Fantasy Trends We Hate: What’s up with Clyde Edwards-Helaire & Jonathan Taylor?

On the latest episode of the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast, Dalton Del Don and Matt Harmon take a deep dive into the struggles of two highly regarded rookie running backs.

Video Transcript

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MATT HARMON: All right, let's talk about two, I don't know, I don't want to call these guys disappointing players, but they've been, I would say these two rookie running backs have been fine, they've been fine. And it's really just an expectations thing. Because I think after week one, I know I would have said that both of these guys are like top five, top eight locked in running backs the rest of the way at the absolute worst. But so far, Clyde Edwards-Helaire ranks running back 12 in Yahoo scoring, and Jonathan Taylor is running back 13. Hilarious, they're like right back to back as these like hotly debated guys in the dynasty circle or whatever.

But let's start with Clyde Edwards-Helaire. And let's just read off the periphery metrics at first. The usage has been great. 81% of the team backfield touches, 66% of the team snaps, 14% of the team targets, 17 red zone looks, 23 routes per game. That ranked sixth among all running backs. Kansas City is like 20th in rushing success rate, so they've been just sort of an average rushing team.

But it just, the fantasy juice that we would have expected from Edwards-Helaire has not been there so far. But the usage is great. So where do we stand going forward? Are we buying that he can have sort of like a breakthrough moment? Especially like I mentioned earlier, the schedule sort of opens up for Kansas City. Where we at with this rookie rusher?

DALTON DEL DON: CEH, man. All right, so he's a feature back on the Chiefs. So I feel like he's going to be plenty good moving forward. But he's definitely been a disappointment, no question. Seeing him leave the field on all third downs for Daryl Williams, it's like, I thought this guy was a monster as a receiver at LSU, frustrating. But having said that.

MATT HARMON: Yeah.

DALTON DEL DON: Having said that, he's the only Chiefs running back with a carry in the red zone this season, the only one. He's 0 for 7 inside the five. He had a touchdown catch called back last week on this very sketchy penalty. So I'm still buying moving forward, but there's no question he's looked pedestrian at times and been a disappointment, particularly in the scoring department.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, I think he broke more tackles, and I think per "Pro Football Focus," he broke more tackles in week one than he has the rest of the games combined. So I mean, yeah, there has been that pedestrian. Not, just again, not as explosive, not same juice that we would have expected from the player or the role. I mean, I thought he looked, in week one, I thought he looked awesome.

But at the same time, now we know that the Texans are one of the worst run defenses in the NFL. So there could be some of that, that we just didn't know that at the time, but now we clearly do. But like I said, the schedule does open up for the Chiefs. Buffalo next week. The Bills, we talked about their pass defense earlier, their rush defense has definitely been the weaker part of that unit.

DALTON DEL DON: Yeah.

MATT HARMON: They've been getting punked on the ground. Denver, whatever, New York, whatever. Carolina in week nine, we know they're one of the worst run defenses. Then they get a bye week, then the Raiders, the Bucs, the Broncos again. I mean, there's some really appealing match-ups coming up. I know if I was a person that made fantasy trades, and I'm not, because I'm a coward, that's a whole other podcast. I would love to make some trade offers for Edwards-Helaire.

DALTON DEL DON: Jonathan Taylor, another guy I was aggressive on.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, let's move onto there.

DALTON DEL DON: I mean, couldn't have gone better as far as becoming the starter immediately for them, with Marlon Mack going down. But, man, he's looked pedestrian, as well. And even more frustrating for me is, where are all the Philip Rivers dump offs? I thought he would see targets just being in that system there. So he's not getting that. Tough match-ups, but yeah, very disappointing Taylor as well. What are your thoughts?

MATT HARMON: Yeah, so let's review the usage metrics here.

DALTON DEL DON: Yes.

MATT HARMON: Number one, I think this is interesting. The Colts rank 32nd in rushing success rate so far this year. They've not been a good rushing team, which could speak to the fact that Taylor hasn't been quite as advertised. Taylor is being stuffed on just 6.5% of his runs, so he's generally getting positive yardage. But here's the problem. 52% of the backfield touches for him, not only does Nyheim Hines have 44 touches, Jordan Wilkins is still involved. He has 30 touches this year.

He's run just 11.4 routes per game. Hines is obviously at 15. Just 8% of the team targets, like you mentioned. 50% of the teams, under 50% of the team snaps. 19 red zone looks. Nyheim Hines has 13. This is sort of, I mean, this is not even the biggest problem for him is just how he's looked or whatever, this is sort of a split backfield. And it's not just split between him and Hines. Wilkins is still involved as well.

And that could speak to the fact that the coaching staff is not in love with what they've gotten from Jonathan Taylor. I mean, there were all those reports coming into the year that they drafted Taylor to quote, "spell" Marlon Mack. And everybody just laughed them off. Well, they're still spelling Jonathan Taylor this far into the season. That's the weirder part to me.