Unfiltered fantasy draft strategy from an RB1 | Ekeler’s Edge
Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler joins Yahoo Sports’ fantasy expert Liz Loza for the debut episode of Ekeler’s Edge. The fantasy football superstar shares his unique expertise on how to draft running backs, delivers his scouting report of 49ers rookie QB Trey Lance, and reveals what he is looking forward to most this season.
Video Transcript
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LIZ LOZA: What is up, everyone? Welcome to episode one of Ekeler's Edge. I'm Liz Loza, and this is, of course, Chargers running back and fantasy football superstar, Austin Ekeler. We are so excited to kick this thing off. So why don't you just tell us your story and how you started playing fantasy?
AUSTIN EKELER: I played after my second year. I kept getting DMs from people on Instagram being like, hey, thanks for scoring me points to my fantasy team. And I was like, damn, I'm on people's fantasy teams? That's before anyone knew who the heck I was. I was still running down on kickoff and punt and making plays with special teams.
And then after my third year was probably my best fantasy points-wise in that season. That's when I almost went for 1,000 receiving yards and had a bunch of catches. And then after that year, I really started to get recognition from, hey, you were on my fantasy team.
People were like, thank you. Hey, thanks for winning me in fantasy championship. Hey, you're so great in fantasy. And so I was like, OK, I got to step aside. I know I love the Chargers community and all that, but let me look at these fantasy fans as well.
And that's really what fantasy has done for me. It's really taken me out of the Chargers. And people have become more of a fan of Austin Ekeler, which is what I love about fantasy. And which is why I want to get back to the fantasy community and do this show, and give you guys some of the insight just from people that are actually in the game like myself and anyone else we bring on.
LIZ LOZA: Austin, you play the most coveted position in fantasy football, the RB1. So first things first, let's find out where the fans think you should be drafted. We created a Twitter poll and asked, which RB would you rather draft, Austin Ekeler, Najee Harris, Jonathan Taylor, or Antonio Gibson? Over 40% of the nearly 6,000 fans who voted would select you. What's your reaction to that?
AUSTIN EKELER: If you poll me, absolutely I'm taking myself, obviously. I'm biased because it's myself. I'm betting on myself. Let's look at Austin Ekeler just as a player in the National Football League, not that he's actually me. We got a new situation with Austin Ekeler.
We got Lombardi, our new offensive coordinator who gave the ball a lot to his running back over there in New Orleans. Kamara, who he should have, was a beast. Why did he keep giving the ball? Because he did good things with it.
Well, what does Austin do? And he gets the ball in his hands. So he's pretty efficient back, so you can see some carryover from there. And the thing is he's RB1 as well, so he's not only going to catch the ball, he's going to be running the ball as well.
LIZ LOZA: A 5.5 yards per touch last year is pretty darn efficient, but he's going to even build on that. Some of the Twitter followers that we polled had a couple of replies. I'm going to ask you about one of them.
Mr. Aaron Wood said he's going with Antonio Gibson. In fact, he said he "gone Gibson" because he feels like maybe you regressed a little bit last year. So what say you to this Aaron Wood?
AUSTIN EKELER: Absolutely, Aaron. That's great, Aaron. I love it. I love it because you're passionate about someone. You're definitive. You had a reason.
When people come out and say, hey, I'm not taking this person and they don't give a reason, then we can't attend to those people. So if you're coming in with questions just for future episodes, make sure you have a good, just thought out reason. That's a great reason right there.
I did regress last year, why? Because I blew my hamstring out. That puts a damper in your fantasy points when you don't have both your legs to run on.
But here's the thing, the potential upside, it might be worth that risk. Because if Austin is healthy, guess what? You know he's going to score points and he's going to be up there scoring you a bunch of points every single week.
LIZ LOZA: You know Austin Ekeler plays fantasy football when he's dropping words like upside. He has got the lingo down pat. We're going to stick with the running back position, but we're going to move from the top of the draft to rounds like 5 to 7.
And this is the area that fantasy gamers like to call the running back dead zone. Who are you targeting in this range? We've got Chase Edmonds, Javonte Williams, and Damien Harris.
AUSTIN EKELER: Ooh, I do like Damien Harris. What I'm looking at is who's been consistent in the last years. Maybe they're on a new team or whatever, but who's been consistent? Who showed their team that, hey, they can play at this position, they can be relied on. Because that person's probably going to get more reps, more opportunities with the ball in their hands. You
LIZ LOZA: You have to look at the players that were consistent. And you also mentioned Damien Harris, who has always been consistent even when he was in Alabama. And last year he suffered from a couple of injuries, but he's going in the seventh round now because of something I think you said earlier about the recency bias of durability and availability, and all of that.
But when Harris was on the field, he produced-- I mean, he recorded seven breakaway runs and a juke rate of 28.2% over 10 games last year. Those are all solid numbers. So I am with you that consistency in this round gives you the highest floor. And when you're throwing darts at a running back maybe is what you're telling me you want to look for floor particularly at this part of your draft.
Let's talk about rookie quarterbacks because they are the hottest topic of the 2021 free season. And Austin, you had a firsthand look at one of those marquee rookie Sunday SoFi against your Chargers. I'm talking obviously about the 49ers Trey Lance through two touchdowns and a pick. Jimmy Garoppolo at 1/15 play drive that ended in a pick after the game. A very brave reporter tried to get Kyle Shanahan to name his starter.
- Are you going to make an announcement. Is Jimmy Garoppolo your starter at week one?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No. I'm not making that announcement. Nice try, though.
LIZ LOZA: Kyle [INAUDIBLE] anything. You had your boots on the ground, though.
AUSTIN EKELER: Yeah. I saw a lot of just athleticism from this guy just running. I thought that's what actually impressed me the most is the ability to run, and not just run. This man is fast.
He throws so hard too, that's what I noticed. Like, he was slinging that thing. I don't know obviously what he's going through as far as mentally over there. Because that's the biggest hurdle as far as quarterbacks coming in, especially young quarterbacks.
With Justin coming in last year, it was just like, hey, are you understanding how rotations work? Are you understanding how your offense work [INAUDIBLE]? That's one thing I had insight with from Philip Rivers, working with that guy.
That was the first quarterback I came into. Just working with him and then going to Justin Herbert was like, wow. Philip really understood the game. My points, safety rotations, zone, man, all the keys.
If a linebacker points this way, he's like, oh, I know what's happening. They're going to blitz from the left. They're going to try to throw me off. Just the actual game knowledge from experience helps so much.
And I think as a young quarterback, that's really what you're lacking. You have the athletic ability, but he's saying, OK, are you going to be able to come in and actually get this scheme down and actually be able to run at a high level? And that's why you usually have some type of older quarterback in front of a younger one, to try to help them develop.
So how fast can you get the scheme down and how comfortable will the coaches and the team be with him Just going through the season. And seeing his development before they want to put him in and say he's the starter, if he even gets to that point this year.
LIZ LOZA: I'm just going to say this, the 49ers open their season at Detroit and then at Philadelphia. Those are two manageable defenses. If Jimmy cannot play against the Lions or the Eagles, you're seeing Trey at least by week three against the Packers. I'll say it for him.
Austin, to close the show, I want to ask you this. Other than this show-- wink, wink-- what has you most excited for this season?
AUSTIN EKELER: Absolutely this show, connecting with you guys and just talk of fantasy, getting through it. I'm very excited. Also, I'm excited for a lot of things. Having fans back in the game, oh my God. Everyone, follow the rules so we can continue to have people at the game because it's so different.
It's so different having a game with fans and feeling the energy than just playing in literally an empty stadium. If we don't have any fans, guess what? We're not doing any of these shows, any of this stuff. And so this is like my way to say thank you.
LIZ LOZA: Well, I can definitely say that the fans, whether they are fans of the virtual game or fans of yours IRL, are excited to be back in the stands. Back for another season, back to playing on Yahoo Fantasy. I am excited. Austin's excited, and let's go have ourselves one heck of a 2021 fantasy football season.
AUSTIN EKELER: Let's do it.
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