Transcription
Last week, you really didn't have any options of who you're starting at running back, but we don't have as many byes you have to deal with now. So, it's actually a little bit better.
Tier one, we are going to have McCaffrey and Jonathan Taylor by themselves. McCaffrey's going up against Tampa, but in reality, he's matchup proof right now. If you were to remove all rushing statistics and just look at McCaffrey as a receiver, he would be a top five wide receiver in fantasy football. His targets by week are 10, 7, 15, 11, and 9. And what's incredible with CMC is he has had the low score this year of 22.7 points, but that's been with zero rushing touchdowns. Now, if I was a betting man, I would assume that Christian McCaffrey will actually score rushing touchdowns in the future. So, when that happens, CMC is essentially a lock to go over 30 fantasy points.
Um, I think I would almost want to put him in his own tier if it wasn't for Jonathan Taylor having such a good matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. I mean, the Cardinals are almost a joke at this point. Right now, you have the Indianapolis Colts with an implied team total of about 24 and a half points in this game, favored by about a field goal over Arizona, but this is in the dome. It's at home in Indianapolis. We've seen Jonathan Taylor reach a ceiling that only Rico Dattle can. I mean, he has had three games this year with effectively 30 or more fantasy points. So, obviously, a lot of this coming with big plays. A lot of this is coming with rushing touchdowns, but this Colts offense looks legit, so there's no reason to assume that that changes anytime soon.
Now, moving over to Bijan Robinson. Bijan's coming off the bye week, and Bijan's been very consistent this year as well. His worst game of the season was when the Atlanta Falcons got shut out against the Carolina Panthers and Bijan still scored 16.1 points. So most weeks Bijan Robinson's going to be an S tier running back. This is just a tougher matchup going up against Buffalo where you do have the Bills favored by about 4 and a half points in this game.
Now Josh Jacobs is the new running back one that I have for my fantasy football team. Previously with Saquon Barkley, but I have to at least put Jacobs into that RB1 slot against the Cincinnati Bengals. Cuz you look at Josh Jacobs against a bad defense. And what does he do? Oh, against the Dallas Cowboys before the bye, he drops 31.7 fantasy points. He has multiple rushing touchdowns. He has 26 opportunities. And what was very encouraging is actually seeing over the past two weeks, Jacobs have 13 total targets, which is much better than what we had at the beginning of the year when he really wasn't getting involved as a pass catcher whatsoever. And if you look at the spread of this game right now, the Green Bay Packers project to be the highest scoring offense in the NFL with an implied team total of about 29 and a half points. And they are favored by two touchdowns over the Cincinnati Bengals with their new quarterback Joe Flacco. So, um, Green Bay should be able to run it over and over and over again. And I'm really hoping that Josh Jacobs helps me take down Thomas, who's editing this video in the Flock League this week.
Now, Jamir Gibbs will be our next RB to look at. Gibbs obviously in my rest of season rankings is a lot higher than Josh Jacobs. I'd sell Jacobs for Gibbs in a heartbeat, but realistically, this is a tougher matchup going up against the Kansas City Chiefs. Typically, you see the Detroit Lions the very top of the league in terms of their overall projection, but right now, implied team total 25 points. So, they should be much less scoring than what you have with the Green Bay Packers. While at the same time, obviously, Gibbs has the competition with David Montgomery that Josh Jacobs just doesn't have to deal with.
Now, moving over to our next tier, we are going to have James Cook playing at Atlanta in the dome. If we look at what James Cook has done this year, you almost want to say that he's touchdown or bust, right? I don't even want to say touchdown or bust. He's really going to be dependent on if the Buffalo Bills are winning the football game, if they're able to win because if they're able to win, what you're going to see is you're going to see James Cook run the ball over and over and over again. And you're pretty much guaranteed to get that rushing touchdown. But we did just get a glimmer of what it looks like if the Buffalo Bills lose a football game against the New England Patriots where James Cook fell to 4.9 points against New England. And I'm sure a lot of people were relying on James Cook to win them their matchup Monday night and he fell flat, but realistically he's still a top 10 running back easily for us.
Um, Devin Singletary very easily a top 10 running back for us as well. Singletary has had at the very minimum 16 fantasy points every single week this season. Devin Singletary has given you 18 and a half points per game and the receiving involvement has only gotten better with Tyreek Hill going down.
Javonte Williams phenomenal matchup going up against the Carolina Panthers. Right now the only teams that project to score more points than the Dallas Cowboys this week are actually the Green Bay Packers, the Indianapolis Colts, and then the Buffalo Bills. So you should have a ton of points scored. Javonte Williams and his opportunities have been super consistent every single week against the Jets. He had 18. The week prior he had 23, 15, 25, and then 18 as well. So, you're getting a baseline floor of about 18 touches for Javonte. And he's looked really good, and this is a really good matchup. So, I think it's safe to rank him inside the top 10.
Kyren Williams will be our next RB. Kyren Williams, obviously, you had another fumble, which has been a continued trend with Kyren over the past two seasons. They had shown that they were trying to get Blake Corum more involved going up to that week five game where obviously Blake Corum fumbles the ball himself. But Kyren has been seeing lower market share numbers this season in comparison to what he had last year which is going to be a slight concern for me rest of season. But in this matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, the Los Angeles Rams are massive favorites. This Ravens defense has every other starter on it injured. And obviously with no Lamar, the spread on this game is massive. So you should have the Rams running the ball over and over again.
And then with Saquon Barkley, um, I'm gonna rank him down here at 10. Keep in mind, Saquon Barkley was my round one pick. So this maybe is a motivational ranking. Saquon, I hope you see this and I hope you earn your spot in S tier for the rest of the season. But right now, Barkley missed practice on Monday, got in a limited session on Tuesday with the knee. Out. They've already said that he's playing and in reality, I'm not that concerned with it. But if we're going to be honest with each other, Saquon Barkley has had zero games so far this season with 20 fantasy points. Now, he's still been fine, right? Like, I'm 4-1 with my fantasy team. And a big reason is is Saquon Barkley is just super consistent. I mean, you only have one game with fewer than 17 points where he scored nine and a half against the Rams a few weeks back. If you look at the projections on Underdog Fantasy for this Thursday night, Saquon still obviously projects to be an absolute must-start running back. He's currently at 85 and a half rushing yards higher or lower. He's at 16.45 fantasy points higher or lower, which obviously I'm really rooting that he hits the higher. Um, but realistically speaking, it's hard for me to rank him as an A tier running back or an S tier running back when we haven't seen 20 fantasy points this year. But if you think that this is the game, it happens on a short week at the Giants. You can take that higher on Underdog Fantasy of 16 and a half points. And Underdog Fantasy is available in almost every single state. They are doing the best new user offer that they have ever done, which is why we are seeing more people sign up to Underdog Fantasy with Code Flock right now than really at any time in the past five years. That's after you play your first $5 with Code Flock, you are going to get $100 added to your account and you'll get a free Jalen Hurts pick higher or lower half a total yard for that Thursday night game. And on top of that, you will get free questions that you can ask me in the live streams and I'm streaming answering fantasy football questions every single night until Christmas. The links in the description, the links in the comment section. My birthday's later this week. You using Code Flock and Underdog would be the best possible birthday gift you could get me.
Now moving over to C tier. Ashton Gentry has been super disappointing. This Raiders team has looked horrendous. But you have a couple things working in the favor of Gentry. Despite the Raiders being the worst team in football or close to it this past week, he still gives you about 16 fantasy points. And the reason being is we finally see him get the involvement as a receiver with 42 receiving yards, seven targets. You absolutely love to see it. Now, if I'm looking at this this week, the second thing I love seeing is you have a phenomenal matchup going up against the Tennessee Titans, who you could say is overall probably the worst team in the NFL. So, I really like what we have here with the Gentry play specifically this week. If you have him, I think you have to jam him.
And I have to play against Breece Hall. I'm worried about this as well where Breece Hall is now just the true three-down running back for the Jets. I mean, Breece Hall is a significantly better option at this point than he was when Dalvin Cook was in town and Dalvin Cook was making this a running back by committee. Now, this matchup against the Denver Broncos isn't the best for Breece. I mean, you have the Jets with an implied team total of about 18 points. And the spread on this game is about seven and a half. So, realistically, I don't know if the Jets are going to be able to run the ball a ton, but at the same time, Breece is giving you consistent usage as a receiver, so it's going to be okay.
Now, the third player that I freaking have to go up against this week, Thomas, the editors are stashing all these running backs. I have to play against Rico Dowdle. Um, Rico Dowdle just dropped 32.4 fantasy points. He ran for 206 rushing yards against the Miami Dolphins while at the same time giving you involvement as a receiver with 28 receiving yards off of four targets and three receptions. So, I am very nervous about this. It is a phenomenal matchup going up against the Dallas Cowboys. This is a revenge game for Rico Dowdle. And typically the Carolina Panthers project to be a bottom five offense in the league, but that's not the case this week because the Dallas Cowboys have a horrendous defense. You actually have Carolina with a projection of 23 points. So I I'm terrified to go up against Gentry, Breece, and Rico Dowdle.
Quentin Johnston will be our next RB. I know every single week people scream at me that I'm too low on Quentin Johnston and I really hope that's the case cuz I drafted a ton of him in underdog basketball drafts, but realistically I'm still looking at him as a running back that's a first and second down option in one of the league's worst offenses right now. The implied team total that you have here for the Browns is about 15 and a half points, which is right there with the Cincinnati Bengals projecting to be the worst offense in the league. Quentin Johnston looks like one of the best actual rushers of the football that the NFL has at the moment, but the receiving skill set's not massive and there shouldn't be a ton of touchdown opportunities in Cleveland.
Now, Rachaad White will be our next name. Now, obviously, you can tell with the rankings, I'm assuming Bucky Irving is going to be out. I'm assuming that Chuba Hubbard will be out as well. Now, if Hubbard plays, I'll update the rankings later in the week. Just make sure you're subscribed and Rico Dowdle will fall down, which I'm hoping that actually happens. But Rachaad White scores 23 points this past week against the Seattle Seahawks. He sees pretty much every single snap for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He has four targets out of the backfield with 14 carries. So, this is just the continued trend of Rachaad White doing Rachaad White things. He's not super efficient with his carries, 2.9 yards per attempt, but he has multiple rushing touchdowns. And again, you have the goal line role, you have the receiving role. And this matchup against the San Francisco 49ers is one in which the Tampa Bay Buccaneers project to score a ton of points. They have an implied team total of 25.3. Um, realistically, if y'all weren't going to bully me in the comments, I'd probably put Rachaad White ahead of Quentin.
Now, Travis Etienne is going to be the third running back in my starting lineup this week. I hope that he crushes. But again, what I'm very concerned about with Etienne is you don't have the role as a receiver at the moment that's going over to Tank Bigsby while at the same time you're getting squeezed for goal line opportunities. Now, I guess not only with Etienne, but with Trevor Lawrence himself taking them. So, um, Travis Etienne's been good, not great. He's been a consistent floor guy and definitely somebody that you want to have in your starting lineup every single week. The matchup against Seattle is okay. Right now you have an implied team total about 24 points for Jacksonville which is honestly higher than I thought it would be.
Now our next name will be Cam Akers. Akers has a couple different things working against him. One, we can see that you possibly have Tyrone Tracy. And if Tracy comes in, I'm still going to expect that Cam Akers is the starting running back for the New York Giants. But it'd be a lot more like a running back by committee than it is now where right now he's just dominating the opportunities. Over the past 3 weeks, he's had 18, 27, and 17. So, I'm afraid that this may turn into being a running back by committee and one of the league's worst offenses. For that reason, I threw Cam Akers on the trade block, and I'm just kind of hoping somebody trades for him under the assumption that he's going to continue to see 20 plus opportunities a game guaranteed. um obviously have a receiving role which is really nice here but this is also a really tough matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles. Now he's going to be in my starting lineup. I'm going to start four running backs this week. So I really hope he crushes on Thursday night but I am really scared about it to be honest.
Now Derrick Henry will be our next name. Um this ranking is operating under the assumption that you have no Lamar Jackson. And Derrick Henry over the past month has had a high score of 10.7 points. It looks like it's over for Henry. Now, this is my third season saying this, and we finally may have been correct, but also, I may be looking back on this two weeks from now and just crying myself to sleep every night as Derrick Henry comes back and he absolutely crushes us, but the offense is garbage. We obviously know that he has no role as a receiver. So, the only way that Derrick Henry gets there is with the rushing touchdowns. And the rushing touchdowns are really hard to come by with how bad the Baltimore Ravens project out to be with no Lamar Jackson. Obviously, you can say with no Lamar, they're going to try to run the ball, but frankly, they try to run the ball first with Lamar Jackson anyway, and at some point, you have to abandon it if the Rams are blowing you out by two touchdowns.
Now, Alvin Kamara will be the last D tier running back that we have. The usage dipped dramatically for Alvin Kamara this past week. Now, if you have Alvin Kamara, I think you have to maybe be a little bit delusional here and send up a prayer that it's they're making sure that he does not get hurt and they're making sure that they're going to be able to trade him to a team like the Los Angeles Chargers, to a team like the Kansas City Chiefs that are trying to contend and could use a running back. But as it stands right now, the usage is going in the wrong direction for Kamara who's not getting a ton of receiving involvement that Taysom Hill's now back in this offense. and you're in one of the worst offenses in the league. Now, I will say I am surprised like the New Orleans Saints project score 21 points this week, which is much higher than Baltimore, which is much much higher than the Giants. So, I I don't know if sports books are back to telling us that New England has a bad defense or something. I don't know.
Our next tier will be E. J.K. Dobbins is a running back that you probably just have to start at this point. This matchup against the Jets is great. We've seen every running back go up against the Jets and perform well. You have an implied team total of 25 and a half points here. You actually have J.K. Dobbins averaging 14 and a half points per game. And realistically, the only time that we have seen R.J. Harvey be viable is whenever they blew out the Cincinnati Bengals and at the very end of the game, they told R.J. Harvey, "All right, you're allowed to go in." Outside of that, it's just been the J.K. Dobbins show in Denver, and I don't think we can rank it as anything else in the weekly rankings until R.J. Harvey proves us otherwise.
Now Michael Carter is going to be RB21. I think this is about where we had him last week in the flex ranks. And honestly, came through with a better week than I could have expected. He had a total of 23 opportunities, which is just perfect. So, you may wonder like, why are we not moving up the rankings? And it's just because you're going from a super favorable matchup against a garbage Tennessee Titans team at home to now you have to travel to Indianapolis where obviously you are going to be dogs in this matchup. And while Michael Carter does look to be the clear lead back here, it's still kind of a committee. You still have Bam Knight getting some usage and Demetric Felton may still be involved to some extent.
Now DeAndre Swift will be our next name. With DeAndre Swift. Um, super solid floor. Like you just go through and you look at the usage through the first four weeks, 23, a 15, 17, 20 opportunities. I mean, his worst game as a receiver, he had three receptions in it. His worst game as a rusher, he had 12 carries. So, you know what you're going to get with DeAndre Swift, you're going to get like low-end RB2 production. I'm not super super concerned about the matchup against Washington. You currently have the Chicago Bears projected to score 23 points. Now on the flip side of this, the Commanders are projected to score 27 and a half. The Commanders are projected to stomp on the Chicago Bears.
And Jalen Wright looks great. But very similar to how we were hesitant to rank Woody Marks as a must-start option last week with these Day 3 running backs that don't have the opportunity all year and then they finally have their blow-up game. There's always the outside chance that the coaching staff use them as a better option in a committee rather than being a true lead RB. And I think we can just afford to see it one more week before we call Jalen Wright an A tier, a B tier running back as somebody that you absolutely have to get in your starting lineup. But there is an outside chance that Bill comes through, puts up another 20 plus points. He has another 16 plus opportunity game and then all of a sudden against Dallas in week seven, he's the RB12 in these ranks. And I'm crying that I traded him for Tony Pollard early in the year.
Now, I understand that Chase Brown gets a bump up with Joe Flacco, and don't get me wrong, I am very excited about the transition from Jake Browning to Joe Flacco as somebody who has teams on their team. But realistically, a big issue with Chase Brown so far this year, yes, has been the quarterback play, don't get me wrong, but it's also been the offensive line. And it's not like the Cincinnati Bengals traded for a new offensive line. So Chase Brown's been getting hit consistently behind it. A quarterback that causes the defense to respect the passing attack will help, but it's a horrible matchup going up against the Green Bay Packers where this game has the largest spread of any game in the league this week. So the Bengals probably aren't going to be able to run the ball.
Now looking at Kenneth Walker, it is tough for me to ever come out here and tell you that you need to start him. So far this season, over the past month, he has had five targets. He's had four receptions over the past month. If we are looking at the usage in comparison to Zach Charbonnet, Zach Charbonnet is getting goal line involvement. Zach Charbonnet is walking away with rushing touchdowns. The hope if you are a Kenneth Walker manager is one that eventually this team sees that Kenneth Walker is the much more efficient running back because he had 86 rushing yards off of 10 carries this past week, right? He looks great. So the hope is they realize, oh, he's much better than Charbonnet. Let's use him more. Or the hope is they're not using him that much because they want to eventually trade him with the last year of his contract up. So, I I don't know what it is. I think you kind of have to hope it swings in one direction because I I don't know if you can start him with how things sit.
Our next option is going to be Jaylen Warren. Um, if you're looking at Jaylen Warren, I just don't know what the split's going to be in Pittsburgh at this point. I would imagine that there's no way they can tell Kenneth Gainwell to go back to the bench after Kenneth Gainwell just had a game in which he scored more fantasy points this past week or two weeks ago before the bye than Jaylen Warren has in his entire NFL career in a single game. Like Jaylen Warren has never had as good of a game as what Kenneth Gainwell just did. So I'd be surprised if Jaylen Warren goes back to being a workhorse RB.
I'm looking at David Montgomery. He's averaging 14 points per game. So, he's been great, but it's really been with two games, right? It's been against the Baltimore Ravens, which they blew him out. It's been against the Cincinnati Bengals, which they blew him out. Are we expecting the Detroit Lions to blow out the Kansas City Chiefs? Um, right now, you have the Lions with an implied team total of 25 points and Chiefs with 27 and a half. So, the Chiefs are actually favored in this game.
Now going over to our next tier, you have Rachaad White in a very favorable matchup against the New Orleans Saints. Now Rachaad White's actually been the RB30 in points per game so far this season. So he hasn't been super compelling, but it doesn't matter how many times he fumbles. This coaching staff continues to go back to him. And now you have no Antonio Gibson. So we're going to throw Trevon Henderson here as well where the overall opportunities are going to be a little bit more concentrated with these two running backs. Now that you don't have to have the third guy siphoning off 15% of the backfield.
Tony Pollard will be the next name. So Tony Pollard's been actually okay this year. Like Tony Pollard's the RB27 and points per game. Much better than anybody else in this tier and better than some of the RBs in E tier. The issue is we had the quote coming out saying, "Oh, you know what? We're actually going to get more Tyjae Spears involvement going into the future." Which is kind of the expectation, which is why I benched Tony Pollard this past week. And in reality, he's probably just a bye-week fill-in.
Um, Zach Charbonnet, while he is just making Kenneth Walker unusable, he's still not usable himself. He's averaging like 8.98 fantasy points right now. Don't love the matchup playing in Jacksonville.
Going over and looking at R.J. Harvey, just no way you can put him in your starting lineup until we see otherwise. Hassan Haskins and Kamani Vidal, if I had to pick between the two of them, I'm going to go Hassan Haskins. But realistically speaking, I think that there's a chance that this team that was already skewing super pass happy, they just almost completely abandon the run now that they lose Amari and Hampton and Najee Harris, they split this backfield 50/50. And while I'm telling you like, oh, I prefer Hassan Haskins, I'm wrong all the time, right? So like I don't want to tell you like, oh yeah, you can start Hassan Haskins. Let's put him at RB20 in these rankings and then all of a sudden it's Kamani Vidal that is the guy in Los Angeles. So y'all know I mean we say this all the time but you're never going to be getting extra points to start the player a week early. You don't need to start them the week of their breakout. I think you can afford to roster both these running backs. See what happens this week and then potentially consider starting them in week seven.
Now G tier, we're going to have Kenneth Gainwell. Obviously, Gainwell will skyrocket under the scenario in which Jaylen Warren misses, but at the time of this recording, I'm expecting that Jaylen Warren's going to play. Keep in mind, if you subscribe, I'll update these rankings later in the week for you. And also, we are less than 5,000 subscribers away from hitting 300K. So, it's going to be a close call. And if we can do it by the end of the season, but if you go down there and drop a like on this video, it will help us potentially get there.
Our next option will be Tyler Allgeier. Tyler Allgeier just pretty much a premium handcuff to Bijan. Kry Miller a premium handcuff to Kamara. I mean realistically a Kamara trade looks possible. Then we have Isaiah Pacheco, Tyjae Spears, and Kareem Hunt. I know Kareem Hunt just had the rushing touchdowns this past week and I drafted a ton of Kareem Hunt in basketball drafts but realistically speaking anybody here in G tier you don't want to start. If I had to start one I would go with Gainwell. But I think that's all I got for you. Again, if you wanted to check out any of those pickups over on Underdog Fantasy, Underdog is doing the best offer that I have ever seen from them and I've been with them for the past 5 years as they've been the only sponsor of this channel. And that's after you play your first $5, you going to get $100 added to your account with Code Flock. And on top of that, you will get a free Jalen Hurts pick, higher, lower, half a total yard for the Thursday night game. And you'll get free questions that you can ask in the live streams. and I'm going to be streaming every single day until Christmas. You can find the link in the description as well as the comment section. Underdog Fantasy is available almost every single state and my birthday's later this week and it would be the best possible birthday present you could get me. But I really appreciate you and I really hope we get to see you out in the live stream later.