Is Christian McCaffrey Still the Top Pick in Fantasy?
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00:00But running backs still have their place and running backs can certainly still win you
00:06fancy championships.
00:07And a guy that won a lot of fancy championships last year was once again, Christian McCaffrey,
00:11who is a hundred points better than every other running back last year, but at a cost
00:17because between the regular season and the postseason, Christian McCaffrey did have 417
00:23touches.
00:24Now, George, when you go back and you look at the running backs, historically have had
00:27this kind of workload.
00:29You can even go back two years ago to Josh Jacobs having 400 touches and see what happened
00:33to him last year.
00:34Things typically don't go well the next season for guys.
00:37No one's ever had that getting back to the top of the mountain, certainly after that
00:42sort of workload.
00:43Now we've all said and heard that Christian McCaffrey is a different sort of animal, but
00:47he is a guy who's starting to get up there in age and he's not like a player who hasn't
00:51had some injury issues in the past.
00:54Now his training regimen, very different.
00:57Certainly his performance level, very high.
01:00The offense, very good.
01:01Still, still runs through Christian McCaffrey, but Christian McCaffrey in most circles is
01:04still the one-on-one pick.
01:06I know George, you were talking about CV lab, you don't feel comfortable dropping him in
01:09the first round, which I think is nuts, but who is the one-one if it's not Christian McCaffrey
01:15for you?
01:16I'm just curious.
01:17And is Christian McCaffrey, the guy that he is there in that very top of the board and
01:21that one-on-one spot that you just can't pass on because of what he's done the last
01:26two years in San Francisco?
01:29There's a lot to break down with McCaffrey and he's an easy pick if it's not one-on-one,
01:33right?
01:34I think the only question is, is he one-on-one?
01:36Any other pick, no problem grabbing him.
01:38One-on-one does bring up some other issues here.
01:40Now you mentioned, you know, a lot of carries last year.
01:43He's already got the calf strain right now, right?
01:45How severe that is, I think he'd be ready for week one, but it's not a good sign already
01:50that he's already banged up.
01:51I don't care that Shanahan has told us, well, he's not going to have as many touches this
01:55year.
01:56That's so easy to say in July and August.
01:58You know, when the games are real and all of a sudden it's the fourth quarter and you're
02:01down three, you're going to want to, well even if you're up three and you want to milk
02:05the clock, you want McCaffrey to touch the ball, right?
02:07So it's easy to say, now let's see what they can do there.
02:10You look at his numbers, he hasn't played a complete season, a full season since 2019.
02:14Yes, I know he played 16 to 17 games last year, so I get it.
02:18Once again, still, it's not a complete season, but the three years before that, the four
02:21years before that, 11, 6, 7, 3, those were the games played.
02:25So there is an injury history here.
02:27I said, if you want me to play negative Ned, this is what I'm doing here.
02:30So I can see the reason here.
02:32I, now you mentioned how, well, when we first started, which for me is in the eighties here,
02:36running back to the first two rounds, right?
02:38Except with Jerry Rice, you did take Jerry Rice early back in the day, because he was
02:42getting, you know, 30 touchdowns a year it seemed like, but other than that, it was running
02:45back, running back, running back, different game.
02:48You know, and for that matter, I looked at the wide receivers because they stay healthy.
02:52You know, running backs always seem to get hurt or they're not good, but the wide receivers
02:56for the most part, seem to play a majority of their games, right?
03:00So that's something I always look into here that I'd rather have the receiver.
03:02Now we're also assuming you're playing PPR leagues, all right?
03:06Standard is PPR now, standard is not the non PPR.
03:10So I tend to lean wide receiver first round.
03:12That's where I want to go.
03:13If the NFL wants the ball in the air, I want my character.
03:15Anything over the 101, I'll take McCaffrey.
03:18But other than that, at 101, I don't think there is any great consensus pick.
03:23I just don't think there is.
03:25Jefferson, oh, who's throwing him the ball?
03:26Although his numbers last year without Kirk Hunts were good anyway, though.
03:30CeeDee Lamb already thought up the issue there.
03:31Jamar Chase is doing what a hold in.
03:33You know, he's got the same problems here.
03:35So we can, you know, sort of nitpick everybody, but I might bring this up to you as well.
03:39If you don't take McCaffrey at 101, well, your next pick is 12 team league is 24th.
03:45You know, 10 team league is 20th.
03:48Boy, you're not going to have much luck at running back then.
03:50Yeah, you know what?
03:51I feel like there are some guys there in that range I really like.
03:54We're going to talk a lot more about Derrick Henry,
03:55what I think is, you know, going far too late in drafts right now.
03:58You're getting him sometimes in the turn of the third round I've seen.
04:02Devon Achan, very exciting.
04:04Yeah, it's risky, but every running back is risky.
04:06So you can kind of take that argument and toss it out the window.
04:08There's definitely some talent, and this is why we're doing this too.
04:10We're going to talk about the tiers and go through this.
04:12If you look at Christian McCaffrey's stats last year, they were mind-blowing.
04:15The guy was unbelievable.
04:161,400 rushing yards, 500-plus receiving yards.
04:20He had 67 catches in those PPR leagues like you're talking about.
04:23George, he is incredibly useful.
04:25And you look at the touchdowns, 14 rushing, 7 receiving.
04:28I mean, he is clearly the guy.
04:31I would still personally, though, because of the workload from last year,
04:34be skeptical of him at the 1.
04:36And I know that's an unpopular opinion, but I feel like I would rather have Chase.
04:41I would rather have Lamb.
04:42I would rather have Tyreek Hill.
04:44I could even make the argument for the steady Eddie version of Amon Ross St.
04:47Brown, who I think is one of the most underrated guys potentially
04:50in all of fantasy football.
04:52Just going out there every single week, you know what the volume is going to be.
04:56Maybe he doesn't have the same upsides as Tyreek Hill on a weekly basis.
04:59That's fair.
04:59The big explosive plays, the things we're used to seeing.
05:02Same thing with Christian McCaffrey.
05:03But that risk is really tough right now.
05:05And he is dealing with a calf issue.
05:07Maybe it's not a big deal, but maybe it's the harbinger of things to come
05:11after that incredible workload from last season.
05:13You know what happens?
05:14You know, guys start turning 30.
05:15They get married, George.
05:16It's all downhill from here.
05:18You know what that's all about.
05:20But seriously, Christian McCaffrey, the one at the running back position,
05:24because it's really difficult for the other two guys in this tier who are going to break down next
05:28in B. John Robinson and Brees Hall to say they're ready now to take that moniker.
05:33I think that is something that's difficult too.
05:35Let's look at Christian McCaffrey's regular season rushing yard total this year.
05:40The prop is set at 1,100.5, and it's at minus 112 for the over-under.
05:49Now, last year, 1,400 rushing yards blew this out of the water.
05:53Let me put this to you, George.
05:55Because of the injury risk, is this seemingly small number at 1,100.5 in play for you?
06:02Or is this sort of the harbinger, again, the omen of bad things to come, potentially,
06:07that Vegas says, we're scared of this workload too, and it should maybe be an under?
06:13Well, I mean, you take the number on its face value, 17 games, he reaches it easy, right?
06:17He'll definitely make it.
06:18He's not playing 17, all right?
06:20He's just not here.
06:20He's only reached that number twice in his career.
06:23Take that for what it's worth.
06:24He only twice has he reached that career.
06:26I'm not taking the over.
06:27Either I'm leaving it alone, or I'm taking the under.