Draft strategy: What to do with running backs in 2024 | Fantasy Football Happy Hour | NFL on NBC

we're going to try conquer running backs today continuing our positional preview be sure to check out wide receivers from yesterday's show tight ends from the day before but today it is all about running backs and that is why Denny Carter the running back hero himself he drinks free today because it was his birthday yesterday which we forgot about yesterday and by we I want to be clear about this Denny I want to be clear about this by we we really mean backup producer Pete backup producer Pete who honestly produced yesterday and he's just like Denny schy like just just so you understand that when when Pete when backup producer Pete is putting together the show Denny Carter you are nowhere near his thoughts at any point hey maybe we should had to get at lawrenson today hey I want to feature Connor hey you know what's I wonder what Roto Pat's doing but just he never ever considers you Denny just so you know hey we got to make sure Lawrence is around like just just so you understand but we all the collective three here along with Conor Rogers we were like what why didn't we wish Denny a happy birthday so again our our friend and colleague Denny Carter Denny Denny Carter UH 60 years old today 61 61 with the hair of a 16y old boy the hair of a I'm insanely jealous of it in the end all right let's get into running backs uh Matthew let's talk about strategy first just broadly how do you feel about uh zero RB hero anchor RB what do you broadly what do you think about running backs this year well let's let's just sort of Define that just in case people these get these terms get banded about a lot online on Twitter and that kind of stuff and some people may be like oh sure I know what that means or maybe I don't but just so you understand if we're talking about it this is how we're defining it as well very clearly very clearly zero R RB is not that you don't draft any of running backs what it means is that you don't draft any running backs in the first five to seven rounds okay like but the important thing is that if you go with this approach obviously you have to crush a wide receiver but you're also going to get an elite quarterback an elite tight end basically saying I'm going to get I'm going to get Elite at every position and then rounds you know rounds 8 n 10 that kind of thing I'm going to Target cheap volume at running back the Nagi harrises of the world the you know the the Devin single teres Brian Robinson those type of players along with high Insurance backs and you hope that some of them pop that you find a that you find a Kiren Williams that kind of stuff and you hope that maybe like whatever that suddenly tank bsby or Jordan Mason or somebody like that pops uh at some point during the year right so that's the idea behind zero RB another uh phrase that gets thrown out a lot is hero RB or anchor RB that's exactly what it says like basically you're drafting one high-end running back early and then you're ignoring the position for four or five rounds so this year that would be like you draft mcaffrey and then it's wide receiver it's so Bree Hall bejon those kind of things uh for me I wouldn't want to do the the I think the lowest tier I would want like I think I think you could do anchor uh RB and we'll get get we'll get into this but I think you can do anchor RB with with you know with Derrick Henry with saquan with JT with Pacho um I'd be a little nervous to do it with with Williams and Anan based on the uh based on injury history there but that's the idea there is that you get an elite running back and then you ignore the position for the next like four to six rounds and again then you're for your rb2 you're looking sort of in that that same range of those cheap volume guys that we talked about and then the last strategy here very quickly is obviously is heavy RB or bully RB sometimes people call it and that's where you're going running back running back sometimes running back running back running back there and once you do that so you're you're you know maybe if you're at the end of the first round and I've seen you know beon drop sometimes like you go bejon and then you go Barkley in the second round right right and at the end of the third you know I don't know maybe maybe like there's a yeah that's probably too late for etn but you know is there like a you know is there somebody like a maybe like a swift yeah I feel like that's too early for for for Swift as well but whatever there's you know there's like an hn or somebody like H that would probably be too late for hn but whatever Kenneth Walker that'd be a good example right you know Kent Walker C somebody like towards the end of the third round whatever you go running back running back running back is the point and um uh and then you basically ignore the position until like the kind of late rounds and you're taking some flyers but basically you're locking up your running back position position at the at the very early Point what I would say here just in general and then we're going to get into specific positions but what I would say here in general is that I wouldn't want to go into a draft saying well I'm definitely doing zero RB I'm definitely doing hero RB or I'm going ARB ARB like again wait to see what your draft pick is wait to see how the draft comes to you i' I've seen some drafts like on ESPN where the first three picks are mcaffrey Bree and beon right or three of the first five or the very running back heavy on ESP then I've seen other leagues especially like on Yahoo where beon or Bree will last till the end of the first round where it's more wide receiver heavy so again you just every league is different um so I kind of want to go in the league let the draft come to me and sort of figure it out but what I will say here is that if you decide to I'm going zero RB and that's just like great wide receiver value Great Wide Receiver value Great Wide Receiver value and then you you suddenly find yourself in round six you know and you're like wow I hate all the running backs in this round there's still some really good values at wide receiver too bad you sort of you're kind of pot committed at that point the only thing you can do the only at that point you're just you're you're sort of pot committed to this strategy and you can't suddenly draft like you know and wait you know way too long the the only thing you can do there Lawrence is if you know your league if you're like in a league with people that you're friends with or that you have relationship with you're like okay you know what I know I'm going to be able to trade so if you're just like oh the value is still I've gone zero RB but the value is still better at wide receiver or tight end I'm just going to load up on that because then what I can do is I can take my my number two wide receiver or number three wide receiver and trade it for a stud running back as opposed to reaching it because I now have all this incredible depth at wide receiver because the value kept being there but that only works again if you know you're going to be able to trade in your league if you're in like a high stakes League or a league where you don't have great relationships or know the people then you got to you got to sort of stick with whatever uh strategy you uh committed to hey it's Matthew Barry from nbcsports.com and rotor. and I want to thank you so much for watching whatever it is you just watched or if nothing else being too lazy to click out of the autoplay after this video started after whatever it is you actually wanted to watch finished but now that you're here I'd like to take a moment here to ask you respectfully respectfully now okay I'm asking you respectfully to subscribe to the NFL on NBC YouTube channel you'll get the latest roto world fantasy news headlines all sorts of great shows including my own fantasy football happy hour so go subscribe now again I'm asking respectfully