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Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the fantasy football podcast. It's me, Joey P. Joe P. Zapia and we're continuing on with part two of our series looking at the running backs of the rookie class, the value picks, the lottery picks and the slam dunk guys. And this is not an easy task that I've set before to my colleagues today, Jake Seeley from the Athletic and Pat Fitz Morris of Fantasy Pros. Why? Because it's a tricky class. It's a little top heavy. There's definitely two obvious guys at the top who were first rounders. And then after that it's kind of open season. So we're gonna kind of sift through the bargain basement bin over at the the Goodwill, see if we can find a couple gems. Right? That's what my daughters love to do. See, I've got two teenagers and their favorite thing is to go thrift shopping. That's the new thing. To take him to New York to do it. I got to take him to New Jersey to do it. Every time we go to a city we have to find a thrift store. So consider this running back show kind of like your thrift store. We're going to find a couple gems. Maybe you can resell them on ebay. We'll see how it goes. But of course, before we get into any of that, subscribe to our channel right here. Subscribe to the Dynasty podcast feed as well and the YouTube channel for our new fantasy pros Dynasty channel. And of course, don't forget the most fun you can have with NFL. Our new channel, the the Tailgate, where we just Talk Ball, have fun. 90s graphic style. It is absolutely spectacular. We have a great show on there, breaking down the NFL draft. Go back and check it out right now. Go again. Tailgate NFL. That's the new channel for you. All right, guys, let's get after it here and let's talk about the running back class. And as I mentioned before, it's pretty easy about the top guys. It's just a matter of kind of now digging in a little deeper to each of them and the surroundings that they've landed in. So we know Jeremiah Love is great. We don't have to, you know, talk too much about the profile of Jeremiah Love. Pat, let's talk about the circumstances a little bit more because I think we spent so much time on the player and not enough maybe on the circumstances. And we've seen the last couple years, Jir Gibbs, right? Even David Montgomery, all these running backs who have come in over the years, kind of slow starts, no matter how good they are, no matter high end, they might be like a Jameer Gibbs or even Bijan Robinson for that matter too. Kind of a slow start to the career. A little bit ironically because of Tyler Algier. And guess who is in Arizona? Tyler Algier in an epic failure once again by a defunct organization that can't get out of their own way. The Arizona Cardinals, who don't seem to have a plan. It just kind of formulates out of thin air right in front of them eventually. And I don't think they did the wrong thing taking Love, but now they've got a backfield that's completely crowded. I assume they're going to make some moves, but even if they don't make too many, even if, let's say Connor's on this roster and Algiers on this roster and we know Love's going to be on this roster because just paid him a lot of money, how does this work out in terms of fantasy? Because I know where Jake has, which is the back end of like the second round. I don't think he's going to go there. I think the hype is going to just take things away. Talk to me about Jeremiah Love and the landing spot of the Cardinals and what it looks like for 2026. Because we know the future is bright, but how bright is the present?
A
Yeah, just out of curiosity, second round for, for redraft, we're talking for Jeremiah Love. That's kind of where I am too. RB10, RB11, something like that. Sort of a low end RB1. So because I don't think we're super excited about the landing spot, it could have been better. The Cardinals were, I think, 29th last year in run block grade by PFF, 29th in adjusted line yards, which is a run blocking metric. Some people like their, their defense probably is going to be pretty bad again, which means maybe not as many run friendly game scripts as you might get on some other teams. Just kind of goes to a sort of a dumpster fire team. But when a team spends this sort of draft capital on a running back, it usually works out. Maybe not near one, but long term. Let's look at the running backs who went top 12 in the draft over the last 11 years. So working backward, that list includes Ashton Genty, Bijan Robinson, Jameer Gibbs, Saquon Barkley, Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey and Ezekiel Elliott. That is a pretty good list. And if Leonard Fournette is like the biggest miss there and Fournette actually did not have a terrible career. So, man, I mean, it just, it seems like things are going to go well for Love. I don't think anyone questions the tools, just the easy speed and how quickly he gets to top speed. You just see it and know right away that he's a different kind of cat. And Love also breaks tackles. He's a good pass catcher, so they're going to find ways to use him. Hopefully. The Tyler Algier thing is not a thorn in his side, though it was for Bijan Robinson early in his Falcons career. You just get the feeling like the Cardinals are going to trade Tyler Algier to whichever team drafts, like either Ahmad Hardy from Missouri or Frazier from Georgia next year. Like this guy is doomed to be the backup to a hot shot rookie running back.
B
It's, it's a hell of a role. It's a hell of a typecast to be put into that role. Jake. I mean, I, I think we all agree that 20, 27 and beyond for Jeremiah Love is Sky's the limit. He's the consensus 101 in dynasty drafts. Like, I don't think anybody's questioning Jeremiah Love, but it's that early going that I think is really interesting and to the point in redraft leagues. For me personally, when I look at Jeremiah Love, I say to myself, let somebody take him early. I think he's going to be one of my number one trade targets six weeks into the season. I would rather be trading for him than drafting him because I think the capital it's going to take to draft him is going to be too much for what he's going to impact you early on. And I do think people will lose patience with that scenario in the first month and a half of the season and there will be buy opportunities. So that's my approach. But I just want to get your take on Love too, because he is such a, a massive talent that's looming in fantasy football now and it's new and we all get really obsessed with the new shiny toy. And he is absolutely. He is Optimus prime, like circa 1985. Like, that's how good this guy is.
C
Well, and the thing is that everybody is drawing the Jameer Gibbs comparisons and he's bigger Jameer Gibbs. And you know, everybody talks about, well, this, this team. And he kind of joked about at the beginning. If you want to compare it to a situation that we've seen just within the last seven years and eight years technically, you go back to Saquon Barkley when he was drafted by the Giants, and everybody's like, what the hell are they doing? They have so many more issues and they're drafting an elite running back. And. But if you look at Saquon Barkley that year, he finished number two, but he did so on 352 touches. Like, do we really think that's happening for Jeremiah 11? That's the issue. It's not the talent. It's not what he can do on a bad team. It's the fact of what it comes down to, the touch equity. And if you want to look at it that way, you say, all right, let's say he gets 250, which would be a really good rookie season to get 250, but put him on a similar pace to Saquon Barkley's history, making rookie season like one of the best rookie seasons we've seen in the past 20 years. That puts them right around 220 to 225 fantasy points, which puts them right about RB11, RB12. Of course they're ceiling for more. Of course this could change and maybe Tyler Algier just becomes completely fodder. I'd be surprised because they didn't sign him to do nothing. I know that they weren't planning to take Love when they signed him, but you're still talking about Benson or Connor is going to be the three. And it just comes down to the touch equity, the number of touches he's going to have every given week. Can he handle 300 plus touches? Absolutely. Will he get them? That's the big question. So the talent's undeniable. The potential is undeniable. It's just what kind of workload is he going to get? And I think if the Cardinals are smart, similar to not what the Giants did, is that you're thinking the future and we know we're not a contender this year. Let's only give him the 250 like the lions did with Jameer Gibbs. And that's the concern that we, I Think have to face at least in Redraft Dynasty. Absolutely. The one on one, even a super flex. I made the argument that if you're desperate for quarterback, you don't have a third. You take Mendoza, but you could still make the argument, even in that scenario, to still take love. Dynasty is a completely different ballgame.
B
I would. I would like to make that argument along with you.
A
That's what I'm saying.
B
Take love anyway. All right, let's talk about the other alpha dog in the room, Jadarian Price, ironically teammate of Jeremiah Love at Notre Dame. Now, an intriguing situation. He's going to the Seattle Seahawks, right? A reign. Defending champions of the world. A team that wants to run the football. Runs the football. Well, the other running back, Zach Sharbray, is not going to be back till late November, and we don't know what he's gonna look like when he does return. If that 100 Sealy and the competition they brought in was Emmanuel Wilson, who I want to just reiterate, performed admirably for the packers, as Pat Fitz Morris well knows. I had to stream him in plenty of leagues against Pat, and it was. It was good while he was there. So he showed it like, hey, okay, this guy's a capable backup. But it does kind of feel like Jadarian Price could be a guy Jake, that has a little bit more immediate impact. Ironically, even though these guys are kind of at bookends of the NFL draft in fantasy, Price is probably going to go later. But I think there's a scenario you could map out where Price, at least in the early going, is more useful for fantasy. But where do you see this? Do you think Emmanuel Wilson kind of stunts his growth as well as Algiers going to do the same to Jeremiah Love in the first six weeks?
C
No, because I would take Algier the talent over Wilson the talent. And I'm not saying that Algier is a star. I'm just saying that Emmanuel Wilson, as you said, he's a nice replacement option when you need him, and he did admirably play for the packers, but I don't think he was the answer. And I think the Seahawks did this knowing that potentially we're going to need two, if not three, running backs because Charbonnet might not play. And that's really what it came down to. We're not bringing Kenneth Walker back. We have no Charbonnet. We essentially have no running backs. George Alani, like, really, what are we doing?
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So I think, yeah, I think we
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look at the Seahawks and it's interesting People point these metrics out a lot and they're like, well, what's the most important for fantasy? Is it speed? Is it height? Weight combinations? Is it. This is it. This is a draft capital. You know what the most telling thing is, is touches. What's the opportunity for touches, whether wide receiver, running back, tight end, whatever it might be, what's your share of the offense? And I know there's no guaranteed prediction for what that might be, but there is. When we can, you know, sit here and analyze teams and say, okay, where are the potential touches most likely coming in, we sit there and talk about that's the concern for love as a rookie. What's not the concern and why? I was watching the Seahawks this entire time and I said I'd be interested in blank running back if they do it on day two, round two or three because of the potential touches they're coming into. They did it in round one and I know there was some talk that they wanted to trade back out of that pick and they weren't able to. But if you look at who was drafting behind them, they were probably still going to get Price. Like this wasn't like, we don't want Price, we want to get the hell out of here. It's just knowing that a lot of teams weren't looking at running back and Price could have lasted to the second round and now he's walking into a spot where no. Is he a great pass catcher? Not going to say that. Is he somebody that's probably. If the full workload probably only get 20, 30 receptions as they do sprinkle in Wilson or Holani or anybody else. Yeah, but 250 touches on the Seahawks. Sign me the BLEEP up because that's going to be an RB2. Is he going to be RB1? Absolutely not. But he's going to be an RB2. And one of my comparison I kept making is Raheem Mostert and I referenced this time and again, kudos to Fitz. When Dan Brugler did his mock, his final mock, he mocked Mike Washington going to the third round to the Seahawks and I was like, ooh, that would be an RB2 for me. Fitz pushed back on Mike Washington saying like, I don't love the fact that he backs into tackles at times. He's not a great stretch runner. And the more I thought about it, I was like, you know what? Fitz is right. And I pulled back off off of that and say, I actually don't love that fit. Because what do the Seahawks do? Zone stretch, running what does Raheem Mostert do? And I'm saying that because that's my comparison and I don't know if people agree, but that's my comparison for ice. Holy crap. Zone stretch runner. If you put Mostert and what he was doing with the Dolphins on the Seahawks, please, again, sign me up for that as an RB2, even if he's not catching a ton of passes. So RB2. But the fact is that RB2 I've seen this. I wouldn't do it because I would still take the wide receivers, but now I've seen Price and Dynasty Rookie only is going as the third pick because people want running backs and they know the value of this landing spot.
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Bank NA Member FDIC Terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891 yeah, I have seen him in my rookie drafts also fly up the board too as a top five pick even because some teams are just running back needy and because the wide receiver class doesn't necessarily blow your doors off.
C
Single quarterback I would take him fifth after the big three wide receivers and love super flex. I put him sixth.
B
Well, it's pretty close to each other. It's only one spot different there.
C
Well, no, no, I meant I still wouldn't do the third pick like people were doing. I'm not gonna go.
B
Yeah, yeah, no, I think the third pick is a little much, but I understand it. Again, if your roster is as flush with wide receiver talent, you don't think any of these guys are necessarily going to be immediate game changers, then why not pivot to the running back position? And like you said, the circumstance for the Seattle Seahawks, Price is a Very, very good one. We're going to talk about some value guys here next. Before we get to those names though, just a quick reminder. Use the tools here at Fantasy Pros and all of your drafts that are upcoming, especially when you're trying to evaluate picks versus Players. Trade Analyzer is here for you and you can get a three day free trial at fantasybros.com dynasty26 right now to win the trade market of all of our premium tools that include the Trade Analyzer. So go to fancybros.com myplaybook sync your leagues for free, and then go to fantasybros.com dynasty26. You can start the three day free trial of our premium tools and that will get you all the information you need, all the breakdowns of trades, all the evaluations to help you make the best moves in your 2026 draft. And obviously you're going to fall in love with the tools and then you're going to want it for all your drafts. And then you can continue on with the premium subscription, which gets you access to a lot more stuff around these parts. So check it out today again at fantasybros.com/dynasty26. All right, next up here we're gonna talk about some value guys. As I alluded to earlier, Fitzy, Emmett Johnson's a guy that I liked in terms of evaluation process. I like the film, I like the player. I think he could have a pretty good situation. But the situation he landed in was Kansas City, where they just spent a lot of money on Ken Walker. Now the only thing that's kind of going in the favor is that Ken Walker also has a checkered injury history, which means at some point you could see Ken Walker miss some time. The question is, can Emma Johnson make the most of that for the Kansas City Chiefs if that should happen? Or what's his path even to kind of ingratiate himself into this workload potentially where we don't ride the Ken Walker horse too hard too early because we want to have him for the latter part of the season healthy enough when Mahomes returns. And you hope that Kelsey's still there too and good enough to play that maybe we can backdoor away into the playoffs for the Chiefs.
A
Well, Joe, I mean, Andy Reid just said that Emmett Johnson reminds him in some ways of Lashawn McCoy. So we should probably be wondering if he's just going to flat out steal Kenneth Walker shop. No, not going to go there. But you know, I love that Andy Reid is already pumping the tires of his later round running back, so I'm going to repeat a stat from it. Johnson I've dropped on our shows before. In the last 20 years, only two Big Ten players have had at least 1400 rushing yards and 35050 receiving yards in a single season. Saquon Barkley and Emmett Johnson. So Emmett Johnson slightly undersized at 5, 10, 2 oh 5. Not especially fast, but this dude runs hard, makes sharp cuts, good pass catcher. He's had 85 receptions over the last two years. I know that Kenneth Walker was a workhorse for Seattle in the playoffs last year sort of out of necessity after Charbonnet went down. But. But he's been a timeshare back for much of his career and has not been immune to injuries. I think Emmett Johnson is a better back than Amari Di Mercado or Burchard Smith, and that's his competition to be the number two in this backfield behind Walker. And if the Chiefs wanted or needed Emmett Johnson to handle a big workload, he averaged 20.9 carries and 24.8 touches a game in his final season at Nebraska. Yeah, so I think he's the favorite to be the number two in an offense we generally like. And you know, Walker is not going to be a workhorse the way he was in the playoffs. And like you said, Joe, it makes sense for Kansas City to use him judiciously and not beat him into the ground.
B
Yeah, I don't know if that's going to be the case because they might have no choice but to beat him into the ground for the first couple of weeks without Mahomes. Possibly. We'll see if Mahomes is ready for the start of the season. I know he's a crazy person and he's one well ahead of schedule and all that stuff, but I mean, he is your franchise. So let's not be stupid, Kansas City. Let's make sure that we take our time and get Patrick Mahomes back healthy. And you know, to your point, too pat, that you just made, you know, I thought Rashard Smith had some opportunities last year to separate himself from the pack so they didn't need to make this pick. He did not. So I am not fearful of him kind of keeping Emmett Johnson down. Let's get to another guy here. Let's get to a Penn State running back named Nick Singleton. And Jake, you've kind of circled him on your list of value plays. So let's talk about him landing spot in Tennessee. I know we've talked about him before a little bit. The future is There potentially for him after next year where all the running backs are free agents. But what about the present? What has to happen for him to be useful in 2026?
C
Well, I just want to say right now maybe I do have telepathic powers because I was sitting here making my list because we did this show with Debro and the two running backs that Fitz hook. I was like take them. I used them on the other show. Take those two guys. I'm going to take two different ones. Somehow Fitz got the message. So I guess like maybe I should try my powers a little bit more.
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He is the ultimate fantasy pro.
C
Okay.
B
It's not just a name that we throw around these parts. Pat Fitz Moore as walks the walk
A
around here when Jake uses his telepathy skills I just have to turn on the brain waves and too many funko pops Fitzy.
B
But the thing is I I I
C
also want to echo it because as intelligent as everybody knows Fitz is is that we're on lockstep with those two players. I'll save the other one that he's going to bring up which should tell people a lot of things. I brought these two up because I wasn't sure how he felt about him especially being Penn State guys. And we'll talk about the other one but there's a hint who my second player is. But the first is Nick Singleton. Do I think Singleton does much as a rookie? Probably not. Although we've seen injury concerns obviously with Spears at this point and if Pollard gets banged up Singleton is just falling into a spot where I made a lot of comparisons. I kept saying Tevin Coleman, Tevin Coleman 10 Coleman straight runner like dude, bend your hips a little bit like stop running like a stick down the down the field like stop. But that bend in that straight line kind of cut style I do think will fit a lot of like the single running backs, the shotguns. Like we've even seen him go empty which I talking about Dable. I don't think Singleton will be on the field for that but the potential more for 2027 because Spears and Pollard are both free agents. Do they bring back Pollard? I would bet not. Do they even bring back Spears? He's flashed but he's flashed when he's been on.
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I say no, I don't think I think with a new regime there like
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why do you bring back because he's
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also a couple years into the league now. Why would you do that if that's a terrible well situations for the Titans
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and that was going to be my final Point on this is the regime. What did Brian Dable show us with the Giants is that, like, he brought in Singletary and we're like, why? And like, even Singletary not being the best and he still kept going to Singletary, kept going to Singletary, kept going to Singletary. Like, dude, we know he's not good. What are you doing, Brian? And yet he kept doing it. Brian Dable likes his guys. He was involved. I know he wasn't the one making the pick or the head coach, but I know he had some input. And if you're talking about the new regime, Singleton is his tie. He has zero ties to Pollard and Spears. So I'm looking again as Singleton for a value potentially for next year. Do I think he's ever more than an RB2 in fantasy? No, because he's going to share the backfield with somebody. But that's the potential here, is that you're going to get somebody in a year that we're like, oh, my God, these running backs stink. You could get one in Nick Singleton potentially for next year and beyond.
B
All right, well, since we're talking about Penn State running backs, right, stick with the other one. Got to keep it going. Let's stick with just bang it all out here. Let's talk about Katron Allen here and his landing spot in Washington and what that means for him.
C
I think Washington is still sold on Crosby Merritt. Like, I'm not just throwing them aside yet. Ben Standig said this at the beginning of the preseason last year. They said everybody pumped the brakes on Crosby Merritt. The dude has played one game in two years. They know what they have in him. They might not use him a lot, even until the second half of the season. So I'm saying that say, like, Crosby Merritt wasn't amazing so much. So that's like, this is definitively his backfield. I'm just saying don't throw him out the window just yet and say it's definitively Allen. But Allen is stepping into a situation with clear murkiness. I guess you can't really say that. That's contradictory. It's oxymoron, really. But there's plenty of murkiness in this backfield where he could be the lead option. Because what are the one things the commanders do, too? They made Chris Rodriguez a thing. They love some Brian Robinson. They just love these kind of dudes and they just love these kind of dudes that could be at least a timeshare as that thumper in the front. And maybe again, I'm not saying Kraski Merritt can't be because he has power. We have some into his body. But if there's an opening here, and I know it's potentially a committee which would just make us hate in fantasy but if it Potentially came a 1, 2 situation where Allen was getting 50% of the work as the lead early down short yardage, maybe a bit in the passing game, Allen similar to Tyler Algier when he led as a rookie for the Falcons and that's a super high ceiling but there's a potential here. Just take a flyer on Allen in case he breaks free of that backfield.
B
Jacori Crosby, Merrick for me just didn't do it last year and I was not buying into the hype. So luckily towards the end of draft season I didn't have any shares. My fear is committee but I think if I had a part of this committee I want the cheap part and he's the cheap part too. I think that's why I like Alan so much. All right, let's talk about one more guy who has good value play and this guy Fitzy I had in my queue and he went a couple picks before I could take him in my fourth round because I look at this situation, I see he was in front of him and I think, well, maybe it won't be too long for demand. Clayborne next year.
A
Yeah, Demon Claiborne, he's a scat back and he was drafted in the sixth round. So I don't want to get too far out over my skis here. At 510, 188 pounds, Claiborne's never going to be a workhorse. No, but he does have 4, 3, 7 speed, makes really sharp cuts and tight turns. Patient runner, good vision and even though he's a little guy, he does put up a pretty good fight when people try to tackle him. And Minnesota. You said it Joe. Just a pretty good landing spot for him. Aaron Jones is 31. His efficiency sort of fell off last year, so he's in the twilight of his career. Jordan Mason, kind of a one dimensional guy. Early down battering ram and it seems like the efficiency drops, the more carries he gets. Clayborne brings a little bit of Tabasco to this Vikings backfield. Like he can be a change of pace guy to start out and then maybe as things progress, maybe Aaron Jones isn't around next year. Probably not. And like there's potential for a bigger role for Claiborne. Again, probably never a workhorse role just because he's smaller, but he could be a Meaningful contributor to a backfield that seems like it's kind of in flux.
B
Yeah, certainly does. All right, so those are some guys there for the value areas of the running back position. And we're going to talk about the scratch off guys, the high end lottery ticket guys, and we'll see maybe if Jake can find one that he likes. I don't know. We'll find out. But the one thing we all like is Hard Rock bet, the sponsor of our show. And of course, the NBA playoffs are heating up on the hardwood. And you can take advantage of it right now by building a same game parlay over at Hard Rock BET Florida Sportsbook. And if you bet five bucks and your bet wins, you get your winnings and 150in bonus bets right now at Hard Rock Bet. So excited. I just knocked something off my desk. That's how excited I am about the Hard Rock Bet offers. And they've got promos every single day. So go check it out right now at Hard Rock Bet Florida Sportsbook. Download the Hard Rock Bet app right now and go ahead and win 150 bonus bets when your first bet hits payable. And bonus bets, not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital, LLC and other states must be 21 in physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee or Virginia. Play terms and conditions apply. Concern about gambling in Florida, call 1-833-PLAY-WISE in Indiana. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem wants help, call 1-800-9 with it. Gambling problem, call 1-800- gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. All right, here we go. Fitzy. I'm gonna give Jake some more time to see if he can come up with anybody that he likes deeper in this position because I feel like he doesn't like anybody, which is good. They'll keep the show shorter today. But again, what are we gonna do? The guy that you like is the guy that I like. It's a guy that Erickson likes. It's the guy that Debro likes. Now all four of us like this guy. And if you just kind of take away the school that he went to or the academy, I should say, right then, I don't know, you kind of look at him and go, well, that's a really interesting prospect. I know he went really late. I understand all the reasons why we shouldn't really be paying attention to him in fantasy, but gee whiz, Pat, I just can't get past Eli Heidenreich. And it looks like you can't either.
A
Yeah, and let's not knock the Navy guys, Joe. We had David Robinson, the great San Antonio spurs coming out. Roger Staubach, of course, great man.
B
One of the nicest people I ever met in my entire life. When I was working at a hotel, I had to take over the night shift one night and it's 5:30 in the morning. Who walks in to check in? Roger Staubach. And I see his super bowl ring on his finger. Patty, the nicest guy ever at 5 something in the morning. And I bet there's a lot of people you can't say that about, especially former super bowl champions. What a dude that guy was. Who else is at Navy? So I got Robinson. Anybody else? Jake, were you in the Navy? No, not so much. Yeah, I was not.
C
I was just waiting to hear a running back that was actually from Navy,
A
though, that I don't know about.
B
Yeah.
A
And so we're.
C
I don't even know if the player you're talking about is a running back.
B
Let's make that clear with.
A
With most classes, when you look outside, like the ECR top 10 in the rookie class, like, normally there are some interesting dart throws, man, it is hard to find one outside the top 10. But Heidreich, I think, is like the lone qualifier this year. And I don't know if this guy could ever handle a steady diet of carries for an NFL team, but he was a really, really prolific pass catcher at Navy. JJ Zachary dropped this crazy Heidenreich stat. So Heidenreich averaged 4.96 adjusted receiving yards per team pass attempt for Navy. And that is the best number of any college running back prospect JJ has in his database. Second on the list, Christian McCaffrey at 2.36. Less than half the adjusted receiving yards per team pass attempt that Heidenreich put up. Like he was the Navy passing game.
B
Yeah. Oh, yeah, basically.
A
And you watch him and. Yeah, and he's not a tiny guy either. He's. He's 6ft, 198 pounds. Like, smaller. But the. The one comp that came to mind. And this might not be familiar to some members of our audience since I'm old and a lot of them aren't, but Ronnie Harmon, I know who Ronnie Harmon is.
B
I've heard the Danny Woodhead or, like, stronger Danny Woodhead ones too.
A
Which, yeah, Danny Woodhead comes to mind. While Danny Woodhead was white too, and Ronnie Harmon wasn't. So. But harmon played from 87 to 97, about the same size as Heinrich. There was only one NFL season where Ronnie Harmon had more than 100 carries, topped out at 116 for the Bills in his second NFL season. But Ronnie Harmon had eight seasons with 40 or more catches and two seasons with more than 70 catches when he was in his heyday with the Chargers. So I'm thinking maybe Ronnie Harmon is the like a best case scenario for Eli Heiden Reich.
B
Yeah, look, I, I think he could be a contributor. Jake, I don't know if you have somebody else you want to talk about, but I, I think the Christian McCaffrey comps that I hear thrown around, I'm like, okay, let's not get crazy. I understand a lot of measurables are similar and that's cool and that's interesting, but I don't necessarily want to put that on that kid. Especially when you're a seventh round pick. Right. Or whatever.
C
Well, and let's understand where he just came from. He had 51 of 106 receptions for the season for that team. He was their wide receiver, their only wide receiver. Like I'm not coming for fits anybody. But like let's, let's take his value into context. This is the Navy offense who treated him as their one receiver that they have every single year and occasionally let him run the ball. That's really what it came down to. So like let's understand like all these percentages and stuff like that. And I know Fitz isn't saying that and you know, hopefully that he's a RB three and half and full point PPR I think is the best case scenario. I'm not fully out in Heinrich, but I just want to put into context the team that he comes from and why that matters. Like when you hear those percentages, I think there's nobody else. Fitz wanted to give me McGowan and I get it, like McGowan's going to be the backup. We, we had hope for DJ Giddings, at least I did last year behind Jamel Jonathan Taylor. But I think if you're looking besides McGowan, I'm just kind of like Blair. So the one that I go to is that he's got some Duke Johnson similarities and we're all, we just sat here and talked about the Chiefs, but we've seen people fail for the Chiefs before. And if you want somebody that's a very profile player just like the one that they actually drafted, they took him as a free, free agent. But Jaden Ott shot out of the Cannon, Duke Johnson, like, and he fills that same role. If an injury or something were to happen or the complete bust that Ott sets up, I'm not saying go take them. Not saying it's like, oh, amazing. But fourth round, I'm taking Ott everywhere I can just on the chance, boy,
B
we get Duke Johnson and Ronnie Harmon
A
here at the end.
B
I mean, if everybody listening right now isn't excited, I don't know what to tell you guys. I don't know what to tell you.
C
This class is amazing, you know, but
B
look, you just never know. I mean, we see it every year where we think, oh, it's going to be great, and then it's not good. And every year where we go, oh, this class is very interesting and we see guys popping. We go, how did this guy last to the sixth round or seventh round or whatever it is, it happens. Just gotta find that one shining star and hopefully you scratch that ticket off and find who that is. And in the meantime, while you're trying to do that, let us help you with our tools to make all the right moves here with our Dynasty Draft Simulator that it's available for you right now. The simulator will help you crush mock drafts in just minutes, right? You can roll through all of them. And remember, if you're MVP or Hall of Fame subscribers here, Fantasy Pros, you can test the trade scenarios by mocking your own actual traded draft picks. And you can also get a three day free trial of the premium subscription right now@FantasyPros.com Dynasty26. Again, that's FantasyPros.com Dynasty26. So do it like two days, three days before your draft, right? Get all the tools, run through your draft and then impress everybody or your friends and relatives. Go to fancybros.com simulator to check it out today. Guys, great work as always. Keep an eye on everyone for part three, the quarterbacks of the tight ends. And if you missed the running back conversation, obviously the wide receiver conversation, go back to and listen to that show. If you missed the running back conversation, then I don't know what you were doing for the last half hour and you should go back and listen to the show again. And that's another view for us on YouTube. That'll do it for us. But the story of the game goes on. For Jake Seely and Pat Fitz Morris, I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time. Kids, thanks for listening to the Fantasy
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FantasyPros Dynasty Rookie Running Back Targets (Ep. 2009) – May 5, 2026
Episode Overview In this episode of the FantasyPros Fantasy Football Podcast (Dynasty edition), host Joe Pisapia (“Joey P.”) is joined by Jake Seeley (The Athletic) and Pat Fitzmaurice (FantasyPros) to break down the 2026 rookie running back class for dynasty leagues. They sift through “studs, values, and lottery tickets” – assessing both immediate and future fantasy value – with an emphasis on the importance of team landing spots, potential workloads, and the hidden gems that could make or break your dynasty draft.
For dynasty players looking for rookie RB gold beyond the obvious top picks, this episode provides plenty of actionable, nuanced discussion with both immediate and long-term fantasy angles.