.
20:43If you want some last round guys, guys that I'm taking with truly my last pick in redraft leagues, we've got Nicholas
20:49Singleton for the Tennessee Titans, Najee Harris for the New York Giants. I think that's a very underrated one. I certainly think there's a chance I
20:56There's definitely a chance that Najee Harris ends up like starting multiple games at running back for the New York Giants. Then we have got the two San
21:03Francisco 49ers guys, Jordan James and Keelan Black. Slight preference there to Kaelen Black for me and then I love Adam Randall as a flyer for the Baltimore
21:12Ravens and Malik Davis who's probably the running back two for the Dallas Cowboys. But, make sure that you like the video. Make sure you are subscribed
21:19to the channel and hey, check out the season pass over on flockfantasy.com.
21:23$34 it's going to get you everything you need truly. Everything you need to win your fantasy football league this year.
21:29You can get the annual mother flocker.
21:31It's going to get you more. It's going to get you best ball tools. It's a it's a very very good deal. However, $34
21:36season pass is going to set you up awesome for fantasy football this year, dynasty, everything that you need and I'll be back with all of you guys
