Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The TRUTH About Fantasy RB's in 2016, Part 2

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast 2017 - The TRUTH About Fantasy RB's in 2016, Part 2

Release Date: January 19, 2017
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright
Guest: Al Robinson (Jacksonville Jaguars)

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Introduction

In the second part of their two-episode series titled "The TRUTH About Fantasy RB's in 2016," The Fantasy Footballers delve deeper into the performance and future prospects of running backs (RBs) ranked between positions 11 and 25. The discussion is enriched by insights from Al Robinson of the Jacksonville Jaguars, providing listeners with a comprehensive analysis of the running back landscape based on the 2016 NFL season.

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Writing Staff’s Top Five RBs for 2017

Timestamp: [02:03] - [04:10]

The episode kicks off with Jason Moore referencing feedback from the show's writing staff, who participated in a poll to rank the top five running backs for the upcoming 2017 season. The staff’s rankings are as follows:

1. Le'Veon Bell
2. David Johnson
3. Ezekiel Elliott
4. LaShawn McCoy
5. Melvin Gordon

Jason Moore notes, “Apparently, Melvin Gordon was unranked on some, and there were others like Devonta Freeman, Lamar Miller, DeMarco Murray, and Jordan Howard who received top five votes” ([03:25]). Andy Holloway concurs, expressing his disagreement with the inclusion of McCoy and Gordon in the fourth and fifth slots, respectively. Instead, both hosts advocate for Devonta Freeman and DeMarco Murray as more deserving choices based on their performances and potential.

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Analysis of RB Rankings: 11-25

Timestamp: [10:19] - [53:14]

The core of the discussion revolves around the running backs ranked from 11 to 25, analyzing their 2016 performances and projecting their future in fantasy football. Key players discussed include J. Ajayi, Devonta Freeman, Frank Gore, Latavius Murray, Isaiah Crowell, Carlos Hyde, Spencer Ware, Todd Gurley, Lamar Miller, Tevin Coleman, Matt Forte, Chris Ivory, and Jonathan Stewart.

J. Ajayi (#11)

Jason Moore highlights Ajayi’s impressive consistency, noting he was drafted outside the top 100 yet finished as the #11 RB with 1,300 yards over 15 games. He states, “That's very nice consistency rating of 5” ([10:40]). Andy Holloway points out that Ajayi had three monster games surpassing 200 yards, which contributed significantly to his overall yardage. Despite these standout performances, some of his other games saw lower outputs, but his ability to deliver big plays makes him a reliable option moving forward.

Devonta Freeman

Freeman’s performance is scrutinized with Andy Holloway expressing concerns about his consistency. However, Jason Moore defends Freeman by emphasizing his nine top 25 performances, asserting, “He's a low end, 12 type of guy. For me, I still think they don't love him” ([11:48]). The hosts debate whether Freeman's narrative as inconsistent is warranted, considering his ability to score touchdowns even in lower-yardage games.

Frank Gore (#12)

Frank Gore is discussed as the "least sexy" player among the top 24 RBs but recognized for his reliability. Andy Holloway remarks, “He is the least sexy player to own, maybe out of the top 24 running backs” ([16:45]). Gore’s consistent performance, with 1,000 yards and four touchdowns despite a struggling offensive line, positions him as a dependable fantasy option. However, concerns about his age (34 years old) and potential retirement loom over his future viability.

Latavius Murray (#13)

Murray’s role with the Oakland Raiders is debated, especially considering the team’s shared running back workload. Andy Holloway notes, “The Raiders are a phenomenal running team... they were the fifth most fantasy points among all NFL teams at the running back position” ([19:36]). His ability to produce touchdowns and handle a significant number of carries makes him a valuable asset, but his free-agent status introduces uncertainty for the upcoming season.

Isaiah Crowell (#14)

Jason Moore labels Crowell as a "vegetable" in fantasy terms, criticizing his unpredictability and inconsistent performance. Andy Holloway agrees, stating, “he had a lot of big blow up games, it was very hard to predict those” ([23:18]). Despite transitioning to a pass-catching role in PPR leagues, his reliability remains questionable due to fluctuating performances tied to quarterback changes.

Carlos Hyde (#15)

Carlos Hyde's 2016 season is characterized by flashes of brilliance amidst concerns about team dynamics and offensive strategies. Andy Holloway cites the departure of Chip Kelly as a potential threat to Hyde’s effectiveness, saying, “the way that Chip Kelly ran that offense... takes a hit to me with that system” ([25:12]). While Hyde showed he can produce top-tier performances, his future hinges on staying healthy and maintaining consistent offensive support.

Spencer Ware (#16)

Ware is discussed as a player who showed promise but ultimately fell short of expectations. Jason Moore critiques Ware’s ability to capitalize on opportunities, noting his lack of big plays despite substantial carries. Andy Holloway concurs, suggesting Ware “wore down” over the season ([28:24]). The debate centers on whether Ware can rebound in a new system or if his performance was a one-season anomaly.

Todd Gurley (#17)

Gurley is a focal point of discussion, particularly his underwhelming 2016 performance relative to his high draft position. Andy Holloway points out, “Todd Gurley was great this year” yet he finishes as the 17th best RB, disappointing many fantasy owners ([32:05]). Concerns about his workload management, offensive scheme, and physical prowess are highlighted. The hosts debate whether Gurley will bounce back or continue to disappoint in future seasons.

Lamar Miller (#18)

Miller is evaluated based on his consistency and the impact of team offensive changes. Jason Moore acknowledges that Miller had a decent year with ten top 25 games but missed the last two games, impacting his ranking. Andy Holloway remains hopeful that Bill O’Brien’s overhaul of the offense could rejuvenate Miller’s performance for 2017 ([38:00]).

Tevin Coleman (#19)

Coleman is praised for his touchdown efficiency despite missing games. Jason Moore emphasizes Coleman’s potential, stating, “the upside for Coleman seems to be immense” ([42:38]). Andy Holloway questions whether Coleman’s touchdown numbers are sustainable if he maintains his role in a stable and dynamic offense, likening his situation to players like Darren Sproles who thrived in high-powered offenses.

Matt Forte (#20)

Matt Forte’s transition to a new team is analyzed, focusing on his reliability and potential under different offensive schemes. Jason Moore remarks on Forte’s versatility and consistency, suggesting he’s a "decently reliable running back" and a worthy target despite his age and previous injury concerns ([48:07]). Andy Holloway echoes this sentiment, viewing Forte as a dependable option within his new team structure.

Chris Ivory and Jonathan Stewart (#21-24)

The discussion briefly touches on other RBs like Chris Ivory and Jonathan Stewart, highlighting their aging status and potential decline in performance. Jason Moore anticipates Stewart being drafted lower due to his approaching 30th birthday and inconsistent production, while Andy Holloway expresses skepticism about their future impact in favor of younger, emerging backs.

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Team Situations and Coaching Changes Impacting RB Performance

Timestamp: [04:52] - [35:31]

The hosts and guest discuss how team strategies, coaching changes, and offensive schemes significantly influence RB performances. Al Robinson brings attention to Bill O’Brien’s move to Houston as a potential positive change, particularly for Lamar Miller, while Jason Moore speculates on how coaching shifts could affect players like Melvin Gordon and Isaiah Crowell.

Andy Holloway and Jason Moore explore the implications of offensive coordinators like Greg Olson’s hiring, questioning his track record and potential impact on players like Todd Gurley. The consensus is that coaching decisions can either bolster or hinder RB production, making it a critical factor in fantasy football evaluations.

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Consistency and Performance Metrics

Timestamp: [14:48] - [38:09]

A recurring theme is the importance of consistency in RB performances. The panel emphasizes that high variability in game-to-game production can be detrimental for fantasy owners. Jason Moore praises players like Frank Gore and Spencer Ware for their ability to avoid "bust" games, while Andy Holloway underscores the value of RBs who can reliably contribute across the season.

Al Robinson provides statistical insights, such as J. Ajayi’s performance against top and bottom half defenses, demonstrating how external factors like opposing defenses play a role in RB success. The discussion highlights that understanding context—like strength of schedule and team offense—is essential for accurate RB valuation.

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Predictions and Future Outlook

Timestamp: [38:09] - [53:14]

Looking ahead to the 2017 season, the hosts make several predictions:

• Le’Veon Bell, David Johnson, and Ezekiel Elliott are expected to remain top-tier RBs based on their past performances and team environments.
• Frank Gore may face decline due to age, with some speculating retirement or reduced effectiveness.
• Latavius Murray’s free-agent status introduces uncertainty, though his proven track record keeps him in consideration.
• Todd Gurley is a wildcard; his future performance is contingent on coaching changes and workload management.
• Tevin Coleman is viewed as a high-upside RB who could solidify his position in a dynamic offense.
• Matt Forte remains a reliable option despite his age, with potential upside in a new team setting.

The panel advises fantasy owners to monitor offseason developments closely, as roster changes, coaching hires, and team strategies will heavily influence RB performances in the upcoming season.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with the hosts reiterating the importance of thorough analysis and staying informed about team changes and player health. Jason Moore encourages listeners to engage with the show's community via jointhefoot.com and to stay tuned for future episodes focusing on other positions like quarterbacks and tight ends.

Andy Holloway confidently states, “I can tell you already that our Quarterback Truth episode is excellent. I already know that next week's episode is amazing” ([53:18]), setting the stage for continued in-depth fantasy football content.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jason Moore [10:40]: "That's very nice consistency rating of 5."
• Andy Holloway [16:45]: "He is the least sexy player to own, maybe out of the top 24 running backs."
• Jason Moore [23:18]: "Isaiah Crowell was a vegetable this year. Without question."
• Andy Holloway [32:05]: "Todd Gurley was great this year," despite his ranking.
• Jason Moore [38:00]: "He had ten top 25 games."
• Jason Moore [42:38]: "The upside for Coleman seems to be immense."
• Andy Holloway [53:18]: "I can tell you already that our Quarterback Truth episode is excellent."

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Key Takeaways

1. Consistency Matters: Running backs who can deliver steady performances are more favorable in fantasy leagues than those with high variability.
2. Team Dynamics: Coaching changes, offensive schemes, and team support play crucial roles in the success of running backs.
3. Age and Longevity: Older running backs like Frank Gore and Jonathan Stewart may face declining performances, while younger backs like Lamar Miller and Tevin Coleman present higher upside.
4. Free Agency and Uncertainty: Players with uncertain futures, such as Latavius Murray, require careful consideration due to potential team changes.
5. Strategic Drafting: Fantasy owners should prioritize RBs who not only had strong performances but also operate within stable and supportive team environments.

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For more in-depth analysis and ongoing fantasy football discussions, listeners are encouraged to join The Fantasy Footballers' community at jointhefoot.com and follow them on Twitter @theffballers.

Transcript

[Al Robinson]

Hey, this is Al Robinson from the Jacksonville Jaguars, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the fantasyjocks.com studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the show. Jason's here?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. So, you know, it's gonna be a great show.

[Jason Moore]

Mike is present.

[Al Robinson]

Hey, everybody.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, hello.

[Jason Moore]

The truth shall come forth once again.

[Al Robinson]

Wait, Paul Pierce is here?

[Jason Moore]

No, no, no. The truth is I had some Chicago style deep dish last night.

[Al Robinson]

Oh, you got. You go to Geo's.

[Jason Moore]

I went to Geo's. And you know what? I left with a full belly and a little bit of sadness for the servers at that place, because those tables don't turn over when you wait 45 minutes for a pizza.

[Al Robinson]

Well, but, I mean, the. The price of that pizza is padded.

[Jason Moore]

You know, we got out of there, family of five. How much do you think I spent?

[Al Robinson]

I'm gonna go.

[Jason Moore]

And we had family of five, tiramisu. And we had.

[Al Robinson]

What kind of pizza did you get? Just cheese.

[Jason Moore]

No, we went with a Mighty Meaty or whatever it's called.

[Al Robinson]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

And a classic.

[Al Robinson]

We got two large pizzas, then like.

[Jason Moore]

60 bones, $39 after tip. What? Yeah, yeah, because we split it. It was cheating. We split it three ways. It was about 100 bucks.

[Al Robinson]

Well done.

[Jason Moore]

I'm just saying.

[Al Robinson]

Well done.

[Jason Moore]

Now, you know, that's not.

[Al Robinson]

That's not too bad. Also, Chicago, in your face. We got our own Giordano's.

[Jason Moore]

It's kind of in our face because Chicago came here.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, but now they can't be like, we got all the best pizza Sandwa. We got. We got it, too.

[Jason Moore]

Anyway, pizza breaking news. Delicious. Very good.

[Al Robinson]

It's not good for the year of health, my man.

[Jason Moore]

No, no. That's why I had a salad for lunch. I prepped up. I prepped up. All right, welcome to the show. Follow us on Twitter @ the FF Ballers. We've got a lot of stuff going on this offseason, including articles from our writers on the website, the fantasy footballers.com which is where the quick question for today comes from. By the way, today we are doing the second half of the Running Back Truth episode, breaking down a number of running backs to finish, you know, between 11 and 25, and some other names. We'll talk about how consistent they were, if some of their stat lines at the end of the year were indicative of what's to come in 2017 or not. So I'm excited, but the quick question. Look, the writing staff apparently Listens to the show. That's.

[Al Robinson]

That's good.

[Andy Holloway]

That's very good.

[Jason Moore]

They heard. They heard the first episode, and they put together a little poll, and they basically ranked the top five running backs for 2017. And so, you know, now that we've heard the truth in last, you know, on the Tuesday episode, do we disagree or agree with their top five for 2017?

[Andy Holloway]

Their top five? You want me to read it?

[Jason Moore]

Go for it.

[Andy Holloway]

It goes Le'Veon Bell as the numero uno, followed by David Johnson and Ezekiel Elliott. The fourth slot is Lashawn McCoy and number five, Melvin Gordon.

[Jason Moore]

Ooh. So what's interesting is that nobody in the writing staff put Zeke number one. Only David Johnson and Lev Bell had one rankings on anybody's ballot. Apparently, Melvin Gordon was unranked on some, and so there were others that received a top five vote. Devonta Freeman, Lamar Miller, DeMarco Murray, and Jordan Howard. So.

[Andy Holloway]

Man, I can tell you I can't.

[Jason Moore]

Debate one and two.

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Jason Moore]

Or three.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah. One through three is just put them in a. Put them in the Yahtzee Cup. Shake them around.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Al Robinson]

Throw them out.

[Jason Moore]

Doesn't matter.

[Andy Holloway]

Four and five.

[Jason Moore]

I'll take all three, please. Two for one.

[Andy Holloway]

Neither of those.

[Jason Moore]

Hold on. Yeah, quick aside. If you could get two of those.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, that'd be.

[Jason Moore]

We need Love Bell to get another three. Four game suspension. Lev, if you're out there, your friend.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, the problem is it's not going to be three or four games this time.

[Jason Moore]

Look. Hey, hey, wait, wait, wait.

[Al Robinson]

It'll be four.

[Jason Moore]

Who's playing this weekend?

[Al Robinson]

Steelers. Patriots.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, you mean LeGarrett Blunt. Le'Veon Bell. They can get back together, go for.

[Andy Holloway]

A little car ride.

[Al Robinson]

Maybe.

[Jason Moore]

Josh and Martavis are not. Is he all right? That's not funny. Or is it? All right, let's move on. LaShawn McCoy, Melvin Gordon. Do you agree with those. Is four or five? I do not agree with McCoy. I said this on the last show, but when I look at the names to replace them with Devonta Freeman and demarco Murray are my only temptations for the four spot.

[Andy Holloway]

Those are my two. That would be my four and five. I would rather have Freeman and Murray over both Shady and Gordon. However, I make no complaints if you want to mix up. I mean, that's another one where I would say you could throw in Jordan Howard and Lamar Miller into that group personally and whoever you like. The best.

[Jason Moore]

News broke Yesterday that Bill O'Brien is going to be calling plays for Houston in 2017. Interesting. Certainly for, you know, Lamar in that type of situation. Let. Let me ask you this. Where do you see Arian Foster this year? Top 10.

[Al Robinson]

Top 10. Couch potatoes.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Any other thoughts?

[Al Robinson]

And I just. Gordon is going to be so incredibly polarizing this off season for me. And I mean, it all really depends on what San Diego does. Do they bring Woodhead back? Do they draft a running back in the top four rounds? That kind of a thing.

[Jason Moore]

I like Gordon.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, I know you love him.

[Andy Holloway]

I just.

[Al Robinson]

I don't know. He's not an automatic top five for me. But if the situation where. Where they don't really do anything, let's say they bring back Oliver. They don't really bring anyone back. With the. With the coaching change of getting Buffalo's running back coach, I mean, that's. That sounds like good news for. For Melvin.

[Andy Holloway]

News and notes from around the league.

[Jason Moore]

You guys have anything? Jordy Nelson this morning. Yesterday, it was reported by ESPN's Rob Demovsky that he is a long shot.

[Al Robinson]

I like Tuesdays. We've got hope. Oh, it's always a long shot.

[Jason Moore]

It's the way it works.

[Al Robinson]

It escalated quickly.

[Jason Moore]

Devonte Adams, though, with the sprained ankle.

[Al Robinson]

That's the big news.

[Jason Moore]

Won't practice till Saturday. I think I'll play.

[Al Robinson]

Well. The last thing I had read is that they think that the injury is pretty serious to Devonte Adams to his ankle. And if you recall, during Devonte Adams sophomore year when he was the stinky cheese, he had sprained his ankle severely at the beginning of the season and then was hampered by it all year.

[Andy Holloway]

Geronimo Allison also sat out Wednesday's practice with a hamstring issue. He's expected to play, but my name is Jeff. You're Jeff Janis. Oh, my goodness.

[Jason Moore]

They weren't even. Jeff Janis wasn't even out there when Adams went out with the ankle. I know. I mean, they were picking. I saw McCarthy actually turned around, he grabbed a guy from the third row, suited him up and said, you can wear Janice like.

[Al Robinson]

He pointed and Janice like me. I'm going in behind you. Scoot the water, boy.

[Jason Moore]

He asked Janice to help him put on his pads. Just for insult.

[Al Robinson]

Janice, get it together, man.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So what is this news about Andrew Luck?

[Al Robinson]

He just had a or. It was broke this morning that apparently he had a shoulder surgery. Old Jim Merced himself tweeted this one out. It's a successful outpatient surgery, but he should be ready to go for the season.

[Jason Moore]

That's not my fault. After all the stuff I said about him yesterday, is it?

[Al Robinson]

Well, people don't know what you said yesterday, my friend.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, that's funny. We pre recorded the shows for next week because we're at the Fantasy Sports Trade association in Nashville. So yesterday, I mean, on what I.

[Al Robinson]

Next week, what I'm saying on next.

[Jason Moore]

Tuesday, the Jags did not select Chip Kelly to be their offensive coordinator. Sticking with. Well, it's Nathaniel Hackett.

[Al Robinson]

Can he hack it?

[Jason Moore]

I doubt it. I doubt it. Any other thoughts? By the way, we talk all about these coaching changes, it's worth mentioning we'll have a coaching changes episode where we highlight all the movement at both the head coach and coordinator positions of significance that affects fantasy players obviously in a significant way. You know, you see what Kyle Shanahan was able to do over the last couple of years in Atlanta, building that offense up. You have Mike McCoy going back to Denver. You have a lot of different situations worth monitoring.

[Al Robinson]

The aforementioned Anthony Lynn from Buffalo, who has been a running back coach forever and saw Lashawn McCoy have just an absolute monster. And not just Lashawn McCoy. I mean Mike Gillisley, the entire running system for Buffalo was tremendous.

[Jason Moore]

Dynamite, as they say.

[Al Robinson]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Don't they?

[Al Robinson]

Yeah. You want answers? I think I'm entitled.

[Andy Holloway]

You want answers?

[Jason Moore]

I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. Now, Jason is going to be joining us soon. Right now he's in the middle of a game of Minesweeper.

[Al Robinson]

Oh, I'm doing so good. Did you guys. Did you know how to play that game?

[Andy Holloway]

No, I did. I love.

[Jason Moore]

That's funny you said that. I never comprehend.

[Al Robinson]

I have one of my buddies shout out to Chris who was just freaking amazing at Minesweeper and never got it. I know I would just click.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I love that.

[Jason Moore]

It was like a magic eye puzzle I could never see.

[Al Robinson]

Jason liked it because he said it to giant grid with one mine. Yeah, I know how you play and then dominate.

[Andy Holloway]

I could. I could beat the expert idiot savant, man.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. All right. The truth about fantasy running backs. We broke down the top 10 running backs on Tuesday's episode. Will not be rehashing them today. So go back and listen to that episode. That was actually Tuesday, right, Mike? I believe it was all time is.

[Al Robinson]

I believe so.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Number 11, J. Ajayi, drafted outside the top 100 in standard and PPR leagues last year, ended up the number 11 overall fantasy running back. 15 games, 1300 yards. I mean, that's impressive. Very nice consistency rating of 5, which.

[Andy Holloway]

Is really surprising considering seem that way. It did not seem that Way. And this from that 25 stats article up on the fantasy footballers is great. You know about JI's three monster games where he went over 200 yards and most likely won somebody's fantasy weeks. Those three games, those three games were 49% of his yardage on the ground. He only averaged 54 yards per game in his other 12 starts. And who does that remind you of? Who had a three game monster stretch?

[Al Robinson]

And people were saying devonte Freeman.

[Andy Holloway]

That's right. Everyone was saying Devonta Freeman. He just did it in those three games. The rest of the time he wasn't that good. So moving forward next year, you think he's going to be, he's going to be all right.

[Jason Moore]

If he has the role, he's going to be all right. I mean you have zero performances by him that were outside, you know, into the bust range. He had nine top 25 performances, not just the three big games. He's, he's a low end, 12 type of guy. For me, I still think they don't love him.

[Andy Holloway]

I still, that's my worry with him.

[Jason Moore]

The thing is, is I don't really hold, you know, I didn't hold it against Devonta Freeman that the weight of those games was, I mean, look, if you have 200 yards, 200, 300 yards in a game, it's going to take up a lot of your high percentage of your yardage no matter who you are.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, but it's.

[Jason Moore]

How about the fact he had three monster games?

[Al Robinson]

It's not just a percentage. It's looking at his other 12 starts. He averaged 54 yards.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

The nice thing is, I mean, but.

[Jason Moore]

That'S not, that's not awful.

[Al Robinson]

That's pretty bad for if you're talking fantasy where he would be drafted. If you get, if you draft JJ with his ADP and he's giving you 54 yards a game, that's bad.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that would be bad. Thankfully he got eight touchdowns rushing.

[Jason Moore]

54 yards a game is about 860 for the season.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, for.

[Jason Moore]

But then you had those other huge games. So I mean, I'm just saying like that's not the end of the world to me that he. Outside of his three. I, I just don't like that narrative. I don't, I don't. Other than his great games, he was bad. I mean that's the story to me when you say something like that. Well, but he ended up this fifth.

[Al Robinson]

You want to chase that narrative that you're saying other than so 3 games he was good 12 games he was meh.

[Jason Moore]

No, no. Just because he averaged 54 yards doesn't mean 12 games he was meh. He had games that he wasn't great in and he had games where he scored in and he had multiple scores in. It's not like every game other than the three. He went out there and put up exactly 54 yards and point three touchdowns. He had games where he won your weeks and clearly fifth most consistent running back at the position, regardless of that situation.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, the reason why is he had several of his low yardage games. You know, week three he had 28 yards but he got a touchdown. You know, he had 42 yards a couple weeks later, but he got a touchdown and 45 and got a touchdown. So you know, he had some of his. They coincided where his low yardage games. He scored, he scored. And so his consistency was actually pretty good.

[Jason Moore]

I mean Melvin Gordon had three games over 100 yards on the season. And we look at Melvin Gordon, we say, hey look, look at the season he had. Look how he carried people with the touchdowns yardage games. I just.

[Andy Holloway]

JJ had four.

[Jason Moore]

Right. Other than Zeke, David Johnson and Lev Bell. This is called playing running back to me. I mean defenses who you're playing. I'm impressed with JJ season. I'm not the biggest fan of JI long term, but he's. He proved me wrong this year.

[Al Robinson]

My only point was versus where people will draft.

[Jason Moore]

Well, let's look at how he played against top defenses and bottom defenses. Jiji about 12 points a game against the top defense is 74 rushing yards a game. Against bottom 16 he was at 105 yards per game. That was five games. So if you look at this year, 10 of his 15 games played were against top 16 rushing defenses. So that's impressive to me. When you play twice as many games against difficult rushing defenses still perform. I'm impressed with that too.

[Al Robinson]

So here we'll run through just a couple names of the early because what I'm talking about is on so on fantasy football calculator. The latest mock draft. He's the eighth running back taken off the board in the second round. Which is fine. I mean running backs are going early once again. But here's so JJ or Carlos Hyde.

[Andy Holloway]

I would take a dry.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, I'll go hide Ajayi or Lamar Miller.

[Jason Moore]

I'll take Lamar Miller.

[Al Robinson]

As would I Ingram.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean that's going to.

[Jason Moore]

You know, it's crazy because I just haven't handed a Jay the starting job in my head.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what I was Just going to say it depends on, I guess, if.

[Jason Moore]

You hand on the starting job.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, he's. Let's say he's the starter.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's close. I'll probably take. I'll probably take Ingram in a PPR and Ajayi in a standard.

[Al Robinson]

And last one, Latavius. If, assuming he's back in Oakland, I'll take.

[Jason Moore]

I guess I'll take a jai. That's. That's. Yeah. I mean, those are questions.

[Al Robinson]

He's going to be a tough guy to get a handle on.

[Jason Moore]

Let's talk about Frank Gore, number 12 on this list. Because wait, is.

[Al Robinson]

Are we talking about next year or this year?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, last year, too. Frank Gore always there.

[Al Robinson]

He needs to change his number to number 12.

[Jason Moore]

I feel like all the running back ones walk into the room and then he's like. He pokes out from back behind the group and says, hey, guys. And then they're like, Frank, who let you in? He's like, I have. I'm number 12.

[Andy Holloway]

It's like, this is my house.

[Jason Moore]

This is where I.

[Andy Holloway]

This is where I live. You guys are.

[Al Robinson]

I was hosting this party, fellas.

[Andy Holloway]

Before you were born.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, pretty much 16 games, 263 carries, over a thousand yards and four touchdowns. Obviously it was a year in which the offensive line struggled immensely, yet he still got it done. I think he's the least sexy player to own, maybe out of the top 24 running backs.

[Al Robinson]

You just, you never have faith that you're going to get a boom, boom game from.

[Jason Moore]

And you don't. He only had one top five game on the year, but he didn't bust and he had 12 top 25 games.

[Andy Holloway]

So if 12 weeks, you've got basically an RB2 or better where you draft Frank Gore allows you. I mean, you're going to be able to have him. You're going to have a whole team of solid draft picks before you can Then draft your RB2 or better. Late. I mean, Frank Gore is always great and I don't see a reason for that to change.

[Jason Moore]

Barring them, he'll be 34 years old next year. That's like, when the draft starts, he'll be 34. I mean, when the league starts. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Is there any chance he just straight retires?

[Al Robinson]

I would say there is.

[Jason Moore]

I don't know about that.

[Andy Holloway]

They need help with the running back.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, they do.

[Andy Holloway]

Their backups are, you know, sorry, sorry. Robert Turbin. I think that they need help. So they will probably go out and draft another wide receiver.

[Al Robinson]

Well, Bobby Turbin's A free agent. So he will. He will probably not be there.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Anything else about Frank Gordon? 8th most consistent player. We talked about how many no bus games. You know, he just very. If he could be a two, I'll take him as a two.

[Al Robinson]

At top verse. Top and bottom defenses, he's relatively the same. He's Frank Gore.

[Jason Moore]

Frank Gore drafted In the what, six round last year.

[Al Robinson]

He was drafted in 1988.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Al Robinson]

Frank Gore.

[Jason Moore]

Yep. Latavius Murray came in at number 13, missed a couple games during this season, had 195 carries, 788 yards, and then Bloodow 12 touchdowns. So he basically offset the fears of the jalen Richard and DeAndre Washington Platoon by scoring. And so that does give me pause and concern because you have both Richard and Washington coming into their second year. You have Murray, who did see a massively reduced workload. When you talk about total carries on the year, I'm curious, do you guys have his beginning and end of year splits? Maybe we should look at.

[Al Robinson]

I have his game log in front of me.

[Andy Holloway]

Where.

[Al Robinson]

I mean it's. It's really good. Where. So through week 14, he, in our half point scoring format, he had under 10 points just once, assuming you don't count the games he did not play against him, which I will not do that. But he had. He only scored four points against Baltimore. He was 8 for 19 on the ground, but other than that, double digits, man. Double digits. And then it really slowed down at the end of the year. The last three weeks he was. He was single digits.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, what I would say about Latavius Murray is more about the Raiders themselves. The Raiders are a phenomenal running team.

[Jason Moore]

Phenomenal.

[Andy Holloway]

The problem is there's three running backs there that were all actively involved. Obviously they did not have a top 12 PPR running back, but as a team compared to other teams, they were the fifth most fantasy points among all NFL teams at the running back position. So I think hopefully next year they can kind of figure out, well, Latavius.

[Al Robinson]

Is a free agent. We don't know that he's going to be back with Oakland.

[Andy Holloway]

That's going to be one of the more interesting situations.

[Jason Moore]

I wouldn't pay them. I wouldn't pay him.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, I don't think they will. I think that he will be moving on and then D Wash and Rashard will hold it down.

[Jason Moore]

If that's the case. And they had the fifth most fantasy points, it reminds me of like, you know, the Saints for a couple years, right? Pretty much led the league in rushing, but it was shared, you know, it was shared across Sprouls and Bush and maybe even McAllister back in the day.

[Al Robinson]

On Robinson and Pierre Thomas.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So, I mean, the offensive line produces fantasy points. And so if Latavius leaves, we'll be talking about where to take Washington, where to take Rashard in next year's draft. So, you know, Murray, a lot of question marks.

[Al Robinson]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

But definitely got it done in the end zone. All right, before we move on and talk about Isaiah Crowell, I want to thank today's sponsor, Blue Apron. Look, I love the meat, all right? And I love that Blue Apron. Their beef raised humanely. Chickens, free range pork raised naturally. The meals they send, delicious. Absolutely great. And look, I love Blue Apron because they ship the exact amount of ingredients required for a recipe. We don't have a bunch of food waste. I don't have to wonder and measure and do things that I'm incapable of doing. They make it easy to eat delicious food. Research shows that Blue Apron families cook nearly three times more often. And I love the way that fresh plate of food looks on the table when we get done. We get to try different things. It's awesome. Some examples, you got some seared pork chops with farron cranberry chutney. You got spaghetti squash and marinara with mushroom and garlic knots. You got spicy shrimp, Korean rice cakes with cabbage and furikake. It's good stuff. And we just got three more meals here at the Holloway household yesterday. Looking forward to eating those this week. So check out this week's menu. Get your first three meals for free with free shipping by going to blueapron.comballers that's blueapron.comballers. you love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home cooked meals with Blue Apron. So do not wait. That's blueapron.com ballers. Blue Apron is a better way to cook. Isaiah Cruel, number 14. Yeah, you're talking about eating crow, right? Isaiah Crowell came in at number 14. If. Maybe he's less sexy to play than Frank Gore. Maybe that's the actual.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, definitely is.

[Jason Moore]

198 carries, seven touchdowns.

[Al Robinson]

His offense is. Is far worse. You need give me Colts offense.

[Jason Moore]

You need fantasy vegetables. Micah. Yes, we've talked about this before. Frank Gore. Isaiah Crowell was a vegetable this year. Without question. I'd argue that Murray Latavius Murray this year was less, you know, not a sexy food. He was a. He was a cabbage. A cabbage of touchdowns. These are guys I love as the two. You know what I mean? I love those. As my number two running back. I don't know if I love Isaiah Cruell.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I was just going to say I ended up here. I would not have liked Isaiah Crowell as my running back. Two or even three was very hard to play, very hard to start. Because while he. Exactly. He had a lot of big blow up games, it was very hard to predict those. They bizarrely, you know, all of a sudden this year he became a pass catching back where you know, in a PPR league, Isaiah Crowell was even more valuable. And he had never really done that before.

[Al Robinson]

He had Duke Johnson. He was the hotness. He was the PPR hotness.

[Andy Holloway]

Last offseason, every, you know, every third game they had a change of quarterback which just always, you know, it's like, okay, he caught six passes last week, maybe he's going to do this. And then it's like, oh, well, there's a new quarterback. It was just very difficult. And I expect going forward next year, I don't see why the Cleveland Brown situation is going to be any less difficult to predict. So I'm just saying he's a hard guy to trust.

[Jason Moore]

In seven of 16 games in single digits.

[Andy Holloway]

Exactly.

[Al Robinson]

He's also a restricted free agent, so he may or may not be back with the Cleveland Browns.

[Jason Moore]

Carlos Hyde comes in at number 15 last year, was drafted very high, 37 was the ADP and standard leagues, 42 and PPR leagues. You know, it was a weird year for Carlos Hyde. I think it was a year that for those that are truthers, he gave you enough to make you think, okay, all right, well maybe, you know, maybe next year. For those of you that doubted him, he gave you enough ammo to say, all right, can't stay healthy, can't do enough. The offense, the team, you know, he was Carlos Hine.

[Andy Holloway]

The problem now is that Chip Kelly is gone. And the way that Chip Kelly ran that offense and, and focused on playing fast and got the running backs heavily involved. Carlos Hyde takes a hit to me with that system.

[Al Robinson]

Does he?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Al Robinson]

Even if it's Kyle Shanahan, Carlos Hyde's.

[Andy Holloway]

Running style I feel like matched the style of running that Chip Kelly did better. You, you brought, you came into this year talking about, you know, facing nickel coverage and how good Carlos Hyde was at that. And Chip Kelly's teams usually face the most nickel coverage. Things like that are going to change.

[Jason Moore]

Carlos Hyde was really, really good during a couple spurts during the year. Like, really good.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. The first five weeks of the season, he's on Fire.

[Jason Moore]

And then weeks 11 through 14 on fire again.

[Andy Holloway]

But he had basically injuries.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he had lulls in between there. So can he stay healthy? Yeah, he's proven that he can't do that yet.

[Al Robinson]

The health is the biggest question for me. The Carlos Hyde's talents, there is zero questions for me. I think he is an excellent, excellent running back. And Kyle Shanahan, I know I'm talking about him a lot lately, but look what his running backs have done in the past. Look what they're doing right now. You remember Alfred Morris in Washington? That was Kyle Shanahan. And you look at Tevin Coleman, what he's doing right now. You look at Devontae Freeman. So it's just Kyle Shanahan runs a very friendly running back system. And so that I'm.

[Jason Moore]

If, If.

[Al Robinson]

If K shy moves over to San Francisco, there is zero hit to me for. For what Carlos Hyde did last year.

[Jason Moore]

Good news, guys. Brandon Marshall is not open to taking a pay cut.

[Al Robinson]

Oh, yeah, you didn't hear that?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he's cut.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, he's. He's going to be open to taking a regular cut. Yeah, I don't know if he's open to it. I mean, they're just gonna. Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what Andy's eyes just said.

[Jason Moore]

I don't think he's gonna. I don't think it's a guarantee he's cut. I mean, he's like seven and a half million dollars. I don't think that he's necessarily gonna be cut.

[Andy Holloway]

I agree.

[Jason Moore]

Why would you cut? I mean, that's a pretty good. That's all right.

[Andy Holloway]

But I think there's a good chance that he gets cut. But Andy's eyes looked up and said, the Cardinals are calling Carson. Carson is a step up from Pitts. Patrick.

[Jason Moore]

If John Brown's health isn't going to be there.

[Andy Holloway]

Already lost Michael Floyd.

[Jason Moore]

I'll take him.

[Al Robinson]

It's not just Brown. I mean, it's Jaron Brown as well.

[Jason Moore]

You ready? Are you ready for Brandon Marshall in New England? Are you ready for that?

[Al Robinson]

Everyone's going to New England.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Spencer Ware. Spencer Ware, number 16, half point ranking. Drafted very late. Obviously, we all thought he was a handcuff. Yeah, we all thought Jamal Charles would be able to get back on the field and perform based on how he had recovered from previous injury. Did not come to fruition for Jamal Charles. Spencer Ware, to be honest, thought it would be a better season for Spencer where with the amount of work he got 214 carries, 922 yards only three touchdowns really did not impress me as the season wore on. And it made you wonder if Spencer Ware wore down. That's. That's what I kind of took away from it. Burned bright early. Didn't seem to be somebody that could take advantage of bad matchups or in his case, good matchups.

[Al Robinson]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

That's how he can't. Is that the feeling you guys have? I mean, what if he is the bell cow in Kansas City next year? Still some. He acquiesced a lot of work to Char West. What. What is Spencer Ware, man?

[Al Robinson]

He is. He is also very difficult, especially when you throw in the variable of Jamal Charles. But let's, let's say Jamal Charles is gone. I think Spencer, we're still a fine running back to. I mean, he, he, he had. I, I, the, the narrative to me is that he wore down. That's what I feel like happened too. He wore down. But if you look at his actual performances, I mean he had some, some pretty strong games here at the end.

[Jason Moore]

He had a couple games this year, you know, where you get. He had these games where you get 20 carries and still end up with like eight fantasy points. Only scored three times.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Which is.

[Al Robinson]

Touchdowns were a disaster.

[Jason Moore]

That's an anomaly to me. If you're the bell cow in Kansas City receiving three total rushing touchdowns, I think that would return to a higher number.

[Al Robinson]

Right. Well, let's say. And if you gave him, you know, just eight, I think eight is not a crazy number. If he had got. If he had scored five more touchdowns. I haven't done the math, but he's probably ends up as a running back one.

[Andy Holloway]

You're speaking on the ground, right? Because he also, I believe.

[Al Robinson]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm talking about rushing two touchdowns, so.

[Al Robinson]

I'm speaking rushing only.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. He was about the same against top and bottom half defenses. He only had one top five performance and he did not really bust for. You had nine top 25 games.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he's all right. I don't think Spencer is a Carlos Hyde level talent. You know, you've got it. You've got a system here that's always produced a good running back, even going back to Philadelphia. And granted those, those are more talented guys.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, Shady and Jamal Charles are extremely talented, but I would expect Spencer Ware to be able to do more with, with what he's been given. And if Jamal Charles.

[Jason Moore]

We need to talk about Jamal Charles. Yeah, that's the story here. We need to talk about him because he is. He's only 30 years old. He'll be 30.

[Al Robinson]

Only that's pretty old for a run.

[Jason Moore]

We just talked about Frank Gore.

[Al Robinson]

Frank Gore is an anomaly.

[Andy Holloway]

Can't be the gold standard.

[Jason Moore]

What I mean is he did not play. He's had a couple of full missed seasons. He was also playing behind people in the early part of his career. And I don't think that. I think Jamal Charles can come back.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, I think he can come back. But can he come back to being Jamal Charles?

[Jason Moore]

Answer the question. I don't know. I don't.

[Al Robinson]

I don't know. This is more of rhetorical.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm skeptical.

[Jason Moore]

I think it basically hasn't played for two years.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

So that, that's the, the problem. But if he's back in, in Kansas City, it's going to impact where and west and every. Everybody may suffer from that. So I'm curious where Jamal Charles will go.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm curious to see if they draft a running back or sign him. You know, that will be indicative to me of what they think of Jamal Charles going forward.

[Al Robinson]

Jamal Charles, I'm just, just to throw it out there. Like we said, 30 years old, basically has not played for the last two years. He is owed $7 million. Yeah, that is, that is a hefty running back price. And they can cut him with no dead cap.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Al Robinson]

So he.

[Jason Moore]

Here was the thing about Spencer Ware that disappointed me. He rushed for 10 or more yards. Right. On 2% of his carries is what I'm reading.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

So he just did not have as many big plays. Let's move on.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, to the, to the. The real show.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

The main event.

[Al Robinson]

Oh, goodness.

[Andy Holloway]

Number 17 drafted the winner.

[Al Robinson]

Super high winner of the poopiest pants award. Footy, which. That thing's probably still in the mail.

[Andy Holloway]

Still in the mail. Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley drafted at number three and he came in as the 17th best running back. And here is a beautiful stat nugget from our 25 stat article, which you can find on the fantasy footballers.com Todd Gurley had the highest percentage of any team's total red zone targets. 78 carries. Yes, 78.7% of the LA Rams red zone carries went to Todd Gurley and he still finishes the 17th best running back. I mean, you can't ask for more than being the highest used red zone weapon in the league.

[Jason Moore]

Caught 43 passes. How many touchdowns?

[Al Robinson]

How many touchdowns through the year? Oh, zero.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, zero.

[Al Robinson]

That's a zero. But to his credit, I mean that 58 targets to Todd Gurley, that's what we Want to see that? I had great concerns for Todd Gurley in his workload in that portion of the game since they didn't really use him like that his rookie year. They didn't use them like that the first couple weeks with Jeff Fisher's insistence on Benny Cunningham being in on third down. But that did. It did turn around. So it's not. I'm not completely bailing on Todd Gurley.

[Jason Moore]

What is he under Sean McVay.

[Al Robinson]

Man. I mean, similar.

[Jason Moore]

Like, do you expect that kind of a workload?

[Al Robinson]

I would. I don't know. What else are you going to do? What are the Rams going to do? You're going to lose. You're going to lose Kenny Brett, most likely. Who's your. You have Jared Goff still not really showing anything. You don't have wep. Your greatest weapon then is Tavon Austin, which are as in your depth chart of weapons. So it's just to me, you got to give Todd Gurley those, those close to 300 touches.

[Andy Holloway]

So is Todd Gurley, I think the real question here, right, because look, they, they had a, they had a putrid offense this season, but they also had for the majority of the season a head coach who was fine just going punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, and just old school.

[Jason Moore]

I don't think he wanted to go punt.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, no. But my point is he was okay being a defensive team, low scoring. Like he wasn't trying to scheme things up and be aggressive offensively and do things like in today's NFL that helps fantasy football players because they're on a higher powered offense.

[Jason Moore]

He was more of a yesterday's NFL.

[Andy Holloway]

So the question is, Todd Gurley comes out of college, he's unbelievably talented. He's the next Adrian Peterson. He comes out rookie year and he's great this year. The film, not just the stats, but the film did not look good for me. When I watched Todd Gurley, he didn't look anything special, couldn't break big plays, never. I mean, he didn't run away from anybody. He just didn't look special to me. So the question, because he had a lot of work in college is, is this a Trent Richardson type of situation where, look, he, he was great in college and he had a good rookie season, but maybe he's not going to get back to that high hope or was this season the outlier, the aberration? I mean, which way do you lean based on your film and what you see as the future of the Rams?

[Jason Moore]

I think he's A really, really talented player. And so I lean the direction of. Look, his rookie year wasn't just touchdown dependency.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, he was, he was amazing.

[Jason Moore]

But you compare him to like Trent Richardson's rookie year. He didn't break a thousand yards and it was touchdown dependent. I think if I had to pick a side. Yeah, look, I know this season will answer it. You've got a different head coach, you're going to have a different opportunity. If he does this for two straight years, I mean, it's not good. Could not. I mean, lowest yards per carry in the league, lowest average yards, you know, all purpose yards per touch. It was a bad year.

[Al Robinson]

46 yards. 46 rushing yards a game against top 16 defenses.

[Jason Moore]

No, I mean, it's just brutal. And the truth is I. The only way this doesn't get answered this year, I guess is if, I mean, if they don't have a quarterback.

[Al Robinson]

Well, they, they have one. They know who it is.

[Andy Holloway]

And, but, but it's okay, guys, they brought in Greg Olson, Olson with an O, you know, to be the quarterback's coach. I mean, this is a guy who's got 20 years of professional experience. He does at quarterback coach or head coach or.

[Jason Moore]

Did they really bring Greg Olson? Yeah, you know, he's a former Arizona State offensive coordinator that I despised.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, well, why would you despise him?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, he wasn't any good.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Oh, here's, here's a great, great stat. So he has been the quarterback's coach or the offensive coordinator in the NFL for basically the last almost 20 years. He's bounced around from team to team. Somehow in the last decade, how many times would you say he has had a, let's just say top half, like just, just better than, you know, the top 15 offenses in the league. I mean, you know, in theory it should be at least 50%. If you just. I mean, we're just talking top half, not top 10, not top five.

[Al Robinson]

This is not trending well, it would.

[Andy Holloway]

Be once and it was last year with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Blake Borl's crazy touchdown number. Other than that, every other year has been bottom half of the league. So the savior is here. Jared Goff. You're going to be just fine.

[Jason Moore]

Todd Gurley. Where does he go next year? Where does he belong? He was obviously. I mean, he's the number three player off the board this year. Disappointed, destroyed, fantasy owners. You'll have a level of optimism. Some people think he'll bounce back. I don't think he will. I think he's either going to disappoint or surprise. I think he'll gonna be one of those.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he'll be drafted as about the 8th.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, well, I guess I don't think he will play to his draft position. That's what I meant. He will either disappoint from his draft position. I don't think he's going to.

[Al Robinson]

Well, maybe because I think he'll go in the second round.

[Andy Holloway]

See, I think he'll be about the eighth running back taken which could put him in the second round.

[Jason Moore]

Would you take him as the eighth running back?

[Andy Holloway]

I would not and I expect that he will not finish. I think I lean more towards not. Not the Trent Richardson side. That's. That's hyperbolic. But I lean more towards. He is not a RB one next year.

[Al Robinson]

I. That's where I lean Todd Gurley and.

[Jason Moore]

You look at the names above him in this ranking though. I mean you would draft him over Gore Latavius, Crowell, Hyde and where.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep. Well, no, no, no. Maybe not Carlos Hyde. That one would be close, but yes.

[Al Robinson]

The others, no, no.

[Andy Holloway]

I would rather have a jai.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Lamar Miller came in at number 18. The guy you know, Lamar Miller had one of those years where he seemed like he was hurt through half of it but only missed two games. Kind of played through a lot of injury. He was the 11th most consistent fantasy running back. When you talk about top performances didn't really bust for you when he played. Had 10 top 25 games. Played a lot better against bottom half defenses, which makes a ton of sense to me because you get those top half defenses. You're putting Brock Osweiler on the spot and you're basically saying Brock needs to beat me big. Big yardage difference. 58 yards a game against top 16 versus 95 against bottom 16.

[Andy Holloway]

I think Lamar Miller was fine. I mean he finishes the 16th best running back but he missed the last.

[Al Robinson]

Two games of the 18th best running back.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, depending on scoring format, yes. 18, 18th in standard, 16th in half point. But he missed the last two games of THE season. He. He. It. It's hard to run when your quarterback. I mean ask, you know, the, the former Gurley how it is when you run when your quarterback is atrocious. I believe Bill O'Brien calling the place this next year is going to improve the offense. I think he was frustrated with their vanilla play calling. I mean that's, that's.

[Jason Moore]

Isn't it interesting when you have situations like Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman, right. Dion Lewis and LeGarrett blunt, great offenses Shared backfields. Then you have situations like Ty Gurley and Lamar Miller, troubled offenses, full opportunity. And we talk so much in the offseason about okay, it's that balance of opportunity.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

You know, what would you rather have? Would you rather be playing the coin flip of Is it a Lewis or Blunt game or would you rather play the. The coin flip of oh, no, you know, are they going to shut down the running game? Because that's all we have in Houston or la?

[Andy Holloway]

I think I would. Personally, I lean more towards the workhorse, the Todd Gurley or the Lamar Miller because I'm not going to be drafting any of those guys as my one, my RB one. Like that's. I don't see Lamar Miller, Todd Gurley, Deion Lewis.

[Jason Moore]

You don't see Lamar Miller as a one.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm saying as like he might be in my top 12 running backs next year, but I'm hoping that he is my second running back on my roster if I can grab him in the second round and go running back. Running back to start is an example. But my point is that second running back on my roster. I want more assurity. I want more. You know, look at Todd Gurley. We're so disappointed with Todd Gurley's year. But you know, in truth, he didn't crap people's team teams. He got enough yards and enough carries and enough involvement in the passing game to where he disappointed you greatly. But it wasn't like he was putting up twos for fantasy points. Whereas Dion Lewis can come out and just like, oh, you're not involved this game because Uncle Billy. Uncle Billy, That's Bill Belichick's uncle.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, you see Bill Belichick high five. Amendola on that play.

[Al Robinson]

I heard about it.

[Jason Moore]

It was pretty cool emotion. Yeah, it's crazy. He had some. All right, Tevin Coleman at number 19. In fact, you've got Coleman at 19, blah. Powell at 21. A couple of guys sharing time, ending up here in the top 24 at the running back position. The upside for a Coleman seems to be immense. Great offense, very effective with only 118 carries and 31 catches on the year, yet ending up at number 19.

[Al Robinson]

Eight touchdowns, man, couple of top five weeks.

[Jason Moore]

So the potential to, you know, give you a monster game from time to time. How many touchdowns, Mike?

[Al Robinson]

Eight on the ground, three through the air. So he had 11 total touchdowns and he missed time.

[Jason Moore]

I mean he missed week eight, nine and ten before returning. You know, double digits in seven games during the or eight games.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't you Guys think that the touchdowns, I mean, so he missed time, finished high. So you say, okay, if he comes back, plays the whole time, he's going to be a beast. Don't you feel like those touchdowns were abnormally high for his usage?

[Jason Moore]

I don't, I personally don't. You don't know because that's like, you know when James Starks or Lacey are putting up touchdown numbers. I mean the offense is so dynamic. It scores so many points, the amount of yardage.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, but did James starks ever score 11 touchdowns?

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

I can look, I can answer that without looking it up.

[Jason Moore]

I think 10 touchdowns for Coleman is an okay number.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, I do too. They stay with the frequency. I'm with Andy. They score so many points that it's, it's not outrageous to me to say that he's going to have 10 touchdowns next year. I think the yardage is probably the same. I mean it reminds me of, of Sims from last year where you can expect 500 and 500. You're not going to get a thousand yards rushing. But built in with Coleman the way it was built in with Sims, why I liked him coming into this year was if the guy in front of him goes down, you could see an absolute stud.

[Andy Holloway]

Top five running.

[Jason Moore]

By the way, James Sarks had nine touchdowns.

[Al Robinson]

Oh, in your face. In my face.

[Jason Moore]

I was right in his. In his whole career. Oh, yes, there you go. He was a poor example.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Al Robinson]

Lacey though.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think there is a good example. I don't think there's any example. I mean, what, what second, you know, he had string running back, has ever had double digit touchdowns. Unless you want to say like legara Blunt.

[Al Robinson]

I was going to say legara Blunt.

[Jason Moore]

Download.

[Al Robinson]

I'm not talking this year. I'm talking previously.

[Jason Moore]

Darren Sprouls has done that before.

[Andy Holloway]

Really? Oh yeah. I guess probably his New Orleans Saints day he was. He went crazy hand.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Just remember how wrong you are.

[Andy Holloway]

I think that might be one season where Sproul.

[Al Robinson]

It's not the, it's certainly not the norm to have to have your backup, your quote unquote backup running back beginning that many touchdowns.

[Jason Moore]

So in 2014, Sprouls had six touchdowns on the ground. He's had a couple seven touchdown passing years.

[Andy Holloway]

And I mean and you Adam it. My point is just.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Coleman is a frontline running back though. Like if you, if you just gave Coleman the job, where does he go? Let's just hypothetically, devonte Freeman, he's on a trip to Fiji for a year and Coleman you're the starting running back for the Falcons 2017. Coleman is top five. Coleman is right behind the top three to me. Yeah, like I would draft him four.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, he would go extremely high. It's a guy who we're going to talk about here in a second who maybe he's, I guess he was still the starter kind, but it was was Hill. Jeremy Hill kind of had that situation where he's in a split backfield. Maybe he's the starter, maybe Gio is the starter, but he's a touchdown machine. Sure, Tevin Coleman's better than Jeremy Hill.

[Andy Holloway]

But Tevin Coleman wasn't used as a goal lineback, was he? Let me make that up.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, he was. And Tevin Coleman, the thing to remember about him is they don't treat him like a second tier. They don't treat him like a backup.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Al Robinson]

He likes drives.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. He gets drives and he gets high stress opportunities like important red zone drives, important plays out of the backfield. So I look at it like 1a, 1b is how they treat it. And maybe, you know, obviously Freeman is great but I think they think a lot of Coleman and for him to finish 19 with three games that he missed.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, he's the backup.

[Jason Moore]

You talk about 11 touchdowns in 13 games. So. Map 4 Table All Pal Jeremy Hill, Terrence west and Jonathan Stewart are the remaining names on this top 24 list. Matt Forte to me is an interesting, an interesting name for next season because the variables are all over the place. The quarterback situation, Bilal Powell's involvement, Forte's age, the contract that he signed, the kind of burn bright in the beginning let you down. Then he came back. He obviously surprised us right in the studio. Forte was a guy that we thought would succumb to the trans, you know, to the change in raw and team and situation. At his age we didn't think he'd be as successful as he was. He had a few bus games but he got a few big games. Three top five performances this year. What do you guys make of him? Is he a guy that can be underdrafted this year because nobody really wants. He shares in a bad offense with Blaupal back there.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, I think that. I think it's very possible in the mock draft I've mentioned on fantasy football calculator he went in the back of the seventh round. I mean he has the mighty have fallen. Matt Forte was a fourth round pick last year. I think he'll go higher than that once the season comes. But I think Forte is. He's a Guy I'll probably target because he's a. I think a decently reliable running back.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Refreshing change.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah. For you. I doubted the change. I don't like when old running backs change teams.

[Jason Moore]

No, but he not worked as often.

[Al Robinson]

But he showed me that he can. And I know that the quarterback and the offense and things is really in flux, but I think that Forte has enough juice. 31 give you.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Al Robinson]

I don't like old guys, but the.

[Jason Moore]

Way he runs is much more in the. The Frank Gore vein where it's just applauding, consistent. Find a vein, get what's there. That's what Gore does. Yeah, he was Gore and Forte, they get. They get what's available to them. Where a lot of. A lot of running backs don't do that.

[Al Robinson]

Right. So they want more. They're greedy.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Now maybe that's part of Gurley's problem last year was feeling the pressure of doing too much, trying to break a long play. Never. Never.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah. Remind me of Jeremy Hill his second.

[Andy Holloway]

Year just to go back for a second because we're not too far past it. I looked up the Tevin Coleman numbers. No, I just want to know.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, no, that's good.

[Andy Holloway]

He had 11 touchdowns. That seems high, especially in his short work. And like you brought up Jeremy Hill, who was. He's the goal line back behind Geo right rushes inside the 10. Tevin Coleman this year had 11, which is. I mean, that's, that's less opportunity than Alfred Blue and Chris Ivory and you know, Tim Hightower and.

[Al Robinson]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm just saying it wasn't like he was.

[Al Robinson]

Freeman have. No, he's not there. He's not their main goal line back. But they. When they're on the goal line.

[Andy Holloway]

Devonta Freeman had 30 inside the 10.

[Jason Moore]

Well, they.

[Andy Holloway]

Three times the amount of carries. Devonta Freeman's their goal line.

[Al Robinson]

Give me. Give me inside the five, though.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Coleman missed three games and had half the total carries of Freeman on the year, but was the 19th best running back.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, I don't think we're. We're not arguing no Coleman over Freeman, but he gets goal line. He gets goal line carries and so does Freeman.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, they both do. He gets about 34% of snaps.

[Andy Holloway]

Freeman had 19 carries inside the five. Coleman had four.

[Al Robinson]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

So I'm just saying.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

The goal line back for Atlanta is Devonta Freeman.

[Al Robinson]

Sure.

[Jason Moore]

Where are we, Jeremy?

[Al Robinson]

Well. Blah. Plow.

[Andy Holloway]

Blow.

[Al Robinson]

Blow. Plow.

[Andy Holloway]

It's interesting to me that Matt Forte and Blau Plow finished right back to each other.

[Al Robinson]

You Know, say one of them had 131 carries. The other one had 218 carries. And yet Blau Powell had less than 100 rushing yards, less than Matt Forte.

[Andy Holloway]

I have said this before. Blau Powell reminds me of Justin Forset, a guy who is really talented but always been behind the other backs. Blau Powell is a little bit older. I think he's 29 years old, so it's not like he's a spring chicken. But his. His usage leaves him in a place where Justin Forsett was. If he got the opportunity, I think Blal Pal would be great. But I agree with you, Mike. I think next year, coming into the year, it's still Forte's team. He's going to be the guy. So Blau Powell's.

[Jason Moore]

They need them both.

[Al Robinson]

Yeah, the split.

[Jason Moore]

28 years old, by the way.

[Al Robinson]

28. Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So, you know, Powell had a great year.

[Al Robinson]

It's the draft position.

[Jason Moore]

Offensive snap percentage was exactly 50% this year for Bilal Powell.

[Al Robinson]

The draft position for Forte and Powell is going to be very interesting.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that might be one of those situations where. Yeah, yeah, it'll be interesting for later guy. I think we got to wrap it up, guys. Do you have any final words, anybody you want to mention real quick before we. We close it down?

[Al Robinson]

We have Jeremy Hill at 22. There's. The offseason has already been extremely not positive for Jeremy Hill as they've talked about, like their beat reporters saying he might be buried on the depth chart. Terence west probably won't be back with the Ravens. It's a possibility, but he's a free agent. And then Johnny Stu. Let's talk Jonathan Stewart real quick because he's. He's. He's one of these aging running backs. The. He still gets the workload, though. Had to sit out for three games. His. The touchdowns were there, though. Finally, finally, the touchdowns were there for Jonathan Stewart. Nine on the ground, which has not been the case lately with Cam Newton as the quarterback.

[Jason Moore]

I expect we will be moving Jonathan Stewart down our draft boards because I think almost assuredly to me, Carolina is going to spend a pick on a. On a running back, on a young. You have to do that. Stewart, not only is he not been a pinnacle of health by any stretch, he'll be 30 when the season starts. And so we might not think of him that way, but he's about to break. I mean, he's about to set the franchise record for like, total rushing yardage as a Panther. So for. For Stewart, they need another guy. I don't think it's Artist Payne and it's not Fozzie Whitaker and it's not Mike Tolbert. They need a front line guy like a Fournette. They need to draft the next generation of running back. And what that might end up doing is putting you in a situation where you have maybe it's like Latavius Murray. I mean, that might be the best situation, the best example. He could still go out and put up 10 touchdowns.

[Al Robinson]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

But I don't think you're going to see the workload next year for Jonathan Stewart and I don't think they want to give him that kind of workload. So that, that would be my take on Stewart. Maybe he belongs in that 24 range still. But I think they draft somebody and we'll find out soon enough. So yeah, lots going on next week. Mentioned it earlier. We got Quarterback Truth. We got tight end Truth. And so that'll be a lot of fun if you have.

[Andy Holloway]

I can tell you already that our Quarterback Truth episode is excellent. I already know that next week's episode is amazing.

[Jason Moore]

That's true. We'll be, we'll be out in Nashville. But the episodes will continue to magically appear in your pocket. We do appreciate your reviews on itunes and wherever you're listening. They help support the show. So let us know what you think about the show. We really appreciate that. And you can find us on jointhefoot.com our fantasy community where you can join leagues with one another, where you get an extra episode that we're about to record. We answer. We have basically a mailbag episode just for jointhefoot.com supporters of this independent podcast where we only answer your questions once a week on the foot cast, completely exclusive episode. And we do a lot of other fun stuff, access to special stats information.

[Andy Holloway]

Those shows are so fun, especially this time of year.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you can ask us literally anything you want. So it'll be a lot of fun. So thank you for listening to today's show. Show after the show coming up. Very interesting conundrum we'll be debating.

[Al Robinson]

Oh yeah.

[Jason Moore]

So we'll leave it at that. You can check it out on YouTube. Check over there.

[Al Robinson]

Fantasyjocks.com the promo code is footballers because that's where the winners go, my friend. See you next time.

[Jason Moore]

It's where I go.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter @the ffballers.