817: Mailbag 10/13/23

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This is The Late-Round Podcast, with your host, JJ Zachariason.

JJ Zachariason (0:11)

What's up, everyone? It's JJ Zachariason, and this episode, 817 of The Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast, sponsored by FanDuel.

Thanks for tuning in.

Before getting to the mailbag questions this week, I want to send a reminder about The Late-Round Fantasy Football Newsletter. In season, the newsletter houses the 15 Transactions column each week, so on Tuesday mornings, not only can you fire up the 15 Transactions podcast episode, but you can get the written form of it as well, right to your inbox. And then I send out other newsletters too. It's where I essentially publish my articles these days. And it's totally free. Just head to lateround.com, click newsletter, and subscribe. It's a mailbag show. Let's get to it.

The first question this week is from at jph underscore gsg. It says, what do you make of Bijan Robinson so far? And how do you view him going forward? He's having a good fantasy season, but it feels like it could be so much better. So I've seen some wild Bijan Robinson trades this week, or at least trade offers that people are asking me about. Robinson's currently third and running back target share behind Josh Jacobs and Christian McCaffrey. He's an RB1 in PPR points per game. That's despite the fact that he's seen a running back rush share per game rate that ranks outside the top 30 at the position among running backs with two or more games played. For real. Gus Edwards, Rashad White, Jamal Williams when he was active, AJ Dillon, they all have higher running back rush share per game rates.

Robinson's doing what he's doing with plenty of room for growth. Imagine the Falcons just giving him a normal bell cow workload, or imagine the upside he'd have if Tyler Algier got hurt. Now, I said this with David Montgomery last week before the Jameer Gibbs injury happened. I almost feel like I jinx things. But people often only think about contingent upside with the lower end running back in a tandem. So people think, oh, I've got to roster Tyler Algier because if B. John Robinson goes down, he could be someone who has a massive spike in production. Which is valid. Hold on to your Tyler Algier shares.

But what happens if Algier gets hurt? Don't ignore what that could do for B. John Robinson. When you're thinking about his overall value. I'd actually expect B. John to likely see a bigger rush attempt workload through the rest of the season. I think it's going to increase. And we know that even if that doesn't happen, he can be an RB1 in fantasy. That's what he is right now. But there's still that room for growth. And there's another out with an Algier injury.

So, for whatever reason, if someone in your league is willing to trade away B. John Robinson, go ahead and get him.

This set's question is from Patreon, it's from Rob. It says, During your Late-Round Perspectives conversation with Danny Kelly, you all talked about how Zach Charbonnet's value would obviously skyrocket with a Kenneth Walker injury. But likely not until that. Who are your top 5 running backs in that category where currently the value is low, but could ultimately be league winners with an opportunity? Thanks.

Yeah, so we're really talking about handcuffs here, right? The high-end handcuffs. Some player who's buried on his death chart right now, but if things break his way if an injury occurs, he could really go to the moon. I don't think this is a situation where we're just talking about ordinary handcuffs. Like what we just saw with Joshua Kelly with Oss Neckler sidelined. The talent profile still needs to be there. You can often look at rookies for this sort of answer. Charbonneur is one, but Tajay Spears is another. I said this on the Sleeper Show, but it's shocking to see how few leagues he's rostered in. The acceleration, the speed, the efficiency, it's clearly there.

If Derrick Henry goes down, Spears could be a league-winning player. And I think the guy that I just talked about in Tyler Algier, that's another one. I don't think his upside would be the exact same as someone like Zach Charbonneur with an injury. But Algier was one of the most efficient backs in football last year. He's a good player. He's in a running-back-friendly offense.

So he's still worth stashing because of that. Now, you're going to hear this episode after the Chiefs play on Thursday night, but I almost feel the same way about someone like Jerick McKinnon. He's probably one of the more forgotten players here. He's a guy who's been a legit RB1 when given the opportunity in this offense. And honestly, Zach Moss is proving to us that not only could he have short-term value, but if Jonathan Taylor got hurt five, six weeks down the line, Moss and the way that he's run this season and the way that they've used him, he's very intriguing. Anyone in Miami is interesting. Maybe Eli Mitchell or Jordan Mason, maybe that type of player in San Francisco, where the situation looks really, really good. And as much as I want to say Antonio Gibson, I still think Washington would find a way to misuse him if Brian Robinson got hurt. But those are some names to throw out there as stashes. They're talented running backs who either have that talent profile, or they're guys who have proven it in the past. And they're in decent enough situations.