Running Back

luke musgrave

Dynasty Prospect Combine Winners

It’s combine week! Time for all of our favorite prospects to compete in the underwear olympics. If you talk to different people, you will get different answers on just how meaningful the combine is. NFL scouts look for traits and this helps them determine that on a comparable scale. Here are the biggest winners from this week in Indianapolis and how it effects your preparation for dynasty rookie drafts.

Throughout this article you will see a tool called the Relative Athletic Score. This is a wonderful tool created by Kent Lee Platte to provide an overall size adjusted athleticism score utilizing inputs from combine results. It runs on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. Give him a follow on Twitter @mathbomb.

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Predicting the 2023 RB Carousel: AFC North

The 2023 offseason promises big changes to the running back landscape in the NFL. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll go over my predictions for the running back situations of each team, as well as the corresponding fantasy implications. Check out Part 3 of this series, where I looked at the NFC North.

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Xavier Hutchinson

’23 Rookie WR Early Rankings: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Truth

The Senior Bowl has come and gone and we move one step further in our off-season process. Thankfully, I’m one step closer in my own rookie evaluations with my first look at the 2023 rookie receiver class. We’ll use film analysis numerical data from the regular season and look at using KPIs based on DFF’s very own Chris Miles. Using the points from his model and tales from the tape, I’ll break down this highly touted rookie class by discussing The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of each prospect.

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The Rapid Rise and Fall of Cam Akers: A Modern Tragedy

Think back to yourself two off-seasons ago: Akers is coming off a six-game stretch (including two playoff games) where he averaged 110 total yards on 22 carries (not touches, carries) per game, as well as scoring five TDs. My favorite of these games came against New England when he gashed the 2020 Patriots for 171 yards on 5.9 yards per carry. Watching him glide effortlessly on well-blocked inside and outside zone runs, making defenders miss at the second level and falling forward sometimes seven or eight yards with DBs trying to bring him down. Then his playoff run, where he put up what would’ve been 21.1 PPR points per game against the Seahawks and Packers- nearly willing the Goff-era Rams to another Conference Championship.

Think back to yourself two offseasons ago: Akers is coming off a six-game stretch (including two playoff games) where he averaged 110 total yards on 22 carries (not touches, carries) per game, as well as scoring 5 TDs. My favorite of these games came against New England when he gashed the 2020 Patriots for 171 yards on 5.9 yards per carry. Watching him glide effortlessly on well-blocked inside and outside zone runs, making defenders miss at the second level and falling forward sometimes seven or eight yards with DBs trying to bring him down. Then his playoff run, where he put up what would’ve been 21.1 PPR points per game against the Seahawks and Packers- nearly willing the Goff-era Rams to another Conference Championship.

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deandre swift

Injury Roundup Week 3

Injuries are inevitable in fantasy football. How you prepare and react to them is what can make or break your fantasy team. Did you build a bench with sufficient depth to withstand the running back carousel? How do you pivot if a key player goes on injured reserve? Each week we will look at the most impactful injuries in the fantasy world and what players will step up their fantasy production as a result. In Week 2 here were the injuries you need to be aware of.

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Art of Arbitrage: Part 2

Dynasty fantasy football has often been compared to the stock market. While there are some flaws in this analogy, many of the general principles are the same. We want to “buy low” and “sell high.” We want to diversify our portfolio across multiple leagues to mitigate risk. We want a healthy mixture of upside and safety in our investments. And, we want to look for arbitrage opportunities.

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Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down: New York Giants

Welcome back to the “Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down” series (offseason edition). The big free agency splash moments are all but over at this point, and the NFL Draft is approaching quickly. We, as dynasty managers, need to be evaluating these offseason transactions and thinking about our roster adjustments every day. Who are we going to target in rookie drafts? Who are we going to go out and trade for? Who are we willing to give up in return? Will you go all in this season to bring home a championship? Or should you go young and prepare for the future? There’s so much to think about before September. The “offseason edition” of this series is an early look at whose stock is up and whose stock is down as we head into draft season. We will break down each NFL team one by one. Today is all about the New York Giants. 

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Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down: Cincinnati Bengals

Welcome back to the “Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down” series (offseason edition). I know that we have four teams still fighting for a Super Bowl (including the Bengals!), but as a dynasty manager, you need to start preparing for the next fantasy season right now. A lot can change before next season, and we don’t know how final rosters will look come next September. The “offseason edition” of this series is an early look at whose stock is up and whose stock is down going into the offseason. We will break down each NFL team. Today is all about the Cincinnati Bengals. 

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Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down: Chicago Bears

Welcome back to the “Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down” series (off-season edition). Yes, there are still games to be played, but as a Dynasty manager, it’s never too early to start preparing for the next fantasy season. We don’t know what final rosters will look like to start next season, and we don’t know who each team will look to acquire in the draft/free agency. The “offseason edition” of this series is an early look at whose stock is up and whose stock is down going into the offseason. We will break down each NFL team. This week is all about the Chicago Bears. 

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One Week Ahead: Part 8

After the Atlanta Falcons drafted Kyle Pitts, fellow tight end Hayden Hurst became the forgotten man among the fantasy community. While he hasn’t made too much of an impact, he is still seeing some work in the passing game. Coming off a week eight where he played on 62% of the offensive snaps, Hurst is still seeing the field a good amount.

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Adrian Peterson Signed by the Titans: Rapid Reaction

The Titans are leading their division with a 6-2 record and look to continue their pace despite losing their best player. It’s hard to see them doing that with Adrian Peterson. It’s safe to say that the Titans have been successful because of Derrick Henry. A.J. Brown has only been truly back for the last two weeks and Julio Jones has been non-existent when healthy and has caused the entire aerial attack to fall well below expectations. Couple that with the atrocious defense and you have to wonder if Tennessee is the worst six-win team in the league. Peterson simply isn’t Derrick Henry, who was on pace for another historic season. Don’t get me wrong, Peterson is a legend in his own right, but is no longer the animal he was for the Vikings and shouldn’t be overhyped. He only averaged 3.87 yards a carry with the Lions last season and that should give you a benchmark for his efficiency. You’re looking at a touchdown-dependent short-term option that would only be useful for contending teams needing a plugin while they wait on injured players to return for the fantasy playoffs.

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Big Dog Built Different: Derrick Henry’s Road to a Consecutive 2K Yard Season

Call it an athletic profile if you wish, but Derrick Henry is not like any other NFL athlete at the running back position. Henry is a freight train that runs on the nightmare fuel of would-be tacklers. Comparing the reigning rushing leader to any other running back is akin to comparing a chihuahua to a pit bull. They might be the same animal, but those dogs are built differently.

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One Week Ahead: Part 5

This is the fifth installment of the weekly series, One Week Ahead. We will use our fantasy football crystal ball to look ahead to future weeks and try to predict players who will emerge with fantasy relevance. We will try to get a leg up on our opponents by picking up potential fantasy assets before they become a major waiver wire pick-up.

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Week 6 Waiver Wire Grind

We’ve hit on some running backs on the waiver wire whose production has helped boost their value since we picked them up. If you haven’t been keeping up with the series we’ve been hitting on players like Elijah Mitchell, Kenneth Gainwell, Brandon Bolden, and more. As the season trucks along, the waiver wire continuously seems to be more sparse with options. This week we are going to look at players who have more short-term production value but are still worth the waiver wire stab.

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Redraft Waiver Wire Grind: Week 4

We’re officially going into Week 4 which means that the waiver wire is looking like the middle of the desert; just not much there. But that doesn’t mean I stopped searching for the next productive piece you can find on the waiver wire. This week we will look at three running backs with a path to opportunity, which is all we want from our bench running backs. 

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Pro Day Round-Up

Today is March 11, 2021, this is important because we are less than a week away from Free Agency. On March 17th we will likely find out where players such as JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kenny Golladay, Aaron Jones, Will Fuller, Curtis Samuel, Corey Davis, Todd Gurley, Marvin Jones Jr., Kenyan Drake, T.Y. Hilton, A.J. Green, and Hunter Henry will land. There are 43 days until the NFL Draft, and in most years we would have the NFL Combine to overreact to, however, as you know the NFL Combine was canceled due to the pandemic. Although we do not get to see all of the relevant players get their testing measurables in the same conditions, we still will get good data from the school’s Pro-Days. 

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