When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football players below. And you can check out which experts are higher or lower than our expert consensus rankings using our Fantasy Football Rankings Comparison Tools.
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Running Backs I Like More Than ECR
| Pat Fitzmaurice’s Rank | Player | ECR | Diff. |
| 24 | Kaleb Johnson PIT – RB | 29 | 5 |
| 31 | Cam Skattebo NYG – RB | 39 | 8 |
| 33 | Jordan Mason MIN – RB | 38 | 5 |
| 47 | J.K. Dobbins DEN – RB | 51 | 4 |
| 53 | Nick Chubb HOU – RB | 58 | 5 |
Rookie Kaleb Johnson is expected to replace Najee Harris as the Steelers’ primary early-down back. Johnson was a committee back his first two years at Iowa, then broke out with 240-1,537-21 rushing last fall. He’s a powerful downhill runner who’s hard to bring down if you hit him high. It’s easy to envision him being an effective goal-line back in the NFL. A good fit for offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s zone-running scheme in Pittsburgh, Johnson is a patient runner who reads his blocks well. He doesn’t have great long speed, doesn’t change speeds often or make sharp cuts. Still, Johnson landed in a favorable spot and could make a big impact right away.
After a monster season for Arizona State in which he had 293-1,711-21 rushing and 45-605-3 receiving, Cam Skattebo now heads to the Giants, where he’ll work in tandem with talented second-year RB Tyrone Tracy. Casual college football fans learned Skattebo’s name when he had 233 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns in Arizona State’s overtime loss to Texas in the College Football Playoffs. Skattebo’s ultra-physical style belies his 5-11, 215-pound frame. Skattebo keeps his feet pumping through contact and always seems to be falling forward at the end of runs. The guess here is that Skattebo and Tracy will split work pretty evenly, but it seems a good bet that Skattebo will a majority of the goal-line carries.
When the Vikings traded for Jordan Mason in the offseason, they immediately gave him a two-year deal that includes more than $7 million in guaranteed money, suggesting that they have plans for him. With Christian McCaffrey sidelined at the start of the 2024 season, Mason averaged 107 rushing yards for the 49ers over the first five games of the season (before getting hurt himself), 120 scrimmage yards per game, and 5.1 yards per carry. The Vikings’ running scheme uses a lot of outside zone, which is right up Mason’s alley. Mason could have some stand-alone value this season, and he’d become immensely valuable if anything happened to 30-year-old Vikings RB Aaron Jones.
After tearing his Achilles in Week 1 of the 2023 season, J.K. Dobbins made a successful return in 2024, rolling up 905 rushing yards and nine touchdowns for the Chargers in 13 games. Dobbins now joins the Broncos, where he’ll be part of Sean Payton’s backfield. Payton likes to use multiple running backs, and no doubt rookie R.J. Harvey will be prominently involved. But Dobbins figures to have a role as well, and it’s possible he’ll be Payton’s preferred goal-line back.
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