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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
Identifying the Next Breakout RB1s | Running Backs with MASSIVE Upside (Ep. 2055)
01:02:31
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- [00:00]
Ryan Wormley
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:05]
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- [00:36]
Ryan Wormley
Hello everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm Ryan, warmly joined by Pat Fitz Morris. Just a two man show today. We are talking running backs. Fitz, this is a show that I forget who was on it, but we did do this. Some combination of us did this show last year. We're running it back again this year identifying breakout RB1s. These are guys who have not been in RB1 before. So for example, the first segment today we are going to be talking about some guys who are currently ranked as RB twos that we think have RB1 potential. There are names in there that we would pick if we could, but we are not eligible because they have already done it before. We are only considering names who have never once been an RB one. Does that make sense to you?
- [01:16]
Pat Fitz Morris
It does make sense. Worm and Man. All right, I got to flip the switch back into football because there's been so much going on in the sporting world not related to football. We've had the Knicks win their first NBA title since 1973. The Carolina Panthers, excuse me, Carolina Hurricanes just won the Stanley cup last night. What else World cup going on. US Open is this week. But you know, of course I'm still thinking about NFL football every day and have two or three basketball drafts going on at any given time. So NFL is never too far off our thoughts.
- [01:50]
Ryan Wormley
You didn't mention the fact that we are also locked in a battle to earn the third seed in our work fantasy baseball league as well. You and I are are in a group of a couple of players who are fighting for spots two and three. We only three teams make the playoffs in this. It's kind of a weird format and we are among the four teams fighting for that second and third spot. So that's another fun one as well. So yeah, a lot going on. A buddy of mine got to go to the Scotland Haiti game World cup through his work which was he said was really incredible. I Watched the Knicks win the championship at a bar with some Knicks fans. I wasn't there with them. They just happened to be at the bar also. And one of the guys is a lot older and you can tell, like he has been waiting for this for like decades. And it was like really cool to see the emotion come through with the final buzzer. Yeah, a lot, a lot of sports going on. It's a great, great call by you. It's an interesting time of year.
- [02:40]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, the World cup is awesome and it has made Twitter a fun place to be. The Scots taking over the city of Boston, South Koreans getting drunk with their Mexican hosts. Just so many good videos of like the world coming together for the World Cup. So that's been a blast to see.
- [02:57]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah, it's been super fun to see the positivity there. Obviously there's been some negativity with some of that stuff as well. But enjoying the positive side of things. Let's jump into the show here. Quick reminder for everybody that all of our 2026 consensus rankings and tiers can be found at fantasyprose.com/ Rankings. We'll be operating off of those rankings here today when referencing where some of these guys are. By the way, we are using their half PPR rankings for clarity. Obviously at running back, you know, that's a position where it can kind of change depending on the format you're in. We're looking at half PPR here. So let's go through. There are six names here in sort of this RB2 with RB1 potential. Rather than you pick your favorite since it's just the two of us, what I'm going to do is going to list each of them for you in order here and you will kind of agree or disagree that hey, these are a player that you see as really having RB1 potential this season. You can kind of highlight which of the ones do stand at out as your ultimate favorite tier fits. But we'll go, we'll at least mention all the ones who are eligible. It's half of the RB2's six names in total. The first one is right at the top RB13. So the highest ranked RB2, that's Jeremiah Love. Obviously he has never been at RB1 before because he has never been an NFL running back before. He is with the Arizona Cardinals. Took him really early. Right. The draft capital would certainly suggest that he's going to get the opportunity here. We did just see, you know, Ash Agenty a year ago as this really highly touted running back who comes in and he did technically finish. It was a disappointing season, but he played 17 games which kind of helped him finish. If you look at the Overall standings as RB11, that's in full PPR by the way. But just showing that like, you know, he, he did come in and make something of an impact, even though if it was a disappointment Overall, he was RB 13 and a half PPR. For what it's worth, do you see Love having a better season than Ash and Genti with a kind of a similarly difficult offensive environment to imagine a whole lot of success for? Do you think he'll be better or worse? Where are you at on Love?
- [04:47]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, I don't know how he's going to rate at the end of the season relative to Genty and what we considered a mildly disappointing season even though Genty had double digit touchdowns and was pretty good as far as yardage too. I'm going to give you a spoiler worm. This is my favorite pick for Most Likely to Finish as an RB one of all the guys we're going to talk about today and really it's kind of a chalk pick so. From 2015 to 2025 there have been eight running backs selected with top 12 picks in the NFL draft. Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliott, Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Bijan Robinson, Jameer Gibbs, Ashton Genty. Those eight running backs averaged 1474 yards from scrimmage and 10.9 touchdowns in their rookie seasons. And the worst statistical output of any of those Rookies came from McCaffrey who had 1086 yards from scrimmage, only seven touchdowns for the Panthers in 2017. He was the RB 11 1/2 point PPR scoring that year and you know, mainly because he did so well as a pass catcher that year and caught a ton of balls. Jeremiah Love, Yeah, sitting outside RB1. I think there's a strong case and I do personally rank him as a low end RB1. And the case against him is yes, the Cardinals were terrible last year and are probably going to be terrible again. Well, the winning percentage of the teams that drafted those eight rookie running backs in the seasons before they were drafted 32% 320. Those teams were mostly terrible too. So yeah, and there's always this universal fear of the unknown with rookies. Some people are just always going to be reluctant to draft rookies because they've never before played in the NFL, have no resume. But drafting Love is a great way to capitalize on what has proven to be an irrational fear.
- [06:41]
Ryan Wormley
We talked a lot during sort of the height of rookie draft season this year. When talking about Love, specifically about how the NFL tends to get it right at the very top if they are willing to take a running at this position, I mean if they are willing to take a running back inside the top half of the first round, they are usually hit on that. Now there's always questions about like is that a valuable pick and is it the right use of resources. But if a team is willing to commit those resources, like I think we said, it was what Leonard Fernet was like the last one that like didn't really significantly hit. Ultimately even he wasn't like a total bust. It was just disappointing for the fourth overall pick. So like when a guy goes as early as Love did and he obviously went crazy early usually works. Let's look at the next running back here. And by the way, there's a lot of youth on here. When we did this show a couple of years ago, I don't have the stats in front of me now, but we referenced one of the articles we had on the site about how a really big percentage of running backs that reach this top 12 status in a season for the first time do so in years two and three. That's definitely a theme. There are some older running backs here as well and obviously see some younger with Jeremiah Love, but that's kind of the heart of where you look for a lot of these breakouts. RB19 right now Cam Scatter Boo is of course a second year running back. The Giants could have been a team to consider Love. He didn't fall to them. So that kind of leaves a path here for Scatter Boo. Coming off of a really gruesome injury. Looks like he's actually dropped a spot since we put the show sheet together. He's now RB20, but still in that same range in the RB2 section. What do you think about Scatterboo?
- [08:11]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, I think the injury is really the thing we have to reckon with here in terms of his odds of being an RB1 this year. So he played eight games as a rookie, only played eight offensive snaps in the first game he ever played in the NFL. And then he only played 11 snaps in the game where he got hurt. But in those six games in between he averaged 19 and a half touches a game and he had five touchdowns in those six games. So he catches passes. He's the goal line guy for the Giants. He gets the high value touches. And is the new coaching staff going to use him in the same way? You know, we've got John Harbaugh coming in as the head coach of the Giants. Matt Nagy is the offensive coordinator. Greg Roman, the senior offensive assistant who we know likes to run the ball. I don't know if those guys are going to be so head over heels in love with Tyrone Tracy that it's going to fundamentally chip away at that role that Cam Scatterboo had for the better part of the games he played as a rookie. So it's mainly just a matter of his health. And yeah, I mean it was a terrible injury, an open dislocation, a tibia fracture, ligament damage. So yeah, like it was bad. Although he is expected to be ready, it was I think maybe a month or less than a month after the injury that Cam Scaboo was at a WWE event in Madison Square Garden getting involved, mixing it up with pro wrestlers, shoving one guy to the ground. So like, we know that Scatter Boo is not going to make any business decisions with his body. He's just not that kind of a guy. So if his body cooperates and he is at something close to full go this year and, you know, it seems like that workload is going to be there for him. I do think he has a reasonable chance to get an RB1 range.
- [09:58]
Ryan Wormley
Where's he ranked for you?
- [10:00]
Pat Fitz Morris
I'm somewhat in line. I mean, I recognize the risk here. I have got him RB20, no, excuse me, RB21. But I think I'm going to move them up past David Montgomery and maybe Javante Williams too. I'm going to do that right now, in fact. So he's going to be RB19 for me.
- [10:20]
Ryan Wormley
You like him better than Javante? That's interesting. I. I would John to obviously not eligible for this discussion today just because he's already been in RB1 in his career. But I, I think I like Javante like pretty clearly better than Scatter Boo. Just like, I mean, almost entirely driven by that injury factor. But that injury factor is a real thing for Scatterboo coming off of like it wasn't just like, like you said, a very simple injury. Even though it has seemed like the recovery has gone well and Javante seems to have just as great a Runway this season as he did last year in what should be a good offense. I'm surprised by that choice by you.
- [10:52]
Pat Fitz Morris
He does. Javante slowed down a little bit down the stretch last year. I mean, he wasn't bad over the second half of the season. He just wasn't as dynamic or efficient as he had been the first half of the year.
- [11:03]
Ryan Wormley
Next name here, Bucky Irving.
- [11:04]
Colin Coward
He.
- [11:05]
Ryan Wormley
I actually have him listed as RB20. He's now up to RB19. He and Scatterboo are back to back. This is the one that I was expecting you to say is your favorite. Not Jeremiah Love. Love obviously ranked higher, so I guess that makes sense. But you have just been such a strong voice in favor of trading for Bucky in Dynasty leagues that I kind of assumed that that would carry over to our redraft discussion here. Where are you at on Bucky in that RB19 20 range as an RB2 with RB1 potential?
- [11:29]
Pat Fitz Morris
I guess he's my favorite relative to where he's being ranked since, you know, Love is almost cheating in RB13. But bucky back end RB2. And I'm not surprised it's already come up because Todd Bowles had that cryptic comment about Bucky being back on the field sometime in summer or fall, and the or fall just terrified people. But then Bucky's out there running around in OTAs the other day, so he looks fine. He's going to be ready to play tackle football in week one. Yeah, I mean, I can't forget how good Bucky was when Liam Cohen sort of turned over the backfield to him late in his rookie season. And from Week 10 through the Buccaneers playoff loss to the Commanders that year, Bucky averaged 111.6 yards from scrimmage per game with six touchdowns in nine games. And that stretch included one game where he only played 10 snaps because he got dinged up. So it was maybe even better than those numbers suggest. Like, he's just, he's explosive. He is a good pass catcher. And I know people are terrified that, like, Kenneth Gainwell is going to steal all the, like, receptions from him. He's got a better yards per route run for his career, significantly better than Kenneth Gainwell. Like, he's a better pass catcher. And Gainwell, I know everyone likes him. I know he got voted the Steelers offensive MVP last year, but I mean, he's never been made a core part of any team's running game. I mean, I think he averaged what, 6.7 rushing attempts per game last year, and that was like his career high. So with Bucky, part of it was his own injuries last year, part of it was injuries to the Buccaneers offensive line. They got less efficient as far as blocking for him. So Bucky last year, 3.4 yards per carry, only 2.33 yards after contact per carry, percentage of breakaway runs, only 13.4%. But in his rookie year, 34.9 breakaway percentage, 5.4 yards per carry, 3.93 yards after contact per carry, which, by the way, was best among any running back with at least 60 carries that year. And the Buccaneers offensive line got hit really hard by injuries last year. In the run blocking metric, adjusted line yards, they were seconds in Bucky's rookie year. Last year they were 20 seconds in that metric. So partly Bucky banged up, partly the offensive line banged up. I think we're going to see the guy we saw in his rookie year, and he was sensational back then. I realized that they might give Sean Tucker goal line work. I realized Kenneth Gainwell might steal some of the third down work. Yeah, I mean, Bucky might not be a great bet for 10 touchdowns. I think he's a really good bet for 1400, 1500 total yards.
- [14:27]
Ryan Wormley
You have really kind of brought me around on Bucky. I was kind of going into this season thinking that I would be fading him relative to consensus, but mostly from the conversations we've had on the, you know, dynasty side, like I mentioned. But now, like, through the prism of, you know, redraft as well, it does seem like a, like a pretty good value. I'm surprised. We have sort of a consensus draft sentiment on player cards of fancyprose.com and the consensus draft sentiment just kind of reading through the way people are talking about him is that the upside is not that high with Bucky in this range, but the bust a, you know, factor is high. I can understand the bus factor being considered high just given some of the injury stuff that we saw last year. But like, I do feel like the upside, especially at RB20 or RB19, where he's at now, is there. I. It does seem like there is a path to, you know, RB1 territory. What do you think is the actual ceiling on Bucky? Like, best case scenario, Baker's healthy. Zach Robinson does a great job with the offense. Like, they're scoring lots of touchdowns. He's the bell cow, like, what is like the highest finish you can envision for him.
- [15:35]
Pat Fitz Morris
I think it looks a lot like it did from week 10 of 2024 through the end of the well through the Buccaneers playoff ouster when I forget what where he ranked. But it was clearly inside running back one range. Like, I think it would have been like running back seven or something over that duration. But he was like, clearly a running back one. And man, I know he was on one of my championship teams in 2024 and like, he was an engine absolutely down the stretch for me.
- [16:06]
Ryan Wormley
Let's go to a second year running back here, Quinshon Judkins, he was RB21. Yep, he's still there. So a lot of guys right in the same range here. RB21 for Judkins. Another guy coming off of pretty extreme injury. We've seen some clips of him looking, you know, pretty good. It's obviously early in the summer. You never really know what that means. But you know the updates seem relatively positive here or even very positive some of them. So he's a guy that looked really awesome when he was on the field last year before that injury. They, you know I, I get the, the, the sentiment that the Browns are the Browns and like the quarterback situation is still, you know, stressful and pessimistic and I, I get why people are very low on this offense. I do think Todd Monkin is a really good offensive play caller and designer. Like I thought he did a great job in Baltimore. I thought he did a great job in at Georgia when he was in coaching college. It's a different role being a head coach. You never know how it's going to translate but I do and out the end also I will recognize that they just had Stefanski who we think of as a highly tattered offensive mind but I think Monkin can do a good job particularly with Judkins as a bell cow. Now the offensive line has been bad for a couple of years. Quarterback situation is still rough. He's coming off an injury. I get all that I'm a little inclined to buy in to especially at this cost as a back end RB2. Assuming the reports continue to be pretty positive throughout the summer about his recovery, where are you at on Jud Kittens fits?
- [17:32]
Pat Fitz Morris
I don't have any real problem with his price as a back end RB2. That's where I'm at with him too. He had the dislocated ankle and fractured tibia or fibula. I think it was fibula but obviously like that wasn't even as quite as severe an injury as Scatter. So if we're going to tout Scato it's hard not to tout Judkins and on a bad team which is also afflicting Jeremiah Love. I guess my main concern for Judkins and why I think he might be a little capped as an RB2 and maybe not with a lot of RB1 potential is just what you mentioned Worm. Just the overall impotence of the Browns offense. This is going to be a bottom 10 offense almost certainly unless we get some sort of miracle comeback season from DeSean Watson or Shador Sanders suddenly blossoms into a superstar. And maybe more than that. We've got a rebuilt offensive line with a bunch of guys who've never played together before. Even though the parts might be better than the offensive line last year, which was so banged up. These guys are going to take some time to come together as a unit and I think we'll probably not see them look great until at least the second half of the season, but I just don't know. It seems like there are a lot of headwinds for Quinte John Judkins to becoming a running back one just since
- [18:54]
Ryan Wormley
we've talked about both Scatterboo and Judkins and really Irving too, even though it was a different level of severity and type of injury. Just thinking about these guys coming off of season ending injuries or season really affecting injuries With Irving, what is your general thought process on drafting a guy who had injury problems the year before? Are you more inclined to fade them relative to consensus because you don't want to be overly optimistic about injury recoveries? Are you inclined to go after them and target them a little more aggressively because everybody else is fading them based on the injury and kind of forgetting what they were before they were hurt just philosophically and particularly at a position like running back where you know injuries are going to find you anyway? How do you approach just generally injuries or do you really have to take it on a situation by situation basis?
- [19:41]
Pat Fitz Morris
It's definitely case by case and it's worth keeping abreast of like the injury recovery news from all these guys and what they're doing, how far they are along when they're expected to be full go and everything. But yeah, it is catch 22 on one hand, you don't want to be the guy rushing into a burning building as far as injuries go. On the other hand, those injuries usually create some sort of discount and I think we're seeing that in the case of all these guys, maybe less so Irving. With Irving I think it's more perceived competition at running back with the Buccaneers, but with Scatterboo and Judkins I think there are injury discounts for sure. Scatterboo is the main one because he was performing so well last year before he gets this gruesome injury that probably a lot of people were watching at the time. Whereas, you know, Judkins may be a little more. I think it's more the Browns offense that has people scared off, but the injury should be kind of a factor in our thinking too.
- [20:40]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah, I often think about, you know, friend of the show Scott Pinowski from Yahoo Talks. You know, he is constantly kind of pushing against injury optimism, but that's more in season. Right. Like when a guy gets hurt and is coming back a month later, he doesn't want to be overly optimistic in season. I feel like in the off season it's a little bit of a different approach. The way you see it in terms of like they've had time to recover and be fully ready to go and not rush back just to kind of save the season or anything like that. So it's a little bit different than kind of the in season injury pessimism, so to speak.
- [21:12]
Pat Fitz Morris
Sure. And I mean we get optimism on so many of these players. George Kittle is vowing he's going to be back from for week one and he tore his Achilles in the plan and we've heard reports that maybe it wasn't as severe an Achilles tear as the typical Achilles tear, but I don't know. Yeah, sometimes you have to take this stuff with a little bit of a grain of salt. That's why everyone needs to stay tuned to the NFL News and check the Fantasy Pros NFL News feed throughout the off season for sure.
- [21:42]
Ryan Wormley
Two more running backs here in this range that have not ever been in RB1 before. Next one up is currently ranked RB22. That is DeAndre Swift. He's a player who has had a reasonably high floor in his career in terms of just the season stats. In fact, he has finished as an RB2 all six seasons of his career. He has been RB18, 19, 22, 23, 19 and 15. That's in half PPR scoring. So he has never been an RB1, but he has been between RB15 and RB23 every year and RB15 was what he did last year. That's his best finish that he's had. So do you see that as an, you know, upward movement? He's on a trajectory where even sort of later in his career, later relative to being a running back, he's taking a step forward in this Ben Johnson offense. Do you see that as more of a fluke and he kind of falls back to that back end range. Is Swift somebody that you can get behind as a guy with RB1 potential?
- [22:37]
Pat Fitz Morris
I could get behind him as a guy with RB1 potential. I don't know if he does it short of an injury to Kyle Menongai. It just seems that Ben Johnson is committed to a two man backfield and kind of always has been. I mean we saw it with Jameer Gibbs and David Montgomery in Detroit during Ben Johnson's three seasons there. We saw it last year in Chicago with Swift and Common on Guy. But the good news is that Ben Johnson might be the single best designer of running games running game choreographer in the NFL. I mean he is really good at it. The Bears were number three in running DVOA last year. Only the Rams and the Bills were better. In his three years as Detroit's offensive coordinator, the Lions ranked 12th, fourth and second in rushing DVOA. The Bears were third in rushing yardage last season. They were third in yards per carry 4.9. Chicago was 22nd in pass rate over expected and had the 11th highest percentage of running place. Ben Johnson likes to run. His teams are generally good at it. So it's just a really good environment for a running back. And Swift gave us something approaching in RB1 season last year. I just think it's going to be swift as an RB2 and manang guy is like RB2 RB3 unless one of them gets hurt and all of a sudden the workload increases for the healthy one. Then there's RB1 potential.
- [24:06]
Ryan Wormley
We obviously don't want an injury to happen, but let's just pretend for a second that Calvin on Guy has some bad injury is out for the season. Where would you be ranking Swift in that scenario where they're not adding somebody else instead? Like let's say this happens in late August, right? There's not time to go out and sign somebody else and it's just now Swift backfield fully. Is he ranked inside the top 12 for you or is he just higher than he is now but still not quite at that top 12 spot because it's pretty strong top 12 right now.
- [24:31]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, I'm putting him somewhere in that instance between 7 and 10. Still going to be behind Jonathan Taylor who is my running back six as of now I would have to figure out where I would rank DeAndre Swift versus Kenneth Walker, Omarion Hampton, Devon HN and I'd have him ahead of Jeremiah Love who is my current RB10.
- [24:57]
Ryan Wormley
I was gonna say Chase Brown and Saquon are also in that 7 to 10 range right now in consensus rankings.
- [25:02]
Pat Fitz Morris
So yeah I'm a little lower on those. Those are the the back end RB1s for me. Yeah, 11 and 12.
- [25:08]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah. I mean again obviously we super do not want an injury but Swift is would be set to really take advantage if something were to happen and same is true of an unguy if something were to happen to Swift. They kind of do. Cannibalize each other just a bit. But obviously, I mean again, he was RB15 last year, so that was with Menungi having a pretty good season. So there's room for upside here even if he doesn't quite reach RB1 level. One more name in this range at RB23, it's Travion Henderson, one of your favorites. Fitz. Do you see him having a decent chance at becoming an RB1 in 2026?
- [25:40]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, I mean we saw what happened in the playoffs last year where it was just the Ramon Dre Stevenson show and I think a lot of that had to do with pass blocking and their confidence in Stevenson's ability to help out Drake May, since that offensive line was not exactly airtight down the stretch last year and they just had a murderous row of defenses that they were facing in the playoffs. And weirdly enough, Henderson was kind of touted for being the best pass blocker among the running back class of 2025. Just didn't really translate from college. I think he could still be a good pass blocker. We just didn't see it in his rookie year. Didn't make that transition very well in that facet of his game. But in the other facets of the game as a runner and receiver like we saw Henderson look sensational over a three game stretch at least last year, week nine to week 11 averaged 110 scrimmage yards per game, two touchdowns. Then later in week 15 Ramon so week nine to week 11 I think Stevenson was out. Week 15 Stevenson was playing. Henderson still had 148 rushing yards and two touchdowns against the Bills in that game. So we did get several weeks of running back. One production from Henderson and he looked as explosive as advertised. He offers something as a pass catcher. So yeah, it's just a matter of what the Patriots do as far as the workload distribution in that backfield. Again, probably a case where Stevenson is healthy all season. There's not much of a path for Henderson to be in RB1, but if anything happened to Stevenson, there's absolutely a path.
- [27:21]
Ryan Wormley
Travion was given at least 12 carries six times last season or excuse me seven times last season. In those seven games he had four top seven finishes, three inside the top four. Like when he got not even like crazy workload but just like at least 12 carries. You had a better than 50% chance that he was finishing inside this top eight at his position that week. Just really good, really explosive. It's almost funny to look like he was RB19 in half PPR scoring on the season last year, that, that almost. That feels surprising given that, you know, just how little work he got early given the way it finished in the playoffs, which obviously doesn't play into the scoring, but is, you know, fresher in people's memories. But these spike weeks really carried his season long stats. Like you get to the end of the season and you're like he had 900 rushing yards, nine touchdowns, throwing a couple hundred receiving yards and a receiving touchdown in there as well. Like that's not a bad rookie season at all. Yet it felt like disappointment because of how it's. So much of it just came in that stretch in the middle. But yeah, the upside is enormous. I mean, he had four games from week 10 on with multiple touchdowns scored. Those are just spike weeks that like even setting aside whether or not he finishes as an RB1 this season, those are the types of weeks that win you matchups in a fantasy season, like spike weeks and those big explosive plays go a lot further than a bad week hurts you. It helps you a lot more to have those weeks than. Than the bad weeks might knock you down. So like the, the weak winning upside very apparent for Travian Henderson because he did it multiple times, even in a disappointing year.
- [28:56]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, it's just, it's his misfortune to be paired with a good NFL running back in Ramandre Stevenson. Like, as good as Henderson might be this year, the Patriots aren't just going to totally shelve Ramandre. He's too good for that. So Henderson is going to have to produce in sort of a shared role. But then again, he's been doing that for a while. I mean, he did that in his final year at Ohio State when he was sharing the backfield with Quinn. Sean Judkins, I don't think he ever had more than 12 carries in a game in his final college season. So it might have to be that. But the good thing is that Henderson has proven he can produce on a limited number of carries.
- [29:33]
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- [30:32]
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- [31:12]
Colin Coward
hi, it's Colin Coward from the Colin Coward podcast. All right, you know what deserves more attention? The assists. Everybody talks about the goal. A big moment that gets replayed on the highlight reels. But too often we overlook all the contributions and collabs that happen along the way. That's true in soccer and honestly true in life. Halion is shining a light on the assists. An official partner of U.S. soccer, they got a whole lineup of brands ready to deliver for you. So here they are. Sensodyne Dentist recommended Defense of your sensitive teeth Centrum Fueling your day with science backed nutrients. Advil, of course. Powerful inflammation fighting pain relief. Voltaren Arthritis Gel helps penetrate deep, keeps the joints moving and tums ready to counterattack with fast heartburn relief. These are brands that are ready to deliver your essential wellness Assists. Because every goal starts with an assistant. Learn how Halion can assist your game day goals@halionassist.com Colin and maybe this will
- [32:09]
Ryan Wormley
be the year where Ramandre's fumbles do get him off the field.
- [32:13]
Pat Fitz Morris
You never know man. That's been an issue for Mondre for sure.
- [32:17]
Ryan Wormley
But yeah, no, Henderson. Henderson is. He's just a fun player to have, I think. Cause the weeks that they're good, they're going to be really, really good and maybe we get more of that this year. Maybe the pass blocking is a little more trustworthy this year. You know, all that fun stuff.
- [32:30]
Pat Fitz Morris
Do you like him more or less than David Montgomery this year or I like him more.
- [32:38]
Ryan Wormley
I do wonder if, especially this time of year, I tend to still be kind of transitioning away from so heavy on rookie draft season and Dynasty thinking into redraft shows. Obviously we're still doing Dynasty shows, but it's very easy for me to go. Well, of course you're out of Henderson. He's so much younger. But like for just this season, the opportunity I think will be there for Montgomery and Houston and I really like the I just think the Texans are going to be really good this year, like with the defense and everything and the ability to run the ball will, I think go a long way with Montgomery, and I think it'll help Stroud. I think it'll help the offensive line if they can. If they can just kind of rely on his physicality a little bit better. But Montgomery would have been an interesting thought experiment for this he has been an RB one before, so he wasn't eligible for the exercise despite the fact that he's ranked inside this range. But it came back in 2020. He was RB4. He has not been on RB1 in any other season of his long career. So almost like spiritually could have been a part of this episode. And this exercise is a guy who maybe like with the opportunity he'll get with the Texans will kind of take that step forward. But having said all that, like it just feels like the upside is higher with Henderson. That might be a bit of a fallacy, honestly, and just kind of like following the shiny new toy and the flashy like really fun spike weeks and ignoring what the opportunity is really going to look like. What do you think between the two? I mean, like I said Eileen Henderson, but I don't know that that's the right decision.
- [34:05]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, the internal debate is raging for me right now. I've got Montgomery ranked a little higher. It does feel like sort of a floor play versus ceiling play thing and generally I lean toward the ceiling play in that regard. But maybe Montgomery has a higher ceiling than we're giving him credit for. I just think he's so well positioned to average 15 carries a game and add some pass catching for the Texans, a team that with its great defense is going to give the offense a lot of run friendly game scripts.
- [34:35]
Ryan Wormley
I also feel like of all the players in this range of kind of like he's RB24 so in this kind of mid-20s range, he's the one that I think has the best chance of like oh, we look up and all of a sudden he had a 14 touchdown season. Like again, I wouldn't like like bet on that but he will have the opportunity. Again, I think this is going to be a good team. I still think C.J. stroud is a good quarterback. Like again, I know the you know disaster in the playoffs is fresh in everybody's mind but like I still think he's pretty good. I think the offense will be better this year and I think Montgomery will get a huge percentage of the opportunity. I mean you have talked about how you're just not that impressed with a guy like Woody Marks right in this backfield. Like Montgomery will have the opportunity to basically get as many carries as he can handle and I think particularly near the goal line he will take advantage of that and they're going to have scoring opportunities. And again I'm not saying that you have to go out and bet on this or anything but it would not, it would be one of the less surprising guys in this range for me to just have this really spike season in terms of touchdown scoring.
- [35:35]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah early down role. There's really no one to contest David Montgomery in Houston. Like that job is his. It's just he's probably not going to play on most passing downs but that's fine with as much as he is going to dominate early downs.
- [35:50]
Ryan Wormley
Before we get to Our next breakout RB1 candidate, let me tell you exactly why you should be using Draft Intel. Finding league winning running backs isn't just about knowing who you like. It's about knowing when you actually have to take them in your draft. With Draft intel you can see how your league mates have drafted in the past. Spot tendencies, understand positional runs and prepare for the managers who always push running backs up the board. So if there's a breakout running back you want before the price jumps, Draft intel helps. You know whether you can wait or whether you need to be aggressive before somebody else takes them. Go to fantasypros.com intel use draft intel and build a draft plan for your league fits. I will tell you I think Draft intel is my single favorite tool that we have at fantasy pros. That's not just me like trying to be a company man and do an ad read like I legit think it's awesome. It's one of the I they we brought it in a couple of years ago at this point. And I just think it's one of the coolest things we have. And I use it every draft that I have, a league that's eligible to use it. And I just think it's a really, really cool tool we have.
- [36:46]
Pat Fitz Morris
Same. Yeah, I used to go into drafts just, you know, my rankings, and that was it kind of played by like, it is advantageous to have this for you, guiding you during your draft. And like, sort of. It's like you've got a higher power whispering in your ear during fantasy drafts. And that's. That's kind of useful. It feels like, you know, you're bringing brass knuckles to the fight, basically. Yeah.
- [37:12]
Ryan Wormley
And anybody who's been in a league for several years where you have this data that drafting intel can look back on, I would highly recommend checking it out. It'll tell you stuff like, hey, you know, your friend here who's picking right after you has never once taken a quarterback in the first 10 rounds, so you could probably wait at the position. Right. Stuff like that. Just little insights that really add up and go a long way. So I really do believe in that tool. I think it's a good one.
- [37:34]
Pat Fitz Morris
Good things happen when you let fantasy pros when you sync your leagues through us.
- [37:38]
Ryan Wormley
Yes, for sure. Syncing, which is free, by the way. All right, let's go to some sleepers with a path. These are guys between RB24 and RB40 is kind of the range we're looking at here. Just going to have you pick a couple of names that you really like here. And I'll tell you this, I told you this, you know, already before we started recording. But I'll say it for the audience as well. I kind of went into this since it was just two of us on the show today, expecting to see whatever names you picked and then throw out a couple of my own that I wanted to kind of pitch you and see if you could, like, get behind them.
- [38:05]
Pat Fitz Morris
And.
- [38:05]
Ryan Wormley
And then I was looking in this range and I was like, you kind of took the ones I would have wanted anyway. There really weren't like a whole lot of names. So like one of them is like, like Jadarian Price you didn't have listed here. I could maybe see pushing for a case for him, like if, you know, Charbonnet doesn't come back till Thanksgiving and, you know, he just really does get all this opportunity. Seattle maybe.
- [38:23]
Jeff T
Right.
- [38:24]
Ryan Wormley
You know, Blake Corum, obviously, like the path there would be injury related with with Kyron, but it just felt hard to get passionate like Tony Pollard, Rico Dowdle, Ramondre Stevenson who we just talked about. I don't want to be making the cases for these guys. So you do have a of names that you want to be making the case for, but other than that, it's really not a range that excites me all that much.
- [38:42]
Pat Fitz Morris
I get it. Yeah. Do you want me to hit you with a couple of these names?
- [38:45]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah, go ahead.
- [38:46]
Pat Fitz Morris
All right. Jaylen Warren is one for sure. So I know that Rico Dowdle is viewed as a potential thorn in Warren's side. And there is a history between Rico dowdle and Mike McCarthy, the new Pittsburgh coach. Dowdle was the became the lead running back and had a thousand yard season in McCarthy's last year in Dallas. So I get it. But I do think in the Pittsburgh backfield, Aaron Rodgers is the prism through which we should be looking at this backfield. So Rodgers is now just completely immobile and seems less willing than ever to stand in the pocket and take hits. And he is going to want to play with a running back who can number one, protect him and number two, be a an outlet for him when the heat is on and he just has to unload the ball quickly. And I think that's Warren so much more than Rico Dowdle. Steelers we saw this last year, Steelers running backs accounted for 25.4% of team targets. That was the second highest percentage in the league behind only the 49ers who of course have Christian McCaffrey. Warren has averaged 2.6 receptions per game for his career, 1.41 yards per route run for his career. Dowdle 1.4 catches a game for his career, 1.05 yards per route run. So clearly Warren's the better pass catcher. And then as far as pass blocking, PFF gave Warren a pass blocking grade of 72 last season, which is very good. Dowdle a pass blocking grade from PFF 24.6, which is terrible. So my money is on Warren being the primary back in Pittsburgh. I think there could be a big, big gap in production between Warren and Dowdle. Like right now our ADP has them two spots apart at running back and just half a round apart. Whereas in my rankings they're like multiple rounds apart and I think I've worn eight or nine spots higher in the running back rank.
- [40:46]
Ryan Wormley
Where is Warren ranked for you specifically? He's RB26 in ECR and half VPR.
- [40:50]
Pat Fitz Morris
That's where I'm at. It's more that a fade of Dowdle more so than the, you know, yeah,
- [40:57]
Ryan Wormley
he's at RB31 in ECR. Dowdall is okay.
- [41:00]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah. So for me dowdle is at 36.
- [41:05]
Boost Mobile Advertiser
Okay.
- [41:06]
Pat Fitz Morris
So yeah, I just, I do think the, the split could be much more pronounced than people expect. Whether Warren has like an easy path to RB1. I don't know about that, but I think he's going to catch a lot of balls this year.
- [41:20]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah, honestly I'm not that interested in Warren but it's, it's less that I think he's mispriced and more just like I don't know about the upside getting there. Again, this is a range where I don't feel that strongly about a lot of these guys. So I'm not saying it's a bad choice by you compared to some of the other names, but your other name here is Kyle Menung Guy and that's what I mean we talked about a little bit with Swift. I'm very on board with this one though.
- [41:42]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, I've already laid out the case when we were talking about DeAndre Swift earlier of how much Ben Johnson likes to run the ball and how very good his teams are at it. And then we saw managing have a really impressive rookie season especially for a 7th rounder last year. 783 rushing yards, 5 TD runs and really wasn't a complete zero in the passing game even though he didn't catch many passage during his college career. Rutgers. Maybe there's some more upside there. Although I don't know if he's ever going to be a guy who catches 50 or 60 balls a year. But yeah, 18 catches last year for 164 yards. Not terrible. He is just a no nonsense runner and he is really hard to bring down because this guy runs angry. So according to next gen stats there were only four other running backs who averaged less time behind the line of scrimmage last year. Like he gets the ball. He is north, south and you know, kind of looking to if he can't elude people, he'll try to run you over. Even though he's kind of a smaller guy like this dude is really tough to bring down. I'm just once again I think the path to manang guy being an RB one would have to be DeAndre Swift getting hurts but he's a guy who's currently I think a solid value where he's being drafted and the hidden upside is what would happen if Swift ever missed any time.
- [43:10]
Ryan Wormley
I think that's the key is he doesn't need Swift to get hurt to outperform this ranking, but he's not going to get to RB1 status without an injury. But that's okay. I mean, again, we don't want an injury. There's that contingent upside there. But there's also just upside, I think in terms of scoring touchdowns. Like he had five rushing touchdowns last year. DeAndre Swift had nine. Swift, it was only the second time in his career he's ever had more than six. It hasn't been a huge, huge part of his game on the ground in the past. And I see could see a world where Manungai in Year two takes a bit of a step forward. You know, Ben Johnson just likes the north south approach when they get close to the goal line. I think this offense is going to be awesome. Year two with Caleb and Ben Johnson paired together, like, I think there could be a lot of scoring opportunities. And I think Manunga, even if Swift stays healthy the whole year, could be like a 12 touchdown guy this year as a cat. A 99th percentile. Maybe not 99th, but like a 90th percentile outcome. I'm not saying it's a guarantee to happen, but I think there's a world where that happens for sure. Even if both guys are healthy. And then you bake in the additional upside if one of them does get hurt for the other. And I think it's pretty exciting because you're right and you talked about it with Swift. I'm not sure. I mean, Obviously guys like McVay and Shanahan have earned the benefit of the doubt doing it for a really long time, but I'm not sure there's too many names. I would prefer designing my team's run game than Ben Johnson right now. He's so good at it and it's so important, important to him that I just think, I just think this is a backfield I really want to be targeting and the cost is not prohibitive. I mean, Manungai in half EPR scoring was RB30 last year as a seventh round rookie and he's being ranked lower than that this year when I think we could see a step forward again. Year two guys often are the types of running backs that break out for the first time in a significant way and he's ranked RB33. I just think the upside's really intoxicating in this range. I really like this call.
- [45:03]
Pat Fitz Morris
Fertile offensive environment for sure. Offensive line really good. Might not be quite as good as it was last year with the retirement of center Chris Dahlman and the injury they had Ozzie Tropillo a patellar injury which is always kind of tough but like still a lot of really excellent pieces on this offensive line and maybe a defense that's going to force the Bears to push the pace a little bit on offense and probably going to score a lot of points.
- [45:27]
Ryan Wormley
I think we probably agree that Manangai is the better value if the running back head of him on the chart stays healthy than Blake Corum is who was one spot behind. So like if, if both backfields just say totally healthy this year, I think Benumbai will be better than Corum. Who would you like between those two better if the guy ahead of him were to get hurt? I guess what I'm saying is which contingent upside do you think is higher between Corum and Manungai?
- [45:53]
Pat Fitz Morris
I think it's Corum just because the Rams, I mean they're the heavy favorites to win the super bowl right now. They're going to be playing with a lot of run friendly game scripts now that they've got Miles Garrett leading what should be a pretty excellent defense. Yeah, it's just, and we've seen like Rams running backs every year score a lot of touchdowns whether it's just Kyron or some combination of Kyron and someone else. And it's just, yeah, it's a little as good as the offensive environment is in Chicago. It's even better for the Rams in la, I think.
- [46:28]
Ryan Wormley
I agree. I'd rather have Minunguy if guys are healthy, but I'd rather have Corum if we were assuming kind of that high end upside with the injury stuff. All right, Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. That's Florida's sports book. We talk a lot about football here, but right now we are all about the other football. The world's biggest soccer tournament is here. Everyone is watching. National pride is on the line. Superstars are chasing immortality. And for the next month, every match feels like a final. If you haven't tried Hard Rock Bet yet, there's no better time to get in the game. Hard Rock Bet is a top rated sportsbook app built to viva lacopa. Whether you're backing your country, betting on your favorite superstar, or building a same game parlay for the biggest matches of the tournament, Hard Rock Bet is your way to get in on the action. And if you're ever late to kickoff, don't worry. Hard Rock Bet lets you live bet all match long from the first minute to the final whistle. Plus, Hard Rock Bet is new promos daily. We're talking profit boosts, no sweat bets, bonus bets and more. And be sure to check out no goals, no problem and Super Sub two promos designed to give you your bets insurance all tournament long. Sign up with Hard Rock Bet today and place a five dollar bet. If it wins, you also score $150 in bonus bets, a winning bet plus an extra $150 to bet with. Now that's how you get this summer's party started. Hard Rock Bet is Florida's only legal sportsbook, but you don't have to be in Florida to join the party. Hard Rock Bet is also live in Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Colorado and Michigan. Download the Hard Rock Bet app today. Roll with us. Go with us.
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- [48:29]
Ryan Wormley
all right Fitz, we got a couple names here to go. One sophomore breakout from you and again I kind of mentioned that this second year, third year running back, we're talking about a second year one here is really the range that we want to be kind of targeting most years to find these breakout RB1s who for you stands out in that category. Obviously other than some of the names we've already talked about who are entering
- [48:50]
Pat Fitz Morris
their second season, Bashel Tutin and the Jaguars backfield is pretty ambiguous as we head closer to training camp. So we've got Tootin, we've got Chris Rodriguez who the Jaguars sign in the off season in free agency and we've got Laquin Allen who is actually kind of a sneaky effective in some ways third down back as a rookie. So there there's a lot to like about Tutin as a prospect. Like he's super athletic, ran a 4.32 at the combine, had a vertical jump of 40 and a half inches. Not a tiny guy either, only five nine and a half but 206 pounds. He's he's pretty well built and like he'll bounce off contact and we like that he is in a Liam Cohen offense. His lead backs have been pretty productive. He Bucky Irving who we talked about earlier Had a great half season with Liam Cohen as the offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay in 2024. So about the competition though, with Rodriguez and Laquin Allen. So Rodriguez was the lead back for Kentucky in 2021 when Liam Cohen was the offensive coordinator there, and Chris Rodriguez had 1300 rushing yards. So that's not nothing. There was a foot surgery, like some sort of foot injury that Rodriguez sustained early in the off season program for the Jaguars and had to have an operation on it. Apparently he's expected to be back in time for training camp, but that's something to watch. And then you've got Laquin Allen, who's a pretty good pass catcher. Was. Was really good. He had, I think 64 catches in his final college season at Syracuse. And then last year he was pretty effective as a pass blocker. He was on the field for 61 pass blocking snaps, allowed zero sacks and only three pressures. So he's good at that. And the fear is that Tutin could get caught in this squeeze where Rodriguez is getting some of the early down work, the goal line work, and Laquin Allen is like the third down and long passing down back. And so it's, you know, where Tutin gets touches, but they're not high value touches. But if Tutin is just terrific and Liam Cohen decides to roll with them, he could absolutely be an RB one. It's just what sort of path does Liam Cohen get to? Does Liam Cohen want to have a main man or does he want this to be a true committee? And let's not Forget like in 2024 in Tampa Bay, William Cohen basically kicked Rashad White to the curb and just handed things over to Bucky and let Bucky roll. Yeah, Rashad White played on passing downs for the most part, but there was still plenty of meat on the bone for Bucky that year and there could be for toot in this year.
- [51:41]
Ryan Wormley
Where's he ranked for you? He's RB25 in ECR.
- [51:44]
Pat Fitz Morris
Same here. Same here. The debate is tootin versus Jitterian Price. I've got tootin higher. He's 25, prices 26 for me in ECR.
- [51:56]
Ryan Wormley
Price is 27. He's behind Tudon and Jalen Warren is right there at RB26. Yeah, Tutin, like we talked a lot about him this offseason in the Dynasty show, and he, he has not been somebody that I've been like trying to go out and aggressively target or anything. I really like Chris Rodriguez and just like, hey, he's bid in a Liam Cohen offense before at Kentucky and Just seems like the type of player that I think can just be solid, which might be all that this offense needs and is looking for. Tudin obviously gives you that explosion, and if he gives gets the opportunity, the ceiling could be like, truly enormously high. I just, I feel. I feel less like he's only two spots behind Travion Henderson in ecr. I feel like there's a gap between them in my head in terms of how likely they are to be able to tap into that speed and explosion on a consistent or more consistent basis. Be like a really big hit for fantasy drafts this year. Do you see a gap there? I mean, you have them ranked in a similar spot to ecr, so maybe you don't see as wide of a gap, but I almost feel like that there's sort of a little bit of a step down there.
- [53:01]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, I mean, it's just different profiles for sure, but maybe. Maybe a little bit of a step down.
- [53:08]
Jeff T
Okay.
- [53:09]
Ryan Wormley
All right. And then we're going to wrap things up with our bold call. So give me one running back outside the top 40 that you want to make the case. Could finish as an rb. One obviously gets less and less likely the further down the rankings you go. I will tell you, Fitz, I wanted to make a pick here as well, but you took the name that I would have chosen, so I think you
- [53:27]
Colin Coward
made a good call.
- [53:27]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, it's Jonathan Brooks, who is currently outside our top 40 at ECR among running backs. I don't think that's going to last very long. Like Brooks, obviously the concern injuries tore his ACL in his final college season at Texas, then tore the Same ACL in December 2024 in his third NFL game after he missed a lot of his rookie year. Panthers reportedly had a highly reputable surgeon repair this second tear in a sort of. It was sort of a corrective surgery, like both repair and correct, like the first surgery, which maybe didn't go as well as they had hoped because it did take him a long time to recover from that first injury. They used this technique they called like double bundle, which supposedly increases the knees rotational stability and leads to a stronger reconstruction. So Panthers have been very deliberate in bringing Brooks back from this latest ACL tear, shut him down for all of 2025, which in hindsight, probably a smart thing, even though they were a playoff team. And by the time training camps opens, it'll be 20 months since he had the second ACL tear. So it's basically just Chuba Hubbard in front of Jonathan Brooks. And look, Chuba Hubbard is a solid NFL back, very capable, had a big season in 2024, but I think he's kind of a league average backworm. I don't know how you feel about that, but I think yeah. And the upside, everyone loved Brooks as a prospect coming out of Texas and thought this guy was just at his best. Was absolutely electric. If they eventually turn this backfield over to him, if he shows in flashes what the same sort of pizzazz he showed when he was in Austin in college, like, I think that's better than the best of Chuba Hubbard. So early on, I think it's going to be a slow burn. I don't think he's going to get double digit carries for, you know, any game in September, most likely. But man, if he shows he's healthy, feels good after games, no issues there. And he is looks better than Chuba Hubbard. I think they might just like let him run with the lead role at some point in the season. You know, it could happen anytime from October on.
- [55:53]
Ryan Wormley
I feel like when I was looking at the names outside the top 40 and trying to think about who I wanted to make the case for, I was really trying to find names that they. Because a lot of these names, like if an injury happens in their backfield, yes, things could look a lot different and they're going to be a lot higher. Brooks was one of the few where I think he can just be the RB1 on this team without an injury to Chuba Hubbard. Like he again was a really fun prospect that we liked a lot when he was drafted in the second round. If he really is healthy and shakes off the rust and like they are willing to give him that chance, he can usurp Hubbard. I think for sure it's not a guarantee. Hubbard's not bad, but I think it could happen. A lot of the other names in this range and beyond, like Kamani Vidal, you know, oh, great running game but. Or Keith Mitchell, really in the same backfield. Like, great running game but like you need a, you need an injury to Omarion Hampton for them to take advantage of being in Mike McDaniel's offense, right, like Tajie Spears. Probably need an injury to Tony Pollard to have that chance. You know, Chris Rodriguez, we just talked about Bayshelt and Tyler Algier could be really fun, but you probably need an injury to Jeremiah Love, right. It's all this stuff where you need something else to happen to tap in that upside. Brooks, I don't think you need that. Dylan Sampson was the other one. I was looking at like, because the injury may have already happened with Judkins. Maybe he, we are being overly optimistic about his return. He's a player that I actually liked quite a bit as a rookie last year. And if Judkins ends up, you know, maybe not coming back into form as quickly as we are imagining he will, then maybe there's an opportunity there for Sampson to have some upside. I mean, I was like, yeah, can I interest you in like a Jonah Coleman? Just you never know what the Broncos are going to do. You don't really like RJ Harvey, Dobbins gets hurt again, maybe there's an opportunity there. There's just, you know, Braylon Allen's a player that you've liked in the past. There's just not a ton of other names I felt like besides Brooks that I really wanted to plant my flag on.
- [57:40]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, let me correct you. We do know what the Broncos are going to do. They're going to use a committee because Sean McVeigh does, or, excuse me, Sean Payton does every year. But yeah, when you look past the top 40 worm, obviously it's pretty. Any sort of RB1 season from that group would be injury related. Except I can think of two potential cases where guys could just win out on the merits and their coaches decide like, okay, we're rolling with these guys and we're kicking the guys ahead of them to the curb. Demond Claiborne in Minnesota with Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason. I think like Claiborne, when you see that guy run like he is just Mercury, way more explosive than Jordan Mason. And look, Aaron Jones was maybe starting to slow down a little last year, so I could see Claiborne earning it on the merits, although he's a long shot for sure as a day three pick. And sort of the same thing with Nicholas Singleton in Tennessee. And especially you've got Tony Pollard and Ty J. Spears heading into the final year of their contracts with the Titans. So if they like what they see from Singleton, like, why forestall the inevitable? Maybe they just move him to the top of the food chain and plan on a future with Singleton as their lead guy.
- [58:52]
Ryan Wormley
It's kind of funny you said Singleton, because I was thinking about his former backfield mate and Catron Allen in Washington. Kind of a murky, ish backfield situation where maybe he's just the guy. Maybe this offense takes another step forward, you know, with a, you know, new play caller and now healthy again, Jaden Daniels. And maybe Alan just ends up being the guy who scores a bunch of touchdowns for this offense. And kind of becomes the lead back in that way, I think is a possibility too.
- [59:17]
Pat Fitz Morris
It could be. I just don't know what sort of pass catching potential Catron has. I also kind of think Jacori Crosby Marin might be kind of sneaky. Good. Although it, it does just seem like we're headed towards a full scale committee with this. Like Rashad White's going to play a lot. Crosby Merit's going to play some. Katron Allen's probably going to play some kind of messy.
- [59:39]
Ryan Wormley
Can I ask you just about one more name here? That feels really, really, I mean, just incredibly gross. But it's and we've already talked about a couple of his backfield mates, so again, it's one where he probably would need an opportunity to open up to take advantage. The Steelers invested a day to pick in Caleb Johnson just a year ago. We now have a new coaching staff, maybe just kind of like a fresh start. Like this is a guy who a lot of people really like the fit. So now it's a different offense. Maybe that fit isn't as obvious this year as it felt like last summer, but do you see any talent here as a guy who's like, I mean some people, I think D? Ro had him as RB2 coming out of Iowa in last year's class. Like a player who was liked, just got off on the wrong foot. It was a coach who kind of just put him in the doghouse right away after that special teams blunder early on that cost him a game and just never really got going again at RB68. Right now he's totally free in redraft leagues. Is there any part of you that's like maybe worth a shot and maybe he looks more like the guy that was a third round pick that we kind of expected to come into the league a year ago with the new coaching staff?
- [60:47]
Pat Fitz Morris
Generally in Dynasty, I have a weakness for those types of guys. Like hey, they could absolutely still hit. But again, worm filtering. This look at the Steelers backfield through the Aaron Rodgers prism doesn't seem like Caleb fits that at all. I don't know if he can catch passes well enough. I don't know if he can protect Rogers well enough. I might actually think Eli Heidenreich has a better chance to be impactful this year than Caleb Johnson.
- [61:15]
Ryan Wormley
I would wager that we are the only podcast in this industry who can have an episode talking about potential RB1s in 2026 where Caleb Johnson's name gets mentioned. So we, we are unique in that regard at the Very least and do
- [61:31]
Pat Fitz Morris
it without, you know, being under the influence of illicit substances because normally that's what it might take to, to get us there.
- [61:39]
Ryan Wormley
By the way, I didn't ask have you prepped this but just to give the people something in this regard. Any names who have been in RB1 before that are not ranked there that you really like this year? Just does anybody stand out to you? Because obviously we want to really look at guys who could break out and get there for the first time this year. But do you see and guys that you think have that upside even though they've done it before so they're not eligible for the episode?
- [62:00]
Pat Fitz Morris
I mean, technically, is Omarion Hampton eligible for it?
- [62:04]
Ryan Wormley
He's already listed as an RB1. He's RB10. You could still say that you think he's undervalued and has more upside than that if you want. But yeah, he is inside the top 12 right now.
- [62:13]
Pat Fitz Morris
Yeah, I don't know about undervalued, but like I think he could get there absolutely. With the healthier Chargers offensive line, one that should actually be pretty good. And you know, with a good defense, I just think the Chargers are a dangerous team and Hampton could be heavy part of their offense. Look, Josh Jacobs, I know there are the concerns he had the off the field stuff and it doesn't look like he's going to be charged with anything. So presumably at this point he's just going to be the packers lead back. And he's averaged basically a touchdown a game for the packers since joining them. And Matt LaFleur does not mess around when they get to the goal line, they hand the ball to Josh Jacobs. So even though he doesn't have immense pass catching upside, The packers and LaFleur like to run the ball and Jacobs is a touchdown machine. So he's the guy maybe we should consider there. And right now he's ranked pretty well outside RB1 range.
- [63:10]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah, the. So you might have noticed when we talked about all these guys in the RB2 range during the first segment of the show, it's a lot of guys in the back half of the of RB2 range. The first half of RB2 rage is Kyron Williams, Breeze Hall, Josh Jacobs, Javante Williams, Travis Etchien, all guys who have done it before, which is why we didn't talk about them. I find that to be kind of a hard group to parse through right now in early rankings. I actually kind of think Javante and Echan I like, you know, as RB 17 and 18 feel like values. I do really like Javante this year. I don't see any reason why it can't be something close to what he did last year and at least an approximation of it. So yeah, there's some values there. I will say this kind of last question before we wrap up here. Fitz I came away from this exercise just looking at these names and preparing for the show and talking with you for the last hour feeling like I actually do want to be leaning a little heavier on running back early. I think I get pretty uncomfortable once you get past the top 25 names or so. And you know, we're making cases for guys that can have upside there, but it feels really unsteady past the top couple dozen names here. So I feel like coming away from this, I want to be drafting running backs earlier in drafts than I kind of realized before talking this through.
- [64:19]
Pat Fitz Morris
And you can make a case for that because it seems like the class of wide receiver ones is shrinking and the class of the group of wide receiver twos sort of borderline wide receiver threes is like very large and flat. So maybe there's something to be said for getting your two running backs within the first five rounds and you know, should still be able to get three wide receivers who are like top 30 guys in the first five rounds.
- [64:47]
Ryan Wormley
We'll have a lot more time to go through all our different strategies for draft season here over the next couple of months, which I'm really looking forward to. We'll go ahead and wrap up today's conversation there though, for fits. I'm Ryan Wormley. Thanks everybody for tuning in. We'll see you again next time. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by link Leaving a positive review on apple podcasts@fantasypros.com review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and Tik Tok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.
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