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Justin Carter takes a look at some UDFA running backs who dynasty owners should keep an eye on as deep stashes. These players could emerge as fantasy football sleepers for their respective teams in 2020.
It seems like there's always some undrafted running back who breaks through and carves out a key role on an NFL team each year. While the 2019 Draft didn't really have a player who fits this description, 2018 had Phillip Lindsay and Gus Edwards and 2017 had Austin Ekeler and Matt Breida.
Going further back, we've seen elite players come from the UDFA ranks. Arian Foster. Priest Holmes. Joe Perry, if you want to go back to the early days of the NFL. Draft stock and talent aren't the same thing, and teams can find good players after the seventh round ends.
Today, let's look at a few running backs who have a chance to be useful fantasy players, either now or in the future.
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Michael Warren II, Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles sure like to employ a variety of running backs. Last year, it was Miles Sanders, Jordan Howard, and Boston Scott seeing the highest percentage of snaps, but now Howard is in Miami.
Could Warren end up taking some of those snaps? A physical back who can run through contact but who has has some decent elusiveness, Warren would be a good fit in a Jordan Howard-esque role.
Of course, he has to make the team first.The re-signing of Corey Clement suggests that Warren in a three-player battle with Elijah Holyfield and Adrian Killins for the team's fourth back spot. I like the upside of Warren, who could be a terror down in the red zone. He had 33 rushing touchdowns over the past two years at Cincinnati, and while he doesn't have the speed or pass-catching prowess to be on the field much on passing downs, he still could see the field at some point in the near future.
Scottie Phillips, Houston Texans
Houston is a really interesting backfield, in that it really seems like everything after the top-two of David Johnson and Duke Johnson is up for grabs, but also that in 2019 when Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson shared that backfield, all the other halfbacks on the roster combined for 14 carries and one reception in the regular season, with 12 of those carries and the reception all coming in the season finale against Tennessee when Houston didn't play their key players.
That makes the battle for the third and fourth running back roles both interesting and possibly entirely useless. With Taiwan Jones gone, there's clearly room for someone else -- maybe Phillips or maybe second-year (and also undrafted) back Karan Higdon, who spent last year on Houston's practice squad.
Phillips never had much of a receiving role at Ole Miss, catching 18 passes in two seasons there, so that hurts his chances of making the team, but if he can prove to be a solid special teams contributor, he'll have a shot to make this team.
The thing that appeals about Phillips is this: he's a power back who can make things happen in the short yardage game. If anything happens to David Johnson, Houston would need an early-down guy to complement Duke Johnson, and Phillips has a skillset that works really well for that role. We saw what Carlos Hyde managed to do in that role last year.
James Robinson, Jacksonville Jaguars
The Leonard Fournette situation in Jacksonville is fascinating to watch. Last year, he had a snap rate of 83 percent, a career high, and he had career best marks in rushing yards, yards per attempt, receptions, and receiving yards. It seemed like Fournette was becoming the guy that Jacksonville used a top five pick on.
But the Jags are set to be bad this year and have traded away some of their best players. They reportedly spent much of the lead up to the NFL Draft looking for ways to deal away Fournette. With no takers, they seemed to resign themselves to keeping him heading into the season.
A trade could still materialize, especially if a team loses their starting running back to injury. If it happens, the veteran options on this roster look, uhh, not great. (Note: This chart was from before the team signed Chris Thompson, though Thompson is going to see virtually all of his touches come via the receiving game.)
So, while Armstead is expected to take on a larger role this year and team likes Ozigbo, a Fournette trade really means that anything can happen, and if someone like Robinson can get in there and make an impact, he could wind up playing a multi-year role on this squad.
The former Illinois State player isn't a world beater, but like many of the backs who went undrafted this year and made this list, Robinson has a lot of upside as a short yardage back, someone who can come in and power through defenders and churn out some extra yards.
Rico Dowdle, Dallas Cowboys
Let's get the obvious thing out of the way first: Rico Dowdle is not beating Ezekiel Elliott out for snaps in Dallas.
But with new head coach Mike McCarthy in town, we could see more of a split approach to the running game. In Green Bay, McCarthy's No. 2 back had a top-50 fantasy finish in three of his final five seasons as head coach, so yeah, Zeke is the starter here, but past usage patterns and the NFL's current trend of relying less and less on just one workhorse back means that there's room for someone to be fantasy relevant.
That someone is probably Tony Pollard, but the position battle behind Pollard feels wide open, Dowdle likely battling Jordan Chunn for that third back spot.
The former South Carolina back had a lot of injury concerns in college, bu when he was healthy, he was an explosive runner for the Gamecocks, averaged 4.7 yards per carry or more in three of his four seasons. Dowdle could be a good future complement to Elliott, provided he's able to stay on an NFL field.
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