Roster changes dent Achane, Irving's outlook
Matthew Berry, Jay Croucher, Lawrence Jackson and Connor Rogers select running backs for the hate list including De'Von Achane, Bucky Irving, RJ Harvey and others ahead of 2026.
Video Transcript
Well, speaking of A-Chan, he tops the hate list- and it's not because of the multiple pronunciations of his name, Matthew, it's more because Miami looks like they're going into a full rebuild.
Yeah, I mean, look, losing Mike McDaniel, you don't love that.
Losing Jaylen Waddle, you don't love that.
Adding Malik Willis, you don't love that, just because Malik Willis is not a guy that you think is going to dump off to the running back.
So much of DeVonta A-Chan's fantasy value last year, were as a receiver.
50%, actually, of DeVonta A-Chan's fantasy points over the last two years were part of the receiving game, 'cause he just gets so many receptions, those dump-offs that he runs for 10, 15 yards.
And I don't know that he's gonna get as many of that with Malik Willis.
And so, look, Malik Willis over the last two years, right?
Malik Willis has had 89 pass attempts.
Nine of them went to running backs.
Literally 10%.
Malik Willis, like, a- again, it's all small sample size stuff, but, like, Malik Willis is more l- than not likely to tuck and run rather than dump off- Check down to a running back.
Yeah.
Or check down when he feels pressure.
And I suspect behind that offensive line, he will feel pressure this year, especially with no Jaylen Waddle.
I feel like defense is gonna say, like, "We'll take our chances with Tutu Atwell and Malik Washington, and we're gonna load the box and try to stop DeVonta A-Chan," who is their most talented skill player.
And so, look, he's still gonna get a massive workload.
He's still really talented, but, you know, he, he drops a few spots.
I have him at running back seven, so I still have him as a top 10 running back.
But just you talk about players that lost value in the moves in free agency, and I would argue DeVonta A-Chan is one of them.
All right.
We love him, though.
He's a friend of the podcast.
You know, he's been on our show.
He's just on the hate list.
It's not his fault.
It, it, it's hard- It's everyone around him.
It's a lot of dual threat Damn near every dual threat quarterback, you don't see their running backs catching 60 and 70 passes.
Right.
Like, a guy like James Cook, like, he You would think he catches 80 passes- Right a year.
He's That's not gonna happen when you got a Josh Allen.
Same for guys like Hurts, Lamar, all those guys.
It's just, it doesn't get done.
And I'll just say this, M- Malik Willis three starts with Green Bay, where Josh Jacobs, a very talented running back in his own right, is back there.
In the three starts with Green Bay, Malik Willis saw 20% of the Packers rushing attempts and 42% of their red zone rush attempts.
Yeah.
I mean, like, he's somebody that, again- Yeah, yeah is likely to keep it when they get in close.
And so, anyway, it's just, it As somebody who has DeVonta A-Chan in dynasty, I was not happy with this off-season.
Another running back on the hate list that we've previously loved, Lawrence, Bucky Irving, and it's nothing to do with Bucky specifically, more just that Kenneth Gainwell is now in this offense, and he does a lot of the same things well that Bucky does already.
For, for sure.
I, I'll say this, Bucky Irving and Kenneth Gainwell are gonna be a hell of a real life running back- Right tandem.
Kenneth Gainwell coming off a career high, over 1,000 yards from scrimmage.
Not all purpose, over 1,000 yards from scrimmage, so he was He scored eight touchdowns last year, was running back 20.
And this is splitting time with, Jaylen, what's the guy- Waddle?
for Pis- No.
No.
Jaylen Waddle.
Warren.
I had the same problem two weeks ago.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know why.
Jaylen Warren.
So, so Kenneth Gainwell comes up with the big plays in the pass game, in the run game.
So you think about what Rashaad White did a couple years ago with, Baker Mayfield when he was catching 65 passes- Yeah and 55 passes, like, Kenneth Gainwell is being brought there to be that type of r- of a reliable play maker.
And like you said, they do a lot of the same things good, so it's not gonna be any drop-off.
So I feel like they're gonna feel like, "Hey, whichever guy is in is good," and that's gonna be a problem for anybody that has Bucky Irving.
I would take Kenneth Gainwell at the cheaper price.
You add into not only Gainwell, but they brought back Sean Tucker, who you think about last year when Bucky Irving returned in week 13, Sean Tucker saw 64% of the Buccaneers goal line rush attempts.
Like, they like Tucker around the goal line.
It's the same coaching staff as well.
And so now, I, you know, I don't know that Tucker has any standalone value unless there was an injury to one of those two guys.
Yeah.
But you just feel like they like him in close, and so does Bucky, especially when you think about Gainwell's gonna be in on some, you know, some shorter passing, downs as well.
Does that hurt Bucky Irving's touchdown equity?
He's my running back 18 in my initial positional ranks.
Over in Denver, Jay, J.K. Dobbins- back in the mix.
Kinda puts a little dent in the R.J. Harvey potential hype for year two.
Yep.
J.K. Dobbins is back, and, Dobbie has not come to save R.J. Harvey and friends- No.
No so to speak.
Harvey's workload, as you can see here with J.K. Dobbins, week one through 10 before Dobbins got hurt, R.J. Harvey only 7 and a half touches per game.
I think a lot of the book on R.J. Harvey coming out was a little confusing why Denver might have drafted him, given that it seems like he was constructed in a lab to make Sean Peyton go a little nuts, in terms of trying to- That's right bounce runs to the outside.
and it kinda played out as you would expect.
Sean Peyton leaned on the veterans.
Like, why did you draft Ro- R.J. Harvey in the first place?
In any case, I do think there is more upside in R.J. Harvey than J.K. Dobbins, 'cause Dobbins is kind of a known commodity.
But, you know, median outcomes, Dobbins is probably gonna get more of the work than Harvey, so it certainly caps Harvey off for now.
It does.
It I mean, look, they used him even though they didn't want to.
I mean, like, so he's I have him at running back 33- Yeah Harvey.
Easier said than done, but I'll let somebody else figure out Denver's backfield this year.
I just, if it's a headache- Which is a shame, 'cause I think they're actually gonna be really good.
Yeah.
The, the team, the offense as a whole.
Like, Dobbins is good.
Like, his main thing for his career is being hurt.
Like, this guy- Right averages over five yards a carry in his career.
If he didn't get hurt so much, he'd still be in Baltimore right now.
Yeah, I mean, just as a starter, like, you think about, you know, he averaged 3.3 yards per carry in his nine starts after J.K. Dobbins- went down.
And so we also don't know.
We think it's gonna look a lot similar, but, like, for this, Davis Webb is gonna call the plays for Denver, not Sean Peyton for the first time.
So there'll probably be some wrinkles that are different from what- Yeah we would normally see in a Sean Peyton offense.
So I, I'm with you.
Somebody else can figure that out.
Staying in the AFC with the Houston Texans.
They make the move for David Montgomery.
Woody Marks last year, Matthew, kinda fell into the starter's role.
Yeah.
It doesn't feel like Te- the Texans are gonna assume they can do that again this year.
That's clear.
Look, the, the, the second low- second lowest yards per carry among running backs with at least 100 rushes last season, Woody Marks, he was bottom five in yards per rush after contact, right?
I mean, he just He's, you know, he's a, he's a twitchy guy that should be a third down back- That's- that was miscast.
That's right.
It's a pass catching third down back.
Right, and he was just miscast as an, as an early down back.
And so you think about this, they w- they wanted Nick Chubb to be that guy, and it just didn't happen last year unfortunately.
Too many injuries and, and usage for Nick Chubb.
So, you know, the, the, the Texans, who want to take pressure off C.J.
Stroud, they want to run the ball, so here comes David Montgomery.
We talked about, as a love.
David Montgomery's gonna be the lead guy, and Woody Marks, who everyone was so excited about, he's my running back 39.
He's, he's a, he's a third down PPR flex type running back
