6 Must-Have Sleepers EVERY Fantasy Football Manager is Missing This Season 🔥 (2026)
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Jun 29, 2026
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Mon, June 29, 2026
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0:00Welcome in Fantasy Football Daily. I'm Graham Barfield joined by Ryan Heath.
0:05We've got an awesome awesome show today.
0:07We're going to be talking our favorite six running back deep sleepers.
0:21>> These deep sleepers, we're trying, you know, for players outside the top 240p.
0:26So, we're not looking at players that are going in like the first four or five rounds. We're looking at, you know,
0:30running back three, running back four on your roster after you've already taken maybe your top running back, your your top two. I'm excited for this one. I'm
0:38really excited to talk about this first player because, man, this is a guy that at Fantasy Points we're all going to be
0:43very, very high on. Let's get it started. Ryan, who is your top deep sleeper going into the 26 season?
0:53>> Yeah, let's just start off, get it out of the way with Bashel Tutin. Uh, I am completely over the moon on Toutin. I
1:01understand this kind of blew up in our faces last year, but I I think now really is the time to buy in. I Let's
1:08just get right into it. The biggest like argument for Toutin is just the value of this Jaguars backfield, of any Liam
1:16Cohen backfield, right? Uh if we look just over the last three seasons, the play callers that have had the most valuable fantasy backfields by expected
1:24fantasy points per game, it's a top seven list with all of the Mick Shanahan coaches pretty much. It's the entire tree there. Uh Arthur Smith cuz he runs
1:34the ball a ton and then Liam Cohen uh right there at number seven in terms of the most valuable fantasy backfields. Uh
1:41of course it was Travis ETN who capitalized on this last year. Uh, but I I just look at the Jaguars depth chart
1:49at this point and I'm just kind of forced to conclude that Toutton is going to run away with this job, just capture
1:56all of the high value work uh that we did kind of see hints of last year, right? They were using Tutin at the goal
2:03line. I I don't think it's as simple as they brought Chris Rodriguez in as the goal line back and it's Tutin between
2:09the 20s. I think that's like the median market take. I I don't see that at all.
2:14Tutin was used at the goal line as a rookie. He was really strong. Uh he had the highest success rate of any rookie
2:21running back since 2021. That's a stat that while maybe not just huge, it doesn't tell the whole story of the running back position. It it's like a
2:30pretty good list to be on in terms of like lowly drafted rookie running backs that made their way into bigger roles
2:37throughout their career uh that were good in terms of success rate as rookies. It's Bachel Tutin. Raandre Stevenson, it's Isaiah Pacheco who was
2:46uh handed a Bellcow role at least at one point in his career before he got injured. Bucky Irving on there. Jaylen
2:52Warren who stuck around for years and got into larger roles. So I that's like really encouraging to me that Tuton just
2:58was able to pick up the few yards that he needed to on all of these plays even if the explosives weren't totally there
3:06as a rookie because the explosives were there when he was in college. Uh he was 94th percentile in college by career
3:14yards after contact per attempt. His explosive run rate was totally juiced.
3:20He is this really fast, really explosive breakaway threat. We didn't see it so much as a rookie, but I can just see him
3:27putting kind of both of these facets of his game together this year with Chris Rodriguez uh who's been like in and out
3:34of training camp, has been dealing, uh with this foot injury, uh as his main competition. just I'm just not that threatened by Chris Rodriguez as the
3:44practice squad guy that's come up and down throughout his NFL career kind of signing on like a very clearly just depth type of contract if he had signed
3:54anywhere else. No one would be counting Chris Rodriguez into their backfield plans or their projection this year.
4:01Laquin Allen is there and people love to bring up Laquin Allen as if that's like a total own that he's going to be the
4:06one catching all the passes. Uh but that that wasn't even true last year. Yeah, Lquinn Allen played on more third downs,
4:13but it was almost exclusively a pass blocking role. Uh it was Bashel Tutin who was running more routes on early downs, who was actually commanding more
4:22targets. So I think Tutin's just the most proven back in pretty much every facet of the game right now that's on on
4:30the Jaguars roster. Massively high value role for whoever captures it. I am in on Toutin to do it. He is like my immediate
4:38favorite sleeper just as soon as we get outside of the top 20, top 24 running backs. That's the name that I'm circling
4:44on my targets list.
4:46>> I agree. Uh when we were going through show notes prepping for the show, I figured you would take Toutin first. If
4:52you didn't, he was going to be my first pick as well because it just all of your analysis I I pretty much agree with. I
4:57think the main thing for me with Toutin just going into this season is that passed down role because like you said,
5:02Laquin Allen, dude, he's just a body.
5:04like he he just goes out there and gets his chest in front of defenders and he's a great pass protector, but he's never
5:09been a target earner. And there is a huge amount of targets available left with Travis ETN's departure. Last year, 47% of ETN's targets were on designed
5:19screen plays, and they currently don't have anybody on the roster to take those plays. Toutin only got three designed screens last year because ETN was so
5:26good at them. I fully expect Toutin to get the majority if not all of those design screen plays because Chris Rodriguez has never been a factor in the
5:34past game and like we just talked about Laquent Allen mainly just the pass pro threat. This Jags offense is is going to
5:41have some huge huge spiked weeks in terms of their scoring and Tuton last year I mean he was legitimately fighting for inside 10 carries with Travis CTN.
5:50He got about a quarter of their inside 10 carries as well. So, if you factor in, okay, he's going to get, you know,
5:56more screens, more designed work in the pass game, plus he's got this role inside the 10, I think it's just wheels
6:02up for him. I I'm very very into Tuton this year. I think he's actually one of the players, Ryan, where we're seeing
6:08running back prices all across the industry just like really steam up. But he is one player that if I kind of just
6:14I don't know maybe the room I'm in, the draft room I'm in, you know, goes a little more running back heavy than even
6:19the markets are, I'm actually okay waiting to get Tooten as my RB2 cuz I do think the floor is much higher than
6:25people are giving him credit for. And yeah, Chris Rodriguez, he's on this smallish guaranteed contract. He's also hurt dealing with a foot injury. Uh many
6:34of the injury analysts I follow on Twitter are calling it kind of like a Jones fracture. We don't know actually the full detail of the injury. We will
6:41see if he's fully healthy by training camp here at the end of July. But if he's not and it's all Tootenon getting
6:46the first team reps, he's Toutton's ADP is going to get steamed up more than it already has been. Ryan, I'll get it uh
6:53get it going with my favorite second I guess second favorite deep running back sleeper because truly Toutton's he's going to be a flag plant player for me
7:00again this year. Guys, I I think everybody's just overthinking it with Jadarian Price. I think it's like a twofold thing. One, Zack Charbanet is
7:09probably not going to be healthy until after October at the earliest. He had a torn ACL in the playoffs. He had to wait
7:15two weeks to get uh surgery. He is basically not going to play until November at the earliest. So, for the first eight weeks of the season, Jarian
7:25Price is going to be fighting for carries with Emanuel Wilson and Greg Helani or excuse me, George Hani, who is these two guys, man. And I mean, they're
7:31just not even close to the caliber of player that Jadarian Price is. Just from a top- down perspective, this backfield, Seattle backfield last year was fifth in
7:40expected fantasy points and 10th in actual fantasy points scored. Ryan, uh, we were both on Ken Walker last year bigly. Uh, it worked out, I guess, if
7:49you look at the playoff run worked out big time. Uh, but, you know, on the whole, this was an extremely valuable
7:56backfield. The problem, it was just directly split. I think Jadearian Price is very clearly the best runner on this roster. I think the one legitimate push
8:05back that people are making for Price is that he's not a pass down player, right?
8:09Like maybe he's not a plus in the pass game. I I I want to get your opinion on this. I Before I do though, let me make
8:16my case. I guess it's like yeah, he only caught six passes all of last season, but he was playing with Jeremiah Love.
8:22And when I did chart him last year in college, I went back watched all of the receptions he had. He did show the
8:29ability to track the ball, catch the ball away from his body. He's not letting it get into his chest. That's a
8:35good sign to me. So, sure, he's not going to be out there routing guys up like Christian McCaffrey or Devon Chan
8:41can or even Jeremiah Love can, but I do think there's like I don't know, just because this guy didn't do it in college
8:47does not mean he can't do it in the pros. Uh Jaren Price is going right after Bashel Tutin. Uh RB 26 in ADP.
8:56Tutin is RB25.
8:59And I just I like both of these players.
9:01Again, I think it makes sense from not only just like an early season perspective, like this is one rookie running back where maybe he's got to be
9:09the lead back early in the year and then if Charbanet has a set setback or isn't fully healthy by November, I mean, Price
9:17could be the guy for the entire season.
9:21Yeah, the bet with Price is that he just comes in and he's just so obviously so much more explosive and just like a fire
9:30lit under the offense whenever they hand him the ball early in the season that it becomes just obvious, yeah, he has to
9:36play over George Helani. He has to maintain like a strong role even if Zack Charbanet is coming back. I I I guess
9:44just I think where he goes is totally fine. Like I I have no issue with his ADP. I am not gonna sit here and like
9:51nitpick him relentlessly uh like I did for him as a prospect in my rookie coverage just because yeah I I think
9:58largely the concerns about will he catch passes? Will he be more of a committee back uh continuing into the NFL? I I
10:05think all of that is basically priced in at this ADP. Uh yeah, I I guess just the big my biggest hang-up and the reason
10:13he's not like a massive sleeper or a flag plant for me at this cost is like I I thought all of those things about Ken
10:20Walker, too, and I continued to think all of those things about Ken Walker as I watched him throughout 2025. Uh and
10:27the Seahawks coaching staff just disagreed. Now, uh Clint Koviaak is out, but Mike McDonald still there. it really seemed like he had at least some input
10:37into like the overall vision of this offense. He like personally has made every single one of these OC hires. Uh notably all of Kubak's backfields were
10:47very like every down belcow one guy getting all the work uh in the past and then that suddenly changed in Seattle
10:54when he was under Mike McDonald. So I I do wonder if McDonald even as a defensive head coach has a little bit
11:01more of like a reach into the you the usage of these players on offense if he more prefers like a committee backfield
11:08kind of no matter how explosive or amazing a particular running back was.
11:14That was kind of how I felt just with the Seahawks last year. But you I think you could easily argue like Ryan, you're
11:20just letting your Ken Walker pain from this team in this situation last year affect your analysis. Like that that would be like the easiest defeater to
11:28me. Um so like yeah, I totally get it. I I do think the if you're like a big believer in the price talent, the price
11:35is super right here. I think that's leaking into the price with price. And I also think it's a little bit of like,
11:41you know, a lot of these rookie running backs, man, they just kind of busted last year. I think the market is kind of
11:47just a little more, you know, tepid, I guess, on rookies this year. It is an extremely weak class relative to LA. I
11:54mean, if Bashel Tutin were in this class, he would be the RB3 and a runaway. Last year, he was the RB6 for
11:59me. Uh, clearly behind the Ohio State guys and then behind Quinn Sean Judkins, JT as well, obviously. Uh, so it is just
12:06a really weak class in general. Uh, but that being said, yeah, I still kind of feel, you know, yeah, there's going to
12:13be some aggression with this offense.
12:14It's a new play caller and Brian Lur uh Lurri coming in coming from the ners um you know they're going to stick with the
12:21zone scheme. Price ran particularly well in zone last year. I think he's a great fit for this offense. Uh but yeah, I
12:28think the the main the main thing still to me is like dude, he might catch 15 passes and if he only catches 15 passes,
12:35uh he's definitely not going to crush this ADP. All right, Ryan, who is your second favorite deep sleeper this season at running back?
12:44Yeah. So, going down the board a little bit, although he has been rising up it pretty dramatically over the last handful of weeks. Uh, I'm going to go
12:51with Rashad White here. And this is even outside of like a best ball context. I I think Rashad White is like one of the
12:59best types of like late round stabs to take at the position even in reddraft like as you're filling out your bench.
13:06Uh, just because he does have every down Bellcow upside. Uh we saw that from him both before the Buccaneers added Bucky
13:15Irving uh in that 2024 season in in his sophomore year uh maybe that was 2023, whatever year that was. Uh and we saw it
13:24last year uh in the games that Bucky Irving missed. Rashad White was commanding a 70% snap share uh close to 13 expected fantasy points per game over
13:34seven games. He was largely holding off Shawn Tucker. like this is a running back who is really strong in the passing
13:42game. Like he's just going to have passing downs completely locked down as far as I'm concerned. Uh and and you can
13:48see that comparing his yards per out run, his routes run per game uh to all these other commanders running backs that they have in on this roster. Like
13:57clearly White is just running away with a passcatching role. That's what we've heard from the commanders beat as well.
14:03And also, it's pretty easy once you get to that point just as an NFL head coach if you're like, "Okay, we've got Rashad
14:11White in on third downs, as the passing back, as the pass protector. We want him in all these situations." Uh, the
14:17Commanders have talked about wanting to add more play action, more like marrying the run and the pass game together, playing more under center than they've
14:26done in the recent past with Jaden Daniels. that creates like an incentive to say, "Okay, well, we need to be able
14:32to run or pass uh out of all of these formations, right? May maybe our pass pro needs to be on the field all the
14:39time." Rashad White, is he as explosive or amazing of a runner than maybe Bill Crosky Merritt can be if everything clicks for him in year two? Uh or may
14:50then maybe Katron Allen could be if he starts popping in camp. Like, no. I I don't think White's an amazingly efficient, exciting runner, but he does
14:59the everything else really well or well enough that I think a coach could make the calculation of, okay, I'm fine with
15:07three and a half yards per carry from Rashad White. Uh just so that I know nothing else is getting messed up in the
15:13offense. Like we he he knows what he's doing. He we can just easily pass out of any of these formations as well. Uh that
15:20that like has value to an NFL coach.
15:23Like we so often we get into these situations where we're like why why is the more efficient back not getting more
15:29carries and and it is very often just they they trust the veteran man. They they trust the guy uh that they can lean
15:37on in every situation and and I think that is just so clearly Rashad White to a te this year. I I think Bill Crosky
15:46Merritt has merit has upside as well.
15:48Like I don't think you have to completely dismiss him and say there's a 0% chance he works out, but there there
15:55are just so many ways that everybody else in this backfield fails and Rashad White kind of just falls into 15 plus
16:03touches per game this year. So he's yeah, he's going to be one of my bigger kind of later sleepers. Not like a
16:09typically super exciting name, but I I think he's like the right type of bet to make at this point in drafts.
16:16I like your analysis on on Bill Crosky Merritt because yeah, he does have upside, but I also think he has more
16:21downside than White and it's really simple. It all centers around touchdowns to me. When Jane Daniels is healthy, he's their goal lineback. Last year in
16:29or excuse me, over the last two combined years, Jane Daniels has 33% of the Commander inside five carries. Dude, that's like a similar basis as Josh
16:38Allen. and it's behind Jaylen Herz because of the push, but like the touchdown equity that Daniels carries in this offense around the goal line is
16:46going to hurt Bill Crosky Merritt more than it will hurt Rashad White just because White's going to play way more on passing down. So, I think that's just
16:52right. And to me, yeah, I mean, White was RB14 back in 2023 and it was all volume based and now actually I think
16:59he's gotten better as a runner. look at their efficiency metrics. Uh over the last two years, White has basically the same yards after contact and Misto was
17:06forced per carry that Bill Crosky Merritt had in his rookie season. So if you say, "Hey, they're comparable players plus this one guy just way
17:13better on passing downs." Then yeah, I I certainly see the Bellcow upside with Rashad White, even though he's not sexy.
17:20Uh this he's not a sexy pick. Nobody's going to be, you know, really really excited to take this guy. But yeah, I
17:26think he makes a lot of sense for all the reasons that you lined up. Ryan, I'll get it going with my second
17:32favorite deep running back sleeper. This is also not a sexy pick whatsoever, but you know, maybe four or five years ago,
17:39we would have been feeling a lot different about this player, and it's Tony Pard. Pard has just been like Mr.
17:44Ham and Eggs very quietly the last four years. He's gone over four thousand yards in four straight seasons. And yeah, it's counting stats. It's not.
17:51Yeah, it's it's that the touchdown numbers, especially with the Titans, haven't been particularly great, but I'll get to that in just a second. I
17:58think he is significantly better than Tai Spears. You look at in every efficiency stat that matters last year, yards after contact, Mistak was four,
18:06success rate, he just like blew Tai Spears out of the water. You look at some of like the scheme dependent stuff
18:12like zone blocking runs versus gap blocking runs. Yeah. I mean, Pard was just better than his teammate again. And this season it really the upside case
18:20really centers around Cam Ward and can he take a a step forward with I guess I would call it a competent coaching
18:27staff. One that's not a complete circus by the middle of the year. Brian Dable obviously has a lot of experience coaching in the NFL and coaching
18:35different types of quarterbacks in the NFL. Ryan, I pulled this up. You know, I always go back and forth with like Vegas
18:41implied lines. You know, I think there's directional accuracy with them, but not like it's not something you should be basing your draft plan around, right?
18:49But you look at the Titans, they're bottom eight in implied points per game.
18:53Again, they were, I think, either last or second to last last year, but Vegas is expecting a pretty big scoring boost.
19:00They're at 20.7 implied points per game.
19:02It's a field goal better than last year when they averaged just 16.7 points per game. So, even if like, hey, this is a
19:10team that's scoring a little less than three touchdowns per game, I think that would be a huge boost to Pard's touchdown equity, and we already view
19:19him as the best running back on this team. Uh, again, I I I kind of view him a little bit like Rashad White to be
19:25honest with you. Like, yeah, he's probably not got top 12 upside, but I think he as a edge pick at RB30 makes a
19:32lot of sense. And especially, you know, I'm a little more bullish, I think, on Cam Ward than than some people. I'm fine
19:38living with that, especially when the Vegas, you know, is kind of siding with me. The Vegas implied totals are kind of
19:44siding with me. Um, I want to get your opinion on Pard because he's like, he's right at the end of his age apex, man.
19:51And you've done a lot of work on, you know, age curves and how it affects running backs. We've seen that age curve
19:56kind of tick back a little bit with some of the elite running backs. Tony Pard is not one of those. He's not Christian
20:02McAffrey. He's not Derrick Henry. He's entering his age 29 season. think that's like my main concern with him is really just he could he could fall off the
20:09cliff this year and this could be a little bit of more of a backfield committee. But at this price I think you
20:15know the downside risk is more than priced in and if the Titans are good like you know top not maybe not top 16
20:22offense but like not terrible you know maybe 18th best he's he's going to beat his ADP.
20:28>> Yeah I'm not as concerned about the age stuff just because yeah we haven't seen like this efficiency decline from Pard.
20:34He has been right back up in in basically every efficiency stat or stat where you're trying to isolate running back play uh since that down year after
20:44he injured his fibula a few years back.
20:46Yeah, he he's been an a fairly efficient runner, especially adjusted for the offensive environment and some of these teams that he's been on since then with
20:55the Titans, right? Uh, but yeah, what you brought up is really my sticking point with Pard and I think why I'm not
21:01in this year is I think you have to be a very big Cam Ward bull to be in on Pard.
21:07And I agree. If you think Cam Ward's better than the general market thinks or than anyone around the NFL thinks right
21:13now, I agree that the correct conclusion there is actually you should be drafting Tony Pard. I don't even know that it's
21:20you should be going in on Carnell Tate or any of these Titans receivers. I I agree. Pard is like the correct place to
21:27land there if that's where you're at.
21:30I'm just not. I I was like dabbling in this last year. I felt like I got really burned by messing with these teams that
21:38are are just at the bottom of implied wins, implied point totals. Yeah, the Titans aren't quite as bad as last year,
21:44but I I don't know. Uh Scott Barrett posed this to me a couple days ago. He just sent me like the bottom seven or
21:50bottom eight teams in implied win total and he was like, "Are you into anybody on these teams? And if you are, why why
21:58should we assume the teams aren't just going to be total totally terrible for fantasy?" Uh, and yeah, the the Titans were one team where where I was just
22:06like, "Yeah, I'm not I I don't feel that strongly that they're going to be better than the market expects, so I I'm just
22:12going to not really be in on any of them for for reddraft." Um, but yeah, I think if you're working off that assumption,
22:18it's not like the cost is like overwhelming. I think that's a totally fine bet to make if you do uh have this
22:25belief in Cam Ward.
22:26>> Yeah, the R squared value for correlation year-over-year for uh implied team totals versus actual, I've looked at it the last two seasons, it's
22:34hovered around 0.4. So, like I said, directionally accurate, but not perfectly accurate by any means. None of these exercises will be. Uh, I guess my
22:43push back is just like, you know, Titans, they're playing AFC South.
22:47They're they're, you know, this this division is going to be highly competitive and the implied team totals are telling us uh by, you know, maybe
22:54two or three points. This team is like within the Texans of being, you know, the third best offense in this this
22:59division. So, uh, I'm I'm okay being a little higher on Cam Ward than most.
23:04Ryan, I'll kick it over to you for your third and final deep running back sleeper this season.
23:12Yeah, I want to go to another rookie.
23:15Uh, let's go to Jonah Coleman here and flip the page. Um, and this is I I once I'm done, I want to invite you, Graham,
23:22to just give me your thoughts on the Broncos backfield because this one's been really hard for me to kind of parse
23:26through. I think you can make good arguments kind of for all three guys in it. But if I'm looking for a really
23:32really deep sleeper, like this is probably final round of like a your typical manage reddraft home league. uh goes pretty late on the best ball sites.
23:41I think Jonah Coleman is legit interesting. I think there's a world where the Broncos see, okay, JK Dobbins has not really been able to get through
23:52full seasons. Uh at the end of last year, that that happened again and RJ Harvey falls into this quasi everyown bellcow role. And he was great for
24:02fantasy and that that kind of paid off at the end of the year. Uh, but a lot of his like rushing efficiency was not
24:09great. I've heard very mixed uh leaning toward like negative reviews of the tape that R.J. Harvey put up uh especi.
24:19So, I think there's a world where the Jonah Coleman pick was the Broncos saying, "Hey, let's get a running back that that gives us some depth that uh we
24:29know is a good pass protector or at least can fit into that role." Uh because we have this quote from Shawn
24:35Payeyton after the draft talking about how they don't even need to project Jonah Coleman as a pass pro guy like he
24:41he's built for it. He's thick enough that he can kind of just jump right into that. That was what we were kind of
24:46missing with R.J. Harvey for a lot of last year is yeah he was great on some of these early down targets and design
24:53routes and stuff but it it was always Tyler Bedet coming in on third downs and just making this like a really
24:58frustrating backfield rotation. I think there's a world where we don't have that issue with Jonah Coleman at all that he uh just is immediately trusted in that
25:07role or or at least at some point in the season is just trusted in that role. So he gets the full kind of passing down
25:14work. Uh we have other quotes of Broncos staff members comparing his running style directly to JK Dobbins. And as a prospect, I really liked Jonah Coleman.
25:25Uh I if I was going off like a draft capital blind method just ignoring draft capital uh Coleman would have easily
25:33been my RB2. I thought he had the second best analytics profile of any running back in the draft. Obviously a chasm
25:40between him and Jeremiah Love. Uh but his perouch metrics were really strong.
25:45His volume metrics were really strong.
25:48Uh he was able to just compile all of these counting stats. He was doing it a lot of a lot of it after contact, a lot
25:55of it after the catch. Uh, one of my favorite stats is he's the only running back in the 2026 class uh to average
26:04over 70 yards after catch and contact per game twice, right? So Jeremiah Love did it once. A couple other guys might
26:12have done it once. Doing it in two different years, it's only Jonah Coleman and then like every running back from the 2025 class because that class was
26:20way better, right? But there there's like a lot of ways to kind of compare Coleman and say, "Yeah, maybe he's closer to the level analytically of that
26:28much better rookie running back class that we had last year." Uh, and yeah, if if you are kind of out on RJ Harvey, I
26:34think Coleman is just an obviously good contingent bet there for the Broncos.
26:40Um, but yeah, that and that this is where I turn it over to you. Like what do you just make of this Broncos
26:45backfield because yeah, R.J. Harvey maybe wasn't great as a rookie, but we we have seen running backs be inefficient as rookies before turning it
26:53on in year two. Levon Bell, Christian McCaffrey very notably were not good runners as rookies. Like there can can be a bit of a development curve at the
27:01position like that. Uh or you could just say, hey, JK Dobbins has led this back field every single year when he's been
27:08healthy. He's been at least like a mid-range high-end RB2. This is a good offense that we probably want to buy into. Why not just click JK Dobbins at
27:16also a totally affordable price? So, I I think you can kind of argue any which way here. Cole Coleman is like what I
27:22most gravitate to, but yeah, I really want to hear your take, Graham. Let's not forget with R.J. Harvey real quick.
27:28I mean, he's a former quarterback, so this is really his third year full year playing the running back position. I I
27:34really liked him coming out for yards created. He was awesome. I mean, it was smallish sample. Really never again converted quarterback. uh really played
27:44running back for the first time fully in his last season, but I mean he was he really popped in yards created. He was
27:49actually second best in the class by yards created. He smashed Jonah Coleman by yards created. Uh both were very similar players in terms of elusiveness
27:57though. Coleman uh has very strong mistackle force numbers. Uh that being said though, I was researching this backfield a couple weeks ago and came
28:06across a stat that blew my mind. Man, R.J. Harvey tied Christian McCaffrey by XFP per route run last year. I mean,
28:13just that that in and of itself is insane to me cuz this Broncos this team has just been like a printfest for
28:20running back catches. Since Shawn Peyton took over, they've ranked first, seventh, and seventh in running back receptions over the last three seasons.
28:28It's a West Coast offense where they have one read. Bon Knicks is looking to check it down. And yeah, I think Coleman
28:34can certainly be that three down player uh like he was in college, but I I kind of think R.J. Harvey can too. And I I
28:40just want to give him one more year to kind of learn the position, get comfortable after his rookie season. To me, Dobbins like is really scary, man.
28:49Coming off another major injury. Yeah, he was unhealthy last year. He looked as the best and closest version to the Ohio
28:57State JK Dobbins that I freaking loved coming out of college. Like I remember when he came out, man, I was literally
29:04telling everybody like in your Dynasty League, like go get him. And I've kind of felt a little vindicated because when he's been healthy, the talent has
29:11clearly shown through. But I mean, we're just talking about so many major injuries to his lower body that you do have to question whether or not he's
29:19going to be able to maintain a similar level of efficiency year-over-year. Um, all of these players are are very cheap.
29:26This is a very muddy backfield. And you know, JJ Zachary and he says this every year. You know, these these backfields
29:32where they're super muddy, we don't really know who to draft. They can often lead us to the biggest value on the
29:38board. Um, I lean towards Harvey and Coleman as my favorite bets. I just maybe I'm being a little bit of an agist
29:45and an injury uh prone kind of concern with Dobbins, but I I see a lot of upside in this backfield and in
29:52particular where they go with Harvey and Coleman. I think it just makes sense to make both of them until we kind of get
29:58more information as training camp gets closer. Make both of them a part of your draft plan. All right, Ryan, I will get
30:03us out of here with my last and favorite running back sleeper this season. Ken Gainwell just caught a million passes.
30:11It was a complete scam from Aaron Rodgers last season. He is mainly just a floor pick. The players that go around
30:19him are JK Dobbins, Jonathan Brooks, two guys who have a lot more upside but significantly lower floors. And I think mainly my cons my enthusiasm with Gain
30:30Gainwell is kind of a twofold thing, right? Like he gives them a passing down floor that they just really kind of
30:36haven't they don't have. Rashad White is now gone. You just went through all of the, you know, kind of bullcase arguments for White being a pretty good
30:44pass catcher. Uh, it's that, you know, Ken Gainwell is immediately going to be extremely valuable in passdowns as a pass blocker, but it's there's like a
30:53secondary thing here that no one is really talking about. Bucky Irving was bad last year. Legitimately terrible. He was dead last in yards after contact per
31:02attempt among the 33 qualified running backs with 150 more carries last season.
31:07I don't think Ken Gainwell is ever going to be a super efficient runner. He's just just not the type of player he is.
31:12He's not a big, you know, rocked up, you know, kind of make you miss guy. He's definitely not a speed guy, but there's
31:18a chance here that that Irving like took a huge step back last season and and maybe Gainwell ends up with not only the
31:25more p valuable pass down role, but like an equal share of the carries inside the numbers, excuse me, inside not inside
31:33the 20. I think there's a little more upside here than than most people do.
31:38Mainly centered around Bucky Irving being just not the best ball carrier last year. We always we always hear this stuff from the beat writers about Shawn
31:46Tucker and oh how they're [laughter] they're going to use Shawn Tucker more and it just like never happens outside of a couple weeks during the season when
31:51one of their running backs gets hurt and they have to give Tucker 15 carries. So to me it's really the getting the gain
31:59well verse Irving split right is kind of the key and we've already seen ADP really start to shift this way. Irving
32:05was going in the 40s when ADP uh first came out in April in a lot of baseball contests. Now he's shifted into the
32:13mid50s. Gainwell has gone the opposite direction. He was in the 130s. Now he's in the 110s. And I still think there's a
32:20good amount of value with Gainwell at that ADP because the floor is so high.
32:24Ryan, I wanted to ask you what your quick thoughts here on this Bucks backfield.
32:28>> Yeah, I'm also in on Gainwell. He was another one of the names that I considered uh yeah, just kind of
32:34choosing for this video. Um for yeah, largely similar reasons to what you laid out. I think while I probably lean a
32:43little more toward what we saw from Bucky Irving as a rookie is closer to like the real Bucky Irving, I I do still
32:50tend to think that he's like a a good runner and he he can be like a really explosive uh differencem type of player.
32:57I I I'm not like super confident. That's not that's not like a clear like yes, that's obviously going to be the case.
33:04Uh Gainwell immediately fits in on passing downs. We saw him kind of worm his way into the goal line role. He had
33:12more inside the 10 snaps than Jaylen Warren last year, which is is maybe not what you would have expected at the
33:18start of the season. Uh yeah, I I can see a world where this backfield just gets very muddy. Gainwell looks like a
33:26decent win at his ADP. Bucky Irving looks like a decently large disappointment at his. That That's kind of my just median case for how this is
33:36going to work out. Uh, we have all of these quotes from Zack Robinson talking about the backfield and it it's very
33:43much like we're just going to feel out the hot hand and we're going to see where it goes. Like one guy uh might get
33:50more carries next week and it might be more balanced and then it could flip.
33:53Like he he's just basically telling us that he has no clue who's going to lead this team in carries. So I like Yeah,
33:59just with the difference in their ADPs, I think you have to be at least somewhat into gain well. Um I yeah I would say
34:06he's not the upside is probably not like a top 12 running back kind of in in any scenario. So it is a little bit more of
34:13like a small win player, a little bit more of a best ball type of archetype uh than I we might typically gravitate to
34:21in reddraft, but I I think even there he makes sense. catches, passes, ambiguous backfield. Like these are a lot of the
34:27things we hit on for late round values that uh you this JJ Zachary study that you mentioned earlier that he kind of
34:34fits into as well. So yeah, I I am into it. I'm into Gainwell. Uh there there's probably a point where I'll say where
34:41I'll start to say he's too expensive, but he is not like quite there yet. I'm still very much willing to click him. Uh
34:48yeah, outside the top 100 110 players.
34:51Yeah, round nine is probably where I'd draw the line. Right now, he's going round 10. And in reddraft leagues, I think it'll probably be even deeper than
34:58that. Round 11 or 12, depending on, you know, we'll see what the training camp news is with uh Bucky Irving. He's been
35:04dealing with on and off shoulder injury uh issues for about a year now. Uh he's got to prove that he's fully healthy in
35:11training camp, so we will see on that.
35:14Ryan, this was excellent. Our top six favorite running back deep sleepers entering the 2026 season. Again, we stuck to guys that were going outside
35:22the top 24 in ADP. We're not looking at players that are, you know, clearly being drafted as RB2s or better. This is
35:29going to be a huge edge. This show will be a huge edge for you and your drafts.
35:33And we [music] will be back on Fantasy Football Daily tomorrow.
