0:06>> Breaking down 2026 fantasy football running back targets with Hayden Winks.
0:11One player who we're not going to hear Hayden talking about today is Ashton Jeanty. There's a ton of enthusiasm on Ashton Jeanty returning value now in a
0:21Klint Kubiak scheme, but Hayden, you seem to be off of him at ADP.
0:26>> Yeah, this is just where I don't have him ranked like egregiously low. It's like 15th, 16th overall kind of depending on the format. He just goes,
0:32you know, 10th, 11th, 12th depending on where you're drafting. I think that's just a little bit too rich. Obviously, he has
0:37the ceiling that everyone knows about. I just didn't see it uh on tape watching him. I thought that he was a little bit
0:43indecisive, and I thought that his feet were just slower than all the guys that he's being drafted across I think not
0:49even though I talk about like the Bijan Robinson types, like the difference between I think like Saquon Barkley versus uh Ashton Jeanty, I think was pretty
0:56noticeable on tape. He still has infrastructure concerns across the offensive line will be better than it was last year, but at the same time,
1:03Jeanty last year finished as the running back 16, so like I think it's a pretty big gap. I think he's going to finish
1:09closer like the RB10 this year. It'll be an improvement, but I do think some of the guys he's being drafted next next to
1:14like Saquon Barkley's finished as the RB1 before, Devon Achane over seasons has done this, Derrick Henry for an entire career has done this before, and
1:21then I think like the Kenneth Walker types are are equally as interesting, just better environments. So, it's kind of like twofold. Like everyone knows the
1:28Raiders offense was bad last year. It's going to still be fairly bad, not as bad. I just think there's also a
1:34difference between Ashton Jeanty by himself versus the other running backs he's going, and I'm not going to be surprised if Ashton Jeanty kind of
1:41ends up in that like Josh Jacobs type of tier where like good player can do a little bit of everything, runs
1:47really hard, but at the same time, there's a difference between watching Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs.
1:52>> Is there a potential bailout in terms of the receiving upside that you see where Achane could end up sort of burning you
1:59on this take if he ends up becoming like uh you know Alvin Kamara 2024 in this Kubiak scheme.
2:06>> Yeah, that that's the one thing I did see on tape was he's a very capable receiver. We saw that at times at Boise
2:12State, but it was also like some of the routes down the field. So, I I do think there is an uh an element to that.
2:17There's obviously not a lot of depth at wide receiver. So, like that's how you kind of funnel some targets to the
2:22position. He was RB9 in receptions last year. So, like it can get a little bit better. Uh but I don't think it's going
2:27to be like he's going to like double it uh this next season.
2:31Um I think the offense is still going to funnel through Brock Bowers and uh the defense is probably going to be a little bit
2:39better. So, I'm not sure if they're going to be like trailing by two touchdowns where you're getting all these kind of garbage time. They'll be
2:43like close enough in games, still lose a bunch of them.
2:47Um and I think like if we're talking about receptions like Devon Achane, I would just rather take him. He's done this many times.
2:55>> Yeah, let's talk about Achane. Um he's not one of your targets, but it sounds like you're open-minded to drafting him
3:00at cost.
3:02>> Yeah, I have him ranked a couple spots ahead of Achane. I think that he's a good pick. Uh looking at the best ball ADPs, he's like
3:0817th, 18th overall. I got him 13th. Uh he's been the RB5 and RB7 last year over the last couple seasons. RB7 and RB10
3:15usage. Uh those are half PPR numbers.
3:17So, if you play in full PPR, you can bump him up a couple running back spots there. I think the McDaniel stuff is
3:22going to absolutely matter. Not a big fan of Bobby Slowik. But, Bobby Slowik was at least there last season.
3:27He's had to have learned a thing or two from Mike McDaniel in the rushing scheme. And I think the underrated part
3:33about the Dolphins right now is one, they have no receiver tight end depth at all. So, I think even with Malik Willis, there's
3:40going to be so many manufactured touches as a receiver to Devon Achane. You have to. There's just no excuses. You have
3:44kind of have to do that even with a rushing quarterback like Malik. And the offensive line is actually pretty good.
3:50The left side, Patrick Paul was amazing.
3:52He was like a really crazy athlete, improved last year. Aaron Brewer, you can make the argument he was the best center in the NFL last year. Some others
4:00are even like I think Brandon Thorn said he was the best offensive lineman period last year. That's their starting center.
4:04And then they draft Khadenn Proctor pivoting from left tackle. He's as as big as a as a house. He's going to be
4:10their left guard. So their left side of the offensive line is awesome.
4:15Put Devon Achane in him that way and you don't have to worry about the right side of the offensive line. So I just think
4:19that the lack of target competition plus like an offensive line and the other thing is Devon Achane is one of the best running backs in the
4:27NFL. Like no question about it. Everyone knows that where some of the guys he's being picked around you kind of nitpick
4:32how good are they actually individually where I don't have that concern with him at all.
4:36>> Yeah, Achane so interesting because I love Devon Achane. Elite talent, gets paid an exceptional amount of money.
4:42There's contract insulation there. It's not like the will Miami move off of that sort of narrative is completely gone. 20 20 plus points per game last year, over
4:501,300 rushing yards and back-to-back seasons where it's like 65 plus receptions. So and I'm able to get him at the end of the second round. He's a
4:58definitely a range of outcomes guy this year but glad you brought up the offensive line. Like Khadenn Proctor, 6'7 like 260 or 360.
5:07Achane I mean unbelievable. And also Hayden what are what are your thoughts on this one? Like we talk about how the
5:13splits were were good where Achane obviously benefited from like the check downs from Tua Tagovailoa but we haven't seen Achane play alongside of a like a
5:23quarterback with elite mobility. Maybe that potentially unwraps like a little bit of these big play potential.
5:29>> He can he can finish as number one in yards per carry this year. That would not be surprising if the left side of
5:34the line is awesome and throwing Malik Willis. Every single running back that Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, every dual threat rusher, obviously Jalen Hurts. It
5:41was Saquon Barkley with as an Eagle versus Giant. Like you can add like a full point to your yards per carry when
5:47you're next to an elite rusher like Malik. I mean, he's still going to catch 65 passes this year. Like there's just like no excuses unless he
5:55gets injured that he's not a complete focal point of the passing. Like he was doing that with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen
6:01Waddle. Neither of those guys exist.
6:02It's now two two Atwell and Malik Washington. Like you can't build a pass game around those. So I think that the
6:07defense is going to be trash and he's going to catch a bunch of passes and like I'll just take on the
6:13chance that he's still ripping off 50 yard touchdowns because he's got an offensive line and a dual threat next to him.
6:17>> Yeah, really really interesting player for sure. Talk about what you're doing these days. I think everybody knows you guys made the huge move over to Yahoo.
6:25Talk about the shows that you and Josh are turning out, some of the content you're putting out over at Yahoo.
6:29>> Yeah, we'll do four times a week and then what's fun about Yahoo versus versus Underdog is like we have Matt
6:35Harmon, Justin Boone, Scott Pianowski, Joel Smith and then Nate Tice. Like we kind of have this like revolving door.
6:41There's three different shows that talk football at Yahoo. We're going to be going on each other's shows. So now there's like kind of three feeds that
6:47you have to hit on, but like we just had Matt Harmon on our show. I was on Matt Harmon's show the previous week. So there's like
6:54more chances for for collabs over at Yahoo. So I think yeah, four times a week moving forward. Plus writing for a bigger audience is pretty
7:02exciting for for me as well. So I do as probably as much written work as I do podcasting nowadays.
7:08>> Yeah, highly recommend all of Hayden's work. Matt Harmon just came on this show. He absolutely crushed it. Always does on the pods. Matt's really really
7:15good at this. Looking forward to seeing you guys collab this year. That should be a lot of fun. Let's talk about some
7:20play callers.
7:22You know, I've I've started to break this one out to some of my guests like yourself. Which play caller, like we
7:27have so many new play callers this year, but which of the new play callers are you most excited about potentially making a big impact this year in fantasy
7:36football? A lot of people with the Mike McDaniel answer.
7:39So hopefully somebody besides Mike McDaniel for you. [laughter] >> I thought about writing Mike McDaniel and then I came up with the same
7:45conclusion. I'm like, everyone's going to say that. Let's let's uh kind of uh spin it around here. I'm going Sean Mannion for the Eagles. I think there's
7:52two parts to this. One is last year's coordinator was horrific. They was like the most static offense. They were doing like none of the modern stuff out there.
8:01Obviously, A.J. Brown was like the same type of routes over and over and over again. Sean Mannion, I think they're going to like lean into what Jalen Hurts
8:08is good at. He comes from the Packers offense. I think there are similarities between the what the Packers and Eagles have been doing and that's going to be
8:14helpful to Jalen Hurts.
8:15But, with LaFleur, there was at least some creativity to the offense that I have not seen with the Eagles. And then,
8:22from training camp, just like the first day, the first play it that they had for for Sean Mannion was under center
8:28stretch toss run out of 12 personnel.
8:30The Eagles did not run uh I think they're since Saquon's arrived, they were 21st in in under center runs. They were first in shotgun runs. They don't
8:39use that much 12 personnel. It kind of goes up and down. Um and there's never under center. Like, there's just going to be new wrinkles.
8:47And I think the big thing for Saquon in particular is just the offensive line's going to be healthy again. So, I think
8:51like there's a pretty big chance that like we go from a really bad coordinator to someone that we could view as like
8:57who Why can't he be Liam Coen or something like that? We just don't know about some of these new guys. So, that's where I
9:01have the most intrigue with him.
9:03>> Yeah, it was like a short stint and then become a a head coach uh for Kellen Moore under Nick Sirianni. I wonder if
9:09it could be the same case with with Sean Mannion. When you talk about some of these coordinators that are a little bit
9:13younger, they seem to be being fast-tracked towards like future head coaching opportunities. Uh really interesting one. We'll get to Saquon in
9:20a moment. Your thoughts on just uh your general Eagles uh you A lot of these guys are falling in like decent ranges. Specifically, Jalen
9:28Hurts. He's falling into like a range we haven't really seen for him in the last couple of seasons. It's obviously draft-to-draft specific.
9:37There's certain drafts where people are going to reach for Jalen Hurts, but you're also seeing drafts where he's falling into like really kind of unknown
9:44territory. I know like from a redraft lens, there's been times he's fallen into like the 10th round in some of these FFPC NFFC. So, it's yeah, wild
9:53stuff. Where are you at on him just in terms of like your enthusiasm level for him thriving in this offense?
10:00>> Uh quarterback's really hard this year because I feel really good about that tier of Bo Nix, Matthew Stafford, Kyler, Jordan Love, Jared Goff, all the way
10:09down to kind of kind of Malik Willis there. I mean, and then even before that it's like Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott,
10:14Jackson Dart, and like those guys. Like there's kind of like 16 guys that are like pretty solid bets to be, you know,
10:20a fantasy quarterback one where I think the opportunity cost does come into play. That said, you talked about 10th round Jalen Hurts in best ball drafts,
10:28we're talking 71st overall on Yahoo.
10:30That's 55th overall. So, I think all of that's pretty appropriate even factoring in the opportunity cost. I wouldn't be surprised if he has fewer
10:40tush push opportunities and like maybe we go from what? Like 13, 14 rushing touchdowns a year, now it's like eight.
10:47And that's the difference of like actually competing with Josh Allen, which he had for a couple years versus like being a mid-range quarterback one.
10:54So, I like his ADP where it is. I wouldn't move him up or down. And all of those quarterbacks are drafted kind of
11:01after a tier break I see at wide receiver and running back where I'm like looking across and I'm like, "Oh, I'm at
11:05the beginning of this large gap this large tier at wide receiver. Just give me Joe Burrow, give me Jayden Daniels, give me Jalen Hurts, and then I'll go to
11:14the bottom end of that wide receiver tier."
11:16>> Yeah, no, for sure. Really an interesting year for quarterback. I'm going to be diving into some quarterback specific episodes upcoming, but today
11:24it's all about running backs. And you mentioned Saquon Barkley, but that's one of your targets today. Get us started, break down where your your bullish
11:32nature comes with Saquon. Are you looking for potentially lighting the fantasy world on fire like we saw in 2024? Are we somewhere in the middle of
11:41between 2024 and 2025? Where are we at with Saquon?
11:45>> It's probably the middle, but the middle is still pretty sweet at this spot. I think the the hard part about fantasy
11:51this year is we have a couple potential aliens in the top four or five picks this year, whereas like, okay, or
11:57I'll even say the sixth top six picks.
11:58CMC, Bijan, Gibbs, like this these can be like historical seasons at running back.
12:04You can't have the James Cook season, you know, like I think James Cook was awesome last year. We're just talking about such a huge gap between your James
12:11Cook awesome season versus like what these aliens can do. So to me at the one-two turn, like I need to take big
12:18chances. And I do think that Saquon Barkley has proven that. Last year was terrible at the goal line. Uh one rushing touchdown on 11 carries inside
12:26the 5-yard line. Uh that's negative 86% rush yards over expected. I think that's an offensive line stat. They were injured last year, Lane Johnson most
12:34notably, but even their other interior players were playing but were not themselves coming off of I think it was like almost 500 carries the season
12:42before including the Super Bowl run. So hopefully they're healthy this year.
12:46Hopefully Manny makes a difference here.
12:48Um and then you never you never know.
12:50Saquon Barkley can catch some more passes uh without A.J. Brown. You just never know about that part, but he doesn't even need to do that. If he can
12:56just average 20 fantasy points per game, I think that's uh worth the risk.
13:01>> Yeah, it's really interesting because I think a lot of people have gravitated towards the DeVonta Smith, you know, benefiting from the A.J. Brown leaving,
13:08but I think it's you also have just the Saquon being this offensive focal point narrative that we could see really, really early on. Also, the amount of
13:16volume that he had to sustain in 2025 was considerably less than 2024. So there's a chance we see like a little
13:23bit of a refresh there. I mean, there was a ton of volume, especially when we consider the deep run eventually winning
13:30the Super Bowl. So, he had a historically good season, obviously with the 2,000 rushing yards, but it like he didn't get the any sort of rest. Last
13:38year, it took a step back. I think we could see that. So, really, really fun one. Let's keep it going with some of
13:43your running back targets and very close by to Saquon Barkley in the second round is Kenneth Walker. And you know, if we're looking for
13:53historical parallels, could Kenneth Walker be like this year's version of 2024 Derrick Henry, 2024 Josh Jacobs, like the next free agent running back to
14:05land somewhere and absolutely crush?
14:08>> I think there's a great parallels. I think this is going to be the best offensive line of his career behind
14:13Creed Humphrey.
14:14They have to get the both tackle spots right, but their left tackle has a chance to be really good if he can just
14:20stay on the field and take kind of take that next step going into the second season. So, all of the numbers that
14:24Kenneth Walker's been dealing with, like the Seahawks over his rookie contract, you'd probably rank them bottom four or five in like offensive line talent,
14:31where I think this year there's a chance they're an above average offensive line.
14:33So, that's that's helpful.
14:35The Chiefs offense is going to be scoring, I think, still like top 10-ish points as long as Mahomes is fairly healthy. Bieniemy's back instead of Matt
14:43Nagy, so I think that's helpful.
14:45I think the thing that goes overlooked because the Chiefs running backs have been so bad recently is five or six years ago, the talk in
14:52fantasy with Andy Reid was look at his history of fantasy running backs. And that was very true until they got stuck
14:58in this kind of like Kareem Hunt uh uh washing machine here. And he's just about as fast as a washing machine. But
15:06before that, Andy Reid had Duce Staley, Brian Westbrook, Jamaal Charles, LeSean McCoy.
15:11And those guys were like the top fantasy players like in their seasons. If you look at the last three seasons that
15:16LeSean McCoy had with Coach Reid, he was on pace um, 17 games for over 1,800 scrim- scrimmage yards. I think there is
15:25a little bit of LeSean McCoy to Kenneth Walker's game. And just because they haven't had running backs recently, we forget about how dominant Andy Reid has,
15:35uh, been at getting his running backs crazy, crazy volume. There's nobody behind Kenneth Walker. They paid him a lot of money. That's like the only move
15:43they made on offense this year.
15:46I think he's going to get all the touches. I think he's going to catch more passes than he ever has before. And
15:51I am hopeful that we get the narrative again that Andy Reid has been like a fantasy running back one, uh, automatically. And I think that he
15:58finally has the skill player to to do it.
16:00>> Yeah, I love that you brought up the pass-catching cuz I think it's almost like a given that if he stays healthy,
16:05we're going to see a career high in like rush attempts. But it's that pass-catching that sort of gets me really excited. And that's how he can
16:12become a league winner in this range.
16:14>> Oh, yeah.
16:15>> Like Eric Bieniemy, Colin plays, Andy Reid there.
16:19It's everything's sort of setting up.
16:20And they've talked about it. And it's been sort of like throwaway quotes. But I believe it was The Athletic wrote an
16:26article about this where they talked about his use in the screen game, how they want to get him involved as like a
16:32a true three-down skill set, and really getting him utilized in the pass game.
16:35Like if Kenneth we we see a 46-catch season for for Walker back in 2024. If we can get Walker to 60 catches, I mean
16:45unbelievable how I mean, he could be running back three. He could be the great equalizer to the Christian McCaffrey, Jahmyr Gibbs guys
16:52cuz you're getting that that delta with the it being a second-round pick. Even if we can get him like north of 50, I
16:57think that'll be a massive win.
16:59>> Well, in in that season, he played 11 games. So, he was catching over four passes per game in that season. So, like
17:05he has done it before. And like to me, watch him out in space as a rusher. Like throw him a screen. Like why can't he
17:12translate doing that? Guess what? If you look at like who's the best screen designers like over like NFL history, it's like Andy Reid comes up in that
17:19conversation. Um and they got really crazy athletes on their offensive line, Simmons and Creed Humphrey in particular. So, I think the receptions
17:28are coming and I think that's a really good point that like he has the upside case to somewhat match the alien running
17:35backs that are not available at the back half of your draft. And I think if Dameer Gibbs averages 25 points per game
17:41this season, I don't know how like your James Cook team is going to like come close to that. Like I think you really do need to
17:47think about the ceiling that you need to hit this year just because Puka in his prime, Jamar Chase in his prime, Bijan
17:53Gibbs, CMC still hanging on, and then what JSN just did last year. Like I think we have to really think about like
17:59the true ceiling outcomes if you're picking at the the 1-2 turn this year.
18:03>> Yeah, and it's so interesting cuz a lot of times we gravitate towards like unknown upside, and we always think about like the younger players, but it's
18:10like what is the unknown upside for Kenneth Walker being utilized like a bell cow without a running back threat behind him? What is the upside case for
18:17Saquon Barkley with Sean McVay in calling plays and no A.J. Brown?
18:21Um really interesting stuff. Um and and free agent running backs in general, this has been sort of a cheat code with
18:28multiple players hitting in a major way.
18:30We talked about Saquon. Uh obviously 2024 was like the the year for free agent running backs where it was Saquon, Derrick Henry, um Josh Jacobs, and down
18:41to Yeah, unbelievable like Aaron Jones.
18:45>> Yeah.
18:45>> Um they all hit. Then last year it was sort of under the radar, but we still had a number of guys hitting, namely
18:52Kenneth Gainwell, Rico Dowdle had a stretch, but clearly the biggest winner over the free agent running backs last year was Javonte Williams. And Javonte
19:00Williams, I mean, sort of left for dead by some with all the injuries in in Denver.
19:06Um this time last year we had arguments going on about whether you should take Jayden Blue or Javonte Williams. It's almost comical at this point, but he not
19:15only dominated touches, but he produced in a major way and he earned a contract and now we're back. You view Javonte
19:23Williams as one of your major targets this year at the running back position.
19:27>> It's like the least sexy advice you can possibly give. I understand why he's like the classic dead zone back. I will say this, in
19:35order to be a dead zone back, somebody behind you's got to emerge from them.
19:38I'm totally fine continuing to bet against Jayden Blue. I think there's reasons why he's never been like an early down guy. He's not going to steal
19:45Javonte Williams like goal line stuff.
19:46Javonte Williams was excellent at it.
19:48He's way bigger. So if Jayden Blue does come on, it would be in the pass game.
19:52Javonte Williams did nothing last year in the pass game. He was one of the least efficient pass uh game targets out
19:58there. And did it matter? It didn't matter at all. And the reason why it didn't matter is because this team plays
20:03fast. They're expected score a lot of points. He's good in pass protection. He can catch the ball as a check down guy.
20:09Um and he's not going to mess things up and he is no doubt about it going to be the goal line back. So as long as he
20:13stays healthy, this offense is too good that it's just going to drag him along.
20:17And I just don't think that there's a a running back behind him that's like a true um threat to like steal the work that he
20:24has. Um I think my notes six most points uh projected this year. They were second in neutral pace last season. Stay on the
20:31field. That's all it takes. And at his cost where he's going in the fourth round now, um I think it's just a pretty
20:37big layup.
20:38>> 13 touchdowns scored for Williams last year. You mentioned the pass catching in 2024 you had 52 receptions in Denver.
20:45Um let's talk about where you value him.
20:49Would you take him head-to-head over Kyren Williams who goes obviously a few picks ahead?
20:55>> Yeah, I feel like in my exact rankings they'd be pretty close. I got uh Javonte 29th, but I think just like a lot of the
21:01narrative that if you are like a sicko listening to these fantasy football podcasts, like you you Javonte Williams on a podcast, here comes like four
21:07negative facts about him. Like that's just how how this thing goes.
21:10Um so I'm not sure where he's going to go in redraft, but I think in some of these sharper leagues like he's like going to
21:16be a classic faller and I think I would be buying the dip there. I have him one spot ahead of Kyren looking at my
21:20rankings. I think with Javonte, I have him ahead of kind of that entire tier, the Breece Hall, Josh Jacobs tier, um just because
21:31I think his floor is really high. I mean that offense is really good and the guy that's uh kind of kind of behind the
21:37scenes there, Kellen Moore Adams, like he is a run game savant and like that's what I'm I'm signing up for with
21:42Javonte.
21:44>> Yeah, it's really interesting and when we talk about like the the old school dead zone, it's those those backs like
21:49Javonte Williams. There's so many younger backs, all those year two running backs where everybody has like their favorite player in this range. So
21:57if you're into Williams, I agree with you. I don't think there's a chance he he kind of moves up in ADP. If anything,
22:04he moves down if if you have some positivity with some of these second year guys. So really interesting stuff there. Um let's continue this one. We
22:12mentioned how Javonte Williams last year was this huge ADP win because of the ambiguous backfield and people just didn't know kind of how to sort it out.
22:22We're seeing that a little bit with Pittsburgh right now where Rico Dowdle and Jaylen Warren are essentially going side by side in drafts. Um Jaylen Warren
22:33is currently going off the board as the running back 28. Dowdle, the running back 32. There's been some narrative that the reunion with with Mike McCarthy
22:42could be really beneficial for Dowdle, but you're making Jaylen Warren one of your running back targets this year, Hayden. Why don't you talk about this
22:50one?
22:51>> Yeah, I think for the the first thing is the running backs versus the wide receivers in projections in kind of this
22:56range. Like it's still leans towards like the running backs are the best bets to be your flex options. So I still view
23:02Jaylen Warren as your flex. I do think he can turn into a fantasy RB2. Looking at the history of both Rodgers and
23:09McCarthy, and especially them together, they kind of lean on the profile of Jaylen Warren more so than with Rico Dowdle. So, um for example,
23:19McCarthy was um he's been a offensive coordinator head coach in 24 NFL seasons, which is insane. Uh but if you take the average, he's the uh number 11
23:30offense in pass yards, number 18 offense in rush yards. Aaron Rodgers doesn't want to get hit. We just saw what he did
23:36with Kenny Gainwell last year. A lot of that was manufactured. Uh checks at the line of scrimmage, get him out on swing
23:43routes. I think Jaylen Warren can do that. And then, I think there's a chance Jaylen Warren is way better than Rico
23:49Dowdle as a rusher. Not guaranteeing that's going to happen, but I do think there's a chance there's just Rico Dowdle has some moments, but Jaylen uh
23:57Warren is I think a little bit more explosive. Uh and he's got enough weight where I think he kind of passes that threshold of like
24:04could he be a bell cow for like a half year uh after they kind of like uh make Rico Dowdle like only like a four-minute
24:10drill type. I think like those type of outcomes uh are still in play. So, I I think versus like the Tony Pollard tier,
24:17I just think that maybe I trust his age and his his explosiveness and that offensive line more so than some of the other running
24:23backs in that tier.
24:25Um and I've always really appreciated what he does in like pass protection, catching the ball.
24:29>> Yeah, agreed. Um War- Warren had the 60-plus catch season in 2024. Last year, conceded a lot of those targets to
24:37Gainwell. Um 958 rushing yards for Warren. I think it's easily Warren over Dowdle for me. Um but it's very interesting. We keep like talking about
24:47like what is this offense going to look like with Mike McCarthy there, but it's really the Aaron Rodgers offense. And if
24:53last year was a sneak preview of things to come, checking down to the running back seemed to be what Aaron Rodgers was
24:59doing over the second half of the season. Warren could end up setting a a career high in catches and it feels like
25:05maybe a thousand rushing yards season as well. So, I'm with you. I think Warren's a really really fun click. Agreed. I
25:12would take him over Pollard. I would take him over Ramondre. Easily over Chuba. Uh easily over RJ Harvey. So, it's sort of a a tier where Warren I
25:20think might have the safest floor and maybe the highest ceiling as well. So, really strong stuff there. Let's talk about Blake Corum though. I just
25:27mentioned him. Is he the best handcuff in fantasy or is he a handcuff plus that you can lean on? Maybe I build my team
25:36with like a hero RB build. Can I get by with using Blake Corum some weeks or is it going to take a Kyren Williams injury
25:44to fully unlock things?
25:46>> Fully unlock, definitely the injury. I do think that Blake Corum's role, which is pretty much like two drives to one
25:51drive, is kind of how it ended up with the Rams. I don't think that's going anywhere because Blake Corum I think is
25:55a really really good rusher. Last year the Rams success rate was like one of the best all time running the ball and
26:02that's because Blake Corum and Kyren Williams both do not make bad decisions like ever. Like you can go through the whole season. Like those guys hit the
26:08right hole and get north-south as quickly as possible and Blake Corum's feet are pretty pretty good. He doesn't have like the explosiveness either does
26:15Kyren Williams, but I would be pretty surprised if this is not like a two for one split and if things do change, I
26:20think it's more likely that it's like one to two Corum than three to zero Kyren at this point. So, we're kind of
26:25drafting him at the baseline where he's a random spike week guy. I don't think you're really going to trust him in
26:30redrafting. He'd be a pretty bad redraft flex option. But, as the season progresses, things could change. What if it's 50/50? And I think at that point
26:39then you would be able to throw him into your flex and, you know, if Kyren goes down, I mean, we'd be ranking Blake
26:45Corum inside of the top 10 I think pretty comfortably as long as the offense is the same.
26:48>> Yeah, I mean, maybe maybe even top five in some weeks if they were by himself.
26:53So like the McVay offense has just been fantasy gold for running backs and and Kyren last year had 750 rushing yards at
27:02six rushing touchdowns.
27:04I mean getting to the 900 rushing yards and nine touchdowns is not like a massive leap of faith if we see that
27:11usage over the second half of last year sort of continue.
27:15I think another variable for for the Rams running backs is this defense could just be lights out. The game flow could
27:21be a lot more run heavy in the second half and all the 13 personnel stuff. I mean this could have been a perfect
27:27storm where both of these running backs end up delivering but and man if Kyren went down or even missed a extended a
27:33period of time, give us four games of Blake Corum during the fantasy playoffs.
27:38I mean the guy could light it on fire would just be unbelievable stuff. One other running back that you have circled, I took him last week in an FFPC
27:47main event. I actually reached for him to sort of play catch up at the running back position.
27:52To me it feels like Rachaad White could be this year's version of Javonte Williams, this year's version of Kenneth Gainwell, a free agent running back in an in a
28:03backfield that really beats expectations and with Rachaad White it's not like theoretical. We know he's very good at catching passes. He has two nine
28:13touchdown seasons in his last three seasons played.
28:16I feel like he's setting up perfectly in Washington and yet he's sort of in that range where people are really doubting
28:22him. Your thoughts on Rachaad White? Is it clear to you or you also mixing in some JCM?
28:29>> I'll mix in and kind of everybody. I think this is of the committee backfields like I'll throw like the Buccaneers one like really terrifies me
28:35because the prices are up and I think that's pretty like defined as kind of three running backs being mixed in. Same
28:41with the Broncos a little bit more expensive than this one. I also the history of Sean Payton's kind of divided by three. In theory this could be
28:48divided by two, which is already a slight win. We've seen that before with Ekeler and Brian Robinson a couple of years ago where both of them were top
28:5432-ish finishers in half PPR. I think there's a possibility that we we see that this year. But, there's also the possibility where you throw in Javonte
29:04Williams there where if Jacquory Croskey-Merritt fumbles, just can't get it done, or if Rashad White is having a good season, he has
29:11like the bell cow profile going back to Arizona State. We've seen it in glimpses in Tampa Bay. He's both like the biggest
29:18guy for like goal-line opportunities versus JCM, and also like very clearly defined the best pass-catcher. So, like in an offense that has some upside, like
29:27proven upside we've seen with Jayden Daniels, thing is a lot of things are kind of going his way. I think the most likely
29:32outcome is he's like very forgettable as a flex option. You're not going to win your league, but I do think there is a
29:37pathway where he finishes like the the RB 19 this year, and you can kind of ride him like from week one where
29:42I'll have him for sure ranked ahead of Bill, and you never know. Like all of a sudden it could just like get bigger and bigger
29:49and bigger, and all of a sudden by the end of the season like he's taking on a pretty big workload. I will say I do
29:53like Ke'Shawn Allen as like a dart throw in the last round of best ball drafts. I thought he was uh not super impressive on tape because
30:01like the lack of explosiveness, but he kind of reminded me of like that Blake Corum tier where like he just didn't not
30:05make many mistakes at all, and runs pretty hard for for how like short he is.
30:11>> Rashad White I think also benefits from like the lack of clarity at wide receiver two. I mean, Antonio Williams I think is probably
30:19going to be the number two target in the offense, and that kind of speaks volumes for the opportunities for guys like
30:25Rashad White and and Cade Otton Conqwo to have like a kind of expected weekly role. Rashad White I think it lives in
30:32like his upside outcome is sort of lives and dies with him getting to that 60-catch-ish range. Like if he's heavily utilized out of the backfield as a
30:42receiver, um then I think that this ADP is kind of laughable. If he's not, then agreed, it's going to be kind of a player maybe
30:50you wish you you didn't take. But I think it's going in a range where he's not even in in running back three
30:56territory now. He's running back 38.
30:58That he's just been such an easy click, especially in best ball. But I think redraft he could also have a ton of
31:03viability. So, I'm going to continue being well ahead of Rachaad White uh in ADP. And you can find my rankings over
31:10at RotoWire. Uh use the code Theo20, get 20% off of any sub. Uh Hayden, you crushed it with the running back
31:17targets. I'm going to ask you a couple more. Let's go rapid-fire on this one.
31:21Who's your favorite handcuff? We're going to take Blake Corum out of the mix here. When you go to like the true
31:26handcuffs, not like the handcuff plus range, um who's your favorite player to draft?
31:33>> I like Tank Bigsby. I like Saquon Barkley. I just think the Eagles offense is going to bounce back this year. And
31:37Tank Bigsby I think has a couple things going for him. Number one, all of the advanced metrics on him are really
31:43clean. Like not like pretty good. Like some of the stuff I'm looking at is like the third best running back in like that stat. So, I
31:49think there's a proof of concept that he's actually a good player individually.
31:54Um and I think the offensive line is going to be in a much better spot this year. I think the the how good the
31:58defense is going to play into things where even in best ball there could be some games, not too many of them, that
32:03like he can get home in like the fourth quarter and score a touchdown. There's been some talk that Saquon Barkley might
32:09come off the field for a couple snaps.
32:11Which I think is okay for Saquon Barkley. Like we don't he doesn't need to have like the 25th carry in the game.
32:15Uh but they might be run-heavy enough because the defense is good that he could get home in best ball formats on
32:22on occasion. But I think the upside case where something happens is to Saquon, Will Shipley is going to play some of
32:27the passing downs. But Tank Bigsby is going to like go into the Saquon Barkley role. And we've seen what that means in
32:32fantasy.
32:33>> Yeah, he's a really really fun one uh for sure. And again, if you're trying to like, uh, fade the Barkley situation and you
32:40disagree with Hayden, then I think embracing Tank Bigsby, if we if you feel like it's say yeah, it's a it's a great
32:46hedge, but it's also uh, a player that I think just gives you upside and a lot of times with these handcuffs we get into
32:52like what could they do for a season, but a lot of times we should be focusing on what could they do if they give you a
32:58month? And could we get a Tank Bigsby giving us like a Rico Dowdle like run out in a really good offense? We
33:04potentially could. Uh, one last question for you before we get you out of here.
33:09If you could know the final stats of any player in fantasy football this season, who would it be?
33:16>> Right now it's Malik, uh, Malik Nabers because the ADP is in the fourth round. Like If Malik if he's good to go, we would be taking him next
33:27to Justin Jefferson if not higher. So I think like the difference between a fourth round pick and like a fringe first round pick is so significant and I
33:33think that his upside is like so proven out. Uh, I think he's just one mini tier from like being Jamar Chase like in
33:40terms of his individual talent. Um, and if someone's going to break the mold of coming back from an ACL tear, it's
33:48probably the 23-year-old freak athlete, um, who tore his knee at least in the week four. So like we're almost a full
33:56calendar year from uh, his initial injury. Freak athlete and there's I think the number two wide receiver according to the B
34:04Reporter is like definitively Darius Slayton who does not catch any passes.
34:09Like he's like a downhill guy. Like Isaiah Likely will see. I'm I'm kind of curious about that Isaiah Likely stuff, but like to a certain degree. He was
34:16working down the football field last year. The previous year was a a layup, uh, underneath. He can kind of do it
34:22all. If his knee's ready to go, I would take him in 100% of my drafts starting after pick 24. So I think it's
34:28like George Pickens and then I think it's a tier break from like DeVonta Smith all the way down to Jaylen Waddle
34:34kind of Cam Skadow is a huge tier. The guy that has by far the most upside in that tier to me is Malik Nabers, so that
34:40would be my answer.
34:42>> Absolutely great stuff today from Hayden Winks. Make sure you should check out Yahoo Fantasy Football with Josh and Hayden anywhere you get your pods. Check
34:49out Hayden's written work over at Yahoo.
34:51Check out my stuff over at rotowire.com.
34:53Again, use the code Theo 20 and stick with us here at RotoWire Fantasy Football. We're going to have great shows like this all throughout July and
35:00August. We're going to help you crush your fantasy leagues this season.
