Right now is the time to make some trades in your fantasy league before week one even starts. Because we've gotten a ton of news and information since you drafted your fantasy teams that's making the players in this video way more valuable. So we're going to break down five running backs who in my opinion you're going to want before week one because then it's going to be hard to get them. And if you're not familiar, I'm Sal Vetri. I've been helping people win their fantasy leagues for nearly eight years and plan to do the same for you in this video. And I want to start by breaking down the Colts running back Jonathan Taylor.

We know that this guy is a stud, a former RB1 overall in fantasy football, and in terms of where he was going in drafts this summer, normally going in the second round. Basically, for every single person that you'll look at, this is a top 10 running back in fantasy football, but things have gotten better recently. Now, if we were to look at what he's done lately, you can see basically every year that he's been somewhat healthy,

he's finishing as a top 10 running back in fantasy football but things have gotten better recently now if we were to look at what he's done lately you can see basically every year that he's been somewhat healthy he's finishing as a top 12 running back last year despite battling an injury he still finished in just 14 games as a top 10 running back averaging 17.6 points per game he had 12 touchdowns again in just 14 games but the thing that is absolutely absurd is just the usage that jonathan taylor was getting. Having a workhorse running back is like a dying breed these days in the NFL. Taylor is probably like one of 10 workhorses, if that's still left in the league. You could see last year he was averaging 21.6 carries per game, very impressive, 2.2 targets per game. So you're getting almost 23 to 24 opportunities per game. And look at this.

Very quietly, Jonathan Taylor led the NFL in opportunity share. 88% of the Colts backfield carries in targets went to Jonathan Taylor. Over 80% of the snaps. And this offseason, all they did was basically add a late-round rookie running back and DJ Giddens to be his backup. Like, that's not that threatening. It's still going to be Jonathan Taylor as a workhorse back. The guy dominated in every possible way when it came to red zone usage. He had 60 touches. The six most in the league goal line carries. He had over a dozen in about 14 games. He was averaging a goal line opportunity per game. And that was in games last year when Anthony Richardson was out there seeing a lot of usage. But that's the big thing right now. Over the last one to two weeks or so, depending on when you're watching this, well,

Anthony Richardson's no longer the starting quarterback. It seems like Daniel Jones is the starter, and they said that he's not going to have a short leash. And we know that this is a big deal because Anthony Richardson, look, accuracy was the reason why he's not starting, but this is a guy who doesn't check it down to the running back position. If anything, he runs the ball.

This dude added 500 rushing yards last year, only starting like half the games. Easily would

have been a thousand yard rusher if he could have started all the games, had six rushing TDs and the guy didn't even start half the game. So if Jonathan Taylor is now going to go out there and not have this type of mobile quarterback, sure Daniel Jones, who is now the starter, is a mobile quarterback in his own right, but nowhere near the level of what Anthony Richardson has shown in his NFL starts. This is a

pretty interesting tweet. Like, it's not the greatest tweet for Jonathan Taylor, but it's a little

bit better than what we could have gotten out of Anthony Richardson. So this is according to

fantasy points data on Twitter, the highest to lowest checkdown rates in 2024. Last year,

Anthony Richardson had the lowest checkdown rate in the league. He only

checked the ball down 2.3% of the times. Okay, that's the absolute lowest in the league. Then you see, though, the problem is Daniel Jones only checked it down 5% of the time, which was the third lowest in the league. But that was still more than double what Anthony Richardson was doing. Anthony Richardson's checkdown rate was a historic low. Even compared to other mobile quarterbacks like Jaden Daniels, like Lamar Jackson, like Josh Allen,

those guys were still checking it down way more than Andrew Richardson did. So this is what this means. Last year, Jonathan Taylor had 31 targets, just 2.2 per game. Now, some of this was from Joe Flacka, who did check the ball down more definitely than Anthony Richardson, but let's just say this number with Daniel Jones goes from 31 targets this year to 40. Maybe we can get lucky and it hits 50. And Taylor goes from catching 20 to 25 balls to catching 30 to 5 to 40 and half PPR and PPR formats that matters, especially because we know yards after the catch for running backs are strong compared to yards per carry. And we also know that when Jonathan Taylor is healthy, he's great. He dealt with an ankle injury last year towards the middle part of the season, but to end when he was healthy in the fantasy playoffs, he dominated. In those final three games of the year, 31 fantasy points per game. Over 31 carries per game is insane, and he was averaging 173 rushing yards per game. Also during this time, when he had 31 fantasy points, this is a guy who also didn't score a touchdown, right? He ended up sliding down or fumbling the ball like at the one yard line instead of going in for the touchdown, right? And even despite that, he still averaged over 30 fantasy points per game last year in those final three games. Still very strong in his other 11 games of which he was kind of banged up in one or two of them as well with 14

fantasy points per game we know jonathan taylor is going to be the engine of this offense right sure tyler warren the new tight end in the middle of the field might soak up some target chair but by all accounts and by all the colts beat reporters right now and as you would expect jonathan taylor is going to be what makes this offense run it's going to run through him and Now with the somewhat recent news that Daniel Jones will be the starting quarterback here,

this is a guy that I going to run through him. And now with the somewhat recent news that

Daniel Jones will be the starting quarterback here, this is a guy that I want to be targeting even more now Jonathan Taylor. Like if you can end up going out there and trading for Jonathan Taylor, I would be trying to do that right now. Daniel Jones is a guy who, Sequin Barclay caught 50 plus passes from him, right? We're going to say that he doesn't have a high checkdown rate, but Seacuan Barclay, who's a solid pass catching running back, obviously better than Jonathan Taylor in that

regard. But if he caught 50 points... plus passes from him, right? We're going to say that he doesn't have a high checkdown rate, but Sequin Barclay, who's a solid pass catching running back, obviously better than Jonathan

Taylor in that regard. But if he caught 50 plus passes, why can't Taylor catch 35, 40 plus? As of right now, sports books, this is Draft Kings right here. Their regular season rushing total for Jonathan Taylor is set at 1,200. Their touchdowns are set at 9 and a half. So the baseline for Jonathan Taylor this year, just from a rushing department, not even factoring in his receiving abilities,

1,200 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns. Very few running backs in the league have that combination, including guys who went ahead of Jonathan Taylor and fantasy drafts this year. So I'd be looking to get Jonathan Taylor if you can right now. Like this is a guy who I believe is probably not valued how he properly should be. I want to be shocked if Jonathan Taylor finishes as a first round pick,

especially now that he has Daniel Jones over Anthony Richardson. Now, I also want to be getting this next veteran running back. Before we get there, two seconds, hit that subscribe button. Most people don't even know they're not subscribed and they've been watching for years. I get that a lot. My goal is 200,000 subscribers this year. We're almost there would mean the world to me.

So hit that button.

Now that next veteran running back is Austin Echler, who I believe right now.

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