Press Coverage - How to Draft RBs in 2026 Fantasy Football
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Jul 30, 2026
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Thu, July 30, 2026
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Episode Transcript
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1:15Hello everybody, welcome on in to another episode of Press Coverage.
1:18We help again an edge in fantasy football. I'm your host as always, Wyatt Bertillon.
1:22With me today, Ian Harditz, to take a little look at running backs.
1:26Get a little bit of an overview as the position as a whole heading into redraft season because we're basically there.
1:31Preseason is not too far away. It's really coming on close here.
1:35Ian, how are you? It's a great day to be great, my friend.
1:38Always a great day to talk running backs with my dudes.
1:41So, yeah, man, you're not kidding. And it's about the point where, look, I've been playing underdog all summer.
1:46I really do believe the best ball ADP map is sharper.
1:49It's people drafting all year. But everyone's about ready for their home league.
1:53So, I'm paying attention to Sleeper. I'm paying attention to ESPN.
1:56I'm ready to get some value, man. That's what it's all about.
1:59Yeah, for sure. I'm with you. Best ball all offseason.
2:02Really helps you get ready for the redraft season that comes around.
2:05You've been used to watching these ADPs evolve with these different positions, getting a feel for where you like players.
2:11Let's talk about these running backs. Any macro thoughts on the position as a whole for 2026?
2:15It's curious to me that the world seems more comfortable than ever with drafting them early.
2:20Whenever our fantasy community thinks that we have something figured out, I wonder if this is going to smack us in the face and be the opposite.
2:27So, my preferred early draft strategy, I'm still toying with it.
2:30It's July after all, but super Bowers, man. RB1, get the stud in round one.
2:34We go after Brock Bowers in round two. We spam wide receivers, and then we figure out our RB2.
2:39We do it by committee. You know what I'm saying?
2:42So, we've got the Pittsburgh Steelers. We've got the Vikings.
2:45We've got the Panthers. We've got the Washington Commanders.
2:47All these muddled kind of committees in that RB3 range, and then a bunch of handcuffs.
2:52I feel like if we find a way to get four or five of those running backs after we fill out the
2:58rest of our lineup with some late-round quarterbacks, throw them in there, of course.
3:02I'm loving that build so far. So, you know, we can also just say take the three top 15 running backs early on, feel good about it.
3:09But I just know, man, the zero RB, the hero RB, they don't look great in August.
3:14But sometimes you're sitting there in October and you go, you know what?
3:17I had a smart idea once or twice back then.
3:20Yeah, that leads us right into the first big point I have here on the show sheet for us, and that's that,
3:26like you, you know, been doing these basketball drafts all season, and we've seen, like, the running back ADPs really go.
3:32These teams are building two to three running backs in the first, like, three to five rounds.
3:37Like, a lot of teams are doing that, and that's kind of just become, like, the go-to strategy for basketball teams this offseason.
3:43Do you think that's going to continue into redraft season?
3:46Is that going to keep happening as more of the casual players?
3:49I don't want – not derogatory casual, but the people come in, you know, for redraft season specifically.
3:54Do you think they'll see that and continue with it, or do you think we could see a little shakeup?
3:59I would think so, man, because it's more so been the best ball wide receiver craze people actually going the opposite direction.
4:05So, if anything, us alleged, you know, experts are just doing what the casuals have always done out here.
4:10So, you know, shout-out to the casuals for apparently being the trendsetters with it all.
4:15But I will say it seems like there's a little bit of a drop-off at a certain point at running back, and
4:21when you're on the turn, especially at one-two, you got that awesome.
4:24I mean, I'm calling it the great wall of RBs, you know, from like RB4 – I guess JT goes a little
4:30earlier – from like James Cook to Devon Achan, you legit see like seven or eight RBs go one after another.
4:36So, I do think when you're on the turn, it's like Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb are already off the board.
4:41It makes sense to double-click it, and then all of a sudden the teams that started off maybe with the wide receiver
4:47feel like they got to catch up. So, I would expect it to continue, and I think it makes sense, honestly.
4:53Yeah, I was kind of thinking, you know, pondering this, that we could see if it go even further in that direction
4:59as we get into these redraft leagues when people really look at these – like, you know, they look at these ADPs
5:05the way they are and say, well, I don't want to wait on this running back.
5:10I want to make sure I get ahead of my teammates and start drafting running backs really early.
5:15And you mentioned early on in this that, like, you're trying to get Brock Bowers in there.
5:19Do you think you'll continue to really target Bowers going into the redraft season too, or is that something you're going to have to play by year?
5:27I'm feeling good about it, man. What if this year's JSN is just Brock freaking Bowers?
5:31He's already got Clint Kubiak. So, I was at the Expo this weekend drafting the Kings Classic.
5:36Came away with Bowers in the Snake and even the Auction, man.
5:39So, I guess I am going all in on it.
5:42I would prefer to be able to get him around the turn at, you know, round two, three.
5:47Might be tougher in the higher stakes leagues, I feel like, especially, you know, FFPC, where it's tight end premium.
5:52He's going much earlier than that. But the ideal for me, and I pulled it off, shout out Ruddowire, my lovely employer.
5:58We have a free mock draft simulator. And, you know, I just use it Sleeper and ESPN ADP, so easy enough there.
6:04I was starting like the 102. I got Gibbs because they took Bijan first.
6:08Idiot freaking computers, am I right? I got Brock Bowers at the end of round two.
6:12And then I saw it AJ Brown in round three.
6:15So, again, is that probably a perfect, arguably tough to simulate, you know, scenario?
6:19Okay, fine, but it's how the ADP is acting right now on Sleeper and ESPN.
6:23So, I'm at least keen to that idea, man.
6:26Even if it's not AJ Brown, it's Nico Collins, or it's going to be maybe Devontae Smith in the worst case scenario.
6:32I feel like the round three receiver selection is nice.
6:34If you don't get Brock Bowers, I will say probably holding Pat on Tray McBride.
6:38Maybe it's my worst decision ever. I just don't want to draft a Cardinal or a freaking Jet in round three, man.
6:45I'm not doing it. Coles in round four would be the most earliest tight end I'd be willing to go.
6:50So, if you miss out on both of them, that's fine because that's the other thing, man.
6:55I don't want to go into any draft with like a decided draft strategy.
6:58That's how you're going to mess up on getting the value and everything like that.
7:03But if everything goes to my control, if it's a perfect mock draft, I do think Bowers at the end of round two is pretty sick.
7:10Now, you mentioned you don't really want to be drafting any Jets there in round three.
7:14Is Brees Hall the running back like you're fading in those first few rounds?
7:18Are there any more that you're fading? Brees Hall, Jeremiah Love, honestly.
7:21I'm not saying it's one size fits all. I've been trying to draft some gente at the one-two turn.
7:26I don't love it, though. We saw what happened last year, man.
7:30Devon Achan, same sort of situation. I've run the numbers.
7:32There's been 14 running backs post top 12 PPR per game numbers and bottom 10 scoring offenses over the last 10 years.
7:38It's 1.4 per year, man. That's not a fantastic hit rate.
7:42And the guys we have seen overcome it have been pass catchers.
7:45And I realize that's what all four of these guys do have, you know, in their kind of tool set.
7:50So, it's not impossible. I get it. But I just think about the Jets and Cardinals specifically.
7:55Like, the Raiders I look at almost as the Saints last year.
7:58They're building. First-year head coach. We're going to see Mendoza down the stretch.
8:02They have every reason, even in a lost season, to just be trying to build momentum down the stretch.
8:07You know what I'm saying? Like, they're still going to be trying to play their guys and do their thing, even if
8:13they're 3-12, you know, in Week 16. The Jets and Cardinals just feel like a situation where it's going to be Carson
8:19Beck, Kate Klubnik out there, potentially lost season. And all of a sudden, like, we're watching the fantasy playoffs with our dudes
8:25playing with a quarterback where their game total is, you know, I mean, their personal team total is going to be like 13 and a half points.
8:32So, it could be really rough there. Maybe I'm looking too far ahead, acting like we can predict the future that much.
8:39Maybe I should just be drafting a talented player, but that's my other thing, man.
8:43If you want to take Omar Cooper in round 13 and say, I trust the talent, fine.
8:47It's round 13. Go right ahead. We're talking about round three.
8:50We're talking about round four in these drafts. There are so many wide receivers I like.
8:55I can just take Josh Allen. I can take a sick tight end that's going to be a top three player at their position.
9:01It's just so early for me to take guys from a potentially broken situation.
9:05And if you don't even want to take my word for it, look at these Vegas implied odds, right?
9:10You know, we're taking every spread throughout the season.
9:13We can see what Vegas thinks about these offenses.
9:15Their bottom two ahead of this year, number 31, the New York Jets, number 32, the Arizona Cardinals.
9:20And even if you disagree, I think we can all agree, you, me, and the listeners, they're going to be ranked closer to 32 than one.
9:27They're going to be ranked closer to 32 than 16 as well, man.
9:31Really, really bad offenses. We don't have to go ahead and walk that plank in round three.
9:36Yeah, it's funny how like when you first get into fantasy football, like one of the first rules you try and like
9:42live by is like draft good players on good offenses.
9:44And then like you start getting into nitty gritty, you kind of forget it.
9:48You have to like circle all the way back to like, oh, wait, I just want to draft good players on good offenses.
9:54Those running backs in the beginning on some of those bad offenses, like I want some exposure to them, like in general, just because like they're talented players.
10:02Well, like and they are pass catchers, which, you know, like helps them kind of transcend those bad offenses.
10:07But it's true. Like it's good. It's really daunting to look at those offenses and say like, this is where I want
10:13my top end players to be coming from. Now, you also mentioned earlier the wall of running backs that we're seeing that
10:19kind of like starting at the end of the first round.
10:22Yeah, it goes deep into the second round. Is there someone in that grouping where you're like, I'm trying to get all the time?
10:29The chalk is James Cook because he goes earliest and I get it.
10:33But I do have Saquon Barkley, RB5, man. I got Kenneth Walker, RB8, I think just after Gentee.
10:37So with Saquon, I just think this time last year, we all kind of agreed for good reason that he was the best running back on this planet.
10:45And yeah, last year wasn't amazing. Slipped down, RB14, RB15, coming off the massive touch season.
10:50Surprisingly, seemed to stay fairly healthy and everything. But we're giving a lot of credit and I guess a lot of excuses to the passing game in particular.
10:57At least that's the way I kind of feel the, you know, public's thoughts to it.
11:02Kevin Petillo's scheme couldn't be worse. Bringing in Sean Mannion hasn't called plays before, but you know what?
11:06How could it be worse than what we were doing before?
11:10There is the potential that subtracting AJ freaking Brown from your offense is going to make things worse overall.
11:15So I'm not, you know, numb to that idea or anything like that.
11:18But I just think you look at this Eagles team, shout out to Brandon Thorne over at ETR.
11:23He has the Eagles offensive line, healthy offensive line now, number two in the entire NFL.
11:28You look at the last five years of Jalen Hurst under center and last year looks like the outlier in terms of it being not great.
11:35And the previous ones were really great. So we have Saquon Barkley projected for easily over 300 touches behind one of the
11:41best offensive lines in the league behind an offense that's routinely for the better part of last five years, been one of the better units in the league.
11:48I don't want to overthink down the early parts of round two, man.
11:52So there's cases to be made for all these guys.
11:55We're talking about dudes who are, again, ADP inside the top 15 for a reason.
11:59So when we do have a bunch of like-minded players, it's like for me, a tiebreaker is who is truly the better football player.
12:05I think Saquon Barkley is the answer, man. Cook, Barkley, Walker, I think is a really interesting grouping because I think they're actually all really similar bets.
12:13It's like really efficient runners on good offenses that we want to have more pass catching and like maybe they do.
12:19And it kind of depends on like which one really hits on the big plays and actually scores enough touchdowns this year.
12:25I have been partial to Kenneth Walker so far this offseason.
12:28It doesn't hurt that he goes later than them.
12:30So you can kind of like double tap two of these guys and Walker being the second one that you take.
12:36But, you know, him on that Chiefs offense, I'm thinking, you know, especially with Mahomes now coming back off the injury, probably
12:42not going to run as much as he did last year.
12:45They might want to lean on Walker a little bit more.
12:48Or there's one of these teams who like have what rebar had a great stat where it was like they've only had
12:54one touch that rushing touchdown outside the red zone.
12:56Like, like, like there they need a player like Walker on there to really bring some explosivity to to the rushing game.
13:02And I think they could lean on him a lot.
13:05So I'm really looking forward to what he can do on that offense.
13:09You're not kidding, man. I mean, it's that I got is just that he's been in the league since 2022.
13:14And since then Chiefs running backs dead last and tackles the border per carry and explosive run rate and that span Walker is second.
13:21And, you know, yeah, he does explosive run rate 11th.
13:24Yeah, exactly. So it's been so bad there. I don't think the scheme's done them many favors.
13:28I will say the one nightmare fuel scenario is the Chiefs don't like their, you know, Emmitt Johnson or Demarie Di Mercado.
13:34And they bring back Kareem Hunt, who is really freaking good in short yardage.
13:38I don't think that's going to happen. I'm more concerned if that happens.
13:42If like Walker gets hurt, I haven't been drafting Di Mercado or Emmitt Johnson because the Chiefs and Ravens, like there's a couple in the Colts as well.
13:49There's a couple of teams where I think we're looking at the depth chart and we're like, who's number two?
13:55I think number two isn't on their roster right now.
13:58So that would be nightmare fuel. But Cass Walker, bro, like he can catch.
14:01I don't think they're going to be taking my, I don't know if he's going to get 70, 80 catches or anything
14:07like that, but I'm old enough to remember Damian Williams running all those wheels.
14:11I'm old enough to remember, you know, Jared McKinnon having that nine receiving touchdown season.
14:15And so, you know, we have our understandable concerns about Mahomes coming off the ACL and everything like that, but he's also still Patrick Mahomes.
14:22I feel like we've reached this point where we're going, oh man, you know what?
14:26Okay. I think Josh Allen is better. I think Josh Allen should be number one.
14:30And it's like, all right, fine. Yeah. Mahomes is number two then.
14:34Worst case, still pretty freaking high up. Yeah. One thing I was looking at today in regards to Cass Walker was like,
14:40well, I know Eric V enemy's like been on some teams, which they throw them to the running back a lot.
14:45And he's back as offensive coordinator there now. Like, I wonder how much they're really doing that.
14:50And, you know, total targets for running backs during his time as an offensive coordinator in five to six years, he's in
14:56the top half of the league and running back targets.
14:59If Kev Walker gets half those, we're looking at 50, 60 targets.
15:02Like if, if you're going to tell me that Kev Walker has 50, 60 targets this year, like I think we're talking about a top five running back.
15:10So I think there's real potential there for him.
15:12You notice he has some targets, man. Jalen Warren and Rico Dattle.
15:16I was chilling last night watching a, uh, I was watching the 49ers Eagles wildcard rerun.
15:20Wow. Just grinding some research like 11 PM. That's what I freaking do on Monday nights, man.
15:25It's a fun time too. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I looked at quarterbacks at least 38 years old.
15:30It was not 40, but it was only Rogers, Brady and Breeze.
15:34So I want a larger sample 38 year old quarterbacks to start at least 10 games, half the season last 10 years,
15:4015 of those 20 teams had running back target totals inside the top eight for that season, man.
15:45And we've seen what Rogers back to back seasons.
15:47They were like second and first, I think in total RB targets, it was just split up between Warren and game well last year.
15:54And guess what? They both finished inside the top 24 offensive line, solid Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rogers, last dance sort of vibes.
16:00I don't think they're going to be juggernauts, but you know, there was 16th in scoring last year with everyone's least favorite offensive coordinator alive and Arthur Smith.
16:07So we can get an average offense with the quarterback who for good reason wants to get the ball out of his hands as quick as possible.
16:15I know adding Michael Pittman could complicate things a little bit, but the other scenario that really is in favor of Warren and a doubt.
16:22Unlike other, unlike other backfields, you know, like Bucky Irving gets hurt.
16:25It's game well and Tucker. If game or Tucker steps up a little bit, if Warren gets hurt, I think it's a Rico dabble show.
16:32And I think it's that will get, gets hurt.
16:34It's a Jalen Warren show. I'm sorry, Caleb Johnson truthers.
16:37I do think it's over. Maybe my guy, Eli Heidenreich makes things interested, but it's like a poor man's version of the Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt Browns backfields.
16:45I think both guys are going to eat and I think both guys have sky high RB1 potential if the other one gets injured.
16:51Yeah. I love this point on these Pittsburgh running backs because we got to talk about some of these running backs as
16:57we head down the ADP, but we're going to take a quick break before we do to hear about the NFCC.
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18:38Terms and conditions apply. Back here on Press Coverage with Ian Harditz.
18:41Before we get back to these running backs, Ian, what have you been working on lately?
18:46I got my tears out at RotoWire.com, man. Last four weeks, I've just been, you know, I did all my team previews.
18:52Love my fam over there, Fantasy Life. But went 32 teams in about two months over there.
18:56And then I went ahead and said, all right, now I've got all this information.
19:01Let's get back, go position by position. And now I'm just ready to get into August, bro, and go over actual draft strategy.
19:07What position do we want? ESPN, Sleeper, all this stuff and more.
19:10So you can find all my work over with Fantasy Football with Ian Harditz's YouTube channel over there.
19:15Just hit 1K subscribers. Feeling good. You know, we were at zero not that long ago.
19:20So love each and every one of you guys.
19:22And just looking forward to talking ball, man. It's also, you know, fantasy football.
19:26We don't have to take ourselves too seriously in these streets.
19:29Want to win some money? Don't get me wrong.
19:31And I'm grinding to do just that. But I think we can have some fun along the way.
19:36Love to hear it. Now, we left off talking about Pittsburgh running backs.
19:40And a lot of people, including myself, would say those are some really good zero RB targets for teams.
19:45But this year, it seems like zero RB is dying.
19:48Do you think it's actually even viable this year?
19:50Yeah, I mean, it goes back to one of our earlier points where I think just when we as a fantasy football
19:56community think we have something figured out, like who's to say, it's not going to go ahead and rear its ugly head right at all of us.
20:04So I think true zero RB, like not taking your first one until round six or round seven, that's going to be a little bit tough there.
20:11So I'm a little more just willing to embrace the hero RB, get your one inside of the first three rounds at
20:17a minimum before you go ahead and attack that wide receiver tier.
20:20But I would be pretty hard pressed to get one later in round five.
20:24If you're starting off with Tootin, Judkins, Scadabo, that's sort of maybe Dave Montgomery.
20:28Like that's kind of like the last range of guys.
20:31Like if we're talking about the Steelers running backs as our first RB, I'm a little bit more worried.
20:36But then again, man, I don't know. It's funny.
20:38I do these, you know, drafts every single year, you know, happy, happy enough and lucky enough to be with, you know, RT Sports last year.
20:46Got some FFPC stuff coming up like high stakes drafts.
20:48And I know my guy, Dwayne McFarlane. And I remember last year, our first team, like we did zero RB and it looked horrible in early August, man.
20:56We made the playoffs. Like we didn't win millions of dollars or anything like that, but the team ended up being all right.
21:02And it was better than other teams. So I do think, again, it's almost that fear I think we almost have like in the social media area.
21:10It's like, I don't want to post my draft.
21:12Yeah, exactly. Like zero RB readily goes against that, but it's also embracing that uncertainty.
21:16So it's been, and I've seen other people post about the injury kind of the switch and things between running backs and wide receivers.
21:23And wide receivers getting injured, you know, as often, if not more than running backs.
21:27So it's a very small trend. Maybe it's a sign of things to come.
21:31Maybe it's a sign that things are about to get back in the old way.
21:35So I don't want to predict the injuries and do this or that.
21:38But zero RB has been someone who's been very effective in the past.
21:42And like everything in the NFL, man, in fantasy football, like it can be cyclical to an extent.
21:47So I'm not personally going into like my home league draft trying to go pure zero RB.
21:52But hell, man, you know, we're entering some of these big best ball tournaments.
21:55Or if you are in one of these, you know, NFFC, FFPC, like big hundreds of thousands of people tournaments.
22:01If you can get different just by embracing a draft style that we know has some legs, like why wouldn't you?
22:07Yeah, I agree with what you said before where it's like it's not exactly dead, but maybe it's a little bit different now.
22:13Like you can't wait as long as you did in the past.
22:16And maybe it's, you know, going without one for the first four rounds and then come back to the fifth round with some of those running backs.
22:24Like you mentioned, I think like there's actually some really exciting running backs in that area of the draft that I'm excited to draft.
22:30But then you like start moving down a little bit further and like you get to the Jalen Warrens.
22:35And like it feels like the running backs in those spots right now aren't quite as powerful as they've been in years past.
22:42Or it's harder to find the great bets in that area.
22:45As we're moving down further, I know you say you like these Pittsburgh Steelers running backs.
22:49Was there any other running backs in that area that you're targeting?
22:52For sure. I think Jordan Mason going as like an RB4 right now could be a potential great buy low opportunity.
22:58Last year, yeah, I was one of those silly idiots, you know, go ahead and touting this guy.
23:03And one of the things I thought was just even if Aaron Jones was the 1A and the 1B, I just thought
23:09the Vikings offense under KOC would be a lot better.
23:12So, you know, being the early down guy, being the short yardage goal line option would work out.
23:17But guess what? The Vikings sucked and they had the same amount of carries inside the five yard line among their running
23:23backs, at least as the New York Jets. So obviously it didn't go great for Jordan Mason.
23:28But all the stats that we try to use to, you know, pinpoint how good players are independent of their system.
23:33Still told us Jordan Mason was a really good running back, man.
23:37Next-gen stats, you know, rushing yards over expected. Some attack was avoided, yards after contact stuff.
23:41Still said he was very good. Love my guy Matthew Collier over at the Purple Insider.
23:45He thinks that, again, with the kind of Vikings readjusting Aaron Jones' contract.
23:49And, okay, DeMond Claiborne stands. I hear you guys.
23:51He's more of a threat to Aaron Jones, I think.
23:54I don't think that keeps taking, you know, Jordan Mason's runs up the A-gap and B-gap and things like that.
24:00I think Mason could be a nice little, like, I don't want to say post-hype, like he was going too high in drafts last year.
24:06But I think the decision-making that made at least people like me draft him last year still could apply this year.
24:12If Kyla Murray can just be better than one of the worst quarterbacks in the league.
24:17Or maybe J.J. McCarthy just gets better, man. All right?
24:19So he still only is 23 years old. So Jordan Mason makes sense to me.
24:23I think there's Shab White being that Austin Eckler plus from the 2024 Washington Commanders.
24:28That makes sense as well. And Jonathan Brooks too, man.
24:30But I don't know. Bring him up. I know.
24:33I've been in these drafts where they legit take Brooks over Chuba.
24:36I can't quite go that far. But I'll admit, I don't exactly line up to draft Chuba either.
24:41So Jonathan Brooks, I am hoping we don't get too good of a preseason performance.
24:45Because I have a feeling that dude is like one good highlight.
24:48Maybe not even a preseason highlight. Maybe like a training camp highlight away from you.
24:52It's already happening. It wasn't even a highlight. It was like a tweet saying he made a good cut in practice.
24:58That's where we're at with Jonathan Brooks. Yeah. The Vikings running backs in general just interest me because I feel like KOC
25:04tends to always get something out of his backfield.
25:07And with Kyler Murray being there, I think that actually really helps them a lot, actually.
25:11We've just seen this over and over again with running QBs, you know, opening things up for the running backs.
25:17I was going to ask you about Jonathan Brooks because he is the bell of the ball this offseason as he's just been rocketing up draft boards.
25:24I was going to say that for me, like before he got to the point he is now, like I was drafting a lot of Jonathan Brooks.
25:31But it's pretty aggressive at this point, like his actual ADP.
25:34Like we're starting to he's getting to a point where like you actually have to rely on him when you draft him.
25:40And I don't want to have to rely on Jonathan Brooks.
25:43I want him to be like, I get to stick him on my bench.
25:47And if something happens, that's great. But I'm not I'm not actually relying on it.
25:51But he is like the one guy in that range, you know, like Blake Corum isn't snatching away Kyron Williams job.
25:57Kyle Mononga isn't snatching away DeAndre Swift job. Yeah.
26:00Brooks could Brooks could get Chubas. And it seems like a situation where, again, they could be 50 50 in the meantime.
26:06And so I hear you. He's still only, I think, 22 years old.
26:09He turns 23 for a season like he is such a young guy.
26:13So I will say shout out to Dr. Jeff Mueller at Jam Thrive PT.
26:17I quote this dude so much. I got his handle, you know, memorized.
26:20Just got a job of fancy points to shout out to Jeff.
26:23Congrats. Shout out. Congrats on success. But he made the point with Jonathan Brooks where he had the ACL tear and then
26:30like from college and then he just doesn't think the overall surgery went ideally.
26:33So he viewed the second, quote unquote, second ACL tear less as a brand new complete reconstruction and more so as like a correction.
26:40And just, again, I'm not a freaking doctor. So obviously I'm not explaining it right.
26:44But again, in an actual doctor's mind, he was saying it was less so like two completely separate tears and more so
26:50like, all right, this one was, you know, 80% well done.
26:53That didn't help. But now like given the timeline, he should be back to 100%.
26:57So it just seems like a reasonable bet for me.
27:00Again, in that tier, you have him and you have the commanders running backs and you have the Vikings running backs where,
27:06yeah, maybe if you hit on Rashad while you're here on Jordan Mason.
27:10Okay. But I think Brooks definitely deserves to be in that conversation.
27:13Do you have a preference in the Broncos backfield?
27:15Yeah, it's JK Dobbins. It's the guy who was dominating freaking touches the entirety of last season.
27:20Could RJ Harvey get better? Okay. He better. Dude, getting, think about it.
27:23You're your pass down back. This isn't a situation.
27:26It's usually the opposite. It's usually like we have to look at the scat back who's averaging five yards per carry versus
27:32the grinder and then make excuses for the grinder being like, you know, well, he's only averaging 3.7 yards per carry, but
27:38defenses are loading the box against them. It's Dobbins at five and it's Harvey at 3.7.
27:42The dude made some nice plays. Okay. Like I'm not trying to completely persmirch the guy.
27:47You know, he's trying to make it just like everyone else, but he was an older rookie.
27:51He got outtouched by Dobbins. This wasn't like Ramond J.
27:54Stevenson outtouched Travion Henderson 162 to 158 in their 14 regular season games together.
27:58That's not including when Ramond J. was out. Dobbins outtouched Harvey in the first 10 weeks of last year.
28:03Like I think it was 170 to like 90.
28:06Like it wasn't even close, man. It was a Dobbins show.
28:09And then you add Jonah Coleman who maybe doesn't factor into it.
28:12Maybe I'm giving too much credit to, you know, a day three pick, but the way I view the dude, he's 220 pounds.
28:18He could be a short yardage answer. And he's also one of the best running backs in pass, bro.
28:24And he caught a bunch of passes to me.
28:26Jonah Coleman is just an annoying feature. Well, like we were talking about earlier, if Dowder or Warren get hurt there, the other one's taken over.
28:33If J.K. Dobbins and some people will say not if when he gets hurt.
28:37Okay, whatever. When he gets hurt. I think it's going to be way more of a split than what we saw last
28:43year because last year Harvey did provide RB1 numbers down the stretch.
28:46It wasn't efficient, but it was a workhorse and he helped you guys out down the stretch.
28:51I don't even think the handcuff contingency is that high for him.
28:54Now I have R.J. Harvey, RB41, man. I do not understand how this dude is going so high.
28:59I think it's an epidemic where we all rightfully love football and we want to try to watch these rookies January through
29:05April when there's no football to watch and we just carry over the rookie scouting guys.
29:10That's what I think. J.K. Dobbins, one of the all time.
29:13What ifs? If we could just turn the injury slider all the way down.
29:16I mean, dude is just incredibly talented. Always has been.
29:19It was pretty obvious they wanted him back. The Jaguars wanted him too.
29:23So I thought that was really interesting. And the Broncos bring it back to, I think, do exactly what they had him doing to start last season.
29:30I think they're just going to run it back.
29:33And that's pretty exciting at his cost. Yeah, man.
29:35Let's get it. All right. Late round running backs.
29:37Let's finish up. Is there anybody in a drafts running backs?
29:41You're actually excited to draft? Are you trying to avoid taking late round running backs this year?
29:45I love taking late round running backs. I prefer to have maybe four through rounds like 11.
29:50And then I'm just taking handcuffed running backs the whole way, man.
29:53Give me Tank Bigsby. Give me Ray Davis. Brian Robinson's fine.
29:56Honestly, Tyler Algier is the one I always see lumped in there.
29:59I don't see the overall upside. We're already worried about Jeremiah Love completely having the backfield to ourself.
30:04Like, we're not going to. The Cardinals are going to suck, dude.
30:08Again, they're not going to be an offense. Like, okay, is Tyler Algier going to be getting touchdowns down three scores?
30:13Probably not. Look at their schedule, dude. It's if James Conner and Trey Benson somehow both leave, then okay, it's clear.
30:19But right now it's a four-headed mess. So Tyler Algier is a really good football player.
30:24Fun fact, all-time NFL record holder in most career touches without a single fumble.
30:27Great in pass, bro. He was stuck behind Bijan.
30:30That sucks. I get it. But, like, we're already worried about Jeremiah Love getting a three-down workload.
30:35And we just think Tyler Algier is going to step right into it in a battle.
30:39I just – I don't see the upside with Algier.
30:42So, Brian Robinson's another guy. Depends on your build, though, I will say.
30:45If you are going more zero RB, maybe you need the Tajay Spears.
30:49Maybe you need a Dylan Sampson that, you know, can go ahead and give you eight or nine, you know, PPR points in a pinch.
30:56My dogs are very excited about Dylan Sampson. Yeah, they like that one.
30:59That was a good call. Yeah, so that's something to keep in mind.
31:03So, I mentioned Ray Davis. I think Mike Washington is another nice one at the back.
31:07But, look, there's so few wide receivers at that point where – when are you realistically going to be able to, you
31:13know, start them with any sort of confidence? So, maybe there's a Trey Harris you like.
31:18Maybe there's a – for me, at least, Rashad Bateman.
31:20You're like, go ahead and take one or something.
31:23But just after I get past that wide receiver 55, 56 range, like Jalen Coker, Rashid Shahid, Casey Concepcion, like those sorts of guys.
31:29After that, we're looking at number threes on their own offense, man, where it's just going to be so tough without a bunch of injuries.
31:36And even with injuries, to feel overly good about them.
31:39So, I really do think, particularly in home leagues, where you can just – you can cut these guys.
31:44You can add a wide – you can always get a wide receiver five or six if you need them, man.
31:50But what you can't get is that handcuffed running back who gets on the cover of every single wave of wire the second their starter goes down.
31:57So, I love being overloaded with late-round RBs. Do you think Alvin Kamara will have any fantasy value this year?
32:03I hope so. He's my most drafted running back on the other side, bro.
32:07I swear I did not know that before asking that question.
32:10Hey, all good, man. A lot of this was – he was going over pick 180, and I just wasn't convinced.
32:15People thought he just wasn't going to play football.
32:18So, you know, this is an opportunity where if you are sick enough to be drafting in May and June, like I'm
32:24going to take stands on different situations like that.
32:26So, I do think it's been overblown, though. Alvin Kamara in 2024, his season there, he finished at the RB5 in PPR points per game one year ago.
32:34That year, he scored four additional PPR points per game than ETN did last year.
32:38If you take Alvin Kamara and Travis Etienne's – Travis H.M., excuse me.
32:42If you take their top 10 career seasons and PPR points per game, the first eight belong to Alvin Kamara, man.
32:47Put some respect on this dude's name. Okay, did he look fantastic last year?
32:51No, but he was also in the Spencer Rattler-led one-in-freaking-nine Saints version of the offense.
32:55He didn't get to face the Panthers and the Jets and the Titans, you know, like Tyler Shuck and everyone got to down the stretch.
33:02So, he's back with the team. He's been a face of the franchise for a long time.
33:07I know ETN got paid a ton, but I really think it could be closer to at least 60-40, if not 50-50, man.
33:13There's a little bit of – again, ETN did some good things last year.
33:17He's had a decent enough career and everything. I'm not trying to totally besmirch the guy, but he's got that dead zone profile, man.
33:24Vegas says the Saints are 23rd in offense. I think out of all the bottom 10 offenses, they have the best chance of outperforming that, you know?
33:31Like, I believe it. Moore, Shuck, good offensive line.
33:33I'm not saying it can't happen. But, again, Vegas is ranking them 1-32.
33:37They had the Saints as the 10th worst. Kamara, he's built to be the pass-down guy.
33:41Is ETN that good? You know? I don't really think he's like this game-changing top 10 talent.
33:46So, as much as we get the Dave Montgomery dead zone vibes, man, I think there's obviously – there's, you know, potentially that for Travis HN as well.
33:54Yeah, I think at worst, Kamara is just now in that handcuff status, but he's actually one of the better handcuffs because
34:00we know he's a big pass catcher, and he's actually going to get that full workload if anything was to happen to
34:06Travis ETN or HN, whichever one you prefer. Sure.
34:08I want to throw out a name which you may not even have to actually draft in your drafts, but someone to
34:14keep an eye on throughout the season. That's Catron Allen.
34:17For me, it's mostly because I think it's possible he can carve out a large portion of that backfield without injury actually happening.
34:23We know that Rashad White has been a pretty inefficient runner for most of his career.
34:28He is absolutely a good pass catcher. I expect him to have that role for most of the season.
34:33I don't really see a reason for that to not happen, but Ja'Cory Krosky-Meritt, I mean, was he good as a runner?
34:39Yeah, but like he was pretty limited as a player, and Catron Allen, I think, while maybe not as explosive as Ja'Cory
34:45Krosky-Meritt is, Catron Allen's more of a complete back and reliable back in the offense, and it would not surprise me if
34:51he got a role towards the end of the season.
34:54We'll see what happens. Hey, man, he snatched Nicholas Singleton's chain after being the more lowly-rated recruit.
34:58And just, that's a really good Penn State team.
35:01You know, they were basically coin flip gaming us Notre Dame away from making the natty in 2024.
35:06Aller, they lose a couple close games in 2025.
35:08I mean, we could be a lot more excited about those Penn State running backs if they were just anywhere near as
35:14close as they were supposed to be in 2025, which maybe you can say about a lot of different situations.
35:20But I hear you, bro. Washington, probably, I think we can say, the worst sort of, you know, backfield in the NFL.
35:26So, yeah, is Catron Allen amazing? No, he was a six-round pick.
35:29I get it. But can he be, for lack of a better, you know, reference, can he be the prettiest piece of trash in a pile of garbage?
35:37Maybe. Maybe, bro. So, yeah, I've, you know, dabbled round 17, round 18.
35:40I think at the end of the day, it's going to be Rashad White splitting close to early-down carries with Bill Krosky-Merritt.
35:46Maybe Catron can carve out that C-rod short yardage goal-line role.
35:49And that would really complicate things for everyone because that would almost be like Tampa Bay-ass, like the Sean Tucker role, where
35:55he wouldn't even really be able to overly trust that.
35:58It would just hurt the other guys involved. So, I'm leaning, again, something where Rashad White gets 150, 160 carries.
36:04But then Chip's in another 50, 60 targets. So, one fact I have for Rashad White that's kind of cool, since he
36:10entered the league, it's him, Kamara, and CMC, the only running backs that have 200-plus catches.
36:14Bill Krosky-Merritt's barely done that even going back to college, man.
36:17So, we want guys a full PPR that catch the ball.
36:20I don't see anyone else on that team or roster.
36:23I shouldn't say that. McNichols and Ford can do it.
36:26But they brought him White for a reason. Not as long as White's there.
36:29They got the ASU connection. So, long story short, if you are going to be betting on a day-three rookie in an ambiguous backfield, it's one to do.
36:37We just saw it happen last year. So, hey, who am I to say that C-Tron Allen's a bad bet, you know?
36:43All right. Love to hear. Ian, I really appreciate you joining me today.
36:47Before we get out of here, remind everyone where to find you.
36:50Find all your work. Yeah, bro. Rotowire.com. Fantasy Football with Ian Harditz on the old YouTube.
36:54So, just trying to talk ball and have a good time.
36:57So, appreciate you as always, man. This was fun.
37:00Love to hear it. On my side of things, you can follow me on Twitter at YFB underscore FF.
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