Week 2 Fantasy Football Running Back Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 2194)

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Attention, chicken nugget fans. Burger King heard that a lot of you didn't like the old chicken nuggets, so they got to work and reinvented them. These new chicken nuggets are their tastiest, crispiest, juiciest nuggets ever. And because better chicken nuggets deserve better sauces, they've reinvented several of their sauces. And they created a brand new one, the new Special Savory Sauce, which is only available for a limited time at participating U.S. restaurants. Don't wait around. You got to try the new Burger King chicken nuggets today. What's up, friends, and welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football Podcast, Week 2 Ranks for Running Backs. I'm Chris Welsh, Pat Fitzmaurice, Andrew Erickson here. We are going to be going through the top 36 RBs, some of the biggest questions. What does the expert consensus ranks look like? Maybe a couple deeper plays. It's a full breakdown of, Week 2 for the RBs. Glad to be here with you guys. Both of you, fine gentlemen, ranking very well. We are going to be talking, as we always do in the RB episode every single week, we give a shout-out to the Ranks Contest. Here's how this is going to go this week. Erickson is the boss. Fitzy was respectable. We don't need to talk about where I ranked. It's not important. Nobody cares. I'm just a dumb host here, so nobody cares. So don't even bring it up, guys. But Erickson, we're going to do it here in a second. But just a shout-out. We're going to do it here in a second. Just a shout-out to you. You did have a top 25 finish in the Ranks Contest this week. So you get the captain. You get, like, the crown. You get to be, like, the captain of this episode. So congratulations, my friend. Thank you. I'm excited about the top 25 finish. But I have to give Pappas Morris his flowers for being correct about our Derrick Henry versus Javante Williams conversation. The big dog continued to eat and feast against the Indianapolis Colts. So that's a lot I was thinking about. Not about anything I got right about, say, flowers running wild. And basically being a wide receiver one in a half of play. That I was just too low on Derrick Henry. Because that's all that matters, right? It's just, what did you get wrong? How can you improve? So shout-out to Fitz. He was right. I am so with you. I mean, I'm way more. I'm a lot worse about that than any of you guys. Like, I am the total. Like, 10 things can be right. And if one is really bad, it's all I'm going to think about. And it's all I'm going to think other people are thinking about. Like, I did that. Remember, what was my big thing this week, Erickson? Just garbage on Quinshawn Judkins. Or this last week. Judkins is going to stink. Judkins. And he did stink. And I was right. And there's just like 30. There's like two other things that was wrong that I cannot let go of. Your Xavier Worthy prop was the lock of all locks, though. The under. Not even a sweat, dude. He had no shot. Fitzy, is there anything super positive or super negative that you're carrying over into this week from ranking last week? Is there an RB that you think you rank too low that is just killing you? Or is there like a positive take you want to have on? I mean, there weren't like. A crazy amount of running backs that had like awesome value like they did at wide receiver this week. That's representative in the waivers, by the way. Waivers were depleted outside of Kalon Black were depleted at running back. But any carry over from week one into week two? Jackson Dart. I may have been too low on. I might have given the new look Dallas Cowboys defense too much credit. And Dart was just so inconsistent play to play last year. And he looked really professional. And that game against the Cowboys like they had a lot of long drives. I think they had four scoring drives of ten plays or more. He just played like a poised veteran. And that was not something we saw a lot of from Jackson Dart last year. So I might have to start reassessing my stance on Jackson Dart. Okay, there we'll take that. And as a shout out again to the ranks contest, that is a little behind the scenes thing for us. Of course, what you as the listener consume is just what the EC. R is when you go and check out the ranks on fantasy pros. It's powered by all the experts. But each week, you know, we've got the who was the most accurate. And this week, looking at the top three, we got a shout out. Pete Nova was number one from FF face off number one in the accuracy rankings. Brad Evans from Valley Sports is number two. And Jacob Gibbs. Jacob Gibbs has definitely been a mainstay on this finishing three. That's your top three. Jacob Gibbs, Brad Evans and Pete Nova. Big shout out to Pete Nova. And then the fantasy pro shout outs. Erickson. You got 22nd. Fitzy, you were solid in there. You almost had that crack that top 50. But Debro. Debro was the winner of all of us with a 17th overall finish. So a top 20 finish in there. So very, very good from the analysts. Very bad from the hosts. But again, that's not our concern. We're not worried about any of those things. If you guys want to follow along, go to fantasypros.com slash rankings. You can type in fantasy football, football rankings. You'll find it. And you can check out the ECR on all the different positional stuff and all of the other four. Format standard, half PPR, PPR. We will be referencing half PPR on this. But if you want to follow along, go to the ranks. And that is going to take us to jump right into this. So let's get into the running back ranks. And that will take us to the RB big board. Let's look at the big board of the top 12 this week on half PPR over on fantasy pros. Coming in at number one, Jameer Gibbs, of course. Bijan Robinson, Christian McCaffrey at three. Derek Henry at four. Jonathan Taylor at five. And Ken Walker coming in at six. That's the bottom half of the top. Twelve wide running backs are Jenty Cook, Barkley, Javante Williams, Devon Achan, and O'Marion Hampton. So these guys are all locked. There's not a ton of questions. Anything that we're going to be focusing on is going to just be more semantics about where you rank them. Unless someone out there just had the most amazing running back draft. But I think there are a few things that we can discuss on the value here. And I think Ken Walker is a really interesting one. The Chiefs went Ken Walker, Ken Walker, and a little bit more Ken Walker. That first. Drive that statement drive where Andy Reid was just like, we're just going to give it only to Ken Walker really showed out to all the Ken Walker truthers. But Emma Johnson looked really good. But you can see in his rank here, not only is this just like a good matchup against the Colts this week, we have a matchup grades next to all of our RVs on the ranks. If you want to check it out. We also have the actual like matchup stars, grades, projected points, how they how they perform average to like their projections. Actually, all that really great stuff is out there. This is a four star graded matchup. Ken Walker has against the Colts, but also it's that overall volume that I think has people excited. When we look at the ranks, ECR six here, Fitzy, you are at consensus. But Erickson, you're dropping a four bomb here. Top four overall RV for you this week. So why don't you kick us off with Ken Walker? What else is there to add? We all watched what happened on Monday Night Football when he was the complete engine to the Chiefs offense. And I don't see why that would change. Even on a shorter week, you have a great matchup against the Indianapolis Colts who could not stop Derrick Henry. Fitz pointed out that, yeah, their interior defensive tackles are older and they could not stop the Baltimore Ravens from running the football. So I think the Chiefs are going to see that and think, well, we're just going to feature our guy once again. Forced 14 missed tackles against a Denver Broncos defense. Absolutely insane. And he was operating on all three downs, right? Goal line. No Zach Sharp night to be found. I bet for a second he. Was going to sit on the bench, be like, oh, we're in the red zone. Time to take a break because usually I don't get red zone carries, but that's not a problem anymore because he's in Kansas City and he's catching passes as well. So given the lackluster performance from the Chiefs passing game, I think they're going to continue to lean on Ken Walker as things get kind of ramped up with my homes off the ACL injury with this passing game, because that clearly is a work in progress. Whereas this run game looks like it's going to be a top five unit all season. Fitzy, this is a tough one because I think there's like a. We're. Focusing on week two. I think it's hard to disagree. I mean, you haven't met six. That's fine. But like he's a relative top five RB. And I think from that perspective of starting, you just kind of lock into it. But is there anything for you from the long term perspective, especially a dynasty guy where you stare and we all know, like, what is it? Ken Walker's and gone over like what? Two hundred and twenty five or whatever carries it is. We know he doesn't last in the season. You saw that usage. And then you also saw Emma Johnson, who Emma Johnson looked great. We had a couple of these young rookie backs that looked really good in some of that short usage role. Is there any part of you? That stares at Emma Johnson and or the ability for Ken Walker to stay healthy and just gives you just pause or hesitation when ranking him on any week to week basis? I mean, again, you're high, you're you're ECR, so you're not low or anything like that. But is there anything in the Emma Johnson world or the injuries that pauses you for Ken Walker? I think they're going to be glad they have a competent tag team partner with Kenneth Walker because they're going to need it. I think the Chiefs offensive M.O. is just going to be so different. This year, now that they can run the ball and we had talked about that on this show before, how Patrick Mahomes has never had a thousand yard runner since he became the Chiefs starter. And now he's got a guy who, if he stays healthy, is absolutely going to get there. And yeah, I moved up Kenneth Walker to RB five as we were doing this. I bumped him ahead of Jonathan Taylor. The matchup with the Colts is great. Colts could not stop Derek Henry last week. Their linebackers just look like they were in a, you know. Maze of confusion dealing with the Ravens blocking schemes in that. And I don't know how many times Derek Henry was like one on one with safeties trying to tackle him last week. So, boy, things look good again for Kenneth Walker this week. They sure do. On the other end, Devon H. And the Dolphins offense. It was something. And it's pretty much around. I mean, Caleb Douglas is fine and everything. But Devon H. And has a rough. for a matchup, you know, hand up to me thinking the 49ers defense was not going to be great this year they have a poorish front line which in theory is going to work well for hn here but they got a great running back core their secondary played well like you know even though they lost collins like on paper i don't know how either one of you guys kind of view this matchup hn against the san francisco 49ers on paper for fantasy pros this is given a four star grade uh he comes in as rb 11 erickson you've got him at 10 fits you've got him at 12 so you both have him still as a rb1 but fits let's go to you is there any concern like it's going to be this offense is the thing that you stare at with devon hm but it's like even the bad offenses they're still going to move through him he's still going to get volume it's gonna be hard for him to not put up some type of an rb1 performance but where does the hesitation lie maybe with devon hn against the niners of this week i don't love the matchup as much as our tool does um it's hard to see any defense with fred warner as a four-star matchup for a running back and like granted the 49ers were better against the pass than they were against the run in that first game against the rams but still it's not an easy run game matchup and the dolphins offensive line seemed very much like a work in progress in that first game against the raiders raiders weren't playing heavy boxes or anything against the dolphins and there were just still no explosive runs to be found for hn um i don't think hn has a lot of touchdown upside in a road game against the 49ers where miami's implied point total is 16 and it was good that he got five targets and had four catches for 30 yards in week one so maybe the the pass i was worried that maybe the passing upside was not going to be there with malik willis at quarterback um it was there they just couldn't do anything in the running game yeah and this is one of those ones too where like you can they can move warner around they can have him cover tight end sometimes they can have blanket coverage and wide receivers down the middle against this dolphins team it's just warner line up on an hn like they could just have that he can quarterback spy or hn so he can be playing short middle so it's a little bit tougher eric so let me ask you this you do have him slightly higher you got him at 10 is there any part of either of you guys and maybe this is not going to work for you erickson because you have him at 10 but i when i'm staring at the rbs i know these are all the top 12 but it does feel like there might be a tier difference but for me it's ecr and you look at giovante williams and then you go down to a chan and hampton and it's like they're good they're fine maybe matchups are a little bit less i kind of feel like there might be a real rb tier break from the top 10 then moving on but what say you because you have them at 10 so i'm guessing who like who got bumped did uh did davante did giovante williams get bumped out of the top 10 for you so i have giovante at 12 hampton at 11 a chan at 10 hm played 88 of the snaps like blown workhorse i get that the offense is underwhelming but you knew that when you drafted a chan that the miami dolphins had a chance to be a bottom offense so that was part of the thesis of the play but also that he was going to play basically every single snap see every single opportunity in this backfield which was basically the case in week one even though he didn't have a big performance but we know that he can rip off an explosive play at any given moment against any defense he didn't have that marquee big explosive rush or receiver or uh reception against the raiders that's something that could always be part of his projection any given week and the 49ers matchup yep fred warner is obviously the biggest part of why the defense was improved i think compared to last year however we did see the rams before their offense really kind of fell off a cliff ripping off some pretty big runs between blake corm and carmine's blake quorum had one of the highest explosive run rates in week one at 20 percent so he look he was shot out of a cannon so i think that hn actually has the opportunity to rip off some of these big runs against like you alluded to welsh that front four that is a little bit lighter on the 49ers defensive line that i think the dolphins offensive line can actually create some space if you look at the 49ers in last week both quorum and kyron williams had a success rate over 45 so i think the matchup is okay especially when it comes to hn maybe ripping off a big run or two he ran the second most routes among all running backs in week one so they can be getting killed dump off passes here we go yeah like you're gonna see him catch up a bunch of receptions which i'm happy to that we saw him not basically get totally eliminated in the receiving game with malik willis on her center and you brought this up welsh how they could spy hn are they gonna be able to do that with willis too if he's using his legs like wouldn't they just spy willis well yeah that's funny you said that too though because i think this is an opportunity for willis to maybe run more it seemed like they put the blocks on him a little bit in this last matchup uh i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i would kind of think that warner might be in that space where he's playing early front middle and if hn is going out he's going to follow him but then to your point that's going to lead to willis running a little bit so i actually from a prop perspective i think willis is a little bit more interesting niners don't have the pass rush that the raiders had so maybe there's a little bit more time in the pocket and for him to make a move but at the same time you know he showed relative efficiency relative efficiency he's actually adjusted completion percentage was pretty garbage uh but if he wants to just be super low in efficient and get the ball to age this might be a really high i think what we're alluding to is this actually might be a really high volume game to hn just what does it look like that's the big question i think my my last point too with this particular matchup and this is a little bit more of narrative street which sometimes you got to include with rankings weird things happen i know last week i was lower on matthew stafford really more because of the narrative because of the game environment not because because matthew stafford as fits point out destroyed the 49ers last year which made it really scary to be lower on consensus version but then he went out and had a complete dud because the rams showed up to australia and decided hey we're not going to adjust our body clocks and we're just hoping it works out and it did not work out for them the 49ers have to readjust their body clocks back to pacific time because they spent an entire week in australia so as heavy home favorites weird things happen especially when you're traveling completely across the country so i wouldn't be surprised if maybe the 49ers don't come out and dominate maybe right from the get-go and maybe you could see that they're not going to be able to see miami at least sticking around a little bit more in the matchup so uh yeah loki might be a little uh kilon black uh involved in there as well too if they don't want to like overdo christian mccaffrey we might see some more of him if they want to keep the ball on the ground but topic for later i suppose if we want all right we're going to go to the rb2s here in a second but before we do football is back folks and it is time to level up your approach to the nfl and college football this season because polymarket is here polymarket is a legal prediction market now available in all and unlike traditional sports books and polymarket you can trade on all things football from saturday and sunday slates to who wins the heisman to who 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all varieties available in all geographies warning this product contains nicotine nicotine is an addictive chemical hey our ride's almost here are you ready just grabbing my shoes that's what you said 10 minutes ago i just dropped a video call uploading this giant video call and i'm so excited to be here with you today i'm so excited to be here with you today i'm so excited to be here with you today and i'm so excited to be here with you today and i'm so excited to be here with you today and i'm so excited to be here with you today looking at my watch cool bananas with the group chat and of course still lining up tonight's playlist on my phone all at once yep story of my life that's why i switched to t-mobile they have the fastest 5g network okay multitasker i see you honestly i never imagined i could do all this at once it's awesome say no more i'm totally switching my post is taking way too long to upload that's a sign you've got to get t-mobile so many reasons to join t-mobile find yours at t-mobile.com fastest based on analysis by uclo speed test intelligence data of national speed score results incorporating 5g download and upload speeds for the first half of 2026 in business there's the easy way with staples or the hard way at staples easy means guidance from real human experts and workplace solutions you can count on whether you're outfitting an office stocking the break room managing facilities or printing materials for your next big meeting it's no wonder they're trusted by 75 of the fortune 500 don't choose hard choose staples learn more at staples.com rb2s this is the running back 13 through 24 the big board we've got chase brown at uh 13 tough matchup theoretically i guess after watching everyone talked about houston's defense last week and then uh that is the 13th rb2 rb deandre swift at 14 kyron williams briefs hall david montgomery bucky irving comes in at 18 the bottom half of the rb2s cam scataboot remandre stevenson coming in at top 20 jeremiah love travis hn chuba hubbard and jadarian price at 24 let's all take a little stop at bucky irving guys bucky comes in as the ecr uh 18 on this list the matchup grade is a one star so it is a theoretical really bad matchup against cleveland maybe not as bad as thought before uh but it's still it's given a bad grade here you guys are both higher on bucky irving than what the ranks have let's go to fitzy the resident bucky irving uh manifester uh from all draft season what did you think of the usage what did you think of the production what do you think of this matchup for this week with bucky irving fits i thought the usage was great um bucky irving out snapped cany gainwell 36 to 25 uh ran more routes than gainwell 21 to 13 um last season bucky only had six carries from the opponent's 10 yard line or closer got one on sunday ran it in for a 10 yard touchdown no sean tucker though we'll see what it looks like in future weeks at the goal line but yeah really encouraging only eight carries 45 yards a touchdown but bucky had seven targets caught all of them for 48 yards so a really good day in ppr with bucky and on one hand yeah the browns run defense not a pushover and they did a respectable job of winning the game and they did a respectable job of winning the game and they did a respectable job against the jaguars running game last week but at the same time the buccaneers are eight and a half point favorites so we expect them to have a run friendly game script and look bucky irving was banged up last year the tampa bay offensive line was banged up last year baker mayfield was banged up last year things didn't look as good as they had in 2024 everyone's healthy now things looked a lot like 2024 in week one of 2026 something i'll throw out it's pretty interesting about bucky when you look um via like fantasy uh fantasy points you look at success rate he had technically you'd have to do a filter here he comes in at 16 but when you take out the guys without like you know there's like one or two carries and you look at actual volume he comes in with the 11th best success rate of rbs at over 62 and also a low stuff rate so if you can correlate those two things together where you know he is having positive production out of runs and not getting stopped behind and he's catching balls like that's a that's it's one week one it's only one week but that's like a really good start i mean it it tracks similarly to like what i mean giovante williams had a 61 percent um or no i'm sorry 66 percent success rate but he was stuffed at the line a lot more bucky wasn't it was one of the lowest rates only deandre swift it looks like had a true lower stuff rate on there so i'll throw that back out just as a fun stat erickson uh fitzy's got him at 15 you got him at 17 both higher any anything to add any thoughts any excitement on bucky irving for this week he looked healthy he looked like his rookie year form his pre-injury sophomore form eight carries for 45 yards right so if he can get more volume on the ground which you're expecting as a heavy home favorite against the cleveland browns who talked about it all last week with the jaguars jaguars are going to destroy the cleveland browns because their defense is not near it's overrated when they play on the road every single year it's been overrated and where are they playing this week on the road in tampa bay in florida where they just got their the doors blown off of them they're florida and it's going to happen all over again so especially when you look at who's the quarterback for the tampa buccaneers baker mayfield do you think he's not going to put up a 40 burger on his old team that decided to let him go and bring in deshaun watson yeah i think the browns or i think that the buccaneers are in for a good offensive day you you just almost got like john wick you're like yeah i'm thinking baker's back that's what you just turned into there i'm thinking bucky is good uh let's go to the next rb here i think this is where it things like really start to get trippy it's jeremiah love so like i've been kind of negative all you know draft season about jeremiah love uh i would say in the usage that you saw there was you know obviously the goal line carry early on that was kind of exciting that looked like that's algiers role but there was an obvious limitation he is ecr 21 on this list and this is the first time you guys are kind of like really split uh and that split happens where fitzy is slightly higher than ecr and erickson you have moved him outside of a top 24 running back so he's not an rb2 for you so erickson let's go and talk with you for a second on the negative here you have him at 26 so non rb2 non like startable obviously flex range you could probably get him in there but um you know what did you think about i know they're they're easing him into the offense but what makes you push him off of being a top 24 rb clc ox defense that's really the only reason why i'm pushing him down because i what i saw in week one exceeded my expectations for a player that suffered a high ankle sprain in the preseason the fact that he looked so efficient running the football six missed tackles for us on just 11 carries and the fact that he was still produced got that red zone carry over tyler algier was really positive for his season long outlook i just don't think this is the week where you can expect two running backs in a committee to be productive against arguably the best defense in the nfl especially heading after week one when the broncos we thought were good they got boat race the houston texas we thought raced seahawks still really good defense elite defense and arizona obviously plays seattle they play in the same division seattle is very familiar with arizona jacoby brissett in this offense so that's what has me concerned about if he is still splitting touches with tyler algier on 10 to 12 touches is he going to be able to get there and finish the top 24 running back unless he scores against a really tough defense that's where i get concerned so again i'm not trying to bury him really like him season long because i think eventually he's going to continue to eat neat work in this backfield but in a committee in a bad matchup i'm looking to kind of shy away boat raced i like that fitzy uh i kind of went into last week's match because i was completely wrong about it i thought the cardinals were just going to get stomped and that would lead to a situation where you might see love a little bit later on they wouldn't be able to run so maybe they're passing the ball to jeremiah love that was incorrect but that feels like that's what we could for this one if that seattle defense is rough and they are up offensively if they get into that space i think that works maybe a little bit better for jeremiah love so you can get involved in the pass game but what for you has him as a top 24 back in this really really tough matchup i get the concern about the matchup but if you're playing the seattle seahawks i don't you have to try to run the ball against them to slow their pass rush down don't you have to throw some screen passes to your backs and certainly i think jeremiah love is better equipped to do damage on screens than tyler algeras like you can't let jacoby brissett drop back 45 times against the seattle defense and take seven step drops it's just not going to go well so i think we're going to see love used quite a bit like erickson said i i think you know tyler algera out snapped love 44 to 32 in week one we're going to see things start to move the other way with love out snapping algera slowly but surely and the good thing is with love if you're an investor on those 32 snaps he touched the ball well he got either a carry or a target on 47 percent of those snaps 15 carries plus targets so i don't think uh they can afford to not have him be a big part of the game plan against seattle this week on the other end of that same game jadarian price is the last one in this range i think to talk about he is given one of two five-star matchup uh grades here we have like the physical grade and then we have like the five stars uh this is a five star and i believe looking through this now there's a couple actually there's a couple in the top 12 rbs this range it's only kyron williams and then jadarian price fun thing about price um he seemed really explosive but according to fancy points he had zero actual explosive yards which account to 15 plus yet he had a 70 success rate as a running back and he counted for four first downs for that team so great matchup seems like he can explode a little bit more we might see some of that explosive run but uh you guys a little bit split on this fitzy you are the higher dogs more um ecr 24 fits you got him at 22 erickson pushing back a tiny bit at 25 fits uh take on jadarian price for this week you just figure seattle is going to be run heavy with drew lock at quarterback you know play ball control let your awesome defense win the game for you against the cardinals and arizona actually did do a pretty nice job against the chargers in week one chargers only ran for 81 yards averaged 3.9 yards per carry but yeah price did look good um in week one i think he gets more than 10 carries this week and he had a couple of catches in week one too they only produced six yards but good to see him involved in the passing game erickson i i kind of think there might be a case of jadarian price might be a better play than jeremiah love this week but i think you have him one spot behind did i have that correct spot ahead one spot ahead okay so maybe yeah there is a slight agreement there what do you think about jadarian price i think that he should definitely get more carries then george helani please if seattle wants to not blow the game make sure that they give their best running back more opportunities which they did talk about a little bit in the post presser mike mcdonald the offensive coordinator talking about hey he looked really really good looked explosive you just listed off how successful he was running the football and it was a night and day difference between him and george helani who really is just a breather back is there to take up snaps is not like a difference maker they need difference making plays if drew lock is going to be under center so i think i agree with fitzy where i would take the open up around nine and a half I know I hit the under on 12 and a half carries in week one but after the first drive I was looking like oh man I'm dead I'm dead in the water they're gonna keep feeding this guy because he just looks so explosive at the start of that game but obviously and you have to remember too losing their starting quarterback I think maybe that had them lean on bringing in someone like George Helani just because hey we have a new quarterback in there maybe hasn't taken as many reps vegetarian price so maybe that also played an influence on the snap count the red zone usage does concern me as well because they liked they used a lot of there they brought Emmanuel Wilson in for some of those green zone snaps which does concern me but jaring price is explosive and I can't help but think what are these Notre Dame running backs then going head to head I think price is going to want to be like hey man I was also pretty good at Notre Dame too so maybe he's tabbing for a big explosive run so I like price just like a slightly bit better especially because Seattle's favored I expect them to win this game so give me the running back on the team that should win it seems like Erickson hates all these Notre Dame guys you'd think it was his school that got stopped by Notre Dame two weeks ago instead of mine did you go to USC or something what's your problem what's your problem Erickson I do want to do one more aside question I know the the guy I'm going to mention is going to come up later so you don't have to talk about him and I don't want to go crazy into this but Erickson ECR 20 Ramondre Stevenson if Travion Henderson is active does that change I don't know what your view is on him right now but do you think Ramondre Stevenson should be pushed out of an RB2 if Travion Henderson is active yay or nay I have him right now at 23 and his rank would obviously be pretty fluid if Travion Henderson is act I just don't know what Henderson's role will be coming off of his injury and you have to look at the Patriots matchup here their home favorites against the Pittsburgh Steelers who gave up a lot of production to B. John Robinson to get that Ramondre is not B. John Robinson but I still think that it's going to be a good job as you are B1 until Henderson shows that hey I'm ready to take on bigger workload can he pass bro that has nothing to do with his ankle injury so I think Stevenson's probably still a good volume play even if it's not to the extent that we saw in week one but your rank currently is is relative to Henderson not being active 23 it's a hedge ranking okay what is the Star Wars quote I don't do things in uh what is it oh hypotheticals or something like that or a Sith something like that do you guys watch Star Wars yeah I'm familiar I'm familiar with it someone comment save me please Fitzy you familiar with Star Wars I am I'm not I can't pull the quote so the commenters and YouTube are gonna have to save Erickson yeah I can't bail them out I thought you were gonna do a Yoda or something yeah you'll find it we'll figure it out uh Fitzy same question just really quick Ramondre does he need to be hit backwards especially relative to the ECR of 20 if Travion Henderson and I know you're gonna talk about him later so you don't have to talk about Travion yet but would you push Ramondre back significantly if Travion's not significantly I have him RB 23 in my rankings he probably goes down a spot or two if Henderson is back okay cool uh perfect let's talk about those flex RBs 24 through 36 uh 25 through 36 actually uh coming in at 25 we've got Quinshawn Judkins on the big board facial tootin at 26 Jalen Warren uh Jordan Mason Ja'Cory Krosky Merritt JK Dobbins the bottom half is Marshawn Lloyd Kyle Monongai Rico Dowdle Tony Pollard Aaron Jones and Blake Corum a couple of these guys that you might be dropping in at flex or you know I don't know if you have a bad running back situation these might be your RB2s Ja'Cory Krosky Merritt uh we saw some really good usage he comes in at ECR 29 but you both have him so I'm gonna put him in at 26 and I'm gonna put him in lower Bitsy you're the lowest you've got him at 35 he is barely grasping on as an uh as a flex running back option for you this week so talk to us about Ja'Cory Krosky Merritt good news bad news for Bill from week one um the good news led the commanders in snaps 34 only 29 for Rashad White seven for Katron Allen and Bill looked good 16 carries 63 yards a touch uh a touchdown one catch for minus seven yards but we don't expect to get a lot of passing game production from him the bad news the commanders were down 24 to 16 down eight with under five minutes left in the game and the commanders had it second two at the Eagles 22 yard line Bill runs for the first down fumbles and luckily for Washington one of their offensive linemen pounces on it to preserve the drive Bill immediately gets pulled for rookie Katron Allen Allen stays on the field for the second two at the Eagles 22 yard line with a three-point lead with a three-point lead on the drive commanders scored a touchdown failed the two-point conversion lost by two points I'm a little nervous that we didn't see Bill after that fumble and the game was on the line and the commanders put in rookie Katron Allen to finish the game that that's a little scary JCM had four fumbles on 175 carries last season is he in danger of getting quick hooked if he moved out not really a good flex option if you're trying to put rvs out there one that you're going with Erickson you're also low or you're not as low you're a little bit closer to ECR but 31 so anything you want to add to that mess I mean it really did get messed up towards the back end of this with Katron Allen getting involved in here but what are your thoughts on um on Ja'Cory Krosky-Merritt only Sith deal in absolutes that is the Star Wars quote because I have nothing else to add with Bill he is very scary because it seems like they could pull the plug on him very very much the other thing with him because he did not seem to take on a larger role in the passing game like that was being suggested throughout training camp oh we won't be able to step up be a better pass catcher one catch for negative seven yards on two targets actually just one target is not a signal that oh yeah he's going to be involved in the passing game a lot more if they're facing more negative game script against a high power Dallas Cowboys offense that is looking to bounce back after a pretty poor performance on Sunday Night Football who's in the game probably Rashad White and not JCM. So he seems like he is very very on the fringe and very boom or bust where I think that the bus risk probably outweighs the actual boom where okay gets 15 carries 60 yards and touchdown that's the upside case like we saw in week one against a good Philadelphia Eagles front but the downside case like Fitz alluded he gets benched outright gets game scripted outright I think you can probably find a better flex by considering he's someone that you probably didn't even start in week one uh on the opposite end of what you guys just did so so Dracore Kroski Merritt ranked higher you guys are lower Rico Dowdle is ranked lower and you guys are a little bit higher not anything crazy he's ECR uh 33 for this week not a great matchup against New England but you guys both have him at least a spot higher Erickson you're 32 Fitz you're 31 uh Erickson why don't we start with you this is against your Patriots team we didn't we really didn't get the production I think we got some of the usage of Dowdle that we were hoping to get but then like we got no efficiency everything I thought was going to happen just went to Warren Warren was the efficient one what's your take on Dowdle in this matchup for this week I don't want to play Rico Dowdle last week was the smash spot for him at home against a Cooper Rush Falcons led offense Dowdle should absolutely feast we were taking all the overs on his rushing yards props anytime touchdowns for Rico eight carries for 15 yards just outproduced by Jalen Warren so even though Dowdle got the majority of the snaps that did not translate to any type of production and I find it hard to believe that Mike McCarthy and the staff are going to go back and think okay yeah well we got to get Rico more involved we got to get him more usage when you look at the strengths of the Patriots defensive line it's the interior so when you have speedier backs you can get to the outside like a price those are the running backs are going to have more success against this defense not the more plotting running backs like a Rico Dow not to say that he can't rip off explosive runs he showed that in Dallas and in Carolina the last two seasons but I think that if you're looking for running backs to get to the edge I think that's actually more of a Jalen Warren type of game script especially if the Steelers are trailing I think Jalen Warren is a better pass catcher than Rico Dowdle is so even though he was running routes catching targets I mean the guy wasn't producing any type of yardage and I thought was really interesting too that the Steelers in the first game under Mike McCarthy number one in pass rate over expectation in week one so I think they're going to be slinging the football trying to hit DK Metcalf down field for a lot of air yards against Christian Gonzalez and these other Patriots defensive backs so I think that unless we get like a total reversal where you know I think that's going to be a lot of air yards against Christian Gonzalez and these other defensive backs and these other Patriots defensive backs and these other Patriots defensive backs and last week set up so well for Rico Dowdle and he does terrible this week sets up so poorly for Rico Dowdle and he does amazing unless that happens which I'm just not willing to bet on well maybe I mean maybe you Erickson need to rethink your rank because you're higher than him and Fitz you're the same way I wonder if you have any more positive take because this is one of those cases where you guys are both ranked higher but are you both going to have just a pessimistic outlook of wanting to even play Rico Dowdle or Jalen Warren for that matter Welsh like it's just okay yeah I was team Jalen Warren in the first game of the season and I think that's going to be a lot of air yards against the offseason I just like I think Warren's the better player and I think he's the better fit for Aaron Rodgers and you know who wants to get rid of the ball quickly and not take hits but it was just weird I guess I have to take the L because Rico had 14 more snaps and ran eight more routes that I don't understand Rico Dowdle running eight more routes than Jalen Warren so right now I've got him back to back I'm taking the Cowards way out I've got Rico 31 and 32. I want to do two quick hitters in here one I just kind of added but I think it's important and we don't have to go crazy on these guys but number one is Marshawn Lloyd Marshawn Lloyd given one of the best matchup grades of this flex range here. Obviously, some questions with Chris Brooks getting his usage. He comes in at 31. Fitzy, yay or nay on Mark? Because I feel like we've got this thing where the top half of these guys feel a lot better for flex options. The bottom half, I think it's just like we don't want Dotto. We want Ja'Cory Kraski-Merritt. What about Lloyd? Where does he fit for you? Is he a yay or nay wanting to start him this week against the New York Jets? Wanting to is a nay. He's RB34. I think maybe they get a positive game script. I mean, the Packers are favored by what, like four points at the Jets. But Lloyd didn't look especially good against the Vikings. And I just worry that the offensive line for Green Bay was so bad that they are going to need a back to help protect Jordan Love. And I think Chris Brooks is better at doing that. Than Marshawn Lloyd is Erickson. Your thoughts on Marshawn Lloyd this week comes down to the Packers offensive line and whether they can hold up. I don't know if Aaron Banks is even going to play in this game. Fitsy, do you know? Not likely. So they're playing on the road. I get the Jets showed out defensively against the Titans. They're the Titans. But the Jets did revamp their defensive line this offseason. I think that they actually have some decent road graders in the interior. They're definitely more of a pass funnel defense where when you look at the Jets, you definitely want to throw against their defense. Defensive backs, especially when you don't have me make a Fitzpatrick because he's going to be out there starting studs safety. They traded for in this offseason. So I know the floor loves to run the football. But given that doesn't have Josh Jacobs, given that his offensive line is banged up, I think they're just going to trust in Jordan Love and hope that he gets enough time to get the ball out to these explosive playmakers that Green Bay is littered in to take advantage of this poor Jets secondary without their starting safety. So I think Marshawn Lloyd is just kind of he's going to be out there. You're hoping that he rips off an explosive play. But I agree with Fitzy where you're probably still see a lot of Chris Brooks because of the pass protection. Now, this last guy here before we just get a deep option from each of you. This might be the guy that is like the end of a tier. Like I said, like the top half looks like fun flex options in the back half. We're just like, oh, this is a guy you guys are dramatically higher on than what ECR is. And that's Blake Corum. Blake Corum, five star matchup grade, 36 on ECR. Both of you have them inside of a top 30 running back this week. Fitzy, you have them as the. Highest of 28 Erickson's right there at 29. So just quick hits on Blake Corum. Do you think he fits that mold of what I said? Is he kind of like the last break of a tier that you're cool with putting them as flex because you're so much higher? Or am I overthinking that? He does take a little bit of a hit in full PPR just because he doesn't chip in much as a pass catcher. But yeah, the Giants run defense did look better against the Cowboys after being terrible last season. And still Corum just look great. In that game against the 49ers. I love the way he takes the handoff, pauses for a second to read the blocking, and then just hits the gas and accelerates so quickly and hits the whole hard. Rams are seven point home favorites against the Giants. You know, one of their reasons for going to Australia was so late was to not disrupt their circadian rhythm. So I do think with the extra rest, this could be a get right spot for the Rams offense after the weirdness of Australia. So I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. You got him top 30. Does he kind of break as an option? You really like playing as a flex. And obviously you're into him this week. So quick thoughts on Corum. He was the one bright spot in a lackluster performance by the entire Rams offense in week one. It was Blake Corum. He was the reason why they looked good at the beginning of the game. And I think they're going to continue to feature him alongside Kyron Williams. They're going to split drives. But if Corum continues to flash this explosive upside and they have positive game script in the second half against the New York Giants, I think Blake Corum could continue to run wild, get more touchdown opportunities. So I think that he's a great flex play. So obviously this is the top 36. A, things can change as more rankers put out their ranks. So just FYI, relative to what we're talking about, if you get in on Saturday or whatever, even Sunday morning, you might see some alterations. Maybe even these guys talking about it is going to change some of them. So no. And then B, there's many beyond 36 if you want to take a look at those players. And that leads us to a pick outside the top 36 that you guys are both into this week. Erickson, let's start with you. One of your favorite outside the top 36 ECR backs, probably you're going to have him higher, is who? Kalon Black. He is ECR RB 37. So sliding right into the threshold because we got proof of concept in week one that the 49ers, I think, want to lighten. I think it's going to be Christian McCaffrey. I think it's going to be Christian McCaffrey's load so that he plays the entire season and he doesn't break down. And that comes in the form of Kalon Black, who matched Christian McCaffrey in total touches in week one, actually had more carries and looked really good with those opportunities that he got. So I know that every game script is not going to work where the 49ers are up big against a certain opponent and more closely contested contests. Yeah, it's probably going to be Christian McCaffrey out there. But when you're playing the Miami Dolphins, who have arguably the worst roster, especially on defense in the NFL and playing them at home, this is a pretty. Obvious spot where if Vegas is right and the 49ers just steamroll as the Death Star and my second Star Wars reference on this show, Kalon Black is going to get them, by the way. What have you even seen the Star Wars? Yes, of course I have. I don't I don't believe that. I'm just like Death Star safe. What's a Jedi? I don't know, but I do know. Sounds like someone has seen it. You know, Kalon Black. Kalon Black. He's going to have opportunities in this matchup or he should have opportunities, especially on the ground. So. I think that as a desperation flex play again, he's probably been added to your roster. I know that sometimes you don't always feel super confident about adding a player. You just got off waivers. But if we get anything like a similar game script to week one for the San Francisco 49ers, Kalon Black should be involved a decent amount. Maybe score a touchdown. Kalon Black, like the what is it? McCaffrey's is Padawan or something like that. The Sith roll into. I mean, there's there's great references. You know, I mean, you're the relative relative expert here. Fitzy, you're running back outside the top 36. We've kind of alluded to him a little bit here, but let's talk about this running back. Travion Henderson, RB 33 for me. I think he's worthy of at least flex consideration back at practice on Tuesday. And I think we saw the limitations of Ramond Ray Stevenson against Seattle on week one. He's a really good back, but there's just not a lot of big play juice there. Travion Henderson absolutely has big play juice and the Patriots are probably going to need it without. AJ Brown in the lineup for the next month. Fantasy bros.com slash rankings. That's fancy bros.com slash rankings. If you want to check out all of the positional ranks, you want to look at more of the RB stuff, please do so. You can use that to hang along with us in the episodes and you can just use that throughout the week as well. If you're checking out the app, plenty of great tools are going to help you set all of these decisions if we're not out there. But that is going to do it for running back ranks. Know that we got wide receiver and a quarterback and tight end episode coming up here. So don't miss those. It's going to do it, though. Good luck in week two. I'm Chris Welsh. That's Pat Fitzmorris and Andrew Erickson. We'll see you in the next episode right here on fantasy pros. The fantasy football podcast by friends. Thanks for listening to the fantasy pros fantasy football podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple podcasts at fantasy pros.com slash review or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram and TikTok at fantasy pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash fantasy pros. We'll see you in the next episode. Swap out that other nicotine pouch for something softer and feel the difference right away. It's on on plus nicotine pouches with Nico silk mesh. No corners, no rough edges, just the softest pouch on the planet. When there's nothing between you and what's next. It's on with on plus nicotine pouches. Not all varieties available in all geographies. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Hey, it's Kelly Rowland. 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