Transcription
I just watched Christian McCaffrey drop 40 fantasy points, and I'm ready to get you some updated rankings. And how the hell could I not have CMC at RB1? The top three running backs right now in fantasy, with McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, and Bijan Robinson, are all averaging at least 24 points per game. Do y'all want to know what Saquon Barkley was at last year when Saquon Barkley was a league-winning running back? Last season, Saquon Barkley was at 22. And we have three running backs giving you at least 10% more of that.
McCaffrey at 26.7 is the highest mark that we have seen since 2019, where he had that full season in Carolina, where he posted one of the best running back seasons of all time. Christian McCaffrey, at this moment, is averaging 9.7 targets per game. There's nothing to discuss, honestly, with Jonathan Taylor. How the hell is Jonathan Taylor sitting here so far this season, with six games played, and he has 10 rushing touchdowns? He's on pace to have almost 30 rushing touchdowns this season. Going over and looking at Bijan Robinson, just one of the most consistent running backs you're going to find in fantasy across every statistical measure, where you're looking at him almost every single week, giving you 20 opportunities, and doing so both as a receiver as well as a rusher, averaging six and a half targets a game. All three of these running backs are incredible. They are clearly the three most valuable players in fantasy, and nobody comes remotely close.
Now, going down to our next tier. This is where things get very awkward. I understand the Miami Dolphins look horrendous, and I understand if you want to put De'Von Achane much lower than this, but the fact of the matter is, this dude's worst game this season, he scored 13 points in. And that was when the Miami Dolphins offense went up against a tough rush defense with the Cleveland Browns, and Tua put up one of the worst performances you could possibly ever imagine. So, we just saw the absolute floor game with Achane at about 13 points, and clearly, you still have the ceiling there. I mean, he is currently sitting at 19 and a half points per contest, and obviously, these rankings are for a full PPR format.
Our next running back, Jahmyr Gibbs. I'll be live-streaming on Monday night, showing you the updated rankings after his game. I'm recording this before the Lions-Tampa game. I'll say the expectations currently, he's higher or lower 15.75 points on Underdog, higher or lower 90 and a half rushing yards. Now, moving over to James Cook. James Cook was on bye this past week, but that means that you're going to get him for an extra week going into the future, and he is averaging 17 and a half points per game. And I do still stand by, I think the Buffalo Bills are going to be just fine coming out of the bye week, even if you did have them just kind of failing there at the two prior weeks. And then with Josh Jacobs, he's a running back one for my team with Saquon Barkley being an ultimate failure. I really do like seeing him just give you either a rushing touchdown every single week, or even when he doesn't, the one week he didn't have a rushing touchdown, he had nine targets. The snaps were dramatically down with the calf injury. So, despite Jacobs actually being the only running back in this tier averaging 20 points per game, and he's through his bye, so you're going to get him for an extra week, I'll be a little bit more hesitant with how we rank him because he isn't 100%.
Now, of course, if you want to say, "Mason, you're an idiot. Jahmyr Gibbs should be ahead of De'Von Achane," by all means, go take him to have higher than 15 and a half fantasy points over on Underdog Fantasy. I'll leave you the link in the description, in the comment section, and I'll hook you up. If you use code flock, you'll get a $100 added to your account after you play your first five. And on top of that, you'll get a free Baker Mayfield selection, higher or lower, half a total yard for the Monday night game. Also, you are going to get free questions that you can ask me in the live streams, and I'm live-streaming every single day until Christmas. Underdog Fantasy is currently the number one app on the App Store because it's available in almost every state. It's the best app out there with the best promos right this second.
Now, looking at B tier, we are going to have Javonte Williams. It is absurd for me to rank Javonte ahead of Saquon Barkley, knowing that Javonte was going in double-digit rounds of fantasy drafts, and with Saquon Barkley, um, I drafted him in round one. So, it's absolutely brutal. But how could I ignore the fact that he's averaging four and a half targets per game? And on top of that, you're looking at, uh, Javonte Williams with almost 20 fantasy points per game in the Dallas Cowboys offense. Looks like one of the best offenses in the league.
Now, moving over and looking at Saquon Barkley. I, I have him on my team. He's been horrendous. He's averaging 13 and a half points per game, which is lower than any running back in this tier not named Derrick Henry. We'll talk about him in a second. And it doesn't look like it's getting any better anytime soon. Like, if anything, it's getting worse. He's decreased in fantasy points per game over the past three weeks. The dude's yet to have a single game with 20-plus fantasy points. I'm hoping as this Philadelphia Eagles offensive line gets healthier, all of a sudden Barkley will be in a little bit of a better spot, but if you look at the schedule coming out of the bye week, the Eagles are going to be trailing in a lot of these games. It freaking sucks. Like Kyren Williams has been better. Obviously, Blake Corum stole some work today, but I would say that you're not super concerned about Blake Corum. It was more so just a game environment type thing, where of course, you did have the Los Angeles Rams boat-racing the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Now, looking at Derrick Henry. Y'all know I am, um, historically a Derrick Henry hater. Like, we went through and we faded Derrick Henry in 2023. He scored 14 and a half points per game. Then we faded him in 2024, and he turned out to be a league winner. And then we faded him in 2025, and he's only averaging 12.2 fantasy points per game, the lowest mark that we have seen from him since 2017. And you know, I would love to come out here and say, "Oh, I told y'all the 31-year-old running back was eventually going to fall off." I can't do it. I, I got to assume that you're actually going to get a bounce back from Derrick Henry. Um, I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that this has just been an absolute garbage offense with no Lamar Jackson. If you look at sportsbooks right now, I mean, the Baltimore Ravens are right there. I mean, almost tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers to win this division in odds. So realistically, we are going to have the Baltimore Ravens winning a lot of these games, which of course will be a much better environment for Derrick Henry as he comes back in. Like, just imagine where Derrick Henry is going to be in our rankings when he gets to go up against the Miami Dolphins in week nine.
Now, Bucky Irving will be our next name. I'm going to assume that you have no Bucky Irving in week eight. He was ruled out so early for the week seven Monday night game. We haven't seen him at practice, dealing with both a foot and a shoulder injury. So, I'm assuming that you don't get Bucky Irving back until week 10. Now, obviously, once he's back, he'll be higher in these rankings, but you're taking on a lot of risk with the injury. And then looking at Quinshawn Judkins. I understand Judkins phenomenal this past week. Everybody in their mom knew he was going to be, he was everybody's quote-unquote favorite sleeper. He was higher or lower 104 and a half total yards on Underdog Fantasy. I think he had like the fourth highest projection of any running back this week. It was because the Miami Dolphins have the worst rush defense known to man. And the Cleveland Browns were actually favored. There won't be many games that they're favored in going into the future. I mean, you have, I would say, maybe three games on the schedule that we can say it's a possibility, against the Tennessee Titans, against the Raiders, and against the Jets. Outside of that, it's going to be a tough spot. Judkins is going to be in a bad offense, and he's not going to catch the ball. Then with Ashton Gentry, the Raiders are falling apart. They need the bye week this week. You're going to hope the offensive line gets a little bit healthier. You're going to hope that the offense can turn the corner, but dear God, I mean, what's really concerning is you actually see the receiving usage actually take a dip as well for Gentry this past week.
Now, going over to C tier, we are going to be led off with Cam Scataboo. This is the running back three on my fantasy football team. I was actually worried about him given the context of the New York Giants offense. I thought the Giants offense was going to be getting worse coming off a very strong performance at home against the Philadelphia Eagles. And no, I mean, Jackson Dart looks like he's legit. Jackson Dart looks like, I mean, not going to say he's Drake May level, but he's showing flashes of Drake May's rookie season, right? So, even if you have no Malik Neighbors, even if this offense had projected out to be horrendous, it looks like Dart's just going to be able to elevate it. And you had six targets for Cam Scataboo this past week, and he had 16 rushes as well.
Then going over and looking at Amari and Hampton. With Hampton, I know he was lower in our rankings than this last week, but every week that goes by, he is going to go higher and higher and higher in our rankings as he gets closer to returning.
Now looking at Travis Etienne. This is the RB4 for my fantasy football team, and I wish he was the RB100 because you are getting squeezed for the receiving work from both Tank Bigsby and you have Tank Bigsby squeezing you for carries as well. This past week, you have a season-low 11 opportunities for Travis Etienne. This offense looks like it's just absolute garbage at this point. And Etienne, I can't say we know the veteran's gonna expand his role coming out of the bye. Typically, what we're going to assume, of course, we're going to typically assume that the rookie, aka Tank Bigsby, is going to be the one expanding his role.
Then going over and looking at Breece Hall. I would love to rank Breece Hall higher than this because I think Breece Hall is a much better talent than where we have him ranked. But if he stays with the New York Jets, this is one of like the three teams that is just not going to provide fantasy points for anybody. And at least you can say with De'Von Achane, like, "Oh, Achane gives you a floor because he just has such a massive role as a receiver. Achane's played seven games, his worst game this year, he had 12.8 fantasy points." No, you go ahead and you look at Breece Hall, he's had four games under 10 points. Breece Hall has yet to score 20 points in a single game. He just failed in the best matchup you could possibly ever ask for, going up against the Carolina Panthers. So, in this spot, like, it's please for the love of God, just get traded. We had so many trade rumors circulating around Breece Hall coming into the season, like all offseason, we are hearing it. Now you have Breece Hall saying, like, "Hey, I need to be freed. Someone come save me." And for the love of God, please somebody trade for him, 'cause if he doesn't have anybody trade for him, he probably falls down to like RB24 in these ranks.
Then Alvin Kamara gets a bump up because Jamaal Williams gets injured. Um, if you're looking at Williams go down, Kamara actually played significantly more snaps this past week. Now, with that being said, led to 5.9 fantasy points, and Alvin Kamara is currently averaging even fewer points per game than what you have with Breece Hall. So, DeAndre Swift needs to be ahead of him. Like, if we're looking at this with DeAndre Swift, Swift back-to-back games with 20 points. My concern is Khalil Herbert actually did get a considerable amount of usage, and you do have that historical trend where typically we are going to expect that rookies improve their roles coming out of the bye week, which looks like it's actually happening here in Chicago. But if DeAndre Swift would be able to just consistently lock in 20-plus opportunities per game in this Bears offense, like DeAndre Swift realistically would be a B-tier running back for us. I'm just a little bit worried about Herbert.
Now, leading off D tier, we are going to have Jaylen Warren. And realistically, I probably need to move Jaylen Warren ahead of this because Jaylen Warren this past week, 21 opportunities. I had been really concerned about the Kenneth Gainwell usage, just considering how good Kenneth Gainwell looked in the absence of Jaylen Warren back in week four, but hell, Jaylen Warren played almost all the snaps this past week in a game that was very close against the Cincinnati Bengals. So, it looks like maybe you don't have to be concerned about Gainwell.
Now, going over and looking at David Montgomery. Obviously, Montgomery hasn't played just yet. I'll let you know what the projections are on Underdog Fantasy for tonight's game if anybody's interested. He's currently higher or lower 10.05 fantasy points, higher or lower 44 and a half rushing yards, which I know you may think, "Oh, that's easy for him to get higher than 45 and a half rushing yards," but he's only done it three times this year, and he's missed it twice.
Then looking at J.K. Dobbins. Um, Dobbins still the starting running back this past week, very comfortably for the Denver Broncos, but again, the issue that you're going to have with J.K. Dobbins is if he doesn't score a touchdown, he's bummed because he won't catch the ball. Like, he's had one game with more than five receiving yards this year, and zero games with 10 or more. Like, you go through and look at this, the games in which he has not scored a rushing touchdown, he had 11.5, four, and nine fantasy points. So, even if he's the starter, you're not excited to start him.
Um, Chase Brown had his best game as a rusher this past week. And I know everybody in the live stream screamed at me and was so upset that I did not have Chase Brown ranked as a top 12 running back, even though he had 9.8 yards per carry. And they watched the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he looked good. Well, the fact of the matter is, this dude's averaging 10.1 points per game. While the Cincinnati Bengals won a game on Thursday night against an division opponent, how many games do we think the Bengals are winning going into the future? Is this a good offensive line? The answer to those two questions are little and no. So, not super excited about Chase Brown.
Um, Kenneth Walker looks like he's the better running back between the two guys in Seattle. Um, but if they're split in the backfield 50/50 at the moment, I don't want to trust either player. Like, Kenneth Walker is actually higher or lower 9.35 points on Underdog Fantasy at the moment for tonight's game. And if you look at Zach Charbonnet's currently higher or lower 8.05. So, they are projected out to be almost the same. Now, of course, if either running back were to get injured, the other one turns into a league winner.
Now, Jaleel McLaughlin will be our next guy with JCM. When is it going to happen? He comes through 13 carries with negative one receiving yards this past week. So, the thing is very much like J.K. Dobbins, he's going to be a touchdown or bust running back. In the games in which he does not score a rushing touchdown, he has scored 1.7, 7.7, 5.8, and 4.2 fantasy points. In a full PPR format, you're just going to be getting lapped by the guys that will catch the ball.
Rhamondre Stevenson looks like he's very clearly the starting running back in New England. Dominates the snaps this past week, but also Rhamondre Stevenson has four games this year where he scored 5.1 points or fewer. So, like, even if Rhamondre is dominating the snaps, I don't know if you could call him startable.
Um, Jordan Mason for sure would be much higher than this in my rankings if it wasn't for the fact that you're about to get Aaron Jones back in. But Jordan Mason, very similar to Rhamondre Stevenson, is just going to be one of these running backs that's a touchdown or bust name, not having a receiving role. And now you're about to get pushed for some of these snaps from Aaron Jones.
Then back-to-back running backs here. We're going to have Rico Dowdle as well as Chuba Hubbard. Rico Dowdle scored 10.8 points this past week, and Chuba Hubbard was at 7.5. Chuba Hubbard played more snaps. Chuba Hubbard was the technical starter, but to be honest with you, I don't know how much it matters because again, if you are going to look at this, it's a running back by committee where they're each seeing a decent amount of work, and it's a garbage offense. While I understand the Carolina Panthers won this game against the New York Jets, how many games do you think they're going to be winning going into the future, and they're going to be able to just run the ball over and over again?
Now, Rachaad White obviously way higher in our weekly rankings. Like, Rachaad White, um, week to week projects out extremely well when you have no Bucky Irving. He's currently higher or lower of 75 and a half total yards on Underdog for tonight's game. Um, and realistically, I think not only do you get him in week seven, but I think he's also going to be the starter in week eight. And while I would hope Bucky Irving's back in week 10, it's no guarantee whatsoever. So, I think Rachaad White's the most premium of the handcuff backs.
Zach Charbonnet and not startable unless you were to get an injury to Kenneth Walker. He's been the less efficient running back between the two of them, where he is currently sitting at 2.6 yards per carry. But in games in which Walker's missed in the past, he has been a league winner.
Then Isiah Pacheco looks like he is going to be getting steamed up. One, you have the first game in which he has scored a rushing touchdown this season, and it amounted in a whopping 12.4 fantasy points. Let's give him the golf clap. Congrats, Isiah Pacheco. Congrats, anybody that has Isiah Pacheco on their team. You're doing great. Um, but all jokes aside, he is going to be a little bit better now that you have no Kareem Hunt.
Trevon Henderson will be our next name with Trevon. I, I, I don't know. I would throw them in the same bucket as Jaylen Wright. You would never in a million years consider starting these guys unless you were to get an injury to Rhamondre Stevenson or you were to get an injury to J.K. Dobbins. They're just premium handcuff running backs.
Like, Tony Pollard will obviously be higher in my weekly rankings. I have Tony Pollard on my own team. He's my RB5, but realistically, what's the ceiling with Pollard? Like, you had no Taj Spears for half the year so far, and Pollard's yet to have a game with 15 or more fantasy points. So, I think the floor is higher with Pollard, the ceiling's higher with the rookies. Um, and Woody Marks, I have no idea what to expect. He played 41% of the snaps this past week. And the offensive line's much worse than what you have in Denver, what you have in New England. So, if I was betting on a rookie running back with upside, I'd prefer the guys with the draft capital behind the better offensive lines.
Um, and then Cam Akers looks like he is the starting running back in the short term here for the Chargers, but this offensive line's absolute garbage. I know Akers was, um, a great play against the Miami Dolphins, but realistically, you're eventually going to get Joshua Kelley back in, and you could potentially get a trade here for the Chargers as well.
Um, Aaron Jones will be our next name. I think Aaron Jones should come back soon. Um, the thing with Jones is I'm going to expect that he kind of operates similar to Zach Charbonnet. You're not going to be able to start him, but what you will get is you will get, um, him just eating in and capping the upside of Jordan Mason.
Then we'll have three Arizona running backs here with Bam Knight, Michael Carter, Trey Benson. Um, realistically, Bam Knight, Michael Carter operated in a three-man running back by committee this week. Neither guy played 50% of the snaps or more. So, I'm not wanting to play any of these RBs. But I think that's all I got for you.
Of course, um, if you want to scream at me that, "Oh my gosh, Jahmyr Gibbs is way too low," by all means, feel free to go take the higher than 15.5 fantasy points on Underdog Fantasy. I'll leave you the link in the description as well as the comment section. If you use code flock, you're going to get $100 added to your account after you play your first five. You'll get a free Baker Mayfield pick, higher or lower, half a total yard for tonight's game. And on top of that, you'll be getting free questions for the live streams that we're doing every single day until Christmas. And lastly, Underdog is the number one app in the App Store because one, it's an incredible app. Two, they're available in almost every state. And three, at the same time, they have the best promos in the industry right now. But I think that's all I got for you. I really appreciate you and really hope I get to see you out with the live stream later.