Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
Speaker 2: source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
Speaker 2: whatever stupid stuff they decide to drop into the show. Now,
Speaker 2: here's your host, Paul Chargian.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly. I am Paul Charchie, and
Speaker 1: my guest for this show and most of the shows
Speaker 1: between now and the draft is Thor Nice Drum.
Speaker 3: Hey, buddy, Yeah, Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I'm so excited for the first awesome running
Speaker 1: back draft we have had in many, many years. There's
Speaker 1: a very real chance that this goes down as the
Speaker 1: deepest best running back draft in like decades.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean I've been doing draft work for
Speaker 3: a decade now. This is the best running back class
Speaker 3: during that time for sure, you know, and you'd have
Speaker 3: to go back earlier than that. But yeah, this is
Speaker 3: just a nasty, nasty running back class.
Speaker 1: God, I love it. There's so many running backs that
Speaker 1: we're we're actually gonna break this concept down. We're gonna
Speaker 1: break down running backs. We're gonna break it into two
Speaker 1: shows because there's just so many guys to talk about.
Speaker 1: You like, last year, we're gonna do six running backs
Speaker 1: deep dive on six running backs today. Last year there
Speaker 1: were only about six guys worth even talking about. And
Speaker 1: you know we're gonna cover between the two shows. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do six today, We're gonna do like twelve next week.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how many guys there are worth talking about
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 3: Thor Yeah, this is the year where if you have
Speaker 3: multiple spots in your running back room, you probably want
Speaker 3: to take two running backs in the draft if you're
Speaker 3: an organization. But yeah, for dynasty owners out there, this
Speaker 3: is the year to get your running backs load up.
Speaker 1: It is. And you know, from a dynasty standpoint, thor Well,
Speaker 1: I would love to have pick one overall, right, ashon Jety,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about them with plenty. But you know, if
Speaker 1: you got to make you need a running back, and
Speaker 1: you got to make do it pick five, at picks six,
Speaker 1: at pick seven, you're gonna get way better prospects in
Speaker 1: the middle rounds of your dynasty draft than you would
Speaker 1: have in most years.
Speaker 3: Right, definitely, Yeah, I mean you you squeeze these two
Speaker 3: classes together, the last running back class in this one,
Speaker 3: you might have six or seven guys from this class
Speaker 3: that would have gone before Jonathan Brooks last last April.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's it's just a totally different animal. We're
Speaker 3: dealing with the running back class this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. I thought that we would. I
Speaker 1: would start here, for there's a lot of running back
Speaker 1: and needy teams, and I've broken into two groups, and
Speaker 1: you can feel free to disagree with me, into like
Speaker 1: Tier one teams that really need a running back and
Speaker 1: then Tier two teams that I think could spend equity
Speaker 1: on a running back, especially in this deeper class, that
Speaker 1: maybe just don't quite have exactly the backfield that they
Speaker 1: want yet. So let me start here. I think Cleveland
Speaker 1: is in business. Nick Chubbs got plenty of question marks
Speaker 1: and free agency, and so I think Cleveland is in
Speaker 1: business here, although they've got addressed quarterback. First, how about Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: Najie Harris is an unrestricted free agent. Houston to me,
Speaker 1: I think is a sneaky running back destination. Joe Mixon
Speaker 1: petered out hard after he remember remember thor when he
Speaker 1: started the season so well and then in the middle
Speaker 1: end of the season, it just didn't come together for
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon and he looked old. Yeah, Denver Javonte Williams
Speaker 1: does not look like the answer. Nobody on that roster
Speaker 1: right now looks like the guys that are ultimately the
Speaker 1: answer for Sean Payton Las Vegas. Right now, the leading
Speaker 1: running back under contract for this coming season of Las
Speaker 1: Vegas is Sincere McCormick. That tells you plenty uh. And
Speaker 1: then what do you think about the What do you
Speaker 1: think about the Chargers what they had? You know, they
Speaker 1: tried the Dobbins Edwards thing, the recycled Ravens, and while
Speaker 1: it Dobbins looked good at the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to get anything done. And you know
Speaker 1: Jim Harbaugh wants to run the ball.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're you're not going to be able to prevent
Speaker 3: Jim Harbaugh from taking a running back in the best
Speaker 3: running back class. So we've seen the decades in the NFL,
Speaker 3: so you can count on that, right.
Speaker 1: Yes, Dallas is the team everybody points at, and I
Speaker 1: think it's it's totally valid. And if there was one
Speaker 1: team where you go, yeah, you know, Ashton genty will
Speaker 1: never slip by that team, it's got to be Dallas, right.
Speaker 3: Agreed, Yeah, his Ashton Genz's floor is picked twelve. Will
Speaker 3: he get to pick twelve? That is the debate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think it will. The Bears, I think
Speaker 1: are a sneaky running back destination. You look at the
Speaker 1: improvements they made on their offensive line. I know they
Speaker 1: have to get more productivity out of their running back room.
Speaker 1: I think DeAndre Swift is just a guy in Chicago's
Speaker 1: a destination. And then the Vikings Aaron Jones, unrestricted free agent,
Speaker 1: Cam Akers unrestricted free agent ty Chandler doesn't look like
Speaker 1: anything close to a reliable back. So I think the
Speaker 1: Vikings are also a Tier one team that could take
Speaker 1: that it needs running back help.
Speaker 3: I agree with both of those, I think at ten,
Speaker 3: depending on the way that the board falls. For Chicago,
Speaker 3: I absolutely think that there are scenarios where they would
Speaker 3: take genty And do they feel like they have to
Speaker 3: take a tackle They obviously just recently traded for two guards.
Speaker 3: You probably could use a tackle across from Darnell, right,
Speaker 3: But what if a tackle isn't there that you like? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean Ben Johnson comes from the organization that shocked
Speaker 3: everybody by taking Jamier Gibbs three years ago at twelve
Speaker 3: or so. So yeah, I mean he wanted to build
Speaker 3: up the offensive line. Do they feel like they have
Speaker 3: built it up enough with the acquisition of those guards.
Speaker 3: What's their feeling of Braxton Jones the new coaching staff.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think Gent's in play for them for sure,
Speaker 3: certainly in play for Las Vegas. And if he gets
Speaker 3: through the wickets, that's where Dallas comes in.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna give you some Tier two teams.
Speaker 1: I think New England's in player, even though you know
Speaker 1: Thor I love Ramondre Stevenson, and I think in a
Speaker 1: different unit where he hadn't been stuck playing behind this
Speaker 1: terrible offensive line and terrible quarterbacking for his entire career,
Speaker 1: Romandi would be just like a great a stud playing
Speaker 1: somewhere else. But the reality is that he hasn't been
Speaker 1: as productive as as the Patriots would want, and they
Speaker 1: may put some of that blame on him. So I
Speaker 1: think Patriots are in play. I think Kansas City could
Speaker 1: be sneaky in play because Isaiah Pacheco. The fact that
Speaker 1: they refused to use him in the in the playoffs
Speaker 1: was just so telling, and maybe this injury that he suffered,
Speaker 1: even though he came back from it. You know, maybe
Speaker 1: he's just not the same guy in Kansas City, could
Speaker 1: have some question marks at running back and might be
Speaker 1: able to find somebody that you know, they just for
Speaker 1: whatever reason. What you know, if they're worried about Pacheco
Speaker 1: that I think that's a possible destination for running back.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's accurate. Do you think they just
Speaker 1: go right back to Pacheco this year?
Speaker 3: No, I think it's accurate. And I think this where
Speaker 3: we'll get into the depth of the running back class
Speaker 3: with these Tier two teams, because both of those teams
Speaker 3: could use a mix and match back and different kinds,
Speaker 3: right like the Patriots. You could use an airback, I think,
Speaker 3: an explosive back to pair with Remandre And we know
Speaker 3: that the Patriots new head coach fetishizes running the ball.
Speaker 3: He had that silly stat he put out of if
Speaker 3: you run forty or more times, your record is this
Speaker 3: and if you like that that Vrabel just loves it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I would expect New England to dip their
Speaker 3: toes in at some point with the complimentary back, and
Speaker 3: then I think the complimentary back to Kansas City is
Speaker 3: looking for. It's sort of the opposite where you're looking
Speaker 3: for the meat and potatoes efficiency guy that you could
Speaker 3: pair with Pachecko, And yeah, I mean, and then if
Speaker 3: that guy ends up really really flashing, maybe you have
Speaker 3: your starter of the future, but a guy where you
Speaker 3: wouldn't have to give big time draft equity there and
Speaker 3: you would get a viable, immediate guy that could mix
Speaker 3: a match with Pachecko.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and seeing Patrick Mahomes getting getting hit more than
Speaker 1: ever last year, and you know you want if they don't,
Speaker 1: if they don't end up trying to diversify their offense
Speaker 1: a little bit more, the running game going Washington, to
Speaker 1: me is a team that's in play. I've never I'm
Speaker 1: not a Brian Robinson guy. I just I think he
Speaker 1: takes whatever his offensive line gives you a little more.
Speaker 1: Austin Eckler obviously at the very end of his career.
Speaker 1: So this is a that's an opportunity for Washington. See
Speaker 1: as the Pollard Spears thing and it was okay, I
Speaker 1: thought Pollard was a little better than I expected last year.
Speaker 1: That might be an opportunity. New Orleans needs to start
Speaker 1: thinking about the succession plan. To Alvin Kamara, I think
Speaker 1: they're in play, and then I'll give you one sneaky
Speaker 1: one and tell me you think San Francisco Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 1: plenty of question marks. Thoor. We you know, we saw
Speaker 1: them have to go deep into their roster. Maybe San
Speaker 1: Francisco is a is A is a not not like
Speaker 1: the first round, second round. But I think San Francisco
Speaker 1: might make a move at running back at some point
Speaker 1: in the in the middle part of this draft. What
Speaker 1: do you think?
Speaker 3: Yeah, San Francisco, they sort of have the remember back
Speaker 3: in the day with Green Bay with Ron Wolf where
Speaker 3: he had that thing off he wanted to take developmental
Speaker 3: quarterback every year in the draft and they take the
Speaker 3: one in the sixth or seventh round. San Francisco started
Speaker 3: like that with running backs and and Kyle Shanahan. He
Speaker 3: has his flavor of running back that he likes for
Speaker 3: that that zone system there were you know, just like
Speaker 3: we were talking about with those other teams to mix
Speaker 3: and match kind of guys. There will be his zone
Speaker 3: back available that that I think that they'll be attracted
Speaker 3: to fifth, sixth, seventh round. There's there's going to be
Speaker 3: attractive UDFA running backs in this class. But yeah, I
Speaker 3: would expect San Francisco to dip their toe in and
Speaker 3: the only other team from that group but Washington. I
Speaker 3: think Washington fans would would advocate for you bumping them
Speaker 3: to the Tier one. When I've been on the Washington
Speaker 3: radio shows, every single time they're asking me about the
Speaker 3: running back class. They are not looking for a complimentary
Speaker 3: back for Brian Robbinson. The fans of that organization, they
Speaker 3: are looking for someone to replace. Yeah, totally, Yeah, I
Speaker 3: think Washington's in play potent one of the teams that
Speaker 3: could take a running back.
Speaker 1: On day two, I am moving Washington into my Tier
Speaker 1: one spark part of my notes of this show not
Speaker 1: and you know what, nobody will ever see it again
Speaker 1: except me, But I'm with you on that. I am
Speaker 1: absolutely with you. All right. So let's we got six
Speaker 1: guys to talk to, talk through in the show, Let's
Speaker 1: dive in. I almost feel like the guy we should
Speaker 1: spend the least amount of time on is Ashton Genty
Speaker 1: because he's so popular and he's so good that I
Speaker 1: think that people know the most about him, and he's
Speaker 1: depending on the landing spot we could be talking about.
Speaker 1: Ashton Genty is the first overall player taken in redraft leagues,
Speaker 1: so let's talk about the guy who had more yards
Speaker 1: after contact than any other running back had in total.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ashton Genty is insaying that comp that some people
Speaker 3: had for him in college was was Michael Myers from
Speaker 3: the Halloween movies, because he's a killer, and and the
Speaker 3: way he stands in the backfield, like right before the snap,
Speaker 3: it kind of looks like Michael Myer's standing. So it's
Speaker 3: kind of funny if we have to keep it to
Speaker 3: a football camp minus Ladanian Tomlinson gent five eight, two
Speaker 3: hundred eleven pounds. He is impossible to tackle. He's the
Speaker 3: hardest guy to tackle. Since I've been doing the draft
Speaker 3: work over the last decade. You mentioned the broken tackle numbers,
Speaker 3: the yards after contact numbers. They they're like video game numbers.
Speaker 3: That the next closest guy in misstackles forest was forty
Speaker 3: nine away. That was Cam Skatabu. It was forty nine
Speaker 3: broken tackles away from what Ashon Genty did last year
Speaker 3: and nine only forty nine. And he proved it against
Speaker 3: the better teams, right like against Oregon. Initially, Oregon was
Speaker 3: the only power for a team that finished the regular
Speaker 3: season undefeated. In twenty twenty four, the Boise State came
Speaker 3: as close as anybody to knocking them off. They only
Speaker 3: lost by a field goal because Ashton Genty was doing
Speaker 3: his thing against Oregon, against Penn State and the College
Speaker 3: Football Playoff. Penn State had that nasty, nasty defense and
Speaker 3: they loaded the box up against gen T and Genty
Speaker 3: was still getting his yards there. There was one run
Speaker 3: in that game where he either broke six or seven
Speaker 3: tackle attempts, like you're talking about, just absolutely ridiculous stuff.
Speaker 3: And then the other thing with him, you know, in
Speaker 3: addition to this stuff, it's a guy who is a
Speaker 3: tremendous receiver, and I think that's the aspect of his
Speaker 3: game that people sleep on, people that are just getting
Speaker 3: exposure to him off twenty twenty four because Boise they
Speaker 3: changed his usage in twenty twenty four where they wanted
Speaker 3: to funnel the touches he was getting as a receiver
Speaker 3: all into rushing because they wanted him to make a
Speaker 3: run at Barry Sanders's record. It was a part of
Speaker 3: their pitch for Genty to return to Boise State as
Speaker 3: a true junior, you know, which they ended up doing.
Speaker 3: I think Gents's going to be the last G five
Speaker 3: first round pick at the skills that we ever see
Speaker 3: stay his entire career in the G five. So this
Speaker 3: is sort of a dinosaur, But in twenty twenty three
Speaker 3: he was a killer as a receiver. They motioned him
Speaker 3: out into the slot to the boundary I think he took.
Speaker 3: It was something like ten percent eleven twelve percent of
Speaker 3: his snaps were taken out wide, and he was awesome
Speaker 3: with that. He was awesome with his his routes out
Speaker 3: of the backfield. And it's no surprise that he is
Speaker 3: a really, really good receiver because as a junior in
Speaker 3: high school he took over Marvin Mims's job on his
Speaker 3: high school in Frisco, Texas as the slot receiver on
Speaker 3: that team. Yes, it was only it was only Genti's
Speaker 3: second year back in America. This is a guy who
Speaker 3: learned to play the sport in Italy. He was living
Speaker 3: on an Italian naval base and he played there through
Speaker 3: ninth grade and his team entered in ninth grade. They
Speaker 3: ended up winning like the euro title, you know, like
Speaker 3: they went around to other naval bases and we're playing
Speaker 3: those teams they you know, Germany and like all these
Speaker 3: other different ones. They ended up winning it. Or whatever,
Speaker 3: But yeah he was. He goes to America Frisco and
Speaker 3: as I'm sorry, as a junior, he shifted out to
Speaker 3: the slot, replaced Mims, like I said, because that team
Speaker 3: had a guy who ended up signing a scholarship to
Speaker 3: P four at running back, this kid named jad and
Speaker 3: Nixon who went to Okahoma State and then Western Michigan.
Speaker 3: But Genty was All conference in Texas high school football's
Speaker 3: highest level as a receiver as a junior, and then
Speaker 3: he ends up as a senior just went utterly ballistic
Speaker 3: replacing Nixon as the running back there. That's what you know,
Speaker 3: between living in Italy before that, between having to play
Speaker 3: receiver as a junior, which is your most important recruiting
Speaker 3: season in high school, that's why he was under recruited.
Speaker 3: Boise got an early Boise the team that had developed
Speaker 3: the last star running back from Frisco, Texas, a guy
Speaker 3: named Jay a Jai and so Geny, yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: Jaya Jay's picture is hanging all over the facilities there
Speaker 3: in Frisco at high school whatever. So Genty, it was
Speaker 3: a dream come true. That's how he ended up at Boise,
Speaker 3: and and and the rest was history. But yeah, this
Speaker 3: is the best running back prospect entered the NFL. Sin
Speaker 3: Saquon Barkley.
Speaker 1: I love it. You in people can see follow your
Speaker 1: work at at fantasylife dot com. And you've got a
Speaker 1: rookie running back article, A gravy trained, a bunch of
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff from But you mentioned that last
Speaker 1: year at Boise State, Uh, when he was when he
Speaker 1: was asked to go as a receiver, he cut forty
Speaker 1: four or forty eight targets. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: why I mean, yeah, year before, two seasons ago. I
Speaker 1: guess I should say. So he's going to help out
Speaker 1: it through the air, you know, potentially depending on his
Speaker 1: landing spot a lot more than maybe people realize. And
Speaker 1: he's the obvious first pick in dynasty leagues and might
Speaker 1: be the first pick and redraft as well.
Speaker 3: Agreed.
Speaker 1: All right, Now, let's go to a player that that
Speaker 1: you and I might disagree a little bit more on.
Speaker 1: Amarian Hampton is your number two running back right now?
Speaker 1: And your comp here is a guy who I loved
Speaker 1: in during his playing days. Deuce McAllister, Yeah, talk to
Speaker 1: me about Omarian Hampton?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Him? And do is they they have the same
Speaker 3: frame and they have the same running style. Like it
Speaker 3: sort of eerie watching them, you know, and thinking back
Speaker 3: to Deuce McCalister because it's it's the upright type runner
Speaker 3: in the in the well fortified frame. McCalister was six
Speaker 3: one two twenty two coming out. Hampton was five to
Speaker 3: eleven two twenty one. McAlister ran a four to four
Speaker 3: to one with the thirty seven and a half vertical
Speaker 3: and Hampton was four four six thirty eight inch vertical.
Speaker 3: But with Hampton, it's a bullet trained guy. Once he
Speaker 3: gets into the open field, you're you're talking about legitimate
Speaker 3: sprinter wheels on, you know, at two hundred twenty one
Speaker 3: pounds or he can get up to two hundred twenty
Speaker 3: five the playing weight. He's good between the tackles. You're
Speaker 3: not going to get him with an off angle attempt
Speaker 3: or an arm tackle attempt, So you get sort of
Speaker 3: the meat and potatoes efficiency with him, with the possibility
Speaker 3: for dingers. As a receiver, He's not going to run
Speaker 3: any you know, super impressive routes beyond the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 3: but he will give you value between checkdowns, screens and
Speaker 3: swings running with the ball apt for the catch. That
Speaker 3: the idea basically on those latter two things is just
Speaker 3: get him the ball in space with the convoy in
Speaker 3: front of him, and then let him do the hit.
Speaker 3: You know, his thing of good luck trying to tackle
Speaker 3: me in space defensive bat. So that's that's the thing
Speaker 3: with the Marian Hampton.
Speaker 1: I was really impressed with his balance at the point
Speaker 1: of contact and his his his hips and thighs are gigantic,
Speaker 1: and he is so strong lower body that he is
Speaker 1: a he is a really really tough tackle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he sure has. This is someone who is has
Speaker 3: you could say, maniacal work ethic. You could also just
Speaker 3: say he was obsessed with the weight room, like from
Speaker 3: a really early age. If you go into the weight
Speaker 3: room of his high school, you'll see Omar. They have
Speaker 3: like a record board or whatever Omar and Hampton's name
Speaker 3: is all over it. For every single lift that they
Speaker 3: had there, they had to get him to stop lifting
Speaker 3: some of the thing because he with the squad rack.
Speaker 3: I think it was he had gotten up enough with
Speaker 3: it in high school where it was starting to bend
Speaker 3: the bars and they were like, oh, Marion, you need
Speaker 3: to stop putting weight on there or it's going to break,
Speaker 3: so so he he could lift more than than their
Speaker 3: weight room could handle. But yeah, you know, he's just
Speaker 3: been maniacal with that forever and charge to your point
Speaker 3: that the lower leg drive is crazy, right, and you're
Speaker 3: going to have to get him on the ground for
Speaker 3: those legs to to stop churning. And you're talking about
Speaker 3: a speed to power conversion thing there, and I think
Speaker 3: that goes in with the contact balance. It's that bullet
Speaker 3: train thing that I'm talking to, the locomotive thing. Once
Speaker 3: he gets on that straight line, he's got the acceleration
Speaker 3: or you know, and starts to build up to that speed.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 3: It's really really difficult he gets on his path because
Speaker 3: you have to be you know, it's the thing of
Speaker 3: you got to step on the train tracks and the
Speaker 3: train's coming through. To get him on the ground, you're
Speaker 3: going to need multiple guys. You need to make sure
Speaker 3: that you have Omari and Hampton dead to rights are
Speaker 3: on the line of scrimmage or it's it's a problem.
Speaker 3: It's it's the Trannosaurus Rex breaking containment at Jurassic Park
Speaker 3: and all the sirens are going off. What he gets
Speaker 3: into the second level, you got a problem.
Speaker 1: Now here's the only thing I saw, and I watched
Speaker 1: through every snap of two or three games of his
Speaker 1: I didn't see the long speed and I didn't you know,
Speaker 1: he had some long runs, but he would get tracked
Speaker 1: down a lot on the in the least in the
Speaker 1: games that I watched. And so do you feel like
Speaker 1: a Marion Hampton has got the explosive big playability or
Speaker 1: is he more of the guy that I saw where
Speaker 1: he's breaking a tackle or two and then gets pulled down,
Speaker 1: you know, eight yards downfield rather than making those you know,
Speaker 1: long stretch runs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the speed that we saw more or
Speaker 3: less plays on the field, like where he I saw
Speaker 3: him got tracked. I mean, famously he was tracked down
Speaker 3: by Nate Wiggins the Clemson corner the burner, right like,
Speaker 3: and Nate Wiggins came from I don't know, twelve fifteen
Speaker 3: yards behind him and ended up catching up doing the
Speaker 3: length of the field. But Nate Wagans, of course was
Speaker 3: what something like that. Yeah, just an absolute burner. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, like you know, anyone four or five or less,
Speaker 3: certainly he's gonna be out running and the power element
Speaker 3: with him allows him to access that speed, right, like
Speaker 3: getting through the line and stuff like that. You're, like
Speaker 3: I said, you're gonna need the flush tackle at time.
Speaker 3: You're you're probably gonna need multiple guys. But yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean it's it's he's not he's certainly not four to
Speaker 3: three speed. And the other nitpick on him with the
Speaker 3: running style is the hips in the lower half while
Speaker 3: they're pistons, right, I mean, the strength it speaks for itself.
Speaker 3: There is some stiffness there and that goes you know,
Speaker 3: it's the thing we talk about with like you know,
Speaker 3: in the UFC with bodybuilders, the guys with all the muscles,
Speaker 3: it's you know, you can punch yourself out a little bit,
Speaker 3: you can get a little bit tight. That's his lower
Speaker 3: half is a little bit tight where you don't get
Speaker 3: certainly not the joystick agility. This is not someone who
Speaker 3: is trying to evade. You will get the one cut
Speaker 3: with him, but you're not getting many more direction changes
Speaker 3: than that. Yeah, he's trying to he's trying to blast
Speaker 3: through and then like I said, get into the open
Speaker 3: field and get on a straight line and then you know,
Speaker 3: good luck. But yeah, that's you're not getting a ton
Speaker 3: of evasion with Omri and Hampton, and Hampton.
Speaker 1: To me looks as a receiver. He he can catch.
Speaker 1: He doesn't look like a naturally gifted fluid pass catcher
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that that's right. Yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: certainly the route running is not there, right, Like it's
Speaker 3: just the leak out to check down the screen, the
Speaker 3: swing that he has. But yeah, the ball it's not
Speaker 3: the most natural ball skills either. He is clearly most
Speaker 3: comfortable getting that ball from the quarterback and then he
Speaker 3: can pick the attack plan after that and start rumbling
Speaker 3: downhill or whatever. But yeah, there's guys in this class
Speaker 3: where they have that extremely smooth it's not just the
Speaker 3: good hands, but like the extremely smooth conversion from receiver
Speaker 3: to runner, you know where you don't lose a beat
Speaker 3: in there and you can just go upfield and fluidly
Speaker 3: and now you're starting to chew up the yards. Like Hampton,
Speaker 3: there is a click with it right where okay, we
Speaker 3: got to make sure that balls and okay, we got it.
Speaker 3: Now we're looking upfield. So yeah, it's it's it's limited. Ish.
Speaker 3: I think he probably gets a little bit more credit
Speaker 3: for a receiver than he actually is without the context
Speaker 3: being explained. He is the yards after the catch threat
Speaker 3: every single time. But yeah, there there are contextual things
Speaker 3: you have to keep in mind there.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's that's what Mari and Hampton. Let's go to
Speaker 1: your number three running back and somebody who honestly I
Speaker 1: like more than Hampton from a fantasy standpoint, it's Travion Henderson.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about Ohio state backs today in this show.
Speaker 1: Let's talk. Let's talk about Travon Henderson. And your comp
Speaker 1: for him.
Speaker 3: Is Clinton Portis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, baby, Yeah, we're a monster for most of his career.
Speaker 3: We're hopping in the time machine for some of these comps.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Travion was a tough guy to comp because
Speaker 3: he has sort of a unique game where at the
Speaker 3: NFL combine and he waited at two h two, but
Speaker 3: in college he was playing closer to the threshold size
Speaker 3: two twelve, two thirteen, which basically, like we used to
Speaker 3: consider two fifteen threshold for running backs, it's come down
Speaker 3: a little bit, you know now it's it's sort of
Speaker 3: two twelve. So Trevion Henderson is a threshold size back,
Speaker 3: but he has the ridiculous explosion. So you're talking more
Speaker 3: athletic than your typical threshold size back. And for the
Speaker 3: game that he has with the the the athletic explosion,
Speaker 3: the outside the tackle stuff that receiving utility, Generally those
Speaker 3: guys are more dancers or their their game. It's more
Speaker 3: you have more agility there. Henderson is unique where it's
Speaker 3: the straight line bullet thing he is. He he is
Speaker 3: not looking to evade. I mean even between the tackles,
Speaker 3: it's the shout out of a cannon thing. And and
Speaker 3: he has a unique game between the tackles because this
Speaker 3: kid is not afraid of contact whatsoever. It's gotten him
Speaker 3: in trouble a couple of times. But there are there's
Speaker 3: a whole bunch of backs in this class. I could
Speaker 3: point you to where they don't even try with pass
Speaker 3: pro or they just kind of ten and then they
Speaker 3: play paddy Cake and they stink at it. Tradyon Henderson
Speaker 3: loves to scrap that guy like when he gets an
Speaker 3: upper the free blitzer coming through a gap. That that's
Speaker 3: one of the guys in this class who was licking
Speaker 3: his jobs and he gets down in his stands and
Speaker 3: he is looking to blast people and he did his
Speaker 3: his That tape is fun. He had some fun run
Speaker 3: blocking tape as well, getting up in front of Will
Speaker 3: Howell on quarterback around the edge. Yeah, I saw him
Speaker 3: blast a few guys with with that as well. But
Speaker 3: it's it's a more physical game than you're accustomed to
Speaker 3: from from a back like this. But the athletic explosion
Speaker 3: plays at that size four four three At the combine,
Speaker 3: he had the nine to four to three ras. All
Speaker 3: that stuff was good. The the acceleration speaks for itself.
Speaker 3: The question ish with Trevion Henderson is as a true freshman,
Speaker 3: he was a five star recruit coming out of Virginia.
Speaker 3: He was the belcoyw back for Ohio State as a
Speaker 3: true freshman, and he was great as a sophomore and junior.
Speaker 3: They wanted him to be the same. Both years were
Speaker 3: injury ravage. It was stopping started is one nagging injury
Speaker 3: after another. So they went out and they got Quinjohn
Speaker 3: Jenkins and the transfer port Ohio State did about a
Speaker 3: year ago to pair with him, and it turned out
Speaker 3: to be perfect on the national title winning Ohio State Buckeyes.
Speaker 3: Judkins took the meat and potatoes type work and then
Speaker 3: it freed Henderson to do his thing. And Henderson he
Speaker 3: averaged it was like eleven touches per game, so it
Speaker 3: was greatly cut down from a couple of years before
Speaker 3: that when he was on the field. However, he played
Speaker 3: sixteen games during that national title run and he was
Speaker 3: not injured one time, so that was really good for
Speaker 3: the evaluation. I think it's also instructive thinking about the
Speaker 3: way that his NFL team should think about him. I
Speaker 3: think Trevion Henderson also in the NFL, should be paired
Speaker 3: with in early down sort of meat and potatoes type guy,
Speaker 3: where you save Trevion Henderson the wreckage of his you know,
Speaker 3: straight ahead bullet game and all the punishment that he takes,
Speaker 3: try to prevent him from getting the nagging injuries that
Speaker 3: we saw his the middle two years in college, and
Speaker 3: leave him healthy for the end of the season. Where
Speaker 3: for instance, Church, you remember the semi game against Texas
Speaker 3: where it was really close. Right before halftime, Texas had
Speaker 3: just scored a touchdown and it appeared as though Ohio
Speaker 3: State was going to kill the clock and then get
Speaker 3: into halftime. They decided to run a delayed screen to
Speaker 3: Travon Henderson, and Travian Henderson took it seventy five yards
Speaker 3: for a touch. It was all him. He caught that
Speaker 3: ball behind the line of scrimmagers, all Travion Henderson, and
Speaker 3: flipped that entire game Texas instead of going into halftime
Speaker 3: where the game it's you're right there and you know
Speaker 3: you have the momentum. Now you go into halftime year down.
Speaker 3: I think it was by ten points at that point,
Speaker 3: just utterly demoralized in Ohio State obviously pulled away. You
Speaker 3: know after that, if you're the NFL team at Travion Henderson,
Speaker 3: you have to take some of that between the tackles
Speaker 3: work from him. He would love to do it. He
Speaker 3: would love to beat the bell callet there. The whole time.
Speaker 3: You have to protect him from himself so that you
Speaker 3: have access to him later on in the season and
Speaker 3: in the playoffs to create those game flipping plays like
Speaker 3: he did against Texas.
Speaker 1: So I want to highlight a couple of things that
Speaker 1: I noticed about tre Von Henderson that that I'm really
Speaker 1: interested in. First, he's this upright track star runner. Usually
Speaker 1: those guys have our long striders, and long strides are
Speaker 1: a mixed bag in the NFL. What I loved about
Speaker 1: him is he's got choppy footwork that lets him instantly
Speaker 1: cut hard because when he needs to cut, he's not
Speaker 1: in the middle of some loping stretch, right, He's got
Speaker 1: a foot on the ground and he can make that
Speaker 1: cut really quickly. And then, as you already mentioned, the
Speaker 1: acceleration is just remarkable for him, and they Ohio State
Speaker 1: used him on a lot of stretch plays. And the
Speaker 1: other thing that I noticed, in addition to his ability
Speaker 1: to cut hard and accelerate on the stretch play, when
Speaker 1: he sees his whole he almost never chooses the wrong
Speaker 1: lane thor he knows instinctively where where to go on
Speaker 1: those stretch plays. And that's not an automatic in the NFL.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, and this is you know, a lot. We
Speaker 3: don't go off the field a lot with some of
Speaker 3: these evaluations. But I think it's important to bring up
Speaker 3: Trevion Henderson. That kid could have gotten academic scholarships almost
Speaker 3: to anywhere that he wanted to go. He was a
Speaker 3: straight A student in high school. There's a funny story
Speaker 3: where his mom wanted him and his brothers to you know,
Speaker 3: get out of have a key to get out of town,
Speaker 3: you know, after their high school graduation. So she offered them.
Speaker 3: It was like one hundred bucks for straight A report cards.
Speaker 3: Trevion Henderson never gave her anything less than a straight
Speaker 3: A report card, and I believe in Ohio State he
Speaker 3: finished with a four point three. This is an extremely
Speaker 3: extremely bright young man and you can tell that to
Speaker 3: your point charts that he sees the game slower than
Speaker 3: other people. He gets the information quicker and he synthesizes
Speaker 3: it quicker. And that has to do. You know, you're
Speaker 3: talking about the thing of we con track the movement
Speaker 3: of the second level defenders while we simultaneously paying attention
Speaker 3: to the flow of the line of scrimmage right and
Speaker 3: what's going on there and the opening of the holes
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. And he can do that well,
Speaker 3: paying attention, like I said, to the flow of the
Speaker 3: second level guys and start doing interesting things as far
Speaker 3: as setting them up. But you see this as well
Speaker 3: with the pass blocking, where there's some guys where even
Speaker 3: if they try, the guys that give effort, they don't
Speaker 3: denote the danger right away. You know, It's like they're
Speaker 3: like a sparkle. They'll they're like a butterfly and they'll
Speaker 3: get distracted by that and they take a couple steps forward,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, they're not a depth to
Speaker 3: complete the block of the most present danger. There's a
Speaker 3: guy who's looped around that you know, the right tackle
Speaker 3: who's coming in now, but you don't have the depth
Speaker 3: to make that block. Henderson has a really good sense
Speaker 3: of all that stuff, of where every piece is on
Speaker 3: the chess board, you know, no matter if he's the runner,
Speaker 3: if he's the blocker, whatever it is. And the other
Speaker 3: thing that you said charge that I wanted to hit
Speaker 3: on really quick, that thing you're talking about with the
Speaker 3: sprinter thing, with the way that he runs, you know,
Speaker 3: you were talking about those shorter, choppier steps with the
Speaker 3: guy who is sort of the angular runner. I thought
Speaker 3: of him. It's like springy, right, like that, you know,
Speaker 3: like the guy who got in trouble for others stuff.
Speaker 3: But that sprinter that had the you know, the the
Speaker 3: what do you call it, like the springs for legs
Speaker 3: or whatever. And there was like a Pastoris there.
Speaker 1: There was like that oh yeah, yeah, yeah, killing a guy.
Speaker 3: Who ended up killing a guy. Yeah, So I almost
Speaker 3: didn't bring him up, but it was like this. There
Speaker 3: was a debate in the sprinting community for a while
Speaker 3: of like, oh, the springs are those unfair, But that's
Speaker 3: like how Treyvon Henderson runs like. His legs are absolutely
Speaker 3: like that. You have to upbraak torso and then you
Speaker 3: have the bent knees and it's just super springy. And
Speaker 3: that's how he can just shoot off, you know, speaking
Speaker 3: to the acceleration. You have all that lower body strength
Speaker 3: and and just push off really quick and and and
Speaker 3: access his top speed really quickly.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to talk about an next runner. It's
Speaker 1: Caleb Johnson. And when we take a quick break, when
Speaker 1: we come back, we're going to talk about what I
Speaker 1: think is one of the best fantasy prospects for this
Speaker 1: coming season. When we return to Fantasy Football Weekly, Welcome
Speaker 1: back Fantasy Football Weekly, Paul Charchie and throw An Eystrom
Speaker 1: with you. We are breaking down the rookie running back class.
Speaker 1: It's so deep, it's filled with so many people. We're
Speaker 1: doing deep dives on six different runners. We've already done three.
Speaker 1: I want to turn my attention thor to the guy
Speaker 1: who carried the entire Iowa offense, Caleb Johnson. Yes, your
Speaker 1: comp for Caleb Johnson is drool worthy and accurate. Tell
Speaker 1: people who it.
Speaker 3: Is it's Larry Johnson from Penn State back in the day.
Speaker 3: And for people that meet you know, and then the
Speaker 3: chiefs of course in the NFL, like people that don't
Speaker 3: remember Larry Johnson. It was the tall, well built kind
Speaker 3: of zone runner who want He ripped off a whole
Speaker 3: bunch of explosive runs, you know, the ability to get
Speaker 3: through the line, that good vision, the good patients, and
Speaker 3: then once he got up to top speed, that's where
Speaker 3: he became the locomotive. And Caleb Johnson is very very
Speaker 3: similar six to one two twenty four pure zone runner
Speaker 3: Iowa Tim Lester, their new offensive coordinator twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: He had come from the Packers and the Iowa rushing offense.
Speaker 3: The concepts they use between the inside zone, the middle zone,
Speaker 3: and then the stretch outside zone type concepts. Those were
Speaker 3: ial to what the Packers run, which is very very
Speaker 3: similar to what the Rams run with the forty nine
Speaker 3: Ers run a couple other teams in the NFL. So
Speaker 3: there's gonna be plenty of shooters that are interested in
Speaker 3: Caleb Johnson and the outside zone system. He will evoke
Speaker 3: for you a lev On Bell type with the patients
Speaker 3: picking down the line his ability to force linebackers to
Speaker 3: declare their gap before he does, which is the thing
Speaker 3: that allows him to get through more open holes than
Speaker 3: I think other analogous type zone backs, and it's the
Speaker 3: thing that allows him to get the runway to access
Speaker 3: the high end top speed. Now, Caleb Johnson only ran
Speaker 3: a four to five to seven at the NFL Combine.
Speaker 1: And surprised me because he plays faster than that.
Speaker 3: Well, let's break this thing down because it actually makes
Speaker 3: sense and in a way that shouldn't kill his evaluation
Speaker 3: for folks where it jives with his profile on the field,
Speaker 3: even though he had the ninety eight percent i'll breakaway
Speaker 3: rate in college, et cetera. Yeah, the four to five
Speaker 3: to seven on that run, Caleb Johnson actually hit twenty
Speaker 3: two miles per hour max speed, which was high end
Speaker 3: for the running back clad the entirety of it. The
Speaker 3: interesting thing is IOWA was GPS. They clocked him at
Speaker 3: twenty two point two miles per hour max speed on
Speaker 3: one of his runs last year, so it was actually
Speaker 3: equivalent to that, and you're wondering if you hit that
Speaker 3: top speed And also he had it was something like
Speaker 3: the sixth of the seventh fastest max acceleration on that
Speaker 3: run as well, so it's like counter then he finished
Speaker 3: with a four or five seven he fished doesn't add
Speaker 3: up exactly. It's because he had a one six two
Speaker 3: ten yards split, which was seventh percentile at the NFL combine,
Speaker 3: you know, going back twenty five years or so. He
Speaker 3: needs the three, four or five steps to get too
Speaker 3: top speed. And that's the thing on those stretched one
Speaker 3: concepts when he has given himself that gaping hole because
Speaker 3: he has sucked the linebackers into the false doors and
Speaker 3: now they're caught up in the muck of humanity there
Speaker 3: where he then threw there. Once he is into the
Speaker 3: second level, and certainly when he is approaching the third,
Speaker 3: he has now gotten up to his top speed, which
Speaker 3: again is high high end. It's that stuff initially, but
Speaker 3: the zone concepts itself and how good he is, the
Speaker 3: decisions he makes, and the manipulation of the second level defenders,
Speaker 3: it's what allows him to access that high end speed
Speaker 3: more than I think.
Speaker 1: You know, some people might think, but we're not drafting
Speaker 1: Caleb Johnson in my mind for his speed. It's the
Speaker 1: big thing here is he's so hard to tackle. His
Speaker 1: balance is so good, so powerful, he breaks so many tackles.
Speaker 1: You noted that Caleb Johnson ninety fourth and percentile in
Speaker 1: yards after contact per attempt. Yep, Yes, this is what
Speaker 1: he's got. He is a true power back. He's a
Speaker 1: goal line back, and I feel like he's just built
Speaker 1: for fantasy points.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's This is another similarity with with Larry Penn
Speaker 3: State's Larry Johnson, where Larry Johnson ran upright even though
Speaker 3: he was tall, but he broke a ton of tackles
Speaker 3: and it was the contact balance and then the power thing.
Speaker 3: It's the same thing with Caleb Johnson, and it's really
Speaker 3: deceiving because he runs so upright, So it would seem
Speaker 3: like it would be pretty easy to get a guy
Speaker 3: like that down. It's not. It's I think I compared
Speaker 3: him to a light pole caked in grease, like when yes,
Speaker 3: it's great phrase, Yeah, they just can't. Like there was
Speaker 3: this one explosive reception that he had against Nebraska last year.
Speaker 3: There was like three guys who had their arms wrapped
Speaker 3: around him something like five yards upfield, and none of
Speaker 3: them could impede his forward progress, Like they just kept
Speaker 3: flipping off of him like he was this enormous banana
Speaker 3: peel and all of a sudden, you think the play's over,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, he's now running in the
Speaker 3: secondary and it's like, oh my god, no one's gonna
Speaker 3: catch him, right, and then he just runs the rest
Speaker 3: of the way. And that's what it is. You're not
Speaker 3: gonna It's the same thing where you're not gonna get
Speaker 3: him with an arm tackle attempt or an off angle attempt.
Speaker 3: So you got to get him. And this is this
Speaker 3: is a you know, I was mentioning this with Hampton,
Speaker 3: it's all the more true with Caleb Johnson. You need
Speaker 3: to get this guy around the line of scrimmage. You
Speaker 3: cannot allow him to access that top speed that is
Speaker 3: where he is a true, true problem. But because of
Speaker 3: how good he is in his zone concept with the
Speaker 3: patients and the vision, that's what makes it really difficult
Speaker 3: to be able to confront him with linebackers or descending
Speaker 3: defenders around the line of scrimmage, you know, especially on
Speaker 3: those outside zone concepts.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move to your your next running back.
Speaker 1: We've mentioned earlier with Travon Henderson that he would not
Speaker 1: be the last Ohio State running back. We would talk
Speaker 1: about in this show. Your number five ranked running back
Speaker 1: is quinch On Judkins from Ohio State, who posted that
Speaker 1: his RASS score was a nine point eight nine crazy y.
Speaker 3: I certainly was not expecting it, although I started get
Speaker 3: a hint from it when the day before this was
Speaker 3: last Friday in Indianapolis, the day before the running backs test,
Speaker 3: that I asked Quinn John Jenkins at his podium session.
Speaker 3: I said, you know, you are known for having such
Speaker 3: good bursts and acceleration, but people have questioned your long speed.
Speaker 3: Is that is that? Because he had already said he
Speaker 3: was going to test do all the tests, and I said,
Speaker 3: is that something you're looking forward to going out? A
Speaker 3: question that you're looking forward to going out and answering
Speaker 3: and and and he just smiled at me, you know,
Speaker 3: and and you know, was like absolutely, you know. And
Speaker 3: and he goes out and test better than we thought.
Speaker 3: You mentioned that the nine to eight nine RASS five
Speaker 3: eleven two twenty one is extremely impressive. That ridiculous burst
Speaker 3: of his that he is famous for. That that was
Speaker 3: a parent out there. He had a one to five
Speaker 3: to one ten yard split, which was number two among
Speaker 3: running backs four foot eight forty yard dash was was
Speaker 3: really good at his size, thirty eight and a half
Speaker 3: vertical inch was top five for the running backs, and
Speaker 3: as eleven foot broad jump led the group right and
Speaker 3: that goes into the explosion on the first couple steps,
Speaker 3: you know, and and the acceleration there. I love him
Speaker 3: as a as a natural runner. I mean, that's like
Speaker 3: the thing that all of his coaches you talk to
Speaker 3: Lane Keffen, Ryan Day, that they just in his high
Speaker 3: school coach, that they go nuts about. It's his vision.
Speaker 3: He just has really really good vision and feel, and
Speaker 3: then he naturally toggles the tempo and then the clean footwork,
Speaker 3: you know, depending on what he is perceiving and the
Speaker 3: planning has at that time. It's just really really natural.
Speaker 3: The thing that you ding him for it's on the
Speaker 3: passing downs. He does have good hands, he doesn't drop
Speaker 3: the ball, but it's another thing where he's not great
Speaker 3: running the routes and he is not a great pass
Speaker 3: blocker either. I think the thing that Ohio State had
Speaker 3: going last year that we were talking about with that platoon,
Speaker 3: that's what you're looking for for Judkins at the next level.
Speaker 3: He can handle a heavy workload, especially the first two
Speaker 3: years at Ole Miss when he was the bellcout back,
Speaker 3: and it was they run the hyper tempo offense that
Speaker 3: you know at Ole Miss, So be like, you know,
Speaker 3: six yard run for drunkins, sprint back to the line,
Speaker 3: immediately handle the ball again. You know, now five yard runs,
Speaker 3: sprint back to the line. So he the the carry
Speaker 3: numbers just accelerated there. We know that he can handle
Speaker 3: that without getting nicked up. So a team that could
Speaker 3: use a bellcout back but like you know, can give
Speaker 3: him is the quote unquote rests on obvious passing downs
Speaker 3: because you have that air back. That's what he should
Speaker 3: should be going to in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I I saw a lot of things I like.
Speaker 1: By the way, I didn't give you a chance to
Speaker 1: mention your comp for Judkins, it is Joe Joe Mixon,
Speaker 1: and I can I can see it originally when you
Speaker 1: when I was when I was watching Judkins' play, I
Speaker 1: was like, I didn't see it at first, But the
Speaker 1: more I looked at him, the more the more I
Speaker 1: can see it. Especially uh this, especially because of how
Speaker 1: sort of light on his feet he can be despite
Speaker 1: the fact that he's carrying two hundred and twenty one pounds.
Speaker 1: I mean, with everything that you just described, he should
Speaker 1: not be able to do that at two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty one pounds. You know, these are the these are
Speaker 1: the traits of somebody who's carrying like fifteen fewer pounds.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The feet there on that kid, Yeah, it definitely
Speaker 3: you don't think you're dealing with a back that bag with. Yeah,
Speaker 3: how light on his feet he is, and how precise
Speaker 3: and sudden the footwork is. And you forget this guy.
Speaker 3: He's in the same sort of size phylum as Omari
Speaker 3: and Hanton and Caleb Johnson, just a little bit shorter
Speaker 3: but than Caleb. But yeah, at the two hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty one pounds and then testing as well as he
Speaker 3: did that size, I just thought it was super impressive.
Speaker 3: That tape speaks for itself. With Judkins, he's gonna be
Speaker 3: He's gonna get a lot of carries in the NFL.
Speaker 1: And right from the get all right, our final guy,
Speaker 1: it's time to rock Chuck.
Speaker 3: You ready, Yes, Yes, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Devin Neil. Now, I think he's better than the sixth
Speaker 1: the best back in this class, And I worry that
Speaker 1: you're so concerned about a perceived personal bias for your
Speaker 1: alma mater, that you've overcompensated and you're actually underappreciating Neil.
Speaker 1: I love how shifty he is. Tacklers have got Devin
Speaker 1: Neil dead to rights and they don't get a hand
Speaker 1: on him. They they they completely whiff on him. His
Speaker 1: footwork is so good, and I love that he's a
Speaker 1: good pass catcher. And I'll let you expand on all
Speaker 1: of that. You know way more about it than I do.
Speaker 1: But I love this kid and I feel like he
Speaker 1: is he is a three down back who's going to
Speaker 1: be a big fantasy factor in the right spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely agree with all that. It's it's at
Speaker 3: his size, the footwork, because he was two hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty pounds at the Senior Bowl. He at the combine
Speaker 3: two hundred and thirteen. He cuts seven pounds for the testing,
Speaker 3: but you're talking about a two hundred and twenty pound
Speaker 3: back and just absolutely ludicrous footwork, you know, and and
Speaker 3: the thing of making people miss. He does that in
Speaker 3: the second level and out in space. But the footwork,
Speaker 3: it also plays between the tackles and around the line
Speaker 3: of scrimmage with sort of these micro cuts that he
Speaker 3: does that where it just sort of it's hard to
Speaker 3: tell where he is going. Because of that, he can
Speaker 3: change the direction so quickly and so fluidly, like and
Speaker 3: sometimes behind the line. You'll see it a couple of
Speaker 3: different times where it's like is he gonna go outside, No,
Speaker 3: he's going inside. No, actually he's it's going between the
Speaker 3: gard and the tackle, like just because of these these
Speaker 3: contortions of his footwork and his upper body. It's you know,
Speaker 3: behind the line is just changing where the direction where
Speaker 3: he's had his pointed. It's really really cool watching that
Speaker 3: guy run. You have that, and then the receiving utility.
Speaker 3: He was a good receiver at Kansas. They used him,
Speaker 3: they didn't use him enough. I'll say that, like as
Speaker 3: a receiver, they had three Kansas did three veteran seniors
Speaker 3: starting receivers and a starting senior tight end. They used
Speaker 3: their passing concepts to go to those guys. And then
Speaker 3: Neil was always the checkdown too, so he would get
Speaker 3: the checkdowns where you know, typically it was you know,
Speaker 3: the quarterbacks under duress and then you know you don't
Speaker 3: have a lot to work with there once you end
Speaker 3: up getting the ball. The times where we have seen
Speaker 3: Devin Neil allowed to run routes down the field. It's
Speaker 3: the footwork. You can't stay with the guy's footwork, right,
Speaker 3: So it's like, by definition he is a good route
Speaker 3: runner because but he's going to create the separation every
Speaker 3: time you literally cannot stay with his footwork. So he
Speaker 3: got to do more of that stuff. At the senior ball,
Speaker 3: the routes five, seven, ten yards downfield and he was
Speaker 3: always open. Again, a linebacker or a strong safety, you're
Speaker 3: not staying with the footwork. So I think at the
Speaker 3: NFL level you were gonna see a much better receiver
Speaker 3: than you saw Kansas, where it was sort of the
Speaker 3: part back type concepts and he got the ball.
Speaker 1: What I liked about seeing seeing Devin Neil's a receiver
Speaker 1: or he's just so natural and fluid as a receiver.
Speaker 1: It looks like he was born to catch the ball,
Speaker 1: and I love I love to see running backs who
Speaker 1: look that way. And I think that's ultimately going to
Speaker 1: unlock a lot more productivity than what Kansas had with
Speaker 1: Devin Neil and some team. You know, I'm not do
Speaker 1: you have a do you have a rough estimate for
Speaker 1: the round Devin Neil is going to go in is
Speaker 1: he trending to round two? Round three?
Speaker 3: I think he's going to go in round three.
Speaker 1: Okay, round three, some team Minnesota is going to find
Speaker 1: a three down back in the third round. That it
Speaker 1: can be. Absolutely, he's just NFL traits and I I love,
Speaker 1: I'm really really optimistic on Devin Neil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you don't have to you know, you mentioned
Speaker 3: a three down thing, you don't You don't ever have
Speaker 3: to take him off the field because he can now
Speaker 3: pass block as well. That's an area of his game
Speaker 3: that's getting better. His Initially in Lawrence, he was not
Speaker 3: a good pass blocker. He told us at the Senior Bowl, like,
Speaker 3: heading into last season, he knew, He's like because I
Speaker 3: know in the NFL, like you have to pass block
Speaker 3: to stay on the field. And he got a whole
Speaker 3: lot better at it. And with the frame, the footwork,
Speaker 3: the strongholder half, you can project additional improvement after what
Speaker 3: you saw last year. So I think that that's a
Speaker 3: guy who, if nothing else, is going to be passable
Speaker 3: in that phase in the NFL, if not develop into
Speaker 3: a solid one. The receiving we're talking about that really
Speaker 3: really good and pretends well to the NFL and such
Speaker 3: a natural and fluid runner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your comp for Devin Neil is durable.
Speaker 3: Ja the aforementioned j guy, he's out there. He's like
Speaker 3: man in my second shout out of Fantasy Football Weekly
Speaker 3: this week, but you know, recalled j Jaii coming out
Speaker 3: of Boise State. I love that kid's game. It was
Speaker 3: just a thing of like he didn't have cartilage and
Speaker 3: his knees. Knew that there was a you know, like
Speaker 3: a sand timer on his time in the NFL. Think
Speaker 3: about if Jay Jay coming to the NFL with perfectly
Speaker 3: healthy knees without durability concerns. I think that's what Devin
Speaker 3: Neil is. It's it's the big guy with the really
Speaker 3: really really smooth feet.
Speaker 1: Great work on part one of our running back breakdown.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit even more players next week on next
Speaker 1: week's Fantasy Football Weekly, and more running backs in particular.
Speaker 1: I mean, so a deeper dive on more guys. And
Speaker 1: just because we've got like the what's the draftable pool
Speaker 1: here of playoff running backs store for this draft class?
Speaker 1: What are we talking about guys who have like a
Speaker 1: draftable great? How many oh.
Speaker 3: Man around thirty?
Speaker 1: That's insane pretty potentially draftable running backs. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: hit We've done six, we're not gonna hit twenty four
Speaker 1: next week, but we will have a lot of fun
Speaker 1: hitting maybe like a dozen guys. How does that sound
Speaker 1: for now?
Speaker 3: That sounds great to me. We have to it's this
Speaker 3: historic running back class we got to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds great, and I will try to hit
Speaker 1: you with what I think is the best running back
Speaker 1: class of like the last thirty years. When we talk
Speaker 1: next week to great job thor thanks for listening, everybody,
Speaker 1: Please stay tuned next week more Fantasy Football Weekly coming up.
Speaker 1: Then in part two of our rookie running back draft
Speaker 1: class coming up,