2026 RB Tiers EXPLAINED! Rankings, Projections & Draft Strategy (07/14 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

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Fantasy Football Today – July 14, 2026

2026 RB Tiers EXPLAINED! Rankings, Projections & Draft Strategy

Hosts: Adam Aizer, Jamie Eisenberg, Heath Cummings, Dave Richard
Theme: In-depth breakdown of 2026 fantasy running back tiers, top-to-bottom rankings, and key draft strategies for dominating your fantasy league.

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Episode Overview

This episode is the centerpiece for fantasy football enthusiasts hoping to gain an edge with expert insights into the 2026 running back landscape. Adam, Jamie, and Heath break down their personalized RB tiers, debate player roles, value, and usage, and share philosophy for best constructing your fantasy draft. They address shifting offenses, rookies vs. veterans, hitting on high-upside picks vs. reliable floors, and how real NFL changes shape fantasy tiers. Plenty of actionable advice, tier-by-tier discussion, and a signature blend of wisecracks and stats.

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Key Segments & Insights

1. Opening Banter, News & Notes (02:26–05:41)

• The hosts kick off with lighthearted talk about quarterback tiers (from previous episode), birthday jokes aimed at Dave, and personal anecdotes before shifting into NFL updates.
• News Items:
  • Rams LT Alaric Jackson: No charges, but possible NFL discipline.
  • Baker Mayfield’s injury-plagued season: Played through multiple significant injuries, raising the question of a potential bounce-back campaign.
    • Heath (05:41): "If you want to bet on a Baker Mayfield bounce back, that gives you all the ammunition that you need."
  • Speculation from The Athletic:
    • Charlie Kolar (Chargers TE): Possible expanded role, minor fantasy impact but could siphon targets.
    • Zachariah Branch (Falcons WR/Rookie): Beat writer suggests top-3 in team targets, maybe as high as 2nd, with impact on Kyle Pitts' volume.
  • Targets in Kevin Stefanski offenses:
    • Heath (08:21): “Tight end targets and running back targets often negatively impact each other. About a 27% target share for TEs, 16% for RBs.”

2. Tiers Philosophy & Approaches (10:26–12:35)

• How many RBs by which tier?
  • Jamie: Ideally 2 RBs by end of Tier 5.
  • Heath: A bit more cautious—prefers to have 2 by Tier 6.
  • Importance of flexibility and not rigid rules early in drafts.
  • Jamie (11:24): "There are no rules, just guidelines. Be flexible."

3. Elite RB Tiers: Consensus, Disagreements, Deep Dives

Tier 1 – "The Untouchables" (17:09–18:00)

• Names: Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs (for both Jamie & Heath)
  • Both projected as consensus RB1 and RB2.
  • Discussion on Gibbs leapfrogging Bijan due to situational improvements.
  • Heath (17:34): “[Gibbs is] our consensus RB1, but probably, yeah,” on situations improving for both.

Tier 2 – “The Big Dogs” (18:02–21:17)

• Jamie: Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, James Cook
• Heath: Taylor, McCaffrey (Cook drops to Tier 3 for projections reasons)
  • Reasoning: Jamie pushes Cook into the elite first-round group, seeing high upside if he’s more involved in the Buffalo passing game.
  • Heath uses projections, notes Taylor is typically 2+ points per game better than Cook.
  • Jamie (22:10): “He’s shown he can be a 40 plus catch guy … absolutely think he belongs in the first round.”

Tier 3-4 – “Breakout Candidates & Respectable RB1s” (23:54–28:44)

• Big variance in player rankings and risk assessment:
  • Names in play: Devon Achane, Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, Omari Hampton, Ashton Jeanty, Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry.
  • Jamie’s reasoning for groupings: Views all as round 2 picks, cites projected decline in Achane’s role but still believes in his talent.
  • Heath: More hesitant; projects smaller leaps for unproven players (Walker, Hampton, Jeanty).
    • Classic speculation vs. projection battle: "One will make the leap, one will be average, and one I’ll be right about." (Heath at 28:21)
  • Special mention: Chase Brown (high ceiling post-2025 sample), Saquon & Henry’s storied usage, Jeanty’s rookie unpredictability.

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4. Middle Tier Machinations & Role Uncertainty (32:13–47:25)

• Evaluating RB2/Flex options:
  • Key group: Josh Jacobs, Kyren Williams, Jeremiah Love, Breece Hall, Cam Scadaboo, Travis Etienne, Quinshon Judkins, DeAndre Swift, David Montgomery (32:13 onward)
  • Split conversations (e.g., is Montgomery anything more than a 10-touchdown back? How will Woody Marks impact him in Houston?)
  • Heath: Higher on rookie RBs; Jamie more conservative with workload speculation, fears injury or shared backfields.
  • Jamie (47:25): “Uncertainty. Bucky [Irving] could be amazing, but ... Kenneth Gainwell is going to potentially steal passing downs work.”

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5. Value Pick Land – Tiers 6–8: Floor vs. Upside (47:25–66:21)

• "Home Run" vs. "Safe Floor" debate:
  • Players discussed: Bucky Irving, Basil Tootin, Chuba Hubbard, Tony Pollard, Travion Henderson, Jadarian Price, Jalen Warren, Ramondre Stevenson, Jaylen Warren, JK Dobbins, Commanders' RBs, Broncos RBs.
  • Floor plays: Pollard, Hubbard. Home run swings: Tootin, Irving, Henderson.
  • Hubbard’s range discussed: Could disappear if Jonathan Brooks wins job, but opportunity for high volume exists.
    • Adam (51:23): “I don’t think Hubbard disappears … but if Brooks struggles, this is another team that can go looking.”
  • Chuba/Hubbard debate: Jamie willing to “take the chance Round 6ish … prefer Round 7 or later.”
  • Jayden Price: Draft capital means less if usage/projected role isn’t there—sits lower in tier now due to minicamp news (53:58).
  • Roster Construction Tips: Take a shot on one high-upside depth RB, especially if going “hero RB” or “zero RB” (61:08–61:20).
  • Deep tier names: Jordan Mason, Kenneth Gainwell, Jonathan Brooks, Manangai, Corum, Aaron Jones

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Heath (05:41): “If you want to bet on a Baker Mayfield bounce back, that gives you all the ammunition that you need.”
• Jamie (11:24): “There are no rules, just guidelines. Be flexible.”
• Adam (18:36): “These are all my first round running backs … wouldn’t be surprised if by August I have Cook ahead of both of those guys.”
• Heath (28:21): “One of the three [Hampton, Jeanty, Walker] is going to make the leap, one is going to be in between, and one I’ll be right about.”
• Jamie (47:25): “Uncertainty. Bucky is ... the true definition of a trap back.”
• Adam (61:08): “These are great options to take chances on, because if one or two of them do become the featured guy … those could certainly fill out your roster.”

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Draft Strategy Takeaways

By Tier:

• Tiers 1-2: Draft at all costs—consensus blue-chip options, spend valuable draft capital.
• Tiers 3-5: Evaluate risk vs reward; young breakouts, high-usage veterans, workload concerns must be weighed.
• Tiers 6-7: Target 1-2 as upside stashes. Don’t double up unless doing zero/hero RB builds.
• Tiers 8+: Absolute last shots, hope for clarity or injury swings in camp; don’t overinvest.

Overall Points:

• Flexibility and knowing your league’s tendencies/ADP is critical.
• Don’t chase last year’s outlier stats—context, situation, and role matter more.
• RB position after the elite tiers is volatile; draft for both floor and upside, but understand every “trap back” comes with risk.
• Injuries and camp developments can swing late-tiers dramatically: Stay plugged in for evolving backfield news.
• Pronunciation debates and inside jokes break the tension but also humanize the hosts’ approachability.

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Timestamps for Core Segments

• 02:26 – Show Intro & QB Draft Recap
• 04:23 – News & Notes: Injuries, Legal, Mayfield, Beat Writer Speculation
• 10:26 – RB Tiers Philosophy & Minimums
• 17:09 – Tier 1: Bijan & Gibbs, Situation Debates
• 18:02 – Tier 2: Taylor, McCaffrey, and Cook split
• 23:54 – Tier 3: Achane & Up-and-Coming RBs
• 32:13 – Tier 4: Jacobs, Kyren, Love, Breece Hall, etc.
• 39:44 – Tier 5: RB2s, Young vs. Vet Potential
• 47:25 – Tier 6: High Risk/High Reward (Tootin, Hubbard, Irving, Pollard, Henderson)
• 55:19 – Tier 7: The "friendship" tier—backup stashes, ambiguous situations
• 62:25 – Tier 8: Extreme speculation, lead back contenders, closing thoughts
• 67:49 – Wrap Up and Preview Next Episodes

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Final Thoughts & What's Next

The episode delivers a comprehensive, tier-driven breakdown, underlining that 2026’s RB landscape hinges on shifting roles, explosive rookies, and changing offenses. All hosts agree: know your league settings, be adaptable, and don’t be afraid to speculate late—winning fantasy leagues often means hitting on an unclear backfield or RB2 due for a role bump.

Next Up: Wide Receivers tomorrow; Tight Ends on Thursday.
Listen for targeted positional breakdowns and more strategy deep-dives!

Transcript

[Adam]

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[Heath]

this past summer, my wife and I took my parents, our son and our granddaughter on vacation to Tennessee. We wanted to get out into nature, so we found the perfect cabin on Airbnb where all four generations could stay together. The amenities really made the trip special. We had our own hot tub with a mountain view, a fire pit for late night s', mores, and a full kitchen. When you're traveling with four generations, eating every meal out gets expensive, so it was great to make bacon and eggs for breakfast one morning and grill steaks for dinner another night. Booking a stay like this gives you the flexibility to vacation how you want, where you want, with the people who matter most, but it got me thinking. Airbnb isn't just great for finding places to stay, you can also list your own home when you're away. It's nice that the same platform I use to book family vacations also help me earn a little extra money during high demand weekends without having to upend my daily life. Honestly, listing my house feels like a smart thing to do because it's just so incredibly practical. I'm already going to be traveling anyway, so why not earn a little extra money to put toward upcoming vacation, help offset the cost of my flights or upgrade my travel gear turns an empty house into an easy opportunity. While you enjoy your own time off, your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host this is fantasy football ball today from CBS sports. What a play. Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races and he stays on his feet.

[Adam]

This is going to go the distance.

[Heath]

Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath

[Jamie]

running back tears on Tuesday, July 14th as we welcome you to fantasy football Today, we'll talk about the best of the best. Bijan Robinson, Jameer Gibbs. But really go down the draft board and talk about, you know, at what point are we talking about backup running backs? How many running backs do you want in the first five or six tiers? For example, Adam Aer, Jamie Eisenberg and Heath Cummings welcome you to. Welcoming you to the show. What did you guys learn about quarterbacks yesterday? Would you. Did you learn a lot? Did you have a nice educational session?

[Adam]

Yes, it was great.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's really.

[Heath]

I was so mad last night because I had my fsga. I'll talk about this a little bit later when you ask one of the running back questions, but I had my FSGA Champions League draft last night and like, I just totally didn't do the thing that I said I should because it was a 14 team draft and I got to round five and there was nobody I wanted to draft. And so I hated. I drafted Drake May and then I hated myself seven rounds later because Jared Goff was still available in round 12 of a 14 team draft.

[Jamie]

You did the right thing.

[Dave]

Just wait.

[Jamie]

You did the right thing.

[Adam]

You know what, I was so happy about last night, but. And everybody needs to do it again. Wish Dave a happy birthday.

[Jamie]

Oh, yes. Oh, Thomas, do we have that picture that someone made? I think we can pull it up. Did you see that?

[Heath]

It was pretty rude, really. Like, they made Dave look youthful and exuberant. They made Jamie and I look like 25 years older than we currently are.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

And me look like, well, accurately the weakest.

[Heath]

I didn't even see you.

[Jamie]

Oh, here we go.

[Heath]

Oh, yeah, you're really straining to lift up his calf. Jamie and I are just holding Dave like 90% of his weight, no problem at all. And Adam can barely lift up his shoe.

[Jamie]

Yeah, Dave.

[Adam]

Dave looks the same since the first day I met him. He looks the same in that picture, too.

[Jamie]

Yep, he sure does. All right, so Dave turning 50 this month. Keep wishing him a happy 50th.

[Adam]

Yeah, but don't say it's from us.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I'll get blamed for it, apparently.

[Adam]

Don't tag us if you did it already. Don't do it again. So just gotta be new people.

[Jamie]

News and notes. Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson will not face felony charges for domestic violence, but he still could face discipline from NFL. All right. More importantly. Well, no, sorry. Shouldn't have said it like that. I guess more fantasy relevant. Baker Mayfield played through a lot of injuries. He talked about it on the Netflix documentary. All right, so it was a sprained MCL and PCL and a bone bruise in his knee in week two and then a bicep slash tendon injury in week three, and then he aggravated the bone bruise in week seven. And then Mayfield had an AC joint, which is a shoulder injury in week 12. And his former teammate Levante David said Mayfield had an oblique injury. And he also mentioned other injuries. He still somehow managed to rush for more than 22 yards per game for the second consecutive season. Mayfield's previous career high was 10.3 rushing yards per game before 2024. But Heath is someone who has been, I guess, low on Mayfield, a little wary of the bounce back here. What do you make of all this? This was, according to him, according to Levante David, a really, really injured year for him and he played through it, didn't miss a game.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a. If you want to bet on a Baker Mayfield bounce back, that gives you all the ammunition that you need and

[Jamie]

you're not any more convinced, oh, I'm bouncing.

[Heath]

I'm, I'm betting on a little bit of a bounce back. I, I don't think anybody should expect 2024 Baker Mayfield because that was the best season of his eight year career.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Okay. Fair. Yeah, fair enough. I am very intrigued about the rushing yards. I mean, I just. That one thing I did not think he could repeat in 2025 and he did. Pretty cool. Okay, Jamie, let's talk about a couple of players that, you know, the Athletics said could have maybe bigger roles than we thought, just their beat writers. And I don't know that would make them necessarily fantasy relevant, but it could hurt guys that we like. So one of them, Daniel Popper, who covers the Chargers, thinks that Charlie Kohler is going to get more opportunities in the passing game than he did in Baltimore. This is a tight end Charlie Kohler, rarely used in Baltimore. Now with the Chargers and Josh Kendall of the Athletic, who covers the Falcons, thinks that rookie wide receiver Zachariah Branch will be top three in targets and maybe even second in targets. And I assume that right now we think it's going to be London Pitts. Bijan certainly London one. And then I don't know about Pitts versus Bijan, but if Branch is top three in targets, maybe that hurts Kyle Pitts anyway. What do you think about the Kohler and Branch speculation?

[Adam]

I'll start with Branch. I think he could be third on the team of targets. It's not hard to see him getting, you know, 110 potentially if they're going to be a little bit more pass heavy and Bijan doesn't get to 109, I believe, is what he had last year. So, like, you could see a little bit of a decline in targets for Bijan Robinson, especially if they maybe, you know, try to limit his touches a little bit as he's, you know, getting one year older and trying to see if they have a playoff run in them. So I can see that one being more realistic than the other one. I mean, Charlie Kohler being better than he ever has in his career. Sure. I mean, you know, if he catches, you know, what is it, 25 passes, maybe, like that's something that's. That's realistic. Is he going to impact everybody else on the team? I mean, I think once you get past the, the top two receivers, there's probably an opportunity for somebody to be third. I don't think anybody would say Charlie Kohler over on Day Gadsden or David Najoku or Trey Harris or Omari Hampton or Keaton Mitchell, like you go down the line. So, sure, if we see a lot more 13 personnel and more tight ends on the field, then he could be a factor to ruin the other guys. No chance.

[Heath]

I mean, it's mostly just that we hope both of these guys are wrong. But yeah, if, like I was looking at the Kevin Stefanski thing and he's. Dave, I think, has talked about how tight end targets and running back targets often negatively impact each other. And it's been about a 27% target share for tight ends and 16% for running backs in the Stefanski offense. So I would expect if Branch is third, and I hope he's not second, but if he's third, it might hurt Bijan a little bit.

[Jamie]

Okay, we got a lot of other podcasts in case you want to keep listening to great podcasts or start listening to great podcasts, I'm going to show you. If you're on YouTube, go to CBSSports.com podcast Deep Waters. This is, you know, fighting podcast, what it go Ultimate Combat sports, mma, Deep Waters, new podcast. Check it out. Call it what you want. Soccer podcast. We got fantasy baseball today, the early Edge, a daily sports line betting podcast, Eye on College Basketball. Some garbage here. Fantasy something, whatever. Fantasy Football Today Dynasty beyond the Box Score. Inside College Basketball now with the first pick. NFL Draft podcast, Pushing the Pile with Kyle along and Mike Renner. This is an NFL podcast with some great insight. Cover three for College Football Attacking third, Another soccer podcast, Kicking it with Kate Scott. And you can see the rest of the list.

[Adam]

You guys scroll back up. Keith, you need a little bit more of a description there, man.

[Heath]

Wow, that is. Well, Fantasy Football Today Dynasty podcast that

[Jamie]

pretty much covers it all. That's a very surprised that they fit

[Adam]

the beyond the Box Score description in that little tiny box.

[Dave]

It's.

[Heath]

It's kind of fitting really, if you think about it.

[Jamie]

Yes, it is.

[Heath]

I was on beyond the Box Score and like Jacob had to stretch to get us to 20 minutes, but I would, I would really. We have wide receivers coming up tomorrow. We'll talk about some of the things that Jacob and I talked about, but we really spent. We spent 20 minutes on Zay Flowers and I only got more excited.

[Jamie]

And Jacob and I will be talking about Trey McBride next week. We were going to do it yesterday, but we're going to do it next week. All right, back to the running back tears, or let's begin it here with just one question. I had a bunch of questions about tears yesterday with quarterbacks. It's a little bit different with running backs here because you're drafting so many of them. You should have at least two running backs by the time you finish. Which tier, Jamie?

[Adam]

Five.

[Heath]

Okay, I would say ideally six, but I mentioned last night I was in that 14 team draft and I started with a Monroe St. Brown at the eighth pick, followed by Rashi Rice in round two, followed by Zay Flowers at 36th overall. And so I had to go down into tier seven for my second running back. But if you, if you're able to draft three top 12 wide receivers, then maybe it's a little bit lower.

[Jamie]

Right? There are no rules, just guidelines. Be flexible. Tier 5 for Jamie, he said you should have two by the time this tier is done. Javante Williams, Bree Hall, Cam Scoo, Travis Etnh, Quinton Judkins, DeAndre Swift and David Montgomery. Tier 6 for Heath is similar names, some of them Scatterboo Swift, Judkins, Javante Williams, Travis ETNH, and Jeremiah Love.

[Heath]

Who is, Are you gonna say both of those last names? I don't know the entire season.

[Jamie]

I want to say ETN because I think it's just, it's just so confusing. I think for people, I mean, if I say Travis first, it's not.

[Heath]

But like, I used to say Alvin. Kamara. Kamara. So I guess it kind of.

[Adam]

Didn't somebody try to correct us and say it's E. Chan and HN.

[Jamie]

No, it's not. He said HN.

[Adam]

He said HN.

[Jamie]

Didn't he? his press conference said exactly the same way that Devon. HN says it used to be Devon. A chain.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Okay. Anyway, once you get to. Let's see. So that would be like, you know, 20, 22, 23. Ish running backs try to have two of them.

[Adam]

I was actually speaking of pronunciations. So as a baseball tournament this past week and for the championship games, which my son advanced to for West Boca baseball, and Mark Ingram's son advanced to for also West Boca baseball. Different teams. So I'm standing next to Mark and I was telling them a story that when I was in the Dolphins press box many years ago and they were trying to pronounce the Vikings in house press box, guy was trying to learn the pronunciations of the players and was trying to learn Adewale Ogunlies name to say it correctly for when he made a play and just was butchering it left and right. And the Dolphins PR guy at the time was trying to correct him. And I was just laughing my. My butt off. And I said to Mark, I'm like, do you ever have any, like, struggles that he was like, this is the reason he's not in doing play by play. He said, I doesn't. He doesn't want to butcher names. Like, we should just come. Like, we don't have to say it correctly for our purposes. To people like you just say Travis E. People know you're talking about.

[Jamie]

I guess I could do that. But yeah, I. I think pronunciation as someone who's had his name mispronounced basically my entire life. When I graduated college, they. They said Adam Scott easier. And it really.

[Heath]

Yeah, it's a I.

[Jamie]

Z. How can you ask us to write it out phonetically on a card? And I don't remember what I wrote, but what I wrote confused her. So she said, but I just, I. I like to pronounce people's names right if I can.

[Adam]

What do you think they called my son? What do you think they call my last name when they announced his name?

[Jamie]

Isenberg?

[Adam]

No.

[Jamie]

How could it be anything other than Eisenberg Ellsberg?

[Adam]

The. I was an L. Oh, that is good. I'm telling you, this guy had the roughest day of his life. Trying to pronounce these names.

[Jamie]

All right, let's get to some running back stuff. Here are some group chat stats. I'll just run through them here. Bijan Robinson had only 11 touchdowns in 17 games. He still averaged 22 PPR fantasy points per game. That is the fewest amount of touchdowns for a running back who averaged 20 or more points per game since Ezekiel Elliott in, I want to say 2019. He had nine touchdowns in 15 games and averaged 22.1 points per game. So Bijan Robinson, amazing season and he only scored 11 total touchdowns. Jameer Gibbs, in seven games in his career without David Montgomery, has averaged 28.6 PPR fantasy points per game. It's insane. James Cook led the NFL in rushing last year. That's, I think, fun trivia. I'm not sure how many people would have would guess that no running back has won consecutive rushing titles since, of course, Derrick Henry in 2019 and 2020. And speaking of Henry, over the last seven seasons, Derek Henry has been first or second in rushing yards per game in six of the last seven seasons. He's amazing. He's been top three in total yards per game among running backs in five of the last seven seasons. He was seventh in total yards per game last year. So those are some group chat stats about some of the best running backs in football. Here is a dreadful email of the day. It is from Lance in Phoenix. He has another idea for breaking ties in overtime. At the end of overtime, kickers kick field goals from 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 yards. Team with the most field goals wins.

[Heath]

How many times have we had.

[Jamie]

What's that?

[Adam]

What was this person's name?

[Jamie]

Lance?

[Adam]

I just want to know what John's.

[Jamie]

John Breach.

[Heath]

How many ties have we had in like the last five years?

[Jamie]

We had one last year. They're pretty rare.

[Heath]

We're solving a problem that isn't a problem.

[Jamie]

Yeah, well, this is not the solution. Lance, love, love the enthusiasm. Hate the call. We'll be right back with running back tears on fantasy football today.

[Dave]

Enjoying the World Cup. If you want proper analysis, honest opinions and plenty of laughs along the way, give the rest. Is football a listen? Gary Lineker, Alan Shear and Micah Richards break down the biggest games, the standout moments and everything happening on and off the pitch with brilliant guests joining them throughout the tournament. Whether you followed football your whole life or you're just getting into it, they'll help you make sense of the drama, the tactics, the joy and the heartbreak of the World Cup. Listen to the rest. Is football Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Heath]

You know, Jamie's been kind of asking like, what should we do for Dave for his 50th birthday? We could get him a new hamster.

[Jamie]

That's true. All right, Tier one is a two player tier. Jameer Gibson, Bijan Robinson. For both Jamie and Heath, I will ask one quick question and then we'll move on. Heath, would you argue. It's easy to argue it with Gibbs. Would you argue that both of these players, their situation has gotten better this year compared to 2025?

[Heath]

Probably. I think Brian Robinson Jr. Is closer to Tyler Algier than Isaiah Pacheco is to David Montgomery. And I think there's some risk that the Stefanski offense means fewer targets for Bijan than he had in the offense last year, which was really geared towards throwing to the running back. So I'm not. I'm not as sure about Bijan, which is why Gibbs is. Is our consensus RB1, but probably, yeah,

[Jamie]

he had a career high target per route run rate. It could just come down. He had a 103 targets speech on Robinson, but I think we expect the touchdowns to go up again. Only 11 touchdowns, seven rushing for receiving. Okay, that's tier one. Tier two is slightly different. James Cook is in tier two for Jamie, but not for Heath. It's Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey for both of them. And Jamie, you have James Cook joining Taylor and McCaffrey on Tier 2, whereas Heath does not have Cook in Tier 2. He has Cook in Tier 3 with Devon H. And why did you put Cook in with Taylor and McCaffrey?

[Adam]

Jamie, these are all my first round running backs, so I think all these guys belong in round one. Gibbs and Bijan being the first two overall picks for me. And then Taylor, McCaffrey, Cook, whatever order you think they should go. I think they should go in the first round and would not be surprised if by the time we get to August, I have Cook ahead of both of those guys. I just think that there's so much upside for him if he does get a little bit more involved in the passing game, which is something you're hearing a little bit out of Buffalo.

[Jamie]

And Heath, you have just McCaffrey and Taylor. Your next tier has Cook and Achan.

[Heath]

I, I tried to do mine just kind of. So they'd be a little bit different. The first five or six tiers don't have much as much to do with my rankings as they do with my projections. Just to kind of highlight where those big breaks are in the projections. And Taylor was three and a half points per game better than James Cook and Cook's career year and Taylor's pretty much always been a couple points better per game than James Cook and he's two and a half points higher in the projections this year than James Cook. So these Taylor and McCaffrey like they're not safe and Taylor could see his workload come down or he could have another one of those years where he doesn't get the ball thrown to him as much. Or Daniel Jones could go back to being Daniel Jones. But it just looking at a mean projection. There's a big gap between McCaffrey and Taylor and James Cook.

[Jamie]

Taylor was the number one running back per game in non PPR, number two per game and half PPR and Taylor was number four per game in full PPR. But there were really like five elite running backs last year and that was McCaffrey, Bijan, Gibbs, Taylor and Achan all averaging more than 20 PPR fantasy points per game. Jake Seeley gave an interesting stat on Thursday's show with Dave. He said that Taylor averaged 30 fantasy I hope I'm not misquoting him if I have the number slightly wrong. The concept is the same 30 fantasy points per game in wins, 10 points per game in losses and they were identical basically whether it was Daniel Jones at quarterback or whoever else, Philip Rivers, whatever they were using at the end of of the year. And then I even went back to 2024. In 2024, Taylor averaged 22.6 points per game in wins and 13.7 in losses. So I don't know what to they're not going to go oh and 17 but they're not going to go 17 0. They're not gonna go 17 and O two years in a row. Pretty big splits. I I feel like that's a little fluky and it's also a little bit of like a chicken and egg thing because when he has good games they're more likely to win. But he wouldn't make it.

[Heath]

Like looking at their schedule, it doesn't scream hard at all. I'm not saying it's necessarily one of the easiest schedules. They do have both the Titans and the Browns in the fantasy playoffs. They also get to play the Giants and the Colts and the Titans again and the Steelers and the Command they've got. They're probably a 10 win team as we look at them right now. And so if I just kind of expect maybe you're going to get 10 games where he's at 24 points plus and seven where he really struggles.

[Adam]

I think that the two big things for them is one, will Daniel Jones stay healthy the entire year and two, you kind of alluded to this Adam, will he be more involved in the passing game? Because this is really the first time you could see an easy path to that happening.

[Jamie]

Well, he had 46 cats. Taylor had 46 catches last year which I think is great. I mean I used to irrevocable I think. So he's, he's been on pace. I azer stat the hell out of Jonathan Taylor.

[Heath]

Good.

[Jamie]

I only his like lead back games, take out his injured games. Take out that weird stretch where Zach Moss was kind of splitting with him because Taylor had the holdout and the injury and I think in three or four, four of his seven seasons I want to say he's been on pace for over 40 catches. So he's a guy that actually plays on third down. He's not like a Derrick Henry. He's not like a James Cook that come off the field. He doesn't always play on third down but he'll get some of the reps there. He can, he's. He's shown he can be a 40 plus catch guy. I absolutely think he belongs in the first round because if you're worried about that win loss split he's. They went 8, 9 last year and he was RB4. So you know I had a really

[Heath]

tough decision last night between a Monroe St. Brown and Jonathan Taylor.

[Jamie]

Ppr.

[Heath]

It was ppr. So I took Saint Brown.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Heath]

But it was very close.

[Jamie]

I think you should have. All right. I think he had a great, great draft Heath, great tracks.

[Heath]

So my RB2 is.

[Jamie]

We'll find out eventually. All right, so tier two again. Taylor and McCaffrey for both of you. James Cook for Jamie. Let's go to tier three now which has James Cook and Devon H and for Heath. And Jamie has a seven man tier of Devon Hn and then Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, Hampton, Genti Barkley, Derrick Henry. First thing to note, Genti on Fantasy Pros is RB4. I believe he's a. He's going eighth or ninth overall.

[Heath]

He went fourth overall in the draft I did last week.

[Jamie]

Wow. Genti, wow.

[Adam]

We're definitely lower on him than most.

[Jamie]

But as we look at this tier for Heath, James Cook we already discussed Achan is in tier three for Heath but obviously it's a two person tier. So I, I think the question is Jamie, why do you have Achan who was one of those five elites last year in a tier with Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, Omarion Hampton, Ashton Genty, Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry.

[Adam]

So these are all my round two running backs and I think you kind of know the theme already for hn. If you've been listening to us for the majority of the off season, the Dolphins could clearly be terrible. That does not mean he's going to completely fall off because I think he'll probably be the entire offense or the majority of the offense and hopefully still be involved in the passing game. But I, I think again we, we kind of expect, I expect his role in the passing game to decrease a little bit. I don't think he's going to score many touchdowns based on the win totals for the Dolphins. What Vegas is telling us and certainly personnel suggests so when you have a quarterback like Malik Willis is probably going to look to run a lot more than Tua Tonga by Loa did when you have a different coordinator and different play caller. And we saw that at the end of last season when they switched quarterbacks with hn that is just targets and opportunities went down a little bit in the passing game. So I think he'll be good. I just don't think he'll be great. I certainly don't think he'll be elite. I would still take him in round two. I just would not take him in round one.

[Jamie]

And he. I think it's so interesting the way you break up that seven person tier for Jamie. Obviously you have Achan as your favorite, but Chase Brown, Derek Henry, Saquon, Barkley are in tier four for you and Hampton and Genti are in tier five for you. And I think that's oh and Ken Walker. Where's Walker? Oh, also tier 5. So basically you look at Jamie's tier, you have a Chan ahead of the pack and then you have Chase Brown, Derek Henry, Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs we'll get to in a bit. And then you have Hampton, Genti and Walker lower than Brown, Barkley and Henry. So. So talk about that.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean I, I've said it before and like Jamie I think has focused maybe a little bit more on the negative with a Chan and I'm just kind of terrified to be too high or too low on him because as bad as the offensive environment Miami might be this year, they were like 25th in yards, 26th in points and 31st in plays run last year it was a pretty terrible offensive environment and he averaged over 20 fantasy points per game. I hate Malik Willis's history of throwing to his running backs. Also Malik Willis has nobody else to throw the football to. And so I, I have a hard time discounting Achan too much. I basically, to put him in the James Cook range, I've kind of discounted him 10% because he was about 10% better than James Cook was last year. And then I probably didn't totally stick to my projections only by not including Barkley, Henry and Jacobs because they are, they are pretty close to James Cook and the projections behind him for sure. But they have in my opinion, far more risk than James Cook does.

[Jamie]

Are you showing a little hesitation with Genty and Hampton who you have in your fifth tier with Breeze, Hall, Kenneth Walker and Kyron Williams? I mean, I think just seeing. And you don't have to show it yet, Thomas, we'll get to it. I'm sorry for jumping around, but I think if people just saw your fifth tier of Hampton, Genti, Breeze, Hall, Walker and Kyron, they might say a wire. Those three, Hampton, Genti and Walker in Jamie's third tier mixed in with Kyron and, and, and Breeze, Hall. But are you just showing a little hesitation with those guys who have never, who have never done it before? Right. Like Barkley and Henry have done it, but Hampton, Genti and Walker have never actually performed like second round pick.

[Heath]

I think it's kind of like what I said about Baker Mayfield where I said yes, I am projecting him to bounce back, but not all the way back to 2024. I am projecting Hampton, Genti and Walker to be better than they have ever been before. Right around 15 fantasy points per game. But I'm not projecting quite as big of a leap as not, not just Jamie, but for those three guys, a large part, I think I'm, I'm lower than the industry on those guys. And I mean we know how this works.

[Dave]

It's.

[Heath]

What probably is going to happen is that one of the three is going to make the leap that Jamie's expecting. One of the three is going to be somewhere in between and one of the three I'm going to be right about. But those three are kind of the guys that it seems like most people are expecting to do something outstanding that they have never done before. I'm expecting them to have career years but not take quite as big of a leap.

[Jamie]

And then Jamie, how do you balance that with Walker, Hampton and Genti? Walker's best finish was RB12 per game in PPR, but that was a year where he had a ton of catches, which he hardly ever does. But Walker, Hampton, Genti, let's just say they're clearly less proven than Barkley and Henry. Chase Brown, I understand why you have Chase Brown in this tier. You know, we talk a lot about him. But just comparing the three guys who have to take next step to the older guys who have, you know, been 2,000 yard rushers, how do you compare those two sides?

[Adam]

Walker is kind of the wild card here, I think just because we don't know exactly how he's going to be used, changing teams. I mean, everything according to the reports this offseason have been fantastic. You know, the fact that they like the way that he's being involved in the passing game, at least according to reports, his uses in the passing game surprising them a little bit, I guess as his past catching ability. So that to me is kind of the, the wild card on top of the wild card, you know, kind of what, like what is he going to do as a pass catcher? But you look at this team and 32nd in rushing last year, they invest all of this capital to be a better running team on top of the fact that arguably there's still the best quarterback in the NFL, top three by the ESPN rankings. That just came out even coming off an ACL tear. But Patrick Mahomes is coming off an ACL tear. And you look at the weapons in the passing game and there's so much volatility there. It feels as if you look at Andy Reid's history and with the Chiefs it's been sort of pockets of success of these guys being good running backs. But in Philadelphia he got amazing production out of his running backs. And Walker's coming off this postseason run where, yes, he struggled a little bit at times, or struggled in relative terms, struggled to, to produce at a high end level. Like you said, RB12 is best finished. But if you look at what he did in the postseason, you know, he was producing better than McCaffrey was last year. And so can we get somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 plus points? I think you can in this offense. So that's what I'm banking on with him. With Hampton, it's really just the McDaniel factor and the tackles being healthy. And I think, you know, you look at what he did at times last year, pre foot injury, post foot injury, involved in the passing game, not involved in the passing game, really, it's. Can he just stay on the field for all three downs and not have a Keaton Mitchell potential problem, which I think a lot of people are sort of forecasting. If you're anti Amarian Hampton virginity, I get the upside. Look, he's you know, prospect wise, one of the best running backs coming into the league. And you look at what he did at times last year, you know, there was the. I think Bill Barnwell had the tweet yesterday or post on X about comparing him to Trent Richardson, which was disgusting, but he did. I don't think that's fair to say.

[Jamie]

What was that?

[Adam]

He just chose his stats. I don't remember what year it was for Richardson, but it was, it was gross. But, you know, then the, the pro genty people were pointing out, well, yeah, look what he did against the Texans defense, for example, you know, when he had 188 total yards and two total touchdowns. So you get Linderbaum, you get a healthy Colton Miller, you get hopefully better quarterback play, certainly better coaching, at least on paper, like the Ashton Genti Rocket emojis could be well worth it. So I get the chance, I get the idea of taking a chance on all three of those guys. For me, they're more round two picks, early round two picks, but I would not take any of them in round one as of now.

[Jamie]

All right, let's take a look at the next tier here. Tier four for these guys. Jamie has Josh Jacobs and so does Heath, Kyron Williams and Jeremiah Love. But we're at. Jamie, are these round three running backs for you?

[Adam]

These are round three. Yes. After this, I believe, is where I start to group the rounds. But I, I just feel like when you look at the top 15, 16 guys, those are all players that I think we see go in the first three rounds.

[Jamie]

All right, so again, for Jamie, the round. Sorry. Heath Jacobs, Kyron Williams and Jeremiah Love are the tier four running backs for Jamie. Those are the guys who'll take in round three for Heath. It's guys that you're going to see in round two for the most part, unclear what Josh Jacobs ADP will end up being. Where did he go last night? Do you remember Heath in your draft?

[Heath]

I do not. Before I had a chance to take him in round four. I'm. I'm relatively certain about that. Also, just for. To protect everyone, do not, under any circumstances go look at Trent Richardson's rookie year compared Ashton Gentis. Do not.

[Jamie]

Why?

[Heath]

Because don't.

[Jamie]

I mean, I think you have to now. I mean, it's just.

[Heath]

So Richardson had what, four fewer, three fewer touches and four fewer yards and two more touchdowns and 13 more fantasy points in two fewer games. And they averaged 3.6 and 3.7 yards per carry. And Richardson averaged 7.2 yards per catch to 6.3 for Genti.

[Jamie]

So I'm sorry if, if Jenty ends up not being that good and I'm. The Next time an elite prospect skips the combine, I'm throwing up major red flags because Harrison didn't run the 40 and he might skip the combine entirely and Genti didn't do anything. And I just, you know, for Harrison, I think he knew what he was doing. I think if he had gone to the combine, there's no chance he would have been taken ahead of Malik Neighbors anyway. Heath's tier four is Chase Brown, Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs.

[Heath]

These are basically the 16 fantasy point per game running backs in my projections. If there was no risk, then they would be borderline first round picks like Chase Brown is. And then you just, I think have to assess the risk of Henry Barkley and Jacobs yourself. I, I may have Jacobs second on this group if it turns out that he's not going to face any sort of punishment.

[Jamie]

16. To me, just when you say it, it sounds low, but it, but it definitely is not. Chase Brown actually averaged 16.5 points per game last year. He has shown he can be over 20 in the right circumstances. Henry had one of his worst years in his last seven and he averaged 16.8 PPR points per game. But he was RB7 per game. So last year, 16 points per game would have made you top 10. You know, 16.8 would have made you seventh per game. And there's more and we're further than that in, in the, you know, in the ranking so far. So 16 points per game is pretty good. Barkley had a bad year last year. He averaged 14.5 points per game, which is also what Ashton Genti averaged. Right. So, you know, look, a lot of it's the same names we'd have to go through. Tier 4 for Heath looks a lot like Tier 3 for Jamie with Henry and Barkley in there. But Jacobs, Heath has maybe a little higher on Jacobs than Jamie. I don't know. But splitting hairs all. Let's go to the next. Let's go to tier five here, actually. Let's go to break. Yeah. Let's go to break. Love breaks. All right, we'll be right back after this awesome break on fantasy football today and then we'll get to tier five. Welcome back, folks. All right, tier five at running back.

[Heath]

So we're all over the place now. We have eventually reached the point where Adam gets super frustrated because he doesn't understand why these don't match up.

[Jamie]

Now you understand Though you have more to. You just have more tears than Jamie.

[Heath]

I was just trying to show where the big breaks in projections are. It may have made your, your life worse, which is good. Kind of a nice added benefit.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I think so. So you have Hampton, Genti, Breeze, Hall, Kenneth Walker and Kyron Williams in tier five.

[Heath]

Jamie's at 14 to 15, 14 to

[Jamie]

15 points per game. Okay. In full PPR. Jamie, what do you think about hall and Kyron being in the same tier as Hampton, Genti and Walker?

[Adam]

He's got that potential. I mean, obviously, you know, and if you're buying the jets offense being better, which it should be, and you're counting on Breece hall being, you know, healthy for a full season and. And hopefully, hopefully. Hopefully, you know, not what Aaron Glenn wanted to show us last year and still saying this year about using Braylon Allen and potentially Isaiah Davis. You know, I don't think that's something to necessarily be worried about. It's really more like, can he get back to being involved in the passing game with all the new additions that they added and can he be the best version of himself or close to the best version of himself, which we've seen at times, not so much last year. So I think Breece Hall. I would rather have Genti Walker and Kyron over Breeze hall. But look, Breeze hall most likely. So I mentioned the own. The previous tier for me, tier four were the running backs I was taking in round three. That's me. So that's Jacobs, Kyron and Jeremiah Love. And those guys are early to mid round three. I certainly can get on board with. If you wanted to take Breeze hall late round three, early round four. But these are guys that are basically picks 35 plus for me, you know, and so I kind of lumped in the running backs. I have for the most part ranked in rounds four and five in this tier, which is where I think Bruce hall belongs early round four.

[Heath]

And, and I think, Adam, it might be helpful to the people looking at the graphics if you just said, and I can look it up if you don't want to. How many running backs Jamie had in the first four tiers versus how many I had in the first four tiers because somebody said they was. Was really shocked that I had like second round running backs in tier 5. I. I had 4, 6, 10 running backs in my first four tiers. So like a couple of these guys are top 12 running backs for me.

[Jamie]

Are the tears about to get bigger for you? They are, yeah. Like tiers 6 and 7 are are bigger for you. But we look at Jamie's Tier 5, right, and these are the, these are like the RB2s and Javante Williams, Breeze Hall. Breeze hall, the one guy that kind of stands out as Heath, having him in a tier with Hampton, Genti and Kyron and Ken Walk, Kenneth Walker and Jamie, having him in this tier of the less exciting guys, but the really good RB2s, Javante Williams, Breeze Hall, Cam Scatterboo, Travis, Etn Quin, Sean Judkins, DeAndre Swift and David Montgomery. Did you give any thought, Jamie, of not including Montgomery in there or, or anybody within this tier? Did you think about splitting it up more or you think they're all the same basically? Javante, Breeze Hall, Scatteraboo, ETN Judkins, DeAndre Swift, Montgomery.

[Adam]

Montgomery certainly toes the line of, you know, which tier he belongs in and it depends on how you feel about Montgomery. I think, you know, again for me it was a little bit of a, a slow process and coming around on what he could do in Houston. And so again following minicamp and some of the off season reports about he's the guy, he's going to be the guy. We'll see what role Woody Marks plays. That obviously has to play itself out as we get to camp and you know, the early part of the season. So you want to make sure you're making the right choice in selecting him. But I do think that if he does step into that role, he's not gonna be Joe Mixon because I don't think his passing game profile is the same as Joe Mixon's or at least Joe Mixon's history when he went there. But I do think that Montgomery can still be a potential 10 touchdown guy. I think he can rush for, you know, 11, 1200 yards and certainly have enough of a role in the passing game that he's still going to be successful. So looking at it where if he's not going to share so much and you know, again, whatever they think of Woody Marks, we'll sort of see he belongs in the round five range for me, which is where again these guys are being drafted. So this is where I start to tail off a little bit in, in the running back rankings by comparison to receiver and their quarterbacks and tight ends come into play. And so it's really like I pushed up the first four tiers in the first three rounds and then it's more of a trickle down effect of late round three to really the end of round five with these guys.

[Jamie]

Heath, any thoughts on Javante Breeze Hall, Scatterboo etn, Judkins, Swift, Montgomery.

[Heath]

I think you will see all of these guys except for Montgomery in my next tier.

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Heath]

And I, I, I'm just, I think that the passing game thing, I'm probably a little bit more optimistic about Woody Marks role doing that and I'm a little bit concerned about a 29 year old running back who hasn't had the feature role suddenly filling that.

[Jamie]

Cool. Let's go to the next Tier then. Tier 6. By the way, if you're watching on YouTube, I don't know what happened to my camera. I'm sorry about that. But you will just be getting my soothing vocals from.

[Heath]

Many people are saying this is the best looking FFT on YouTube we've had in, in a long time.

[Jamie]

Yes, I could not agree more. But that actually sounds like an insult to Dave so I, I could agree more. I, I disagree. Dave should be here for that. All right, Bucky Irving, Basil, Tootin, Chuba Hubbard, Tony Pollard and Travion Henderson for Jamie and Scatter Boo, Swift Judkins, Javante ETN and Jeremiah Love for Heath. So I think you can kind of see that because Heath has more tears. Now we're at the point where Jamie's like kind of one tier ahead of Heath or I guess I'm guessing tier seven is going to look a lot like Jamie's tier six.

[Heath]

Kind of like what I said with Montgomery in the last tier. Every one of the guys in Jamie's tier 6 are in my tier 7. Except for Chuba Hubbard.

[Jamie]

Except for Tuba. Wow. All right, back to Jamie's list in a minute. I know if you're listening, there's a lot of names here, but Heath's list is scatterable. Swift Judkins, Javante Williams, Travis etn. With all like the, you know, these guys as our RB2s, like if you go wide receiver, tight end with your first three picks, maybe they're your RB one, that's fine. But Jeremiah Love being in this group, let's talk about that. I have not had the nerve to draft him yet because I just, I want a little clarity in training camp. But where you at right now on Jeremiah Love? A little lower than Jamie based on tears.

[Heath]

I think that like I, I'm not as low when it comes to ranking because I've got some FOMO with Jeremiah Love. So I've got him, I've got him ranked as a round three back. But just looking at the projections in this offense that I think is going to be pretty bad and we still think Trey McBride's going to earn at least a 25 target share, which could cut into some. And we've got Marvin Harrison and Michael Wilson at wide receiver. So I have a hard time projecting a lot of targets for Jeremiah Love. I think he's really good at that. But just the way this offense is set up and then I don't. I really hope that James Connor and Tyler Algier don't matter at all, but it kind of seems like they might matter a little bit.

[Jamie]

Okay, so then, unless you guys have anything else you want to say about Scatter, Boo, Swift, Judkins, Javante, ETN and Love. I think. I guess I would say that Love, obviously you just talked about the split there, but Swift might be the odd man out in terms of workload compared to Scatterboo, Judkins, Javante and etn. Is that fair to say?

[Adam]

There's certainly the risk for it. You know, if what we got from week seven on is the norm, then there's going to be some weeks where DeAndre Swift is very frustrating and maybe a stretch of games where he's frustrating, where we're looking at a potential trap back if he's not scoring touchdowns or being involved in the passing game or both. There's also the potential of he's still the best running back on his team and Ben Johnson decides that he's going to continue to lean on him in important situations. But last year it was kind of okay. When did their success start to happen? Well, I think it was when both guys were, you know, getting opportunities, and I think that's going to continue. So if you were to say at any point that you knew there was going to be a stretch of games where Kyle Manangai is out, I think DeAndre Swift has top 10 upside.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

But we just can't go into that thinking that top five in this. You think top five?

[Jamie]

Yes.

[Heath]

Was it week seven when that started? Because I was trying to get what his pace was after that.

[Jamie]

Oh, I have. Was. I'm sorry. I have it somewhere.

[Adam]

We just did this last week when we were talking about Quorum and. And Managai. You know, I said it was a Spider man meme because it was week seven for both.

[Jamie]

Yeah. His last 11 games for DeAndre Swift, he averaged 13.9 PPR fantasy points per game, which is good. It's not great. And it would have made him RB18 for a full season. And by the way, that excludes week nine. He missed that game. So I'm just looking at the Splits when they were both healthy for the last 11 games. And if I tell you 13.9, who do you have projected for more than 14 fantasy points? Do you have Scatter Boo for more than 14?

[Heath]

I mean this is right about the 13 to 14 point range. I said the last group was the 14 to 15 point range, so that sounds about right. I was looking at just touches. He was at 15.6 touches per game in those last 11 games, which is about 260, 265 touches. He averaged 17 touches per game in the two playoff games. So I don't, I don't really know if you're telling me 270 touches, I'm not confident that's going to be a big outlier amongst this group.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I think that's fair.

[Heath]

I think what it really comes down to is do how do the Bears pass a lot more and how much are they able to stay in that run heavy system?

[Jamie]

They run a lot of plays. That's, that's the way they get around it. It's the way they make everything work. I think Jamie's Tier 6 is where it starts to get really kind of tough for me anyway. Yeah, you know, I pretty much know with some exceptions like Jeremiah Love, I feel like I know what to expect from most of the guys in the top 20. But we get to this tier of Bucky Irving, Basil Tootin, Chuba Hubbard, who Heath is not going to, you know, group with these other guys. Tony Pollard and Travion Henderson. Bucky Irving, Basil Tootin, Chuba Hubbard, Tony Pollard and Travion Henderson. Jamie, what's the theme with those five running backs?

[Adam]

Uncertainty. You know, Bucky is. Could be amazing, but as we saw, you know, second half of last year after he came back from the injury and still, you know, I think, I think he's healthy, but still you got to factor in potentially fighting through a shoulder injury. Kenneth Gainwell is going to potentially steal passing downs work and Sean Tucker potentially stealing goal line opportunities which happened last year. So, you know, it could be the true definition of a trap back facial. Tootin's in a competition with Chris Rodriguez, obviously unproven as his in his rookie campaign, but huge opportunity. Tuba Hubbard has the Jonathan Brooks factor to deal with and we'll see how that matters. Tony Pollard, new coaching staff, plus Tajie Spears and potentially Singleton. So that's something you got to factor in. Trevion Henderson, you know, somebody put in the, in the chat, you know, Chuba and Pollard, I think it was ahead of Henderson. No way look, man, we're all rooting for Treveon Henderson to be the guy. I think that's obvious. We'd love to see him be the featured running back for New England, but as we saw last year, it was a lot of plays, a lot of snaps, a lot of everything for Ramon Dre Stevenson and a lot of nothing for Treveon Henderson when, when Stevenson was healthy in their playoff push and the second half of the season. So I think it's just looking at it as this is the group that I think could change a little bit in terms of like, Henderson can take a huge leap forward. If we're getting a lot of positive reports for what his role could be in this upcoming season, Hubbard could take a huge step backwards if Jonathan Brooks is fully healthy. I think in the case of, you know, just to touch on Jeremiah Love for a second, I'm so hopeful. You know, Heath mentioned Algier and Connor, not Matt. I wish they would just trade James Conner and allow him to be maybe a clear cut number two somewhere and then allow Jeremiah Love and Tyler Algier to be that, that tandem. In that case, I think we would feel a lot better about Jeremiah Love and he maybe get pushed up into round two if that's the case. So James Connor is really the wild card in, in, in the Cardinals backfield and maybe somewhere else, you know, where he can like go to Denver and, and, and be the backup to Javonte Williams, go to Jacksonville and maybe challenge to be the starter there, like anywhere but Arizona right now to allow Jeremiah Love to be the guy.

[Jamie]

And I think when you look at this group of Irving, Tutin, Hubbard, Pollard and Henderson, unlike the guys before them, I mean, you're, you're drafting the guys before them based on their week one outlook. I think with this group you have to speculate. You have to start playing out in your mind how you think the season is going to go. Do you think Baja Tutin is just going to eventually take over that job, you know, and maybe he starts the season splitting with Rodriguez, but he's just so good that he, you know, earns a bigger share. Do you think Chuba Hubbard fends off Jonathan Brooks? Heath is pretty worried about that and thinks Brooks, you know, could just supplant Chuba Hubbard. Tony Pollard, I mean, Tony Pollard is the, the lead running back. You know, Spears has a role. Spears is the third down guy. Pollard's definitely going to lead the team in carries. I'd be shocked. He'd have to stink, I think, for that. Not to happen. Henderson, there's. You gotta play that out in so many ways, right? Like, you gotta really wonder what's going to happen there.

[Adam]

Can you. Can you highlight Andy's comment? Because I think it hits it right on the. Exactly what it is.

[Jamie]

This is the grouping where, depending on roster construction, if you need floor or home run. Yeah, you agree with. You obviously agree with that, Jamie.

[Adam]

Yeah, for sure.

[Heath]

Do we all agree that Tony Pollard is the floor.

[Adam]

Pollard and Hubbard are the floor plays, and I think the other three guys are home run plays.

[Jamie]

Not sure I agree with you on Hubbard. And I'll tell you. Well, I just feel like the way you phrased it might be selling his upside short a little bit because what if Jonathan Brooks, a guy who was so unproven coming into the NFL and is coming off two torn ACLs, is just not a factor at all? You know, what if he's just not that good, not that effective? Then Chuba Hubbard is. I don't think he's a very good running back. I think he's pretty average. But then we're talking about a guy who gets so many touches that he's probably going to stand out in this group.

[Adam]

But I also do think that if Brooks is a factor, I don't think Hubbard disappears. I don't think it's. Jonathan Brooks is getting. What'd you say, 275 for DeAndre Swift? I don't even think that that's the case. Like, I think we're Talking about maybe 200 total touches for Jonathan Brooks. Like, they're not just going to throw everything on him because of what he's coming off of.

[Jamie]

Oh, no, I'm. But I'm saying what if he gets, you know, 100 touches?

[Adam]

No, no, I know you're going the opposite direction. Yeah, yeah. Case of Harbor. But I, I think you obviously have to factor in, you know, you're talking about the week one outcomes. Like, I, I think you have to factor in that Jonathan Brooks is there. And I think if Brooks struggles like this is another team that can go looking. It may not be the Connor Alvin Kamara type of running back. You know, just an aging veteran that makes sense leaving his team. It could be, you know, Isaac Arendo, like somebody like that who can still go in there and be that number two guy, you know, someone that's potentially off their roster because of their, you know, just roller or circumstances.

[Jamie]

I watched a lot of Bucky Irving tape last week or a couple weeks ago, and I got to tell you, he was unbelievable as a Receiver, he made some phenomenal plays. And since coming into the league 75 running backs with 30 or more targets over the last two seasons, Bucky Irving is seventh in yards per outrun, 19th in yards per catch, sixth in yards per target. He has eight catches of 20 or more yards, which is the sixth most among running backs the last two years. And now they have Kenneth Gainwell and so I hope they continue to throw to Bucky Irving. But he is super tricky.

[Adam]

It just logically doesn't make sense to do what to throw him the ball as much because of game like gain was coming off a 75 catch season.

[Jamie]

Like yeah, it's first and second down catches. You know, you figure Gainwell is going to be the third down back. Is Baker going to throw to Bucky on first and second down? I would also point out that, you know, when I was watching the tape, I just thought, man, this O line looks terrible. And then I go check. Pff, I go check ESPN. They had them 25th and 27th respectively in run blocking, way down from 2024. So I think their center missed all but two games worth start of the year on IR or POP, whatever it was, I think the blocking could be better this year. Let's go to our next tier. Tier seven, mega tier. Whoa. What round are we moving? Well, you know, first question, Jamie, how come you have Jad Price in this group with Jalen Warren, Ramandre, Stevenson, Dowdle, Dobbins, the Commanders guys, Ramandre, RJ Harvey, Jarian Price is here instead of with Chuba Hubbard and Bucky Irving and Travion Henderson, etc?

[Adam]

Yeah, he was, he was easily in that tier and ahead of a lot of those guys following the draft. But then, you know, you're just hearing everything out of minicamp and just the potential role for him. Plus the fact that you have now the possibility of Zach Charbonnet being ready earlier in the season or even playing at all, Whereas following the NFL draft, we thought that might not be the case. So if they're not going to make Price a. I don't want to say workhorse because I don't think that was ever in his profile right away. But if they're going to use George Holani, they're going to use Emmanuel Wilson, they're going to use Charbonnet at some point, then it just gets messy. So for me, it's more of the questionable, even, even more questionable guys. But yeah, you can make the case that he belongs in that previous tier for sure. I mean, there's still so much upside For a team that will likely continue to have a similar type of philosophy again, changing coordinators, you never know how that's going to go. But still a defensive minded head coach, still a first round running back. I think just if you take away the draft capital, and we've talked about this time and time again in terms of what late first round running backs have done, just because they're first round picks do not necessarily mean that they're going to have success or immediate success or ever be successful. I think just in the case of Price, like for me it's more draft rounds is how I'm approaching this. And Price is not worth drafting in the first six rounds.

[Jamie]

All right. I'm going to do my best. For the audio people out there. Tier seven for Jamie is. How about this? Who are the guys that you both have in tier 7? Jadari and price.

[Heath]

This is, this is the, this is the, the friendship tier. Because Jamie has both Steelers, both Commanders, both Broncos. I have both Patriots, both Broncos and both Steelers.

[Jamie]

Yep.

[Heath]

So, yeah, this is, this is the, the friendship tier. So I think we both have Jadarian Price, we both have Jalen Warren, we both have Ramandre Stevenson, we both have Rico Dowdle, we both have J.K. dobbins, we both have. I think Ramandre Stevenson might be in here three times. Oh, we both have RJ Harvey. So that's, that's kind of how, how it breaks down.

[Jamie]

Madre Stevenson. Yes. Yeah, we've pretty much caught up in terms of rankings at this point as he has this mega tier for tier seven. But he does have David Montgomery here. So I guess you're a little lower on Montgomery. You talked about that. And you're a little lower on Bucky Irving. I guess.

[Heath]

And I'm a little lower on Paul.

[Adam]

Like Paul.

[Heath]

This is, this is Jamie's tier six and tier seven. In my tier seven, basically.

[Jamie]

And the thing is, in rankings, you're not lower on Irving. Jamie and Dave have him 23rd and you have him 24th. So am I. Just so, so help me kind of reconcile here.

[Heath]

Like, I think when we got to tier 5 and I said I only had 10 players my first four tiers, that, that pretty much reconciles it.

[Jamie]

Yeah. But okay, Jamie had Bucky Irving grouped in a tier with Tootin, Hubbard, Pollard and Henderson. All those guys. Is that similar?

[Heath]

Except for Hubbard.

[Jamie]

Okay, so you're pretty much the same on, on Bucky.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

And then Hubbard is the guy you just don't see eye to eye. You just don't like him. As much. Right. Is specifically because you think Jonathan Brooks is gonna.

[Heath]

Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't really believe that Chuba Hubbard is like, has the. The, like maybe he could sneak into the top 15 to 18, but I think he has a bigger risk at just not being like. I think Dobbins and Harvey are probably both when, when they're both healthy, both going to be flex worthy. I think Dowdle and Warren are probably both going to be flex worthy. Ramond Ray and Travion both going to be like, those guys are. And I, I am a little bit afraid. Not that Jonathan Brooks has 275 touches, but there comes a point in this season where they're like, you know what? Chuba Hubbard is like 10 touches per game and it's not that efficient and we just don't want to ever start him anywhere.

[Adam]

See, I think I'm more in line with you, Adam, where like if Jonathan Brooks is not anything, Chuba could be a great fantasy running back.

[Jamie]

Yeah, he was. He was a top 10 running back on a per game basis two years ago from week three on weeks one and two. He didn't really have the job then they gave him the job and he was actually had a very good year. You look at his yards per carry, you never know what you're going to get from Chuba Hubbard. You could get 3.8, you could get. Get like 4.6 or whatever. But it's hard at this point in the draft to find a guy who could just dominate his backfield. But obviously the potential exists for him to not even be the lead running back. So.

[Adam]

Right. And I think there's two, there's two examples of that. One, 20, 24, when he was doing what he was doing and then they decided, hey, let's give him this ridiculous contract extension despite the fact that they had drafted Brooks and they gave him the contract section, I believe, before Brooks was injured. And then they go out and they give, they sign Rico Dowdle, who we kind of thought was, oh, this was a weird signing because he was coming off this successful run in Dallas and then all of a sudden Rico Dowdle does what he does for them with the two 200 yard games. So it's a little bit of a mystery in terms of what Chuba will do. I sort of look at what the off season moves have told us and I've said this time and time again, is the lack of bringing in anyone of significance a telltale sign of they believe in Chuba Hubbard or is it a telltale Sign of they believe in Jonathan Brooks or both, that they think that this tandem is just going to work that well. So I'm willing to take the chance on Chuba Round 6. Ish. I prefer to get him Round 7 or later, but it kind of just the way the board falls.

[Jamie]

All right, so again, this is a tier where we have the Patriots guys and Jamie S. Travion Henderson a little bit higher than this, but Patriots guys, the Steelers guys, the commanders guys for Jamie, not for Heath. Did I say the Broncos guys?

[Heath]

You didn't.

[Jamie]

They're in here as well. Jadarian Price is in this tier, which is noteworthy because he has moved down a little bit since draft night. I guess I would say, looking at these names, I typically don't draft two of them. Now, I personally think David Montgomery would not be in this tier for me, so I might have him and. And someone else. But I. And maybe Bucky Irving, too. But I. I don't know. For most of these names, I probably wouldn't have two of them. You guys agree with that or no?

[Adam]

No. I think it depends on what your roster build is. I prefer not to have two of them. You know, I think this is, you know, the. The type of tier you take a chance on one of them, you know, whether you think it's, hey, let me get one of the Steelers guys, because I think they could be great, or one of the Broncos guys or commander's guys, whatever, however you want to, you know, break them up. But, you know, if you go hero RB or zero rb, I mean, like, these are great options to take chances on, because if one or two of them do become the. The featured guy for whatever stretch of games they are, those could certainly fill out your roster and make you a very formidable team.

[Jamie]

Yeah, you're pretty much never going to see me doing zero rb. So it's so like.

[Adam]

Right. But if you go here, rb, I mean, these are guys, you know, still going to have. I don't say want to target, but you almost have to target them.

[Jamie]

Yeah, you can certainly get away with it. You just take some chances. And injuries are a big determining factor in fantasy football. Right. So if you draft some guys that could be amazing, if there's an injury, then sometimes that's just how you win. A few years ago, I remember doing a 0 RB draft, and none of the guys got that. I needed to get injured, got injured, and my running backs were terrible. So it's, you know, it's the crapshoot, I guess. All right, we have time for tier eight is our last tier. Tier eight. Jordan Mason, really interesting player because are we under the assumption that he is going to be the lead back? Jamie. So you have Mason, Kenneth Gainwell, Jonathan Brooks and then you've got Manangai and Corum who are the same exact person. Mason, Gainwell, Brooks, Menangai and Corum. Heath has Mason and Aaron Jones here. He has Jonathan Brooks and Chuba Hubbard here. You have Kenneth Gainwell here as well and you have Manangai but not Quorum. How could you possibly. Heath. I will come back to Jordan Mason in a second but my, my head is exploding. How could you have Manangai in one tier at night?

[Heath]

Corum, I see, I see just a slight edge for manangai in the 1B. That's almost a 50, 50 split. I think Manangai is going to be just a little bit closer to 5050 than Coram is. They will not throw the football to Blake Corum and I don't think that they're going to give the ball to Coram inside the five yard line very often. And I think Menangai will have a little more of both of those things than Blake Corum. And Kyron Williams has been much more consistent at what he is. As much as I like DeAndre Swift, I loved him last year. I drafted him last night. DeAndre Swift's kind of been all over the place in his career.

[Jamie]

Sure.

[Heath]

I find it a little bit more likely that DeAndre Swift just does something that moves manang guy into the 1A tier than Kyron does.

[Jamie]

For the record, I agree with most of what you said, but Corum and Kyron both had eight goal line carries in the last 11 games of the season. Also Swift, Swift has gotten hurt much more than Kyron Williams too. That's another thing you could factor in there. All right, let's talk about the Vikings guys. Jamie, you have Jordan Mason in a tier without Aaron Jones, whereas Heath has both Vikings guys in the same tier.

[Adam]

So we have to see how this all plays out. But this is. Now, there have been two people who cover the Vikings. One when Jones resigned and then one recently. I think it was Matthew Collar who came out and said if the Vikings want to be the best version of themselves, I'm paraphrasing here. It's Jordan Mason being the lead running back. You know, average over five yards per carry, not going to be involved in the passing game. Let Aaron Jones do those things on passing downs and let Mason be the guy at the goal line. And the projection was. And I believe he covers the team for Purple Insider. So one of the blog sites that cover them but I think he's covered them forever is he suggests he he projected 1100 yards rushing and eight touchdowns for Jordan Mason. I don't think that's realistic but if they did commit to someone for me I agree with that. I would commit to the 27 year old guy as opposed to the guy who's going to be 32 and missed time last year. And in the games that Aaron Jones missed time last year, Mason average I believe over 13 PPR points per game. So I'm expecting just a better Vikings offense as a whole because of Kyler Murray. So more scoring opportunities. I do think Mason has the potential to be a flex. I don't think you want to trust him as a starter, but if there is the risk of injury it's more so for Jones than it is for Mason at this point. And so I could see a path for Mason being a borderline number two running back. Now you have Claiborne who they drafted and we'll see what kind of role he plays. But it feels as if he's still going to be third in one of these rookies like we like, but we'll never really get on the field much until there is an injury or two. I just think there's a chance for Jordan Mason to be the best running back in Minnesota and hopefully that's the case, which is why I'm sort of approaching it.

[Jamie]

Anyone else you want to talk about here? Heath, Viking or the Commanders?

[Heath]

Guys, I I thought I was going to be a little bit ahead of consensus on the Commander. Guys, it seems like I'm a little bit behind Jamie, but maybe that's where a place where the tears just didn't catch up. I think either one of them could be good and it's just it probably comes down to and it's kind of the same thing with Tootin though he has a bigger opportunity because the competition isn't as stiff. Both of those guys showed things with the football in their hands that were exciting and both of those things had things in their second off season that they had to improve if they wanted to play more. And we're not going to find out probably until week one which of those guys really took the step forward. I think Bill is a better runner than a lot of the guys that are above him. But can he be adequate at other things on the football field like pass protection, like catching the football, like whatever else they want out of him? We just don't know.

[Adam]

I think the case for Bill is similar to Jordan Mason. Like, you know, you're not going to get a lot of pass catching work. You hope that he's the featured running back. I think that's kind of how they're treating him. I don't know if they want to, you know, put Rashad White in that three down role, but it's more likely that Rashad White becomes a three down running back then Jacori Crosby Merit becomes a three down running back. Rashad White has proven to be a very good pass catcher. I don't know if you want to call him a great pass catcher, but at least his numbers suggest that when you throw him the ball he can have opportunities to make plays. And prior to last year, three straight years of 50 plus catches. The last two seasons for Rashad White he was 4.3 yards per carry. So for a guy that couldn't get over north of 4 yards per carry, 3.9 was kind of where he lived. He did get better. And so that kind of speaks, I think even more volumes, Adam, given what you said about the Tampa Bay offensive line and how much they struggled with their run blocking, that Rashad White was still successful in the opportunities that he got. So. So I like the opportunity for Rashad White a little bit more than cross key Merritt right now because of the lack of pass catchers in Washington and the connection that he has with Jane Daniels, the two of them playing together at Arizona State. So I do think that we could see White back to that 50 catch plateau. If he does get more rushing opportunities than maybe we expect and certainly takes cross key Merritt off the field, then I think he's going to really distance himself. So I just take the chance in PPR more so and even half PPR more so on him than than White than than. Than Bill in non ppr. I think Crosby Merit has an edge, but not by much.

[Jamie]

Well, that's going to do it for our running backs. Tears Wide receivers tomorrow Tight ends Thursday Mailbag we're going to record on Thursday. Not sure what time yet and it's going to publish. The audio will publish on Friday but Dan and I will have our Festivus episode where we air our grievances. Just a couple things here from the chat. Autumn Voyage says that Adam turned his camera off accidentally so he could eat a bagel. Jokes on. You already did that this morning way before the show started and everyone would

[Heath]

have heard it if he had.

[Jamie]

Yeah, and Johnny Airport said Adam doesn't eat his bagel abomination anymore thank goodness. That, of course, would be ham and Swiss with tomato and Russian dressing on a cinnamon raisin bagel. That's where the abomination part comes in. I have a little bit of a dilemma now, Heath, maybe you can help me. We talked about this before the show. I think I want to go prove Johnny wrong and go get that bagel for lunch today.

[Heath]

Yes, you should.

[Jamie]

However, I don't want to eat the tomato because I don't want to get the parasite. I'm like, I really want this parasite to go away. I don't really know what to do about that.

[Heath]

You know, I'm. I'm pretty sure they, they wash the tomato. And I, I can't go get a bagel because. Because in nine minutes, FFT Dynasty starts. So don't go anywhere.

[Adam]

Okay?

[Jamie]

Don't go anywhere. Don't get the parasite. And we'll talk to you next time on Fantasy Football.

[Adam]

Paramount Podcasts.

[Jamie]

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