Running Back Handcuff Tiers and Rankings || Fantasy Football 2025

Summary

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Summary of Footballguys Fantasy Football Show

Episode: Running Back Handcuff Tiers and Rankings || Fantasy Football 2025

Hosts: Alfredo Brown & Dave Kluge
Date: December 2, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode shifts away from the standard waiver wire analysis to focus on a strategic playoff topic for fantasy football managers: running back handcuffs. Alfredo Brown and Dave Kluge break down which backup running backs are worth stashing heading into the fantasy playoffs by tiering them according to contingent upside, standalone value, and team situations. This deep dive features actionable advice and context-rich discussion, sprinkled with humor and some nostalgic references, aiming to help listeners optimize their championship runs.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Handcuff Philosophy & Playoff Strategy

• Why focus on handcuffs now?
  With playoffs approaching, stashing high-upside backup RBs becomes crucial: “Nobody is going to provide more upside on your bench than these injury-away running backs.” —Dave Kluge [05:13]
• Value over bench-fillers: Drop low-upside depth (e.g., 8 PPG WRs) for league-winning handcuffs:

  “How many guys have the upside like this? ...you can always grab [an 8-point guy] off waivers. Having a guy like Blake [Corum]...I’m shocked is available in that many leagues.” —Alfredo Brown [10:47]

Tiering Handcuffs: RB1, High Value, Mid Value, Low Value

• Tier Definitions:
  • RB1 Tier: Would be immediate top-12 fantasy RBs if they become starters.
  • High Value Handcuffs: Somewhat less, likely high-end RB2s, strong upside.
  • Mid Value Handcuffs: Likely low-end RB2/flex players if they become starters.
  • Low Value Handcuffs: Desperation stashes, or in unfavorable committee situations.

RB1 Handcuff Tier Discussion [07:15–12:10]

• Players:
  • David Montgomery (DET)
  • Zach Charbonnet (SEA)
  • Kyle Manungai (PHI)
  • Kamani Vidal (ATL)
  • Bashal Tootin (JAX)
  • Blake Corum (LAR)
  • Brian Robinson Jr. (SF)
• Standout Point: Blake Corum is “the best available RB with upside,” yet available in 76% of leagues.
• Quote:

  “Blake Corum…there isn’t a guy out there that’s available in this many leagues that has similar upside.” —Dave Kluge [09:08]

High Value Handcuffs Tier [13:44–19:03]

• Players:

  • Chuba Hubbard (CAR) — trending up due to increased usage.
  • Tyler Algier (ATL) — volume potential, but capped by offense.
  • Tajae Spears (TEN)
  • Devin Singletary (NYG)
  • Tank Bigsby (PHI)
  • Emmanuel Wilson (GB)
  • Kenneth Gainwell (PHI)

• Context: Usage and schedule matter (Algier, for example, faces tough matchups).

• On Tajae Spears:

  “He was such a fun prospect…does just enough every week…if the opportunity were there…he could be a top 12, top 15 RB even in a bad offense.” —Dave Kluge [20:22]

The “Ramondre Stevenson” Tier [25:48–28:28]

• Ramondre Stevenson is described as a frustrating but high-floor option. Good for teams needing 10-12 points, less so for upside seekers.

Mid Value Handcuffs Tier [34:45–47:18]

• Players:
  • Ray Davis (BUF)
  • Malik Davis (DAL)
  • Ollie Gordon (MIA)
  • Keaton Mitchell (BAL)
  • Devin Neal (NO)
  • Isaiah Davis (NYJ)
• Discussion Focus:
  • These players are borderline RB2/flex if opportunity arises but face possible committee splits or unproven offenses.
  • Keaton Mitchell: “If Derrick Henry misses time, it’s just him and Rasheen Ali.”

Low Value Handcuffs Tier [48:03–58:09]

• Mostly committee backups or in bad offenses, only for deeper leagues.
• Names: Samaje Perine, Bam Knight, Michael Carter (ARI), Rashad White, Sean Tucker, Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Nick Chubb, Jaleel McLaughlin.
• “You’re just letting everybody in…”—Alfredo [57:02] as Dave advocates for deep league stashes.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On roster management at playoff time:

  “This is the time of year where you really do have to think outside the box...I’m cutting my kicker and adding another injury-away running back, because I don’t care what I do in week 14.” —Dave Kluge [28:28]

• Stashing strategies (defenses, kicker, etc.):

  “I’m a big stasher...grabbing every defense, every streamable QB I can.” —Alfredo [29:25]

• On fantasy community habits:

  “Keon Coleman is rostered in more leagues than Blake Corum. Parker Washington is rostered in more leagues than…” —Dave [12:01]
  “People just want to plug in 8-point guys, but you can grab that off waivers.” —Alfredo [12:05]

• Playoff matchups and actionable names (waiver-wire priorities):

  “Blake Corum, Bashal Tootin, Tank Bigsby, Emmanuel Wilson, Ray Davis, Malik Davis, Isaiah Davis...If those guys are there, I’d make them a priority.” —Alfredo [60:30]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Handcuffs Philosophy & Playoff Approach: [04:44–05:43]
• Discussion: RB1 Handcuffs: [07:15–12:10]
• High Value Handcuffs / Sorting Players: [13:44–19:03]
• Mid/Low Value Handcuffs: [35:04–48:03]
• Bench Strategy & Stashing for Playoffs: [28:28–31:30]
• Waiver Wire Priorities and Final Recap: [59:43–61:15]

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The Final Tiers Recap

RB1 Handcuffs (League winners if starting):

• David Montgomery, Zach Charbonnet, Kyle Manungai, Blake Corum, Bashal Tootin, Kamani Vidal, Brian Robinson Jr.

High Value Handcuffs (Should be rostered even in shallow leagues):

• Chuba Hubbard, Tyler Algier, Tajae Spears, Devin Singletary, Tank Bigsby, Emmanuel Wilson, Kenneth Gainwell

Ramondre Stevenson Tier (High Floor, Less Exciting):

• Ramondre Stevenson, Kareem Hunt

Mid Value Handcuffs (Ideal for deeper leagues):

• Ray Davis, Malik Davis, Ollie Gordon, Keaton Mitchell, Devin Neal, Isaiah Davis

Low Value Handcuffs (Desperation, deep leagues only):

• Samaje Perine, Bam Knight, Michael Carter, Rashad White, Sean Tucker, Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Nick Chubb, Jaleel McLaughlin

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Actionable Takeaways

• Priority waiver additions if available: Blake Corum, Bashal Tootin, Tank Bigsby, Emmanuel Wilson, Ray Davis, Malik Davis, Isaiah Davis, Chuba Hubbard.
• Keep benches focused on high-upside RBs—not “safe” low ceiling WRs or RBs.
• Plan for the playoffs by stashing streamable defenses and maximizing bench flexibility.
• Adjust to team situation: If you need a floor, target players like Stevenson; if you need upside, target ambiguous backfields and explosive handcuffs.

Alfredo’s parting advice:

“Have some decorum, fantasy football!” [61:19]

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This episode is an in-depth, actionable toolkit for league-winning playoff preparation, urging listeners to think critically, eschew “safe” but low-upside options, and focus on maximizing their chance to hit big if a starting RB goes down. The tone remains humorous and relatable, translating advanced strategy into easily digestible chatter.

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End of Summary.

Transcript

[A]

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[A]

So it appears that you and I agree on something in media now.

[C]

Oh, stranger things. I, I, yeah, I got, yeah. The amount of spice I expected in the replies to that tweet.

[A]

You know, it's, I'll say this like, it's not bad. I watched it all when it came out. There's just something that feels off, and it's almost like they made it too shiny. They made it too good to the point that I kind of liked the grittiness that, like, that came with the show and even the main villain in the previous year. I kind of like the practical effects and the guy in the bodysuit.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And then now it's just the, you know, I am Groot, you know, kind of walking out there like it knows everybody's preference and a lot of people really like it.

[C]

Yeah, they got a huge budget because of the success, and they have to find ways to spend that budget. But, like, yeah, the season one, it was like a very, like, I don't know, like, wholesome show about, like, childhood.

[A]

It was an amblin show, essentially.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Like, it was, it was E.T.

[C]

Yeah. And, and now, you know, it just is getting very dressed up and I get it. Like, that happens to a lot of shows and, like, I, I still enjoy it, but it feels like a completely different show than what it started as I, it does.

[A]

So this happens not only to, like, these shows, but it happens to, like, a lot of movie franchises and just IP in general where they just kind of get too big for their britches and it's like, well, we did this in season two. We got to top that in season three. Well, we did this in season three. We got to top that in season, make it even more colorful. And then it's like by season five, we've got to have robots from the future and aliens fighting each other while we go back in time. It's like, what? What? It always kind of jumps the shark at some point.

[C]

Yeah, I feel like you say jump the shark. I was gonna say lost the plot. Kind of the same thing.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

It's just like, that's the modern. Where I expected the show to go. As of, like, watching season one, I never in a million years would have expected that, like, this would be where we'd be in season five.

[A]

You know, where it is, what it is, watching it.

[C]

I think that's the other on Twitter.

[A]

Good.

[C]

Like, I just say it's a different show, and people are like, oh, you're such a hater. Blah, blah. It's like, I watch the show. Like, I'm tweeting on Sunday morning that I've watched all four episodes. Like, I'm clearly into the show. It's just a very different show than what it started as.

[A]

Yeah, it's like I said that I didn't love it. People immediately assumed that meant I hated it. Like, no, I just. Of course I just didn't love it. Like, see, actually, season four, I actually really, really liked. I thought the writing was clean. I thought everything was really efficient. Like, the story was constantly engag. And so far, season five is just kind of like, you know, I don't want to give away spoilers to people so who haven't watched. So if you're for some reason listening to this and you haven't watched that, I don't want to mess that up for you.

[C]

But, yeah, I will say the season four master of the puppet scene. Amazing. Absolutely love that part.

[A]

Gets me every time.

[C]

That was good stuff.

[A]

Gets me every time. Just, oh, right in the feels. Well, it's week 14, and we've got something a little bit different for you guys. Instead of taking a look at the waiver wire, Dave Kluge and I sat and talked and thought what would be beneficial to people that are tuning into the show at this point in the season. And we started to think, if you're listening at this point, you're in the hunt or you've made your fantasy playoffs. We're a week away. Right. What you want is what's going to get you all the way to that championship.

[C]

And.

[A]

And how do we do that? We have to stay a week ahead of everything that's going on. Here because if we tell you to stash players next week, it's going to be way too late. So. Welcome in to the Football Guys fantasy football show. I'm Alfredo Brown, joined as always by Dave Kluge. And today we're going to be taking a look at the running back handcuffs that you need to be stashing for the fantasy playoffs. We're going to go through and rank these guys and not really a rank, it's more of like put them into buckets of how we find these players to be valuable. Dave, this is such a good exercise and I think it allows people to see how we think and it's going to challenge them to think of players a little bit differently than just top waiver wire ads or rankings and such. Yeah.

[C]

Cuffing season, is that still a thing? Do the kids, do the youths still.

[A]

Say that they do not? I believe they're saying six, seven now.

[C]

Oh, all right. Yeah.

[A]

I mean, it all means the same thing.

[C]

Back in my college days, cuffing season was a thing. And here we are. I think it's the same for fantasy football. Like when the months get cold and you know you want to get these guys because nobody is going to provide more upside on your bench than these injury away running backs. The guys that like might not have a lot of standalone value right now, but if that guy ahead of them goes down, we see this every single year. Like, you don't even have to be a good running back, just a running back getting volume late in the year is sometimes enough. Yeah, like we, we, we remember a couple years ago, Zamir White and Ty Chandler did it. You know, for the people that have been playing for a long time, like Tim Hightower, you probably still remember him helping you win leagues back in the day. Mike Boone. Exactly. Like these guys pop up right now and that's like we were talking about Devin Neal. I don't think either of us are like huge fans of the prospect or the player, but we saw he like handled all of the opportunity last week for the Saints and it wasn't great. But he still irked out 10 PBR points and he's going to continue getting that workload. And sometimes that's all you need this late in the year.

[A]

So let's do this. You and I, we kind of compiled a list of the backup running backs guys that we would consider to be handcuffs. Some of them are already playing and startable at the moment. Others are not even on rosters. And so what we did was we kind of put, put these four different buckets here that you guys can kind of. We can play with the names here, but we essentially made them based on their value as a handcuff. So if they became the sole running back, they would be an RB one, a high value handcuff, a mid value handcuff or a low value handcuff. Pretty, pretty simple stuff. You could kind of put it in the realm of RB1, RB2, flex play, bench player. Right. If we want. If we want to do it that way. So Dave, let's do this. Let's just start off with some of these running backs here and the first couple guys that we've got here. Okay. David Montgomery, Zach Charbonnet, Kyle Menunga. I feel like it's all the same three players that we're talking about here. You and I have them as our running backs. 1, 2 and 3. Just in, in a variety of order there. I think all those guys are easily top 15, top 12 running backs if their counterpart misses time.

[C]

Right. And you can't get any of these guys off of waivers. I assume they're rostered in near 100 of leagues at this point. And the nice thing, these guys are so rare. The guys who have elite contingent upside but also have a little bit of standalone value. Like you don't feel great about starting David Montgomery or Zach Charbonnet or Common on guy on a weekly basis, but every once in a while you get that blow up game. Like we saw David Montgomery do it early in the season, we saw kylemanungai do it last week. Zach Charbonnet just somehow finds the end zone every single week. So like these are guys where they give you just enough where you can kind of plug them in as an RB3 or a Flex play. But if something were to happen to Kenneth Walker or Jameer Gibbs or DeAndre Swift, then we're looking at these guys as like plug and play. Top 12 offenses, good running backs on good offenses who are going to get a lot of opportunity.

[A]

So after this we've got a couple other guys that I think that right now if we're going to. They are considered backups, some of them. They're all in different situations. So Kamani Vidal, different situation. He's playing right now, but once the starter returns, he goes back to being a backup. Does he have a smaller role? Yeah, probably BAE Shal Tootin, technically the backup, he's been getting more work. There's been games where he's gotten more work than Travis etn. We'll see how that continues to progress. And then the other guy Blake Corum in a similar situation as Tootin, where there's been times where he's gotten more work, but for the most part he has primarily been the backup. This, I think all three of these guys qualify for the RB1 category here, where they'd probably all be top 12 to top 15 running backs if they are getting an insane workload. Like, like, like the starters right now. Like, like a guy that doesn't have to split time with anyone else. We saw some of that with Commodity Vidal, where he's been good. Bayshal Tootin I think is the guy that has the most excitement out of that group. But Blake Corum is the guy, weirdly enough, that you and I have ranked the highest out of the three and.

[C]

He'S still available in 76% of leagues. Like this absolutely blows my mind. Blake Corum, there isn't a guy out there that's available in this many leagues that has similar upside to Blake Corum. And this is one I was pounding the table for Blake Corum in the preseason. Like people were telling me I was crazy. I drafted him on over 50% of my best ball teams this year just because he is a good, talented player. And we know that. Like the thing that separates these three guys that we're talking about right now from the first three guys is the standalone value isn't quite as good. Like you. If you're really, really, really desperate, you might want to start one of these guys on a weekly basis. But again, it's like the contingent upside that you're holding out for. And Blake Corum is a good running back. Like this was the engine that powered the Michigan national championship winning team. He had this knee injury that kind of got him off to a slow start in the NFL, but he seems healthy now. You know, I don't want to do though, if you look at the efficiency metrics because we know Sean McVay doesn't care about that. But Blake Corum has been a more efficient running back this year than Kyron Williams. Now, Kyron Williams, he's a versatile player. He's a great pass blocker. Those are the things that keep him on the field. But if there is a world where Kyron Williams gets hurt and Blake Corum has to step in, I don't think it's crazy at all to say that Blake Corum would be a better fantasy asset. And Kyron Williams, right Now he's the RB11 in fantasy scoring. We'd probably be looking at top seven, top eight production from Blake Corum if he was the starter all on his own.

[A]

Well, and like what we were talking about earlier, I mean, Blake Corm hasn't won anybody their leagues. Right. He hasn't won anybody their weeks even. But he's a guy that you should. What was that?

[C]

Yet. Yet.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

That's why we're doing the episode.

[C]

It hasn't happened, but it's there. Like the possibility is there.

[A]

I just, I can't imagine looking at the bench of your fantasy team and saying that you have that many players that have more contingent value than Blake Corum, especially if you are not starting those players on a weekly basis. How many guys have the upside like this? Something I've talked to Jake Seely about where it's just kind of people waste their bench with the eight point per game guys. They're just like, well, you know, I need someone else in case I got to plug them into my lineup. You can always grab that off waivers. Having a guy like Blake, I'm. I'm shocked. I was shocked. I was looking at it this morning that, that Blake Corm is available in that many leagues and to your point about him being more valuable than Kyron Williams, if Kyron goes down, we see this all the time where the backups end up being more valuable because they are not splitting touches the same way that the other running back was. Kyron is out there splitting touches with Blake Corum. If Blake Corum becomes a starter, he'll probably split some of the portion of the touches with a Jarquez Hunter. But it's not in the same mold that it is right now. We're looking at probably a 70% workload for Blake Corum, which is something that Kyron Williams isn't experiencing with Corum out there on the field.

[C]

Yeah. And I'm just looking right now like just for the heck of it to see some other guys with similar roster ship right now. Keon Coleman is rostered in more leagues than Blake Corum.

[A]

It's crazy.

[C]

Parker Washington. Parker Washington is rostered in more leagues than.

[A]

That's a perfect example of an 8 point per game guy that people are just like, ah, gotta plug them in.

[C]

Exactly. So if you're out there right now, you're listening to the show and you're still holding on to Keon Coleman or Parker Washington or any of these other wide receivers that probably have pretty limited upside that we can say at this point in the season, just drop them for Blake Corum. Like if you're in a situation where you're starting Keon Coleman on a weekly basis, you're not going to win your fantasy championship. So just like get rid of that guy and add the running back with the upside.

[A]

That person is not watching this episode. Dave, I'm going to guarantee you they stopped caring about fantasy football content weeks ago. Sorry.

[C]

Hey. One. One catch for one yard and one touchdown. Last week we got a Keon Coleman giving us a 33 year old Devonte.

[A]

Adams stat line efficiency is crazy. It's absolutely nuts. All right, there's a few more guys, three final players that we want to talk about for this. This tier of this grouping. And I think once again we actually have put these guys together and they're all so similar. Chuba Hubbard, Tyler algier, Brian Robinson Jr. Three players that have all been getting work in games, but it's quite clear that they are the backups. Now Chuba Hubbard, that's been a little bit different this last week where we saw him get a little bit more work. And so that might change things where maybe you want to rank him a little bit higher. I've got him as the running back seven on this. You've got him as the running back nine on this. And but I think it's fair to say that we look at Chuba, Tyler Algier and Brian Robinson kind of all is the same dudes and your tiebreakers in there can be how good is the offense? Like if we have to actually really be real about this, even though we have Brian Robinson. Yeah, yeah. Essentially, like if I had to do the tiebreaker, I actually think Brian Robinson Jr. Might be the most valuable of these guys because he's on the best offense. He wouldn't go directly into the CMC role, but best offense with the ability to score.

[C]

Right. And that's why I've got. I prefer Brian Robinson of this trio right here just because, you know, the standalone value is almost nothing. Like he gets his like four to eight touches every single week. And that's never something you feel good about putting in your lineup. But if Christian McCaffrey misses time, I mean we saw Jordan mason giving us RB1 weeks last year. We saw Isaac, Isaac Arundo doing it. Like it doesn't matter who gets plugged into this Shanahan offense, they're going to be an RB one in fantasy. So I think that's it. Like it is pure upside with Brian Robinson. But I was just looking. Chuba Hubbard now is available in 50 of fantasy leagues. Dropped in a lot of leagues because he had that injury. And coming back from the injury there was kind of a Slow ramp up. And Alfredo, you and I talked about this on a show last week saying like Chuba Hubbard, you know, he's getting a little bit further removed from that knee injury now. Like he's starting to get more work. He's starting to look like the Chuba Hubbard of old. Two weeks ago he had that nice catch and run out of the backfield and now this week he basically pushed for a 5050 split. So I, I think you're dead on. Like the offensive environment here isn't the same as these elite guys that we were talking about at the top of the show. You know, the Panthers aren't as good as the L Hawks or the Bears, but Chuba Hubbard, now he's a guy that like if you are desperate you could put him in your flex spot. And if something happens to Rico Doddle, then Chuba Hubbard goes right back to being the high end RB2. You drafted him to be Tyler Algier.

[A]

From this group is interesting because I think we always look at him as man. If Bijan goes down, Tyler Algeria would be incredibly valuable. But what happens when the offense is just bad? Like what happens when there is no Drake London? What happens when it is just Kirk Cousins presence? Like is he still as valuable? Like would we look at him as a top 12, top 15 running back? I don't, I don't know. I, I think I'm. I'm. Eileen closer to putting Tyler Algier like as we're talking this out on the show, Eileen closer to moving Tyler Algier to our next tier of the high value handcuffs than I would say the RB ones.

[C]

I think the silver lining here is that like Tyler Alger, his rookie season was a part of a very bad offense and he was still able to rush for a thousand yards. So we know he is a talented running back that's just kind of been in the shadow of Bijan Robins. Now he's not going to give you B John Robinson production, but you know he'd be getting 20, 25 opportunities per game. He is a talented guy and when I look at this remaining schedule, I think that's the thing that I'm most scared about. They get the Seahawks this week, which, you know, you're not starting him this week as Bijan Robinson but like God forbid something happens to Bijan Robinson and he goes down. Next week they get the bucks, which is a decent matchup. But then in the championship or in the, in the semifinals, Cardinals, that's a good run. D Championship week, they face off against the Rams, another good run. So I think that would be the only downside with Tyler Algier is that like if his opportunity does come, the volume would be there. And we know he's a good running back, but he would just have a brutal schedule down the stretch.

[A]

The touchdowns have been insane for, for Algeria, by the way. Eight touchdowns this year. Usually every year he's either three or four. So like that's also been kind of booing his fantasy value here. You mentioned that.

[C]

Well aware.

[A]

You mentioned that rookie season where he had the thousand yards but it was a bad offense. He was like running back 27 in half PPR. But that's because touchdowns weren't coming. So I could see it. If touchdowns are coming, the value could be higher.

[C]

Yeah, he doesn't catch the ball like at all. Like he is just, you know, pounding it on the ground. That's pretty much all he does.

[A]

So. Okay, so let's make the verdict then. Does he stay in the RB1 grouping or do we transition him to the top of the high value handcuffs?

[C]

I would prefer Brian Robinson ahead of him, but I think he kind of, he and Chuba Hubbard are both kind of in that same like you, if something happened to Bijan Robinson or Rico dowdle, they're probably RB2s, but I don't think we're ever looking at them as like top 12 guys.

[A]

All right, so then we're moving. We're going to move Chuba and Tyler Algier to the high value handcuffed here.

[C]

I think so. Yep.

[A]

All right boys, you're moving. So that's going to kick off the next tier here. We're going to talk about some of these guys who have similar values. So Ty J. Spears is the next guy we have on this list. Devin Singletary, who if you came here hoping for a waiver wire show. Yeah, like he, he might be there. Like he might be out in your waiver wire. He was available in over 50 of leagues still just crazy to me considering the situation over there in New York and how it's been. But now he might be one of those league winning players. So I'd be looking for him on your waiver wire. The conversation around him might change like he's another guy that would be saying he's a Zach Charman, he's a Kyle Manon guy, he's a. Whatever we want to call it at that point. But Tajie Spears, Devin Singletary, Tank Bigsby. Let's, let's, let's talk about this because I think Taji Spears, Devin Singletary and Ramandre Stevenson going a little out of order. I think those three guys are very similar. They have their roles in the offense. They could all three be starters. I think Spears and Singletary get me way more excited. Tank Bigsby gets me most excited as a handcuff. Ramandre just kind of annoys me the most if I'm just going to be honest. Like, I don't, I'm not excited. If, if Trevion Henderson were to go down, I don't know how excited I am about Ramon.

[C]

We, yeah, Dearness Johnson, Terrell Jennings, all of these other guys would be in the mix. Like, we're never going to see Ramadre Stevenson with an 80 workload. So we might see him go from like a 45 share to a 65 share, but we're not going to see a huge, huge, growing role there for Ramadre Stevenson. Taji Spears is the one. Like, I, I wish I, I could abandon some of my priors with Tajie Spears, but like, he does just enough every single week for me to like, hold on to hope that he can be the guy that we saw at Tulane. He was such a fun prospect. He consistently just like breaks tackles, has these breakaway runs. He's such a fun player. But of course he's been on the Titans his entire career and the Titans are terrible. And he's been in the shadow of Tony Pollard. It seems like now he is starting to pull away a little bit, getting more work even with Tony Pollard there. In the one game we saw last year that Tony Pollard missed, Daje Spears had over 100 scrimmage. He looked like a potential RB1. So he's a guy that I still have rostered in a lot of leagues and maybe this is just me clinging to my pre draft convictions here, but I think he is such a good running back that if the opportunity were there, you know, right now he's in this kind of 60, 40 split with Tony Pollard. If the opportunity were there for Tajie Spears and he was just splitting touches with, you know, Khalil Mullings or whoever else they have there on that staff and he was getting 80, 90% of the touches, I do believe that he could be a top 12, top 15 running back even in a bad offense.

[A]

Well, it's the pass catching man. Like, he's, he's sort of low key. Alvin Camara, if we're being real, like over the last three games he's had 15 receptions. He's just, he's constantly being used in the passing game. And this is an offense that doesn't have the best group of receivers and they're kind of being forced to get the ball out of Cambord's hands fast, even though he is a play extender. The offensive line has been. You see that play, by the way, the J.C. latham play that's been making the rounds on the social media machine. They got to get the ball out of Cambord's hands fast. So I think you kind of always know that you have a floor with Taji Spears in the receiving game. I, I'd be so excited, so excited to see his work as a solo lead running back for the team.

[C]

Yeah. What happened to J.C. latham? Like, there were such big expectations and he just looked terrible. Like we. A little bit of a back and forth this offseason about the, the Tennessee O line. I thought they were going to look much better than they have. Like Cam Ward taking so many sacks like these. Both of these running backs, Tony Pollard and Taj Speers are both just consistently getting hit in the backfield. I, I don't know this. They need something to change here. All of this talk about Mike Tomlin potentially getting fired from Pittsburgh, I can't help but think that a team like Tennessee would pick him up in a blink of an eye if he hit the market.

[A]

Teams love to do that. The bad teams love to recycle coaches so that they can go from like, like, whatever it is, like third worst in the league to just dead middle of the league and go. I always want to say 8 and 8, but I forget that we now have an extra. Like, my brain still has not evolved to the new schedule. It's been in the NFL for like seven years. All right, so if we're looking at the high value handcuffs, then I'd say it's Taji Spears. Devin Singletary is honestly one of these guys that we could look at as being in, in the other category, but I think he's found a home.

[C]

The Giants also, they have, they have a buy next week too, which, like, if this is a minor, we don't, we don't know what happen with Tyrone Tracy. It was, it was really weird. It looked like a pretty innocuous hit. He just kind of like fell on his butt and then struggled to get up and then kind of limped off comes.

[A]

I'm worried.

[C]

Yeah. And I don't know what it was. They're saying a hip injury at first, like they, they were speculating a concussion on the broadcast, then maybe a knee injury because his leg kind of buckled as he was walking off the field. Now they're saying a hip injury, then he gets carted off the field. They do have the bye week here. So I mean, this is just kind of a nightmare scenario because like, even if he is active coming out of the buy, that's the first week of the fantasy playoffs. And like, what do we do with Singletary and what do we do with Tyrone Tracy? Are there going to be limitations here? So this is kind of a frustrating one. I think if you've got the bench spot, you pick Devin Singletary up now and sit through the buy to kind of see how this shakes out. But if you're a Tyrone Tracy manager, this is not the, the situation you want to see at all.

[A]

So this next thing is kind of like the most frustrating thing amongst. Because I was telling you before the show, I was texting you like ranking handcuff running backs is so stupid because I'll look at the 25th running back and say like he's got about the same upside as the 8th ranked running back here. And one of these guys I'm about to talk about, Tank Bigsby to me has very much the same level of upside as a David Montgomery, Zach Charbonnet, Kyle Manungai, Blake Corum, all the first four guys we talked about on this Eagles offense. He's been hyper efficient when he has gotten the chance. I wasn't in love with Tank Bigsby, the prospect he struggled throughout his time in Jacksonville. But something seems to be clicking in Philly and I don't think Biggsby has always liked to bounce things outside and that has kind of worked for him in Philly. It just has. Tackles have been able to set the edge and he's able to get outside and beat corners. So Dave, Tank Bigsby, he's more exciting to you than let's say Ramandre Stevenson at this point?

[C]

I think so, yeah. I mean the, the fear, of course. Well, two fears I think with Tank Bigsby. One Lane Johnson dealing with the injury. So you talk about like bouncing those runs outside. That's easy to do when you Johnson sealing the edge. It's not as easy when he's not in the picture. I think the other potential concern here would be that Will Shipley is such a good pass catcher that I don't know if we see Tank Bigsby just come in and take, you know, the, the 85 opportunity share that Saquon Barkley has. We might see him come in on early downs, seeding, passing down work to Will Shipley. And then of course, goal line work gets seeded to Jalen Hurts. So we might be looking at Tank Bigsby if he gets the opportunity as just kind of this guy that's getting like the carries outside of the red zone and that would put a huge cap on his potential ceiling. So, I mean, it was easy to get excited about Tank Bigsby early in the year when they traded for him and Saquon Barkley looked terrible. And we were thinking like, maybe he can push for some sort of split here, but that just hasn't happened. And I worry that even if his opportunity does arise, there could be a cap on the ceiling.

[A]

So we've got Ramondre Stevenson here next in the rankings, but after him is Emmanuel Wilson. And I think this is, I mean, we have Emmanuel Wilson and Kenneth Gainwell. And I think this is interesting because Emmanuel Wilson has already had a better game than anything that Madre Stevenson has done this year. And there's excitement about Drake May and the Patriots offense, which could boost up Ramondre Stevenson's value. But then Kenneth Gainwell is another guy who has had also better games than anything Roger Stevenson has done this year. And for, for Gainwell, it's the passing involvement. So out of these three guys, if you had to rank them, Gainwell, Wilson, Ramondre, and fit them into the high value handcuff bucket first, what order are they going to be in and are they going into that one or the mid value, I would go.

[C]

And again, this is so tough to do linear rankings. And I just wrote all about this in the intro to my aggressive season rankings article. We have to do this because like linear rankings are what customers desire. But the reality is like different teams have different needs. And if you're sitting there right now and you need a flex player that you can rely on weekly, Radre Stevens. Wilson is clearly the best of the bunch here. But like if you don't have that need, if you've got three strong running backs and you're only looking for potential contingent upside, here we saw Emmanuel Wilson like he will just be Josh Jacobs 2.0 when given the opportunity. So it really comes down to your team situation. And I know that's a cop out. This isn't what people want to hear. I would rank it Emmanuel Wilson, Kenneth Gain.

[A]

That's what they want to hear. They want context, man. They want, they're like, seriously, like, they just want thought. Like I, I know that sex sells, right? Rankings sell. But like like what people want, they come here, they want to hear you like actually rap on about it, man, like you've got good thought process here.

[C]

So I prefer Emmanuel Wilson of the bunch. But if you need a guy to get in your lineup right, right now like Ramadre Stevenson is going to give you that 1012 points every single week.

[A]

Yeah, I mean that's, it's kind of, it depends on how you play the game. If that's what you want. You want 1012 points every single week. Cool.

[C]

Sometimes it's not what you want, sometimes it's what you need, you know. Sometimes sure, you lost a running back or you lost a flex player and you need Ramadre Stevenson in your flex spot. I don't think anybody wants to flexing Roger Stevenson, but I think some people have no choice but to.

[A]

No, but like so if I'm sitting there choosing between the, the upside of Kenneth Gainwell catching seven passes and scoring two touchdowns versus Ramandre Stevenson, giving me a 10 or 12 point game, I'm always going to flex the guy with the upside. Like just, just always, every single time.

[C]

And even when I'm going through setting waivers tonight, like I don't expect Ramadre Stevenson to be available in many leagues, but like if I'm setting waivers, I couldn't even say that I would prefer Emmanuel Wilson over a Madre Stevenson. It would come down to situation like what do I need in week 14, what do I need right now on this team? And I think that's really what, you know, we're trying to put these guys in a nice tidy buckets and rank them and all that, but it's a, it's a little bit harder than that.

[A]

Well, and I think too what happens here is by putting these guys into buckets and trying to rank them, you can also figure out where to cut the fat on your team. If you're trying to roster Blake Courton, Blake Courten, Blake Corum, Bashal Tutin, I just combined a player you're trying to get Tajie Spears, Tank Bigsby and Emmanuel Wilson all on the same bench and you're like, ah, I gotta cut someone. Radre Stevenson might be the guy you cut to make sure you can have all those guys on your bench. You know, it's like that's why it's important we do this. So Dave Ramandre, is he going to be in the high value handcuffs or does he start the next tier which is the mid value handcuffs?

[C]

I think he is the high value handcuffs, but he might be in a tier of his own, like you know, a mid value handcuffs in Deer. And the one last Thing I'll say again, like talking about team situation, like this is the time of year where you really do have to think outside the box. Like I've got a league right now, total humble brag here. You know, I'm just gonna already locked in the first seat. I've already got a round one by, I've already got most points scored. So this week I'm cutting my kicker and I'm adding another one of these injury away running backs because I don't care what I do in week 14. Like I've already secured the one seed, I've already secured the payout for the most points scored. So I don' need a kicker this week. Like I am going to be scouring the waiver wire and if a Ray Davis or Keaton Mitchell or an Ali Gordon, one of these guys is available, I'd prefer to have that over the eight points that I'm going to get from my kicker that I don't need this week. So you really need to look at your team situation, what the playoffs are looking like and try to think outside the box for where you can get any small edge you can.

[A]

I'm a big stasher. I'm a, I'm a big stasher. Like even, even if I'm not sure that I'm the best team in the league, I want to prep everything I can for week 17. Like I am grabbing every, every defense, every streamable quarterback that I can and putting whatever I can on, on the bench. Usually I think the. Dave, what about you? Because the position for me that I think I usually care the least about when trying to stash is tight end.

[C]

Yeah, I think so. Because you can usually. I mean this year the tight end streaming pool is so, so deep. Like you can look 35 tight ends deep and still find guys that are viable streamers. So I think if you don't have one of those elite guys this year, brock, a Trey McBride, a George Kittle, a Tyler Warren, then you could just be okay rostering one and kind of figuring it out on a week to week basis. Same thing with receivers. I feel like for the most part like you can usually find those guys on the waiver wire every single week if you're desperate for a streamer. But the running backs are the guys I want to stash. And then Alfredo, this is a trick I learned from you a couple years ago that I never really even thought much about. But in leagues that require defenses and special teams, I will start to look a couple of weeks ahead rather than Just playing it on a week to week basis. Once I've got that playoff spot secured, I will try to map out every single matchup between now in week 17. So I'm doing that in a handful of my leagues this week where I've already know that I'm making the playoffs. Like, let's look at weeks 15, 16 and 17. What is my path to victory there? And that might require rostering two or three defenses, but I'm willing to do that.

[A]

Yeah, that. When I say that I'm a stasher, like that's what I love to do. I love to go and find out what's, what are my league settings, what are the max defenses I can hold. And there's been times where I'm in a league where max defenses you can hold are 20 too, but other times the limit does not exist and I'm grabbing my I that week. In week 14, if I can do it, I'm gonna grab five defenses and really. Or week 15, whatever it is, and really piss off the person that I'm going against because they're trying to stream a defense and they're like. And then the group chat just goes wild. So typically I want to be as efficient too, like get teams that are gonna be good for weeks 15, 16, 17. By the way, new Orleans Saints, really good. Yeah.

[C]

Stay within your rules. Rules. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

100. I want to look this up because we just kind of, as we went off on this little tangent here, New Orleans Saints defense has been better as of late. Last three weeks have been pretty good. Their fantasy playoff schedule, very easy. Carolina, the jets, and then Tennessee in week 17. So I don't think a lot of people are gonna be picking them up this week to go up against Tampa. But if you are planning ahead and trying to do that, that. New Orleans Saints, one of my favorite defenses to go grab right now.

[C]

Have they gotten better or did they just play the Dolphins, Falcons and Panthers? That's, that's my real concern.

[A]

You know what? It's, it's, it's a little bit of both. They've been able to get more pressure on the quarterback, which has been helpful for their defense. Like their defensive backs have actually been able to return plays. It's. Yes, it's, it's a bit of both. Right. Like they've played worse teams, but, but they've also done a little bit more of what helps dsts, which is actually getting sacks. Like they weren't getting pressures early in the year.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Yeah. I, I wonder how much of that That's. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. Never mind.

[C]

I'll.

[A]

I'll. I'll dive into that later. How much that has to do with Tyler Shuck, because somehow I'm gonna make it about him. All right? I'm the meme of, like, get in there and make it about Tyler Shuck instead of make it about you look good.

[C]

I mean, they're. They're like, not sitting, but he has looked better every single week. Yeah, I'm sort of like, what I.

[A]

See from J. Chuck, I'm gonna put you out there. Who's looking better right now? Tyler Shucker. Shadur Sanders.

[C]

Oh, Shuck for sure. Yeah, I. I don't. I don't think that's debatable. Somebody in the comments might debate it, because anytime you bring up Shador Sanders, somebody's going to debate it. But I think Shuck has looked like the much better quarterback.

[A]

I'm just. I'm just engagement farming at this moment. Leave us a comment, let us know.

[C]

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[A]

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[C]

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Forget. Forget that.

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[A]

On here we've got the RB1 tier, the high value handcuffs tier and the Ramadre Stevenson tier. Next, mid value handcuffs. I know kids, mid is bad but in this case, you know, we're okay with it. Sorry Jeff.

[C]

I've got teenage step siblings. I, I know some of the lingo.

[A]

There you go, There you go. You're so Ohio Dave. All right, so some of the other guys here, Ollie Gordon, Keaton Mitchell, Ray Davis, those three guys all feel pretty similar. They've got big time running backs in front of them, solid offensive units around them them. If they were to get opportunity, we know it would be pretty big for them but that they would still probably split work with someone else. What's the order for you amongst those three running backs?

[C]

I have them. Ray Davis, Keaton Mitchell and then Ali Gordon. So the complete opposite order that you presented them in. But I, I do like all these guys and, and we saw Ray Davis like one opportunity to start it last year at 150 yards. Looks like a very good running back in Alfredo. This is a pro Ray Davis show. You love Ray Davis. The opportunity just hasn't really been there so far this year. I think the, the concern of course would be that if he does get the starting role we could see a little bit of Ty Johnson. But I think this is one of those where Tyler Johnson's role has. Ty Johnson. I'm sorry, his role has been pretty sticky. Like he is just going to come in on passing downs and a little else. And I think because he gets more work than Ray Davis on a weekend and week out basis, people think that he is the handcuff. But I think if something were to happen to James Cook, Ray Davis would step right into James Cook role, role and Ty Johnson's role would remain the same. So I think there's a ton of upside here and he's another one of those guys that I think people have just gotten bored of. You know, we've been stashing him for two years and we've gotten one start from him so far. So he is available in a lot of leagues right now. But I think that you should absolutely ought and try to get it Now.

[A]

I. You've waxed on poetically about Ray Davis and I don't want to do that or else I'll be here for eight minutes. But Keaton Mitchell is a guy that I find really interesting because with no Justice Hill being on iron, if Derrick Henry were to go down, which is actually scientifically impossible for him to do in the month of December, he just gets better and stronger and faster. It's weird. Go, go. Look it up. Derek Henry just stronger every fantasy playoff season. But if for some reason Keaton Mitchell had to take over a role, I'm intrigued because there's the big play potential there. We know he can catch passes, but this is also not an offense that has been playing to its best potential lately. Lamar Jackson has had three of some of the his worst games in his entire career and not a lot of passes going the ways of the running back. Like, it's just there's something not clicking in the offense. So I kind of ask a similar Tyler Algier question. How excited are we about Keaton Mitchell? If the offense itself, I want to say that I have full faith in Lamar, like getting it together, but this could also. We see it every year. There's always like one team that we expect to be a lot better and they just sort of crumble when it needs to happen most.

[C]

Keaton Mitchell was such a hard guy to rank in here because like the per touch efficiency since he came into the league has just been off the charts. Like this guy is a speedster. We saw the big play against Cincinnati last week and then of course now we've got Justice Hill on IR where I think like had Derrick Henry gone down earlier in the season, we probably would have seen a split with Justice Hill and Keaton Mitchell right now. Like they are just. There's nobody left there. Like if Derek Henry goes down, it's going to be Keaton Mitchell and Rasheen Ali, who a lot of people listening to the show have probably never even heard that name before. I mean like Keaton Mitchell. I think what gets me excited is that we know he's an efficient player when given the opportunity and there'd be nobody else there to really take any touches. So to me it kind of feels like similar to the Taj Spears for like, sure it's not a good offense. They have some warts right now, but who else is getting the ball? And this is a fun young player with good efficiency. So Keith Mitchell, he's a guy that like even in some shallow leaks I've been holding on to, of course Derrick Henry is an iron man. Like this guy never gets hurt and he plays through injuries consistently. But if we were to hit A point in the season where Derrick Henry had to miss a game. Even with some of the struggles in this offense. Keaton Mitchell would be a top 20 running back.

[A]

Right. And that's, I think, how we can rank each of these guys. The, the mid value handcuffs. Like these are guys that we would put probably in the top 24. Like just to give it a nice like round Fantasy Football number. Top 24 for each of these guys. They'd be RB2s on a weekly basis that you would plug in in and not worry about them. Right. Like, unless you had a really good set of running backs, then you're probably flexing these guys. But I think all three of them, Ali Gordon's guy, we haven't talked about too much here. Something we talked about a little bit prior to the show is that the team has been using Jalen Wright a little bit more. I don't think either of these, either of these guys between Ollie Gordon or Jalen Wright ever get enough run for us to say that something is trending one direction or the other. These guys never find themselves in a rhythm. It is 100% the Devon Achan show. But I do agree with you in that they would be splitting the backfield with maybe Ollie Gordon getting the more valuable goal line and short yardage touches. But Jalen Wright not a big pass catcher either. So I'd be really intrigued to see what happens there.

[C]

Yeah. And I think that would be my fear is that Jalen Wright has just come on over the last few weeks. Like he got that opportunity when Ollie Gordon was hurt and then we thought he'd be a healthy scratch after, but he hasn't. He has just retained his role and we're seeing this split. So I, I think it is in Mike McDaniel's nature to have a split backfield. Like we saw him do that so much earlier in his career.

[A]

He most are all these guys.

[C]

Exactly. And then I think it was just one of those. Like, Devon Hn is so good that it would be irresponsible to split touches. Like, we just need to give him all the workload and that's what's happened over the last couple of years. But I don't see Ali Gordon or Jalen Wright as a Devon Hn level talent. So I think that if Devon Achan were to go down, we'd probably see a split between the two. I think Ali Gordon, though, he would almost assuredly get all of the goal line looks and that's kind of what we'd be hoping for in this offense.

[A]

So there's a couple of other names here that I think are. I don't think that people would expect us to be talking about them, but you and I had a similar thought process here with Malik Davis, running back for the, for the Cowboys. Listen, I was banging the drum for Jaden Blue in the preseason and early in the season and saying, man, guy needs to get on the field. Explosive playmaker. Still is, but apparently there's a lot of off the field stuff that just doesn't quite get him onto the field. Malik Davis has now become the backup running back for Javante Williams, who has had his own struggles as of late and has his own injury history that we all are aware of. If Malik Davis at some point is the starting running back for the Dallas Cowboys and getting a large workload, I see him being a guy who is. Is pretty, I mean, very similar to a. An Emmanuel Wilson, a Tank Bigsby, Ray Davis, a bunch of these other guys.

[C]

That we've talked about should be in that tier. The high value handcuffs like. Yeah, kind of there. Yeah, yeah. That's why I say like standalone value unless you desperately started him last week and got that big touchdown.

[A]

But I mean it's the running back 35 and running back 10 in handcuff rankings are pretty much the same game unless someone goes down. So like that's why we're trying to talk it out and, and decipher it here. But yeah, I think that Malik Davis could be just as valuable as a Tyler Algier, as a Chuba Hubbard, as a Tank Bigsby, Emmanuel Wilson, a bunch of these other guys here. I think he needs to go next into the mid value handcuffed here. Yeah.

[C]

And I might even put him over Ollie Gordon and Kel Keaton, Mitchin Keaton, Mitchell, to be honest, just because there's nobody else there like Miles Sanders out for the year, Jaden Blue. I'm not even going to try to speculate on what's going on with him, but clearly the team just doesn't see it in him. And then we've got Phil Mafa, the other rookie they drafted that we've been waiting to come back is still on IR as well. So this is one of those, like who else is going to get the touches? Like right now we're seeing Malik Davis get worked in for 15 of the touches alongside Javante Williams. I don't even know if there's that 15 guy to work alongside Malik Davis. I think he might come in and just do an Emmanuel Wilson where he gets 100 of the workload. If Javante Williams has to miss this.

[A]

I know what's going on with Jaden Blue. When you get custom made Louis Vuitton cleats as a day three pick, we get it. Coaches love that. Let me, let me be honest. Coaches love to see that.

[C]

There are so many Tobias Fugue Blue references that I want to make when talking about Jaden Blue that I just can't.

[A]

You can't. Nothing. Nothing. Another guy. So we got a couple other guys here that have had opportunities to be starting running backs this year. Devin Neal, Kareem Hunt. Are, are those, do those guys go into this tier here right now or do you kind of see them? Because we've, we've seen what they are. Maybe not so much with Devin Neal because it's been only one game and it was a tough opponent, but we've seen what Kareem Hunt is, we've seen a little bit of what Devin Neal is. Are each of these guys going to be considered RB2s that you can start each week?

[C]

You know, Devin Neal, I, I do want to talk about a little bit. I see so many people, like frustrated with Devin Neal. Like you said, it was a very tough matchup that he had this week, but he handled the vast majority of the touches. He was getting passing down work late as well. I, I'm not willing to just like completely throw the baby out with the bathwater in regards to Devin Neal. I know that this was like a tough matchup, but I'm still keeping a light on for him. I think that he looked better than I expected him to in the pros and he had the pass catching upside as well. We saw almost no Taysom Hill, which I think was the big fear here as well. So I don't think people are going to be dropping Devin Neal. But, you know, we're still looking at Alan Camaro potentially being out for another two to three weeks, which is almost the majority of or over the majority of the fantasy football season. I'm still keeping it on for Devin Neal. And, and this is another one that it's like tough to rank when we're doing handcuffs like Devin Neal. I don't know if he is a handcuff like right now. To me, he feels like the lead back and like we should probably talk about Taysom Hill is the handcuff or whoever else because I don't know if and when Alvin Camaro is coming back. So I, I, I think, you know, trying to rank him in here. I'm doing it under the Assumption that like, you know, Alvin Camara were to come back and what his potential value would be, but like, this is a guy that I'm still going to be ranking inside the top 24 this week.

[A]

Well, it's less about who he is if Alvin Kamara comes back. It's who he is when Alvin Camara is gone. Like, that's the point of all of this, is who are these players? How would we value these players if the incumbent is no longer there? Right. So without Alvin Camara, I mean, yeah, the Dolphins run defense has been better. He was kind of force fed some catches. Running back 36 this last week. Not saying that's what he's going to be every single week, but another tough run matchup next week against Tampa. It's Carolina, the Jets. Those are some easier matchups. Tennessee in week 17. Things do get a little bit easier for them. Some games that the Saints would be competing in and be able to control the clock a little bit more. I think he's fine as a low end RB2. I think I would put him closer to the flex category where I'm not there. I don't have the trust in him yet. The other guys get me more excited. Malik Davis, Keaton Mitchell, Ollie Gore, those guys get me way more excited.

[C]

And here's, you know what, Evan Hull is the only guy that we have to worry about right now in New Orleans. And it was a 75, 25 split. Devin Neal averaged 4.1 yards per touch to Evan Hall's 3 yards per touch. So like, we know who Evan hall is and he is not a guy who is going to take over the majority of the backfield. And I think that's it for Devin Neal is like, you know, the workload's going to be there. You know, he's going to be slightly more efficient than Evan hall. And I, I think there could be better days ahead.

[A]

There could be. It's just, I don't know if those, those are days that I'm going to be like, yes, that's my RB2 every week. That's, that's the thing is, I think we're probably looking a little bit lower. So. Okay, let's make the call then. Does Devin Neal go into this category here, the mid tier, mid value handcuffs ahead of guys like Kareem Hunt, Isaiah Davis, Rashad White.

[C]

I think he's a mid value guy. Yeah, I don't think he's low value. I think there's, there's mid value here. Mid with a, a positive connotation.

[A]

Okay. I don't, I don't. I don't know if that's a thing, but we'll, we'll make it one. We have the test.

[C]

He's the last guy in the mid tier. I think that's exactly where he belongs.

[A]

Okay, there we go. So then let's do this. Let's just, let's see who makes the cut to be in the low value handcuff tier. And I'm just going to list all the names and let's just, let's do this. Let's just take the guys that we know belong in that tier. Or we can do it the other way. We can do process of elimination, like, guys that we just think are not going to be in that tier. So let me, let me list the names. Okay. Kareem Hunt, Isaiah Davis. Samashi P. Ryan, Rashad White. Nick Chubb, Jalil M. Mifflin. Bam Knight. Corey Crosky Merritt. Jeremy McNichols. Sean Tucker. What are the names that you just want to get out of there immediately? I'm taking out Jeremy McNichols. Yeah. Probably even under the best of circumstances. Like, he, he just hasn't even been a guy you could flex. Yeah.

[C]

And I think he's probably better than Jacori Crosky, Merit. So if we're taking McNichols out of the conversation, I think we need to take Jacques crossing Merit out of the conversation as well. I think this one of those, like, the commanders are just bad right now. It's really tough without Jaden Daniels.

[A]

So I look at it this way. If there's no Chris Rodriguez, Corey Crosky, Merritt then takes over the bulk of the early down work. And I. He's not, he hasn't been great, but I know he can still make some explosive plays. I'd consider him flex worthy. I, I think he's on that cusp. I'm not, I'm not sure I've got him. So I've got him ranked ahead of Jahil McLaughlin and Nick Chubb right now. Like, I don't, I, I don't. I don't think Nick Chubb is a guy you could ever put in a lineup.

[C]

I, I've got a spicy take right now. You know, this isn't our sabotage drop episode. This is our, our, our handcuff episode. But I almost wonder if Rashad White and Sean Tucker are both sabotage drops at this point, because let's just say, like, I don't even want to put it in the universe because he just came back and he looked fantastic. But, like, if Bucky Irving has to miss any time, who do we prefer between Rashad White and John Ducker? Because I don't know, know, like, I genuinely don't know. Like, we saw Rashad White have his time. We saw Sean Tucker have his. We saw it kind of go back and forth between the two of them. I don't know. Even if Bucky Irving were to pick up an injury next week and then, you know, Ms. Week 15, first week of the fantasy playoffs, I couldn't trust Rashad White or Sean Tucker at this point. Like, I'd have to take a wait and see approach and we're, we're running out of time to wait. Like, when you say a wait and see approach, how much can you wait when there are four weeks left in the fantasy football season? And this is one of those where I think, like, it would raise a lot of eyebrows if you dropped Rashad White or if you drop Sean Tucker, but I also can't really see a world where you feel good putting either of these guys in your lineups during the fantasy playoffs.

[A]

I think if I had to make a call, I'd go Rashad White because the past catching upside is there and it's, it's. You don't feel good about it. But I, I can at least go with Rashad White and know that there's some pass catching upside there versus the floor of Sean Tucker being, being nothing. Like we, we can get, we can get zeros in there. You know, like, I know there's, there's upside. Both these guys have upside. And I, it's kind of counter, counterproductive of what I was saying earlier where I want to go for the upside, but not when the floor is zero. And like, that does seem to be a real thing with Sean Tucker where you're looking at two point games, three point games. It's less likely with Rashad White.

[C]

So I think Nick Chubb at least belongs in the discussion session as a low tier handcuff. Like, it's very clearly the Woody Marks show, but the Texans offense has looked better over the last few weeks. There will be some scoring opportunities. And I think with Nick Chubb, you know, it might not be pretty because they've limited, but like, if Woody Marks doesn't play, you know, you're getting 15 touches and probably a couple goal line touches for Nick Chubb and that at least puts him in the conversation as a flex play play.

[A]

So early in the season, before Woody Marks had the breakout, Nick Chubb had one game over 15 touches. Remember, that's with Woody Marks on the roster. Right. And two touches across, or excuse me, two touchdowns. Excuse me, across the first eight weeks. And then since then, it's gotten worse and worse and worse. Yeah, I'm at the point where like, even if Woody Marks was out, I think you can pick up Nick Chubb as a desperation guy because you don't have five running backs that you could start over him, I, I struggle to put him in any of these tiers, but because I like, I like some of the other guys we have in here, Isaiah Davis, Smaji P. Ryan, like those. And that's crazy to say, I like Samaji P. Ryan more, but I like the offense more and I like the fact that he can be out there on all three downs.

[C]

And, and I do wonder if this would be similar to a Bill situation where like, like, you know, right now we're not seeing any Ray Davis at all, but like if Chase Brown were to go down, would we see a dash of Taj Brooks coming in there? Again, maybe this is me holding on to my pre draft notions, but I do wonder if like Samaj P. Ryan, I don't know if that's a guy at his age that they want to give 20, 25. I mean we're seeing like 35, 40 touches going to this backfield on any given week, so I think they'd probably split somewhat. But Samajp Ryan, the coaching staff clearly trusts him that I think he at least, you know, falls into that low value handcuff year.

[A]

Okay, so let's do this for now in the low value handcuffs, we got Kareem Hunt, Isaiah Davis, Samaj P. Ryan.

[C]

Okay, Isaiah Davis is another interesting one that like we're saying low value, but a young guy who wouldn't have any. Yeah, like there's no Braylon Allen. And I think the thing everybody loves about Isaiah Davis is the pass catching upside. And right now he seeds so much of that to Bree hall that like if Isaiah Davis was out there with no breeze hall, it's not crazy to think that he might see six to eight targets perhaps game right.

[A]

Like I. Once again, we've said this a million times, but even those guys in the low value handcuffed here, I'd put them in the same spot as Taishi Spears and Emmanuel Wilson and Kenneth Gainwell, a bunch of these other guys along in.

[C]

The Radre Stevenson tier.

[A]

That's so funny.

[C]

Yes, yes, kind of is. Ramadre Stevenson, if you think Kareem Hunt.

[A]

To the Ramandre Stevenson tier. We're making it. We're making it happen. I'm editing the video today so I could do this.

[C]

We're just gonna see these players moving all over throughout his work. You're gonna have your work cut out for you, but I like it.

[A]

All right, so we've got Cream Hunt now the Radres team. It's a tier. So for the low value handcuffs, so far all we have is Isaiah Davis and Samaj P. Ryan. Do you want to move my hand? Davis up.

[C]

Bam Knight has been a low value handcuff for the last eight weeks. Like we have to put him in that discussion as well. And I think Michael Carter probably belongs right there alongside him because. Because, like, Bam Knight gets a little bit more work. It was a 55, 45 split last week.

[A]

Is it just Cardinals running back?

[C]

Yeah. Bam Carter.

[A]

Bam Carter.

[C]

That's a low value handcuff.

[A]

So, okay, so I put Bam Knight in here. Fine, I'll put Michael Carter. You got me typing in the middle of the show.

[C]

And it's just like, you know, Bam Knight, he's getting the goal line work, which gives him a little bit of upside. Michael Carter gets the pass catching, which gives him a little bit of upside. And I mean, we, we should just talk about tree bet Benson real quickly because I don't know what the heck is going on here. Dude seemed like he was coming back in week 11. That didn't happen. Didn't happen in week 12. Week 13. After a full week of practice leading up to week 12, it seemed like he was going to come back in week 13. Opens up the week as a limited participant, then back to back dnps. There was a lot of talk about how he looked uncomfortable, kept grabbing at his knee, was shaking his leg in between reps. We don't know if he suffered a setback or if this is just like, like his body not responding to surgery the way that we expected it to. But the Cardinals have an eight days. Next Wednesday is the expiration of his 21 day window, and if Trey Benson isn't activated by next Wednesday, his season's over. So this has just been a weird situation with Trey Benson. I can't really get a read on it, but like Bam Knight might just be a guy that you're playing between now and the end of the season if Trey Benson can't return.

[A]

I hate to do this because we always like to be more positive, but is there, is there a bigger runner, like a bigger nominee right now for league losing player than Trey Benson? Like how many people went out and put 80, 90, 100% of their fab on this guy because he's going to be the next big running back and immediately gets injured? Like we can't predict this. None of them.

[C]

Six and one. And they traded for him. Thinking like, this is what's going to push me over the edge.

[A]

Yep, yep. It's just, it's, it's just crazy.

[C]

Not to go like too off the rails, but like the Cardinals want to see what they have in Trey Benson. Like they spent a day or day two pick on this guy and I was looking at James Connor's contract situation. They can save $8 million if they release James Conner after this year. Now this is a James Conner going into his age 32 season, coming off of a season ending injury. I think if they can afford to save $8 million by not bringing back an aging vet coming off a season ending injury, they'd like to do it. But they make that decision. They probably want to see what they have in Trey Benson, who didn't start at all last year, got one start this year before injuring himself. So I think the Cardinals, like just the, the front office really wants to see him out there to see what they have in him. This has just been a weird, weird situation.

[A]

Yeah, it's incredibly frustrating. But I think that's why we have to put Bam Knight and Michael Carter in this low value handcuff tier and not anywhere higher. And while we're at it, I kind of want to make the executive decision to move Isaiah Davis to the mid value handcuffs. Like if we're saying, if we're saying he could be that high, I think we got to do it.

[C]

Yeah, Yeah, I think that's fine.

[A]

All right, so then let's, let's just, let's finalize this low value handcuff tier. So we've got Samaji P, Ryan, Bam Knight, Michael Carter, essentially Cardinals running back, Buccaneers running back. Then we've got Jacori Crosky, Merit, Nick Chubb, and then the last guy on here is Jaleel McLaughlin. Do we think he deserves to be here? I have no trust for a Denver Bronco, Broncos running back and Sean Payton.

[C]

That's kind of it. Yeah, I think he's a low value guy. Like you get him in your. No, I, I think that he would be the lead.

[A]

You're just letting everybody in, man.

[C]

I mean there are deep leagues out there.

[A]

You know, this was the movie centers. You're dead like a hundred percent. You're just letting everybody in.

[C]

I get that reference. That's a good one. I like that.

[A]

Thanks.

[C]

But Jalil McLaughlin, I think, like, if RJ Harvey, I hate this show, talking about it. If all of these guys get hurt, but, like, it's what we got to do. I don't even want to put it in the. Like, I don't even want to put it in the.

[A]

If for some reason he misses the team flight. There you go.

[C]

Exactly. Yes, yes. I think Jaleel McLaughlin would be the lead guy, but the lead guy in the Sean Payton offense is still getting 50 to 60% of the touches. Like even RJ Harvey, who has looked fantastic this year, we thought that he would just blow open the doors for this running back room and he's still ceding work to Jahliel McLaughlin and Tyler Bidet and Adam Prentice and, and whoever else. So that's kind of the nature of it. But I think Jaleel McLaughlin would still, you know, right now, like we saw, the J.K. dobbins role is now the R.J. harvey role. And I think it would become the Julian McLaughlin role if RJ Harvey were to miss. Like, everybody does kind of have their role and I think Jaleel McLaughlin would fit into that. And he is a guy that like we haven't talked much about over the last couple of years, but when he did have his opportunity as a rookie, like really fun efficiency metrics, he was able to catch the ball, breakaway runs, all that sort of stuff. I think he's a low value hand.

[A]

Handcuff, whatever I was gonna say, I, I. So I totally think that Jaleel McLaughlin goes the way of Ty Johnson like with the Bills, and you end up with probably a Tyler Bidet, Ray Davis type situation there in Denver, which is what makes it so annoying. Honestly, the last, like three running backs, Jacori Crossing Merritt, Nick Chubb, Delilah McLaughlin, they're all super annoying. I would not be prioritizing these guys as handcuffs, but if everyone else in your league has already taken, taken, cool, go for it. Let's just throw them on there. So let's recap the RB1 tier. Dave Montgomery, Zach Charbonnet, Kyle Manungai, Blake Corum, Bashel Tutin, Kamani Vidal, Brian Robinson Jr. Those are the guys that if they were to take over a starting role, boom. Instant fantasy RB1s, high value handcuffs. These are your guys that are anywhere from an RB1 to an RB2. It's Chuba Hubbard, Tyler Algier, Taji Spears, Devin Singletary, Tank Bigsby, Emmanuel Wilson, Kenneth G. Gainwell, then there's the Ramandre Stevenson tier that has Ramondre Stevenson and Kareem Hunt. Then we've got the mid value handcuffs which these are the guys that are RB2s to flex plays. Ray Davis, Malik Davis, Ollie Gordon, Keaton Mitchell, Devin Neal and Isaiah Dave just all. We should just call this the Davis tier. It's Ray Malik. Yeah. So this is the Davis tier, man, we're just, we're making moves. It's going to be a delight to edit. And then the low value handcuffs, which is going to be Samaji P, Ryan, Bam Knight, Mike Michael Carter, Rashad White, Sean Tucker, Jakori Krusky, Merritt, Nick Chubb and Jaleel mclaughlin. Well, there we go, Dave.

[C]

This was to make this like just slightly more actionable for, for people watching the show. RB one tier. Those guys are probably rostered in most leagues already. If they are not high priority, dump all your fab, do whatever you can to get those guys.

[A]

The high value Blake Corum and Bashel Tutin are available in a lot of leagues right now.

[C]

Right.

[A]

It's crazy.

[C]

And those are guys that like you, you should make priority additions this week. The high value handcuffs, I think even in your shallow leagues, like your 10 team leagues with a five bench, you still, these guys should be rostered in every single league. And then I think once we get into the, the next tiers, the Radre Stevenson tier, the Davis tier, you know, now we're looking at your 12 team leagues, your deeper leagues, maybe on the fringe. Like you don't need to have these guys rostered in 10 team leagues. And then I think for the low value handcuffs, that's where we're looking at like your deep 12 team leagues. You're looking at those guys.

[A]

I'm gonna do this. I would say if there are players that are on your waiver wire right now, that I would prioritize. Dave, let's see if you agree with me. I marked one of these incorrectly. It would be Blake Corum, Bashel Tuton, Tank Bigsby, Emmanuel Wilson, Ray Davis, Malik Davis, Isaiah Davis, 1, 2, 3, throw Brian Robinson Jr.

[C]

In there as well.

[A]

He's heavily rostered right now.

[C]

All right. All right. Yeah.

[A]

Then that's why like I wanted to make the skies that are like 60 or more available in leagues.

[C]

Yeah, I think that's pretty good. And then we also said Chuba Hubbard is available in 50 of leagues. That's a guy that like absolutely, if he's available should be picked up as well. Is he?

[A]

What are we doing folks?

[C]

I mean he was out for a couple of weeks and then it looked like Rico dowdle just stole his job. So I understand why he was dropped. I was kind of shocked. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[C]

50. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

We used to be a country man. We used to stand for something. Have some decorum. Fantasy football.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, this game.

[C]

Drafted in round four and then got injured and people just dropped it.

[A]

We have no patience. The TikTok ification of the world is here. I hope you enjoyed our hour long podcast about players you don't have on your team. There you go. Enjoy it. Week 14, everybody. It's here. Fantasy playoffs are right around the corner. Hopefully this prepped you guys for this. That, as always, I want to thank everybody for watching or listening all the way through. For myself, for Dave. We'll see you next time. Adios.