Transcription
It is very sad to say, but we are halfway through the season at this point. So, you don't have much longer with me and you don't have much longer with these running back rankings videos.
Let's go to tier S where we are going to be led off with Jonathan Taylor. Um, we've had three running backs as our S tier options for about the past month with Taylor, Bejon, and CMC. It seems like just whoever has the big week is the guy at the very top. Whoever has the bad week is the guy at the very bottom. In reality, I think at this point Jonathan Taylor's probably going to stick here because he is averaging 27.1 points per game. You do have to deal with the week 11 bye-week, which is going to be a little bit frustrating. But if you were looking at his points per game output, it's even understated to the true upside that he has where he's had about five games this year with 30 or more fantasy points and he's had like three games this year with fewer than 30. Absolutely incredible. He can single-handedly win you any given week, even if your other lineup options disappoint.
And then Christian McCaffrey, you can kind of say the same thing. This past week against the Houston Texans, Christian McCaffrey was the RB23, which is very bad considering the worst week that you have had from McAffrey so far this season. He was the RB8 in a PPR format. I mean, realistically, this past week was just horrible with only 43 receiving yards. Oh my gosh. Only 43 receiving yards from your running back. That's the worst he's given you all season, right? So, this is the absolute basement floor for CMC. The hope is you have Brock Pery coming back in soon to elevate the entire offense. It was a really tough matchup against Houston. Don't stress it.
And then with Bean Robinson, you really have to hope that we are going to be getting back in a Mr. Michael Penn because apparently Kirk Cousins is the worst starting quarterback in the NFL. He can't even beat freaking Tua. But Bejon I still have confidence in rest of season. And Bejon is the one running back in this tier that is yet to go through his by-week.
Now going over to A tier, we are going to be led off with Jir Gibbs who's just gone through his own buy. I mean, if we're looking at the actual volume, he's averaging 14.9 carries per game and four targets per game, which is pretty much right in line with what you add last season. The only thing is the overall efficiency is down slightly. He's the army eight in points per game averaging 20 points a contest, but realistically this is an elite offense. He has a receiving role. You do have some tough matchups going into the future. But I mean, hell, you get week 14 against the Dallas Cowboys where Jir Gibbs will probably be high or lower 38 and a half fantasy points on underdog.
Now, Devon Achan will be our next name with Achan. Um, you've seen him every single week this year give you at least 16 fantasy points. Actually, I'm sorry I lied to you. He had 12.8 against the Cleveland Browns in week seven where the Miami Dolphins played the worst game of football that we had seen all year, but outside of that one performance, it's 16 points every single week. Incredibly high floor that you get as a receiver and obviously you get the big play upside as a rusher.
Then James Cook not giving you that much usage as a receiver so far this season where he's actually only had a total of 14 targets, 12 receptions through about seven games played. But ultimately, it doesn't matter if he's going to go out there and he's going to have 753 rushing yards, and seven rushing touchdowns. He's actually accounted for 58% of the carries for the Buffalo Bills so far this season, including Josh Allen's carries, and that is a careerhigh.
Um Josh Jacobs is the running back one for my fantasy team. I mean I guess I have Saquon Barkley as well. So this is my RB1 RB2 combo. Um realistically I'd still put Jacobs ahead of Barkley because Barkley just got dinged up with a groin injury. But what's really good for Barkley is the fact that you have the week nine buy. So a team like myself, I was already planning on not having Saquon Barkley week nine. And early reports are that Barkley's probably going to be good to go week 10 against the Green Bay Packers. But you do have some pretty tough matchups rest of season for all Philadelphia Eagles players.
Now, moving over to our next running back, we are going to have Javvante Williams. Um, obviously the Dallas Cowboys really disappointed this past week against Denver, but even in a disappointing game for the Cowboys. Javvante Williams still comes through with 17.9 fantasy points and he still has 15 opportunities. He's averaging like 18 opportunities a game. He has the red zone role where so far this season he's had 12 carries inside the 5yd line and he's had 34 targets as well pacing to be a careerhigh for both statistics. Actually if you look at his 12 carries inside the 5yard line according to flockfantasy.com that is already the best mark that we've seen through his entire career.
Um, looking at Kairen Williams, um, there's not much to discuss outside of you do have some concerning trends with Blake Cororm's overall snap rate. Like Kirn, yes, against the Jacksonville Jaguars, maybe this snap rate of 64% isn't the most predictive thing going into the future because at the end of the day, this was a blowout against Jacksonville that where they didn't need to use Kairen at the end. But ultimately, Kairen Williams is down from 88% of the snaps on a per game perspective in 2024 to 77% of the snaps for the Los Angeles Rams this season. He's fallen from 19.8 carries per game down to 15.3, but the saving grace so far has actually been he's over doubled his receiving output, which is obviously very nice in full PPR formats.
Um, Derrick Henry, we added that BO candidate. I thought Derrick Henry was going to be a much better option once you got to some of these competitive contest with Lamar Jackson back in. You don't have Lamar back in, but you still have Derrick Henry coming out with multiple rushing touchdowns. You really got to hope that Lamar Jackson is back in week nine. Obviously, Lamar's absence is going to greatly impact what we have with the projections for Derrick Henry.
Now, Bucky Irving is the running back that I had talked with Zach in my league about potentially trading for before week eight, just because in week eight, I had the win pretty much already locked up with how things were playing out. So, I was like, "Oh, okay. Well, maybe I'll trade for Bucky." And what scared me off ultimately is while yes, you have the week nine buy and while yes, he's already missed four games, so he's has five weeks to rest. I have no idea if he's coming back week 10. I have no idea if he's coming back week 11. Y'all know I live stream literally every single day. I will until Christmas. And I asked y'all in the live stream on Sunday morning. When do y'all think we get Bucky Irving back? And we had half the chat saying he's never coming back. Crazy people. I mean, may I don't I don't know. And then we had half the chat saying he's come back week 11, week 12. But the reality of the situation is nobody knows. Nobody knows at all.
We'll say Rashad White doesn't look that great right now. And we should have known that Bree Hall was going to crush to the greatest extent possible last week when underdog fantasy had him like higher lower 100 total yards and had him projected out as a borderline like top six running back. I was an idiot. We didn't rank him there um against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Now I will say of course underdog knows more than you do. They know more than I do. If you think you know more than them, I got great news for you. We got a offer on Underdog Fantasy where if you use code flock, you're going to go win $100 added to your account after you play your first five. Plus, you'll get a free Patrick Mahomes pick, high or lower, half a total yard for tonight's game. And you'll get free questions for the live streams and we're streaming every single day until Christmas answering those questions. Underdog Fantasy is the number one sports app in the app store because one, they're an incredible app, two, they're available in almost every state, and three, they have the best promos in the industry at the moment. You'll get them all with code flock with a link in the comment section or description.
Now, Ashton Genty will be the last running back in this tier. With Genty, you have to hope the offensive line is getting healthier coming out of the by-week. Um, realistically, the usage has been great. He's played 70% of the snaps. He's actually seen about 16 carries per game and three targets per game. So, averaging 19 opportunities a contest. I still think that Ashen Genty is a phenomenal talent. The issue that you've had up until this point is just this Raiders team is god awful. Now again, the hope is that this offensive line gets better so they can move the ball downfield more often and get more trips to the red zone.
Now, I am recording this super late Sunday night. It's embarrassingly late right now. I should be asleep, but I wanted to get y'all this video. And sadly, I do not have an update with Quinn Sean Judkins and the shoulder injury right now. I'm going to be ranking him at the top of Ctier. If he was fully healthy, he would definitely be a Btier running back. But I do think if I were going out there and using these rankings to make a trade tomorrow, I'm probably not willing to trade any of the running backs in Btier for Judkins without the clarity on the shoulder injury. Now, of course, I will keep you updated. I'll be live streaming every single day, so just subscribe to the channel or also these rankings will stay up to date on flockfantasy.com when we get additional information regarding the shoulder.
Now, Amari Hampton will be our next running back. The latest that we have from Los Angeles is after the Thursday night game against the Minnesota Vikings. Amari and Hampton was still seen in the walking boot, which is not great. But if we are looking at this, he's already missed weeks 6,78. So, he's going to have to miss week nine. Then, technically, he's eligible to return from the IR. But um you don't necessarily know if that is going to be the case because they told us about two weeks ago, hey, prepare for him to be missing more than four games. If I was 2 and six, there's no world in which I would be wanting to trade for Amari Hampton. But I'm six and two, so there is a scenario in which I would be willing to trade Travis ETN for him. I have ETN as the running back three on my own roster. ETN scored fewer than 10 fantasy points in three straight games. and Travis CTN at the same time is trending in the wrong direction with his overall snap rate as well as his overall carry rate in this offense. He's seen 54% of the carries in Jacksonville so far this season and 8.7% of his team's target share. So, you got to hope that he holds on to his role, but a concern that you also have is Byshell Toutin maybe expanding said role coming out of the buy.
Um, DeAndre Swift will be our next running back here at 18. DeAndre Swift sneakily averaging 15.9 fantasy points per game. Had been dealing with the groin injury, but I mean he plays this past week. You got to assume that DeAndre Swift just is an auto start almost every week. And honestly, I'm going to put DeAndre Swift ahead of Travis ETN. Both running backs through their bye-week. And I mean, like I said, I have ETN on my team and realistically, I would trade him for DeAndre Swift with very little hesitation.
Now, our next running back is going to be a Mr. Jaylen Warren. If we are looking at Warren averaging about 13 and a half points per game, this game against the Green Bay Packers wasn't the best when it came to the actual fantasy output because he didn't score a touchdown. But if you're looking at the opportunities, he had 16. The week before he had 21. He's still operating as a three- down running back. He is at the same time averaging I mean about 13 and a half points per game which I know everybody in their mom is going to be screaming in the comment section. Oh the Chase Brown breakout Chase Brown top five running back rest of season blah blah blah blah blah. Let's be real with each other. I mean Chase Brown was a mustart running back in our rankings this past week because the Cincinnati Bengals were favored by about a touchdown. So the expectations were that they were winning that game at least through the majority of it. They were and you had an implied team total of 25 and a half points for the Bengals. So they were able to put points up on the board. Now the issue that we may have going into the future here when it comes to Chase Brown is how many games are the Cincinnati Bengals going to be winning and have that positive environment? And at the same time, how many games are we going to see the Cincinnati Bengals put up 30 plus points? I don't think we'll see many. Now, I could be wrong. I very easily could be, but that would be my expectation. So, while I will be willing to rank Chase Brown ahead of so many other running backs that are outscoring him so far this season, I do want to at least temper expectations that everybody has here that this is still a very bad offense and you need to have that baseline expectation.
Now, moving over to our next name, we are going to have David McGomery. Um, when you're looking at McGomery, realistically in our weekly rankings every week, he's probably going to be a little bit lower than this. But if we are looking at the ceiling case that you get with David McGomery, there's no world in which I'm ever putting Chase Brown in my top five of my week 10 rankings. There's no world in which I'm ever putting Jaylen Warren, Travis Tend, DeAndre Swift, Quinn Sean Judkins, Amari Hampton as a top five running back in my week 10 rankings. However, that world does exist with David McGomery. You get an injury to Jir Gibbs. He's not an S tier running back for us, but he's very easily an A tier. And then he's also startable even with the healthy Gibbs. He's averaging 12 points per game, which is the exact same mark as what you've had with Chase Brown this season.
Then JK Dobbins is actually averaging more points per game than both of these players. But I do think you have to be concerned. While yes, you definitely have JK Dobbins playing significantly more than RJ Harvey this past week, there's a real world scenario in which they continue to expand RJ Harvey's role as he looks, in my opinion, like the more dynamic back and you still have the concern with JK Dobbins that he's just simply not going to be catching the football.
Um, Tyrone Tracy, locked and loaded top 24 running back for us rest of season. Um, Cam Scataboo is not coming back this year. And if we go ahead and we look at what you're going to get with Tracy, I think he just steps in, sees that exact same Cam Scataboo snapshare. Um, you are going to have some Devin Singleary mixed in for sure. But I do want to be starting Tracy most weeks if you're in a deeper format just because you're going to get the guaranteed opportunities. Now, I don't think it's a good offense, and I think Tracy is a much less talented running back than Scataboo, especially as a receiver as well.
Then Alvin Kamara as another running back in Dtier, is somebody that you just have to admit he's washed. Alvin Kamar is averaging 3.6 yards per carry, which is the lowest mark in his NFL career. He's averaging 4.7 yards per target, which is the lowest mark in his NFL career. He's averaging 11.7 points per game, which is by far and away the lowest mark in his NFL career. Devin Neil sees almost just as much work. So like I I would be very very concerned if I had Alvin Kamar at this point.
Like Woody Marks is not necessarily coming out here and dominating Nick Chub when it comes to touches. they're actually seeing a comparable amount of work between the two of them. But if you are looking at Woody Marks, you at least have like upside as a receiver and you have some juice for the big play potential. Now, a big issue that you're going to have with the Woody Marks as well just goes without being said that the Houston Texans have one of the worst offensive lines in the entire league.
Then Chuba Hubard, Rico Dattle backtoback. Um, Dowel continues to be the much more efficient running back and look like the much better running back from a per touch perspective, averaging 5.7 yards per attempt and 7.1 yards per target, whereas Chuba Hubard's at 3.6 yards per attempt and 5.6 yards per target. But, I mean, hell, they gave Chuba Hubard the majority of the snaps backtoback weeks here. And on top of that, you've actually seen Chuba Hubard have more touches backtoback weeks as well. So, we probably just have to go ahead and rank Hubard ahead of Dow.
Now, Jaory Kroski Merritt will be our next option. Um, we'll see what he does in tonight's game. There's actually a massive, massive matchup in the Flock League coming down to Jakori Cross Merritt. We have Sammy Stacks, the fan. If y'all don't know, we actually give away a spot in the Flock League, which he's competing for $10,000 if he wins for completely free in a fan competition. And now we actually brought him on to run customer support with for flockfantasy.com. So semi stacks way the hell up. But he currently has about a 12point lead over Zachary Savage who has Jakori Kroski Merritt left. JCM's averaging about 10.1 points per game. He's only at 1.4 targets per game. And realistically this is a game in which you're probably going to see the commanders trail from start to finish. On underdog fantasy, you have Jakori Kroski Merritt. Currently higher lower 7.85 fantasy points. So he's a first and second down running back. He'll be much more exciting when we get Daniels in. But he does not look startable for the time being.
Um Kenneth Walker, Zack Charbanet, they're very similar to like the Carolina running backs. And honestly, all these Etier running backs, rank them in whatever the hell order you want to. I'm not going to argue at all if you want to have the Seattle backs head of the Carolina backs. They're all about the same for me. Technically, the Carolina backs are averaging more points per game, but I do think that they're all the same in that you can start them if you are extremely desperate, but there's no world in which I want to put any of these running backs into my starting lineup in Seattle or in Carolina, unless you were to get an injury to the other player in their backfield, which if that were to occur, then all of a sudden you would have them turning into a league winning option.
Now, moving over to our next running back, we are going to have Raadre Stevenson. Um, this past week, you at least in my opinion, continue to see how Aradre is just a much worse running back than Trevon Henderson. Raandre Stevenson averaging 3.4 yards per attempt this season. The lowest mark of his NFL career, not even to mention the fumbling concerns. Trevon Henderson looks much more dynamic. But as of today, and it doesn't look like it's changing really anytime soon, you don't have a startable role for Trevon Henderson where you are getting the majority of the work still going to Raadre.
Now RJ Harvey is mixed in here as well. RJ Harvey we just continuously talked about Sunday morning. Seemed like every team that we reviewed RJ Harvey was on the waiver wwire and we had to keep on repeating saying, "Hey, pick up R.J. Harvey. Pick up R.J. Harvey. Pick up R.J. Harvey. If you were to have an injury to JK Dobbins, he turns into a league winner. And RJ Arvey, phenomenal game this past week where he has three touchdowns, 24 fantasy points. But he also had eight touches. He has not seen double- digit touches since week four when the Broncos blew out the Cincinnati Bengals. And I think he is still just kind of like a premium handcuff running back at this point.
Now going over to F tier, our next running back's going to be honestly it's you can call it Pacheco, you can call it Kamani Vidal. Um Isaiah Pacheco obviously is going to have the role through the rest of the year. Right now he's currently higher lower 8.75 fantasy points for tonight's game which is higher than what you have with Jakori Krosky Meritt who's 7.85 on underdog. Um, but since Kareem Hunt's healthy, just less interested in Pacheco, Kamani Vidal with Hassan Haskins, Naji Harris, and Amari Hampton all injured. He does look like he is a must-start running back for the time being, but once you get Hampton back in, he turns to literal dust.
Then Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, they're the exact same to me as the Carolina backs, the exact same to me as the Seattle backs, where they are running backs that you are just keeping on your bench. They're both players that need to be rostered because if either guy were to go down, then the other one turns into a must-start name, but if they are both healthy, you can't get either player into your starting lineup.
Then Rashad White, um, you're one week closer to Baky Irving returning. And also at the same time, you actually do have Shawn Tucker coming through and seeing just as much work as what you had with Rashad White this past week where it does look like White is getting phased out even before Bucky comes back.
And then we'll throw like this last here is just like kind of all handcuffs. Spears pard roster. Um if you they're on your waiver wire, they're probably worth the raw spot because if either guy were to go down, the other turns into a starter. Bam Knight, Michael Carter. They're both bad running backs sharing a backfield where there aren't a lot of points to be scored. Trey Benson's coming back in the long term. Kenneth Gainwell, premium handcuff back if you were to get an injury to Jaylen Borin. Then you have Belle Tudin, premium handcuff back if you were to get an injury to Travis ETN. Tyler Alier, premium handcuff back. and then Nick Chub you could start if you were the most desperate of desperate teams.
But I think that's all I got for you. Again, if you want to say, "Oh, Mason, these underdog projections are garbage. You should never look at them ever. Stop talking about them." By all means, go take higher than 7.85 fantasy points for Jaory Crosser on tonight's game. I would avoid it, but you can do you. Links in the description, links in the comment section. Code Flock to Underdog Fantasy will get you a $100 added to your account after you play your first five. Plus, on top of that, you'll get a free Patrick Mahomes pick. High or lower, half a total yard for that Monday night game. Underdog Fantasy is the number one sports app in the app store for three reasons. One, they're an incredible app. Two, they're available in almost every state. Three, they have the best promos in the business. Code Flock will give you all those promos and you'll get free questions for the live streams and we're going to be streaming every single day until Christmas. But I think that's all I got for you. I really appreciate you and I really hope we get to see you out with the live stream later.