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Adam Mazer
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Heath Cummings
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Jamie Eisenberg
How doers get more done.
Ian Hartitz
This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play. Can you believe this?
Jamie Eisenberg
No, I can't.
Ian Hartitz
It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races and he stays on his feet. This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.
Dave Richard
Welcome back. It is Tuesday, July 15th. Fantasy Football Today we're doing tears this week. Quarterbacks yesterday. Today we're tackling running backs. I'm Adam Mazer with Jamie Eisenberg who you heard yesterday. Heath Cummings is back. Welcome back. Heath.
Jamie Eisenberg
I'm just trying to picture you tackling running backs. Really something enjoyable.
Dave Richard
I didn't even try to make that joke. It just. Just kind of happened. How was your live draft?
Jamie Eisenberg
It was fantastic. Hectic. The lots and lots of fun. Had some really great people there in Kansas City. It's. It's a different experience doing the, the Scott Fishbowl draft live because none of us really know what we're doing in this format. That's kind of Scott's purpose with the lineups and the scoring system and then to do it live with with everybody looking at you. It's a lot of fun.
Dave Richard
It is a wild format to have no positional requirements. You can start at most two quarterbacks. You can start zero quarterbacks. You can start up to nine running backs or wide receivers. Ian Hartits is here today. Harditz. I already said it wrong. Ian Hartitz is here today. He is the senior fantasy football writer for Fantasy Life. He is also going to be an FFT open manager. You can bid to be or not bid. You can purchase a spot in his league beginning next Monday the 21st at 7pm Eastern. Welcome to fantasy football today, Ian. Do I have to call you Nick Westbrook? Akin. They had nine touchdowns last year. That is your your title on screen here.
Ian Hartitz
I just like to remind people, man, what a special season. More than Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle combined. Can you believe that world that we were living in last year? But not guys, it's great to be here. My Scott Fishbowl draft unfortunately been dragging a little bit. I think we're only through eight rounds, so kind of wish I would have knocked it out in one day. Jealous of Heath up there, but not guys. Excited to talk some more.
Heath Cummings
Beast.
Dave Richard
Somebody got kicked out of my Scott Fishbowl draft because he missed his first.
Jamie Eisenberg
Pick and it wasn't you.
Dave Richard
It was not me.
Heath Cummings
Wow.
Dave Richard
Thankfully there's a few guys in the league or girls who were when they're on the clock and I haven't missed a single pick yet. So thank you.
Heath Cummings
We have, we're only through nine in ours, Ian. And we have, you know, there's always, like you said, there's always somebody who's, who's doing a great job reminding people the back half of our draft, which I'm the 11th pick, we fly through that quickly. The front half takes three days. It's actually incredible.
Dave Richard
Ian, do you have a running back strategy this year, a way to approach the position, a way that you look at the position because obviously last year was such a good year for running backs just in general and we'll go through the tiers in a little bit. How are you approaching running back this season?
Ian Hartitz
I would say the big thing I learned was last year just getting a little too cute in round two in terms of having guys like Chris Olave, Jalen Waddle, maybe your Garrett Wilson's of the world fight enough wide receivers. Not even saying they were necessarily ranked all that wrong just in terms of the wide receiver rankings themselves. But when you got guys like Jonathan Taylor and in last year's case, I'm in Saquon Freak and Barkley, just give me the running back that's going to see 300 plus touches with any semblance of good health out here over wide receiver who we're hopeful can give us something. So I guess that would be my main lesson. And you know, I do think sometimes best ball kind of fever gets in my mind a little bit going into redraft where I'm just so focused on loading up a wide receiver. It's okay to be balanced in the year 2025 high T. Grab me a couple RBs early. Let's see what happens.
Dave Richard
That's interesting. So who is that Chris Olave player this year? Like is that lad McConkey? I'm just looking at some ADP. Is that, I don't know, Drake, London maybe who was really good.
Ian Hartitz
I think it's right after McConk, it's, you know, London, AJB and McConkey. However, when you order those guys after that is when we start getting one sort of, I don't want to say red flag, but orangeish flag after another. Rasheed Rice coming back from the injury. T. Higgins obviously going to be working alongside Jamar Chase. Is he going to score quite as many touchdowns this year? We'll see what happens. Tyreek Hill, Garrett Wilson, Marvin Harrison Jr. Again, not saying they don't deserve to be top 15 wide receivers, but once we're putting those guys up against the Jonathan Taylors, the Josh Jacobs of the world, I'm taking the RB more times than not.
Dave Richard
I think that's pretty good advice. Jamie Heath.
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, there's, we talk about this, there's, there's a drop off at, at the receiver position where the running backs seem to, you know, have that a little bit longer leash of just, you know, proven, I guess is, is a way to describe it, you know, before we get to the rookies in some cases past Genti. So it, it makes sense, you know, and it really depends on how you draft. It's, it's why I think, you know, we, we continue to see a move for the last few years towards hero rb. Yeah, Tortiero rb where you're getting that one anchor running back and then sort of, you know, waiting to, you know, sort of build it out at that position. And you could do it a little bit easier this year because of the rookie class and how they sort of populated the position a little bit more. So it absolutely makes sense when you're in that, you know, start of the dead zone essentially, you know, to, to stay away from those receivers and still, I guess, maybe not dead zone, but to stay away from those, the receiver dead zone and stay away from those guys and start to take those running backs that are still on the board.
Dave Richard
Yeah. If you want to stray from that, if you really like those wide receivers and you're now you're feeling like we're shaming you. The good news is round three's got some very good running backs too. So if you want to take a wide receiver in round two, you can still get Chase Brown, you can still get Kyron Williams, Breece Hall, James Cook in round three. Not, obviously not.
Heath Cummings
Ken Walker should be there too.
Dave Richard
Ken Walker is going to be around 4 pick, you know, so Alvin Camara is going to be around 4 pick. Joe Mixon we're going to talk about later. He could be around four or five pick. So anyway, we'll, we'll get into all that. Some quick news and notes. Actually, before we do that, let's talk about the draft a thon. I am now ready to reveal more details about the FFT Open, but go to tinyurl.com 2025fft first things first, you want to get your mailbag questions answered on Friday, go ahead and purchase that for $50. It all goes to St. Jude. We're over $2,000 raised so far. We've also got a mock draft that you can join. I think next Tuesday. We're drafting. So yeah, there's a lot there. But also we've got the, the. Do we have the, oh, look at that. The Dynasty league. There's going to be a Dynasty league. There's spots in the, in the Dynasty League that Heath is running. Like, I can't even go through all of the things that are available right now, but the FFT open spots. All right, 24 leagues. There's my division, Dave's Heaths, Jamie's Chris Towers, Jacob Gibbs, Dan Schneier's division, Chip PATTERSON from our Cover 3 podcast, Alfredo Brown, you heard him last week. Dwayne McFarland, who works with Ian at Fantasy Life. Ian's got a, got a league that'll be up on Monday night. Katie Mox, John Breach from CBS, MacKenzie Brooks, Jake Seeley, Kendall Valenzuela and Adam Ronis. Those are a lot of Fantasy Life members as well. Lege DuSable, Mike McClure, Sia Najad, Thomas Schaefer, you know him. Tom Fornelli and Scott Fish. And Tom Grassi, who is a Packers superfan, has his packers podcast, and he's going to be doing an FFC Open league as well. So the.
Heath Cummings
I want to do this, though, with our guests, and it's awesome that Ian's joining us for the FFT open, but throw the graphic back up of the four of us. Now, Ian, you and I met each other in person for the first time at the Flex draft last year. So you know how tall I am. You see the graphic. We're all the same height in the graphics. How. How do you think we are from a height perspective? Dave, me, Adam, and. And Heath. Who do you think's the tallest through the shortest?
Ian Hartitz
Dave's a pretty big dude. Is he the tallest?
Dave Richard
You give us all. Give us all your. Your four guesses. Like, rank them and then we'll tell you.
Ian Hartitz
Dave, Heath, Jamie, in that order.
Dave Richard
And then me last.
Ian Hartitz
And then Adam last.
Dave Richard
Sorry, bro, but look how tall I am.
Heath Cummings
You nailed it.
Jamie Eisenberg
Three boxes.
Dave Richard
No, no, he's on the rap sheet box.
Ian Hartitz
Have you guys ever seen that?
Jamie Eisenberg
He almost nailed it.
Dave Richard
Yeah, you did really well. Good job. Good job. I'm quite sure we had.
Heath Cummings
We had Alfredo Brown on last week, and he said it was. What? He's first?
Dave Richard
No, me first.
Heath Cummings
No, you weren't first. You were second.
Dave Richard
Oh, I was second.
Jamie Eisenberg
Listen, I've met Alfredo several times. If Adam. He thinks Adam's taller than me, and he has absolutely no idea how to judge.
Heath Cummings
He said he's first because Dave was last.
Dave Richard
Okay, He's. He's me. J.B. dave.
Heath Cummings
Okay.
Dave Richard
Yeah, Terrible guess. Also, listen, Podcast Awards. Go ahead. So we got. The Podcast Awards are up now. And you can go to podcast awards.com and just find. Is it podcast awards.com app/signup, I believe. Did I memorize that whammy? Yes. And then just nominate Fantasy Football Today. We're in the sports category. It takes about 30 to 60 seconds. Podcast awards.com or podcastawards.com app signup. We won this last year. Let's repeat. Please nominate Fantasy Football today in the sports category. All right, news and notes. We'll talk about Garrett Wilson tomorrow because we're doing wide receiver tiers, but he just got a four year, $130 million extension with $90 million guaranteed. Najee Harris should be back soon for the Chargers, but Mike Williams started training camp on the PUP list. We're not going to panic about PUP list. It's July 15th, and guys can come off the PUP list whenever they. Whenever they want, whenever they're ready. And then you got Shamar Stewart, first round pick for the Bengals, edge rusher Bud elliott. On our Cover 3 podcast and CBS Sports Podcast Network, he said that she mar Stewart thinks he might be able to return to college football this year. The Bengals are really playing with fire with the way they're handling this Shamar Stewart. They do it is what they do. All right, let's get into the running back tears here. And Jamie, you got your, your tiers published on the website. We're going to use your tears. Bijan Robinson, Jameer Gibbs, Saquon Barkley and Christian McCaffrey are in tier one. Bijan Gibbs, Barkley, McCaffrey. And then in tier two, it's Achan Genti and Derrick Henry. These are all players we expect to come off the board within the first 15 picks or so. But tier one is Bijan Gibbs, Barkley McCaffrey. Tier two is H and Genti and Henry. I can't throw it to Heath yet because I'm not ready for that chaos because I know he's got some differences of opinion.
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah, yeah, that's. I think Ian's going to bring some chaos also.
Dave Richard
All right, so Ian, what do you think about tier one and tier two here?
Ian Hartitz
I think he's got the right seven guys overall. You know, I got 8chan as my overall RB4. Just, you know, tiebreaker with CMC give me the slightly younger guy and everything. But I think Genti is a really interesting one. He's someone that I've had as high as RB3 and as low as the RB7. You know, during this process, the tiebreaker for me because I just hear people say like, oh, but Genti is so talented and all this. Do you see him at Boise? Yeah, of course. Look at every running back on this list. We are talking about the cream of the crop. After all, they're all going to see all sorts of touches. So for me the tiebreaker was just, you can look at the early know Vegas implied lines but this Raiders offense, even with Geno Smith, even with Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly and the improvements, still being set up and expecting to be a bottom 10 scoring unit in the league. Meanwhile, okay, the Dolphins, the Falcons, maybe not world beating groups but we at least have seen ceilings from them. So for me the tiebreaker here with Genty is just a situation where again not fully trusting that touchdown upside relative the rest of these dudes, but then again pretty hard to bust with, you know, 350 plus touches. Guys, everyone loves to throw out the Trent Richardson thing. He still finished as the RB5 and PPR points for game as a rookie obviously went south after that, but again, very difficult to bust in any sort of meaningful way. But man, going up against guys like Henry, HN, CMC Genti is, you know, going to be RV7 for me.
Dave Richard
Yeah. You know, I want to look up. Fournette was another guy who was ballyhooed. Right. Coming out of College and top 10. Yeah, I know. Word of the day. He finished his RB8 per game as a rookie and he had an interesting career. But with that kind of draft capital, you're just going to get so many touches. Fournette had 268 carries and 36 catches in only 13 games. All right. Yeah, go ahead.
Heath Cummings
Before. Before Heath causes chaos just because we're not going to probably talk about him a lot because it's just Jameer Gibbs. What was the thing you said yesterday with the starter training camp coming? What are we going to hear a.
Dave Richard
Lot of Adam Best shape of his life?
Heath Cummings
You know what the second thing we hear a lot of?
Dave Richard
He's going to be used more in the passing game.
Heath Cummings
Yep. And what did Jameer Gibbs say yesterday? Did he say that he's getting split out wide? Never happened before in this offense to this level.
Dave Richard
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, most running back catches are going to be coming out of the backfield.
Heath Cummings
No, but that's the other. That's the other narrative we hear, right?
Dave Richard
Yeah, no, it's true. And I think it's interesting because, you know, you talk about touches, touches, touches with Bijan, Barkley, McCaffrey, Genti, Henry, they're going to be there. Gives an Achan. I do wonder Achan was on pace. Let's see. Let me get his pace with Tua, it was 221 carries and 104 catches. Jamir Gibbs, his pace with David Montgomery was 226 carries and only 47 catches. Is it possible that Jameer Gibbs has the fewest touches Heath of these top seven running backs?
Jamie Eisenberg
Oh, yeah. I think whether Jameer Gibbs justifies being in tier one may just be as simple as how many games does Dave Montgomery play like? I think he's a borderline tier one guy with Montgomery and he's maybe the RB one overall without Montgomery. And Montgomery's at the age and has the history that you can expect him to maybe miss some time. The Lions, we've talked about them too much and it's because they were so much better than everybody else offensively last year and we got the Ben Johnson situation. But It Even without that, it's just fascinating to think of going to split Jir Gibbs out more wide. We're going to throw the ball more to him and Jameson Williams is about ready to have a breakout year and Sam Laporte is going to bounce back and Amon Ross St. Brown is a surefire first round pick and Jared Goff's QB18. Like it doesn't make any sense. But no, I, I would agree with Ian. I kind of tried to look at it just not necessarily from my rankings perspective because we've already got that with Jamie. So I just kind of went with my projections. All seven of these guys would be in my top two tiers. The one thing I would really disagree with is that A Chan should be in tier one. I think for as many games that Tua and David Montgomery are healthy, Achan is going to be better than Jameer Gibbs. And if Tua plays 17 games, HN might be that we shouldn't be surprised at all if he's the highest scoring running back in full PPR and leads running backs and catches. The other thing, just from a perspective of projections and I understand we're just constantly trying to minimize him and he's not going to be drafted in this range. But in terms of projections, Kyron Williams should be in tier two. Yeah, well, I know everybody, everybody hates him. Yeah, it's no fun at all. He's only going to average 4 yards per carry. He's only going to catch 35 passes. But I'm just so, I'm, I'm, I don't have the energy to discount Kyron Williams because of a day three running back in the most concentrated offense in football when they just keep feeding him despite everybody's concerns.
Heath Cummings
Yeah, where are you drafting Kyron?
Dave Richard
No, I'm just gonna say I, I, he's going like late in the third round. I just can't understand why people are so low on him. But Heath, where, yeah, where are you drafting Kyro?
Jamie Eisenberg
Two, three, turn. I, I kind of mapped out where my Scott Fishbowl draft was going to go and I was certain I was taking kyron williams at 24 just because I, he always seems to fall and then Puka fell to 24 so I didn't get Kyron Williams. But no, I pretty much always take kyron at the 2, 3 turn when I have a pick in that range.
Dave Richard
Jamie, your response to Achan? He should be in tier one. He could be the number one running back in, in the games, which he basically was last year when Tua was healthy. After this break, we're gonna find out what Jamie thinks about putting Achan in tier one and then we're gonna come back and move on to tier three. We'll be right back on fantasy football.
Jamie Eisenberg
Today, the summer is heating up with Marvel Studios the Fantastic Four.
Dave Richard
Line em up, Johnny.
Jamie Eisenberg
On July 25th.
Dave Richard
Time to save the planet. What's the plan?
Jamie Eisenberg
Trust me, I hate that.
Dave Richard
Bad plan. Come on. That's a stupid plan.
Jamie Eisenberg
Prepare for fantastic.
Dave Richard
We will face this together as a family.
Jamie Eisenberg
Marvel Studios the Fantastic Four first steps Only in theaters July 25 May PG13 Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Get tickets now.
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Dave Richard
I will just finish with this. So everyone's in agreement. These seven running backs should be in tiers one and two. Bijan, Gibbs, Barkley, McCaffrey. I don't know if this is the show to say, you know, who's your number one? I'll ask Ian in a minute. Who's your number one running back? And then tier two for Jamie is hn Gentian Henry. You did hear Heath say Chiron should be in tier 2. You did hear he's say HN should be in tier 1. Jamie, thoughts on moving H? I mean, not that it really matters, but HN into tier 1.
Heath Cummings
I think when you look at the top of any tears list, it's a little bit harder to say this is the cutoff of of this particular tier because Ian said it best. All seven of these guys have the chance to be studs and you know, you said it, Adam, like top 15 overall picks. So you're talking about the best of the best. You know, if you want to throw Kyron in this group, that's fine. You want to say a chance should be ahead of some of these guys. I'll tell you. We published this. I think it was either last Wednesday or Thursday. I went in and I edited again last night and moved some guys around, like. And that's with nothing really changing. It's just, you know, you asked us this question. I think it was just me and Dave, like, why do you guys change your ranking so much when nothing's happening? Because we're doing drafts and we're seeing how this sort of puzzle gets put together.
Dave Richard
Yeah.
Heath Cummings
And so, yeah, I was staring at last night, I'm like, do I really want Barkley third? Like, he makes me so nervous. Why do I want to keep him there? And that's probably the next change that's coming. So I think it's just a matter of, you know, when you look at the top, it's really more of like a rank list as opposed to a tier list. So you know where the cutoff is for one tier to the next. It sort of starts to, at least for me, make sense when we start to get a little bit further down.
Dave Richard
Ian, who's your RB one?
Ian Hartitz
It's Saquon. But it feels like when we had the Justin Jefferson Cooper cup debate, I think it was back, you know, after the year where he had kind of cups still outperformed jj. It was after triple crown year and it was like, well, cup's been better but we are playing fantasy for this next year. So I'm. I'm jealous of Jamie having Bijan number one.
Heath Cummings
All right.
Ian Hartitz
I feel like I look at my rankings more and more and like, well, maybe I should go ahead and do that because as much as I do think a lot of these 400 touch or what the curse of 365. Some of these studies are just ridiculous, man. I've seen them actually include Le'Veon Bell's holdout numbers, Zeke suspension numbers. So all that stuff aside, there is something to be said about Saquon, his role not exactly being as good as someone like Bijan Robinson. Okay. Yes, he can rip off the 50 yard touchdown at a moment's notice and he is arguably the single best running back in the league. But the pass catching ability, we see it, you know, it's going to be a run first offense in Philly when they want to throw the ball. AJB and DeVonta Smith are going to do their thing. And yes, with the Tush push being back. Saquon guys got stopped the one yard line and did not score a league high nine times last year. So again, didn't impact him. He still racked up plenty of points, but again, we kind of saw those red flags come to fruition. When you do take into account the workload and the age things that again, I wouldn't be purely fading on. But let's face it, I would say Saquon's probably a little bit more injury prone than Bijan Ross Robinson. So it's close enough at the top for me to go ahead and maybe change those ranks like Jamie's talking about. But no, I love the point where again, it's kind of getting in the draft room because it's one thing to be sitting behind your computer moving the excel sheet around. It's nothing to be on that draft clock, man. That's when the real kind of rankings and ideas.
Dave Richard
Yeah, I know, I love it. And real drafts, not just mock drafts, you know, when it actually counts, you know? Feet to the fire. Saquon Barkley. Four touchdown runs of 65 or more yards last season. That's the most since at least 2010. I didn't feel like going back any further. It might be the most ever. Crazy good year for him. Okay, let's go to tier three and.
Heath Cummings
Tier to be your next, your next name on whatever podcast do Next. Saquon Barkley stopped at the one nine times.
Dave Richard
Well, it was, it was Miles Sanders the year before OR no, it's DeAndre Swift the year before. Same thing happened to him. And that's, that's the thing about Barkley is as great of a year as he had. He didn't have that, that many touchdowns, right? What did he have? 13 rushing touchdowns? I don't know if he had any receiving. It wasn't, that wasn't what got him to be the best running back in fantasy. All right, anyway, tier three, we've got some, some really good players in tiers three and four. A lot of second round picks, third round picks. And according to adp, you know Ken Walker gonna get into the fourth round, he's in tier four. But tier three is Jacobs, Jonathan Taylor, Chase Brown and Bucky Irving. Tier four is Kyron Williams, James Cook and Ken Walker. These are Jamie's tears. Tier three, Jacobs, Taylor, Chase Brown, Bucky Irving. Tier four, Kyron Williams, James Cook, Ken Walker, Jamie, are you cool with any of these seven running backs? And this would be 14 running backs off the board. Any of them being your number one first running back selected on your team.
Heath Cummings
100. You know, I, I think if you go, you know, any of the, what is six, seven wide receivers we may see in the first round, you know, eight depending on where you have A.J. brown, then, you know, you're looking these, these guys. So I have tier three as the guys I would take in round two and tier four. The guys I would take, you know, Kyron's early round three for me, which is why he's so low. And then, you know, James Cook and Ken Walker back end of round three guys. So these are obviously hero, RB anchor guys that you can, if you go wide receiver, wide receiver, wide receiver, tight end, you know, if you are so inclined, I wouldn't do it, but to take a quarter back in, in rounds one or two. Absolutely. You know, so it's clearly a sliding scale. You know, Heath has more confidence in Kyren Williams than I do, you know, just from where he would rank him and draft him, but, or I guess we're drafting him sort of the same range. But I, I think, you know, once you get to James Cook, Ken Walker, you feel a little bit more nervous about it. Just because can Cook score as many touchdowns as he did a year ago, can Walker finally stay healthy? But these other guys, you know, even Chase Brown and Bucky Irving, with the one year sample size, I think they're still set up for such huge seasons that I would absolutely be comfortable, you know, taking a Justin Jefferson, Chase Brown start to my draft for sure.
Dave Richard
Heath, your thoughts on tiers 3 and 4? Other than obviously you're higher on Chiron, who's in tier four. So again, I know if you're watching the show, it might be annoying that I'm repeating it. If you're listening, I know it's easy to miss these things. Jacobs, Taylor, Chase Brown, Bucky Irving in tier three, Kyron Cook, Ken Walker and tier four.
Jamie Eisenberg
So complete agreement with the, the tier three guys. I've got five guys in tier three and those are four of them. I'd put Ken Walker in that range too. Maybe I'm a little bit too optimistic about Kubiak or Walker staying healthy, but I, man, I think he could be an absolute monster this year. So I'd put Walker up there in tier three. I've obviously got tier four. I don't know that we have any of the same guys because I've got Kyren two, two tiers higher, I've got Walker one tier higher and I, I am like as one of the biggest James Cook backers last year, I'M still, I'm terrified because the breakout did not happen at all in the way that I was thinking it was going to. He just scored a ton of touchdowns and actually had less work. I don't like, like obviously Josh Allen's so good. It may not matter what you decide to do offensively, but I just hate their offensive approach. It's slow, it's, it's run heavy, but it's not one running back and they're, they didn't throw to their running backs very much last year. So I, I'm scared. More scared of James Cook than this.
Dave Richard
Okay, who's tier four for you then?
Jamie Eisenberg
Well, I, I would have just strictly looking on a projections basis. Breeze, Chuba and mixing.
Dave Richard
Okay. So Ian, your thoughts on Jamie's tiers three and four?
Ian Hartitz
Yeah, the current one's interesting. I'm actually the highest of any Fancy life ranker on him. My RB10, someone that I wasn't drafting a ton going into last year year because they drafted Blake Corum. Just some of the coach speak going on. I thought that maybe McVay would start to have more of a committee system, but like if it wasn't going to happen last year with Kyron putting up some of the worst efficiency numbers at the position and also coughing up the ball, what, six or seven times throughout the year, I'm just not convinced that just because they use a day three pick on Jarquez Hunter that anything's actually going to change. All due respect to Hunter, I guess, but at the same time, guys like have we seen any rookie running back come out that draft Twitter and analysts didn't love? All right, and I get it. It's easier to be positive about all these guys and everything. The Duke is a day three running back for a reason. The Rams have drafted a running back in each of the last eight drafts, so it's not exactly a situation where I'm expecting the workload to change. I also do think there's a chance that we see Kyron Williams get an extension between now and the start of the season. Just trying to read between the lines and a lot of it has just been McVay and less nega. You know, we like Kyron. No, no guarantees there. But I have a feeling a lot of people worried about Kyron if we do see him actually get not even a huge deal, but four years, 44 million, something like that, all of a sudden, Kyron Williams, I think you can put him right next to Josh, Jaco, Jonathan Taylor, because even that bad efficiency, maybe more of a one year thing. He was averaging north of five yards per carry back in 2023. And look at that Rams offensive line last year really did deal with one injury after another. So. Kyren, Kenneth Walker. I actually have these guys ahead of dudes like Chase Brown and Bucky Irving just because I don't want to be making bets on dudes just being that much more efficient with less overall volume.
Jamie Eisenberg
And this Ian guy's really smart. Adam.
Dave Richard
It's a good choice. Yeah. And I look, I mean Ken Walker is the tough one I think for a lot of people. Like Dan Schneider does not like Ken Walker. Where's he finished in PPR? His per game has been 17th, 21st and 12th. And last year he was only 12th per game because he caught so many balls. Ken Walker. But what if that goes away, you know, especially because they want to run the ball more. Yeah, sure, he'll, he will benefit from that. But again he, he's not, he's not in on third downs. He's not their two minute drill guy. So he's. I don't think he's going to be. I think people might be let down by the catches if they're expecting anything similar to what we saw last year from Ken Walker.
Heath Cummings
I think you're, you're right not to cut you off. I think you're right in that regard. What he was. We don't know what Kubiak is going to do with him.
Dave Richard
And then this question is like, how good is he and how good is the offensive line? The offensive line needs to be better. He's. I don't know. I, I go on this. I just did this last week. So I don't want to keep having the same argument, but just say Tyree.
Heath Cummings
Kill and move on.
Dave Richard
Yeah, I take Tyreek Hill over. No, not over everyone on this list, but most. All right, Anything else you guys want to say about these guys? Taylor, Jacobs, Brown, Irving? Yeah. All right. We've exhausted that. So these guys are good running backs. Jamie's comfortable with them as, as the anchor to his running back position if he wants to maybe go hero rb. And let's see if we feel that way with tiers five and six or are we running out of that type of player? So we had 14 running backs in the first four tiers. We get to tiers five and six. This is a bigger tier. This has five players in it. Tier six has, has four. So we're looking at nine running backs. Breece Hall, Chuba Hubbard, Alvin Camara, James Conner and Joe Mixon. Breeze Hall, Chuba Hubbard, Alvin Camara, James Conner, Joe Mixon. That's tier five. Tier six is two rookies, Hampton and Henderson, DeAndre Swift and David Montgomery. A lot to digest here. Let's look at tier five first. Breece Hall, Chuba Hubbard, Alvin Camara, James Conner, Joe Mixon, Jamie, what's the theme here with these guys?
Heath Cummings
It's the first really point where I get nervous about the position, you know, so you have a lot of proven guys here, which is, you know, exciting if they can keep it up. But you have age concerns, right, because you have KAMARA Entering age 30, you have Connor age age 30, you have Joe Mixon age 29. And will they do what they did again? Breeze hall has so much talent and so much upside, but his situation, I could see it going either way. I mean, Justin Field steals so many rushing touchdowns and doesn't historically throw to his running backs to the same level. I think that Breeze hall needs, based on what we saw year two after the acl, the start of last season, you know, he was such a big part of the passing game and he still might be. I mean, this receiving core is absolutely terrible. And will Justin Fields check down to him instead of running? That's a big question. How many touchdowns will they score? You know, Ian talked about, you know, the environment for some of the guys in the top, the Raiders in particular, like, will they score enough touchdowns, this jets offense, you know, so it's, it's a little bit concerning for me. But I could see Breece hall having another standout season just because he's such a talented player. I'm curious about the, the competition for Chuba. You know, I know they're not exciting guys and, and I think Ian nailed it with, oh, they drafted a rookie. Trevor Etienne is going to be awesome, but it's Trevor Etienne and it's Rico Dowdle. And Chuba was so successful last year behind, I think, one of the more underrated offensive lines in the game and a quarterback that's definitely improving. Camara's offensive environment is probably the worst in the NFL. Connor, prior to last year had missed basically three games, five of the previous six seasons. You know, so can he stay healthy again? And I know he missed sometime last year, but he played more games than he has really since Pittsburgh, I think, and Mix and we talked about this yesterday. Adam, like you like him in round four. For me, he's more of a, you know, round four or five turn. I prefer him in round five. I am concerned about the offensive line. I am concerned about potential competition for touches. Whether you think Nick Chubb is going to be good or not, he's going to get opportunities. And I do think that Woody Marks, another guy, hey, they drafted rookie is gonna get some touches as well. More so than just what we saw last year for the guys that were on the field with him. So that's why they're in this spot. For me, the upside is still there, but I see a little bit more downside, I guess for this group.
Dave Richard
Group Breeze Hall, Chuba Hubbard, Alvin Camara, James Conner, Joe Mixon. And you see the same thing. You see question marks here.
Ian Hartitz
Yeah, for the most part. I mean, if you are starting off the team with this, being your first running back, I mean I really hope that you just got some stacked wide receivers and tight ends first three rounds. But you know, James Connor is the one where I do think that he's almost like become the RB version of Tyler Lockett, where every single year we just have him ranked in the ADPS, this low end RB2, then every single year he ends up finishing, you know, nearly as a top 15 player at position. So Trey Benson is someone who, yes, you know, maybe could carve out a little bit more in year two, but really didn't see any signs of that. And then when you consider the extension that guys like Conor and even Dave Montgomery have gotten the back half of last year, I think it's more wishful thinking than anything to believe that's going to be overly changing for Conor. So that Cardinals rushing offense, particularly down the stretch last year was really as good as anyone, you know, outside of Baltimore. So James Connor for me would be the one guy kind of in this range that I would be a bit more optimistic and kind of firing up as that hero rb. Maybe Joe Mixon too. I don't love fact that he's in a walking boot right now. It is still only July, so I'm not trying to freak out. One of you guys mentioned again pupilist right now, which he's not even on. So not trying to, you know, get that voodoo going. But I do wonder if Nick Chubb could be a bit more of a thorn the side than we're giving credit for. But then again, if we see the 2024 version of Nick Chubb in 2025, not going to be too big of an issue. So Connor, Mixon, those are the two guys were again, projection wise, if things go right, they could go right in a big way. But I certainly see why they are this part the of.
Dave Richard
All right, Heath, how do you see it Breeze, Hall, Hubbard, Camara, Connor Mixon. Would you be comfortable starting your team with this, being your first running back?
Jamie Eisenberg
I. I am uncomfortable with the fact that every time I look at any kind of adp, my favorite player in each round is a running back for the first four rounds. But that's just the nature of how wide receivers are being drafted right now. So I don't ever really have the experience where one of these guys is my top running back. But. But I think by adp, you're talking about not taking a running back until round four, around five now.
Dave Richard
Yep.
Jamie Eisenberg
And so, yeah, if I start my team, I get one of Bowers and McBride and I have two top 12 wide receivers, then sure, like any, any build will work. It just kind of depends. It's just that there's not very many of our drafts where you get the opportunity to do that. Certainly not in Best Ball. And so it's probably going to be more of the home league environment where everybody goes crazy on running backs and quarterbacks go early, too. I think the interesting thing is, like, the Camara, Connor and Mix and all three pretty similar to me in that it's really just a question of can they. Are they going to hit the wall or can they keep doing it like Connor's over 30 now. That's. It used to be more terrifying than it is, but Derek Henry says it's okay. Mixon's got the. The Chub concerns, Camara's got the terrible offense concerns, although I kind of just think they're probably going to dump it off to him 100 times again and he'll give us terrible efficiency and have so many catches that he finishes. Is higher than we draft him, right? I obviously am higher. I think Jamie actually is higher than consensus on DeAndre Swift, and I'm still higher than Jamie on DeAndre Swift. So it's definitely an area of.
Dave Richard
If I.
Jamie Eisenberg
If even if one of these guys are your number two running back, you may be a little more concerned about your number three than you normally would be.
Dave Richard
If the draft unfolds in a way where you have gotten into round four or five and. And Breece, Hall, Hubbard, Camara, Connor Mixon is your first running back off the board, you're probably your first running back on your team, you're probably going to be dipping into tier six as well and maybe tier seven. Are you going to build out some running backs? You don't want to wait too long to get your RB2 if these guys are your RB1. So Tier 6 is Omarion Hampton, Travion Henderson, DeAndre Swift and David Montgomery. It probably would have included RJ Harvey, maybe even Tier 5 for Jamie before the JK Dobbins signing. But for now, Tier 6 is Amari and Hampton, Travion Henderson, deAndre Swift and David Montgomery. Would you agree with that, Jamie, that if you don't love your RB1, then this is a great opportunity to get an RB2 that you like?
Heath Cummings
I think so. You know, I mean, when you, when you go the hero RB route, you know, this is where you start to look for that second guy. You know, unless you're just really want to play it out and see, see how far this can go. And tier Sevens where you get the other. I have the other three rookies ranked there, at least Judkins for now. We'll see how this all plays out. But, you know, this is sort of where you start to see a shift in rankings versus adp and it kind of goes all over the place, right, because everybody's going to have these guys in a similar range, you know, based on, I think most rank lists. Swift is going to be drafted much later, Hampton may be drafted much sooner. You know, and as we see, maybe a separation, as I wrote in the, in the story, if we see a pretty big separation of what we're hearing out of Los Angeles, like, Hampton's a Tier 4 guy for me, he's got that much talent, you know, so, you know, we could see him sort of just jump the, the veteran guys and if he's going to be used as a feature back in, in the Jim Harbaugh, Greg Roman offense, like, I just can't get past. It's kind of why I, I struggle with Joe Mixon and, and Hampton probably the most of, in terms of veteran backups. Like, I, I hate this, you know, covering the NFL for so long. Like, you see these veteran guys, they do everything the coach likes. They don't get hurt, they don't fumble. You know, Chubb's in a different category at this point in his career, but, but this is kind of the Naji Harris story is he's going to get more playing time than we want. It's going to be the, oh, if Hampton ever got this or if Hampton never got that or if Naji didn't do this. You know, I just feel like we're going to get that all season long. So, you know, hopefully he's healthy with the eye situation and everything's okay with him, you know, from that regard. But he's played every game of his career. And that I think is going to be a problem for Hampton. And again, he doesn't fumble. So he, you know, you'll say this all the time. Adam doesn't have explosive runs and you know, he doesn't do a lot of things that are fun to watch. He doesn't have the, the 65 yard runs of Saquon Barkley. Hampton may have as many as Barkley did, if not more, but it just. I think Naji's playing time is going to be a problem.
Dave Richard
Yeah, I mean Jameer Gibbs I think would have been pretty disappointing as a rookie if David Montgomery hadn't gotten hurt in week seven and eight. I believe Gibbs comes out in week seven and eight and just dominates. And then from that point on, it was a much more even split. Before that, he was really, really frustrating. There was another one that was like, that was like Melvin Gordon's rookie year or, or someone they drafted.
Ian Hartitz
We saw it happen with Greg Roman with the Ravens. J.K. dobbins was averaging six yards per carry. We still had Gus Bus and Mark Ingram racking up touches.
Dave Richard
Who'd you say, Jamie? Was it someone with Melvin Gordon?
Heath Cummings
You said Gordon, he didn't score a touchdown his rookie season.
Dave Richard
Yeah, but did he, did they draft? I don't know, but it has happened before so it's possible. First round picks though, they usually get a lot of work but, but maybe not like Rashad Penny.
Heath Cummings
It was, it was Bijan and Algier. Same thing.
Dave Richard
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Oh well, ridiculous.
Jamie Eisenberg
Like we're also talking about PPR leagues for these tiers and for. I think it's the Hampton. I'm more excited about him and half PPR and would be a lot more if, if I was ever in a non PPR league. They threw 55 passes to the running backs last year and I. He's not going to have all of that work. Like he might, he might be a 20 catch guy.
Dave Richard
Hampton.
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah.
Dave Richard
I hope not. I mean I feel like, I mean.
Jamie Eisenberg
It'S not like, it's not like there's a long history of Greg Roman throwing to his running backs at all.
Dave Richard
Dobbins was on pace for 41 catches. If you remove Week 12, which he left with an injury. So the other running backs, I mean like you're not gonna throw to Gus Edwards, so hopefully like we can get 40 cats.
Jamie Eisenberg
I'm not sure if, if Hampton and Harris are both available and hope like Jamie said, hopefully Naji's okay. I, I don't certainly don't think at the beginning of the year, Hampton's gonna be the guy playing on third downs.
Dave Richard
Ian, what do you think here? What do you think about Tier six? Hampton, Henderson, Swift, Montgomery?
Ian Hartitz
I do think it's curious how Naji's agent. All right, that's what we're going off of right now. The agent, like, six days after the incident, it's like, yeah, he'll be fine for the season, for week one. Doesn't sound great to me, guys, again, so. Well, I hope he's okay, too, and everything, but, like, I wouldn't completely just. Oh, yeah, his agent said he's fine. Of course he's okay at this point in time. So if Hampton does get the chance to race up, I mean, man, like, again, Naji's in the fold. I am expecting him to be ready to go and everything. If he wasn't, maybe they would address the position. But, like, you could make an argument for Hampton if this was just his backfield, like, right up there with Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor. So not the reality we're living in. But, hey, that is kind of the upside. I do think there's similar concerns with Trivion Henderson and Ramandre Stevenson. Like, you guys are old enough like me to know that Josh McDaniels doesn't always give us, you know, the cleanest running back picture. So for every year that we do get Josh Jacobs just completely balling out, I think it was in 2022, just took over that who backfield. That was great. But, man, some of those previous years, just three different Patriots running backs involved during each and every season. And also not exactly expecting, you know, the 2025 pass to resemble the squads that Tom Brady was engineering over the years. And Drake May has a little bit of that, you know, Justin Fields to him as well, where he's going to be heavily involved in the rushing game. So check on Henderson, RJ Harvey, Caleb Johnson. All these guys are in pretty bad. Okay, I wouldn't say bad offense for Harvey, but. But Henderson, Caleb Johnson and Quidditch on Jumpins, who has his own problems going on right now. Like, these have been guys where, yeah, sure, I like the profiles, you know, and the talent, but they are in offenses that we don't expect to score points. And I think the competition is steep enough to continue to make them, you know, two or three RB committees. So for me, in that tier six is DeAndre Swift, who's standing out because I just think it's been throughout this entire offseason, we kept waiting for the Bears to add Someone else they never did. Everyone tried to paint this picture. That first year OC Ben Johnson was for some reason the guy who apparently ditched Swift out of Detroit. Never quite bought that. And hey, as much as Swift, you know, maybe not the world's best running back or anything, I've seen the numbers. His vision leaves a lot to be desired sometimes. But if we're gonna write off Caleb Williams rookie season because of the scheme and the offensive line problems, I don't know, maybe those are two things that kind of impacted the team's running back as well. So just again looking at offenses that have improved and the offensive lines that have gotten a lot better and just projected touches for an explosive pass catching talent. Deand Swift is someone where I feel like with a better PR team, man, he could be going top of tier five.
Dave Richard
Oh well, he should hire Heath. He would be his PR manager.
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah, I, I have him at the top of tier five. So. Perfect.
Ian Hartitz
Okay, my guy.
Heath Cummings
I will say just before we move on, on Henderson and, and Ian's 100 right. So you hear me mention Naji doesn't fumble. Ramandre's got one of the biggest fumble issues in, in the league and I could see that being a problem for a Mike Vrabel led team. A Josh McDaniels led offense defense. And you, you mentioned Drake main his running but I think the offense is going to be better as a whole just because again, better coaching and better talent around him. The receiving core has still a lot of questions for me and what I think Henderson will do and this is, you know, like Heath was talking about. These are PPR tiers. He, he could be a significant receiver on this team and, and that's the hope, you know. So that's kind of why he's in this spot. Ahead of Harvey for example, ahead of Caleb Johnson and for now ahead of Judkins as well.
Dave Richard
I have to convince myself more to, to draft Trayvon Henderson. I don't really do it. I don't know. I don't know if I really have it all in these mock drafts we've been doing, but he was my second favorite running back in this class. I'm not a talent evaluator, but I know an explosive player when I see it. He was so much better than Quintean Judkins. I mean it was, it was ridiculous. They shared a backfield, they played behind the same offensive line. He was Jameer Gibbs to Judkins. David Montgomery, this guy needs the ball. Travion Henderson, he is so good and it Won't take them long to figure out if they're going to do anything in the run game. They're going to get explosive plays on their offense. It's going to be through Trayvon Henderson. And it's like it's one of those things where you think about the projections and how it might work out. It may not be so obvious to you, the path, but if you just want to bet on talent, that's a guy that I'm going to bet on. Travion Henderson. So tier six is a pretty exciting tier in my opinion. And that was Hampton Henderson, DeAndre Swift and David Montgomery. The rest of the show is going to be a pretty exciting show, in my opinion. We're going to tell you about out to your tiers 7 and beyond after this break on fantasy Football Today, the first season of CBS's new hit NCIS.
Ian Hartitz
Origins federal agent is now streaming NIS.
Dave Richard
The hell's that? Naval Investigative Service. We go where the evidence takes us.
Jamie Eisenberg
We got this 88% fresh on rotten Tomatoes. You don't see folks trying to affect.
Ian Hartitz
Change, but here you are.
Heath Cummings
Got a body waiting for us.
Jamie Eisenberg
Gives welcome to the team.
Dave Richard
NCIS Origin Season 1 now streaming on Paramount.
Ian Hartitz
Plus, Summer of Cinema is here and Pluto TV has thousands of free movies stream blockbusters like Gladiator, the Matrix trilogy, Boyz N the Hood, Good Burger and Jerry Maguire, all totally free on Pluto TV stream now pay never.
Dave Richard
All right, moving on to tier tiers 7 and 8 here. And Jamie's running back tears, which you can see on our website. Man, again, you got some starting running backs here for you. These could be RB2s for you. RJ Harvey, Quinshawn Judkins, bring it on back. RJ Harvey there. Thank you. Quinton Judgins, Caleb Johnson in tier seven. So the rest of the rookies and then tier eight, Isaiah Pacheco, he'll be in tier three by the end of August. Tony Pollard and Aaron Jones, RJ Harvey, Quinchon Judkins, Caleb Johnson in Tier 7, Pacheco Pollard and Aaron Jones in Tier 8. So you're, I guess, Jamie, you prefer the youth. You have those three rookies in tier seven ahead of Pacheco, Pollard and Jones in tier eight.
Heath Cummings
And I think we need to, I, I hate to make fun of Thomas, but we have to make fun of Thomas because as a Vikings fan.
Dave Richard
Aaron Jones with the packers logo, I don't know if he. Did you make that Thomas, you could, you could admit it. Oh, he's, he's not ready. He's not ready to admit it. Maybe he. You know what? You know what? Here's what. Here's what I think happened. He threw the graphic up and then he took it down while I was reading it. I bet he saw it and was trying to fix it. And then I was like, can you bring.
Heath Cummings
He wasn't a Vikings fan. I wouldn't point it out, but I.
Dave Richard
Didn'T even catch it. All right, anyway, Jamie Harvey, Judkins, Caleb Johnson in tier seven, Pacheco Pollard, Aaron Jones in tier eight.
Heath Cummings
Yeah, and. And, you know, I think Ian was sort of alluding to this, like, the upside for the rookies could be amazing. You know, when you look at their. Their situations can go E. But when. Shocking. It wouldn't be shocking by any stretch if Judkins, assuming, you know, he's not suspended, is completely dominating that backfield. When you look at Dylan Sampson and what his role projects to be in Jerome Ford and kind of how he struggled in this lead role for the last. Better part of the last two years, you know, the, The. The Browns went out and, you know, drafted Judkins ahead of a lot of the other rookies in this class for a reason, including Henderson. Caleb Johnson, you know, a. A big, physical running back in an Arthur Smith offense has kind of been what he's, you know, always loved. Clearly, he had Derek Henry for the majority of that time in Tennessee when he was the offense coordinator there. But I think that's a great fit for, you know, if. If you believe in vacated touches. 263 carries are on the table for, you know, Caleb Johnson without Naji Harris there. Jalen Warren scares the hell out of me, though. But RJ Harvey has got, you know, I, I don't know how you guys felt about this. I know we've talked about this a little bit on the show, like, like, I didn't want to overreact to J.K. dobbins. He's such a talented player, and clearly the Broncos felt they were missing something. Is it more of an indictment on estimate and McLaughlin by comparison to maybe not trusting Harvey fully to be the lead rusher there? But we've seen two running backs excel in a Sean Payton offense before. I think Harvey's gonna have an opportunity despite, you know, Dobbins being on pace for 41 catches last year. Harvey should be the guy playing on passing downs. And the upside to me is immense. If. If Dobbins ever misses time times ever missed any time shocking that's happened before, then Harvey could be a top 15 caliber running back in my opinion. So I, I didn't want to downgrade him too much. I certainly don't want to overreact and say it's. It's not going to be or not overreact and say it's not going to be an issue that, that Dobbins does take away a significant amount of touches. So I kind of put him in this spot of like a borderline RB2, you know, flex. But he's someone that I try to target in almost every draft is because I think he's. He's going to be a lot of fun, especially behind that offensive line and paying for playing for Sean Payton.
Dave Richard
You know, as we look at this range, right tiers 6 and 7 having all those rookie running backs in it, Hampton, Henderson, Harvey, Judkins, Johnson, Triple H, Double J. I think about last year Ian and and last year had this reputation of this was the best wide receiver draft in a really long time. And lo and behold you couldn't necessarily see it from lad McConkey. I mean we were talking lad McConkey or Josh Palmer. Who do we like better last year year you couldn't necessarily see it for Brian Thomas Jr. You know, neighbors outperformed his ADP. It ended up being a great year for wide receivers. This is the best running back draft class according to everyone in so long. Right. Should we just forget about the competition and throw caution to the win and make sure that we get some shares of these rookie running backs? That's kind of how I want to approach it. How do you feel about that in.
Ian Hartitz
I feel like the price is definitely closer to right for these guys. You know, we're not having to take, you know, an Amari and Hampton against more of a clear cut workhorse back. I mean even the guys in Tier 8, Pacheco, Pollard and Jones. Pacheco is someone I've drafted a ton. But you know, obviously there is a bit of a concern like how much are we going to see him get back to the 2023 workhorse role? How much was his return from injury role? You know, maybe more of an indictment on what we see. But Pollard has Spears, Jones has Jordan, Mason. Like at this point I am more okay, you know, taking that shot on the rookie talent, particularly with Harvey man, because you know we were talking, talking about Dobbins in this Chargers often that doesn't throw the football. We are talking full ppr you know here. And you look at these Broncos offenses these last two years. Javonte, William Williams, Jaleel Estimate these were not good pass catching running backs and they still managed to rank first and fourth over these past two seasons in terms of total reception by running back. So it is a situation where, you know, similar to Josh McDaniels, we have seen some quirky running back uses from Sean Payton over the years. I am old enough to remember Mark Ingram was a first round pick, still wasn't able to carve out, you know, that true big time fantas and roll for, you know, I think his first two or three seasons, you know, when he got Chris Ivory and you know, all these guys getting the ball, you got to get them the ball, of course. But RJ Harvey, for me, similar to Joe Nixon where, you know, I wonder how much should I really be concerned with Dobbins and Chubb, like guys, if the Broncos had just drafted like a round seven running back instead of signing J.K. dobbins, I don't think we would be as concerned. Not saying that we should be treating Dobbins as that, you know, round seven guy, but clearly they did have a plan for Harvey. They have all, all these, you know, available touches and targets there for him. So out of this group, again, Harvey and Pacheco really stand out for me.
Dave Richard
Heath, your comparison of Tier 7, Harvey, Judkins, Caleb Johnson to the veterans in Tier 8, Pacheco, Pollard, Aaron Jones.
Jamie Eisenberg
I think the young guys have a lot more upside and the, the old guys have a lot higher floor is the easiest way to look at it and we should, we draft for upside and so we get more excited about taking the young guys. The one thing I will say, and I think I don't, I don't know how everybody's handling this if you're drafting fantasy football teams in July, but I've, I've pretty much buried Judkins. I'm not, I'm not at this, at this moment in time. I'm not going to draft him anywhere.
Dave Richard
Close to this because of the arrest.
Jamie Eisenberg
Right.
Dave Richard
Okay. All right, let's go on to tiers nine and 10. We've got Jaylen Warren, Brian Robinson Jr, Travis Etn, Javante Williams, Ramondre Stevenson. In tier nine, we've got four players in tier 10. I'll tell you those in a minute. But tier nine is Jalen Warren, Brian Robinson Jr Travis Etn, Javante Williams and Ramondre Stevenson. A reminder that these are full PPR tiers, perhaps in non or half ppr. Jamie, correct me if I'm wrong, you'd have Brian Robinson over Jaylen Warren. Non and half PPR are.
Heath Cummings
Yes.
Dave Richard
Okay, so Warren, Brian Robinson, ETN Javante, Ramandre Stevenson. Tier 10 is two giants. Tyrone Tracy and Cam Scatter. Boo Naji Harris and J.K. dobbins. All right, what are we looking at here? Should these BRB 3 or 4 on your team? Definitely. You don't want these to be your RB2. What are we looking at with tiers nine and 10, Jamie?
Heath Cummings
Players that you don't really want, but you might be forced to take. I mean Warren's kind of the, the swing guy for me because it wouldn't be shocking if he's the better running shit back in Pittsburgh in this format, you know, because I don't think we're gonna see Caleb Johnson play on a lot of obvious passing downs. And Arthur Smith, we, we, you know, mentioned it that when he had Bijan Robinson, who, you know, as we're seeing with better coaching or different coaching, is an absolute stud and he decided not to use that stud because he loves Tyler Algier. So he can make this a miserable experience for us. But Jalen Warren's very good in, in past protection. They have a 41 year old quarterback and we may see him, you know, get more opportunities of those 263 vacated touches than, than we might expect. So I love the fact that he's dragging soccer goal posts around and, and those training videos that we're seeing of Jalen Warren. Just something different, best shape of his life. But he's the one that could, you know, sort of outperform this tier, I think along with probably Travis Etienne too. Look, he was, you know, two. He's two years removed from an amazing season. He was obviously one of the biggest busts last year. His, his PPR points per game got cut in half, you know, which is awful. And there is, you know, pretty significant competition for touches when Tank Bigsby was a much better runner than him last year. And now you bring in Tootin who's part of this new coaching staff, you know, and new regime essentially. So it could be ugly for etn, but I think he's one of the better values based on what his upside can still be because this offense should be dramatically better with Liam Cohen calling place.
Dave Richard
Okay, is anybody excited to draft these guys? Jamie doesn't seem too excited. You know, I can get excited on the potential for Javante here, I think. Yeah. All right, I'll just let.
Ian Hartitz
Well, I mean you got to remember though, we aren't comparing them against like top 24 wide receivers at this point. I mean, I don't think the pickings at other positions are all that hot either once we get to this range.
Dave Richard
You know, I just think when you look at what, what the Cowboys running back from last year, Rico Dowdad, you.
Heath Cummings
Know, could you think Adam can name all 32 NFL head coaches?
Dave Richard
I can now. Can. Can Javonte Williams do that? I see. Why not? You know, it's just a matter of him, you know, looking good in training camp and it's the cow. It's that Cowboys logo. When I look at this graphic, I look at that Cowboys logo and I say I want the starting running back for that, that team. The fact that the starting running back for the Cowboys could be available in round nine or later is exciting. I think in a, in a time where you're. Where it's not that exciting to draft running backs.
Jamie Eisenberg
No, I think the starting running back for the Cowboys will be available in round nine or later, but I don't have any clue who it is.
Dave Richard
Yeah, right. It's.
Ian Hartitz
That's why they're available so cheap, right?
Jamie Eisenberg
Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, I don't have a problem with Javante at his cost. I. Warren and ETN are, are pretty clearly my favorite two in this group. And listen, I think you can look at ADP on in some places and ETN's going behind Tuton and he all, all three of the Jags running backs are outside of the top 100. I, I still think ETNs at least the pass catching role is probably the safest bet. And then we'll figure out what happens to the on early downs and I wouldn't be surprised if Jalen Warren especially in full ppr. In fact, I expect Jalen Warren to.
Dave Richard
Be better than Caleb Johnson, Tier 10, Tracy Scatterboo, Naji, Dobbins. I guess I'll just throw out a hot take here. The one I definitely want is Dobbins. He's got arguably the best offensive line in football. He's got a chance to be the running downs guy. Tracy and Scatter, who's going to be kind of ugly. Najee, I think we're just waiting for Hampton to take his role role. But like Harvey could have a good role but Dobbins could also have a good role. It could be like Ingerman, Camara. Ian, your thoughts?
Ian Hartitz
Yeah, I mean if we get into the preseason, all of a sudden Dobbins is getting these, you know, great snap counts with the first team offense who say he couldn't actually, you know, be one of the bigger risers and get up there into the top 30. So I think a lot of these Guys though, you know, in tier nine, Antenna, like they profile these flex with benefits, you know, sort of options. You know, you're not going to be thrilled about starting Ramandre Stevenson or Najee Harris in weeks, but you know, they're still going to be inside of our top 36. If we're in one of these 14 team leagues with two or three flexes, you can wrap your mind around being okay with starting them. But hey, as much as we love to say, you know, Jameer Gibbs, if he gets, you know, the full backfield and Dave Montgomery gets hurt, the inverse of that is also true. You know, maybe it's not as sexy of a, you know, thing to plan out like that, but Najee of Hampton goes out, Raman Dre of Henderson goes out. These are guys that actually could, you know, maybe not be top five running backs in the same way Gibbs would be, but honestly, potentially threatening that RB1 level in fantasyland, so. So I do think there's some sneaky, you know, handcuff upside here. Jamie, I was curious if you gave any thoughts to Jordan Mason being in tier 10, you know, based on what we've heard about him maybe getting that goal line role and you know, certainly having some competition. Aaron Jones, but maybe seeing a bit more of a split backfield in Minnesota than last year.
Heath Cummings
One of my favorite guys and another, you know, again, like when we start to split these up, you see kind of where I went with the tier 11 guys. Almost like the, you know, maybe aside from Rashad White and Eckler, where it's like I, I put these guys sort of in the lottery ticket category of, you know, they, they probably need the full time role to be starting fantasy options. But yeah, I mean, I, I, it's kind of why I have Aaron Jones as low as I do because I am very concerned that Jordan Mason is going to have a role. You know, when Kevin o' Connell comes out before they re signed Aaron Jones and says that he was probably better off in a committee as he was in Green Bay than he was for us in a full time role last year when he set all these career highs and touches and total yards and rushing yards. Yards like he was so good for them. And I think the biggest thing that kind of gets overlooked with, with Jones and is a benefit to Mason. Jones played through three significant injuries last year, which he hadn't done in the last couple years in Green Bay. I think part of that was the contract year. Part of that was proving himself to a new team. He also really benefited if you recall he got hurt and I think was the London game or wherever they were playing overseas and they had buy next week and he came back after the buy. Like there were some things that just sort of felt right for him that schedule wise may not happen this year. So you're, you know, you mentioned Adam, the, the Dobbin situation, like if, if things go well for him and, and obviously he gets a chance if Harvey maybe gets injured like Jordan Mason in this offense. He was really good in San Francisco's offense last year. I thought, you know, it's like he may not catch a lot of passes, but that, I don't know if that matters based on how things may go here. And if JJ McCarthy sucks, obviously it's going to be bad for everybody. But you know, if, if o' Connell's blueprint has showed us anything, it doesn't matter who the quarterback is, there's often still going to be productive for the guys around it. You know, the, the ecosystem is just so good. Good. So, yeah, Mason may be a little bit lower than he should be, but I think you can make a case for, you know, Spears, for example, you know, how good he was at times last year. You can make a, a case for, you know, if you don't buy Bucky Irving taking that next step. Rashad White's been 50 catches, you know, every year of his career. And coming off a season with career high yards per carry, Eckler can still be very good in this format. You know, especially looking at how he did in some cases last year when he was healthy. He really battled injuries last year, but he's older, so this is actually, I think I wrote this in story. Like this is my favorite tier. Tier 11 is like my favorite group of guys to draft because like, like all these guys could be league winners. Like, you know, I'm trying to get two or three of these guys in the fishbowl because like, you know, when you're in a best ball or, or a big tournament, like these are guys that could just sway everything for you if they get the chance to be starters.
Dave Richard
Did we read the names or just. I'll go through it. Tier 11, Mason, Rashad White, Austin Eckler, Isaac Garendo, Zach Charbonnet and Taj Spears. This is a good show, by the way, to be watching on YouTube. YouTube.com fantasy football TV today. Mason, Rashad White, Austin Eckler, Isaac Arendo, Zach Charbonnet, Taj Spears and then tier 12. Is this just the handcuff tier? Yep. Tank Bigsby. I Mean, it's interesting to call Tank Bigsby a handcuff when he was kind of their lead running back last year. So he could move up and Jaden Blue, Trey Benson, Ray Davis, Roshan Johnson, Braylon Allen, Bashel Tutin, Tyler Algier, Jalen Wright will shake Shipley. Any reason why Tank BigSby's in Tier 12 and not Tier 11?
Heath Cummings
I don't know which Jaguars running back I like the best. Now, you asked this question on. On Sports Network yesterday. Which backfill battle do you want to watch? I don't know if we even mentioned Jacksonville because it's so crazy to me. You know, I. I'm hoping it's etn just because I think he's got still potentially the most upside. But, like, yeah, Bigsby was a better runner by leaps and bounds last year than. Than etn, just was significantly dwarfed in the passing game. And that's kind of why our, you know, for the format here where I come out on it and, And Tutin, I mean, look, you know, there's. There's a coaching change and a new running back added and that always, you know, should raise some red flags about what are they going to do, especially when the lead guy was coming off a disappointing season last year and his Tank Bigsby going to get those opportunities. So it's kind of just really an unknown for me that this is one of those things that could change as the process goes on.
Dave Richard
So after tier 12, which is Bigsby, blue, Jaden Blue, Trey Benson, Ray Davis, Roshan Johnson, Braylon Allen, Bashel Tuton, Tyler Algier, Jalen Wright will shoot Shipley. We get tier 13. Dylan Sampson and Jerome Ford are both in there. Nick Chubb, Marshawn Lloyd, Rico Dowdle. Remember him? I do. I never forget his name. Raheem Mostert. Tier 14 is just more of the same. Basically a lot of rookies there. Ian, before we go, Heath, you have a look on your face like I said something wrong.
Jamie Eisenberg
No, I don't think he said anything wrong at all.
Dave Richard
Okay, good.
Heath Cummings
Thomas had something to say. You didn't give him a chance.
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah, I was just wondering why you just ignored Thomas.
Dave Richard
I. Sorry.
Jamie Eisenberg
The new Streamyard, like, setup is messing me up. I don't even know why I popped up here.
Dave Richard
That's what I thought. I was like, there's no way he meant to pop up.
Heath Cummings
No.
Jamie Eisenberg
Like, I removed the screen and then all of a sudden I'm on. So that was unintentional.
Dave Richard
Yeah. See, Thomas and I have. We have like an esp. I know, he doesn't mean to pop on there. You know, what's. Do you have a handcuff strategy? Do you have any particular ones that you like to draft? What do you think?
Ian Hartitz
Jalen Wright's been my most drafted running back of the off season so far because I think just at its core, if Achan gets hurt, Jalen Wright's probably the next guy up. And also this is an offense where we saw Raheem Mostert as The de facto RB2 alongside A Chan scored 21 freaking touchdowns. So we'll see who exactly gets that goal line roll. There's a chance I'm wrong and Wright's not going to be the 1B and we're going to have the all Holly Gordon or God forbid, Alexander Madison getting too many carries for us to get. But man, I just think again, that late, like you can actually talk yourself into Jalen Wright having one of those, you know, Najee or Madre Stevenson esque roles. He's just at a fraction of the price. So my biggest thing is, look, we don't know which one of these guys is going to be the breakout last year. Chase Brown happened to get the Zach Moss injury, so we got to take over. Who's to say that couldn't have been Trey Benson or Blake Corum if their team started running back ended up being the one getting injured? But my biggest piece of advice would just be once you have, you know, hopefully your five wide receivers, receivers in the top 50, top 55 players there, you got your quarterback, you got your tight end. Get as many of these handcuffs as possible because all those guys, you know, basically in the tier 11 tier, 12 tiers going on, those guys are one injury away from being on the COVID of every single waiver wire magazine in the industry. So yeah, it's cool if you can bid for them, but the only thing cooler than that is if you already have them sitting on your bench. So I just see some people again getting the multiple quarterbacks, multiple tight ends, God forbid, a second DST or something like that. So again, would just really caution, don't worry about having, you know, all these even positions because it's those handcuffed running backs who have the best chance of seeing their rankings skyrocket between now and week one.
Heath Cummings
Ian, I have a question for you that's not fantasy related.
Jamie Eisenberg
Sure.
Heath Cummings
So you work with a guy that we're very close with in Nando Defino. I think you're married, right? Correct. You said you're visiting your family. So if, if you had a Friend. Like, close friend.
Dave Richard
Oh, stop.
Heath Cummings
Introduce you to your wife. Would you be inclined to put that friend in your wedding party? Make him one of your groomsmen?
Ian Hartitz
I feel like I would be obligated to.
Heath Cummings
Right.
Jamie Eisenberg
It'd be kind of like if you had a show with. With three other guys, you wouldn't only invite two of them to the wedding. You'd invite all three of them.
Ian Hartitz
Couldn't even imagine doing.
Dave Richard
So that one I feel much, much worse about than the Nando thing. Look, Nando's like. Like a top 15 friend of mine. He just. I could. I could get him at the wedding party. I have closer friends.
Ian Hartitz
It's tough, Adam, because then you got the plus ones for everyone. You got the family that you feel obligated. So I. I feel. Yeah, but also. Come on.
Jamie Eisenberg
Not.
Dave Richard
Yeah, yeah. Well, Nando's wife was in the wedding party, so it would have been easy to throw him in there, but. Yeah, it's just. He didn't. He didn't make the cut. I actually had to ask.
Heath Cummings
Now he just sends you ornaments?
Dave Richard
Yeah. I had to ask Nando and Jamie the day of my wedding. Wedding. Or maybe the day before. I was like, please don't embarrass me today. This is my wedding day. Please don't do anything. And they. That isn't that sad. And that's sad that I had to go there. They came through. I thank them for that. Ian, thanks for coming on, man. It was great talking to you. Really interesting stuff. So tell us about your content and where we can find everything and all that.
Ian Hartitz
Appreciate you guys. Yeah. FancyLife.com just had a new site come out. Rankings Guillotine content. Absolutely love that form of fantasy. See? Just been really getting into it recently, so trying to do something new. I would advise that just real quickly on Guillotine, guys. Like, my favorite parts of it is one, if your team sucks, you get cut. You finish last. In a week, your season's over. You don't have these two months of, you know, managing this team that's already dead in the water. And then just the waiver wires are absolutely electric. Because I'm sure you guys are like me, where, you know, you can only look at Will Shipley so many weeks before. It's like, good God, man. This is a slog. Meanwhile, Guillotine leagues. The team with CD Lamb gets chopped. Oh, my gosh. All of a sudden, I have, you know, a freaking awesome time on Tuesday or Wednesday to get those dudes. So shout out to guillotine leagues. But otherwise, yeah, you can catch me on the Fantasy Life Show Monday through Thursday, 5pm Eastern. I would love to get some of you guys on there at some point, so we'll do that another day. But yeah, appreciate you guys having me.
Dave Richard
On Fun time Dudes and Ian will have an FFT open league if you want to join it. Monday, July 21, 7pm Eastern All 24 of the leagues are open for you to purchase spots in 11 spots per league and when we sell them out, $66,000 for St. Jude. For Jamie, Heath and Ian, I am Adam. Oh and Thomas who popped on unintentionally, I am Adam. We will talk to you tomorrow with wide receiver tiers on Fantasy Football.
Heath Cummings
Paramount.
Thomas
Podcasts Mama, Papa, Pronto, Perofri, Porlamoda, Konos.
Jamie Eisenberg
Precious, Bacos de la Vuelta Classes, Amazon, Amazon, Gastamenos, Sonrimas.
Fantasy Football Today Podcast Summary: RB Tiers – When to Grab Your RB1; Veterans vs. Rookies (07/15 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Release Date: July 15, 2025
Join CBS Sports' renowned Fantasy Football crew—host Adam Aizer and analysts Dave Richard, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings, along with guest Ian Hartitz—as they delve deep into the intricacies of running back (RB) tiers for the upcoming 2025 Fantasy Football season. This episode, titled "RB Tiers: When to Grab Your RB1; Veterans vs. Rookies," provides valuable insights into drafting strategies, balancing veteran reliability with rookie upside, and navigating the complexities of RB rankings.
The episode kicks off with a brief, humorous exchange among the hosts about the challenges of categorizing running backs into tiers. Adam Aizer sets the stage by emphasizing the importance of understanding RB tiers to dominate fantasy leagues.
Dave Richard introduces the primary focus: structuring running backs into tiers to aid fantasy managers in making informed drafting decisions. The discussion spans from Tier 1 (the elite RBs) to Tier 14, dissecting each tier's composition and the rationale behind player placements.
Tier 1 encompasses the absolute elite running backs expected to be RB1s on fantasy teams. Tier 2 includes high-performing RBs with slight uncertainties but still offering significant value.
Key Players in Tier 1:
Key Players in Tier 2:
Notable Insights:
Jamey Eisenberg emphasizes the reliability of Tier 1 RBs, stating, “These are players you can build your team around without much worry” ([03:40]).
Heath Cummings adds, “If you’re looking for consistency and high scoring potential, Tier 1 is where you want to secure your foundation” ([04:14]).
Tier 3 features RBs who are solid starters but come with certain risks or team dependencies. Tier 4 includes RBs with higher variance, often influenced by team dynamics or injury histories.
Notable Insights:
Ian Hartitz questions the placement of Achan Genti, noting, “Do you see him steering clear of high touchdown upside? It’s a tight call” ([05:58]).
Jamie Eisenberg shares concerns about RB usage, saying, “If you draft a wide receiver in early rounds, you can still snag Chase Brown or Kyron Williams in round three” ([05:58]).
The hosts discuss recent developments impacting RB valuations, including:
Garrett Wilson’s contract extension: “He just got a four-year, $130 million extension with $90 million guaranteed” ([07:18]).
Najee Harris’s return to the Chargers: “Najee Harris should be back soon for the Chargers” ([07:18]).
Mike Williams’s PUP status: “Mike Williams started training camp on the PUP list” ([07:18]).
Shamar Stewart’s uncertain return to college football: A concerning note on player availability ([07:18]).
Tier 5 includes RBs with proven track records but facing age or usage concerns. Tier 6 spotlights rookies and younger RBs with breakout potential but also higher risk.
Tier 5 Players:
Tier 6 Players:
Notable Insights:
Heath Cummings expresses anxiety over the aging of key RBs: “Chuba Hubbard entering age 30, Alvin Kamara at 30, these guys might not replicate their peak performance” ([30:23]).
Jamie Eisenberg advocates for balancing RB selections: “If you have top-tier WRs and TE, it's okay to wait on RBs and opt for upside players in later rounds” ([34:32]).
Tier 7 focuses on young RBs with significant upside, while Tier 8 features established RBs who may be part of a committee or have fluctuating workloads.
Tier 7 Players:
Tier 8 Players:
Notable Insights:
Dave Richard highlights the potential of RBs like Travis Etienne despite last year’s underperformance: “Etienne’s still one of the better values based on his pass-catching role” ([55:40]).
Jamie Eisenberg notes, “Pace and role in the offense are critical; Jalen Warren could outperform expectations if he stays healthy” ([56:20]).
Tier 9 includes RBs who may serve as backups but have potential to become starters due to injuries or team changes. Tier 10 comprises RBs considered handcuffs or speculative picks.
Tier 9 Players:
Tier 10 Players:
Notable Insights:
Heath Cummings is optimistic about Jalen Warren and Travis Etienne, stating, “They have scenarios where their usage could skyrocket, making them valuable late-round picks” ([53:03]).
Jamie Eisenberg cautions against drafting J.K. Dobbins early due to off-field issues: “I’m not going to draft him anywhere right now” ([52:03]).
Tier 11 contains RBs with breakout potential but significant uncertainties, while Tier 12 is labeled as "handcuffs," RBs who back up more established players.
Tier 11 Players:
Tier 12 Players:
Notable Insights:
Dave Richard contemplates the potential of JJ Dobbins and Tank Bigsby, questioning their roles and efficiency in their respective teams: “Should we just forget about the competition and focus on these young RBs?” ([56:55]).
Ian Hartitz advises, “Get as many handcuffs as possible because these guys are one injury away from being starters” ([63:01]).
The episode culminates with strategic advice on drafting running backs:
Balancing Veterans and Rookies: The hosts emphasize the importance of blending reliable veterans with high-upside rookies to navigate the unpredictable nature of the RB position.
Handcuffing Strategy: Securing backups for your top RBs can provide a safety net, ensuring consistent points even if starters face injuries.
Late-Round Gems: Identifying undervalued RBs in later tiers can offer substantial returns if they secure increased roles in their offenses.
Notable Quotes:
Ian Hartitz: “Don’t worry about holding back on positions; those handcuffed RBs in tiers 11 and 12 could be your league-winners” ([63:01]).
Heath Cummings: “Tier 11 is my favorite group of guys to draft because they could be league winners if they get the chance to start” ([60:23]).
Adam Aizer wraps up the episode by encouraging listeners to implement the discussed RB tiers into their draft strategies. The emphasis remains on adaptability, thorough research, and balancing risk with reward to outmaneuver opponents in fantasy leagues.
Key Takeaways:
Understand RB Tiers: Grasping the nuances between different RB tiers is crucial for effective drafting.
Balance is Key: Combining dependable veterans with promising rookies can fortify your fantasy roster.
Stay Informed: Keep abreast of team changes, injuries, and contract updates that can influence RB performance.
Notable Quotes Recap:
Dave Richard [03:40]: “These are players you can build your team around without much worry.”
Jamie Eisenberg [56:20]: “Pace and role in the offense are critical; Jalen Warren could outperform expectations if he stays healthy.”
Heath Cummings [30:23]: “Chuba Hubbard entering age 30, Alvin Kamara at 30, these guys might not replicate their peak performance.”
By leveraging the comprehensive RB tier analysis presented in this episode, fantasy managers can strategize effectively to assemble a competitive team poised for success in the 2025 season.