Updated Top 45 Running Back Rankings for 2024 Fantasy Football

Intro what's going on man welcome back to the basem I'm Ron and today we're going to talk through my top 45 running back rankings for Fantasy Football I know you guys have a lot of drafts going on this weekend so I figured we'd submit a final set of rankings for you guys to look off of now this is ambitious I am usually a very long- winded talker when it comes to these players so we're not going to do an intro we're not going to do any of the the pleasantries if you enjoy this video subscribe leave a like let's get right into it all right so we have a few tiers here we have legendary rb1s these are the top of the top rb1 lowend rb1 rb2 Fringe rb2 rb3 these are four half PPR and PPR leagues and I feel much stronger about the tier breaks than I do the individual rankings now I will say as well our first running back is Christian mcaffrey you're going to see I don't have his name or his ranking here we're talking through 45 running backs 1 Christian McCaffrey right that's a lot to go through and edit each picture I will have the entire rankings right 1 through 45 in the description and I will add time stamps by the end of tonight now now when we talk about each player it's going to be a brief breakdown if you want a very in-depth explanation of each player I have other videos for that but mcaffrey of course he's coming off 24.5 points per game he is the first running back to hit 24 plus points per game since Kamar in 2020 he's on a good offense he is my rb1 now our rb2 here that I also believe 2 Breece Hall is a really good bet for that legendary 20 plus Point per game rb1 overall upside is Bree Hall he had the best PFF receiving grade last last year he had the most targets the most receptions and the most receiving yards among all running backs last year his first two years in the NFL despite awful offensive environments he has been the rb6 and the rb7 in points per game and you get upgrades in Aaron Rogers hopefully he's healthy even if not Tyrod Taylor's behind him and then the offensive line gets Tyron Smith gets Simpson gets Morgan Moses and first round pick Olu fashanu our number three running back on 3 Bijan Robinson this list is going to be bejon Robinson he always amazes me with his player picture he has quite the head of hair here but last year he was a big disappointment right the Falcons were not a good offense they were the seventh worst scoring offense they had the eighth lowest pass attempts just a very low volume slow low-scoring offense really weird usage in terms of beon verser and now we have Zack Robinson new offensive coordinator coming from the ram system he's going to use the running backs a ton when it comes to this new offense in Atlanta then you have as well an a quarterback upgrade from Desmond Ritter last year to now KK cousins or Michael penck behind him both massive upgrades and Zack Robinson comes from the Rams who use bcow running backs and even if not we have a very conservative projection here from Mike Clay he works over at ESPN he has the best free set of projections out there and even with Tyler aler 14 game Pace now he factors in running backs Miss time so he only projects them out for a 14 game season beon Robinson he has the rb3 in his projections and still Tyler air is a top 40 running back with 12 touches per game so even without year getting a meaningful role he still has beon as a top three running back in fantasy for the idea that offensive scoring and efficiency and then also pass catching upside and beon only heading in year two the best of beon is still yet to come and I do not want to miss out now after that we have our rb1 tier these are guys I'm not taking in the first round but as soon as the second round hits um I'm very comfortable with all of these guys and first up we have jir Gibbs and it's 4 Jahmyr Gibbs always funny when I do these player pictures our rb4 jir Gibbs here he his big issue coming out of the draft this is kind of a tangent was that he was very slight he's like 199 lb he has such a thick neck for a guy who's under 200 lb um but in terms of the important stuff uh Gibbs I had him a little bit lowered in my rankings the past couple of weeks because he had a hamstring injury this has been like a second or third hamstring poll in the last 12 months that's usually not great but we're getting positive signs that he's practicing this week he's going to be out there for week one and he's also never been a 20 plus touch per game type of guy he's just going to thrive off of efficiency big plays this offense being a top five projected offense with a top five offensive line it's just a beautiful environment to be a part of and last year he was the rb8 in points per game despite splitting a lot of touches with David Montgomery and after week seven where he had 86% of the snaps from then on he was at 18.5 points per game I do think in year two we see running backs make a huge jump this is where the McCaffrey year 2 explosion happened if it was going to happen this year it would happen for Gibbs beon Robinson and Gibbs is somebody who had just 52 catches for for 316 yards last year this is a guy who had more career receptions in college than sequin and bejon Robinson and Christian mcaffry three of the best receiving prospects we've seen since my time in doing this so if jir Gibbs can come out here and improve on that and give like 80 plus catch upside on a you know an offense that did nothing in terms of pass catchers after Alan R st Brown and Sam La pora that would be absolutely massive for him now after that we have Jonathan Taylor who I just really like the 5 Jonathan Taylor offensive environment he's in which does sound interesting right because they have Anthony Richardson which isn't great right this is the rb5 we're talking about Jonathan Taylor for us and I do understand the concerns with Anthony Richardson taking away goal line work not giving as much receptions to the running back as a pocket passer would but this is an offense engineered by Shane Sten that should score a lot of points and then they were also the first ranked team in situation neutral pace and no huddle rate in their games with Anthony Richardson they're going to play uptempo but also run the ball a ton and score a lot of points and that's a really fun environment for Jonathan Taylor now when Shane Steen had Jaylen Herz and my sanders they were both inside of the top five for Rush attempts inside of the 10 yard line I think that'll be the split here between Taylor and Richardson and Taylor's going to sort of compete for 10 plus touchdowns and he'll have maybe you know 30 to 40 catches and I do think that he can be like Prime Jonathan Taylor that we saw in 2021 I believe where he was the rb1 overall where he just had like over 5 yards per carry super long touchdown runs I do think he can see that efficiency again he is just 25 years old still in the prime of his career then we have Devon Anan people 6 De'Von Achane hate how high I have Devon Anan he's my rb6 um I'm drafting a lot of him he's the closest thing we've ever seen to Alvin Kamar we look at fantasy points overe expected per game for all rookie running backs since 2009 that's as far back as the FPE per game data base goes and what this is is you have your expected points per game right just based on your raw touches your targets your Red Zone attempts how how many points per game should you be scoring he scored 6.7 fantasy points OV expected per game which would sound off red flags of like oh he's due for regression here but for as much as he's due regression he is due a lot more volume in year two and if you look at the list of running backs hit over a three fee per game in the rookie season it is Alvin Kamar Zeke Elliot aonan Foster Karem hunt David Johnson Jonathan Taylor all of them had 20 plus points per game in their second year and Devon hen has the highest EP per game on this list he is going to be in a really good offense you have ree moer who's a 32-year-old sub 200lb back who has never stayed healthy and last year was the first time he even scored inside of the top 24 running backs and fantasy points per game I'm very much fine betting on the year two breakout on Devon Anan he also has a lot of upside in the receiving game I think he's getting slept on 21.5% targets per out run last year was better than guys like jir Gibbs bejon saquin and mcaffrey which then brings us to saquin Barkley 7 Saquon Barkley here who I've been critical of this offseason a lot of you guys are going to hear what I said about Jonathan Taylor and say well how come this doesn't apply for your rb7 saquin Barkley and what I would say with saquin is I am more confident in betting on 25-year-old Jonathan Taylor than I am 27-year-old Sequon Barkley on his second team this not going to be year seven for saquon Barkley now I'm I'm not saying he's washed but I do think that there's a much less likelihood of him being in his prime to the point where he can overcome the situation the same way I think that Jonathan Taylor can where when we talk about saquin we are talking about year seven right when we just sort of look through some of the stud running backs in the past Chris Johnson in year seven was a jet David Johnson was a Texan Levon Bell was a jet Todd Gurley was retired in terms of just like good running backs over the last 10 years last couple of decades going into year seven was not all that pretty especially on a new team now of course you can go back in time you can look at Adrian Peterson Frank Gore some of the running backs that have defied the age curves can saquon Barkley be that potentially but this is somebody who hasn't had a 20 plus Point per game season since he was a rookie in the NFL with kind of like a dump dump off Merchant in Eli Manning I'm a little bit skeptical that he could give you the upside to kind of pay off the risk of a running back but here I'm fine ranking him at rb7 now at rb8 we have Kiren Williams now I did 8 Kyren Williams want to talk a little bit more about Kiren because we did get a report that came in yesterday and it sent Twitter into a frenzy KY Williams will be the punt returner this season per head coach Shawn McVey and everybody freaked out and I will will say I did move Kiron down originally like before today I had him right ahead of saquin I moved him down literally one spot I feel like ahead of saquin is pretty aggressive and what this tells me I don't want to get too over my skis here but this is to me a very risky but High upside profile and I think that you do have to adjust for that what the idea of him returning punts means now I do understand the context of it is just simply they wanted to get a roster spot open so they had to cut their previous pum returner kir will now be out there he'll probably doing a lot of fair catches anyway so it's not a huge deal but what it signals to us is that he's not this like prized bcal if you look over the last decade the only meaningful running back that also returned punts was Alvin Kamar as like a rookie and then after that he never did it again so it's very very rare and I think at the very least what it tells us is that this team really likes Blake cormo this is a really good exchange between Tyler and Jordan rodrigue uh I hope I'm saying her name right uh she is on the beat for the Rams and she said uh in this kind of mimic of similar to kir at the end of last camp where he was emerging cakers was on the downturn she says practices are closed during install and game prep period starting this week I'll reiterate Kiren and Blake corm have both gotten first team reps with the majority of August with Williams in the leadoff spot corm started with some twos and then moved up now Tyler says I'm trying to read between the lines here and it sounds like more of a split and kir filling in punt return while corm takes more away than just a drive every now and then Jordan then says that's my gut instinct so now this is a very real possibility that instead instead of it being like I was sort of expecting prior to this news I was sort of expecting like a 7030 split not as much work as last season but still a lot of work as the lead back in this offense and I do think now when we talk about this they really like korm he's working his way up the dep chart to really compete with the ones and now you have a scenario where they spent a day two draft pick on Blake km which is Meaningful draft capital in the modern NFL right they could have just waited they could have just gotten brayan Allen they could have gotten Jaylen Wright later on um they could have gotten Isaiah Davis like any of your favorite day three guys would know they actually in a year where they lose Aaron Donald and they need as many pieces on the defense as possible they use a third round pick on running back which in 2024 that means something so it's a little bit scary I still do think that kir will be the lead back but I think it'll be more of a split than a lot of the kir drafters will like I know that this sounds contradicting as someone that just had kir as a my guy in the second round to me he was a running back where especially in these running back hungry leagues where it's two wide receiv receiver One Flex I was fine taking Kiron in the second round I'm now in a spot where I would prefer him at the two3 turn and I would take some of those receivers over him you know like your Marvin Harrison jior like your Nico Collins and I would prefer that two three turn pretty much moving him into your just like just ahead of your etn pachos but then for me right next to saquin like he is here because there is a chance that you know with Shawn McVey the way that he treats running backs that we come out here in week one and it's a clean 50-50 split and all of a sudden the guy you drafted in the second round now holds no tra value heading into week two that is very much a real scenario just because we've seen sha McVey do it before with camers and derell Henderson it's a very real possibility there's also possibility that Kiren gets hurt korm takes over and then he's so good in Ken's absence that he just forces a 50-50 split or he becomes the lead back anyway so there just a lot of downside but again there is legendary upside for Kiren Williams where he is the guy he Taps into more of his receiving upside and he gives you 20 plus points per game again so I think that all this is baked in um and this is probably the reason what about to happen him right at rb8 now with the tier break here we move to our low-end rb1s and first up we have our rb9 Travis 9 Travis Etienne etn I will say when we get to this spot I do start to struggle to see like this legendary upside right where like this running back it finishes the rb1 overall I don't know how etn gets there he was the rb7 in points per game last year but he was like pretty much outside of mcaffrey was like him and Bree Hall as like the best picks that you can make at running back inside of the top four rounds and this was in a pretty brutal spot last year like their offensive line was awful um they struggled with efficiency it was just a down year overall for their offense but I like them heading into this year their offensive line is ranked 20th on established the run so that should at least be League average or not bottom five like it was last year um I do think we're just going to see a bounce back in general where now you have Christian Kirk healthy you add in Brian Thomas Jr which has been the ex receiver that they've been wanting for a long time right like last year they were rotating between Z Jones who was banged up and then Calvin Ridley sort of playing him out of position this should be a much smoother offense I think it will look better um and you could just see a spot where yes they have tank bsby but he'll be the clear number two and eten will get the volume and probably be a very easy projection of like 17 to 18 points per game which at this point in time uh in the running back rankings I'm fine just sort of leaning on then we have Josh Jacobs at rb10 we moved him up uh AJ Dylan out for the season which is 10 Josh Jacobs crazy uh and then Marshon lyd is also banged up so I I will say I will float out a name if you're in like a really really deep League Emanuel Wilson is interesting he's like the only living breathing back out side of Josh Jacobs for the early season but I will say I wouldn't get too far ahead of yourself like I wouldn't like push him up and be like I'm going to take him you know mid-second round because even with this development of again Mike Clay projections right this is just Marshon Lloyd he misses three games in these projections and Emanuel Wilson still only gets Jacobs now in a 14 game Pace only gets Jacobs to the rb14 in PPR this is going to be a high-scoring offense but it'll be a little bit low volume and I do think that yes this means that Jacob is going to have a huge percentage of the pie but this could shrink the piie a little bit in terms of the the opportunity to the running backs and could actually make them lean on the passing game more with Jordan love in all of his weapons but he is out there you know this is a nine touchdown through 14 game Pace he could very easily score a touchdown per game just in this offense given the efficiency that will be there so we will see uh I do wonder if he can bounce back to his 2022 season because if he can if he can have that efficiency but in this offense you are talking about 20 plus points per game but when running backs change teams like this unless you're mcaffrey it's kind of hard to rekindle that efficiency needed to get there but you know we're talking about Josh hiobs in the third round you don't need 20 plus points per game from the payoff you really need more like 18 plus uh and same thing happens here for our rb1 Isaiah Pacho 11 Isiah Pacheco now I'm actually glad I waited till today to do this video because we had the Kira news and now we have Sam perine getting signed to the Chiefs and I think a lot of people want to just discard this news but to me it is Meaningful I did move him uh I had him here I moved him behind Jacobs I just swapped them uh after we got the Jacobs news with AJ Dylan but perine I know everyone's going to just discard perine but this is a guy in samaj perine who had over 50 catches last year and the thing that people keep pointing to myself with Peko is when McKinnon wasn't active Peko had 20 plus Point per game upside well now you know Jer mckin was dust last year he was just a reliable pass catching running back that's now what samash perine is and if he fills into that jerck McKinnon role that now Cuts Pacho ceiling from 20 plus points per game now to more like your 16 17 cler game projection that he was at like the end of last year so I'm open to it but I do think that the scorched Earth 20 plus Point per game upside is no longer there with Sam peran I think that there's also some downside that they want to use Carson Steel in close on the goal line is just like this bigger fullback like modern-day uh Mike allot type of guy we'll see I mean we're still talking about my rb11 and rb1 a guy I'm fine taking in the third round but on these ESPN and some of these sites where he's like the 20 4 uh that's a little bit Rich for me personally now our rb12 and our last running back in this tier is Derrick 12 Derrick Henry Henry I get the enthusiasm it's going to be really fun TV Derrick Henry next to Lamar Jackson running zone Reed running all over the field but there is a lot of downside and I don't think that there's rb1 overall in Derrik Henry's profile maybe in the standard league but I still think even then you're kind of stretching it this is a guy who I get the splits right 19.9 points per game and win last year 11.6 points for game in losses even if you want to extrapolate that to instead now 10 and a half wins for the Ravens which is their biggest projection that'll get him to 15 touchdowns and 16.7 points per game which still is like an rb7 like that's the ceiling you're looking at here he needs to get like like 20 plus touchdowns he's going to be splitting time with Justice Hill like it's going to be very similar to the split we saw with Tai J Spears last year and then I also do have some concerns of like people do think okay well the Ravens will be a really good team and then they'll beat up on teams and while they have a lead they'll just grind Derrik Henry well this is a team with Lamar Jackson that is historically underperformed in the playoffs like fumbling away one seeds so I have a tough time seeing in like a meaningless week 13 game where they're up 20 in the fourth quarter just giving 15 carries to Derrick Henry you know like I imagine that they kind of want to keep the 31-year-old running back fresh for their playoff run and it gets cold and they really want to lean on Derrick Henry that's just my two cents uh for me I'm preferring like every running back that goes in this range I prefer PCO Jacobs eten all those guys I haven't drafted Derrick Henry yet in a managed League I know that's going to be something that you guys hate uh in the comments now after that we have James Cook at rb13 if I'm going to take an rb2 in this 13 James Cook range I want him to have youth pass catching upside that's what James Cook had last year he went from 12 points per game to 16.7 points per game once Joe Brady took over and this bill's offense is going to score a lot of points you're projected to be a top five offense by Vegas he has pass catching upside he has touchdown upside he was also super explosive where he was the second running back in rushes of 10 or more yards and he was top 10 in yards per carry and yards per reception then we have Kenneth Walker i h I do love his new player shot here he's like bald he's 14 Kenneth Walker III just like shaving everything off like kind of like Prime Adrian Peterson um and I just want pieces of this new Ryan grub offense I think it's going to be a really really fun offense in Seattle and Kenneth Walker was banged up all of last year since he's been drafted he leads all running backs Miss tackles forced they're also talking that he could play on all three downs and if this whole off offense bounces back then he could be a huge beneficiary of that kind of like Rashad white last year where the Bucks were really slept on and then they were pretty good offense I think that could be Kenneth Walker this year Rashad white I have ranked as my RB 15 here in the rb2 tier last year he ranked outside the 15 Rachaad White top 40 in elusiveness rating Miss tackles Force per Rush explosive Rush percentage he was just not a very good runner between the tackles uh and usually when you're that inefficient you don't just get the same volume again and now you have a new offensive coordinator in town but he does have youth he does have pass catching upside which we want to bet on and he does have a revamped offensive line with graham Barton and if you want to sort of explain way well his rushing efficiency was bad because of the offensive line you now have an excuse baked in where the offensive line should be better so if you want to bet on Rashad white uh you absolutely can then our rb16 here is going to be Joe 16 Joe Mixon Mixon uh he scares me a little bit as like a late career running back changing teams uh hasn't been efficient in the last few years but he's going to be on a good offense in Houston they're going to score a ton of points and if he hammers in you know the 12 touchdowns he probably pays off it just comes down to like if he ends up as like a fringe rb1 or if he just kind of falls off a cliff but there is really nobody else in this backfield to sort of compete for touches then we have James Connor at RB 17 here he is a fine rb2 to me um he was legit 17 James Conner good last year top six in elusiveness rating uh explosive run percentage yards at the contact per attempt the issue is that he's now an aging running back uh he's never finished the season completely healthy there is a chance that at this stage of his career that these efficiency metrics just kind of crater it's very much a possibility but this is a lead back in a an offense I want to bet on uh last year they were the second best rushing efficiency offense when they got Kyler Murray back in the mix and this new OC that they hired last year petting is actually kind of a a bright guy in terms of just like the advanced metrics so far uh then we have David Montgomery at RB 18 here he was RB 18 David Montgomery 15 in points per game last year he's still in a top five offense behind the top five offensive line he'll be like a a startable backend rv2 on a weekly basis but you do have jir Gibbs who is an undersized running back who has had hamstring scares uh you know a couple times in the last 12 months if he pulls up a hamstring and Montgomery is the rb1 in this offense he's a top five running back in that given week so his contingent upside is just too good to pass up on then we have Naji Harris at rb19 this is the year that I've been 19 Najee Harris going all in on nii he is going to be the lead back in a run first offense Arthur Smith has ranked top 10 in four of the last five years in Rush attempts and rushing yards as a play caller they're going to run the ball a ton they're going to lean on the run and last year Naji Harris had career bests in Miss tackles Force per touch yard at to contact per rush and explosive run rate he was the best version of himself and he now gets probably the best environment that he's been in behind the best offensive line as well where they upgraded with Zack Frasier fanu and brck Jones last year on the o line then we have rb20 I have Alvin Kamar here uh or not 20 Aaron Jones Alvin Kamar I have Aaron Jones here but him and Alvin Kamar are like same bets uh this is what scares me this is a graphic from Dwayne McFarland when running backs change teams which you can apply to every you can apply that to Derrick Henry you can apply it to Josh Jacobs you can apply it to all of them saquon Barkley when a running back changes teams in terms of coralation of PPR points volume all of that they dwindle when you switch teams it just change it just puts so much in flux when you're already a fragile asset as an aging running back so that's the concern with Aaron Jones uh he did look good last year we had like five straight 100 yard gains or 100 yard games to end the season but he is a guy who's been injury prone in the last few years no JJ McCarthy lowers the ceiling of this offense and you also have Ty Chandler who this staff seems to really like then you have Alvin Kamar as well who seems like a very similar Dead Zone back type of bet here uh where he has declined every single 21 Alvin Kamara year uh since 2019 in terms of avoided tackle rate shout out to Jacob Gibbs there he's to me just a very pure volume play and a dead zone back that I am avoiding at my rb21 which then brings us 22 Rhamondre Stevenson to our rb22 randrecous offense we'll see how Drake May is there is just like not a huge upside for touchdowns in this environment and then the last running back in this tier our rb23 javante Williams he is now another 23 Javonte Williams year removed from his multi- ligament ACL tear he should rebound from 3.6 yards per carry he had last year pre-injury he was at 4.4 yards per carry and you get Shawn Payton who has had a top five running back room in receiving expected fantasy points that's just your targets your receiving yards your receiving touchdowns your Red Zone receptions to the running back backs all of that he has never been outside the top five in his entire career for his running back room that's a stat from Sean seagull Javonte Williams if he is the clubhouse leader for touches he can also get a ton of receptions and we're looking at like 50 plus receptions 250 plus carries and he could just be an absolute monster then we have our our Fringe rb2s these guys aren't as safe but are definitely priorities in like my hero RB type of builds and at rb25 we have re heer now yes of course I'm high 24 Raheem Mostert on Devon Anan but I do think on teams where you don't have Devon Chan if you're looking for rb2 or just early season production I don't mind rahee moer I do think that there is a chance that he falls off a cliff at his age or that he gets banged up at his age and his slight size but on a weekly basis as long as he's healthy he will be startable him and Devon Anan don't need 20 plus touches each for them to get home there's going to be a lot of touchdowns a lot of yards here a lot of good scheme from Mike McDaniel and for me I think that that's just fine to have Raheem moer as my RB 24 then our RB 25 is Jaylen Warren as we saw earlier with 25 Jaylen Warren the Gibbs tweet he seems pretty much on the up and up as well where he's practicing again this week he's on track for week one um I do have some concern that Arthur Smith is just going to flat out prefer Nai Harris in this offense but Jaylen Warren has a ton of juice Arthur Smith runs the ball a ton and with a Naji Harris injury he would be an rb1 in fantasy football but even if not he has a lot of juice he has pass catching upside he was first in yard at to contact per attempts last year first Miss tles Force attempt all of that good stuff um a talented running back I want 26 Zamir White to bet on then we have zamir white uh this to me is just like very clearly a dead zone back at rb26 prompted by volume he doesn't really catch passes he's in a bad offense attached like Aiden oconnell and Gardner menu uh he's just not for me I know some people probably have him a tier above here but I don't know if you ever got to this area I would take him but he does feel just like a very you know projection heavy low upside kind of 27 D'Andre Swift bet which just isn't really my thing um RB 27 we have DeAndre Swift not crazy about Swift uh Team seem to just fall out of favor with him this is like his third team in his first five years here but he did just get 14 million guaranteed the ninth most among all running backs and Chicago's projected to score the 16th most points by Vegas if he's the lead back on that offense that is interesting then at rb28 we have Brian Robinson Jr last year BR was 28 Brian Robinson Jr. actually pretty damn good man he was the rb22 in points per game he was tied for six in terms of fooe per game among running backs 21st Mar guards over attempt last year success rate 40.9% 16th I don't know why I stumbled on rushing yards overexp expected per attempt uh but fifth in yards per out run 28th in targets so for a guy that's seen as like a between the tackles grinder 40 targets is actually really good and he was efficient on those targets so he can give you some some receptions he can give you some goal line work and especially with Cliff Kingsbury who has had double- digit touchdown Seasons to both Kenyan Drake and James Connor that could be Brian Robinson this year and yes jayen DS is there but he's not a goal line threat the same way that Jaylen Herz is where he's more of like a Lamar uh if we look back at this class Bon Knicks actually had more rushing touchdowns than Jaden Daniels over his entire career and they both played for a super super long time then at rb29 and I'll actually I I'll jump on them together at rb29 and at rb30 here we 29 Tyjae Spears have Tony Pard and Tai Spears shout out to Dynasty zolan for this graphic terms of efficiency last year Tai Spears knocked it out of the park he was a monster he was an efficiency monster just across the entire league he's a year two breakout candidate he forced a 30 Tony Pollard legit time share with Derk Henry he was also top 10 in targets and he's also a perfect fit for this like shotgun heavy uptempo offense that Brian Callahan will have in Tennessee now sure I do think Tony Pard like if I was ranking for week one I would have Tony Pard ahead of Tai Spears he's a more comfortable projection early on in the season but I am drafting for late season upside for what matters in the fantasy playoffs and I do think Tai J Spears has the upper hand but they are back toback and I think they're both fine picks to be the lead back in this offense I would just lean Tai J Spears now after that we move to our rb3 tier these are guys where if I could help it I don't want them in my rb2 spot but if you have to you can make it work with some of them but first up at RB 31 we will have Jonathan Brooks uh 31 Jonathon Brooks officially on the pup but we already knew he was going to miss time I'm really not all that spooked about it and this is somebody who was a really really good Prospect to the point where a running back who you know it's the position that's not getting drafted highly in the modern NFL he ends up going in the second round despite tearing his ACL probably would have been a first round pick if he didn't tear his ACL it was a clean tear he's on the pup so he's going to miss the first four weeks but then he should have get ramped up and if he is the Workhorse for this offense or just even the lead back for an offense with Dave Canales that is a very valuable role down the stretch he could kind of be like this year's Rashad white uh then we have Chase Brown in this Bengals offense super high scoring him and Zach Moss Dodge the samj 32 Chase Brown perine sign signing which is really good uh Chase Brown has a lot of juice he handled 20 plus carries touches multiple times in college and he is also the better receiving back between him and Zach Moss but Zach Moss 33 Zack Moss is also fine as well I have him as my rb33 uh he is probably the more steady candidate to lead this backfield in touches to also be the goal line back and in an offense like this that's going to score a lot of points that is valuable but he is also just not a special talent where he's never had a top 24 Point per game finish this is now his third team uh he's never had 10,00 plus rushing yards either so if Chase Brown is good in any capacity he should be able to Leap Frog Zack Moss then we have Deon single which people seem to like Deon single ter a lot um I do get it it's you know it's cheap volume but I 34 Devin Singletary don't see the league winning upside uh you know he's going to be the bcow but on a Giants offense that's projected to be bottom 10 in scoring uh with the 27th ranked offensive line for establish the Run Evan Neil is already getting tossed in preseason games uh I don't know it's a rough spot but if you do find yourself you know where maybe you draft John Brooks and you just need some kind of junk volume at your rb2 spot until he comes back single ter pretty good bet to make in that spot then we have Blake corm on the other side of this Kiren 35 Blake Corum Williams news uh and we talk about Blake corm he was a good Prospect not a great Prospect but a really high floor one where he is like maybe one of the best college running backs of all time I do think you can genuinely make that case um he scored a ton of touchdowns he finally brought Michigan a touchdown or a championship not a touchdown um and McVey called him a Kiren clone and then he used day two draft capital on Blake km higher draft Capital than Kiren Williams he's also a bigger version of kir Williams and can you know probably withstand more contact more carries also can give you probably a little bit more of a thumper on the goal line which maybe that he'll value and then also I think that there is some Merit to this idea and I thought that Jacob Sanderson on his substack really outlined this well of this idea of the Rams running back and people do gravitate towards okay well the Rams running back we want a Rams running back because McVey is just going to use one workhorse for the entire game I think Jacob actually breaks this down really good this is thinking about thinking a substack uh I would 100% check out he said the question is whether kirn becomes ultimately uh another Muse or the long awaited heir to Todd Gurley he said he thinks it fits somewhere in between McVey is one of the most brilliant coaches in the league um simply stating that McVey loves a bcow is not quite enough for me the why is more interesting M understood far earlier than most Co coaches that there is value in presenting a consistent look to the defense being able to run out of 11 personnel on repeat and running a variety of plays within that prevents the defense from guessing what he's going to run and by staying in the same Personnel playto play he can also prevent defenses from substituting so like the Ravens for instance are going to have to on passing plays they'll bring in Justice Hill on running plays they'll bring in Derrick Henry that's going to tip their hand to the defense Shawn McVey does not want that then he said because of this it's very beneficial for mcvey's offense to play one back for an entire Drive however I failed to see a reason other than skill Gap why it's important to play one back for an entire game when kir Williams was hurt last year McVey largely continued the one back per Drive policy but rotated between Royce Freeman and derell Henderson Drive by drive when Williams returned McVey returned to a one-back approach but to me that because he was simply way better than Freeman and Henderson not because he needed to play one back for an entire game and I largely agree and I think that what this punt return stuff tells us is that instead of it being you know like three drives to Kiren and then one drive to Blake corm it seems like he's actually climbing up this depth chart he's someone that they trust as a running back on a full drive basis and instead of it being you know like a a 4 to1 split or a 3 to1 split it could be a two to1 split that works into like a a one to one split and it becomes like a 50-50 split and the thing that's scary about Blake corm and what we kind of just talked about with um who do we talk about it with in terms of like Tony Pard you know when we talk about full season upside kyen Williams yes is going to be a really strong Pro projection early on by week 10 1112 if kir gets any bangs and bruises if Blake corn just flat out out plays him there's a chance that we see the tides turn by the time we get to the fantasy playoffs and that is huge for Blake km and really not good for Kiren so I do like Blake km I think he's a good running back Prospect he was an old Prospect as well who just has a very high floor that I think he's going to come to the NFL not make dumb mistakes and just be a very good running back between the tackles then we have RB 36 Rico da he is this is a line that my accounting teacher in 36 Rico Dowdle high school used but Ric d right now is the best looking guy in a Walmart right they signed talvin cook today they have Ezekiel Elliott two running backs we know are watched and Rico D is not a talented running back in his own right but he has very poor competition next to him and probably the best pass catching profile out of the three of them at this point in their careers now of course Zeke could be the preferred uh pass blocker that's very much a thing that can happen but Ric D's drawing live to be the lead back in one of the League's best offenses and if that happens he is going to absolutely crush his ADP so this is where I have him right now then we have Jerome Ford who at this 37 Jerome Ford point is the lead back um until Nick chub is back and I am very much fine betting against Nick chub coming back in a timely fashion and still being as efficient as he was off of a multi- ligament knee tear I believe the same knee as well the one that he had from Georgia just a horrific injury uh but I just don't know how he comes back soon enough for me to really care and Jerome Ford's another perfect pairing with like Jonathan Brooks where you got the early season production and then by the time Nick chub is like a real Factor Brooks can be that guy in his own offense then you have Trey Benson here uh High upside handcuff which is kind of what you're drafting in this rb3 range 4-3 speed day 39 Trey Benson two draft Capital uh James Conor has never stayed healthy for an entire season and they just cut backup running back Michael Carter which signals to us that they actually like Trey V and that he can actually carve into James Conor's work early in the season not just a pure handcuff uh then we also have Jaylen Wright similar profile uh really fun 40 Jaylen Wright player 4-3 speed uh the heaviest back in this backfield between moard and Anan looked really good in the uh preseason and we've seen aan and moster deal with injuries over the past couple of years then you can also put chuba Hub in a similar bucket as uh Jerome Ford but I do think 41 Chuba Hubbard that this is a worse offense for chuba hubard and I think that because Jonathan Brooks wasn't multi- ligament whereas Nick chubs was I think that it will be a shorter period of time that chuba hubard is the Far and Away rb2 uh then you have Zack shanet to me high upside handcuff 42 Zach Charbonnet in an offense we want pieces of then we have Jal mcin the uh stat we read earlier where um of course you have I'm trying to think through do I not I 38 Austin Ekeler skipped Eckler actually we're going to put Eckler at RB 38 so okay so we have Rico RB 36 Jerome Ford RB 37 Alon Eckler RB 38 Trey Benson RB 39 RB 40 is Jaylen Wright RB 41 is Shuba hubard RB 42 is Zach shanet RB 43 is jalum M glin we will talk about Austin Eckler for a second here he had a brutal year last year but we could very much see um a world where he rebounds off of the uh high ankle sprain he had last year you also without Jan doson Austin Eckler could have the second most Targets on this team and he could actually get instead of Brian Robinson they could use Austin Eckler in the Red Zone it's not likely but these are his paths to upside and he is going to get enough PPR volume that you can start him as like a rb3 in a given week but it won't be super pretty um I will talk about Jal mcglaughlin here I keep moving him up uh 43 Jaleel McLaughlin we get Sam perine cut which is huge for J mcglaughlin and last year he was very hesitant Shawn pyton to use mcglaughlin as a pass catching uh you know long down and distance type of guy of course he would get his touches but he wouldn't be trusted to pass block or be like the true two minute drill running back we got some of that usage in the preseason without Sam perine he could get the first crack at that work and that would be very interesting to kind of be Payton's new Darren sprouls I guess you could call it um and then we just have the two Chargers running backs I have JK dobins at rb44 Gus Edwards at 45 Gus Edwards rb45 uh I'm not crazy about either Dobbins off the Achilles is scary but he's been getting a lot of good reviews out of camp this is going to be a team that has a good offensive line scores points and runs the football um and the same can be said about Gus Edwards but he's now aging coming off the 10 touchdown year 10 plus touchdown year could kind of have a Jamal Williams type fall off or you could just do it all over again but that is it that is my top 45 running back rankings if you want the entire list of my running backs my tiers how it all breaks down I have my top 200 P my top 200 rankings for fantasy football drafts right now half PPR and full PPR top 200 is on the patreon patreon.com Ron Stewart you can find that in the description and the comment section down below pinned at the top but if you can't support there I appreciate you guys watching regardless jez I tried to get through that as fast as I could I think that's still going to run a little bit longer than I would have liked it to but leave a like if you enjoyed subscribe if you're new and I will see yall in the next one [Music] my