Transcription
All right, let's dive into the running back rankings. Like I said, Santa gets here in an hour and a half. So, we got to be quick about this.
Now, S tier, it's very obvious. If you have McCaffrey, if you have Bejon, if you have Gibbs, if you have Achan, you put them in your lineup. You do not think about it.
Now, going over to the A tier, I want to say it's obvious here as well, but just in case anybody crazy asked about it, we'll talk about him anyway. Um, James Cook, the very top of the league right now when it comes to rushing. This dude has over 1,500 rushing yards. He has 292 fantasy points so far this season. He's RB6 in points per game. He's coming off a game against Cleveland where he just went for over a 100 rushing yards, multiple rushing touchdowns, back-to-back games with multiple rushing touchdowns for James Cook. He's been incredible. There's a tough matchup upcoming for Philly. And again, while he took all the points in Buffalo last week against Cleveland when I so desperately needed them with Josh Allen, he could at least throw me a bone, help me win that underdog tournament that we had just previously looked at. I know I already fluxed this, but I want to make sure everybody's on the same page with what I am sweating right now. We made a bunch of underdog teams, went to the finals. Our results on underdog this year have been incredible. But this big dog team could get 200,000 for first place. There are only 10 teams left. We are one of them right now. Has an expected equity of 64,000. But I'd really like 200,000. I know that sounds a little greedy. And James Cook, buddy, lay off the touchdowns. Let Josh Allen have some of them so I can get some help.
Now going over to Jonathan Taylor. With Taylor, the dude's playing legitimately 100% of the snaps, 100%. If you were looking at this against Seattle, 13.1 fantasy points, 25 carries. Against San Fran, 16.9 fantasy points, 16 carries, four targets last week, three targets this week. So, he's averaging like 23 opportunities a game with Philip Rivers while at the same time he's playing 100% of the snaps like we already said. So, if we're going to look at JT, this is a running back that is an auto start where if you're looking at the implied team total of 21 points, the Indianapolis Colts should be a-ok. Okay, here.
Now, Saquon Barkley, credible play last week. Could have been a much bigger game if he didn't get tackled at the one-yard line and then obviously you had the touchdown going elsewhere after that happens. For whatever reason, the Philadelphia Eagles are allergic to giving Barkley the ball at the goal line, but it is what it is. Match up against Buffalo, I don't love. This game has an over under 53 and a half points, I'm sorry, 43 and a half points, so it should be a lower scoring contest, but still, you know, you jam Barkley.
Um, Genty coming off a monstrous week. Like, absolutely hilarious that Genty went through a three-game stretch where he scored 12.1, 5.8, then 8.2 two fantasy points and then the Las Vegas Raiders had the worst offensive projection that we have seen all season against the Houston Texans of all teams, um, last week and Gingi drops 31.8 fantasy points. He has a 60-yard receiving touchdown, big rushing touchdown as well, 26 total opportunities this week. It's a much better matchup against the Giants. The Raiders project out much better. So, I'm gonna have Genty a lot higher in our rankings this week. Obviously, it doesn't hurt that he's coming off a monstrous performance.
Chase Brown was the running back one overall this past week. Samaji Perine had a role, don't get me wrong. Just frankly, it didn't matter when Chase Brown had multiple receiving touchdowns and the rushing touchdown. It was a great matchup last week against Miami, but he gets another great matchup this week against the Arizona Cardinals as well. And I believe the Cincinnati Bengals project to be the highest scoring offense of the week.
Now Travis CTN, great match up against Indie. You're six and a half point favorites here. Not worried about Shel Tudin. You had 16 opportunities two weeks ago. That was when you played the Jets and you dropped 31 and a half points. This past week you had 21 opportunities in a tough match up against the Denver Broncos. And again, this matchup against Indie in the dome should be much much better.
Now moving over to Gavante. Javvante implied team total of 29 and a half points. We are super high on the Dallas Cowboys wide receivers of course and we're going to be right there as well where if you are looking at this, um, every single week Javvante has had double-digit opportunities. This past week, yes, it was the lowest of the season with only 12 against the Los Angeles Chargers, but against Washington, I really do like this matchup.
Kairen Williams is losing work to Blake Cororm. That's not that big of a surprise, but frankly, it doesn't really matter when you get to play against Atlanta this week. And even if Blake Cororm comes out and has eight, nine, 10 carries, Kairen's still going to absolutely smash.
Bucky Irving is getting squeezed both by Rashad White as well as Shawn Tucker. Rashad White's getting work as a receiver. Shawn Tucker's getting work at the goal line, which is really hurting Bucky where he had 71 rushing yards this past week and he had 7.1 fantasy points. The saving grace for Bucky though is it's an incredible matchup playing at Miami where again Chase Brown was the running back one overall this past week against that Miami B, I'm sorry, that Miami Dolphins defense.
Looking at Josh Jacobs. I mean, I literally called it the freaking morning of the game. I said it on the live stream as somebody who had Josh Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson. I was praying Jacobs just sat so I could just start Emanuel Wilson, he could get all the touches because my biggest fear happened last week of Josh Jacobs playing playing half the snaps, fumbling the ball at the goal line, and then getting benched through the rest of the game. Jacobs and Josh Allen are the reason I freaking lost in the Flock League. Um, I'm assuming like I I have no idea if Jacob's gonna play or not. I would be honest. If Jacobs plays, you gotta play him. I would hope he gets in a practice before then.
Um, and then Derrick Henry, of course, I would say you have to put in in the same game. Um, Derrick Henry coming off a big fantasy day against the New England Patriots. Um, this game should have a ve I mean a very low total in it though. Puts I believe in over under 40 and a half points.
Now moving over to our next tier. I'm going to be making this ranking under the assumption that Trevon Henderson misses. And if Trevon Henderson misses, while I am a Readadre Stevenson hater, I do not like Raadre Stevenson. If we make the ranking under the assumption that Antonio Gibson's out for the season, you have no Trevy on Henderson. Raadre is the last dude standing. And at the same time, you're playing against the New York Jets. This is a Jets team that just allowed Chris Alav to advance us in that underdog tournament that I'm going to keep talking about because again, God, we freaking crushed our underdog teams and I really hope we get lucky and win a tournament this year. But and this Jets team two weeks prior that allowed Travis Eten to be the running back one overall in the week. So if you have Raandre and Trevon does not play, Raadre is going to be a must start running back.
Amari and Hampton is gonna have a tough match up against Houston, but again, it's not like he can just run for the Hills because if you would have done that this past week with Genty, which I rank Genty incredibly low because of this matchup. Come on, flock fantasy.com, you're not going to load this for us. Um, you actually would have missed one of the biggest, the biggest Genty game of his NFL career. So, I would still play Hampton, young rookie running back expanding his role.
R.J. Harvey against the Jackson Jaguars this past week did scale back. Only had seven carries. Obviously had a rib injury going into this, but he was fully removed from the injury report. This match up against the Chiefs, you have like a two touchdown spread where the Broncos are supposed to just boat race Kansas City here, which you'd assume that they would be able to run the ball consistently.
Then going over to Tyrone Tracy. Um, Tracy is in one of the very few matchups in which the New York Giants could comfortably win. They're playing against the Las Vegas Raiders here. Tyron Tracy back-to-back games with over 60% of the snaps. I mean, he's had 15 plus opportunities in every game but one since taking over with Cam Scaboo going down. So, um, safe play, great matchup.
DeAndre Swift, you have Calungai obviously split in the backfield, but you get 15 opportunities in a good offense and a game environment that should be very high scoring.
Aaron Jones has Jordan Mason already rolled out in his backfield, so Aaron Jones going to be the only guy to touch the ball here. And Aaron Jones has a receiving role. The issue is they're on their third string quarterback and the Minnesota Vikings project to be a bottom five offense of the week. So Aaron Jones, not super exciting.
Going over looking at Rico Dow. Um, Dael had six targets this past week combined with his nine carries. So, 15 opportunities, 17 the week before that, 20 the week prior. So, Dowel has had the opportunities as of late. He hasn't really done much with them. And it's a really tough matchup that you have going up against Seattle this week.
Moving over to our next tier, I wish I would have started Kenneth Gainwell. Now, don't get me wrong, if I bring out the calculator here, I believe I still would have lost in the flock league this past week, but it would have been a hell of a lot closer if I had Gainwell in my lineup instead of the bum Bree Hall or the bum Josh Jacobs. Gainwell played over 50% of snaps and back-to-back weeks. Gainwell has had seven targets in every game over the past three weeks. Um, looking at this, I would say you probably see even more targets going in his direction with no DK Metap, but also tough match up against a good Cleveland Browns defense, even if this Browns rush defense has been worse as of late. And you have a very low total here for this Steelers offense.
Now looking at Woody Marks, I am making this ranking under the assumption that he is healthy. Do we know that's going to be the case in week 17? No. But if he were to be healthy regardless, I wouldn't be that excited to start him because it's going to be a very low total in this game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Michael Carter this past week did play 54% of the snaps against the Atlanta Falcons. It's not like he had everything in this backfield. I will say this does project to be one of the highest scoring games of the week against the Cincinnati Bengals though. Over under this game, 52 and a half points. Carter can see targets out of the back field. So, I would start him over Bree Hall as somebody who played freaking Bree Hall this past week and one of the many reasons why I lost and got bounced from the playoffs. Thanks, Bree. Um, he has scored fewer than 10 fantasy points in three games straight. The volume's consistently there, but I mean, going through and looking at the efficiency, it's not the best. While at the same time, we can say this offense projects to be the second to worst offense in the league this week, only ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs.
I know a lot of people are going to be really excited about Kenneth Walker coming off a game in which he had 25 points. That was a season high for him. But has anything changed for No, not at all. This is the same running back that scored 2.9 points in week 15. The same running back that scored 3.8 points in week 14. He had 14 opportunities, 46% of the snaps. He is still very much splitting this backfield 50/50. He's still the running back 27 this season, averaging 11 fantasy points per game.
Jaylen Warren, on the other hand, went nuclear this past week. Jaylen Warren performed incredibly well, 29.1 points. But with that in mind, back-to-back games now where three straight games he's played fewer than 50% of the snaps. Um, it's a tough matchup against Cleveland. Kenneth Gainwell seeing the majority of the targets and in a full PPR format. That's what I would prefer at this point.
Going over and looking at Tony Pard lead back in Tennessee, this match up against New Orleans is one of the very few that they could actually win. But still, this offense projects be horrible. Cleveland Browns offense projects to be horrible against Pittsburgh. I believe this projects be the lowest scoring game of the week with an overunder of like 30 what three and a half points. Um, but I'm assuming Dylan Samson's going to be the starting running back if he does play and if he is healthy enough. And you will have no Quinn Sean Judkins.
And then going over to Blake Cororm. Blake Cororm has scored a touchdown in four games straight, but he very much is still a touchdown or bust running back. He only played 29% of the snaps this past week. And the dude has 26 receiving yards this season. He's averaging 1.73 receiving yards per game. So would be a little hesitant there to just say that and none of these running backs in this last year you should start.
Chuba Hubbard. Yes, technically has a role here, but it's a bad offense. You're going up against the Seattle Seahawks and you've scored fewer than five points in back-to-back games.
Technically, Cal Manungai has a role in Chicago, but it's not a receiving role. I dogs to the ners.
Chris Rodriguez technically is the starting running back for the Commanders, but this dude has 12 receiving yards on the season. He's averaging one receiving yard per game. You're a touchdown or bust running back where you're ceiling, if you score a touchdown, 14 fantasy points.
Zack Charbanet is in that same committee with Kenneth Walker. The only difference is he doesn't have the big play upside.
David McGomery, they're phasing out in Detroit at this point. The dude, oh my gosh, I'm actually surprised to see this. Played 28% of the snaps two weeks ago and 18% of the snaps this past week. I need to move McGomery even lower than this.
Emanuel Wilson. Like again, if Josh Jacobs misses, he goes up to being a B tier running back, which I was hoping with somebody at Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson last week that you would have Emanuel Wilson miss. I'm sorry, Jacobs miss, so I could just jam Emanuel Wilson.
Spears was a top 12 running back last week, but should you bank on that? No. It was his first game since week eight having double digit points, and he's only done it twice this year.
Isaiah Pacheco projects being the literal worst offense in the league with 11 and a half points. Do not play a single Kansas City Chief this week for the love of God.
And Audrey Estame, I know we said in the live stream last week, do not play him. He's a bad running back. There's no interest of a bad running back and not a great offense. And I'll stand by that again this week. There's no interest in Aric Esté. I don't know why you would have done it last week. I don't know why you would have done it this week. But I think that's all I got, ladies and gentlemen.
Um, again, as you can tell, I'm a little bit butt hurt about getting bounced from the Flock League, but I will say with that, um, underdog teams absolutely crushing it. Looks like we have a chance to repeat what we did on Underdog, win some tournaments like we did a couple years back. That way, y'all can hear me say every single day for the next two years, join Underdog. This is where I won $200,000 in 2025. Blah blah blah. Great advance rates for the regular season. Above average advance rates in weeks 15 and 16. What does that lead to? That leads to a ton of finals teams. That leads to $78,000 of equity just in the teams that we have left. Not even to mention all the teams we've already gotten paid out for.
Um, but what's the other thing I need to say? Obviously, I don't need to give y'all the 20th,000th underdog ad. Y'all have heard me say um since we've been doing this channel, but I will say that the promos on Underdog right now for the people that are already on there, they're incredible. Just like the very beginning of the season where y'all know the very beginning of the season, they push out a ton of promos. They're doing the same thing on Christmas. So, I have the underdog app. Y'all know I'm freaking checking it every day, checking my scores. And one thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go over to the little pick them tab and I'm going to use the Jir Gibbs gimme pick high or lower half a total yard for Christmas and I'm going to check what the unwrap your promos are on Saturday and New Year's Eve and then I know for sure I'm going to be using that 50% profit boost on Monday. So make sure y'all are checking the app at least on Christmas so you can take advantage of those promos because there's no reason not to.
But much love ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate you. I hope that Santa brings you some phenomenal gifts. And I am going to be praying that George KD plays this week. Please, please, please, please, here's this what I'm going to end on. Please spam the chat. Do you think George KD's playing or not? Because if I'm going to I Okay, so that big dog. Let me just show y'all real quick. We got time. All right, y'all can bounce if y'all want to, but that's what I've been talking about non-stop to my family this week, trying to explain to them what this is. So, this is our final big dog team, right? It's over $600,000 in prizes split among 10 teams. Um, of course, we have Quinton Johnson on it. We wouldn't have got here without Quinton Johnston. Um, this is the tournament prize breakdown. There are 10 teams left. 200k to first, 100k to second, 80k to third, 70k to fourth, um 50k to fifth, 45 to sixth. So obviously, you see, and then 10th place gets $10,000. So a massive spread. 10 teams left, $190,000 spread between the two. So this matters. I hate to say it, like honestly, I would have had more fun winning the Flock League, but for my bank account, this matters way way way way more, even if it would be less fun. But anyway, this is the team we got and what I need is George KD to suit up. For the love of God, buddy, I'm the only person out of the last 10 that have George KD. I lost Jordan Mason and I lost Quinn Shawn Judkins this week to injury. So, I'm running thin on depth. If I also lost George KD, it's going to be incredibly tough. So people in the chat, let me know if he's going to be there. I pray to God that he is, but nothing I can do. It's best. There's no waiver wire. So I'll just be sitting here biting my fingernails all the way up until San Francisco kickoff and sweat my little booty off this week. [snorts] But I really appreciate y'all sticking with me this year. I'm very much rooting for y'all on this beautiful Christmas day. And yeah, I'll possibly stream after the games.
But here's the thing. I mean, obviously, I didn't do the week 15 recap or week 16 recap, whatever the hell it was last week. I didn't do the recap this week either. Am I I'm not going to come out here and say everything's changed. You got a championship team. You know what to do with it. The only thing that matters at this point is weekly rankings. Was the last thing we put out. I mean, whatever we put out last week, we only did weekly rankings. We didn't do the Waverwire video last week. This week, we only did weekly rankings. We didn't do the Waverwire video either. I don't know. We'll do the Christmas Day recap stream just because again, what is there to change your waiver? You're not making waiver moves at this point and at the same time, you're not making any trades. But appreciate you ladies and gentlemen. I will make sure that I make those rankings tweet tweaks on the site right now. Make sure I get those quarterback and tight end rankings updated as well. But much love, ladies and gentlemen. Appreciate you and wishing you the best of luck for this week.