RB Rankings Part 2 + Preseason Takeaways & BIG NEWS

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary Episode: RB Rankings Part 2 + Preseason Takeaways & BIG NEWS Release Date: August 9, 2019

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Introduction

In this episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright delve into the preseason week 1 games, provide a continuation of their running back rankings (Part 2), and share some exciting big news related to their involvement in a high-profile fantasy football league.

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Preseason Week 1 Takeaways

The hosts kick off the episode by discussing the outcomes and observations from the completed preseason games. Emphasizing the importance of visual evaluation over stat lines, Andy Holloway notes, “What I care about is what my eyes see from certain players on the field. Are they proving some of the narratives true about their talent?” (03:56).

Key Observations:

• Kyler Murray's Performance: Holloway highlights Murray's agility, stating, “The most impressive play from Kyla Murray... was him escaping the pocket like Sonic the Hedgehog.” (05:22)
• Melvin Gordon Situation: Mike Wright expresses concern over Melvin Gordon's holdout, suggesting a potential trade scenario with Detroit involving Shaquille Leonard and Darryl Bevel (06:13).
• David Montgomery’s Opportunity: The discussion shifts to David Montgomery, who showcased his abilities against a second-team defense. Holloway remarks, “Montgomery looked like the real deal last night. Shifty breaking tackles.” (08:30)
• Quarterback Updates: The Giants' quarterback situation is scrutinized, with Daniel Jones showing promise. Mike Wright observes, “If Daniel Jones is actually showing anything to the Giants, it might be him playing into the job instead of just Eli losing the job.” (13:10)

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Running Back Rankings Part 2

The core of the episode revolves around running back rankings, where the trio debates the positioning and potential of various players heading into the 2019 season.

Top Running Backs Discussed:

1. Nick Chubb (Cleveland Browns)

   • Andy’s View: Ranked at number 11, Chubb is praised for his explosiveness and opportunity following Carlos Hyde’s departure. “He can do that, but he did move up...” (27:30)
   • Jason’s Perspective: Places Chubb slightly lower at 13 but believes his potential warrants a higher ranking. “He was back and like you said, high powered offense. He's a goal line guy and now if he's involved in the passing game, there's very little to be worried about.” (28:32)

2. Joe Mixon (Cincinnati Bengals)

   • Concerns Raised: The offensive line’s performance and AJ Green’s injury are cited as reasons for a slight drop in rankings. Andy states, “The offensive line has been beat up...” (29:44)
   • Potential Upside: Despite concerns, Mixon is recognized as a talented, all-around back. “Joe Mixon is a dominant player for fantasy football, but with the offense taking a massive hit...” (30:25)

3. Carry On Johnson (Detroit Lions)

   • High Hopes vs. Risks: Jason passionately defends Johnson's potential, acknowledging the risks if other backs like Darryl Bevel do not perform as expected. “I believe in the talent. I believe that he showed it on the field and I'm hoping...” (36:12)
   • Andy’s Stand: While supportive, Andy remains cautious about Johnson's actual implementation in the offense. “I'm going to stick with the offense, but it's getting tighter.” (38:33)

4. Devonta Freeman (Atlanta Falcons) and Josh Jacobs (Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders)

   • Freeman’s Evolution: Discussed as a reliable back with increased opportunities, especially in the passing game. Jason notes, “He was really, really, really bad. And then he truly leveled...” (41:30)
   • Jacobs’ Potential: While Josh Jacobs hasn't fully showcased his potential, the hosts see substantial upside if he secures a leading role. “Josh Jacobs can do that. If you have the pick, he's a...” (44:32)

5. Leonard Fournette (Jacksonville Jaguars)

   • Volatility Issues: Fournette is recognized for his high volume but flagged for inconsistency and injury concerns. Andy states, “Leonard Fournette is more exciting to me because pure volume and goal line opportunities.” (58:12)

6. Melvin Gordon (Los Angeles Chargers)

   • Risk Mitigation: Positioned as a risk mitigation pick due to his holdout, with the potential to either be a top-tier back or miss the majority of the season. “This is risk mitigation placement for Melvin Gordon.” (56:20)

Other Notable Mentions:

• Aaron Jones (Green Bay Packers): Despite injuries, Jones remains a favored pick for his explosive potential when healthy. Jason emphasizes, “If you have the pick, if you're a risky player, if you're a swing for the fence, huge up to the moon, Aaron Jones is your pick because if he gets the work, he's going to be great.” (49:40)
• Chris Carson, Marlon Mack, Derek Henry: Discussed as valuable picks within their rankings, with Carson being underrated and Mack and Henry holding significant upside.

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Big News & Announcements

A major highlight of this episode is the Fantasy Footballers' involvement in a celebrity-filled fantasy league hosted on the Sleeper platform.

Key Points:

• Invitation to a Special League: The hosts announce their entry into a high-profile league featuring celebrities like JuJu Smith-Schuster, Ninja, Zac Efron, and others. Andy excitedly shares, “We are drafting tomorrow live, 11am Pacific...” (18:14)
• Live Draft Streaming: The draft will be streamed live on their YouTube channel, offering listeners an exclusive behind-the-scenes look. “You'll see basically everything you see.” (19:35)
• Interactive Challenges: A playful segment includes a challenge between Andy and Jason regarding who would win in a race from midfield versus the end zone, adding a light-hearted element to the announcement. “Jason, if you grab carry on, I may force you to trade them to Ninja for sure.” (19:05)

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Injuries and Updates

The episode covers several injury updates, providing listeners with critical information for their fantasy drafts.

Notable Updates:

• Jermaine Kearse (Detroit Lions): Confirmed out for the season due to a significant injury. Andy remarks, “Jermaine Curse last night... he's going to be done for the year.” (16:58)
• Antonio Brown: Dr. David Chow expresses optimism about Brown’s readiness, though Mike Wright advises caution. “He may not get a lot of time in camp, but believes he'll be ready for the season.” (20:43)
• Jerick McKinnon (Baltimore Ravens): Faces a prolonged sidelining with ongoing knee soreness, raising concerns about his availability. Jason states, “I'm not getting him for value. But Tevin Coleman and Matt Burrida order.” (21:22)
• QT (QB) Update: QBQT’s ankle injury is not considered major, with hopes he returns by week one. “It's not a major ankle injury, but I would expect Kiki will be shut down for the preseason.” (23:16)
• Leonard Fournette (Jacksonville Jaguars): Continues to have a high volume of rushing attempts but remains injury-prone with off-field issues affecting his playing time. “Leonard Fournette is so difficult because if he's on the field he will put up...” (52:10)

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with a recap of the running back rankings and a final encouragement for listeners to engage with their content and upcoming live draft events. The hosts reiterate the importance of staying connected through their website ultimatedraftkit.com and YouTube channel, ensuring fans have access to the latest insights and updates.

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Notable Quotes

• Andy Holloway:

  • “I care about what my eyes see from certain players on the field. Are they proving some of the narratives true about their talent?” (03:56)
  • “This is risk mitigation placement for Melvin Gordon.” (56:20)

• Jason Moore:

  • “If you have the pick... Aaron Jones is your pick because if he gets the work, he's going to be great.” (49:40)
  • “Devonta Freeman is one of the most consistent performers in fantasy.” (44:39)

• Mike Wright:

  • “You'll get many status updates about my pants.” (02:18)
  • “Josh Allen still inaccurate.” (15:25)

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Timestamp References

For quick navigation, notable quotes and discussions are referenced with timestamps in the format MM:SS, corresponding to their appearance in the transcript.

• 02:18
• 03:56
• 05:22
• 06:13
• 08:30
• 13:10
• 27:30
• 28:32
• 29:44
• 30:25
• 36:12
• 38:33
• 41:30
• 44:32
• 49:40
• 52:10
• 56:20

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Stay Connected:

• Website: ultimatedraftkit.com
• YouTube: Fantasy Footballers Channel
• Twitter: @the_ffballers

Tune into the next episode for more in-depth analysis, player rankings, and exclusive fantasy football strategies!

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

All right, a bunch of preseason Week 1 games in the books. We're going to talk about them on today's show. Before we do that, I want to remind you about the Ultimate Draft kit. Now is the time you got to get into the Ultimate Draft Kit. You got to follow along as the trends in what's going on in fantasy take place. Players moving up, down, injuries. We've got it all in the ultimate Draft Kit, including projected stats for each and every player for the entire 2019 season. Profiles on everybody, sleepers, breakouts, bus values, and a whole lot more, including a mobile app. Check it all out@ultimate draftkit.com welcome to.

[Jason Moore]

The Fantasy Footballers podcast coming to you from pristineauction.com Studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, welcome in. Oh, we're back.

[Mike Wright]

You know what's back?

[Andy Holloway]

Is it football? Mike, say football.

[Jason Moore]

Football. Say football.

[Mike Wright]

Football.

[Jason Moore]

It's football.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, baby. I was watching so much preseason football yesterday and I was. I'm in the office alone, just talking to myself, saying, man, I love football. I'm so excited it's back.

[Andy Holloway]

We have a jam packed show today. I know this one's gonna run long, so all of you with an extra long commute, just be extra thankful.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, man, it's Friday.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

If you got to take a little bit in on Saturday morning. Yeah, fine.

[Jason Moore]

They might be a little busy Saturday morning. We'll see.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we do have a big announcement. We'll bring you in the news section today. Will comment on all the preseason games Saturday afternoon. Twitter is a dangerous, wild place in the middle of preseason games as well.

[Mike Wright]

No, it's the best place to be. Live tweeting during preseason football is possibly one of the of the greatest things of the entire live.

[Jason Moore]

Live tweeting. Yes. Live reading. Probably not gonna help your fantasy team. Just chill out.

[Mike Wright]

You'll get many status updates about my pants.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, important. And they may have the status of your pants. Kyler. Kyler mania last night. Obviously, we're from Arizona, so we're excited to see him out there. My goodness. What? He could hand the ball off. He could run around best of them. No, we'll talk about our biggest takeaways from the players that played last night. A handful of injuries, things like that. And the big announcement in the news. Follow us on Twitter. Everything that's going on, you want to be on there at the FF Ballers. We're on YouTube. YouTube.com the fantasy footballers. And we appreciate each and every one of you supporting the show by subscribing this is the time to get connected. Stay connected. Preseason kicked off last night. There are five week one games remaining. But let's, let's look at the slate from last night. Let's start with some high level advice for fantasy players on what you look for in preseason games. I was asked this on a radio show a couple days ago. What do you look for? I was excited about looking at, you know, the rookies they're getting out there, maybe some of these tight ends that you're excited about since we've seen them break out in preseason. But what I'm not looking for, for me is the stat line. I'm not looking for total stat line numbers and how, you know, these games do not matter. First and second team, third team offenses, defenses flowing in and out. I don't care about the stat line at the end of the day. I care about what my eyes see from certain players on the field. And are they proving some of the narratives true about their talent?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, some of the things that I look for is basically the order of players. Who's getting in first, who's touching the ball first, who's the first man up. And sometimes that is completely irrelevant. It's important to say that because look, I mean, you know, Marlo Mack, Carry On Johnson, they didn't play for a reason. You know, you, Aaron, that's also something.

[Mike Wright]

To look for is certain players who don't play right.

[Jason Moore]

Who's being protected, who are the coach saying, look, I'm not even taking a chance. But it will change through the preseason and that's important to know. Like preseason week one is so much fun and is mostly meaningless because the thing that is important to these teams is who are they cutting down to? 53. Far more than how does my starting lineup do? So many starters don't play and the first quarter, you know, like you said, Andy, you're not looking at stat lines because when did it happen? Did it happen against the twos, against the threes?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, and the offenses are vanilla. I mean, nobody's showing their best offensive formations or.

[Mike Wright]

Same with defense.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, and same with the defense. Look, the most impressive play from Kyla Murray last night was not the six completions. To me, the most impressive play was him escaping the pocket like Sonic the Hedgehog. Yes, that, that was some. Oh, oh, oh, he's gonna do, he's gonna do some of that running in the NFL. That's the thing that I'm paying attention to. But at the same time, a lot of fun stuff on the field last night.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, Absolutely. I think you should start at the. At where I want to start, Los Angeles, the Chargers. Because there is a running back situation with Melvin Gordon holding out. We have to move on. Like Melvin Gordon is going to hold out. That's the way I'm looking at it. Because that's what he's saying is happening. And then. And the Chargers are dug in.

[Andy Holloway]

The Chargers are very dug into. The point where the announcers, the local announcers were talking about that Melvin Gordon's pictures, nowhere. The programs, the lists, the depth charts, Melvin Gordon, you don't. He may not even exist or ever have existed according to those guys.

[Jason Moore]

Mike and I came up with the solution on the footcast yesterday that you should. Detroit, Detroit just trade, carry on for Melvin Gordon. It works for all parties. Get your Marshawn Lynch, Darryl Bevel and let carry on a good team.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think you actually want that because Austin Eckler is very good. He's a very good player and Justin Jackson is not far behind. But you did see Echler got the first team work.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, Eckler is going to be the starter. But the question is the ADP gap that is likely to arise. Echler is going to skyrocket. Justin Jackson certainly will move up. But how are you guys feeling? Like there's people drafting right now. Are you taking Austin Eckler? You taking that shot in the sixth round?

[Andy Holloway]

He's 705 from where I in half point league. And then you're going to have to spend the six round pick. Well, let's look at the names around him. Do you want, do you want Echler in Gordon Stead or do you want Kenyon Drake who played last night, you know, along with Blush. Do you want Tevin Coleman? I think I want Coleman more than I want Eckler.

[Jason Moore]

I would take both of those guys over Echler.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't. So the answer is no. I think based on the guys around, I'm not personally taking Echler in the sixth round.

[Jason Moore]

Especially when you can get Jackson late in the draft. Even as the weeks go on, you're still going to get him very late.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike, what about you? What are you doing with those guys? You looking at Jackson late? We talked about maybe, Right. It's not going to be late for him either. But it will still be later than Eckler.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, absolutely. That would be fantastic. I, I think Eckler, I've talked about it all off season and during our mock drafts. I'm always trying to get us to draft him and that's when we thought Melvin Gordon was playing. I think he is a very skilled player and he's. He will be involved in the passing game. You already saw that yesterday. So I think he, he could be worth that six round pick even though you may only get four starting games from him. But built into Echler is standalone value. Should Gordon come back where that's tougher for Justin Jackson.

[Andy Holloway]

We are going to talk about Gordon today. This is the running backs ranking show part two. So Gordon lands in the second set because they're trying to mitigate the risk of Melvin Gordon right now. Eckler did fumble.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, but that's on the goal line. Yeah. And then Justin. And Justin Jackson did run into touchdowns.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, he did after that.

[Mike Wright]

So.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. I think this is one of the top storylines. David Mopportunity himself.

[Mike Wright]

He seized his opportunity.

[Andy Holloway]

Moppertunistic. How many more can we get in here?

[Mike Wright]

Probably a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

Look, David Montgomery looked like the real deal last night.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he did.

[Andy Holloway]

Shifty breaking tackles. You know, I'm pretty sure he went up against the second team defense.

[Jason Moore]

He did that. That's the one thing that was interesting to me. While he like, you can't take anything.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what you should do against second team defense.

[Jason Moore]

That's the thing. Like there's a couple of guys, Bellage and Montgomery, that had great games, both of which had the entirety of their great performance against the second team. They weren't the first guy up, but you can't knock them for being great against the second team. But you do need to realize like, so it was really weird. Mike Davis. Mike Davis was out there getting the run with the ones at the beginning of the game, which was really surprising. So it's week one preseason.

[Mike Wright]

That's surprising to me.

[Jason Moore]

I'm not freaking out or even thinking anything about it. Let's see what happens in week three.

[Andy Holloway]

And again it comes back to what did the talent show you on the field. Montgomery didn't do anything to assuage, I mean, stop us from believing in his talent. That's probably the old veteran tip of the cap, I think it is to Mike Davis. Marcus Mariota, we don't have to talk about him much. Didn't look good. Only completed four passes. But all four passes were completed. Adam Humphries pronounced with an Humphreys and.

[Jason Moore]

Every incomplete was also targeted to Adam Humphries. It was like he had one wide receiver. It was absurd.

[Andy Holloway]

So the only takeaway there is Ryan Tannehoe looked great. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that they make a shift at quarterback if Mariota struggles this year.

[Jason Moore]

Well, the problem is Mariota has struggled for his entire career and most of it, most of it. He's shown flashes, but he certainly did not look great.

[Andy Holloway]

Remember when he had that start of the season before the injury where he was.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

No interceptions in the red zone. Hyper, efficient, running the football. You had a window into the potential of that team.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, Pepperidge Farms.

[Andy Holloway]

But Humphries. Are you looking at Humphries in PPR formats as somebody more interesting than you were before the game?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I'm interested.

[Jason Moore]

I'm paying attention. I'm not interested yet because again, you didn't have Corey Davis out there. You didn't have A.J. brown. So, you know.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. The hype train. It's out in force for a couple of undrafted free agent wide receivers. Specifically, Jacoby Myers, wide receiver for the New England Patriots, looked great on the field last night, six catches. And then Preston Williams, wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins. The reason that those names get brought up at all is because both players, it's not just one game and a stat line and the performance on the field. It's also all of the preseason hype around camp. Bill Belichick came out. Jacoby Myers talked him up in camp. Same with Preston Williams in Miami. Both players made, I think, pretty impressive NFL style catches all this to say dynasty awareness. Is this the time we're looking at Jacoby Myers and Preston Williams?

[Mike Wright]

I'm more interested in Preston Williams. I think that there is a path and the way that the players have been talking about him, he is interested. Interesting to me as a deeper dynasty player, Jacoby Myers, I mean it was a little bit later in the game that he was really doing his damage. Maurice Harris came was. He's the one that I'm paying attention to for redraft. I don't. It's a long climb for Jacoby Myers to get into the actual anywhere of relevance for fantasy.

[Andy Holloway]

To me, you're probably right and people should know that Mike's probably right all the time on underrated free agents. There's only one or two Victor Cruz's for all the other guys that flash in the preseason.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, if you bet against all of them, you're going to. You're going to win more often than not.

[Andy Holloway]

That being said, the pathway to relevance in New England and the wide receiver core right now, it doesn't go beyond Philip Dorsett and Edelman and well, Edelman, sure. But on the outside looking at player, there is a There's a way to work your way into that situation. Not that I believe Myers will, but I would pick him up in dynasty leagues. I would look at him because of the praise of Belichick. Sure agree with that. Jay, did you. What was your takeaway for those two guys?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I agree with you. Andy Myers is interesting to me. When you get the drum beat, you're on a great team and then you back it up. But context matters. It was later in the game, so paying attention. Look, if you're. If you've got a trash dynasty team, like I went. I went to look and say, okay, can I add mine?

[Andy Holloway]

Were you saying that you have a trash dynasty team?

[Mike Wright]

It almost sounded like it.

[Jason Moore]

No, I'm saying I went to look and I was like, I don't have anybody to drop.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, but if you have Myers in our dynasty league, what, did you grab him?

[Jason Moore]

Is that a self call?

[Andy Holloway]

I got him a few days. I got him a few days ago.

[Jason Moore]

If you had a trash dynasty team, then you could pick him up. That's what I was saying. So who got him?

[Andy Holloway]

I did walk right into that.

[Mike Wright]

The last one I want to talk about is because this is a. I've got to give him a tip of the cap. I was very excited in maybe a little, admittedly negative fashion to see Daniel Jones come into the game for the Giants. He was very sharp. He made two. Two passes in particular, a slant route to Golden Tate that was right on the money. A perfectly timed pass, and then his touchdown to the corner was a sensational throw. I only bring that up to say if Daniel Jones is actually showing anything to the Giants, it might be him playing into the job instead of just Eli losing the job.

[Andy Holloway]

If he has a big preseason, the groundswell in New York will be huge. Yes, so you're right about that. Couple other quick takeaways for me. Drake and Belage both got time. Bellage was a little bit better. Miles and Howard on yards per carry wise. You're shaking your head over there. Did you want to change your opinion on the. The yards per carry?

[Jason Moore]

No, it was. I saw you put that note in here. I guess we just saw it differently. The first quarter, Drake had the whole first series, Bloge had the second series, that was all ones v ones. And in the second series, Blodge had basically every play, ran into the backfield, tackled and got the ball thrown to him where he didn't pay attention and went to his back. And then it was a three and out. Whereas Drake did make some good plays with that first team and was the first guy up. But Balaj did continue to have a good game after that.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, Miles Sanders, Jordan Howard, split first team work. Both didn't do much, but neat to see Miles earn his way onto the field with the ones early. Right now, Miles Sanders is one of the best values in all of fantasy football. Whether it lasts, I don't know, but you need to get a hold of him if you're drafting anytime in the near future. He's a value. Lamar Jackson, very solid in his debut.

[Mike Wright]

Josh Allen's still inaccurate.

[Andy Holloway]

Josh Allen does what Cam Newton does, which is look ridiculously bad on some throws and look ridiculously good on some throws. But you're right, that's fair. He looked like trash. And then. Oh, there's the arm. Oh, wait. You know, it's just.

[Jason Moore]

It was so funny listening to the commentator.

[Andy Holloway]

Josh Allen.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, the commentators.

[Mike Wright]

That was the news.

[Andy Holloway]

That's the news.

[Jason Moore]

They're like two different times. They're saying, you know, he's working on that intermediate, that short game. They've got Cole Beasley. He needs to stop throwing the ball far all the time. And every single time they said that snap. Look at me launch it. It was so funny. It was like on cue, like he had them piped in. I would throw Darnold out there.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yeah, he looked great.

[Jason Moore]

Darnold. Look, after that first pass, that should have been an interception. The rest of the drive, I thought he looked great. So, speaking to what you said yesterday, Andy, the belief that the jets could level up here and Darnold could be better than we think, you know, pay attention to him as preseason goes on.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm sure there are other storylines with your favorite team we haven't covered, but look, the Browns look great.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Baker.

[Andy Holloway]

Baker was getting his Phil Collins on before the game.

[Mike Wright]

If you have a heart condition, do not watch the Browns opening drive because you will be deceased.

[Jason Moore]

Chubb looked great, too.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, I think we'll pause it there. We've got the running backs to get into. And some other news. We'll talk about some injuries here. Let's do it.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league presented by Sleeper.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, speaking of Sleeper, guys, we have some very, very, very big news.

[Jason Moore]

Huge.

[Andy Holloway]

This was not. We didn't know this was going to happen. We're just going about our just average day, which right now isn't very average with all that's going on in fantasy. But we were invited to a very, very, very special league on Sleeper by none other than juju Smith. Schuster, Jason was born in your heart yesterday. Could you contain yourself at the thought of. I assume you will just draft Juju and trade him to Juju.

[Jason Moore]

I will draft him one and trade him to Juju for nothing. In his honor I got you juju.

[Mike Wright]

Just like to bestow him.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, well, he deserves.

[Mike Wright]

Here you are yourself.

[Andy Holloway]

Now that being said, we are co owning a team in this league that also has Ninja in the league. Zach Efron's in the league. Carl Anthony Towns is in the league. This is going to be high profile.

[Mike Wright]

Tap man's there. What up, Jim?

[Andy Holloway]

I just want to smoke these people in trades. That's all I want to do is I want to. Jason, if you grab carry on, I may force you to trade them to Ninja for sure.

[Jason Moore]

I have to get that value.

[Andy Holloway]

But here's what's so cool about this. We've been invited, we're in this league and we are Drafting tomorrow live, 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern. We're going to be streaming it live on YouTube. So if you want some extra Saturday content, obviously we're five days a week now. We had Saturday shows in July. You get one tomorrow.

[Mike Wright]

YouTube.com fantasy footballers. Or is it. I apologize, it the fantasy footballers.

[Andy Holloway]

It is the fantasy footballers. I would recommend you follow us as well, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

I'm already subscribed, man. I don't have to remember.

[Andy Holloway]

So you've heard us talk all off season about Sleeper. That's where our listener league, which by the way. Stop it. Stop sending in so many incredible. I'm feeling physical pain with the amount of incredible entries to the listener league.

[Jason Moore]

Tough, man.

[Andy Holloway]

Because we have to choose now.

[Jason Moore]

It's really tough. But we're doing that on Sleeper. Yes. This celebrity league is on Sleeper. Their platform is awesome. It's the place to be playing your leagues and you're about to.

[Andy Holloway]

So just move, move now. Do it now.

[Mike Wright]

Do that and then watch us draft against these chumps.

[Andy Holloway]

Everything's on the line, guys. It's time. This is not a mock. Tomorrow's not a mock draft show. Tomorrow's a draft draft show where we smoke juju.

[Jason Moore]

It's going to be awesome. You'll see basically everything you see.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll also race him.

[Jason Moore]

That will be a loss.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm feeling a little bit. That's why I'm a little bit too excited.

[Jason Moore]

It's going to be like 100,000 wrestle 100,000 to one arm. If I start from the 50 wins. I'm still putting money on juju.

[Andy Holloway]

Juju. If I. If I start from the 50. And he starts from the end zone.

[Mike Wright]

Is it a 40 yard dash?

[Andy Holloway]

No, it's the full field. If I start from midfield and he starts at his own end zone, does he beat me?

[Jason Moore]

Yes, he.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, he probably does.

[Jason Moore]

100%.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a challenge.

[Jason Moore]

A formal challenge has been made.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know.

[Andy Holloway]

At the 50.

[Mike Wright]

I think you could.

[Andy Holloway]

YouTube.com the fantasy footballers tomorrow, 11am Pacific. See how we do.

[Jason Moore]

Move your league to sleeper. You'll, you'll, you won't regret it.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Some injury update news. Sad news for Jermaine Curse last night. Yeah, he's done for the year. There was a lot of you talk about the drum beat. I mean, he was having a great camp in Detroit. He's going to be done. David Chow. San Diego Union Tribune's David Chow, one of the best injury experts out there.

[Jason Moore]

Dr. David Chow to you.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, yes. Antonio Brown news. Look, he believes Antonio Brown will be fine and ready to go for the season. He may not get a lot of time in camp, but believes he'll be ready for the season. So take that for what you will. We don't know the future, but. Right. He's not as worried as others are.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. And it does mean he could get off to a slower start. Being ready for the season doesn't mean you get preseason. You don't get as much camp with the new offense.

[Mike Wright]

I've heard changing teams, that's, that's not the best way to start.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

It's true. And then you counter that with the hardest working, best wide receiver in the history of the last 10 years.

[Jason Moore]

So I like the pivot there.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep. You thought I was gonna say the.

[Jason Moore]

Game, the history of the last.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I wasn't gonna go beyond that because it's not true. Jerick McKinnon. Jerick McKinnon will receive a platelet rich injection. His knee soreness continues. He will be sidelined a minimum of another two weeks. If you listen to Mike Shanahan talk about it, he equivocates on any timeline. It's kind of like we're just going to be patient with Jerick if the range of outcomes here is he could end up on IR if he doesn't recover the way they want him to recover. They already took him off a pup. They can't put him back on pup. So this is not good for Jerick McKinnon.

[Jason Moore]

And this is technically the second setback now for him. They were, they were expecting to not have him on pup. Had to put him on PUP because He was having an issue, gave that time, he comes back, it swells up. I think this is, you know, I'm not anywhere. If I'm Drafting now, Jerick McKinnon is off the board. I'm not getting him for value. But Tevin Coleman and Matt Burrida order. Yeah, I think they're. Look, if there was clarity to the San Francisco backfield, I think we'd all be all about it, right? So there's starting to be a little bit more clarity.

[Andy Holloway]

I have Nothing against Jerick McKinnon. When I tweeted it a few days ago about it, it has nothing to. I love the guy. I wanted him to succeed last year.

[Mike Wright]

He's a great friend of the show.

[Andy Holloway]

He's been on the show. Things change in the NFL. That's just a pure factual thing. If you have an injury, you're going to be adjusted on your range of outcomes. And I don't know if he's going to be back on the field. Tevin Coleman's looking like a real steal. I spent so much time talking about Matt Burrida because of the value of he's the last pick in every draft. But don't ignore Tevin Coleman because that offense is going to run the football. Kyle Shanahan dominates when it comes to run what he does with the running game. Even last year, I mean, last year they didn't score a bunch, but oh my goodness, were they a great running team.

[Mike Wright]

And there we did have an update on Kiki qt, who he went down. It looked like a. One of those horrific preseason situations, but at least according to Ian Rapaport, he's saying it's not a major ankle injury. But I would, I would expect Kiki will be shut down for the preseason. Hopefully he's back week one.

[Jason Moore]

It's really, it's really rough mentally. When a player who has an injury prone label immediately goes out and gets injured again, you just kind of go, okay, maybe, maybe this injury wasn't as serious as it looked at first. But I don't know, man. It's hard for me to put my confidence in my draft pick in that.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, when he went down, people were, oh, not again. You know, and it affects, probably affects Duke Johnson if QT misses time. It also affects Deshaun Watson's output a little bit.

[Mike Wright]

I agree.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's today's news and notes. Oh my gosh, we got running back rankings. Guys.

[Mike Wright]

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[Jason Moore]

And we want to thank Roman with their FDA approved solutions designed to stop hair loss. A lot of people don't know that there are FDA approved solutions for that and two thirds of guys, look, you're experiencing noticeable hair loss by age 35. I've been there. Look, Roman makes it convenient, okay? To get FDA approved hair loss treatment from your phone or computer, you go to getroman.com footballers. You start your free online visit and chat with a licensed doctor from the comfort of your home. If your doctor decides the treatment is right for you, then their dedicated pharmacy can ship treatment to you with free 2 days shipping. If you want to stop or prevent hair loss, starting treatment early is key. And with Roman you can find the best approach to help you keep and maybe even regrow the hair on your head. Roman is giving away a free online visit and free two day shipping when you go to getroman.comfootballers. that's getroman.comfootballers for a free visit. To get started, getroman.comfootballers running backs.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, one through 10 running back rankings on yesterday's podcast. So if you want to hear us comment on some of those guys at the top, make sure you listen to yesterday's show. We're looking at our consensus half point per reception rankings and these are fluid. I mean, these things we're tweaking and modifying stat lines for the 2019 year. I'm doing it right now, every day. Yeah. What are you doing over there? What are you doing always pumping up, always modifying rankings. Let's start at 11 because that makes sense, right? Comes after the 1 through 10, Nick Chubb. Why you kind of sound like I was arbitrarily picking a number. Let's start at the. No, it's just the next in order. Nick Chubb comes in at number 11. I've got him up at 8, Jason at 13, Mike at 11. He burst onto the scene last year in the wake of the departure of Carlos Hyde. He forced a trade pretty much.

[Mike Wright]

The dude was such a beast that they said we got to get Carlos Hyde out of here, we got to dump this contract. And they somehow were able to do it. They unleashed Nick Chubb. He's a fantastic running back. The only knock coming into draft season on Nick Chubb was the amount of pass catching volume he's going to get because he's going to be the banger and he's great at it for a very high powered offense. And so he'll have a ton of touchdown opportunity. But what separates him, why he's a little bit back is the pass catching opportunity that saw at least a reasonable bump up when the when the Browns traded away Duke Johnson. I do expect Dontrell Hilliard to be more of a replacement for Duke Johnson, at least until Kareem Hunt comes back. Like I'm not projecting all the targets are now going to Nick Chubb. But he did move up. I mean, I gave him, I gave him 15 more targets and that was enough to move him up into the, into a solid RB one for me.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Honestly, I've got him at 13 right now on the season long rankings. I don't feel good about having him that low. He looked fantastic in his first preseason game last night, as he did his whole rookie year coming out of college. He was an absolute beast. You worried about the injury that he was recovering from, which was horrific. He's back and like you said, Mike, high powered offense. He's a goal line guy and now if he's involved in the passing game, there's very little to be worried about. And I'm not worried about despite the fact that Kareem Hunt does eat in on my season long rankings. Statistically, if I'm in a draft, I'm not worried at all about Cream Hunt. And we did talk about a lot of this and some of the other nuances on yesterday's show after the Duke Johnson trademark.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, fold Duke Johnson to Houston commentary on yesterday's pod. Joe Mixon comes in at number 12 on our consensus running back Rankings. You know, let me, let me frame my view on Joe Mixon right now because he's at 13 and that's. He's dropped down a little bit over this off season. There hasn't been really. I don't have any really good reason to dislike Joe Mixon other than kind of the.

[Mike Wright]

Well, the offensive line is.

[Andy Holloway]

The offensive line has been beat up.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

AJ Green's injury, concern about the division. It's just kind of. I mentioned this when we're talking about Carry On. There's only a couple of guys on sub 500 teams that end up in the top 10 at the running back position. So you assume one of them is going to be Saquon Barkley. Is it Carry On? Is it mixing? And obviously they can outperform the expectation in Cincinnati. That's not outside the realm of possibility in the NFL. But I just kind of like my top end ceiling for Joe Mixon is starting to move down a little bit from where I was at the end of last year. I do think Gio Bernard will probably be more of an annoyance than people expect him to be.

[Mike Wright]

I'm glad you brought him up.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so because you agree.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yes, Gio Bernard is a, is a good player, especially in the passing game. Joe Mixon has a three down skill set. I'm not going to take away from that. But you have a new regime. You don't have. We can't rely on. Well, Marvin Lewis went with Joe Mixon as a, as a bell cow running back this last year. You can't just automatically transfer that on to the new regime. I think we all have mix and ranked.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, he's a one right here. He's an rb.

[Mike Wright]

So we're not trying to take everything away from him, but of the running back ones, he's the one that I have the most skepticism on. Having said that, I did have a lot of skepticism on him last year and he came through in a big way. And Joe Mixon was a dominant player for fantasy football, but with the offense taking a massive hit with injuries and retirements happening to the offensive line, I'm concerned about Joe Mixon. And there's a steady drum beat going from the beat reporters talking about specifically about Giovanni Bernard looking great this offseason.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, there were rumors about Giovanni Bernard looking to be traded. Maybe that was happening. And as the beat reporters investigated that they were surprised to learn that not only is that not true, but they're working on an extension.

[Mike Wright]

I had not heard that part.

[Jason Moore]

So, I mean, he feels, feels like.

[Andy Holloway]

The opposite of a trade.

[Jason Moore]

It feels a lot like the opposite, which was a little bit crazy considering they drafted two running backs, but they've got four pretty darn good running backs there. Obviously Joe Mixon is talented. He's going to be the primary back and you can make the arguments that Zach Taylor's coming over from Los Angeles where maybe he's going to instill and use mixing the way that they use Gurley. There are narratives to be better, but in reality this is going to be a bad team with a much worse offensive line than they had last year and it wasn't the best. And they're missing their best offensive player in AJ Green. So if I have to say who's going to bust, I kind of echo what you guys think. It's a worrisome situation even though I think he's one of the most talented. All rounded backs. All rounded, well rounded.

[Andy Holloway]

Tolbert was more of the all rounded C.J.

[Jason Moore]

Anderson.

[Andy Holloway]

That's not nice. All right. Mixon did miss a couple of weeks with injury last year and you know, I think he's very safe for a double digit kind of guy. I think he's in that bell cow safe category. I just. When your offense doesn't give you scoring opportunities, which is something that he could struggle with, that's another one of those red flags. I'm going to go as far though. Look, the season's about to get started. Nobody has a win loss record yet. Jason. So to the Bengals fans out there, I am going with could be a bad team. Jason took the more definitive will be. I'm going to go with the could be because we don't know. There's hope everywhere, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

That is.

[Andy Holloway]

There's hope everywhere right now.

[Jason Moore]

Do you have hope that the Miami Dolphins could be a good team?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I do. I've actually said it on this show.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

That the Miami Dolphins look there have been many years ago.

[Mike Wright]

I like this new side of me. This is a positive man.

[Jason Moore]

This is good.

[Mike Wright]

Bringing positivity.

[Andy Holloway]

A couple years ago, people were dogging on the Dolphins being the worst team in football. Brooks is that was that was you sure it was. Maybe. I'm learning.

[Jason Moore]

He's learning. That's good, right?

[Andy Holloway]

Team surprise us every year. Every single year. Teams that you think are bad end up.

[Mike Wright]

I love it.

[Andy Holloway]

I think people thought the Dolphins were a bad team last year and they were a 7 and 9 team.

[Jason Moore]

You know what?

[Andy Holloway]

Right?

[Jason Moore]

You know what? Thinking through it, looking at everything. The Bengals could be good.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, I remember.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Here comes the. But they won't.

[Jason Moore]

No, no, no, no. I remember not believing in a couple years ago the super young 32 year old Sean McVeigh. It was questionable. The Rams were a bad team under Jeff Fisher and it didn't look good and he turned him around in a heartbeat. I'm not saying that that is probable, but certainly is in the range.

[Andy Holloway]

Check this out. Check this out. The Giants could be a good team.

[Mike Wright]

Well, let's take it easy over there, man.

[Jason Moore]

Take it easy, get out of control.

[Mike Wright]

But back to Joe Mixon on fantasy football calculator in half point going 203. Are you comfortable going like Devonte Adams or Julio Jones. Then the turn comes back and Joe Mixon, he's.

[Andy Holloway]

He is your one at that point. No, I don't want. I don't really want to do that.

[Mike Wright]

Or if Mixon's on your team, are you going trying to hit the strategy that he's your RB2 and you're going heavy in the first two?

[Andy Holloway]

That one.

[Jason Moore]

That one. Or if I go the other strategy and take two wide receivers and Dalvin Cook is there, I would take him over Mix.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. You might not have heard of him. Carry On Johnson, running back for the Detroit Lions. You can listen to any show we've done in the last six months. If you'd like the rundown on Carry on, you can also go back to Monday's My Guy show where Jason lays out yet another case for loving Carry on with all your heart, all your mind.

[Mike Wright]

Has a player with 10 games under his belt gotten the groundswell that Carry On Johnson has?

[Andy Holloway]

There's an insert Jason monologue mark in our show Doc.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, every time his name is listed in the doc, we just. We know we have to wait.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason, what I heard on the footcast yesterday. Now I had to get. I wasn't on the footcast. I had the privilege of going to a dental office instead.

[Mike Wright]

You win.

[Andy Holloway]

Did I heard you talked briefly about the worry. Well, just that. Look, if Carry on isn't. Carry on.

[Jason Moore]

If Carry on isn't what I have said and have built up. Look, I will melt with you foot clan. I will puddle of misery, of tears. I will cry myself into a puddle. And the reality is this. I see both sides of it, right? If the Darrell Bevel RB won.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't believe you.

[Jason Moore]

I really do. No, this is why I have worries. This is why when people keep sending the questions of do I keep Carry on in the third or some other player at great value in the 12th? It's the other player. Just because I love Kerryon doesn't mean I can't see the range of outcomes. If Darrell Bevels RB1 comes through or if Theo Riddick's last four years pass catching comes through and the volume is there for a talented carry on, I'm confident I'm going to be right. But if that doesn't happen, then he's a running back on a bad offensive team project, you know, could be bad offensive team and so he could disappoint. I believe in the talent. I believe that he showed it on the field and I'm hoping and I see paths for his opportunity. But if you really want to hear me talk him up, go listen to Monday's episode because I'm a believer my flag is planted, but I've never constructed as large a monument and so I'm terrified of the fact that the wind blows. Please tell me I built it right.

[Mike Wright]

Taking those things down, I mean, that's a lot of work. Let me put this into draft context. Damian Williams has been seeing the dip, right? So right now his ADP is 210. Meanwhile, Kerryon Johnson has jumped on the back of an eagle and is just.

[Jason Moore]

Soaring across the land calling me an eagle.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's jumped on the back of a bald eagle.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yes, America, get that Roman coupon code again.

[Mike Wright]

It is at 212.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, his ADP is in the second round.

[Mike Wright]

So with those two streams crossing, Andy, are you going to take Damian Williams there or would you rather pay up? You know that for carry on.

[Andy Holloway]

That's a good question because I thought you were. Thank you. I thought you were just going to say is 212 too high? But you made me choose between two players.

[Mike Wright]

They're at a crossroads. They've gone bone thugs and Harmony. They're at a crossroads.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm sticking with the offense right now.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to stick with the offense, but it's getting tighter. What did you make of Andy Reid's comments as reported yesterday about more of a committee backfield for Damian Williams? You've already made the point.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Williams is going to be this pass catching guy from homes no matter what, which is worth its weight in gold. Did you make anything of that comment? Did it concern you?

[Mike Wright]

When I first read, when I read through it, it was. This is rough. But then I spent more time thinking about it, actually hearing the context and I mean, he was saying I used a bit of a committee in Philadelphia.

[Andy Holloway]

Can I read the quote? So because we're talking about it and people might not have heard it. Yesterday on a SiriusXM radio interview, he said, Andy Reid said, I did a little bit of that speaking to a running back by committee while I was in Philadelphia. Kind of a running back by committee deal and we had some success with it will do that here in Kansas City.

[Jason Moore]

And he went on to name the.

[Mike Wright]

Other back, sort of name them.

[Jason Moore]

No, I mean he, we drafted a.

[Andy Holloway]

Kid at running back and the other Williams isn't bad either.

[Mike Wright]

That's what I mean by sort of Carlos, remember?

[Andy Holloway]

So the other, the kid that he's.

[Mike Wright]

Talking about is Darwin Thompson.

[Andy Holloway]

Is Darwin Thompson.

[Mike Wright]

Look, and if Andy Reid thinks that if in his example this is the committee approach he did in Philadelphia where he almost always produces a running back one, give me that committee.

[Jason Moore]

I do agree with Andy as the carry on truther and as someone who's cooling on Damian Williams because I don't believe in the talent. Look, this is the perfect talent versus opportunity situation. I'm taking opportunity over talent at the running back position. I would take Damian Williams there too, but I don't think 212 is too high for carry on in a vacuum. He could be a good pick there. If the other guys that, you know, if Damian Williams is gone and you're at 212, I don't think that's too high.

[Andy Holloway]

Personally, despite what it may appear like on the podcast, Jason and I do have, you know, some very controlled discussions about carry on from time to time. And we were talking, you know, on Slack the other day and I said one, I hope he's great because I know people love you, Jason, and I know they believe in you. And number two, I just hope he gets the opportunity around the goal line. The Garrett Blunt had 17 goal line carries, 17 within the 10 carry on had two last year. If he gets the opportunity inside the red zone, that's, I mean we already saw Joe Mixon do that last year. Joe Mixon on a team that wasn't that good, had nine touchdowns. Kerryon with nine touchdowns, he's going to beat where I have him ranked 100% and validate everything you believe about him and you'll be, you'll complete as a human being.

[Jason Moore]

I agree he is great.

[Andy Holloway]

Devonta Freeman at 14, Josh Jacobs at 15. I will tell you this, my confidence in Devonta Freeman has grown a little bit from, from a couple weeks ago.

[Mike Wright]

It should have.

[Andy Holloway]

And part of that had to do with listening to head coach Dan Quinn talk about his running back room. Because if you want to say Andy Reid doesn't know the name of his players. Dan Quinn is. He knows the name of them, but he doesn't know which one's the two. Is it Edo Smith? Is it Brian Hill? Different players are going to have opportunities and he talks about he knows Freeman's at the top of the mountain and then it's kind of like 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d. So Freeman will have the opportunity to get the workload that we've seen in the past. Will he be hurt? I don't know. This was a player who was number one in 2015, number six in 2016. Injuries have been a huge problem. Love the offense. You talk about believing in an offense. Freeman will have every opportunity. I'm rising a little bit.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I mean I'm rising. Do you remember when Devonta Freeman his rookie year was terrible? I mean he was really, really, really bad. And then he truly leveled. Mike really remembers and then he really leveled up. So Edo Smith last year was really bad as a rookie and you go okay, can he do that? Devonta Freeman jump. And according to one preseason first quarter that we shouldn't overreact to, the answer is absolutely not. I mean nowhere.

[Mike Wright]

And the way that his coach has been talking about him, I mean I'm.

[Jason Moore]

Just Ito Smith is not a worry to me, to Devonta Freeman and if.

[Andy Holloway]

I would not handcuff Freeman with Ido.

[Jason Moore]

No anymore I wouldn't agreed handcuff him with anybody because you don't know who it's going to be. But my point is if the other guys behind Freeman, if no one can step up and actually be a relevant quality player, then the only worry with Freeman is injury and injury alone. I think he's going to have the role, he's going to have the goal line work, he's going to have the pass catching work. He's on a good offense. It's just will he be injured? And I know you know our own Matthew Betts who does a lot of injury analysis does have worries, does not expect him to be able to go the full 16 without a re aggravation. So there is risk there. But so you talked about Josh Jacobs. We've got him, you know, back to back. Who are you drafting out of those two if you're on the clock and let's say you've got one running back already and this is your RB2.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I have Jacobs ranked higher than Devonta Freeman. I do and I realize that is this, you know, we haven't seen Jacobs on the field before and there are Red flags with his production in college, the number of carries that he's received over, you know, in his senior season.

[Mike Wright]

Not his production, but his opportunity where he. We haven't seen a full workload from Josh Jacobs which he will be asked to do this year.

[Andy Holloway]

It seems that way. But. But I do, I do have Jacobs ranked slightly higher than Freeman. It's just preferential. It's probably a little bit of the fantasy football bias that comes with the unknown. We've seen Devonta Freeman at his peak. We've seen him slide down the mountain. I've never seen Josh Jacobs at his peak. And if it's back to back, I'm looking for the upside of Josh Jacobs there where I'm not sure that the upside for Freeman exists anymore. But, but it's a, you know, it's close to me.

[Mike Wright]

If you're specifically talking about those two guys, it's. There's talent and opportunity for both of them.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

Like they're. So you can't tie break with that. So I'm tie breaking with the offense and I'm going to take the Atlanta Falcons over the Raiders.

[Andy Holloway]

For perspective on rookie running backs, from 2012 to 2018, 11 running backs were drafted in the first round and that's what Josh Jacobs was. Of those 11, seven finished their rookie season as a top 10 fantasy back. That's part of what I'm banking on with Jacobs is the draft capital matters so much at the running. Yes, it does. And seven of those 11 guys have ended up in that top 10. We're in a PPR world, guys. We're living in a world where that pass catching back matters. Jacobs can do that.

[Jason Moore]

As Ken Freeman.

[Andy Holloway]

As Ken Freeman. Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

And that was. That's been the dip lately for at least in 2017, it was the targets. Dirk Cutter, who is back now to be the OC for Atlanta in Freeman. Freeman was getting targets and part of.

[Andy Holloway]

It Mount Ryan is willing to drive the ball downfield a little bit more than Derek Carr has shown he's been willing to do. Derek Carr is in love with the line of scrimmage.

[Mike Wright]

Oh yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean he has a picture on the wall.

[Mike Wright]

He's never, never met a short pass.

[Andy Holloway]

He could say no to. So we'll get to follow Josh Jacobs in hard knocks as well. I do think there's a world where he could finish in the top 10. But that certainly that means that, you know, he's going to need to get the workload appropriate for an RB1 situation. I look at it a little bit like when Christian McCaffrey came into the NFL where people knew the passing game work was going to be there but wasn't sure about how much rushing work McCaffrey would get in year one. So you're going to see the passing game involvement almost guaranteed for Josh Jacobs. I hope he gets all the running work that I expect.

[Mike Wright]

That's funny because I think the way I look at it is the rushing work will be there for Josh Jacobs.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, that's combined number one overall.

[Mike Wright]

Just say like Richard is still, still around and he was Derek Carr's best friend in the short pass the game. Not projecting that but just saying I know the early down work will be there for Jake.

[Jason Moore]

I really want to see him on Hard Knocks. So HBO if you could go ahead and show him this week.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I saw him. He was on. He was on last week.

[Jason Moore]

He wasn't highlight.

[Andy Holloway]

He was sitting in the back of that big meeting room. I saw him in there. He was paying attention. Yeah. That reminds me of Hard Knocks with the Falcons and Devonta Freeman's first year and how much people rooted for him to have success. Except for Mike, Aaron Jones and Leonard Fournette at 16 and 17 in the rankings. Oh gosh.

[Mike Wright]

I'm really these two guys I don't know what to do with.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's the category we're in. Right. You these are the tough ones yesterday. Saquon's a good player. Aaron Jones is at 14 in my ranking. 17 and 17. And Jason and Mike's right now being drafted is the RB15. His current average draft position is the middle of the third round. Last year we saw everything we wanted to see from Aaron Jones in spurts. I guess the last thing we would have wanted to see was him on the field more consistently.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, it was a tough ride for Aaron Jones to get a featured role. He started off the year with the suspension. Then he was in the doghouse for McCarthy. McCarthy insisted that Jamal Williams play in front of Aaron Jones. Eventually sanity prevailed and Jones became the number one in the depth chart. Was absolutely sensational for a stretch of weeks before going down to injury. Speaking of injury, he is not practicing with a hamstring injury. So I want to get your guys temperature. We don't like soft tissue injuries in training camp, especially prolonged ones. And Aaron Jones so far it has been a prolonged absence from practice. Jason.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

How do you. Are you Mr. Risk Adverse?

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

And we. And if you've been listening to the show, you know that Jason loves Aaron Jones. He was in consideration for a My guy. Correct.

[Jason Moore]

That is 100% correct.

[Mike Wright]

So that's how much you love him.

[Jason Moore]

And if I'm being completely honest, the biggest reason that I decided to not make him a my guy, you know, I had a lot of guys I liked, so it wasn't like I disliked Aaron Jones. It's just other people won on the tiebreaker. Was this hamstring issue. I don't want this season, I want to remember from last year to not buy the injury dip. I believe that Aaron Jones was going to get a lot more expensive when he's getting hype in camp and getting that preseason work. And lo and behold, he hasn't been able to because of the hamstring issue. And so he's staying low in drafts. He's staying where? Look, talent wise, we on the footcast yesterday, we were unbelievable. What?

[Andy Holloway]

He's a great talent.

[Jason Moore]

What? Second running back. What running back, 13 through 24, could actually finish the season as the number one running back? This was my answer. Aaron Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Not outside. If you replace him. If Alvin Camara and Aaron Jones switched spots.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Where are you projecting Aaron Jones would be one of those top four? Got to have players. I mean, look, from weeks eight through 14 last year, when he actually did get the work, he was the running back five just behind Alvin Camara. And that was on the Green Bay packers. That didn't run the ball much. They literally ran the ball the fewest in their franchise history. And, you know, they ran the ball the least in the NFL. So I worry about the lingering concern. And I don't want to draft a guy who is hamstring. Yes. Who is currently injured. But the talent is there. If you're a risky player, if you're a swing for the fence, huge up to the moon, Aaron Jones is your pick because if he gets the work, he's going to be great. We've never seen him on the field be inefficient. He's on a. What projects to be a good offense. So it's, you know. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

The questions posed. Do you believe lafleur will involve Aaron Jones more in the passing game? My true answer to that is I don't believe that he. I would probably lean more on. I don't know. Slash. No, I don't believe that. So I don't believe that necessarily.

[Mike Wright]

Aaron Jones had 35 targets last year.

[Jason Moore]

I lean on the yes side more.

[Mike Wright]

Over under 35 targets more. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. But I don't know if that's saying enough. You know what I mean?

[Jason Moore]

And that was in you know, he didn't play a full season. So 35 on a, on a full 16 game season sounds small. But early in OTAs, before the hamstring issue, a lot of people.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no, I was right. 26 receptions.

[Jason Moore]

A lot of, a lot of beat reporters were talking not about what the coach said, wanting to get him involved. They were talking about how involved he was in their practices in the getting a screen or getting a wheel route or going downfield and catch a pass. So I do believe that he is more involved in the passing game.

[Andy Holloway]

I love, I love what you brought up now on the forecast. He is one of the players that could be. He's in the realm of possibilities to be number one. If you're on a great offense and you get the work and you do what he does efficiency wise. Just look at what Alvin Camara can do with the football in his hands. Just give him the football. You listening?

[Mike Wright]

And to be Dion Lewis last year he was targeted pretty heavily.

[Jason Moore]

He got the work, he just didn't do much with it I think. And Jamal Williams, the counterpart, the two of the one, two punch also has a hamstring injury right now.

[Andy Holloway]

So Leonard Fournette, he was the one of the players drafted very highly last year that destroyed your team.

[Mike Wright]

Your soul.

[Andy Holloway]

Your soul. Week one, seven points, didn't play for two weeks. Week four, four points, didn't play for five weeks. Missed a game for fun in week 13 so had a couple. I mean he had three straight monstrous weeks from weeks 10 through 12 and then he winked at you and went away.

[Mike Wright]

Leonard Fournette is so difficult because if he's, if he is on the field he will put up, he will put up numbers even if he doesn't really want to. And I know we had some bad games last year from him but he will get such a massive volume and he, his last year he was actually started to be involved in the passing game as well. He is the featured back for this team. Unless somehow they're going to go to Alfred Blue a little bit more than we expect, which would be very bizarre. But you can't guarantee that Leonard Fournette is going to be on the field. He's had a numerous injuries. He's had numerous off field incidents with his own coaching staff to the point of they were able to strike his guaranteed money out of his contract because they were so upset with, with, with his actions off of the field. It's, he's not guaranteed to be the guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's turn to some numbers here. Rushing attempts per game since the start of 2017. Zeke is number one, Lev Bell is number two. You know who number three is?

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to guess. Leonard Fournette.

[Andy Holloway]

No. Herschel Walker. No. It's Leonard Fournette. Yes. 19.1 rushing attempts per game. Volume, volume. So there are those kind of the clouds all around Leonard Fournette. But you're not, I mean you're, you're paying less for him now because of those clouds. Being drafted as the RB16.

[Jason Moore]

I know he's got the, I'm not.

[Andy Holloway]

Threatened by anybody in that backfield.

[Jason Moore]

He's got the injury prone label and you know, you could say deservedly so from his history. But you know, you look at Aaron Jones and Leonard Fournette, one of them is injured right now, one of them is healthy. They both have a tremendous upside. I mean, in the last two years, when you talk about running backs consistency, Leonard Fournette is one of the most consistent performers in fantasy. The only guys who have finished ahead of him as far as an RB2 or better on a weekly basis is Camara, Gordon, Elliott, Gurley, Bell and Barkley. That's it. So it's just a matter of will he stay on the field. He is healthy right now. He's dropped in ADP because of the years of just ruining people's fantasy years. Do you take that? It's like fool me once, you know, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you.

[Mike Wright]

Won't be shamed, won't be fooled again.

[Jason Moore]

Fool, won't be fooled again.

[Mike Wright]

But here's his draft price, here's the pack that he is sandwiched in. You got Aaron Jones, Leonard Fournettes right after. And then it's Marlon Mack Freeman, Josh Jacobs. You got to make your pick of one of the. If you're, if you have the pick, he's a.

[Andy Holloway]

In a standard league. Leonard Fournette is more exciting to me because pure volume and goal line opportunities. He's in the top five in scoring touchdowns over the last five years too. Or in the last three years since he came into the league. You don't generally get guarantee in the passing game. We don't know what that offense is going to look like in that regard. And you don't generally get big plays from him. Since he came into the league, it's been like the lowest percentage of his runs or of, you know, 10 plus yard runs has been Fournette at the bottom of that list. The big plays you saw in college, you didn't see as many of them in the NFL, especially over the last few years. But 19 touches a game, I mean, that. That's in the realm of outcomes for him in a standard league. All right, we have Melvin Gordon plugged in at 18. This is kind of. I mean, this is risk mitigation placement for Melvin Gordon. 100%, because you could have a player that belongs in the top five, or you could have a player that, you know shouldn't be drafted or touched if he doesn't come back till week nine.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's. It's hard to have an actual, like, discussion of what Melvin Gordon can do. It just comes down to this. Melvin Gordon signs a contract right now. We get a breaking news. We hit the button. Melvin Gordon, full extension. Jason, where does he go?

[Jason Moore]

He's my RB5. He's right after the big four.

[Mike Wright]

Andy, where does it go?

[Andy Holloway]

To five or six.

[Mike Wright]

He goes to five or six for me as well. So this is just. This is risk mitigation. Where do you. Where are you willing to draft a player who could. Could be their week one? He might show up in week eight?

[Jason Moore]

We.

[Mike Wright]

We have no idea.

[Andy Holloway]

Are there drafts where Eckler is going to be drafted ahead of Gordon? If we get down towards the season and it doesn't look like there's headway, or do you go, gordon, Eckler, fifth, sixth round? Does a team do that?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I think that's more realistic than Eckler actually going above Gordon, because you won't ever get definitive word that, okay, I'm going to come back in Week 5. That's just not going to happen. That's where I see it going right now. But it's. I don't have insight here. I haven't talked to the team or Melvin Gordon's camp. I'm just basing this on the history of these type of negotiations, the history on the San Diego Chargers and the Los Angeles Chargers, you know, and what Gordon's camp has said. I'm saying he's going to miss a month of games. No inside information. That's just intuition.

[Mike Wright]

Sure. And he was so great last year. In only 12 games, he was still able to be the running back seven. And that's why we're saying if he's there, if he's good to go, then he's a top five guy.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we'll wrap it up with Marlon Mack and Derek Henry at 19 and 20. Beyond that, Sony Michelle at 21, Chris Carson, 20. I'll just say all these names, you talk about somebody you want to talk about. How about that? All right, number 19. Marlon Mack. 20. Derek Henry. 21. Sonny Michelle. 22. Chris Carson. You can go back to Monday's My Guy shows if you want to. I love Chris Carson if humor.

[Mike Wright]

I'm right there with you.

[Andy Holloway]

David Montgomery at 23. Kenyan Drake at 24.

[Jason Moore]

Look, to speak to Chris Carson, it feels so stupid that he's our 22nd ranked running back and to me he's my 27th ranked running back. I hate that. I don't like that. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. I don't see any world where, barring injury, he finishes this low and yet when I go and I do the stats, I can't get him much higher. But. So this is just a PSA to the foot clan. Kris Carson is better than my ranking. I don't know how to move him up because we do this step base like.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, it's like I said on the my, on the My Guy show. I don't think that there's the world where he finishes where his ADP is, which is like RB23. I think he either is hurt and he's, you know, that just happens and I don't think he's injury prone, but that could happen or he's going to be a very, very good running back this year. Yeah, they ran the ball 168 more times than their opponents in 2018. It also worked.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it did.

[Andy Holloway]

Other players in this list, you know, David Montgomery is at 23. Yeah, he's being drafted ahead of that at RB21. The hype is going to continue.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I've tried to temper my stats for David Montgomery because he's a rookie and we can't guarantee that. It's just he get, he gets Jordan Howard's carries and he eats into Cohen's targets. That's. I think that will happen. But there's a world where those, the opportunities does not come to fruition with all of that work. So he's a player to watch over over the preseason. See how he gets used. Make sure you're monitoring those, those beat reporters we'll be talking about.

[Andy Holloway]

Does he move into the, does he move into first team snaps on these next couple weeks?

[Mike Wright]

Exactly.

[Andy Holloway]

That matters a lot to me.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, exactly.

[Andy Holloway]

Because strong start to the year.

[Mike Wright]

If he locks up that job, then he will move up a lot in my rankings as well.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, anybody you want to touch on? Jay, are you good? I mean people can go check out all the rankings at the Ultimate Draft on the Ultimate Draft Kit and we've got video in it on it around it. I mean, I don't know the right words.

[Jason Moore]

We've got video breakdowns on most all these players in there. You know, if you want more info, you can look at those on the videos page in the Ultimate Draft kit.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, and you can check that [e-mail] all of our regular rankings for the season are up on the website as well and a number of just great articles from our staff of writers putting information out there. Maybe there's a player that you want more info on. Check out the fantasy footballers.com no doubt.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you want to talk about late round fantasy tight ends Lauren Carpenter. Just a just put up a Do not ignore these late round players.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, no doubt. But otherwise that'll do it for today. A quick reminder again, go to YouTube tomorrow, hang out with us as we draft against Juju Smith Schuster Ninja Carl Anthony Town Zac Efron Tim the Tap Man.

[Jason Moore]

My wife was a little too happy about the Zac Efron.

[Andy Holloway]

I did see her reaction to that.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, you saw nothing.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you got a lot more at the house.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

[Andy Holloway]

Is she co owning with him?

[Jason Moore]

Yes, she would.

[Mike Wright]

She would.

[Andy Holloway]

And that's the problem. All right, that is it for today's podcast. Don't forget to check out our studio sponsor Pristine Auction a Nick chubb jersey for 70 bucks yesterday pristineauction.com use the code BALLERS, you don't want to miss it.

[Mike Wright]

Goodbye.

[Jason Moore]

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.

[Mike Wright]

And don't forget Foot clan support for today's show came from Manscaped. Number one in men's below the belt grooming the Lawn Mower 2.0. That proprietary SkinSafe trademark technology. So this trimmer will not nick or snag. Get 20% off plus free shipping with the code. [e-mail] always use the right tools for the job.