Chase Brown will be go-to option for Bengals, fantasy managers
Yahoo Sports fantasy analysts Josh Norris and Hayden Winks discuss why the Cincinnati running back has the best environment of any player at his position in the National Football League. Check out the full conversation on "Yahoo Fantasy Football with Josh and Hayden" - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen .
Video Transcript
I'll bring up Chase Brown.
Okay?
And I know we're going back into round two, and I just outlined Chase Brown in our top 15 or how the first round should go.
But I just wanna reiterate some stuff because in this mess of running backs, I, I continue to think that Chase Brown kinda gets forgotten about.
And I would argue that he has the best environment of any running back in the NFL.
Like, going through this, that's what stood out to me more and more and more.
Okay?
He averaged 105 yards from scrimmage per game over the final 11 weeks with Joe Flacco and Burrow as his quarterbacks, all right?
And when then, when just Burrow was on the field, he hit that 20 points per game mark that we want.
That really is a league-winning running back.
That's running back two in points per game.
I mean, that, that's incredible stuff.
And we're able to get him as running back nine or 10, depending on your platform.
That's also including that he's fifth in running back route rate and fifth in targets per game, over the last couple years.
The top four, CMC, Bijan, Gibbs, Achane, all being drafted before him.
Yeah.
So again, there's your little discount of someone that catches a bunch of passes, and it's either you need to catch a bunch of passes or you need to score a bunch of touchdowns.
We know he has the passing stuff.
And Hayden, he's also seventh in team market share across the league on inside the 20 yard line carries, and ninth on inside the 10 yard line.
So it really goes to show that when you're the only big boy in the backfield that Chase Brown is, you're gonna get opportunities in every area, and maybe just maybe that can be more important than individual talent when it comes to this stuff.
I see it the same exact way.
Like, I wrote him up and, like, I could not write anything negative about- Zero any of it.
It's just like Chase Brown's a totally fine NFL starter and the scheme is perfect with, Burrow.
21 games with Burrow active over the past two seasons.
RB5 usage just last year, RB4 usage.
And his efficiency's starting to pick up just a little bit, like the success rate stuff as the offensive line gets a little bit better.
I don't wanna say that it's a great offensive line, but it's no longer the worst offensive line in the NFL like we're used to with the Bengals here.
So, I mean, he's, h- he's a pretty nice pick.
He feels very safe out there.
Very.
And if kind of like Ja'Marr Chase goes down, something like that, he's gonna get even more involved in the receptions.
That's the one thing that kinda goes up and down with his career is, like, how involved he is in the receiving game.
But he doesn't even have to do, do that now that he's getting all the touches, inside the five-yard line.
And, you know, a big difference is he's had 11 touchdowns in terms of the most in a single season for him.
If that jumps up because he's so utilized so often to 14 or 15- Yep, just run hot then that's, he, he runs hot on touchdown variance, and that's a massive, massive win for him.
All five starters return along the offensive line.
I do wanna bring up with Nate tomorrow about what I brought up on the, you know, Stats versus Film episode about the under center stuff here with the Bengals, because according to all Bengals observers, it is not going well- Right in terms of the play action from under center.
However, I want to turn our attention quickly just to what Josh McDaniels said about under center work and how it impacts a running back specifically.
I never really wanna be in gun, gun, gun because I do think there's an element of predictability.
It certainly affects the types of runs you can run.
You don't have the same angles and the defense knows it.
Yep.
So this under center stuff, as much as we're gonna focus in on Burrow to Chase and to Tee Higgins, the person that actually might impact favorably the most is Chase Brown in the rushing department.
