Roundtable Week 12: The RB Perception Game

Photo: Charles LeClaire, USA Today Sports

Welcome to Week 12 of the 2023 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. We split the conversation into separate features.

This week's roundtable features these four topics:

• WR Prospects: A Look at the 2024 NFL Draft Class
• WR Roulette: Whose Recent Emergence Is Sustainable
• RB Perception Game: Who Is Better/Worse Than Their Perceived Value (see below)
• Bust? Or, Not So Fast...

Let's roll.

RB Perception Game: Who Is Better/Worse Than Their Perceived Value

Matt Waldman: Which running back is clearly worse than his current fantasy value? Which running back is clearly better than his current value? Pick one for each question from the list below.

• Tony Pollard
• Ken Walker III
• Jaylen Warren
• Rhamondre Stevenson
• Najee Harris

Let's begin with Whom You Believe is better...

Jeff Bell: Full disclosure: this question is difficult to answer. In the hypersensitive social media world of fantasy football, the value of players like Tony Pollard and Najee Harris has completely fallen out. Zach Charbonnet playing more in Seattle illustrates how much Ken Walker is making out of a difficult situation. Walker was able to maintain RB1 value up until very recently, while Charbonnet has one game of a full workload and gave an RB21 performance in a bye-depleted landscape.

Warren is RB21 in the rest-of-season ranks. It is understandable, given he is still in a timeshare. But his finishes over the last three weeks suggest he is undervalued, finishing .5 PPR RB14, 7, and 2 in that stretch. Matt Canada is gone, and the Steelers are starting fresh on offense in his absence. If Warren can consistently land in RB1 territory while splitting a backfield, we are very low on his talent and potential. He has the skill set to be a deeply discounted version of Austin Ekeler in the right environment.

Matt Montgomery: Jaylen Warren needs to be in starting lineups everywhere, not only due to his last performance but also because the offense will be different moving forward. He is a dynamic player who has earned the opportunity to be the bellcow for the Steelers, and until we see Harris take from him on a larger scale, it is Warren’s job to lose. Before he had the job it was close, but now it should be clear to managers in all leagues. Warren has 48 fewer carries but just six yards fewer than Harris. He also was the preferred pass-catching back before the Harris news, giving him the PPR upside that should be the tiebreaker for you. I'm all in on Warren to ride into the playoffs.