Identifying the Next Breakout RB1s | Running Backs with MASSIVE Upside (2024 Fantasy Football)

Introduction now one person who always makes drafting easy it's our good friend from the score Justin Boone look at this handsome devil the goatee is really growing it nicely here oh oh it's the full beard it was taken down so much on the sides I thought it was just a goatee we got the side profile Boon I can only assume you were inspired by Daniel Jones uh and he's on mute what a what a rip roaring start this is live everybody this is the way we do it so we're going to get Boon in on a second but today in this segment here with Justin Boon if he is back is he back are we good now gentlemen oh we're good now there we there we are you know in all honesty there's really very little response to you know I was sitting in the background for a few minutes there watching you guys talk to Jake I miss my buddy Jake I got to get him on my show pretty soon um love what you guys were saying great work as always and uh yeah you're getting like a slightly subdued version of me today I went to a concert last night woke up at 6:00 a.m. this morning finished up my takeaways article for the weekend wrote did a podcast of my own so we're getting to that late afternoon like dip might need a second coffee pretty soon oh was it Bluey live like what was the concert was Childish Gambino actually child is Gambino look at you very nice blue live with slap by the way okay don't talk down about that okay all right let's get into the running back conversation here with Justin Boon because every year we're always looking for players that can outperform their ADP and Boon one of the toughest things now is to S of carve out those names at the running back position especially with all these committees going on all this uncertainty in so many backfields of guys that could really make that leap because when you have those guys they can go from rb2s or even threes to ones that's League changing game-winning stuff and vice versa the guys that we draft as ones like Austin Eckler last year and by we I mean Derek Brown not me never uh it ends up becoming a guy that really kills your fans I'm kidding Dereck and I don't think either of us drafted eckar last year but Boon let's talk about some of your guys here and let's start with one from your board Tyjae Spears that you are believing in it's Taj Spears now Debo has been telling me follow the money and Tony Pard but you have a different take on this Titans backfield let's talk about it well I thought everybody loved Taj Spears I didn't even think it was going to be like a difficult case to make here and it's not that I dislike Tony Pard it's just that both guys are going in a Range where there's almost no risk in taking them and in Scott Fishbowl I took them both just let's see what happens right I'll take both those shots in like the eighth ninth round depending where you can get them um Spears to me last year he shows up one of the biggest things I'm looking for like this time of year preseason a rookie arrives does he look like he belongs does he look like he can actually be a playmaker and taji spear showed up last year and immediately looked like that plays next to a future Hall of Famer and Derrick Henry has 838 yards from scrimmage has 52 receptions three touchdowns and does that next to Henry now they bring in Pard and let's face it Tony Pard his best days came when he was in a committee I think the Titans know that because all offseason long they've been talking about these two guys being interchangeable they're going to use them both they've suggested that it's even potentially going to be a hotand scenario I like my odds with Taj Spears in that there will be weeks where both guys could potentially deliver but I really like Spear's chances based on what we've seen so far with him coming through for you this year and giving you rb3 Flex numbers and potentially these like spiked weeks and then of course if something happens to Pard and Pard has been banged up in the past then boom Spears goes off and that's probably the easiest scenario for him to reach rb1 numbers but you also look at this Titans offense I don't think people are talking about it enough like the changes that they've made you have Brian Callahan come over from Cincinnati he brings his you know his dad who's one of the best offensive line coaches in the league they keep investing in this off defensive line in the draft and free agency this Titans off is going to be a lot different this year they're going to throw a lot more and like I mentioned Spears last year very involved in the passing game so I think there's a lot of ways that he could pay off and the fact that he's going so cheap right now there's just no risk at all in taking him question for you because you mentioned you took the entire backfield is the Titans backfield the highest one on your trough in terms of yeah if I'm going to invest in one and try to play it out the style in which they might by play you mentioned you know potential injury to one would mean a huge workload for somebody else they're just one of them is that like the biggest one that you would Circle or there a few other of those backfield tandems that you think have value to actually draft the entire backfield besides Tennessee there are a few I mean I'd be willing to do that with the Bengals as well but Tennessee is is certainly top of that list for me all right Debo I want to talk to you about Spears for a second because you've been a big Tony Pard supporter which makes sense in the in the fact of when you follow the money you know typically that's where guys are going at least the early consensus is somebody who gets paid is probably going to get the football more often than not but I kind of agree with Boon to a certain extent too like Spears was the guy that kind of popped for me last year I thought he was the reason why they let Derrick Henry go I was surprised about the ton PD Edition how do you think this backfield shakes out and do you see Spears as a value of you know guy who could jump from an rb3 to an rb1 in Tennessee this year in fantasy yeah I mean to be honest I love both both these guys um I want to be at a at consensus or above on both of them and this just comes down to Talent guys and like the reason I have par above Spears right now is because I think if we're kind of parsing through who is more likely to get the red zone work I kind of lean pared but if you were to tell me at the end if we flipped over the cards at the end of the year and said Spears crushed and he was the lead back and it wasn't poed in this offense I wouldn't be surprised at all so I really want to take shots on both of these guys and really if one of these guys goes down I think it's going to be basically a a straightup committee like I think they're going to be used interchangeably um but if one of these guys goes down that's where we're talking about one of them including Taj Spears could be an easy rb1 because we just saw this last year man like you want to talk about efficiency you want to talk about split backfields like can we not also say that and I know this very very different offensive environment so I'm not going to label it as being exactly the same but isn't spear is kind of an Arbitrage play off of Devon aan like they're they're not different players they're immensely efficient and we just want to talk about okay but then if Tennessee outpaces our expectations as far as being a good offense then this is not a crazy take I'll say too I think when Spears came out there was like talk about you know the the lack of ACL and all that stuff and oh my God like the medical concerns and I think that talks more about his longevity in the NFL I think that could come into play a few years down the road and maybe shorten his career but right now if we're just looking at 2024 I'm not really concerned about that so I think if the public perception is factoring that in that could also be involved in this well a guy that has a Javonte Williams new ACL javante Williams of the Denver Broncos look at that transition that's a professional right there Javon Williams a guy that I think is it feels like he's in no man's land right now in terms of draft capital de brro he is on your list as one of these guys now I know Julia mlin is a guy that you've targeted a lot late in draft so I was kind of surprised when you put javante on this list today but I get it in the sense that you've seen flashes from javante Williams in his NFL career where he looked like an explosive fantasy back last year he did not look like that and unfortunately things just dragged a little bit because of that return from injury why will 2024 be different for Javon Williams potentially now I and I understand his inclusion here people have heard me squawk about jile moffen since January so they could be like what are you doing are you is this a total 180 no it's not now my biggest concerns about javante Williams was what were we going to hear coming out of training camp what we going to hear Shawn pton talk about because a lot of the early love was all from a glofin and both his work ethic the talent his role in the offense but if we're talking about if one player could take over that entire backfield and be the clear like 70% guy it would be javante Williams and all the camp Buzz has been amazing his training camp like when we've seen him in the preseason he has looked extremely good so for a player that we were all wanting hoping for the breakout to come and we've seen bad usage yes I'm staring at you Nathaniel Hackett in previous Seasons this guy could take over and if one guy does distance himself it could be Williams if his tackle breaking ability is all the way back to previous levels this year yeah he could be a guy that tilts leagues in whoever drafts him favor well I see a few thousand people watching us live right now so let's get to some questions and we'll get to some more of the takes on the running back position let's go with zorc here our old pal zorc going to be asking this every week till draft day but who is the better 14th round keeper rushy rice or tank Dell Justin Boone you're our guest so rice or Dell both have good quarterbacks I know the rushy rice thing people are concerned about the suspension but it seems like we're getting to a point where maybe that's not going to be a 2024 problem maybe 2025 if so how do you parse those two guys I honestly think I would go rice here like you look at what he did last season it took him a little while to get going once they started using him fully he was a strong wide receiver too for fantasy and now we're talking about you know this suspension is it going to happen this year it doesn't seem like all the talk in the off season that it was going to be maybe half the season there was one report kind of suggested at one point it doesn't seem like that's going to be the case he might not get suspended at all it might just be a game or two um so not really worried about that and if it does happen in 25 again unless he continues to do things off the field that add up I don't think he's going to miss significant time so I would go with rice but it's incredibly close I see you nodding your head in agreement and I was too rice was it for me Debo why is rice the pick for you over tank tail because I think if you're just talking about absolute upside in what we know right now Hollywood I was already worried about his health walking into this season he's already dealing with an injury um that is not even one of the problem areas that has dogged him in his ENT entire career so looking at a player we saw this last year rashie rice crushed down the stretch and we need to be investing in talented second-year wide receivers and Rasheed rice absolutely fits that bill not only like with I and and I'm very very high on the Texans offense but do you want to go CJ stra you want to go Patrick Mahomes which quarterback do you want to invest in I want to go mahes look I want to go Mahomes too that's an easy one however I I the other point I want to make about rice is there is a as you like to say d bro the range of outc where rice is the guy I mean he does have the jump on everybody else he has been in this offense for a year Travis Kel is a little older I'm not saying he's you know Kelsey is not gonna be the guy but there's a possibility where rice becomes the guy whereas I don't think there's a possibility tank Dell becomes the guy not with Nico Collins a not with Stefan Diggs now in town either I think that's the tougher sell one more quick question here we got one from Michael quenel Joey P in what round is the latest you could draft a tight end one in redraft uh that's a fun because I have had some drafts get away from me recently in tight end and my Pivot guy has been Pat friou where I'm like you know what didn't go my way so I'm just gonna wait it out wait it out and literally the last round or second to last round depending on what the draft format is I just scoop up Pat FR mouth and I just wait to see what it's gonna be and I Still Believe Justin Fields will be the quarterback of the Steelers Justin Boone the latest you'll walk the tight RPP at tight end is what man I I want it to be like round six because I want to get one of those top seven this year if I miss out on them then it's Brock Bowers where he's going now like the eighth nth round he's been my target quite a bit if I end up with fouth I like fouth I've talked him up as a sleeper too I don't feel good about it if I end up with him like at that point I feel like I might as well have Ty Conlin or anyone so yeah I would wait until the final round if somehow you miss out in the top seven you don't get any value in the next few rounds then just wait till the very end and you're probably going to use the waiver wire you hope that you hit on the right guy and it is fouth or Concklin or someone like that but you're probably going to have to lean on the waiver Weare and that's okay at that point now before we get to more of the names of RB 3s that could become rb1s this year I want to tell you as you're watching the Fest here or listening along you should be running some draft simulations right now okay so let's get in there let's start running draft simulations you can relive the excitement of all the mock drafts on the shows with the Mock Draft simulator here at fantasy pros it's fast it's fun it's easy and it's a great way to get prepared for all your drafts just takes a few seconds you can sync your league and you'll be ready to knock out realistic mock drafts tailor to your league settings in at least five minutes and don't forget if you're premium you get the draft Intel or if you've been in a league with people for a couple years it'll draft just like the people in your league T to which is unbelievable that's how I destroyed Debo in the flex League Draft I had little Debo robots all over the place little Jake sely robots and I was able to get the best out of things because of our incredible tools at fantasy pros so you can gain in that to with tools like the pck predictor and that'll tell you exactly what's going on and of course uh where you are in the draft what you should do where the pivot Points are and who's going to make it back to you so it's the most comprehensive analysis you can get at the end of those mock drafts too from the draft analyzer you can see your favorite expert opinions and you can even back out picks as you go if you don't like the way a roster looks back it out and rerun a couple more mock drafts until you get it right that way you can dominate your Draft Day by preparing and practicing with Mock Draft simulator at fantasypros.com slm or it's so easy just download Fantasy Football Draft wizard today and start drafting smarter not harder go dominate all right Justin Bo let's get Jonathon Brooks back to some RB talk you've got another guy on your board who is very intriguing in fact so intriguing we just talked about him with Jake cely so I guess great minds think alike everybody wants these running backs who have ACL repairs coming back Jonathan Brooks rears his head again let's talk about him so you heard cel's take you heard de bro's take let's get a third take on Jonathan Brooks this time from you Justin Boone yeah this is just about delayed gratification you have to be willing to wait a month or it might be more than that we'll see how long he's going to be out and how long it takes for him to eventually ramp up and take on what I think is going to be a three down rle and there's just not many running backs out there that have that kind of role at this point he's in an offense that I'm very interested in I think it's going to be a lot better like we're just talking about Tennessee kind of changing so much Carolina is going to change a lot I have a lot of faith in Dave Canalis after what he did in his last two stops they've invested in the offensive line the interior of the line was one of the biggest problems that they dealt with last year they go and get Damen Lewis they get Robert hunt at the guard spots that's certainly gonna help and Brooks he's not an elite Prospect like you know Bean Robinson or something but I'm pretty confident if he didn't have this ACL I think he would have snuck up into the first round of this year's draft talking about the the draft in April not fantasy drafts of course but this guy is a smooth Runner he can make big plays when he gets back and he's healthy in the second half of the season that's what I'm looking at if I'm drafting him so you're gonna have to go out and get somebody that's going to be able to hold the fort down until then whether it's Jerome Ford or maybe his teammate chuba hubard if chuba's healthy got to keep an eye on that one because he got dinged up in practice recently but in the second half of the Season Brooks is going to come on we see Ries do this all the time but it's often when they don't even have an injury it's just the post bye bump and all of a sudden at the end of the season they're helping people win fantasy championships I think Brooks's G to be that guy this year he's 21 years old and just turned 21 this summer that's going to help coming back from the injury very excited about him and I think you're getting a discount just because he's hurt and people are worried about that but I expected that to be the case the whole time these guys that end up with these serious knee injuries at the end of their college careers they're not necessarily going to be impact players in week one but they can be impact players in the second half of the Season you said something very provocative there Boon which was you thought that he might be drafted as early as the late first round is that even though he wasn't in your opinion in quote un Elite Prospect is that just because of the way the class shaped out at running back this year in your opinion partially that but I think just talent-wise he belonged there and there were some reports after the draft now maybe that was just you know his agent or the Panthers putting that out there but there were some reports out there that teams would have considered him in that range all right Debo we already got your take on Jonathan Brooks so I want to get your take on Jaylen Warren Jaylen Warren another one of your favorites now Warren did pick up an injury this past weekend and I'm sure that's going to hurt his draft value just a tad uh how afraid are you of that injury and are you taking advantage perhaps of a little bit of I guess you know that tepidness in the market potentially as people liked Warren maybe mildly and now maybe starting to fade off of him a little bit should they be they shouldn't be uh I'll steal a line from Jake C earlier and I will say we are not playing for September we are playing for the rest of the season and if he slips in drafts and we know he's going to slip in drafts because of the hamstring and it and the reports that came out said it's going to be a few weeks okay that's fine take it slow with Jaylen Warren because the talent is there I mean the guy crushed in efficiency measures last year and I I understand Nai Harris is not going away but if anything happens to him Jaylen Warren is a guy we would be ranking as a high-end rb1 on a weekly basis as well as once he's back and he's motoring along you're going to get Standalone rb2 rb3 production I don't think people really give him enough credit last year inside of the context of that offense too he was an rb2 or higher in 50% of his games so we're already talking about he's at that borderline rb2 rb3 production once he's back what happens if he takes over the majority of this back field and it's not Naji Harris I don't think we can rule that out guys because again kind of like Tennessee we're we're it we're projecting this backfield but we could be wrong Boone what's your take on the Steelers backfield because this is one I think that has a lot of people in not you know they're comfortable with Naji Harris but we know it's not really flash Le and jayen Warren is a guy that does have a little bit more flashiness but now picked up an injury so now people are starting to sour how do you approach this back field or are you just running away from it potentially I've kind of just stayed away from it to be honest and it's not that I I don't think the guys can return value by any means it's that I don't feel good about my take on it I'm not really sure which way it's going to go and I like what de bro said there and I would remind everyone whether we're talking about Brooks or Warren or any of these guys that are hurt when you're drafting them remember you have an IR spot so don't draft a defense don't draft a kicker draft these guys instead and then throw them on your IR spot when they're not going to play in week one and then you can go pick up your defense or your kicker or you can go pick up a another backup running back to take a shot on but I think sometimes people get scared of the injury and then they just don't want to take the player and they don't think about the fact that you're gonna have someone else to play in that spot and you're gonna have an extra roster spot to pick up another guy and I think that's very important when we're talking about team building Look At You Justin Boone always playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers let's get some more questions here if you've got questions we've got answers drop them in the chat don't forget to like the stream too while you're here subscribe to the fantasy Bros YouTube channel so you can hang out with us and talk fantasy football all year long we've got incredible live streams more Joe and Debro live this year I know you wanted it you asked for it you got it plus we've got all the podcasts here you could possibly handle the short form videos long form videos it's all here for you we are going to be your ticket to Fantasy championships here's a question from Hardy Ward are you guys in on jir Gibbs even with this injury Bo we'll start with you on this one I'm not and to be honest it's not even just the injury just in that range of the draft I really like the receivers I tend to go with the receivers very high on Jonathan Taylor this year as well so if I want to go running back I prefer to go Taylor I think he's got a big season coming um and and that's really why again not that I hate Gibbs and not even that I think the injury is going to be a serious thing that's going to hold him back this year it's more just the other options that are available in that range makes sense uh dbo real quick your take on Gibbs too because I know some people are getting a little panic mode I'm not panicing think everything out of Detroit says that he's going to be ready to go week one I believe the coaching staff not many coaching staffs I believe in the NFL but I do believe Dan Campbell and what he's talking about with the injury so I'm not painting Gibbs I haven't moved him down in my my uh ranks at all and again I want to be investing in second year players because what if Gibbs not only owns the passing downs but he gets most of the Red Zone work too I mean he's goingon to be a top five guy this year all right let's get another question here from Jamie Ross where do you guys rank Aaron Jones this year Debo this is a tough one because this is one of the guys that typically people were always sour on as maybe a real rb1 and every year he would deliver and then last year happened where he didn't deliver at all and he missed most of the season now he's in a new spot but that new spot does require I think now that Sam Darnell is the full-time quarterback a lot more Lean On The Run game so has that moved the needle for you at all on Aaron Jones the last few weeks I haven't moved his rank at all but it but again I'm above what I think I'm I'm above consensus on Aaron Jones He is my rb14 this year so I think he has RB one upside I think he can still be the guy that we've loved in fantasy for years previously I I understand the the hamstring the injury worries and stuff like that I get Sam darnold but we could also talk about Aaron Jones we've never seen him fully Unleashed in terms of like splitting down splitting work with guys I think he's going to have 70% of the work at least this year and we haven't talked enough about I think this offseason how much his pass game involvement could be immense this year Jordan Addison was not a high in Target earner last year we don't know when TJ hackinson is coming back 80 targets for Aaron Jones in that offense it can happen man now when Debra was going through the assessment there Justin bu you made like a Robert dairo face for a moment it was very good Fellas I can't really tell did you want to whack him for it or did you actually want to say he's a good earner and it's all right you can come back and hang out down at the end of the bar I see the case I have not been following normally Debo and I are totally in step with a lot of our takes um I not been taking Aaron Jones this year after pumping him up for years loving him great guy great teammate great fantasy player and yet this season he's older he's going to turn 30 later this year like Debro mentioned you want to overlook the injuries but when a running back's getting to that age and you go back and it's like every season for the last like Four Seasons or so it's like knee hamstring there's like multiple injuries every single year I worry that now he's getting up there and when teams let go of some of these older backs sometimes it's because they know and the Packers have been pretty good when they've let go of older players kind of realizing that this guy has given us everything he can and it's only going to go downhill from here I actually like Tai Chandler quite a bit I think they've talked about it potentially being more of a split than what de bro is projecting there so all of those things kind of scare me about Aaron Jones this year on top of the Sam Darnell of it all but we don't need to get into that I'm also a professed Tai Chandler hater so maybe that's part of and by the way Derek you know like he said sometimes you get get older they start trying to replace you maybe it's time to start Just For Men with the beer I don't know maybe a little little the pen you wow it's okay the quick turn jeez man all right let's Brian Robinson Jr. get into one more running back here and if you could believe it the guys are in agreement about this one it's Brian Robinson again coming back for more B Rob talk here uh Justin Boone let's get your take on this one because this is a little bit different so in the first segment with Jake cely in case you're missing go back and watch of course all these shows to be on demand too so Jake was talking about him as a great Draft Day value you're talking about him as an rb3 who could become an rb1 take me through that path what it looks like so I'm sure you guys probably already covered a lot of this stuff I have not understood his ADP all offseason long I think it's been pretty he has been he's going to be the lead back in that offense and I think maybe it's just because people see the name of Austin Eckler and so they think Eckler signed there and he's immediately going to become the number one or you know being a 50-50 committee that's not what we're seeing in the preseason that's not what the coaching staff has suggested they've even talked up Robinson and His pass catching ability and his improvements there I think he's still G to have a role there I don't think he's going to seed everything in that area to Eckler and if you go back last year so his season like kind of got derailed by injury around week 13 or so but if you look at the first 12 weeks of the Season half PPR scoring fantasy points per game Brian Robinson was the RB thir 1 last year and that was with worst quarterback play I expect that Jaden Daniels is going to lift that entire offense up so he almost did it last year for a big chunk of the season that's not even a really small sample size I think he's got a shot to do it and it's like what his adps like RB 34 in my ranks he's RB 24 I bet dbo probably has him even higher um I would not be shocked at all if he's a pretty solid rb2 and a guy that could potentially flirt with RB won stats this year rb22 by the way D bro ironically is it the you know the factor that Jaden Daniels could Elevate Brian Robinson but also be as undoing because you could see a world where Jaden Daniels is rushing for a lot of touchdowns and that could hurt Brian Robinson's value especially since theoretically he's not the big passing down guy at least to start the season do you see that potentially working against Brian Robinson all or you think no Jaden D just elevates everything all together and All Ships rise together on that tide uh that that lad point I think it's it's Jane Daniels elevates the entire offense and I've heard enough takes about people talking about Jane Daniels being too skinny so I don't expect Washington I mean look yesterday in the preseason game Jane Daniels didn't slide he goes out of bounds and he starts immediately staring at Dan Dan Quinn saying all right I I know I know so like if he better he better figure that out because he doesn't figure it out fast it's gonna be a short season for him to my point though like if Dan Quinn is making faces at him about like sliding and protecting himself do we think they're going to slam him into the goal line every time or that is that all going to be B Rob work when we get down to the goal line Closing look at you you got an answer for everything both of you do thank goodness you're here Justin Boone always great having you on you're going to join us later in the uh season two here in the draft season in August for another podcast all the Justin bu I can handle still never enough check out his work at the score and