RB Forecasts

Jonathan Taylor 2021 Outlook: The Lead Car in Indy

2020 was a rollercoaster season for Jonathan Taylor. He went from second string to stud in one week. He then had a backwards slide before finally hitting his stride again and helping the Colts get into the playoffs. 2021 will be different. Last season, Taylor was drafted in the third or fourth round in many fantasy drafts. Preseason hype can do a lot for someone as evidenced here. For most of the season it looked like a bad choice. Even finishing with 1,169 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground, Taylor did not help many of his managers make the playoffs. Losing Anthony Castonzo will hurt the offensive line, but Quinton Nelson is still there, and the team brought in Eric Fisher who could take over the LT spot after he is fully healed from a leg injury suffered last postseason. Add to the mix Carson Wentz, who is far more mobile than Philip Rivers and Taylor has breakout potential this season. His ceiling? Overall RB1. Even if he does not reach this lofty goal, he will finish as a top-five back and this alone makes him worthy of a top-five overall pick in fantasy drafts. The Colts are going to be good this season. Much of this will depend on the rushing and potential receiving acumen of the second-year back from Wisconsin. They will put all of their eggs in his basket. He might fumble a few away, but he will get you to the playoffs as well.

Christian McCaffrey 2021 Outlook: If Healthy, He’ll Be Back On Top

In 2020, Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey played just three games because of an ankle injury and a shoulder injury, but the former Stanford star still made the most of his time on the field, scoring six total touchdowns in those two games. In his second year with head coach Matt Rhule, we should see McCaffrey play a huge role on this offense as both a rusher and receiver. In 2019, McCaffrey led the NFL in yards from scrimmage, finishing with 2,392 and also scoring a league-high 19 touchdowns. One of the NFL's most dynamic players, McCaffrey will have to adjust to having a new quarterback throwing him the ball in Sam Darnold, but at this point, McCaffrey's skillset seems like it can shine regardless of the quarterback. There are a lot of really good running backs in the NFL, but McCaffrey's projected role makes him the clear choice with the 1.01 pick in 2021 redraft leagues. Even if he doesn't reach his absurd level of production from 2019, McCaffrey's floor is 200 carries and 100 targets, and he should blow past that floor with ease. Don't let the injuries last season deter you: McCaffrey is the top fantasy back in the league.

Austin Ekeler 2021 Outlook: Top-5 Upside in PPR Leagues

Austin Ekeler played eight full games with Justin Herbert as the Chargers' starting quarterback last season. In those eight games, he averaged 11.9 rushing attempts with 7.9 targets per game. To give you a better understanding of just how many targets that is, only 17 wide receivers and two tight ends averaged more targets per game than Ekeler in 2020. Besides using just a sixth-round draft pick on Larry Rountree III, the Chargers didn't bring in any other running backs this offseason to compete for touches. Look for Ekeler to once again be a jack-of-all-trades out of the backfield in 2021. If you recall, he was the overall RB4 in PPR leagues in 2019 with just 537 rushing yards and three touchdowns. His 92 receptions for 993 yards and eight touchdowns in the passing game that year are what make him such a unique player with massive upside in PPR formats.

Najee Harris 2021 Outlook: A Top 10 Fantasy RB

Here is a crazy stat from 2020: Alabama RB Najee Harris had 24 total touchdowns on the season. The entire University of Tennessee offense had 29.Of course, Alabama was as dominant a team as we had seen since, well, LSU the year before. Nevertheless, the production put up by Harris was almost unprecedented. Because of the clear talent, the Steelers gave a free square on their mock drafts and took him with the 24th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft in April. So now what?The Steelers' offensive line was bad last season. According to FTN's stuff percentage metric, 16% of the Steelers' rushes were stuffed at or before the line of scrimmage. After only spending a third and fourth-round selection on offensive linemen, significant improvement seems unlikely in 2021. The biggest difference is that Harris is a substantial upgrade on every running back the Steelers have trotted out there since Le'Veon Bell. While the Steelers were trying to block for broken down James Conner and disappointing rookie Anthony McFarland last season, Harris will come in with the size at 235 pounds and the all-around ability to make a difference.The Steelers are a run-first team. This changed last season due to a lack of talent. Throwing for over 5,000 yards while rushing for just 1,043 yards is not what Head Coach Mike Tomlin is looking for. Look for Najee Harris to be used early and often. He is going to surpass 1,000 yards rushing and can get close to the LeVeon Bell status as a receiver as well. This makes him an early fantasy pick as the rookie RB most likely to crack the top 10.The run game in Pittsburgh will be back. Harris is a worthy RB2 pick for your fantasy team and should be considered amongst the likes of Austin Ekeler and Chris Carson in the second or early third-round of your fantasy drafts. He will not disappoint you.

Dalvin Cook 2021 Outlook: Running Healthy

What could be? This has been the question since Dalvin Cook came into the league. If he just could remain healthy, how good could he be? In 2020, we found out.Although he still only played in 14 games, Cook had a massive workload, rushing 312 times for 1,557 yards and 16 touchdowns. While yards per attempt is not always a good indicator, having a 5.0 average on 312 rushes is certainly not a negative. With an additional 44 touches for 361 yards in the passing game, Cook proved to be the three-down back the Vikings thought they were getting when they drafted him in the second-round from Florida State in 2017. Cook showed he is deserving of the new contract given to him.2021 should be much of the same for Cook in Minnesota. The Vikings are loaded on offense with Cook playing alongside Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson. Kirk Cousins will also be more aggressive in getting the ball out. And not just because the team drafted Kellen Mond, but also because he was called out by Jefferson during a radio interview about not being aggressive or having the same swagger as Jefferson's college quarterback at LSU, Joe Burrow.The offense in Minnesota is not the problem. They will score and it will revolve first and foremost around Dalvin Cook. If you do not have a top-three draft pick, you are not getting him, and for good reason. If you do, he might be the safest pick in the top three, even more so than Christian McCaffrey or Derrick Henry.