Sports Time Radio

Now I had been a fantasy sports person long before the daily fantasy betting websites came along. I’ve always been more of a fam of the week to week year long fantasy type set up, but I’ve jumped in and played my share of daily fantasy. I’d love to be able to tell you that I win every time I play and tat it’s become easy for me, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I use restraint as I’ve never bet more than $2 on a contest; which is smart for me, but I know other people spend a lot more. The majority of the time I play baseball and football, but I’ve also spent some time playing Basket ball and hockey and if the website sends me a free entry I’ll take a shot enter a golf or WNBA contest. I enjoy playing even though at times it’s quite frustrating like it was this Sunday. Here’s how my entry went.

I was looking at the NFL schedule and like everyone else I saw that the Dallas Cowboys were playing the Miami Dolphins. Now the Dolphins had been giving up plus points a game and appear to be the worse team in the NFL. Then I saw that the New England Patriots where at home against the New York Jets. The Jets where without their starting quarterback and their best defensive player because of injuries and that was just where the Jets injury list started as they where going to be missing quite a few players against New England. 

Now after seeing these two match ups it made all the sense in the world to load up my line up with players from the Cowboys and Patriots. Now on the website I play daily fantasy on you’re only allowed to use a maximum of four players from one team and there are nine roster slots you have to fill; so I was going to have to find one more player to wrap up my guaranteed winning line up. At least that’s what I thought it would be. 

After working things out here’s the line up I ended up going with. From the Cowboys I went with Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Devin Smith and Jason Witten. From the Patriots I went with Rex Burkhead, Josh Gordon, Phillip Dorsett and their defense. Now after putting this line up together I didn’t even think I’d need another player, but rules are rules and since I had quite a bit of my salary cap money left I was able to add Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants. After entering this line up I just sat back and waited for the money to roll in; man was I wrong.

Prescott had only thrown 11 incompletions in the first two games of the season combined. Against the Dolphins he had 13 incompletions and didn’t light the scoreboard up anywhere near like I thought he might. Elliott had 19 carries for 125 yards which are very good numbers, but he didn’t get into the end zone; so he under performed. I thought that Smith might be an under the radar type of play, but he managed just 2 receptions for 39 yards. While Witten who I thought might actually catch a touchdown pass or two managed just 3 receptions for 54 yards.

So my Cowboys where pretty much all busts which meant I was in big trouble and my four Patriots player and Barkley needed to have big days. Well two of my Patriots players Burkhead and Dorsett scored above what was expected of them, but neither had a breakout game. Gordon did catch 6 passes, but only put up 83 yards and didn’t score; so he was disappointing. New England’s defense did out up 14 points for me which is good for a defense, but I was hoping that they’d really have a high point scoring game.

So with the exception of Gordon my Patriots where solid for me. I knew that I was in real trouble and I probably wasn’t going to win any money, but I did have Barkley left to play and there was a chance that he could put up some big numbers.

The Giants had made the switch at quarterback going with rookie Daniel Jones against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and I thought that they would rely on Barkley heavily not only in the run game, but as a receiver as well. Well I might’ve been right had Barkley not injured his ankle limiting him to 8 carries for 10 yards. He also caught 4 passes for 27 yards. 

So as you can see Barkley was a bust as was pretty much the majority of my line up as I didn’t get anywhere near winning all that money that I thought it was going to.

I’m not a fan of the stacking technique, but I thought that this made a lot of sense and I thought that I’d give it a shot. Now I have to tell you I’m not sure if I’ll try the stacking technique again unless there’s someone out there that can convince me it works.

I’d be interested to know how you did if you played daily fantasy this past Sunday. If you’re willing I’d also be interested to know what type of system you use; if you’re willing to share. I know that most people hold their systems like family secrets and if you don’t want to share the entire way you build a line up maybe just pass along a tip or two and will see how similar what you do is to what I do. To be honest I hope you had a lot better luck than I did this past Sunday. I guess I’ll have to come up with another plan for Week 4 in the NFL.

Please take the time to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast is available for you to listen to live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live all you have to do is head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

We’re two weeks into the NFL season and the games have looked more like pre-season games than actual regular season football, but there are a couple of things that we’ve learned from these first two weeks.

The Miami Dolphins are the worse team in the NFL by a wide margin. It’s quite clear that the Dolphins are tanking this season and they’re doing such a good job of it they may go 0-16 when it’s all said and done.

It will be interesting to see how this rebuild goes for Miami. After the trade of Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Pittsburgh Steelers this week the Dolphins have five 1st round pick in the next two drafts. It also looks like the Dolphins will have quite a bit of cap room to try and signed free agents. Is it possible that this could be a quick turn around for the Dolphins?

Of course the Dolphins still have 14 more games to go this season and you have to wonder if there are other players that would be interested in being traded. It’s possible the Dolphins could add even more draft capital before the end of the season.

The other thing that I think we’ve learned in these first two weeks is that the New York Jets are going to have no luck this season.

It looked like the Jets where on their way to getting a win in Week 1 and then C.J. Mosley got injured. After Mosley went out the Buffalo Bills where able to come back and get a win in Week 1.

Then after that Week 1 game it was announced that Jet starting quarterback Sam Darnold would be out multiple weeks as he recovers from mononucleosis. That target week for his return is Week 5.

With Darnold out Trevor Siemian took over as starting quarterback for Week 2 against the Cleveland Browns. Siemian started 14 games for the Denver Broncos over the last two seasons and while he’s not really looked at as a starter anymore he has to be considered a quality back up.

Well Siemian’s time as the Jets starting quarterback didn’t last very long. On his 6th pass attempt against the Browns Siemian suffered a ankle injury that will cost hi the rest of this season.

So who did the Jets turn to at quarterback? Well that would be Luke Falk who was signed to the active roster just hours before the Monday night game against Cleveland.

If Darnold does make it back in time for Week 5 Falk will only have to make one start; this week in New England against the Patriots. The Jets have a Week 4 Bye and then they’ll on the road for Week 5 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Mosley missed Monday nights game with a groin injury and we’ll have to see if he’ll be available to lead the Jets defense against the Patriots this Sunday. Jets rookie defensive lineman Quinnen Williams also missed Monday nights game with an ankle injury; so we’ll have to see if he’ll be ready to play against the Patriots.

Now we already know that the Jets are headed to New England and it looks like they’ll be starting the season 0-3. Miami is on the road as well this week. The Dolphins take on the Dallas Cowboys; so it looks like they’ll be 0-3 as well.

Coming out of Week 2 we also had a couple of big quarterback injuries and one team made a change at quarterback. Let’s start with the injuries.

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost their starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to a season ending elbow injury. This was a non-contact injury as Roethlisberger injured his elbow throwing the football. The original report was that he torn the UCL ligament in his right elbow.

There where some reports that mentioned it was possible that Roethlisberger might just retire instead of going through surgery and rehabilitation, but Roethlisberger has said that he is planning to comeback next season.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was also injured in Week 2. Brees has a torn ligament in the right thumb and Brees is right handed. Surgery is required to repair his thumb ligament and it looks as though Brees will be out 6 to 8 weeks.

Brees was injured when he hit his hand on Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald’s hand during their Week 2 game.

If you’re looking for a fantasy pick up at quarterback Mason Rudolph will be taking over as Steelers starting quarterback. In New Orleans Teddy Bridgewater will get the first shot at filling in for Brees, but there has already been some talk that at the first sign of struggle by Bridgewater they’ll go to Taysom Hill.

After an 0-2 start the New York Giants have decided to make a change at quarterback. Eli Manning is out and 1st round draft pick Daniel Jones will be taking over.

Manning had completed 62.9% of his passes for 556 yards. He had thrown 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

You have to wonder if this is the last we’ve seen of Manning as the Giants starting quarterback. Once Jones gets into the starting line up you’d have to think that the only reason to not start him would be an injury. Manning does have a no trade clause, but even if he did agree to allow a trade is there a team out there that he’d be an upgrade for at the quarterback position?

It’s possible if Rudolph doesn’t look good as the Steelers starter and if they think they’re a playoff contender maybe Manning fits there. He’d be an upgrade for the Jets, but with Darnold a few weeks away from returning does it make sense for the Jets to trade for Manning. With Manning’s connection to Tom Coughlan you would’ve thought that the Jacksonville Jaquars would be a good landing spot for him, but Gardner Minshew has played well in Nick Foles absence; so I don’t know if they’d be interested in acquiring Manning.

What do you think happens with Manning this season? Does he get traded or even possibly released and end up with a new team or will he just end up being Jones’ back up for the rest of this season.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

It looks like the possible nightmare for the Dallas Cowboys their fans and any fantasy owner who drafted Ezekiel Elliott won’t come true. It’s being reported that early this morning the Cowboys and Elliott agreed to a 6 year $90 million dollar deal with $50 million dollars guaranteed.

Now I found this whole situations quite interesting especially the way the media covered it. I get that Cowboys fans like to call them “America’s team”. There was also the old question; why is there a whole in the roof of Texas Stadium. So God could watch the Cowboys.

It’s understandable that fans get like that about their favorite team, but it almost seemed like this was the only NFL story that the media was covering and the season opens tomorrow. I’m not sure why the media got so caught up in this story, but they not only ignored the opening of the season, but they glossed over another top running back who is holding out as well as a top defensive lineman who forced a trade.

I guess in the end the Cowboys will be the big story because any and everyone in the media knows that their owner Jerry Jones will always give them that quote they need. I don’t think there’s a microphone that Jones wouldn’t talk into and as not only the owner of the Cowboys, but there General Manager he has ample opportunity to talk to the media.

Now with Elliott signed sealed and delivered it will be interesting to see how the Cowboys handle there other two upcoming free agents; quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver Amari Cooper. Will have to see if the media will continue to report on these two Cowboys, but I’m guessing since they’re in camp and prepared to play this Sunday against the New York Giants there’s probably no story there.

Let’s go back now and take a look at the two remaining stories that where buried by Elliott’s holdout and signing.

Jadeveon Clowney had refused to sign his franchise tag with the Houston Texans and had demanded a trade. It looked like the Miami Dolphins where the front runner when Clowney met with their head coach Brian Flores. After that meeting it came out that Clowney would like to go to the Seattle Seahawks or the Philadelphia Eagles.

When it was all said and done it was the Seahawks that stepped up and traded for Clowney. Seattle sent a 2020 3rd round pick and a pair of linebackers Barkevious Mingo and Jacob Martin.

It seems as most experts think that the Seahawks got the better end of this deal, but that may all depend o if they’ll be able to re-sign Clowney. Clowney had to sign the franchise tag before he could be traded and Seattle is unable to sign him until after the season; so they might have some teams competing for Clowney since he’ll be a free agent.

How would you feel about this trade if the Seahawks are only able to keep Clowney for just this season?

The other big holdout is Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon. I’m not sure why Gordon’s name was kept on the back burner with all of the focus going to Elliott, but now Gordon is front and center. The Chargers have told Gordon and his representation that they  can seek a trade, but right now the Chargers are asking for a #1 pick in return. That’s a lot to ask for a for a 26 year old running back who’s only played a full 16 games in one of his four seasons.

It appears that Gordon has no plans to play for the Chargers, but with teams just making final cuts they are pretty much set at their positions; so it may be a while before a trade is made unless there’s an early injury to a staring running back.

Gordon is definitely a top tier running back and you have to wonder which team he might fit with. The teams that are thought to be playoff contenders seem to be set at the running back position. Gordon is also in the final year of his contract; so you’d be asking a team to give up a 1st round draft pick for a player they may only have for one season. Of course if a trade is worked out I’m sure the team that would be acquiring Gordon would insist that he sign a contract extension before the deal is finalized.

I’m thinking of this and I can only come up with three possibly teams that might be interested in dealing for Gordon.

I think that Gordon might be of some interest to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Right now the Buccaneers are going with Peyton Barber and Ronald Jones; so Gordon would be an upgrade for them.

It seems that Leonard Fourette wasn’t going to be the Jacksonville Jaquars starting running back this season after all of the issues he had their last season, but we’re 5 days away from Jacksonville opening their season and Fournette is still their #1 running back. Would the Jaquars be interested in Gordon?

Maybe the Houston Texans would trade for one more running back. The Texans have acquired Duke Johnson Jr. and Carlos Hyde this pre-season, but neither has shown that they’re on the same level as Gordon. Would the Texans be willing to make one more deal for another running back?

You have to wonder if the Chargers and Gordon will be able to find a trading partner or will he end up taking the same route as Le’Von Bell and sit out an entire season and try his luck in free agency.

How do you have things playing out with Gordon. Will he end up being traded? Or will he end up sitting out the entire season?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you happen to miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

I had my first fantasy football draft of the season last night. I had the 5th pick in a 16 team snake style draft. The roster break down for this league is you start 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 2 wide receivers, 1 tight end, 1 flex position which can be a running back or wide receiver in this league, 1 kicker and 1 defense. There are also 8 bench spots to fill.

Sitting at #5 I was interested to see how this draft would shake out since in some of the  rankings on Yahoo I’ve seen quarterbacks rated very high. I this case there where no quarterbacks taken until the last pick of the 1st round when Patrick Mahomes came off the board at #16.

Before I made my first pick there where three running backs and one wide receiver picked. Looking at the draft board I decided to pick Le’Von Bell. He was rated 8th in this draft, but I liked him better than the other running backs they had ahead of him; so he was my pick.

Being that it’s a snake style draft there where 22 players that came off the board before I made my 2nd selection. There where quite a few players that came off the board that I had hoped would be there when it was my pick. After checking things out I decided to pick another running back and I went with Devonta Foreman.

A little bit of a quicker turn around this time as there where only 8 picks before I got to make my 3rd pick. As you can guess the big name wide receivers where long gone, but I saw Robert Woods sitting there and I liked his value as a 3rd round pick; so I went with him.

As it came around to my 4th pick I didn’t see ay player that jumped out at me and I didn’t want to reach for anything; so I ended up taking Tevin Coleman. It’s three running backs in the first four picks, but there’s a flex position and remember Coleman had his most productive seasons when Kyle Shanahan was his offensive coordinator. I understand that he’s in a crowded backfield, but they wouldn’t of signed him if they weren’t going to use him.

Coming back to me in the 5th round was Alshon Jeffery. He’s still the #1 receiver in Philadelphia and it seemed like a good value to me to be able to find a player like him here. If his starting quarterback can stay healthy this season it would make this an even better pick.

I thought I had a pretty solid base to start my draft off and I started to notice that teams where reaching for players. When it came back to me for my 6th pick I went with Lamar Jackson. I thought that it might be a little too early to grab a quarterback, but Jackson was a player I targeted and once his name came up on the board I knew I either had to take him or lose him.

I’m of the belief that if you don’t end up in a position where you get one of the top tight ends you wait on the position. I was hoping to wait a little longer than the 7th pick to take my tight end, but it was another instance where his name appeared on the draft board; so I grabbed him. I went with Jackson’s teammate Mark Andrews in the 7th round.

Now that my starting line up was more or less set I started to look for players I was interested in and I thought where good values. What I noticed between my 7th and 8th and even my 9th pick there was quite a run on defenses, but I didn’t want to get caught up in it.

When my 8th pick came around I took wide receiver Jamison Crowder. Crowder has always been one of those players that everyone likes, but he’s been unable to stay healthy. I was willing to take a chance on him here since I already had two wide receivers.

After watching all of these defenses get drafted I decided to see if I could start another run with my 9th pick. I went with a kicker; yes a kicker. There had only been one kicker taken by this time and that was two picks before I made this one. I went with Stephen Gostkowski.

My idea worked as there where 8 kickers selected between my 9th and 10th pick. I guess every once in a while I do something right.

Since I had locked up a solid kicker and the run on defenses was done I went looking for a defense I like that I thought offered some value. I ended up taking the Tennessee Titans as my defense even though in my mind I knew I would be taking a second defense just in case.

As for picks 11 and 12 I went with players that I wanted to have and I liked the fact that I was able to find them here. In the 11th round I took San Darnold as my back up quarterback. Then in the 12th round I picked up Darren Waller a tight end that there’s been quite a bit of talk about. Hopefully Darnold improves under his new head coach Adam Gase. Waller was a bit of a flyer, but a lot of fantasy experts think he could be an underrated tight end this season and remember he’s just my back up.

At #13 I wanted to add another running back and I know it’s never a good thing to target a position, but I had a good idea how I wanted to wrap this draft up; so I needed a running back here. I took a chance with Chris Thompson here. I am worried that he won’t play as much this season as he did last season if both of the running backs in front of him stay healthy, but I thought it was a chance wort taking here. After all he is my 4th running back.

Since I had a couple of players hiding for my final two picks I decided to shore up my defense and kicker in rounds 14 and 15. In the 14th I took Kansas City’s defense and then in the 15th round I took Graham Gano. I try not to take two defenses or kickers, but I decided to give it a shot this season.

I had saw what I thought was some value at wide receiver starting to fall in this draft as teams where making sure to get back ups at their positions; so I tried to grab some of it to end this draft. In the 16th round I selected Demaryius Thomas and with my final pick I took Andy Isabella. Thomas is coming back from a serious injury, but he landed in New England and I thought he was worth a risk here. Isabella is one of the many receiver the Cardinals added this off season and I’m hoping they like the rookie enough to get him some snaps.

There’s what I ended up with. How do you think I did? I can tell you that Yahoo didn’t like my draft as I received a “D” grade.

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen whenever you want.

Also feel free to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

ESPN is coming off it’s 24 hours of fantasy football coverage. It’s something they do every year now and there are a few things you can learn from it, but you have to be very, very careful.

I was listening to one of their experts and he said that he won’t be picking a quarterback until the 10th round. Now what this expert forgot to tell you was how many teams where in the league he was talking about. Now me personally I’m in a 20 team league and there’s no way that 180 players will go before a quarterback will be taken. When they give out advice they really need to talk about what size league they’re talking about.

It seems that most of the advice they give out is for 10 or 12 team leagues, but they never specify that’s what they’re talking about. They did do a live on air draft with some of their personalities and it was just a 10 team draft.

If you watched any of the coverage maybe they gave you some advice that will help you this season, but they where no help at all to me and anyone in a bigger league.

The quarterback conversation came up because fantasy owners have to figure out where they’re going to be comfortable taking Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs.

I that ESPN draft that I saw yesterday he was the first player selected, but in the multiple mock drafts I’ve done he wasn’t the first player off the board; it’s been a running back.

Mahomes is rated #1 by Yahoo Sports this year; so he’ll be an early pick in all of their fantasy drafts, but depending o how your league is set up quarterback might not be the way to go in the 1st round.

Besides Mahomes Yahoo Sports has four other quarterbacks ranked in the Top 10. Andrew Luck is at #5, Ben Rothlisberger is at #6, Matt Ryan is at #7 and Drew Brees comes in at #10. So if you’re in a Yahoo fantasy draft it looks like the quarterbacks will be coming off the board very early.

Luckily there aren’t to many quarterback battles; so you’ll know who the starters are heading into your draft. I think the only teams who have to decide on a starter are the Washington Redskins and the Miami Dolphins.

I’m not sure when I’ll end up drafting a quarterback. I just try to play the draft board and if I think that a quarterback is a good value where I’m picking I’ll take him. I’ll let you know who I ended up with after our draft in a few weeks.

Antonio Brown had his hearing with the NFL over his helmet grievance and he ended up losing. Now if you remember Brown threatened to retire if he wasn’t allowed to wear his old helmet. Well to the surprise of no one Brown is schedule to be at Oakland Raiders practice today and won’t be retiring. Did anyone actual think Brown was going to retire over this?

Now we can get to the more serious issues with Brown. Like how are his frost bitten feet? and will they affect him?

You have to wonder how this marriage of Brown and the Raiders are going to work out. How is Brown going to react the first time Derek Carr overthrows him or looks off him and throws the football to another receiver. Brown was spoiled with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team had a winning record while he was with them, but the Raiders aren’t quite yet in a position to win. How is Brown going to handle losing more game than winning. He’s never handled team adversity well; which isn’t a good sign for the Raiders who many be a few years away from winning. As we know Brown is quite volatile and you just never know what will set him off. Are Jon Gruden and the Raiders coaching staff going to have to manage Brown differently than the other 52 players on their roster?

How bad of a spot are the Dallas Cowboys in? Ezekiel Elliott is in the second week of his holdout. They team made a good contract offer to Dak Prescott, but he turned it down and asked for quite a bit more money than offered. Don’t forget that Amari Cooper is also in the last year of his contract.

Tony Rome came out yesterday and said that he believes the Cowboys will sign all three of their players, but I’m not sure how that’s going to be possible.

Prescott was offered $30 million dollars a season by the Cowboys that he turned down and there where some reports that there was a $40 million dollar a year offer that he turned down. Is difficult to imagine Prescott getting anywhere close to the kind of money they’re talking about. I think the only reason the money has gone so high on him is because he’s with the Cowboys.

Where do you rank Prescott among NFL starting quarterbacks?

Cooper seemed to be a better fit with the Cowboys than he was with the Raiders, but I’m not sure he’s shown he’s a #1 wide receiver. Cooper has reached 1000 receiving yards in three of his first four season, but he’s never had a 100 reception season or scored more than 7 touchdowns in a season.

The issue the Cowboys will have in signing him is he’s looked at as a #1 receiver. Can Cooper show he’s a true #1 receiver this season as he plays for a new contract?

We’ve covered Elliott and his numbers here before. So the questions with him really are, how long will he hold out? And will he get that new contract? Do you see Elliott’s hold out going into the regular season? Do you think it’s possible he’ll hold out the entire season?

How do you think this works out for the Cowboys? Will they be able to sign all three of these players like Tony Rome thinks they will. Or will one of them have to be allowed to leave and if so which one do you see leaving?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you choose.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

I know there are people out their who have already had their fantasy football draft, but for most of us it’s not too far away and we’re in the process of getting ready for it. I have a few fantasy football drafts coning up and as always there are some questions especially at running back.

A few years ago making sure you got a true #1 running back in your fantasy draft became less and less important. For many years you needed that top tier running bac to even contend, but as teams started to go to backfield by committees that changed.

Wide receiver slowly took over as the position to draft in the 1st round and it even got to the point in most if not all leagues that more wide receivers where taken in the 1st round than running backs.

Last year however that changed. In all of the fantasy football drafts that I was in their where more running backs taken in the 1st round than any other position. The question is now; how will it go this season?

It looks like Saquon Barkley and Alvin Kamara will be right their at the top of the draft, but after that the questions can of start.

The obvious one is what will happen with Ezekiel Elliott and Melvin Gordon; who are both currently holding out. Both players are looking for new contracts and both have said that they’re willing to sit out the entire season. They’re two of the top running backs in the NFL, but it could be a big risk drafting one of them in the 1st round if there’s a chance that you’ll get nothing from them this season.

Then of course there’s the injury questions. How are Todd Gurley’s knees? It’s been reported that the Los Angeles Rams are looking to limit Gurley’s work load this season. If they do cut down on his carries will that affect his touchdowns? Gurley led all running backs with 17 rushing touchdowns last season. since the Rams won’t show their cards in pre-season on how they’ll handle Gurley you’ll have to pick him and hope that he puts up similar numbers to his former seasons.

James Connor battled injury last season missing three games, but this season he won’t have Le’Veon Bell’s name hanging over his head. As a clear #1 running back coming into this season Connor if healthy could be a top fantasy running back. Chris Carson could be in the same category as Connor. Carson played 11 games last season due to injury and you have to wonder what kind of numbers he’d put up if he can stay healthy. You could add in both Marlon Mack and Aaron Jones into this group of running backs even though they might be a little below Connor and Carson statistically they’re still solid #1 running backs if healthy.

Then there’s the running backs who get injured in camp or are recovering from an injury that happened at the end of last season. Phillip Lindsay was a huge surprise last season. He broke his wrist and missed the final regular season game last season and there are reports that he may be limited to start this season. Adrian Peterson had a sloid bounce back season, but has been dealing with an ankle injury that seems to linger; so there are questions there. Derrick Henry showed that he could be a #1 running back, but it’s unclear if he’ll be giving that chance this season. Henry is currently dealing with a strained calf; so it’s something to keep an eye on.

Then there are the teams that appear to be going with a running back by committee situation. It can be a risky move and you’ll have to find the running back in that group who’s either going to get the most carries or score the most touchdowns.

The Chicago Bears signed Mike Davis as a free agent and drafted David Montgomery to add to Tarik Cohen. The defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots have a mix of four running backs in their backfield; James White, Sony Michel, Rex Burkhead and James Devlin. The San Francisco 49ers signed Tevin Coleman this off season to add to their running back core that included Matt Breida and Jerick McKinnon who’s returning to injury. The Buffalo Bills brought in both T.J. Yeldon and Frank Gore with LeSean McCoy already on their roster. You can even add the Cleveland Browns into this mix. It looks as though Nick Chubb will start the season as the #1 running back with Duke Johnson picking up some snaps as a 3rd down type of back. It will be interesting to see how Cleveland will handle the situation in their backfield when Kareem Hunt comes off of suspension in Week 11.

Then you have running backs who are going into new offenses with new head coaches. You’ll have LeVeon Bell with the New York Jets, Joe Mixon with the Cincinnati Bengals and David Johnson with the Arizona Cardinals. Bell as everyone knows sat out all last season, but is a top NFL running back. Mixon is coming off of the best year of his young career and Johnson has been battling his way back from an injury he suffered two seasons ago, but did play in all 16 games last season. It looks like these three are solid 1st round fantasy picks and may even be Top 5 picks.

Kenyan Drake is in the same category as Bell, Mixon and Johnson, but he hasn’t shown he has the talent those three do. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Drake go in the 1st round in deeper leagues, but depending on the structure of your league he’s probably a late 2nd or 3rd round pick.

Christian McCaffery is going to be a top pick and deservedly so. He had over 1000 rushing and over 100 receptions. If McCaffery can find his way into the end zone a few more times he’ll be right at the top of the running back class this season.

These are just some of the questions coming into your fantasy draft. Will you go running back in the 1st round?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

With NFL training camps beginning to open the question seems to be; how many 1st string running backs will be holding out?

Melvin Gordon of the Los Angeles Chargers has already made it clear that he’ll be holding out. Gordon is in the 5th and final year of his rookie contract. He’s schedule to make a little over $5.6 million dollars this season. At that salary Gordon is the 11th highest paid running back in the league.

Gordon has had his share of injuries as he’s missed 8 games in his first four season with the Chargers. You have to wonder how much his injuries might play into a new contract. Even though he’s had some injuries Gordon is a true three down running back and those aren’t easy to find in today’s NFL.

In 12 games last season Gordon carried the football 175 times for 885 yards. He scored 10 rushing touchdowns as well. Gordon also caught 50 passes for 490 yards and added 4 receiving touhdowns. In Gordon’s 225 touches last season he only fumbled the football one time.

It looks like Gordon has a good case to ask for more money, but his salary really isn’t to far out of touch with the other top running backs in the league; so it might be tough for the Chargers to see giving him a raise. If Gordon can go out and have a season as good as last years or better he’d be in line to cash in as a free agent or get tagged by the Chargers. Either way Gordon to make more money starting next season; so I can understand if Los Angeles doesn’t want to renegotiate his current deal for just one season.

The other running back who’s name has come up as possibly holding out is Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys.

Now Elliott is in a different psition than Gordon as he has two years left on his rookie contract. Elliott is scheduled to make a little over $4 million dollars this season, but that number jumps to a little over $9 million dollars next season. So he may be under paid next season, but then it loks like he’ll fall right in line with the other top running backs in final year of his contract.

If Elliott decides to hold out he’ll put the Cowboys in a difficult position as Dallas has some tough calls they’re going to have to make in free agency after the 2019 season. Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper will be the big name Cowboys who will reach free agency after this coming season, but they’re also looking at  players like La’el Collins, Robert Quinn, Sean Lee and even head coach Jason Garrett will be free agents after this coming season.

Looking ahead to 2020 the Cowboys have $127,612,645 in committed salaries. This of course can change with trades or a player being released, but this is the number they’re at right now. The salary cap for 2020 is projected to be $188,200,000. This would leave the Cowboys $60,587,355 is that enough money to bring back Prescott and Cooper? Now if Elliott is to hold out and the Cowboys re-do his deal the answer might be no, but which player would they let leave as a free agent?

If you where Jerry Jones how do you handle this situation. Do you re-work Elliott’s deal? Even though he has two years left on it. If you do Give Elliott a new deal and you can only keep either Cooper or Prescott; who are you keeping?

The third running back who may be a hold out isn’t as well known of a name as the first two guys we talked about, but he’s an affective pass catching back and could be very useful in the right offense. That would be Duke Johnson of the Cleveland Browns.

Johnson is in a very crowded backfield with the Browns, but he’s also in a tough position to hold out as he has three years left on his contract. Obviously if Johnson held out it would be to try and force a trade and not for a new contract.

With the addition of Kareem Hunt there’s a good chance that Johnson’s touches will go down, but Hunt is suspended for the first eight weeks of the season; so there should be no issues with Johnson’s playing time until then. Once Hunt comes back; who knows. Will he be in playing shape or will it take him a few weeks to get ready? Those are things we won’t know until Hunt plays, but there a chance that Johnson will still see the football even when Hunt returns.

Johnson led all of Browns running backs with 47 receptions last season. He had 3 receiving touchdowns and 429 yards threw the air last season. Johnson also got 40 rushing attempts and ran for 201 yards last season. Johnson’s 47 receptions where good for 3rd on the Browns last season, but with the addition of Odell Beckham Jr. will Johnson see the same number of targets (62) that he did last season.

Johnson isn’t an every down running back, but he has played in ever game since being drafted by the Browns in the 3rd round of the 2015 draft. The most Johnson has ever carried the football in a season is 104 times, but he does have a career high of 74 receptions; so he definitely has a place in today’s NFL.

There have been some reports out there that say Johnson wil report to camp with the Browns, but what will Cleveland do with him? What do you think the trade market is for a player with Johnson’s skill set?

Now there will be some other big name players that hold out, but I wanted to stick with the running backs for now.

Just imagine how interesting the first round of your fantasy draft might be if Gordon and Elliott are both holding out. The Chargers and fantasy owners could turn to Austin Ekeler, but who would the Cowboys turn to if Elliott does hold out. Does Rod Smith take over as the Cowboys #1 running back?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen at you convenience.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime