Sidestepping the RB Deadzone in 2024 Drafts + Mock Draft - 2024 Fantasy Football Advice

Deadzone explained what is up guys I'm Ron welcome back to the channel we are going to be talking about dead zone running backs a very contentious topic very debated a lot of people think there's a lot of value to be found from a dead zone running back which is running backs between usually rounds three to 7 3 to8 there's no like exact uh exact math on when those those running backs occur but it's essentially your middle round running backs now historical data shows us that for the most part they don't perform very well for the most part however when we look at last season if you guys look at this chart that I have up hopefully it doesn't look super shitty me zoom in a little bit we see here that there were let's count them there were eight running backs who outperformed their ADP who were taken in between rounds three and eight um and there were the rest of them either didn't per you know didn't outperform or severely underperformed is essentially what we're looking at so you have the change here the you know a positive number green numbers mean mean they they outperformed negative means they severely underperformed or underperformed you see that there's only two runny Max who minimally underperformed we got Naji Harris and javante Williams and they underperformed by nine and 10 the rest of them were essentially unusable I mean you could still use Josh Jacobs you could still use javante Williams but you were you were you know you were struggling in those weeks that you were using them so the learnings that we pull from this that we want to try to apply to this season I know this is only looking at one season but the learnings that I pull from it is essentially what's the trend here what are we seeing we're usually seeing younger running backs right so the ones that that are really interesting to me are like the ones where it's like 18 14 15 obviously you know etn that matters as well but what what what really sticks out to me is the fact that they're all receiving running backs right they're either young or receiving backs now Joe Mixon he's he was a Workhorse back so he was neither young but he was a receiving back uh James Cook obviously um receiving back he really outperformed and he didn't really score many touchdowns so um and then you know jir Gibbs now another thing to to note is that you we ended up getting the rb2 the rb3 the rb4 and the rb6 from the dead zone so as I mentioned man when they hit they hit but when they don't hit you're [ __ ] crying it's it's sad times I just have to we're going to do a mock draft right after this if you guys do want to stick around I'm going to try to implement some of my learnings or some of my uh some of my thoughts on that on dead zone running backs I have a 12 team mock draft here it is two running back two wide receiver three Flex holy [ __ ] okay this is actually a perfect draft to try it out because we you know I'm drafting from the 11th spot just to just to let you guys know um it's a good draft to start that because uh you're going to really be leaning wide receiver and running back right because you're starting potentially five wide receivers it's a fullo PPR so this is going to be a really good way to test that now looking forward at this season so how do we apply what we've I mean you can call it learnings it it's just a little bit of historical data from last season how do we apply that to this season right so we're going to kind of go through this together and see if we can see or if we can pinpoint some running backs already going into it that we might that we might want to stay away from who who who fit neither trend of young or receiving back and because it's like a dead zone and it's kind of like ambiguous where the dead zone starts we can arbitrarily just say we'll start it from like maybe the end of round two or round three and on but there is a name that I want to to point out even though he isn't a round three player usually I do want to to to say that Derrick Henry meets the standards for a risky running back for that perfect maybe you can call it pre- dead zone but to me it's just problematic he's turning 30 he has a lot of mileage and he's not going to be getting a lot of receptions just Lamar Jackson offens is you they tend to not pass to the running backs very much so derck Henry is an honorable mention we'll call it now looking ahead I think Pacho is definitely a draft because he's going to be a Workhorse and he is is going to be getting receiving work and he is fairly young and he is on a strong offense all the arrows pointed up for PCO right Travis ich and I wouldn't consider him a dead zone even and if he was he'd be a safe draft because he's going to be a Workhorse back moving on Devon eight Devon aan is definitely a draft because he's going to be getting receiving work and he he is Young meets the standard um you're probably going to want to stay away Josh Jacobs to me is a draft I would still take Josh Jacobs I think he's going to get so much volume I think he's going to get the third the third down work too they're not going to give it to Dylan um Dylan is not a third down back I think they finally learned that by now uh moving on James Cook safe Rashad white a little bit sketchy because Tampa Bay did bring in Bucky Irving who is a like scat back he's like a third down specialist and Rashad Wright really made his money on being like a receiving back so that's a risky one that's one where I would be a little bit a little bit skeptical or a little bit worried wored about about drafting him there I just have to keep checking this mock to make sure he doesn't start without me sorry guys um Joe Mixon I would stay away from uh actually he's not young but he does receive the ball but that'd be like a high risk um a high-risk one okay moving on Kenneth Walker safe um Alvin chra risky very risky he's old he does get a lot of receptions but I don't think he's going to get a lot of touchdowns this season and there is also a chance that he loses out on early down work so if he's only a receiving back I think that's but he's a tough one right he kind of fulfills one side of the equation but not the other so I don't know I don't know what I would do there personally all right this draft started um and then I would stay away from James Connor stay away from David Montgomery stay away from let me just mute this [ __ ] you guys are gonna get [ __ ] blasted so Dave Montgomery old doesn't receive James Connor old um he does receive but old so that's a risky one right the old part that it's up to you if you want to take take a stab at it rre Stevenson not going to be receiving the ball but he's still relatively young to me that's risky right uh who else let's see who's on this list Naji Harris don't I will not be drafting Nai Harris he's he's bad and he's not going to get a lot of receiving work Raheem ooster old and doesn't receive the ball I mean apply that guys apply that to yourself DeAndre Swift he'd be a safe one for me he's he's somebody that I would be going for all right let's look at this mock draft let's let's hop over we see Christian mcaffrey Tyreek Hill CD lamb Bree Hall bej Robinson Justin Mock draft Jefferson that's a little interesting J Justin just Jesus Christ had a stroke um so it is my pick at the 111 I I will have another pick in the next couple picks I'm going to take AJ Brown because I'm happy with any of these running backs falling to me so I I wouldn't be happy if I didn't get brown so that's why I'm taking brown but it's interesting that Jefferson is being drafted still ahead of Chase and St Brown and you can even say Wilson I can even I can even get behind somebody saying they want Wilson over Jefferson just seeing some of the highlights coming out of Camp pretty uh pretty nice all right so I'm going to take jir Gibbs here he's a um in a fullo PPR league as my I'm going to see if I can run see if see so there's a couple strategies you can essentially Implement um knowing that we kind of want to stay away from dead zone running backs but there's like I would say like 50% of The Dead Zone running backs this season are kind of safe to me so you don't have to fully avoid it but I do really like deploying the strategy of taking like one or two running backs in the first three rounds and then just blasting wide receiver the rest until like round round eight so let's see if that works but I mean my strategy guys for every mock draft or for every every real draft you're going to be doing is that you have these various like strategies you can employ but it's always based on who Falls to you so based on the players on the board and based on how the first three rounds shake out is what is how you want to then or is going to help you decide which strategy you want to employ so like let's say you're unhappy with all all the running backs right so let's say like this dude right here Justin Jefferson is not happy with Derrick Henry you know he's not happy with Devon aan this dude could punt he can just be like I'm just going to start drafting wide receivers and just like win at that position and then I'll find some value later I'll get the Taj Spears's the chase Browns the [ __ ] Devon single teres so that's a strategy he could then employ right so based on who follows you that's kind of how you want to do it um all right so we see K Williams go after my Gibbs pick we see AA nice stack there with Garrett Wilson and puka Travis etn followed by Derrick Henry then Devon hn so the Justin Jefferson owner did like hn goes with him there Bean Robinson and PCO there's a very strong tandem of running backs I think like if you're going to go RB RB early that's that's a perfect start like if aan fell to him there that's also really nice Mike Evans going um Mike Evans going kind of early right ahead of Devonte ahead of Drake London interesting I can see why but you know the age has to has to scare you a little bit right and then we see Drake London go off where Drake London's also kind of a Mercurial player to me it's like he's getting so hype he has a new quarterback a new offensive coordinator but is he going to be um can he be like an alpha like a top 12 wide receiver I think he can but you know we there's a huge if and or a huge but and an if like if Kurt Cousins you know if that Achilles heal just doesn't heal right it's uh you know you're hoping that the offense turns around you're hoping that the injury in the healing from the injury is is right so you're just kind of hoping for a lot of things and you know like Drake London and olve those are two like risky picks right like this is a shitty part of the draft in my opinion if you're drafting early like it I think you might just want to reach at these picks like instead of taking London or Nico or olave or Debo or auk I think you reach for cup and wle I don't know that's up to you though if you like them you can take them but you reach for cup waddle you reach for one of these QBs like instead of taking like what is Zebo going to be is he going to be like the wide receiver eight on the season maybe the wide receiver nine at best right most likely finishes like the wide receiver 13 to be honest or you take the qb1 right you get like a 70 point Advantage so yeah it there's a debate to be had there so we then see Michael Pitman and DJ Moore go off the board um Michael Pitman I'm kind of off of him I was kind of big on him early in the off season but the more I think about the offense and the more I think about pitman's role in the offense and how like there has to be some an emergence right an emergence of somebody else that that that pops off right somebody has to has to do stuff so all right is on my pick I think I'm G to start by taking Jaylen Herz to get that stack with AJ Brown and to ensure that I get like a top two in my opinion the best quarterback on the season I think he's going to think he's going to outperform Josh Allen just uh Josh Allen doesn't really have a receiving core right it's going to be like he's going to have to he's going to have to propel everyone around him for him to return qb1 value which I wouldn't put money on it now if an Arby Falls to me that I like you know you know what I'm going to go ahead and take Kenneth Walker just to see as I mentioned I want to try to avoid too much of this dead zone so by taking the RB now before kind of The Dead Zone begins I can really now just start pumping wide receivers because I already have my QB I have two good running backs that I can lean on until later I'm just going to start pumping wide receivers take tight end value if it falls to me right if a Mark Andrews Falls to me or something I'll swoop him but I'm okay punting tight end because I do I do you know keep in mind this is a three Flex PPR so I do need to fill with wide receivers right that's why you see blue and blue and green all over the board most people are like yeah you know you got to start five wide receivers essentially so let's see if this bites me in the ass dude I could be cooked um I could be one HP pretty much by round seven or eight I could be you know stuck with dudes like [ __ ] Jordan Addison yeah damn that might actually happen I have to I probably have to double tap wide receiver on my next pick but um yeah let's see what else do we have we have Malik neighbors that is a great pick this dude look at his start right Garrett Wilson pukan AA yeah team 9 Garrett Wilson pukan AA DJ Moore Malik neighbors this D will have a fat positional advantage over most people skulls fan kind of like kind of threw right skulls fan kind of threw like you started so well with Tyreek and then you really bottle it by taking Drake London Ina in my opinion taking Mark Andrews is interesting there like I guess he wanted to avoid those that dead zone it's like take a dead zone RB who might not pan out well or just take the tight end two that's that's the thinking right potential tight end two or tight end one even so this dude definitely is a subscriber and he's a future subscriber because he saw this video that I'm recording in the future came back and was like I will implement the tips that you've provided for um Ryan drick that's a solid start not the biggest fan of Nico but that is a solid start getting Devonte at the 212 that's just value Town that's value town and he is the mayor it's just I know he's 31 I know he kind of had a down year you know uh less yards per Target less yardage less touchdowns but he's still so involved dude he is going to be the offense yet again so I think he's like a safe is he it's a tough one man it's a brutal it's a brutal situation that he's in because he's he he has Gardner on one hand who is a gunslinger is going to be down to take take deep shots but he's getting up there in age bro I don't know I don't know I I don't know what to what to do about that about Devonte the reason I I ponder that is he might fall to me in my main League at at the uh at the 28 at the5 I'm most likely taking like St Brown Jefferson because it's a keeper league and someone like Devonte could fall to me at the 2A and I'll then be in a pickle I'll be in quite the pickle as they say yeah I'm getting cucked over here I'm watching every wide receiver like between my pick there was one two three four five six seven eight eight R go the board I guess it's not two CES right three tight ends three RBS not the worst but um yeah it looks like it hopefully tank Dell Falls to me that would be super nice I think this dude has to take an RB right like if I were him I say no I'm not going to be forced to take an RB that I don't like I'm going to go ahead and take my fifth wide receiver and just be stacked AF um he's really going down to the wire holy [ __ ] Kobe Fade Away Mixon end Ming Mixon it's good for me it means tank Dell might fall to me it's basically going to be tank Dell and mclen if mclen falls hopefully tank Falls to me here he'll provide me some upside right like if you're going to take wide receivers in this range you you in a fullo PPR League tank Dell is not the optimal pick because I do think he's going to be oh interesting very interesting he goes with McLaren um I do think tankel is going to be less of a volume type receiver and more of like a big play guy I'm not saying he's not going to have volume he could he could easily develop into like a 1B with Nico um but then you have Stefan dicks taking a lot of volume underneath right and you figure that Mixon is going to get his volume as well so let's look at some of these Dead Zone RBS and we'll we'll [ __ ] comment on them in real time so we see pretty much I would say because of how the dead zone is panning out this season I would say the dead zone kind of starts in round four right you can say Rashad White's a part of it too so four plus white and and then I told you guys about Henry Henry is not a dead zone RV but to me he's a high-risk RV oh [ __ ] it's my pick um I'm going Jaden Reed Jaden Reed in a fullo PPR is a solid pick because I do think he's going to get a lot of receptions a lot of underneath routes a lot of manufactured touches so that's like the optimal player to offset the um Boomer bust nature of tank Dell and AJ brown right AJ Brown might not be the same uh High reception guy that he's been in the past I mean let's look at last season how many receptions did he have 158 targets yeah like you know not not that crazy man 158 targets compared to Adams who had what 175 Garrett Wilson had like over 9,000 168 yeah AJ Brown is not a volume guy man alond Ross St Brown 164 very interesting man AJ Brown's kind of a risky pick I do think the Kell Moore effect has been kind of hypnotized but there's a chance AJ Brown doesn't return value man if he doesn't get in the end zone doesn't get the yardage it's uh it can be and then you have this report that says AJ Brown is having an impressive training camp continue to demonstrated All Pro receiving skills Jan doson is now on the Eagles by the way they traded for him yeah it's not the best you don't want to I mean either Jan Dawson is good and wasn't used properly or he's bad if it's the latter then you don't have to worry it's the former could impact Brown I hope I didn't use the latter and former wrong I use it wrong once I used it falsely wrongly in front of people once and that was super embarrassing like I got called out I think I even spelled it which was even more embarrassing like I put ladder with a d l a d d e r I thought because I don't know what I thought it's just being [ __ ] or being dumb um the good part about picking at the turn in these drafts is that these middle picks which are gross and you're just seeing these gross names go off the board you feel like you're [ __ ] Matrix dodging them kind of so that's the one benefit God this is grueling this is slow dude I can't ramble on this whole time um let's see some of these other picks let's talk about fantasy Anthony Richardson goes after my Jaden repick then George KD then Lamar Jackson followed by Kyle pittz Some solid value right like in sixth round you're getting Lamar Jackson Anthony Richardson that's like you can't complain man that that you know that um that makes me Ponder whether I should have instead of taking Herz taking Malik neighbors right no no actually I take that back like Malik neighbors I already have brown so I can't take Smith there I'm not the hu biggest fan of rice I just think going to spread the ball around a lot with Kansas City I think I'm I'm happy with that pick but the Kenneth Walker pick I could have um could have maybe taken taken somebody else that's where maybe I'd take George Pickins but George Pickins has a tough strength to schedule man the toughest in the NFL and their quarterback situation does not look good their offensive line does not look very good they're going to be running the ball a lot so as much as I love George Pickins like in a vacuum I'm very scared for George chickens in his production to be honest like he was somebody that was targeted in the fourth fifth round almost every every mock draft but lately I've been kind of you know kind of hot potatoing him and throwing him over to somebody else letting him letting him unfortunately Slide by me all right let's see if we can be prepared for our next pick as I mentioned it is a PPR League which means High reception players are very valuable to us and I already see that Javon Deontay Johnson is available now usually I wouldn't recommend taking Deontay Johnson but in a full PPR League you can do worse and I have to find some value somewhere because I did kind of Leave myself one HP not having a lot more wide receivers at this juncture in the draft you know it's it's like I mentioned man you start five wide receivers so I guess that's a that's a rough place to pick from considering that because it just seems like the players that fall to you at those picks aren't aren't the best right like this run here of wide receivers was unfortunate like if any of these guys like DK DJ Moore Pitman waddle fell to me I'm feeling a little better but that's kind of why I pivoted Jaylen Herz is my pick again I'm going to go ahead and take I'm going to go for some upside here I'm going to go for some upside and I'm going to take Keon Coleman I was going to take Brian Thomas but I'm taking Keon Coleman I think he emerges as the number one guy for Buffalo I think Buffalo um you know they have these like they have these they have dudes right they have Jags just a guy they have you know Curtis Samuel khil Shakir [ __ ] who else who's the third guy I'm thinking of I don't even know he's not even on the list yeah like I do think Keon Coleman emerges as like the number one guy maybe replaces Stefan Diggs like 60% of the way and becomes kind of like their like go two third down guy they need a you know they need a big body dude to to win his matchup like I think the same thing about Brian Thomas as well that's why I was kind of debating between those two I really like lad makoni that could have been a a that could have been an option for me as well but I just don't know if lad makoni can like end the season as like the top guy there I think he can be very solid for PPR he's like a poor man's Deontay Johnson type type player or type role um I just I don't see a a world in which he's like the number one because I do think they love Josh Palmer I do think Quinton Johnson is going to make a splash at some point in the season and maybe they're like let's see what we got in this guy we paid a lot we paid a lot for him last season you know as much as everybody says he's a he's a garbage Benin he might be a garbage Benin but I think they don't want to admit that they [ __ ] that draft pick up the same way I don't want to admit that I [ __ ] that draft pick up in my Dynasty League holy [ __ ] dude I'll never drop him or trade him I'm seeing this thing through all right we need to start thinking about what our next pick is going to be the way our team is being constructed I like I like my team to be honest it's it's balanced even in a start five wide receiver League I do think I have nice balance right like I have good wide receivers that I think are going to give me production and I didn't have to sacrifice my RBS for it and I have a top QB to boot so I know Kyler Murray in the seventh round versus Herz in the in the third yeah I know even Jordan 11 the eth I know but I just think Jaylen Herz is going to be the the qb1 so I think having that positional Advantage is gonna be it's just gonna feel nice this is a [ __ ] Mock Draft so it's none of it's going to matter but just going through my thought process now the question is do we fully punt tight end I think we do I think we fully punt tight end because at this point I can't take GD because I have brown and Herz like I don't want to dip too much in the Eagles um although that could be like a super stack with Herz uh GD and brown but Schultz [ __ ] that noise hackinson [ __ ] that noise KT [ __ ] that noise do not draft K anybody Pat Frou okay maybe um but you can just I I can just take him later right like if there's wide receiver value that that falls to me that's where I'm probably going to want to go now RB's really flying so maybe I maybe I take another RB just to ensure that I have like a usable dude um I think I take Chase brown with this pick and then come back around let's see this dude probably this guy can go anyway he can go wide receiver or tight end or RB what happened Auto who you Auto am I bugged let's see technical difficulty te technical difficulties oh dude I cannot talk today um all right Corin Sutton interesting as I mentioned I think I'll go ahead and take Chase Brown essentially Autos everybody's autoing now artificial intelligence has arrived which means I'm not safe I'm going to take courland Sutton just a little upside there possession receiver High T High touchdown Equity um the really only established guy on the team there's some young emerging players around him but I don't think they're going to have uh large impact this season could it could happen but I think Sutton just he continues his uh his role that he had last season all right I'm going to quickly give you guys my thoughts on some other players to Target in these rounds I think Romeo dubs is a great pick I already have Jaden Reed so I wouldn't do it I think um if I didn't have Keon Coleman I would take Kos Shakir Jobe Myers is a solid pick Jerry Judy is a very solid pick obviously Josh Palmer is a very solid pick Xavier Legette a solid pick but not in PPR I think in half PPR that somebody I'd be interested in Jaylen pul really late no you can do worse Dar Darnell Mooney really late also really good um Rashad baitman as like your absolute last pick in the draft no problem those are dudes that I would I would that I can queue up and then RBS dark throws man just make Dar throws at RB you have your JK Dobbins your Rico dle chuba hubard who could be valuable for like four to five weeks Jaylen Wright a solid backup to Anan and moster if any of them go down he has value both of them can go down cuz they're both one is old one is small Jaylen wri could just be sitting in the shadows Rogue stealth ready to [ __ ] take that job that could be uh very nice Tonio Gibson in a fullo PPR that is also a very solid pick holy [ __ ] everyone I queued up just got [ __ ] swooped I'm gonna go jacobe Myers and then with my swing pick I'm going to take Rico dowle who I do who I do think emerges as the lead guy I just think Zeke is is he's toast zek Zeke is fully Toast Man and then I'm also going to enter autodraft mode Ray Davis another nice handcuff with some potential Standalone value brilin Allen also a you know nice handcuff because you do have uh pretty much Bree Hall and nobody really after him and I think BR Allen has taken hold of the backup spot so you like to see I'm gonna put Gibson up here I think Gibson is going to be a solid pick in any type of PPR format where' he go did Gibson get swooped o the auto swoop hate to see it I'm gonna take Jalil and then with my next pick I'll take Mooney that's the draft boys hope you guys like the draft hope you like oh I didn't take a tight end I [ __ ] I'm down dude I need a medkit holy as [ __ ] I'll just pick one up off waivers who's who's off waivers Conlin or six or Fant all those will work all right here's the team guys let's have a look minimize we got AJ Brown Gibbs Herz that's a nice start Kenneth Walker I decided take my RB early and then not worry about it till later I then quadruple tap tank Dell Jaden Reed deont Johnson Keon Coleman followed by Chase Brown and then I'm like you know what late picks let's see if we can find some like wide receiver twos or corand Su could even be a wide receiver one I take sudden I take jacobe Myers who both very viable in PPR and then D Darnell Mooney with my absolute last pick should emerge as a wide receiver 2 for Atlanta that's the draft I hope you guys like it my mouth is drier than the Sahara and I'll see you guys in the next video peace