Fantasy Gazette

Running Backs in fantasy football, right? Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em. A pivotal position that once commanded all of our attention in fantasy football has been relegated to an afterthought with the rise of high volume passing in the NFL, lower career spans and team loyalty to their backs, and the most evil of all: the popularity of the PPR scoring system.

Despite this, RB remains a valuable position, don’t get us wrong. Injuries and unexpected workloads can tank players values, however. A wise fantasy football player like yourself should be aware of camp notes, a player’s injury history, and team projections to stay ahead of the learning curve.

Without further ado, here are five RBs I’m fading HARD entering 2024 for fantasy football. These are picks that I am not excited about at their current ADP, and would recommend avoiding at their price tags. I’m also going to add two RBs I’m fading in my 9-year-old nephew Lyle’s upcoming flag football season.

Nick Chubb, Cleveland Browns

Chubb is one of the best pure runners in NFL history, plain and simple. His running style is smooth, fluid, and pure. I’m sure the potential is there for this pure runner to recover from his gruesome knee injury in 2023, but given the violent nature of the injury (torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus) and the players we’ve seen struggle to come back from it before, it’s not a wise bet to draft Nick Chubb, an elite pure runner, to your team this year.

Kyren Williams, Los Angeles Rams

Williams burst onto the scene in 2023 thanks to an incredible opening and closing stretch of games. He missed a few weeks in the middle of the year, but still finished as RB4. He is unfortunately dealing with a foot issue and the team invested early draft capital on Blake Corum this April. Williams will likely lead the backfield, but I’d rather have a WR like Davante Adams or Chris Olave to anchor my squad in the second round.

Tyson Dorian, Red Cardinals

Dorian never had more than one rushing touchdown in a game in 2023, and the snacks his mom brought for halftime when it was her turn were downright embarrassing. I’m talking off-brand Capri Suns and Cheez-its, half of which had been opened or eaten already. Are you kidding me, Sherri? To make matters worse, Dorian has a completely useless spin move he refuses to give up on and trips over his own feet half the time. “TyTy” should not be playing over my newphew Lyle, plain and simple. Also, why are they called the Red Cardinals? I get the teams in the league are a colored animal, but that’s kind of redundant, no?

Ezekiel Elliott, Dallas Cowboys

Zeke is back where he started, but this is not going to be a Michael Jordan-returning-to-Chicago situation. Zeke is over the dreaded age 28 cliff, and the wear and tear was beginning to show even before he left. I’m still banking on Elliott to snag a few gimme scores from the 1 yard line, but beyond that I’m not excited about his ability to overtake Rico Dowdle or his own age and return to his workload of old.

Travis Etienne, Jacksonville Jaguars

This one’s probably going to land me in hot water, but I’m not crazy about Etienne. He’s been great when he’s great, but he often gets left off of the team’s gameplan and doesn’t punch in the touchdowns you’d like to see from a guy with third round draft capital. Looking at his game logs, he has too many stretches where he isn’t winning you games. There are higher upside picks like De’Von Achane, Nico Collins, or Jalen Hurts I’d rather take there.

Mateo Tomlinson, Blue Dragons

Ignore the rushing statistics Mateo has had since moving to the town my nephew Lyle plays in and look at the facts: his dad was the head coach, they played the all-girl Pink Unicorns THREE TIMES last year, and his last name is Tomlinson, so everyone thought his dad was LaDanian. His stats were boosted from a cupcake schedule – every team agreed to play the Pink Unicorns once only, but Mateo’s dad went behind our backs and scheduled them three times, artificially giving Mateo “Micky Mouse” Tomlinson the rushing crown. None of us were surprised when the Blue Dragons were exposed in the playoffs despite being the #1 seed since their win-loss record was inflated. Now that Tomlinson’s dad got kicked out of his house for marijuana use by his devout Catholic wife, there is buzz that Mateo might be transferring school districts and out of the league this year. I wouldn’t draft him if I were you. Too many red flags.

Javonte Williams, Denver Broncos

Williams suffered a torn ACL in 2022 and hasn’t yet returned to form in a messy Denver offense led by Sean Peyton. The potential is there, sure, but Denver has plenty of good complementary backs like Semaje Perine, Audric Estime, Jaleel McLaughlin, and Blake Watson, who have all been comped to Alvin Kamara by people on Twitter. I’m rooting for Williams to become the cornerstone piece we thought he’d be coming out of North Carolina, but on a turbulent offense like this I think the upside is too capped. Opt for Rashee Rice or a high-upside TE like David Njoku instead.

Thanks for reading, I hope this article was useful and informative for your upcoming drafts. I hate Tyson and Mateo so much.