Fantasy Football Draft Rankings & Tiers | Running Back Must-Have Targets, Busts to Avoid & Sleepers (Ep. 2029)

Summary

FantasyPros Fantasy Football Podcast

Episode: Fantasy Football Draft Rankings & Tiers | Running Back Must-Have Targets, Busts to Avoid & Sleepers (Ep. 2029)

Date: May 20, 2026
Host: Joe Pisapia (Joey P)
Guests: Andrew Erickson, Derek Brown (“D Bro”)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the trio dives deep into the running back landscape for the 2026 fantasy football season, unpacking draft tiers, must-have targets, potential busts, and enticing sleepers. They debate player outlooks based on team context, projected workload, efficiency trends, and recent draft changes. Lively banter, inside jokes, and occasional hot takes make the discussion both informative and highly entertaining, while the crew’s focus remains on actionable insights for fantasy football drafters.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction – Setting the Stage (00:17-02:56)

• The episode continues FantasyPros’ positional rankings series by focusing on running backs after previously covering quarterbacks.
• Joey P welcomes back analyst Andrew Erickson (“Mr. Big Pot Energy”) and resident beard connoisseur Derek Brown (“D Bro”).
• Brief channel plugs and banter highlight the camaraderie and light tone.

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Running Back Tiers Overview

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Tier 1: Elite Backs Drafters are Debating (02:56-04:53)

• Jahmyr Gibbs (Lions) #1
• Bijan Robinson (Falcons) #2

Key Debates:

• Joey P claims Team Gibbs; Debro leans Bijan but isn’t dogmatic.
• Andrew started the offseason on the Bijan train but is warming to Gibbs as the “easy schedule” and positive environment for the Lions sway him.
  • “If the environment is that much better in Detroit than Atlanta, that also leans me towards Jameer Gibbs.” — Andrew (03:43)
• The crew agrees both are elite options, and neither is a wrong choice given their bell-cow projections post-backfield shakeups (“choose your own adventure”).

Memorable Moment (04:50):
“Should I just pivot to Josh Allen? … Make an AI hybrid of Gibbs and Bijan.” — Joey P

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Other Tier 1 Discussed:

• Jonathan Taylor (#3, Colts)

  • Concern about heavy workload, injury history, and Colts’ offensive volatility with Daniel Jones at QB.
  • Debro expresses discomfort with Taylor’s current ADP (“Not a Taylor problem, it’s an ADP problem.” 10:09).
  • Taylor is RB7 for Debro, not top 3.

• Christian McCaffrey (#4, 49ers)

  • All three analysts DO NOT have CMC in Tier 1, citing risk factors (age, accumulated workload, declining rushing efficiency).
  • “Saquon Barkley last year. Josh Jacobs the year before. … They just don’t repeat.” — Erickson (13:26)
  • Considered more of a “high-risk, high-upside” RB1, not a surefire cornerstone.
  • CMC is compared to latter-day Alvin Kamara: elite pass catcher, but diminishing explosiveness between tackles.

• James Cook (#5, Bills)

  • Emerging as a consensus RB3; undervalued per all three analysts.
  • “He just scores more touchdowns. … I just kind of feel like James Cook is being disrespected after leading the NFL in rushing yards.” — Erickson (06:07)
  • Ceiling raised by possibility of Buffalo unlocking Cook’s pass-game skillset under new head coach Joe Brady.
  • “If we get the past game utility for James Cook unlocked … he could be the RB1 overall.” — Debro (08:27)

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Tier 2: Rising Talents, Workhorses, and Value Plays (16:02-23:00)

• Saquon Barkley (Eagles) #6

  • Debro is out at this price: “I cannot draft Saquon Barkley at freaking RB6. I have him at RB13 right now.” (22:25)
  • Concerns: age, offensive line degradation, more average yards before contact, dwindling missed tackle and after-contact metrics.

• Amarion Hampton (Chargers) #10

  • Joey P: “This is a guy I’m willing to go out on a limb for at the end of the first round.” (16:56)
  • Andrew: “He’s a three-down, all-purpose running back … poised for a year two breakout.” (17:13)
  • Strong receiving work as a rookie increases appeal; improved O-line and Mike McDaniel as OC.

• Others:

  • Ashton Jeanty, De’Von Achane, Derrick Henry.
  • Derrick Henry, per Joey: “Annually gets disrespected, then keeps dropping 1,500-yard seasons.” (17:06)

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Tier 3: Where RB Value Is Made (26:21-33:17)

• Players: Kenneth Walker (#11), Chase Brown (#12, Bengals), Josh Jacobs (#13), Jeremiah Love (#14), Kyren Williams (#15), Javonte Williams (#16, Cowboys), Breece Hall (#17), Bucky Irving (#19), and others.

• Javonte Williams:

  • Debro: “People forget Javonte was RB11 in fantasy points per game last year … unquestioned RB1.” (28:02)
  • Great value for those going WR-heavy early.

• Chase Brown:

  • Andrew: “He can finish as a top five RB … after Burrow returned, Brown was RB7 in PPG.” (30:55)
  • "Reminds me a lot of Kyren Williams — a day three pick who became a true workhorse." (31:36)

• General note: Consensus that both Williams and Brown are ideal RB2/3s for WR-heavy builds.

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Tier 4: The Productive but Overlooked and the Sleepers (33:17-44:46)

• Key Names: Cam Scadboo (#20), Travion Henderson (#21), David Montgomery, DeAndre Swift, Quinshon Judkins, Bashaw Tootin, Jadarian Price, Jalen Warren, Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle.

• Travion Henderson vs. Rhamondre Stevenson (Patriots):

  • Debro: “I don’t see what happened last year for anyone to have faith Henderson takes over this backfield if Stevenson is healthy.” (34:35)
  • Erickson admits “room for growth,” but agrees Stevenson is safer, especially early in the season (38:07).

• Rico Dowdle (Steelers)

  • “He’s Mike McCarthy’s guy … has earned his touches, top 21 RB last two seasons.” — Erickson (41:02)
  • All three rank Dowdle over Jalen Warren.
  • “The sexy pick is Jalen Warren, the right pick is Rico Dowdle.” — Debro (43:02)

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Tier 5 & Deep Sleepers: The True Wildcards (46:41-58:44)

• Blake Corum, Kalen Mongai, Rhamondre Stevenson, RJ Harvey, Tony Pollard (#34), JK Dobbins, Jacory Croskey-Merritt, etc.

• Minnesota Vikings backfield: Complete mystery (“No one knows what to do.” — Joey P (46:41))

• Chris Rodriguez (Jaguars):

  • Joey P is intrigued due to contract and OC connection.
  • Andrew: “Tutin has way more juice than Chris Rodriguez and already forced work last year over Etienne. Rodriguez is a zero in the passing game.” (47:39)

• Tony Pollard (Titans):

  • Debro: “Why is Tony Pollard RB3 right now? … He should be ranked as an RB2.” (51:26)
  • No true challenger; ceiling boosted by presumably improved offense and line.

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Wildcard & Injury-Red Flag: Jonathan Brooks (Panthers) (53:38-58:44)

• Both Debro and Erickson see Brooks as a high-ceiling sleeper, as Chuba Hubbard is “inefficient” and “already lost his job once.”
• “If Jonathan Brooks can be 80% of the guy he was in college, he could take the job.” — Debro (54:11)
• Concerns regarding two ACLs, but optimism based on youth and athletic precedent (e.g., Frank Gore, Dalvin Cook).
• “Don’t love Hubbard as a bet … The team has already shown a willingness to pivot.” — Erickson (55:30)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I think what this comes back to is, I don’t hate players, I hate ADP.” — Derek Brown on Jonathan Taylor (10:09)
• “Saquon Barkley … it’s like people pretending last year didn’t even happen.” — Derek Brown (20:03)
• “He just scores more touchdowns. I just kind of feel like James Cook is being disrespected.” — Andrew Erickson (06:07)
• “The sexy pick is Jalen Warren, the right pick is Rico Dowdle.” — Debro (43:02)
• [On Chris Rodriguez] “Tutin has way more juice … and was already as good as Rodriguez.” — Andrew Erickson (47:39)
• [On Jonathan Brooks] “Is Jonathan Brooks this year’s Javonte Williams from last year?” — Debro (56:44)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:56 — Tier 1 RBs: Gibbs vs. Bijan (+ Taylor, McCaffrey, James Cook)
• 06:07 — James Cook deep dive
• 10:09 — Jonathan Taylor risk & ADP analysis
• 13:26 — McCaffrey/Kamara comparison
• 16:02 — Tier 2 RBs: Barkley, Achane, Henry, Hampton
• 17:13 — Amarion Hampton breakout argument
• 22:25 — Debro’s Barkley skepticism and O-line metrics
• 26:21 — Introduction of Tier 3
• 28:02 — Javonte Williams 2025 recap, 2026 upside
• 30:55 — Chase Brown breakout, post-Burrow return splits
• 33:17 — Start of Tier 4 + New England backfield debate
• 34:35 — Travion Henderson vs. Stevenson analysis
• 41:02 — Rico Dowdle as the Steelers’ best bet
• 47:39 — Jaguars RB battle: Rodriguez vs. Tutin
• 51:26 — Tony Pollard value & Titans RB breakdown
• 53:38 — Jonathan Brooks debate: health, opportunity

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Summary Table: Tiered RB Targets, Fades, and Sleepers

| Tier | Must-Have / Target | Fades / Bust Potential | Sleepers / Deep Shots | |--------------|---------------------------|-----------------------------------------|------------------------------| | Tier 1 | Gibbs, Bijan, James Cook | Taylor (at ADP), McCaffrey (injury/fat) | | | Tier 2 | Amarion Hampton, Achane | Barkley (at RB6 price) | | | Tier 3 | Javonte Williams, Chase Brown | (Tier is value-centric, not many fades) | Kyren Williams, Breece Hall | | Tier 4-5 | Rico Dowdle, Blake Corum | Ramondre Stevenson, Jalen Warren | Bashaw Tootin, Chris Rodriguez, Jonathan Brooks |

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Final Takeaways

• Gibbs vs. Bijan is the draft’s first RB coinflip; both situations markedly improved.
• James Cook is the consensus “must-have” at cost, primed for a pass-catching breakout.
• Serious trending down for Barkley and McCaffrey at their current costs due to decline signs and volume concerns.
• Amarion Hampton and Chase Brown are viewed as the best “second round” running back targets with league-winning upside.
• Javonte Williams and Rico Dowdle are favorite value workhorses who can anchor a “zero RB” build.
• Late-round bets like Blake Corum and Jonathan Brooks offer deep breakout appeal, especially if incumbents falter.

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For More Information

• Full rankings and tier breakouts available at fantasypros.com/rankings
• Keep up with the podcast’s full positional series for additional draft prep insights
• Join the conversation and drop your own must-have/sleeper RBs on YouTube or @fantasypros on X

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(End of summary)

Transcript

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[B]

It's smart to always have a few financial goals and a really smart one. You can set earning cash back on what you buy every day. And with Discover, you can get this.

[C]

Discover automatically matches all the cash back

[B]

you've earned at the end of your first year. Seriously, all of it. And we trust you to make smart decisions. I mean, after all, you listen to this show, see [e-mail] credit card. Welcome in, everybody, to Fantasy pros. This is the fantasy football podcast. It is me, Joey P. Joe P. Zapia. And today we're going to continue our series. If you missed yesterday's show on the quarterback version, we'll go back and watch it on Demand on the YouTube channel. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. But today we're moving to the running backs and the early tiers and the early rankings that you can find on fantasypros.com rankings. Again, easy to remember. So go check it out there to help us parse through these tiers of RBs. Who you want to move up, who you want to move down. Who better than my two best friends, Andrew Erickson, Mr. Big Pot Energy. And of course, D bro, Derek Brown, the king of bros, fresh from a beard consortium meeting, too, with all of his good friends in the beard community. So I hope that went well for you. I hope you enjoyed that. I hope you brought lots of fun creams and lotions and oils home. I assume you did. I imagine your bathroom is just slick with all the beard products, right? Is that what it is?

[A]

I felt like this conversation was going to make a very weird left turn there. I think it has. I think it has. But, yes, we had a long conversation. There were many, many PowerPoint presentations about fade and Italian beards and, and the construction of those. Right now, next year, we're hoping to get Andrew Erickson in the door, but he's got to prove a. That he can grow a beard first before we allow him into the meeting. So we shall see.

[B]

That sounds like a shot at you, Andrew.

[C]

I'm just saying it's an accurate one.

[A]

It's not.

[B]

It's not for me.

[A]

This is from the consortium. I'm just speaking for the collective.

[C]

Spot on. That's some top tier accuracy, D bro.

[B]

There you go. Well, look, that's what it's all about over here, the accuracy of the rankings. We're gonna get into all that stuff. And if you enjoy this kind of nonsense, well, you know what's for you? Our new channel, Tailgate NFL. So right now, go over find it on YouTube. Tailgate NFL search it in there. Subscribe. We're giving away a Jamar Chase jersey over there, by the way, for subscribers who comment. So go watch some of the amazing videos. We got a whole series of stuff coming out at you too, over these next few weeks. We got a lot of fun stuff, just talking football. It's not fantasy, it's not betting, it's just football. So it encompasses everything. And we just kind of have loose conversations and have a bunch of fun there, too. But we're not fun here today as well. So we're going to get to these running back rankings here and let's start at the very top of the with the tier one guys. Obviously, no surprise. We got Jir Gibbs at number one, Bijan Robinson at number two. I know some people will debate Bijan over Jir. I'm Team Jir. I don't know if anybody wants to, like, stake a claim to that. You guys feel passionate about it one way or another, or should we just move on from the 1 and 2 debro?

[A]

I'm tbjon, but I'm not. I'm not like dug in passionate about it, but I am tbjon.

[B]

How about you, Ericson? Are you Team Bijon here or are you Team Edward? I mean, Team Gibbs?

[C]

I think I was. I was definitely Team Bijan to start the off season, but I feel like I do want to adopt the Team Gibbs as we Progress throughout the 2026 Fantasy Football Draft season. I added Isaiah Pacheco. That's it. And yeah, we've talked about this on a lot of the shows, including the tailgate. How do we feel about the Lions? How do we feel about the Falcons? We talked about the Falcons as a team that could be potentially picking a quarterback next year. What does that mean for B.J. robinson where we're talking about the Lions? As easy as schedule. Oh, my God, this team's going to bounce back. They're checking off every single regression model you could look at for a team that's going to perform better in 2026. So if the environment is that much better in Detroit than Atlanta, that also leans me towards Jameer Gibbs.

[A]

I just feel like we're going to get a 1000, 1000 season out of Bijan without Algier. All the touchdown equity should go his way. That's the only reason why I'm Team Bijan right now.

[C]

Montgomery. I mean, we've seen that before with Gibbs and he turns into Daniel and Tomlinson.

[A]

But what if they just turned Pacheco into The new Montgomery. That's the.

[C]

Or they turn Brian Robinson into the new Tyler Algier.

[B]

I want to see how far we can push that. This is great. I'm really enjoying this. Well, what if. What if Ladanian Tomlinson becomes Earl Campbell?

[A]

What if Tua becomes the new Matt Ryan Erickson?

[B]

Have you thought about that?

[C]

TUA only wishes he could be Matt Ryan.

[B]

I guess the idea is you really can't go wrong with the. With the one of these. Is that the moral of the story there? It's pretty much it's choose your own adventure with those guys. Now that's gonna be even harder for me to pick a cover boy for the black book. Should I just pivot to Josh Allen? Because we can't decide between the two running backs. I don't know. I've been going back and forth.

[A]

Make an AI Hybrid of Gibbs and Bijan.

[B]

I don't want to use the AI hybrid.

[A]

We could just call it B. Gibbs.

[C]

You should put. You should put Brian Robinson on the COVID in a Falcons you're. And see people notice.

[B]

You know what I wanted to do? What I wanted to do was put Jameer Gibbs on. On the COVID and have a. With his old number 26. But then I thought, I'll get heat on that. Right? Because it's the 20s.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

People won't get that. That would go straight over their head. That's why it's not the right number.

[B]

Jeff, what are you doing? You don't even know what number he wears anyway. Yeah, whichever one's one and two, that's

[C]

what I would do. Whichever one's not on the Madden cover.

[B]

Fair. But I don't know that in time.

[A]

That's true.

[B]

Look, they're both good at football. They both have situations now where they have one less guy to worry about. So, I mean, it's. It's a great situation for both those guys. Jonathan Taylor is coming in at 3, Christian McCaffrey at 4, James Cook at 5. So, Andrew Erickson, we'll start with you here. And James Cook. My most drafted running back last year was James Cook. We had a lot of conversations about him last season, and I kept coming back to the same thing, which was they didn't add anything in the off season. So therefore, I felt really good about James Cook. And everyone kept talking to me about the touchdown regression of James Cook and how he couldn't repeat this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, when all said and done, it turns out that James Cook was still pretty productive in fantasy. Now, they did Add DJ Moore. So that change in the calculus for you coming into this year on James

[C]

Cook, it makes the offense score more points, then yeah, sure, it's a good thing. DJ Moore can be another piece that makes this Bill's offense continue to be prolific. The offensive line, I think is still in really great shape. You still have Josh Allen leading the package. Going to be a top 10, if not top five scoring offense. And I just kind of feel like James Cook is being disrespected after leading the NFL and rushing yards last season. 1,621 rushing yards. And to your point, Joe, every year he just checks off another box of, well, he can't be this efficient two years in a row. Well, he is. He can't score this many touchdowns in a row, which is what he does. He just scores more touchdowns. And I think that the last piece of the puzzle with James Cook has been this pass catching. Where in at Georgia that was. He was known for that was. He was touted as like this electric pass catcher out of the backfield. And although he does have a 44 yard or 44 catch season on his resume, 445 receiving yards, he hasn't really done it the last couple of years, just the way that the Bills have used him. So I still think though that there's more meat on the bone here with James Cook. He's in his uber prime. Some of these other running backs, okay, Gibson, Robinson, at the top of Taylor and, and Christian McCaffrey, both older than James Cook, they have way more wear and tear on their bodies. So I like James cook as my RB3. I think that he has a really high score. I like it. If he can get that, I mean, worst case scenario, okay, he doesn't get the receiving. All right, fine. Well, he was RB6 last year and he could lead the NFL rushing yards again and score double digit touchdowns. Oh no. Why'd I pick this guy? So I like Jeff.

[B]

Well, that was the whole thing, right? And I know you're doing the write ups right now for Black Book, so you're like knee deep in all this stuff, right? Which by the way comes out in June, So go check it out. That's on Amazon. Go order it. It's gonna be great. First week of June, thousand yards rushing in 2024, 16 touchdowns rushing and then two receiving. So 18 total last year, of course he wasn't gonna have 18 touchdowns again. Instead he only had 14. Oh, woe is me. How will we ever survive? But he added 600 more yards in the Ground, which is an impressive number for sure. And again, as Andrew pointed out, the receiving kind of stayed the same. So making an argument at the age and the situation that James Cook is in, where you have such a mobile quarterback in, in Josh Allen, I think he weakens those defenses, too. That makes James Cook's life a little easier because chasing around Josh Allen, trying to tackle that monstrous human being is. Is a chore for any defense. And then you get James Cook, you know, just blasted by you. It's no fun.

[A]

I don't disagree. And James cook is my RB3 as well, so I'm with Erickson on that. And yes, if we get the. The past game utility for James Cook gets unlocked here, guys, like say he runs for 1500 if we add like another two to 300 receiving yards. And I know that sounds like a lot, but I think the other part of this conversation that we haven't even explored yet is what could this offense? Are there going to be offensive changes with Joe Brady now being the head coach? And Sean McDermott is not over him saying, well, I'd like you to do this. What if Joe Brady is just like, look, I'm the head coach, dude, I can do whatever the hell I want. And he unlocks this part of James Cook in the passing game. Can we all sit here and say right now that cannot happen?

[B]

No, of course. Again. And look, last year, he was. Was it fantasy words per game for James Cook? Was. He was sixth overall with 16.8. It's pretty great. I mean, he was only behind Gibbs, A Chan Bijon, Jonathan Taylor and McCaffrey. Let's talk about Jonathan Taylor for a second, though, because he had just, I mean, an incredible beginning to the year, too. And then everything obviously fell apart when the quarterback play fell apart in terms of health. But, man, for the first, you know, 10 weeks of the season, it was crazy. It was just touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. There were three touchdown games. He had one, two, three, four, three touchdown games over that span from week one to week 10. It was just crazy. You could just bet every week. I'm just gonna bet Jonathan Taylor scored touchdown. And if I'm feeling good this week, maybe two. And you would just walk. I mean, Andrew Erickson, I did that a couple times, I feel like last year, and we felt pretty good about it. But what do you feel about him coming into this season? I know with the Daniel Jones injury and the recovery, do they lean on him even more to start the year potentially here? Debro, I don't think they're going to

[A]

lean on him more because I don't think there's any way where you're really going to like they can lean on him more. Like do you really want to load him up with even more volume at this part of his career? Which I, I know with the Colts, they are in win now or maybe we're all losing our freaking jobs kind of mode. But the other part about it is like with Daniel Jones, he was the RB2 in fantasy points per game. He had 21.7 touches per game. That's a crap ton of workload, man. Like I just, my problem with Taylor is not a Taylor problem so much. It's, it's this goes back to the whole I don't hate players, I hate ADP. Like ranking Jonathan Taylor as the RB3 right now is saying, well whatever we saw from Daniel Jones or with him, with Daniel Jones when he was the RB2 and fantasy points per game, that's just going to all repeat. With Daniel Jones back on the field, that's just all going to happen. And I'm like does it happen?

[B]

Does it happen?

[A]

Because with Daniel Jones was out of the lineup, he was RB22 in fantasy points per game. If Daniel Jones is not the fully healthy version of himself and I think we could all say collectively he will not be 100% for the whole entire season at if at any point in 2026 for the Indianapolis Colts and how is that going to affect their offense both from effectiveness as well as you're losing Michael Pittman in the passing game. Now the passing game gets squeezed down to Alec Pierce and we're going to run him out there as the true wide receiver. One can he be that? Can he handle that? If he can't, what are we going to do? So it's quarterback play. It's how is the passing game operating? The ADP price that people are having to pay for Jonathan Taylor and this isn't even talking about also the fact of yes, he is not a 23 year old running back. Yes, he does have a decent injury history with him and that has impacted his effectiveness on the field. So if they want to run him into the ground more, can he sustain that for an entire season and truly be effective? There's just, there's a lot more questions that I have about Taylor than versus the consensus where it's like I, I think Jonathan Taylor still a top 10 running back. Like I have him at RB7 but I sure as hell will not have him as like a top three back.

[B]

Well, that's fair. I'M just out of curiosity for both of you too. Speaking of like massive workloads, Christian McCaffrey, is he a tier one running back for both of you guys? No. How about you, Andrew? I didn't think so.

[C]

I didn't want to choose violence on this show. I just wanted to talk positive about James Cook and that's why I don't have Christianity. I just. We do this conversation, we should just

[B]

bring it up because I think when all three of us agree on something, that's an oddity. All three of us agree on James Cook and all three of us agree on cmc. So I think that's worth. That's noteworthy. I mean, D Ro and I basically went to blows on the quarterback show about Lamar Jackson and fought it out there. Comments are still flying. Love it. Can't get enough of it.

[A]

And then I've seen too.

[B]

That's right. And then some people doing the Lord's work over there and supporting me on the pro Lamar Jackson side of the world. But I think it is difficult to put him in that tier one based on the amount of workload that he had last year and based on another year and age and all that. Like all those other factors, like it's just very hard to copy and paste and I feel like copy paste always gets us in trouble with fancy football. Andrew, just instead of choosing violence, just give people food for thought about cmc.

[C]

Saquon Barkley last year, Josh Jacobs the year before. Just These guys that see 450 the next season, they just don't repeat. And Christian McCaffrey is no stranger to this. He's been in the situation before where he is coming off this monster year where he has a billion touches and then the next season he's not nearly as reliable. The rushing fell off a cliff last year. His efficiency was not nearly as good as. So yeah, for those reasons, gonna be lower on McCaffrey. And it's at least nice for me to look at a player like James Cook and see that he goes later in some of these drafts. And I just, I just love James Cook's floor ceiling combination. Yeah, if McCaffrey stays healthy, then the receiving, he can't really be beat. But can James Cook close the gap a little bit? New offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills again, Joe Brady stepping into that head coach Pete Carmichael. You know where he comes from? Orleans that threw the ball to Alvin Camara a ton. So if anyone's going to add some additional insight on, hey, maybe we should use James Cook in the past game he was pretty good at Georgia. Unlock him a little bit more and maybe James Cook has yet to reach his final form.

[A]

Speaking on that, that Alvin Camara comparison, also you can make a really easy comparison of where CMC right now is at in his career is the last few years for Alvin Camara, where he's incredibly inefficient on early downs, but he's going to get the volume right. He's still one of the best pass catching backs between the entire freaking NFL.

[B]

You saw the lag between the tackles last year was not there. Those metrics are not there. And visually you could see it too.

[A]

And at this point, like, can we say, like, it's probably not going to come back, like at this juncture of his career with the injuries, the age, all that kind of stuff. So it's like, okay, like I, I'm fine with like new Alvin Camara 2.0, but is that somebody I want to be drafting, like to carry my team with all of these other kind of risk factors?

[B]

And that's what it is. It's all the risk factors. You're weighing in every single year. And Last year Christian McGavry was a league winner. Doesn't mean he's the league winner obviously or first slam dunk overall pick either, where some people will take him one overall. I guarantee that will happen in drafts that you're in. Also, a little bit of news just came across the wire. I don't know if you boys have seen this though. Rushy Rice violated his probation after testing positive for marijuana. 30 days in jail. Boy, I'm glad I traded him in a first round pick for AJ Brown in my Dynasty league.

[A]

His and now everybody that that hated on the fact of because when I put out my updated Dynasty ranks, everybody goes. You have Rasheed Rice outside the top 30 wide receivers. And I'm like, this is why he's not young. He's in a contract year and he can't quarterback.

[B]

Like, there's a lot of issues coming into the season.

[A]

Like in the off season, he cannot stay away from doing something freaking stupid.

[B]

So take a page out of Kyler Murray's book. Just stay home and play Halo, bro. Just stay home and play video games. He can't. That's what I gotta do. Just don't get in trouble. Anyway, let's go with tier two, see if there's any trouble. We could shake the trees with here, number six, Saquon Barkley. Then we have Ash and Genti Devon Hn at eight, which I think is an intriguing value because he's pretty much the only offensive weapon they have. Derek Henry at 9 who annually gets disrespected and then keeps dropping 1500 yard seasons and Omarion Hampton at 10. Erickson. Omarion Hampton's the guy I circle here. This is the guy that I'm willing to go out on a limb on at the end of the first round. I almost did it in the CBS Experts draft. We were on there a couple weeks ago, Jake Seeley myself drafting with the the CBS boys and we had a great time. But Hampton was a strong consideration for me. But I was at 9 and Justin Jefferson fell to me. So I'm like, well I'm not passing on Justin Jefferson, but I would have taken Hampton. I was that comfortable with Hampton. So is Amari Hampton somebody that you are comfortable with kind of taking that leap of faith because you do have to do a little bit of that this season or are you concerned about the Chargers schedule being kind of a rough one? I know Warren Sharp just laid out a whole thing like they have the toughest quote unquote in terms of days off and things like that. And that does kind of enter into especially for a team that had a lot of injuries last year.

[C]

It doesn't really affect my outlook for Omarion Hampton because I think that he's a three down all purpose running back and I think that bringing Mike McDaniel as the off to coordinator just further emphasizes what Omarion Hampton flashed during his rookie year where he had to overcome a lot of during his rookie season the offensive line was gutted by injuries, he was dealing with his own injuries. Justin Herbert was playing through injuries, but we saw these spurts of what this guy could do with a full workload. He played four games with at least a 79% plus snapshare, averaged nearly 18 fantasy points per game and half PPR. He had matchups where he averaged 17.3 touches per game. That was top 12 at the position and he had four, four games, at least five or more catches. He was seventh in receptions per game at 3.6 as a rookie running back PFF rated him as the eighth best rated rusher. Finished 11th in yards after contact per attempt. So it was really rocky to start. Like it did not look good on tape, it did not look good in the advanced spreadsheets for Omarion Hampton. But he figured it out again, finished his rookie year RB16 in points per game in just nine games played. But as I alluded to and just talked about, it's a really tough situation for him to overcome. But you have the offensive line upgraded healthy in 2026. McDaniel, his target shares the last four years as a Dolphins head coach, two running backs, third, seventh, third and third rain. Hampton is going to get peppered with targets in this offense where you have lad McConkey. How does the rest of the targets kind of shake out? Here you have Quinton Johnston. Keenan Allen is gone. Like he was a big. He was the target leader last year for this team. As crazy as that sounds. That was true. So you, you have vacated targets available for a player like Omarion Hampton. And I'm not overly concerned about Keaton Mitchell. I think that he's a three to five touch guy where, hey, he doesn't need a lot of touches to get that explosive element to his game. He is the lightning to Omarion Hampton's thunder and I think that he can also generate a lot of big plays. Again, really athletic player. Tested great at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine. So I like O' Mariotrin Hampton a lot. I think that he's poised for a year two breakout

[B]

Barkley. Last year I went on quite the diet tribe. I had production people make videos of me talking about it. I screamed from the rooftops. I even put a special section in the black book about it. About Saquon Barkley and the long list of guys for the last 20 plus years that wouldn't have 400 carries the next year just doesn't go very well for them. Statistically speaking it was something to be concerned with. And at the very least, even if it went okay, he wouldn't finish as an RB1. And guess what? He didn't. He finished his RB14 and fantasy points per game and fantasy points overall at the position he was 14. So now that we have put that to the side, right. We didn't have a long playoff usage for Saquon Barkley either last year. What do we do with him this year? Are you comfortable with this ranking?

[A]

No, I'm not comfortable with this ranking. It's like people just pretending like last year didn't even happen.

[B]

Joe.

[A]

Like.

[B]

Well we have seen the bounce backs too. That that is one thing that's fairly the year following. But then we've seen after the year following the guys do return. I mean there's been guys who have done it other prices did it for multiple seasons, right? But the season after he did the 400 plus Gary's was either an injury or a bad performance here.

[A]

But that's priced in like right now he's RB6 so you're pricing in like where, where's the ceiling there? Okay, what he has to be RB1, RB2 overall. And, and that's what the bet that you kicking. Like if he was. I have him at RB13 right now. I have him as like a, like on that edge of low end RB1, high end RB2. Because I, I just don't understand where people are looking at the Philadelphia Eagles and saying, okay, he had three in the historic season that he had in 2024. He had 3.55 yards of the contact per. Our yards before contact per 10. So basically breaking that down for people. He was getting almost 4 yards up the freaking field before he got contacted. That is an unsustainable number. It's insane. That led all running backs by a decent margin. And last year, one of the reasons was the fall off of their offensive line where they, they weren't an elite top unit of the entire freaking NF NFL. Top three, top five. I don't see that the Eagles are going to return and be a top three offensive line. Can they be okay? Can they be good? Can they be top 12 to 15? Sure, that's fine. But a lot of questions, health being one of the big drivers there. And last year, the big fall off from that metric where he was getting almost 4 yards up field before he got contacted, that fell to 2.1. That wasn't a horrible number. That was 23rd amongst 49 qualifying running backs. That was league average basically. So I'm kind of saying, okay, well I think they can reproduce that. And at where Barkley is at in his career, we kind of know like who he is. Like he's an explosive play machine. But if the offensive line is not elite, are they going to consistently get him into the second level to have those explosive plays? His missed tackle rate hasn't been amazing. His yards after contact per attempt ranked 35th and 39th over the last two years. It fell last year too. So his age kind of creeping up on him. He's not going to be heavily, heavily utilized. Where we're talking about the other guys that like in this top tier, like even him versus Hampton, like is he going to get the same type of pass game utility that Amari on? Hampton sniffs that even Christian McCaffrey, all these other guys, James Cook even has the upside to get. I don't see it. So no, I cannot draft Saquon Barkley at freaking RB6. Like I think low end RB1, high end RB2 is absolutely appropriate. If he goes there in Drafts, I'm fine, but I will not press the button at RB freaking 6.

[B]

Nope. That is fair. All right, before we get to the third tier, running back, shout out to the sponsor of our show, Hard Rock Bat. We all love Hard Rock Bat here. It's Florida Sportsbook, Sportsbook of America, too. But no, it's really Florida Sportsbook. That's. That's our little gimmick here. But they've got the NBA action heating up right now. We're in the third round of the playoffs. The Knicks are playing tonight. How will they do? I don't know. Will I watch part of it? I might. I kind of have morbid curiosity there. I have so many Knicks family and friends that are, are once again getting their hopes up, and I don't want them to be disappointed. So kind of like, I'm, I'm excited for them and I'm scared for them at the same time. But all that passion, all that excitement, you could filter that into Hard Rock Bet. Right now. It's winner go home energy, baby. And if you're gonna, you know, maybe bet on that power forward like a Derrick Brown down low there using his body to box guys out, or, or maybe you like, the more, you know, the frills player, right? The guy who's. You're gonna bet on the assists of Andrew Erickson, who's got all the moves in the backcourt there with whatever it might be. Okay, what you got to do now is go to Hard Rock Bet, find the same game parlays, find the parlay boost, find all the fun things and bet five bucks. And when you do, if you're a new, sign up and you win, you get your winnings plus 150 in bonus bets right here at Hard Rock Bet. They're alive right now in Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Colorado, and Michigan and Florida. So download the Hard Rock Bet right now. Get started from tip off all the way through Live betting in games only at Hard Rock Bet payable and bonus bets. Not a cash offer offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Florida offered by the Seminole Hard Rock Digital, LLC in other states. Must be 21 plus 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 1833 play wise in Indiana, if you or someone you know has a gambling problem wants help, call 1809 with it. Gambling problem, call 1-800- GAMBLER in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia.

[A]

And Doug, there's nowhere I Wouldn't go

[C]

to help someone customize and save on

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car insurance with Liberty Mutual, even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[C]

Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?

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Oh, no. We help people customize and save on

[C]

car insurance with Liberty Mutual together.

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We're married.

[C]

Me to a human, him to a bird.

[B]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[C]

Anyways, get a'@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

[A]

Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.

[C]

What's the news?

[B]

Huge news.

[A]

We created our own podcast called hey Jonas.

[B]

We invented a podcast.

[A]

Well, we didn't invent it.

[C]

We. We just contributed to it. First people to do podcasts.

[A]

Pretty. Yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. Starting a trend. But this one's extra special.

[C]

So how did we.

[B]

How do we actually come up with the name hey Jonas?

[A]

Guys, I honestly don't remember.

[C]

I think it was on a call

[B]

about what we should call it and, well, we were thinking. I'm originally calling it one of the

[C]

early names of our band before Jonas Brothers.

[A]

This is how you guys remember it going down?

[B]

Yes.

[C]

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing a

[B]

bit for the podcast.

[A]

People could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad a Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that. Guys, listen to hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[B]

Just listen.

[A]

We don't care where you hear it.

[B]

All right, let's get to the next section here, gentlemen, and let's talk about the RB3 tier. Starting at number 11, Kenneth Walker, who I feel like I'm investing in. I mean, he wants the ball, he's going to get the ball. They're going to. Especially the first four weeks of the season. I think it's be a lot of Kenneth Walker in that offense. Chase Brown at 12. I might be too low. We'll talk about him in a second. Josh Jacobs at 13, Jeremiah Love at 14. So it's a bigger tier here. We got Kyron Williams at 15, who annually just gets dismissed for some reason. Javante Williams at 16. Breece Hall. Who? Andrew, you're gonna love this. I'm buying Bracken at Breeze hall here this year at 17. I know you'd enjoy that.

[A]

Let's go.

[B]

Let's go. Well, that's why I'm buying back in on Breeze hall just despite Geno Smith just hand the ball off to Breeze Hall. And then Bucky Irving at 19 who's got some issues too with some injuries that do not make me feel warm and fuzzy right now at this stage. We are in May and the injury news on him is not great and that makes me want to buy all the Kenneth Gain while I possibly can. We talked about that on yesterday's show too because that came up. So Debro, we'll start with you on this one. Javante Williams last year was basically a free running back and credit to Pat Fitz Morris because of all the many mock drafts and real drafts that we all did together last year. In all the ones where he had Fitzy he kept saying ah, just going to take Javonte Williams. And you know what? It was right because he just looked at the room and said I don't think any of these other guys are any good. I think the offense will still be productive. And he was 100% correct. So what does that hold for Javante Williams this year? And do you like the ranking currently where he is right now as the 16th guy off the board?

[A]

I will toot my own horn. I was big into Javante last year. I said he could have been last year's J.K. dobbins and that was proved absolutely right. I dealt with all the haters that said he was washed. He was garbage.

[B]

Yeah, you like Fitzy. I feel like Jade is number one. But you were close.

[A]

Everybody said Jaden Blue is going to take the job and blah blah Miles Sanders and all that. Whatever man. But again we're going back to like people just pretending that our like Javante Williams wasn't the RB11 and fantasy points per game last year. And while it looks like on paper he had a fall off towards the back end of the season, the deeper metrics were totally fine. It was really just bad touchdown luck. You had Javante Williams of weeks one through eight he scored nine total freaking touchdowns, guys. He was the RB8 in fantasy points per game and then weeks nine through 17 he only got four touchdowns. So if we think the Cowboys again are going to be an improved team this year, the defense is going to be better. They're playing with more positive game scripts at the end of games where Javante Williams is getting loaded up. He is. Nothing has changed about that damn depth chart. He's going to be the unquestioned RB1. He was an RB1 in fantasy last year, yet we're ranking him as an RB2.

[B]

Well, look, I don't understand RB12 and fantasy points per game of 14.1.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

He did have 11 rushing touchdowns last year. It was, it was a good season.

[A]

Lots of room for more touchdowns there.

[B]

There are. There definitely are. I would say this with Javonte Williams. I feel like if you are somebody that like me who drafts heavy wide receiver early, then Javante Williams ends up being your third round guy that you start building your running back room around. You could do worse. That's how I feel about him. Andrew, I want to get your gut feel feeling about another running back in this grouping here and that's Chase Brown because he's a 12. And if we're all into this assumption that we're living in this beautiful fantasy land that I hope comes to fruition in 2026, that Joe Burrow stays in the field the whole time and the Bengals have good health and they actually perform up to their capabilities for an entire season, not just little patches of it. That Chase Brown might be really undervalued here. Is that a correct assumption?

[A]

I almost picked him too, so I wanted to leave him for Erickson because I felt like we were going to be hand holding here.

[C]

Well, I was gonna pick Javante, but you.

[A]

So guys, since a Cincinnati, Dallas super

[B]

bowl, we're gonna see fantasy pro show.

[C]

Oh my God. I can't wait to live stream the Bengals Cowboys Super Bowl. It's gonna be absolutely, absolutely electric.

[A]

I love Chase Brown.

[B]

Things that will never happen this year for a thousand bangles, cowboy shoes, you know what happened. I want to tell.

[A]

I want to go back to this

[B]

and run it on social media all February, February of 2027. There is no universe that we live in where everything goes right for both of those teams to get into the Super Bowl.

[A]

I want to go bet both the super bowl odds right now just to do it.

[C]

I gotta go bet those exactas Bengals Super Bowl.

[B]

You know better than that. Just give me your money and I'll put it in my savings account. That way it can just grow back to Chase Brown.

[C]

Chase Brown RB1s Honestly, I think he can finish in the top five running back. I think that his ceiling is so, so high. You look at last year slow start because Joe Burrow was not the quarterback of the Bengals. He was injured after he came back. Week 7 onward. Chase Brown finishes the RB7 in points per game. He was the overall RB5 in terms of expect fantasy points per game because Zach Taylor in this offensive scheme they feature Chase Brown as a three down workhorse for the most part. And I know that there were some scary splits last year with Samaj P. Ryan kind of eating in. I don't really care about that because even though P. Ryan was taking I

[A]

got you a good nugget of context

[C]

on that too, Eric From Chase Brown, it didn't really stop his production like he was the RB 3 weeks 13 through 17 so Chase Brown basically left for dead killed fantasy, managed to start the year over 20 half PPR points per game weeks 13 through 17. So when it mattered the most during the fantasy football playoffs and championships, Chase Brown was coming up huge and this is how we reward him. This is where we're going to rank him as RB12 when he should be firmly inside the top 10. I think that with Smajay P. Ryan as his main competition for targets and touches in this backfield, it's a contract year for Chase Brown and I can't help but think that Chase Brown to me reminds me a lot of Kyron Williams where I wasn't woke enough to adapt Kyren Williams as a thing, that Tchaoma Bay really loves this guy and I was really slow to kind of coming around on Kyron Williams and and I still have been. I've been wrong on him seemingly every single year and I don't want to make that mistake with Chase Brown who Also a day three pick Zach Taylor came from the Sean McVay coaching tree. They found a gem in Chase Brown and I don't see why they would not run him into the ground in his final year when he has improved every single year of his NFL career. Joe Burrow loves him. Zach Taylor loves him. They talk about how talented of a ball carry he is. He's improved as a pass blocker and he's improved as a receiver. So I, I, I love Chase Brown and he to your point Joe, if you're going wide receivers early in your drafts, Chase Brown is my hero. Rv that's the perfect start for me.

[B]

That's a nice wide receiver.

[A]

Wide receiver and then Javante and Chase Brown for the monies, baby.

[B]

You know what's funny? We put this show together yesterday afternoon about the time that we're recording it in the afternoon and I just looked at it now to see what the updated ones are and he's actually moved up a little bit in the half PPO rankings. He's up to nine now already from the 12.

[A]

Where do you have American?

[B]

I guess, I guess all three of us must have updated rankings or something yesterday when preparing for the show. That's what it kind of feels like we kind of move the needle a little bit too much. So I don't know how long this is going to last, but enjoy it while it does in best ball season at the very least. All right, let's go to the RB tier. Number four here starts with Cam Scaboo at 20, Travon Henderson at 21. Then you've got David Montgomery, DeAndre Swift, who continues to be productive despite everybody passing on him. I feel like this is a guy that I'll end up with a lot of shares in PPR leagues of DeAndre Swift because there's nobody wants him. And I'll just be like, okay, I'll just, I'll just do it. Quinch on Junkins at 24, Basho Tootin, which is unknown. It's a question mark. Jadarian Price, so I don't think as much of a question mark at 26, Jalen Warren at 27, Chuba Hubbard at 28 and Rico Download 29. I feel like Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle will also be guys that I have shares of. Debro, I want to get to you here about the guy on your list, Raveon Henderson, so let's talk about him because I feel like this is another polarizing player. I think the talent and the explosiveness you saw in spurts last year, you also see that sometimes the Patriots continue to want to be boring, play defense and run Ramondre Stevenson a lot. I don't know how much is going to change year over year. What do you think changes with this Patriots backfield?

[A]

I don't think anything changes. That's why I think this ranking for Travion Henderson is egregious and wrong. I don't see what happened last year and I'm going to go through it here. I what happened last year for anybody to have faith that as long as Ramon Dre Stevenson stays healthy, how does Travion Henderson take over this backfield? I do not see it happening at all. Vermont. Dre was the guy, remain the guy and should be the guy because if you look at every single metric that I care about on paper, Ramandre Stevenson was better than Trayvon Henderson, explosive run rate better than him, missed tackles, forced yards at your contact per attempt, yards per route run, all better than him. Ramandre Stevenson bested him in every single one of those categories and people would want to talk about, okay, well Henderson's pass game utility, okay, Ramandre Stevenson was better than him in that 1.4 yards per route run versus 0.9 pass blocking snaps from Andre Stevenson had 112 of them. Trayvon only 48. He had a better pass blocking grade. He allowed zero sacks in those 112 pass blocking snaps and only five hurries. Trayon Henderson and half the sample, 48 pass blocking snaps, three sacks allowed, eight hurries. You also take out of the equation of two with Trayvon Henderson. He had two massive games and that floated basically his entire season long value in the sense of he was RB24 in fantasy points per game. You look at his production in weeks 10 and 11, 28, 32.3 PPR points per game. That was 60 PPR points per like totality. You take out those two freaking massive games. And I don't like to do this for every other guy, but when it's two outlier game versus the entire smorgasbord of the rest of the freaking season, Trayon Henderson falls from RB24 and fantasy points per game. He would have been the RB33 in fantasy points per game. I have Randre Stevenson ranked ahead of Travion Henderson because I think that is the appropriate ranking and everything else is just based off of hope and hype that I do not see paying off.

[B]

I like a good smorgasbord. I'm not going to lie. I don't know if I've ever actually eaten from a smorgasbord. Have you the Swedish buffet?

[A]

I stick to charcuterie varieties.

[B]

I love a good charcuterie report. Every Sunday I do this charcoal even with just me and the kids, which is me and my daughters. On Sunday I will get like a good loaf of Italian bread early in the morning on a Sunday before shows and stuff like that. I'll go to the store, whatever I'm making, and then I'll buy a bunch of nice cheeses and fruits and do that little. The charcuterie board. It's beautiful thing. But the smorgasbord is a variety of hot and cold dishes. So it's a little more. More Scandinavian. So I don't know. We need to set that up.

[A]

That sounds like a flex league thing we need to do at your house this year.

[B]

Tell Sealy. Oh, I was going to say make Sealy do it.

[A]

Oh, make Sey do it. Yeah.

[B]

At the draft we can definitely do. Put his ass to work for a change.

[A]

That that's really fair.

[B]

Doing anything, organizing the league. Big deal.

[A]

Before we turn the page on this, I. I gotta. I want you.

[B]

Are you asking the two Patriot fans how they feel about.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I want the Patriots.

[A]

I want the Patriots side of this. Like I need to know what the homer say.

[B]

I don't care about the Patriot side of this. I like the logical side of this. Anybody who can't put their fandom aside for this job is bad at their job. Okay, Ericson, I put you on the

[A]

spot now he paid him into a corner man.

[B]

Well but I think I, I want to venture to say I don't want to speak for him that he probably thinks along the same lines you do. He's a little afraid of him, but maybe not.

[C]

No, definitely a little afraid of Tra Henderson at RB21 because I think that Ramondre, especially if he's going to be a thorn in the side of Henderson, it's going to be to start the year. So I think the only thing I would push back on with Henderson and Stevenson is I want to allow room for growth for traffic Henderson like we know how explosive this guy can be. We know how good of a pass we know how good he can be in pass protection. It's just really hard for rookies. Again he was herald as one of the best pass blocking running back he was of college in years and, and yet he struggled in that area too. So sometimes it takes guys some time to.

[B]

Because Will Campbell was what the turnstile.

[C]

Because Will Campbell wasn't helping him out in any capacity.

[B]

Charges were running late.

[A]

But if Will doesn't get any better this year then so trust in the known commodity that's good in pass pro or the rookie you're hoping could be

[B]

I think would take an injury to Stevenson to really unlock Henderson 20, 26 I agree, honest.

[A]

That's why I think this ranking is

[C]

I really don't want to draft either guy to be honest.

[A]

I'll take Randre where he's going because he's like he's going to get disrespected. Nobody wants to draft him guys.

[B]

He's not fun. He's not, he's not fun.

[A]

But I like fantasy points though. I don't know.

[B]

I like fantasy points too. All right, let's see if we can find some more fantasy points. Let's talk about Rico Dowdle because I made the I, I, I went out there in the limb and I felt like hey Enrico Dowdle is a guy I'd rather have him than Jaylen Warren. Even though Jaylen Warren is ahead of Rico Dowdle in in the draft rankings right now. Do you really, really choking you up,

[C]

Joe about No, it's not that.

[B]

It's just this is old people problems sometimes we're just all of a sudden just like got to take Tums after the show for no reason at all.

[C]

Jaylen Warren, two spots had a Rico

[B]

Dowdle two spots gave him reflex. No, no. But the Steelers are going to give Scott Bogman a lot of acid reflux throughout the season.

[A]

I can tell you that. Scott will do that to you.

[B]

So. But let's talk about this situation because Rico Dowdle is not unfamiliar with the head coach because it's the new head coach that was his old head Coach, right. Mike McCarthy. You've got Aaron Rodgers back for however long. His body continues to cooperate, dumping off passes all day long. This is a running back situation that I want to be a part of here. Andrew.

[C]

Yeah, it's a bit of an ambiguous situation because we don't know exactly how things will shake out. But I see an opportunity for points here. Like you kind of hit at the top. Rico Dowdle, I think he's Mike McCarthy's guy. I don't think by accident that Mike McCarthy went out and signed him to after they lost out on Kenneth Gainwell. Pittsburgh Stewards did not bring him back. Dowdle had a breakout year in 2024. I mean Rico Dowdle, I think another player that maybe we just need to put a little bit more respect on again that he's been a journeyman for the majority of his career. He's going to be entering his age 28 season. He has 672 touches on his resume. Because he did not play a lot during the beginning of his career. He was either dealing with injuries buried on depth charts, but he's earned behind Ezekiel Elliott too.

[B]

Like that was just never going to happen.

[C]

He's earned his touches. I mean the last two seasons he has not opened up as the RB1 on any depth chart, whether it was on the Dallas Cowboys or the Carolina Panthers. He took Chuba Hubbard's job last year and made it. So even when Hubbard came back, sorry, like we're riding Uncle Rico here like to the promised land. Like let's go into the Panthers winning the division.

[B]

Rico now he does have despite all these things, he's got back to back thousand yard season.

[C]

The last two seasons he's been a top 21 running back. Like he's been a fantasy RB2 over 4.5 yards per carry, totaled 78 catches and I think it's really telling that he was given nothing. Right. He had to earn all these touches based on his practice play and what he did with his limited opportunities on the field. So I really like Jalen Warren too. But we've seen multiple coaching staffs not view him as a bell cow as a three down back. Whereas with Rico Dowdle, I mean over 1300 total yards from scrimmage last year, among 49 qualifying running backs, he was 17th in missed tackles, force per attempt, 10th and yards after contact per attempt. The guy's just good. So I get that he's a little bit older, not the traditional running back that we like to gravitate towards, but if I'm picking a Steelers running back, I want to pick the guy that is voice with Mike McCarthy and has been really productive over the last two seasons. So although I don't know how much of a split's going to be with him and Jalen Warren, that'll maybe keep dowdle out of RB1 territory. I would not be surprised if you the RB2 for the third straight season.

[B]

Let's play a game. Who had more fantasy points per game last year? Rico Dowdle or Kenneth Walker? That is correct. Who had more fantasy points per game last year, Rico Dowdle or Bree Hall?

[A]

Rico.

[C]

Bruce Hall.

[B]

Breeze. Hall. But not by much.

[C]

I know. I know my Breeze. I know my Breeze.

[B]

I know.

[A]

I know.

[B]

It's your boy. It's your boy. Blue, but close, right? Very close. There. Just interesting questions.

[A]

Do you guys have Rico ranked ahead of Jalen Warren? Because I do.

[B]

I do.

[C]

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

[B]

As well.

[A]

And I think this is a very similar situation that we were talking about just with the Patriots. The sexy pick is Jalen Warren, the right pick is Rico Dowdle, and it's Mike McCarthy's boy. Dude, I. I love Rico Dowdle. OG Truther. I've got prospect tweets about Rico Dowdle out there in the ether. So I'm with all of this.

[B]

God, please, I beg everyone, don't search for those on Twitter. Don't.

[A]

They're out there. Prospect coming out.

[B]

Yeah, look, I mean, Rico, I like Erickson's point too, which is, despite the fact he's a little older, I don't think he's got the same tread on the tires as a lot of guys that age. So I think that's what makes him so intriguing. And the situation makes him intriguing where even. Even though we know Jalen Warren is going to be a part of this offense, there's just going to be enough of this offense tailored towards dumping balls off to the running backs that I just want to be a part of it. Like Aaron Rodgers is not, you know, the armed talent he once was, he's just not. And we had you know, befalls all of us.

[C]

We saw two running backs be top 20 last year because of the amount of dump off passes from Aaron Rodgers.

[B]

It's not gonna get better this year. Although shout out congratulations Aaron Rodgers on the big nuptials too. He got married. Good for him. Maybe. I'm sure that'll make do.

[C]

We know who his wife is yet. Was it. I don't know, was it just. It's just a dark screen. It's like his wedding.

[A]

The wedding pictures are just a black scre.

[B]

Live look at Aaron Rogers wedding putting

[C]

up on the screen.

[B]

This is why you watch the tailgate again, everybody. If you just like if, if the three of us are your cup of tea, just watch the tailgate. This is literally the show with no agenda. It's just us talking football like this. They come out from the honeymoon and

[A]

somebody is painted a mural of their

[B]

wedding pictures and all it is is

[A]

a black wall in the living room.

[B]

Just blackness. All right, all right. Let's talk about these last here. Before we do, I want to remind everybody too, if you got Dynasty drafts coming up here, you got full mocks you could do in minutes with the draft simulator and our MVP and Hall of Fame subscribers. If you're one of those, you can even test out the trade scenarios so you can get ready for all your drafts. And best of all, right, you can actually get the upgraded premium subscription right now for three days for free. So a couple days before your draft actually starts or goes down, you go lock it in at fantasypros.com dynasty26 that's fantasypros.com dynasty26 use the premium tools to the draft and then when you realize they're so great, just up for the rest of the season and let us take you through the rest of 2026 so you can crush all your redrafts and all your Dynasty and everything else in between. Go to fantasypros.com simulator today. Go check out the draft simulator and get ready for all of your Dynasty drafts. All right. Last year we're going to talk about today. And this one is a mixed bag. It's a potpourri as they say. Some guys that I'm really curious about, some guys that I really like and we'll even talk about some guys after this tier as well. If you guys want to throw something out there. Blake Corum at 30 I think was one of the best guys you can invest in. I don't like taking handcuff running backs or guys, but I am sold on Blake Corum last year on the on the Waiver Wire show. I don't know how many times we had to have the conversation about Blake Corum and people still wouldn't roster him. And we kept looking at each other like, what are you doing? There's a role for him here. He's scoring touchdowns and if you have to hit that emergency to break open glass, Blake Corman can be useful for you. Column on Guy Another guy that I really like that I'm getting a lot of shares of this year. Ramandre Stevenson at 32 reader talked about RJ Harvey at 33. I don't know how DBRO feels about him this year, but we'll find out. Tony Pollard at 34 JK Dobbins then JCM Jacori Karoski Merritt Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason I love whenever rankings of guys like that on the same team are back to back because it just tells you that everybody in the industry also has no idea what to do with them. It's one of my favorite things. I can't get enough of it. Just put them together because we all do.

[C]

I don't know.

[B]

I don't know about the Minnesota Vikings backfield. It's right we don't. Nobody does, so be careful. Zach Chardonnay, 39, is hilarious that he's ranked this high because he's not going to play for possibly the season. I mean, not gonna play till November. So why he's ranked this high I'll never know. Tyler Algeria at 40. Rashad why to 41 might be too low. Kenneth Gainwell, 42 is too low. I can tell you that right now.

[A]

That's awesome.

[B]

Woody marks at 43 and then Chris Rodriguez at 44. Speaking of Chris Rodriguez, this is the guy that I'm most intrigued by. Andrew, you've sold me on a couple of our conversations about the connectivity with him and Liam Cohn. I am not 100% sure about how much they love Bial Tutin because of the amount of money that they're paying Chris Rodriguez. It's not a massive amount, but it's more than just like a you're going to come here and just be a part of the cog in the machine amount too. So I think all those kind of lean me towards. I'm gonna have some Chris Rodriguez shares in 2026 and I just drafted one in that CBS draft I referenced earlier. So talk to me about Chris Rodriguez this season with the Jags.

[C]

Yeah, I don't like Chris Rodriguez as a a pick because I don't think he's very good as I've kind of looked at this a little bit more citing the relationship with Liam Cohen. That's really about it for me when it comes to having faith that Chris Rodriguez can really have a useful and focal point in this backfield because although he does check off some of the advanced metrics 8th yards after contact per attempt, 8th in Russian success rate in 2025, I just looked at what Bashel Tutin did in those similar metrics and they're basically all the same. So Bashaw Tune was already as good as Chris Rodriguez who is 26 years old journeyman running back that was splitting touches last year with Jacoi Crosky, Merritt, a seventh round rookie running back and Jeremy McNichols who again just another player that has not really established himself as a oh this is a guy that NFL teams need to feature in some capacity. Basil Tutin has way more juice than Chris Rodriguez does. He's a zero in the passing game. He has three catches last season, six catches in his three year NFL career and something that I can never ignore when it comes to day three rookie running backs when they force their way onto the field without an injury. And I think it was extremely telling that last year the Jaguars took Travis Etienne off the field to put Bayjal two in and goal line packages. I think that that is very encouraging for what Thun's outlook could be in 2026 that they were taking Travis Etienne who's having he had a monster season last year, got paid by the Saints and they were taking him off the field to put baseball two in goal line packages in the red zone. And that's where you get fantasy points is in the red zone. So I think that the Chris Rodriguez hype or love has actually gone too far with his connection with Liam Cohen because besides that, I don't see how he's going to outpace Spatial. I think Toon's gonna run circles around this guy, to be totally honest.

[B]

And it and I'm gonna tell you I don't think he is good. I think you're right. I don't think he's special. Okay.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

But like shouldn't that should matter the most? He's not good.

[B]

It should matter the most exceptional. I don't I think that Chris Rodriguez is going to be on the field more than anybody in fantasy wants him to be from a football perspective and he's going to be there around the goal line and to me that is where I think he might win out a little bit again. Maybe I'm wrong. We're going to watch how this hashes out. I think August will be very interesting to see, you know, some of those preseason games and some of the looks and situations that we get to see a little bit of. And it'll be telling, Look, I'm somebody that has Basil Tutin in a dynasty league. That's very important to me, that I want Bashal Tootin to do well, believe me. But I am. I was kicking the tires on trades to see what he might be worth out there, and I think the fact that I didn't get a lot of buzz and a lot of interest in him tells me I don't think I'm the only person that kind of has big questions about Basho, too, and going to the season.

[C]

Can I just follow up, please? How different is this situation from Zach Moss? And Chase Brown was where it's like, Zach Moss is the guy.

[A]

Like, they brought him in.

[C]

Chase Brown is entering his second season, and you're right, Zach Moss was really annoying to start the year. But what do we say? Every single week? It's like, you got to buy Chase Brown.

[B]

Andrew, I want to hand you this microphone. I have this microphone, and I want you to drop it on me because I think you just.

[A]

Yeah, that was very good. That was very good.

[B]

Here it is. That's for you. Go ahead, take it. Take it from my hand.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

That was very good.

[A]

That was very good. I like that.

[B]

All right. I don't even want to do the rest of the show now.

[C]

And that's it.

[B]

I got. I got Zack Moss. I got Mossed.

[A]

You got Mossed.

[B]

Worst kind of Moss. These are gonna. Moss me. Randy Moss me. Don't sack Moss me, bro. That's gross. All right, D. Bro, talk about Tony Pollard, because I don't know what else to do. I. I don't.

[A]

Dude, why are we. Why is Tony Pollard in RB3 right now? Who's taking him?

[B]

Trying to get his money, and he got it. He got paid. But that's why.

[A]

Who. Who. Who's taking work away from him? Nick Singleton, Taj Speers. I don't believe it, man. Like, I think he should be ranked as an RB2. I have him as an RB2 in my rankings. I. We're talking about, like, we've talked about this on Tailgate, where we're all collectively high and. And really think that, like, the Titans can surprise people. The offense is going to be better with more pass catchers, hopefully improve quarterback play from Cam Ward. We don't think that, like, I don't believe that his job is in jeopardy at all. From Nick Singleton, who is entering this process coming off a foot injury. Tajie Spears, who cannot stay healthy and on the field. Tony Pollard was hampered by an offense last year that was 32nd and red zone scoring attempts per game, 30th in points per game. I think we all collectively believe those numbers are going up this year. And quietly the Titans had an offensive line that was 13th best in yards before contact per attempt. And yet Tony Pollard is an RB3 in rankings.

[B]

Why did you go full Dr. Evil at the end of that? Cuz I feel like it was appropriate cuz he's, he's all the way down there. Right. Okay.

[A]

Somebody needs to tell me.

[B]

All right, well look, I, I look. Taji Spir's injuries have really hampered his ability to take over. And, and I think with the rookie, we all kind of feel the same there. It's like a wait and see kind of scen other thing too to Tony Potter being a free agent. You're unrestricted free agent next year is intriguing. Like this is a chance for you to go cash in. You know, it's Travis A.G. look at him.

[A]

We're putting Blake Corm, Kyle Manon, guy, Raman Dre, RJ Harvey, Rico.

[B]

Well, a lot of those.

[A]

The ghost of Chuba Hub, Jaylen Warren, like all these guys above him.

[B]

Well, I understand the youth factor of those guys. Let there's a guy that isn't on any of these lists right now that both of you earmarked to talk about. It's a guy that's had not one but two ACL tears. So I can't wait to hear about this about Jonathan Brooks. Talk to me about why you two yahoos wanted to talk about Jonathan Brooks here.

[A]

Because Chuba Hubbard is horrible.

[C]

He already lost his job once.

[A]

He lost his job last year to Rico Dowdle. He's probably going to lose his job again this year if Jonathan Brooks is fully healthy and the guy that they spent a second round pick on. But after they took all the time

[B]

in the world in the same knee

[C]

like 22 years old.

[A]

I'm not talking about the the entirety of the rest of his career. I'm talking about 2026 and Chuba Hubbard last year amongst 49 qualifying backs guys, 49th in explosive run rate.

[C]

He.

[A]

He legit had zero explosive runs the entire season. He was also dead last and missed tackle rate. He was 47th. So not dead last but close and yards of contact per attempt. So he's lost his job once, he can do it again. And if Jonathan Brooks can even be 80% of the guy that he used to be in college, he could take

[B]

the job from as a prospect out of college. You and I agreed on Jonathan Brooks. We like Jonathan Brooks for sure. But two ACL tears is is too much for me. And I think the Panthers have done a bad job, to be honest with you, filling in with the Rico Dowdle absence this year.

[A]

But. But isn't that also a feather in the cap and also a quiet signal for Jonathan Brooks that maybe he's further along?

[B]

It's just a bad organization that doesn't know how.

[A]

No. They made so many moves this off season. Dude, they made a ton of moves.

[B]

You only have so much cap space to fill every, you know, glaring issue that you have. And I thought this was a glaring issue as a backup for him. And I don't know. Trevor ATN doesn't do it. Is he, by the way, did Trevor?

[A]

Is the answer Jonathan Brooks?

[C]

We don't know.

[B]

Does he ever change his name to we don't know?

[C]

He has gone radio silent since his brother's big announcement, so he's gonna have to do something of relevance.

[B]

I'm gonna call him Trevor ATN then until something else changes. Andrew Erickson, do you have anything to share here on the Jonathan Brooks scenario?

[C]

Just wanted to add that he is coming off those major knee injuries, but he is 22 years old and we're seeing guys come back faster and faster from ACL injuries. One of the biggest mistakes I made was writing off Christian Watson last year. Like, this guy's not going to play towards ACL in October, November, and then he comes back and is the most efficient of his entire NFL career. Now, maybe that's just Christian Watson, but I don't want to bet against the player that had that much talent at the college level that even when he has played in the NFL in 2024, before he re injured his knee, he was immediately soaking up targets as a rookie after Chuba Hubbard was already on the field. So Hubbard has broken down the last two seasons. Debo just kind of listed out. I just don't like the idea of investing in a player like Hubbard when the coaching staff has already given his job to somebody else. Like, it's already in their mind. It's like, so if Jonathan Brooks looks good one week, it's like, well, maybe we should give him more touches. We took away Chu Hubbard's job last year. Like, let's get Jonathan Brooks more involved. That just concerns Me. So maybe it's not just about drafting Jonathan Brooks, but it's trying to be very cautious about Chuba Hubbard. And. And maybe his lock on that RB1 job is not really as secure as the contract would suggest like it was last year.

[A]

Last question, guys.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Is Jonathan Brooks this year's Javante Williams from last year?

[B]

No. Because Javante was clearly the lead for the starting role going in. So his capital.

[A]

So all we need is one news blurb saying that Brooks is ahead of Hubbard when we're in camp and then you're there.

[C]

I would. I would also say Javante. Javante had a good rookie season in the NFL. Like, Jonathan Brooks has done nothing in the NFL. Like, even though I just talked about, like, he got targets, it was hardly a sample size. I mean, remember Javante, but I guess his second year was him and Melvin

[A]

Gordon wars framing this as talented running back coming off. Talented running back coming off devastating knee injuries that can be the undisputed lead back for their offense. And yet it's not priced in at all.

[B]

All right, I did a little homework here where you guys were yapping about Jonathan Brooks, too, to find some other guys done this twice again. It's not that too easy. It's the same knee that I'm really focused on too, because that's the thing that bothers me the most. So on your side, Frank Gore in 2002 and then 2003. But again, that was very early in his career. Okay, so maybe that's. That's okay. And then he played for another 50 seasons after that.

[C]

So you're telling me Brooks is on the Frank Gore Pat.

[A]

See?

[C]

Wait, wait, wait.

[B]

What's that? What's that?

[C]

I just heard another mic drop.

[B]

Positive. Another mic drop. I led with the positive. All right, Zamir White also 2017, 2018. Dalvin Cook, 2014. But he was in high school the first time he did it, so it's a little bit different than again in 2017. I think after that made to the NFL good career.

[C]

I mean, if you get. If you gave me three comps of Frank Gore, Zamir White, and Dvin Cook, I know which two I'm taking to the bank.

[A]

Two out of the three a bad baby. Two out of the three ain't bad. But.

[B]

But two of them was very early in their career, too. Like one was a high school.

[A]

Okay, well, Jonathan Brooks is. Wait, he was 20 and 21 years old.

[C]

22. He's young. Some of the guys that got drafted this year.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Perhaps. There you go. Everybody draft John Baby, in the Nil era that when everybody started this episode, this is not where we thought we'd end up. But that's why you take the journey with us here at Fantasy Pro. Subscribe to the channel. Drop your comments below. How early are you taking Jonathan Brooks? No, but seriously, how early are you taking some of these guys? Who do you think we're right about? Who you think we're wrong about? Who do you think that is going to be your target? The running back position? Drop your comments below. We love to have this debate. We love to hear from you. And we like to interact with everybody here on the YouTube comments too, because we're, we're a show of the people here over at Fantasy Pro. So go check it out now.

[A]

By the way, I found Aaron Rodgers his wedding photo. I found it. It's here.

[B]

Very nice. Excellent. Well done. All right, everybody, make sure you go check out the rankings for yourself over at fantasypros.com rankings for all the positions and continue to watch the rest of the series here as we go through the wide receivers and tight ends as well. That'll do it for us. But the story of the game goes on for Derrick Brown and Andrew Erickson. I'm Joey P. We will see you next time. Kids. Subscribe to Tailgate NFL 2. Come check us out. New channel alert.

[A]

Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on apple [e-mail] review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok at fantasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.

[C]

Hey guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe.

[B]

I'm Kevin.

[A]

And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it.

[C]

We. We just contributed to first people to do podcasts.

[B]

We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.

[A]

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but you know, tired and sick.

[C]

Tired and sick.

[B]

Listen to hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen.

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We don't care where you hear it.

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Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy not quite on Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman helped make you funnier this week. My guests SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between songs. Banter.

[C]

Where does your group perform?

[B]

We do some retirement homes.

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Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[B]

Will Ferrell's Big Money players and iHeart

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podcast presents soccer moms.

[A]

So I'm Leigh Ann.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is my best friend Janet.

[C]

Hey.

[A]

And we have been joined at the hip since high school.

[B]

Absolutely.

[C]

A redacted amount of years later, we're

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still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips.

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This is a podcast.

[B]

We're recording it as we tailgate our

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youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey with all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer?

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Well, they had a bogo. Well, then you got them. Listen to soccer moms on the iHeartRadio

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app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[A]

What's up, fam?

[B]

It's Isaiah Thomas, and I'm C.J.

[C]

toledano.

[B]

It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surpr of the season, and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was firing. You just understood. That's how personal it gets.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

Then after that game seven, Marquis coming to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know it's all love.

[A]

This was just playoffs.

[B]

This was just basketball.

[C]

So listen to Point game on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.