In the fourth of a six-part fantasy football draft preview series, The Post breaks down running backs. Next week: wide receivers.
A participation trophy isn’t enough for most people. Most want excellence. They want a towering championship trophy — not just a consolation, thanks-for-playing award.
If you want that fancy piece of fantasy hardware, you’re going to need a collection of MVP-type running backs. If you bypass the early fantasy titans, you’re paving a path toward a congeniality prize rather than something more grand.
One thing to remember in your pursuit of these fantasy RB stalwarts: don’t marry yourself to a particular player. If you’re picking, say, fourth, you simply rest comfortably knowing you will get one from among the top tier of Todd Gurley, Le’Veon Bell, David Johnson and Ezekiel Elliott.
If you pick at the end of the first round, you likely will miss out on Alvin Kamara and Saquon Barkley, but you often have the luxury of getting two from the group of Leonard Fournette, Kareem Hunt, Dalvin Cook or Melvin Gordon. And if all of these guys are gone, chances are a top wide receiver — like DeAndre Hopkins, Odell Beckham Jr. or Julio Jones will have slipped. Later in the second, you still likely will have a shot at Devonta Freeman.
One reason the Madman routinely takes two RBs with the first two picks is because the questions arrive for those who immediately follow. Though Christian McCaffrey also goes in the second, we have reservations about drafting a back this high is so reliant on receptions to make up for a limited carry workload.
Jerick McKinnon has high upside, and depending on how the first two rounds went, we consider taking him early in the third if he lasts, but we aren’t married to this idea. He never has been asked to be a bellcow runner, and he already has a right-calf strain. We’re not jumping ship yet, but our willingness to audible to a different choice is growing.
Joe Mixon is a bit overpriced in the late-second/early-third, despite improvements on the Bengals’ offensive line. We anticipate improvement by the Bears, and expect Jordan Howard to be the feature RB, but Tarik Cohen’s pass-catching role will cut into his overall production, particularly in PPR leagues. The value of both is a tad high, but we haven’t scratched them from the playbook.
LeSean McCoy has dropped nearly a full round since accusations arose last month regarding a home invasion of his ex-girlfriend. Because the legal system moves slowly, we find it much more agreeable to nab McCoy in the third.
If all goes according to plan, we have our top two RBs by the third round. At that point, we can start going after more specific targets — Alex Collins in the fourth, Lamar Miller or Royce Freeman in the fifth, Mark Ingram if he slips to the sixth, Dion Lewis or Marshawn Lynch or Tarik Cohen in the early-middle rounds.
We do like Sony Michel’s value now that he has slid to the middle of the draft after a knee injury.
Later, we like to get PPR-centric guys who have chance to inherit a larger workload — Duke Johnson Jr., Giovani Bernard and Corey Clement stand out.
If you want that trophy, you have to play hard. Go get those running backs, then clear some space on your mantle.
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