This is the toughest of these articles to write.  Because running backs are the most highly sought after commodity in all fantasy formats. They are the most fun to watch and they have the most upside.  Nothing gives you a warm, fuzzy sense of comfort like hitting on a breakout running back.  Nothing.

We are writing these articles now as this might be the last weekend for you to add players before your mean ole commissioner slams the waivers SHUT until the NFL draft. We already did tight ends and wide receivers this holiday weekend so we are rushing this to you so that you can rush to get the guys who are good at rushing before the offseason rush.  Did I get the point across in how much of a rush we are in?

I know not every league is created equally so I’ll do my best to give you a variety of options ranging from shallow leagues with only a couple keepers to absurdly deep leagues that are strange and confusing. Since Yahoo is a fairly common platform to play on, I’ll be referencing the rostership numbers from there.

Injured Players

First and foremost I want to get this out there - if your league isn’t paying attention and you can add and keep guys who are currently injured but were dropped, you need to do that.  That goes for Christian McCaffrey, Cam Akers, JK Dobbins, Travis Etienne - you name it. Should go without saying but sometimes we just need a reminder.  Alright, on to the real dynasty and keeper options.

Shallow Leagues: Khalil Herbert 14%

If you are in a “keeper” league that focuses more on next year and less on the long term, then perhaps you want to go with one of the honorable mentions like J.D. McKissic or Jaret Patterson (McKissic has played well this year and is a free agent next year so they could honestly both potentially be viable next year). But in true dynasty leagues, Khalil Herbert is a guy we like.  If you are lucky, he might have been discarded to the wire because many fantasy gamers aren’t patient enough.  They see David Montgomery under contract again next year and think Herbert is just too far out from relevance.  And that creates an opportunity for us. As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

There are a lot of rumors swirling about the futures for GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy.  And with any regime change, you are going to have big moves that accompany that.  I mean, Nagy and Pace themselves turned and traded Jordan Howard fairly quickly then traded up in the draft to get David Montgomery.  Montgomery is “their guy” but another GM might look at his expiring contract the same way he’ll look at any free agent.  Khalil Herbert on the other hand was just drafted this season so he’s under contract for another three more years.

An outsider (like ourselves) might also look at this team and see a guy in Herbert that had back to back to back games of 75, 97, 100, and 72 yards (with the 100 yard game coming against the stout Tampa Bay defense at 5.56 yards per carry). Those kinds of performances make you wonder if it’s worth paying Montgomery a bunch of money to stick around in 2023 and that’s exactly what we are banking on.  I mean, fantasy gamers love Tony Pollard and Alexander Mattison and those guys are both stuck behind Zeke and Dalvin for at least one more year until THEY are free agents.  So I don’t see why those two would be rostered in so many leagues when a 23 year old Khalil Herbert is available in so many.   

Honorable Shallow League Mentions: J.D. McKissic, Jaret Patterson, Raheem Mostert, Kenneth Gainwell

Medium Leagues: Ke’Shawn Vaughn

Ke’Shawn Vaughn had a lot of shine on him coming out of the draft as a third-round pick that was supposedly going to compete for the pass catching role in a Tom Brady offense.  Unfortunately he was one of the first players to come down with COVID and missed a huge chunk of the offseason his rookie year - a MAJOR setback.  He’s seemingly been in Bruce Arians’s doghouse in terms of playing time - meanwhile Bruce Arians continues to heap praise on him whenever asked, often saying things like this.

What some people might not realize just yet is that, not only is Leonard Fournette a free agent after the season, but Ronald Jones is too.  The Bucs brought everyone back this year but you can’t really afford to do that forever so Bruce Arians may be forced sooner rather than later to put his money where his mouth is with Ke’Shawn Vaughn. Vaughn just exploded for a 55-yard touchdown this past weekend, flashing some of the potential that many of us have forgotten about after nearly two full seasons.  Now might be the last chance you have to swoop up this guy who is still only 24 and whose best comparable player on PlayerProfiler is Dalvin Cook.

Honorable Medium League Mentions: Duke Johnson, Darrell Williams, Justin Jackson, Kene Nwangwu

Deep Leagues: Marlon Mack - 2%

Now we are getting into the real dynasty leagues where MOST players are rostered and we’ve got to reach a bit.  But this name, at 2% jumps out to me because it was once a name we were pretty excited about.  He popped pretty early on and actually managed back to back seasons of 908 yards and 9 TDs in 12 games and 1,091 yards and 8 TDs in 14 games.  As those game totals suggest, he couldn’t really stay healthy during that period however and then the real bombs started to drop that absolutely TANKED his value: the Colts drafted Jonathan Taylor and Mack tore his achilles. Yikes.

Anyone that has followed football for a long time remembers when a torn ACL was a death sentence.  Now it’s more like a speed bump.  The achilles tendon up until recently was pretty much the same but, as of late, new developments and techniques have made it FAR more manageable.  The Colts actually have MULTIPLE players playing this year who tore their achilles last season like Eric Fisher and Mack himself. Cam Akers might actually recover from a torn achilles and play again THIS SEASON.  So the perception on where Mack is and what his career might be moving forward are two very different things.  Frank Gore tore his ACL twice and people thought he would have a short career because of that - how’d that prediction work out?

When we look at the workout metrics for Mack (thanks to our friends at Player Profiler), it’s surprisingly good for a guy rostered in 2% of leagues.

Good size, upper fourth percentile speed and burst, his best comp is Marshawn Lynch, and he’s still only 25 right now.  Oh and did we mention that he’s a free agent going into 2022?  With all that considered, I’m absolutely willing to roll the dice on Mack to see where he ends up. If he lands in a bad spot just drop him - we are talking about your very last bench spot here.

Honorable Deep League Mentions: James White, Malcolm Brown, Damien Williams, Salvon Ahmed

Super Deep Leagues: Deon Jackson - 0%

This is Fantasy Alarm.  So I know we have some maniacs that take this game pretty seriously.  I know I do.  And with that I know some of you guys have some pretty deeeep leagues.  Ones where every player I’ve mentioned so far is rostered. I mean, in the Dynasty Wide Reciever Article in this series I recommended a dude who is currently not even in the league and is facing murder chargers.  So we know how to get DEEP.  Let’s go there.

This guy might not necessarily be Tamarrion Terry deep but he’s deep enough to show a zero next to his name for rostership.  We’ll give some other deep players in the honorable mentions that aren’t even on active rosters but this is about as far as we LIKE to go.  And this pick is honestly pretty simple for us. Deon Jackson is a Colt who was undrafted out of Duke and he’s still 22 years old.  He’s got the size (5’11”, 218 pounds) and he’s got the speed (4.47 forty is 86th percentile per Player Profiler).  Possibly more importantly - the situation isn’t shaping up so bad for him either.  We just talked about how Marlon Mack is a free agent unlikely to return to the Colts. Jonathan Taylor is obviously the starter while Nyheim Hines is more of a third down back then a full on backup. That potentially puts Jackson in the next chair for running down duties behind one of the league’s best offensive lines if anything were to happen to Jonathan Taylor.  At zero percent rostership, you could do a lot worse.

Honorable Super Deep League Mentions: Javian Hawkins, Tavien Feaster, JJ Taylor, Kerrith Whyte