2020 Rookie RB's

[bjd5211]

Zero concerns or change in valuation for me at this point for any of the "Big 5" RBs, it's still very early and they've all at least flashed what they can do and why they were drafted where they were. I still think the increase in value for the rookie RBs this year is more about people getting smarter and realizing that rookie year is the best time to acquire and get the biggest return on investment on the RB position, rather than because the RBs themselves are significantly better than a lot of the rookie RBs we get each year. I still would rather have CEH/JT over the next 4-5 years than guys like Henry/Chubb/Mixon, and that's why I'll invest in the rookies over those guys during a startup draft.

[hoos89]

CEH is on pace for over 1,600 scrimmage yards and doesn't have a single digit game yet in his career. He's 21. There aren't many players I'd rather have. Lack of TDs a concern, but I also think the Chiefs offense will bounce back and lift his production with it.

[Sriracha]

CEH is on pace for over 1,600 scrimmage yards and doesn't have a single digit game yet in his career. He's 21. There aren't many players I'd rather have. Lack of TDs a concern, but I also think the Chiefs offense will bounce back and lift his production with it.

The concern I have with this is that CEH has literally 0 competition right now, and he's in the best situation imaginable... yet he's still not killing it.

I'm not freaking out about him at all, but I don't have him valued near the Saquon, Kamara, CMC's of the world until he starts showing the same kind of ceiling. He can still improve, but if this is all CEH is then very easy to acquire RB talents like Damien William are going to start eating into his workload.

[hoos89]

Hes in the best situation imaginable...on paper. The chiefs offense has been disappointing at times this year compared to expectations, and the O line hasn't really been great (especially in short yardage situation).

[jcc6fd]

Hes in the best situation imaginable...on paper. The chiefs offense has been disappointing at times this year compared to expectations, and the O line hasn't really been great (especially in short yardage situation).

The Chiefs offense has been close to the best in the league despite slightly underwhelming. A couple of games they were able to take their foot off the gas due to leads.

CEH’s biggest problem is KC just throws for touchdowns. We could go back and forth on run blocking vs CEH’s lack of efficiency in goal to go rushing, but that is irrespective of the lack of goal line carry volume for the offense that is best in the league at passing for TD’s from anywhere on the field. I think it is fair to question the sky high value placed on him mostly due to his situation, but not because the Chiefs offense is lacking. Rather, it was never the guarenteed boon for RB’s many thought it was since the offense has developed in years since Hunt left. Even inside the 5 you’re looking a shovel passes, end around a from a WR, QB runs, FB rushes, and the best endzone TE in the league, along with the most creative short area WR plays.

CEH has exceeded my expectations both as a KC fan and fantasy player in terms of his rushing efficiency, elusiveness and overall stand out play. But his ceiling isn’t as high as we hoped due to lack of TD opportunity. He’ll have a big game soon, but the beginning of the season in my mind isn’t indicative of rookie struggles that can be improved, but a concerted offensive effort to put scoring in the hands of Mahomes whenever possible

[hoos89]

KC is 9th in the NFL in points per game...that is relatively disappointing to me for what's supposed to be one of the better offenses in NFL history. They were downright mediocre against the Pats. CEH's value stemmed not from being in a good to great situation, but from being in one of the best situations *possible*. That hasn't really panned out so far.

Possible that he starts getting schemed in a bit more as he gets more experience though (more screens/shovel passes to get him in space).

[jcc6fd]

KC is 9th in the NFL in points per game...that is relatively disappointing to me for what's supposed to be one of the better offenses in NFL history. They were downright mediocre against the Pats. CEH's value stemmed not from being in a good to great situation, but from being in one of the best situations *possible*. That hasn't really panned out so far.

Possible that he starts getting schemed in a bit more as he gets more experience though (more screens/shovel passes to get him in space).

In evaluating the offense you can’t just look at points per game. Outside of the Raider game the defense has been great and therefore lowered the point totals from PY. Seattle, Atlanta and Dallas offensive players are all currently benefitting from terrible defensive play. It’s possible to say the same for Green Bay.

If your argument is that the Chiefs offense will start scoring more you really need to be rooting for the defense to perform worse. Agree the Pats game was uncharacteristically bad, but again the defense was shutting down their opponent.

Things will level out and CEH will score TD’s. He had a receiving TD called back for a barely there screen call this past weekend. I just fear those investing top 5 startup capital are never going to receive a top 5 overall RB for a 3-4 year term to justify the investment. It might be that CEH just isn’t a good goal line back. But even if he’s serviceable there the issue remains that KC rightly wants to put as much of the game in Mahomes’ hands as possible. There was a shift post cutting Hunt to this philosophy that many attributed to the lower standard of RB talent KC has had. But regardless of what caused the need to pass more in the red zone KC has found success with it and likely won’t change unless defenses find a way to prevent it.

[AussieMate]

RE Akers I'm not an expert on film watching but I absolutely loved Akers change of direction to beat the 2nd defender in secondary on his lone big run. In a moment where I'm used to seeing maybe a jump cut, truck or attempted run around he just shifted his whole body from outside to inside with almost zero speed change and I thought it looked incredibly smooth with bugger all wasted movement. I'm bothered by the run down from Sweat as he did run a 4.41 40-time and is a size speed freak.

Edit: and yes I'm reaching for any positives I can find haha

[Jigga94]

I said this earlier in the off-season and I'll put it out there again.
These backs aren't bad at all, just the expectation placed on them in trades and startup adp left next to no margin for error. Helaire went top of the first startup, JT end of the 1st, dobbins and swift back of the 2nd, and Akers mid 3rd. There was just literally no room for them to perform like this off pre draft expectations without it sizeably seeming like a disappointment

That's just how dynasty is these days. I feel like youth is overly baked into the price of players. Most of the players haven't surprised me at all. I thought CEH was way overhyped just because of the team that drafted him. He's done well, just missing the TD. Not sure if that changes much though, he hasn't looked good on the goal line.

I think Gibson is the best value (depending on when you drafted) and most surprising to me. He's looked solid and has a nice ppr floor on a bad team

[Sriracha]

RE Akers I'm not an expert on film watching but I absolutely loved Akers change of direction to beat the 2nd defender in secondary on his lone big run. In a moment where I'm used to seeing maybe a jump cut, truck or attempted run around he just shifted his whole body from outside to inside with almost zero speed change and I thought it looked incredibly smooth with bugger all wasted movement. I'm bothered by the run down from Sweat as he did run a 4.41 40-time and is a size speed freak.

Edit: and yes I'm reaching for any positives I can find haha

Reading between the lines, it still feels like McVay and the rams still want Akers to be 'the guy' in that backfield at some point.

“Cam Akers was great. I thought he had a couple of tough runs and then he got hawked by Montez Sweat. I’m not going let him live that one down,” McVay said Sunday. “That was a great run to be able to get that going. And then you see a four-D and that was like a big freakin’ impressive guy chasing him. But, he was good. I think it was good to get him going again. You see the athleticism, you see the dynamic run ability and I thought he created his on his own a little bit. He had some good tough runs and it’s a good way to get Cam going. So, with that I think you can expect his workload to increase next week against the 49ers.”

This in combination with his 2nd round draft capital, what they said about him pre-draft, the fact that he was named their starter in week 2 despite being heavily outproduced by Malcolm Brown in week 1.. it just feels like a matter of time until Akers emerges out of this backfield.

[FantasyFreak]

RE Akers I'm not an expert on film watching but I absolutely loved Akers change of direction to beat the 2nd defender in secondary on his lone big run. In a moment where I'm used to seeing maybe a jump cut, truck or attempted run around he just shifted his whole body from outside to inside with almost zero speed change and I thought it looked incredibly smooth with bugger all wasted movement. I'm bothered by the run down from Sweat as he did run a 4.41 40-time and is a size speed freak.

Edit: and yes I'm reaching for any positives I can find haha

Reading between the lines, it still feels like McVay and the rams still want Akers to be 'the guy' in that backfield at some point.

“Cam Akers was great. I thought he had a couple of tough runs and then he got hawked by Montez Sweat. I’m not going let him live that one down,” McVay said Sunday. “That was a great run to be able to get that going. And then you see a four-D and that was like a big freakin’ impressive guy chasing him. But, he was good. I think it was good to get him going again. You see the athleticism, you see the dynamic run ability and I thought he created his on his own a little bit. He had some good tough runs and it’s a good way to get Cam going. So, with that I think you can expect his workload to increase next week against the 49ers.”

This in combination with his 2nd round draft capital, what they said about him pre-draft, the fact that he was named their starter in week 2 despite being heavily outproduced by Malcolm Brown in week 1.. it just feels like a matter of time until Akers emerges out of this backfield.

They will still run a committee IMO. Henderson will be involved. McVay has been preaching RBBC, talking about Shanny's use of it etc. I think what happened with Gurley helped him to change his outlook on the position. I think Akers will be the lead, and Henderson the second back, when all is said and done, but both will be used enough.

[AussieMate]

RE Akers I'm not an expert on film watching but I absolutely loved Akers change of direction to beat the 2nd defender in secondary on his lone big run. In a moment where I'm used to seeing maybe a jump cut, truck or attempted run around he just shifted his whole body from outside to inside with almost zero speed change and I thought it looked incredibly smooth with bugger all wasted movement. I'm bothered by the run down from Sweat as he did run a 4.41 40-time and is a size speed freak.

Edit: and yes I'm reaching for any positives I can find haha

Reading between the lines, it still feels like McVay and the rams still want Akers to be 'the guy' in that backfield at some point.

“Cam Akers was great. I thought he had a couple of tough runs and then he got hawked by Montez Sweat. I’m not going let him live that one down,” McVay said Sunday. “That was a great run to be able to get that going. And then you see a four-D and that was like a big freakin’ impressive guy chasing him. But, he was good. I think it was good to get him going again. You see the athleticism, you see the dynamic run ability and I thought he created his on his own a little bit. He had some good tough runs and it’s a good way to get Cam going. So, with that I think you can expect his workload to increase next week against the 49ers.”

This in combination with his 2nd round draft capital, what they said about him pre-draft, the fact that he was named their starter in week 2 despite being heavily outproduced by Malcolm Brown in week 1.. it just feels like a matter of time until Akers emerges out of this backfield.

They will still run a committee IMO. Henderson will be involved. McVay has been preaching RBBC, talking about Shanny's use of it etc. I think what happened with Gurley helped him to change his outlook on the position. I think Akers will be the lead, and Henderson the second back, when all is said and done, but both will be used enough.

I'd be happy with a healthy medium, I don't think Brown will be a problem long term but I feel(hope) it'll be committee between Henderson and Akers with Akers handling the bigger load(being the bigger guy who can catch as well) and Henderson coming on for a large spell not just a small one, something like a 60-40 but hopefully 65-35 preferably. Obvs this is my hope and has no bearing on things I've read or know about McVay, just me praying

[hoos89]

I said this earlier in the off-season and I'll put it out there again.
These backs aren't bad at all, just the expectation placed on them in trades and startup adp left next to no margin for error. Helaire went top of the first startup, JT end of the 1st, dobbins and swift back of the 2nd, and Akers mid 3rd. There was just literally no room for them to perform like this off pre draft expectations without it sizeably seeming like a disappointment

That's just how dynasty is these days. I feel like youth is overly baked into the price of players. Most of the players haven't surprised me at all. I thought CEH was way overhyped just because of the team that drafted him. He's done well, just missing the TD. Not sure if that changes much though, he hasn't looked good on the goal line.

I think Gibson is the best value (depending on when you drafted) and most surprising to me. He's looked solid and has a nice ppr floor on a bad team

Eh...CEH's goal line issues have looked to be mostly due to O-line issues. He's getting contacted behind the line on just about all of those touches. Maybe it doesn't really matter whose fault it is for his value this season, but if KC fixes its OL next season I think you'll see CEH score more TDs.

[Jigga94]

I said this earlier in the off-season and I'll put it out there again.
These backs aren't bad at all, just the expectation placed on them in trades and startup adp left next to no margin for error. Helaire went top of the first startup, JT end of the 1st, dobbins and swift back of the 2nd, and Akers mid 3rd. There was just literally no room for them to perform like this off pre draft expectations without it sizeably seeming like a disappointment

That's just how dynasty is these days. I feel like youth is overly baked into the price of players. Most of the players haven't surprised me at all. I thought CEH was way overhyped just because of the team that drafted him. He's done well, just missing the TD. Not sure if that changes much though, he hasn't looked good on the goal line.

I think Gibson is the best value (depending on when you drafted) and most surprising to me. He's looked solid and has a nice ppr floor on a bad team

Eh...CEH's goal line issues have looked to be mostly due to O-line issues. He's getting contacted behind the line on just about all of those touches. Maybe it doesn't really matter whose fault it is for his value this season, but if KC fixes its OL next season I think you'll see CEH score more TDs.

I agree with the OL not being as good, but for all the truthers out there, 10 TD was supposedly his absolute floor. He's on pace for 50+ receptions but he's not scoring through the air either. I do think TD are a bit fluky, but on the best offense in the league, he's only scored 1 all year. Is he only going to score 3 all year and stay on this pace? Probably not, but Bell landing in KC doesn't help him at all

[hoos89]

KC hasn't really been the best offense in the league this year to date. 9th in points, 3rd in yards. Also was there news I missed? Haven't seen Bell's destination announced.