Three starting running backs in 2020 all having major news surrounding them as the legal tampering window opened today. Let’s take a look at the fantasy impact of each transaction.
With the release of Freeman, the Atlanta Falcons have opened up a path for an RB to come in this offseason and immediately take the starting spot. Missing two games with injury last year, Freeman still put up a top 20 fantasy RB season with 184 carries and 59 catches on 70 targets for a combined 1,066 yards and 6 touchdowns. Freeman was set to be the fifth highest paid RB at the start of the 2020 season, thus it was only a matter of time until this move was made.
At 28 years old, Freeman will find his way back onto an NFL roster, but his workhorse days certainly look behind him. Look for him to sign with a team that pairs him with a younger RB on a 1-2 year deal.
For the Falcons, I’d expect them to look for Freeman’s replacement in the draft. The Ito Smith starting experience wasn’t much to behold and neither was watching Brian Hill tote the rock. Look for them to draft one of the top three prospects: JK Dobbins, Jonathan Taylor, or D’Andre Swift. Then watch fantasy twitter ramp up the excitement until the new Atlanta RB ends up a top 20 redraft pick.
The Titans franchise tagging Derrick Henry is the smart thing to do…from a financial perspective. However, after playing out his entire rookie deal without any threat of holding out and watching the guy handing him the ball, Ryan Tannehill, just cash in on a 4-year $120M deal, don’t expect Henry to just keep on trucking without a long-term deal. Without a long-term deal Derrick Henry moves to the top of the list of hold-out candidates for 2020. The Titans have $29M in cap space so hopefully this gets resolved before the start of the season.
If you’re a dynasty owner of Henry, I’d start floating offers out while his burning hot end to the year is still fresh in owner’s minds.
The Transition Tag will pay Kenyan Drake $8.5M for the 2020 season, but he can still hear offers from other teams. With this tag on Kenyan Drake, the Arizona Cardinals now have the right to match any offer as well. The Cardinals, and fantasy owners that made the playoffs, loved what Drake was able to do in that offense.
The problem is they had a lot of money locked into the running back position already with David Johnson set to make $14M this year. So what did the Cardinals do? Well the answer is to trade him if they could find a suitor and they have! With David Johnson going to the Texans, this opens up enough cap space for the Cardinals to sign Drake at a reasonable price. As long as no team opens up the bank for Drake, we’ll see him back in Arizona in 2020.
After leading the team in rushing with 643 yards in 8 games and adding 28 catches for 171 yards, Kenyan Drake will have the offseason to dive into the playbook and then return to the team with no one standing in the way of his workhorse status. Anyone that traded for Drake last year in dynasty rejoice, because the price just got a lot higher.
What are your thoughts on these three running backs? Let me know on twitter @DFF_JoeMem and follow me as we are just scratching the surface of what should be an exciting offseason.
