With drafts heating up this weekend, Shawn Siegele provides three running back selections that will be crucial to your success in 2020.

On Wednesday night, I participated in an FPC draft with the Ship Chasing crew. Yesterday afternoon, Ben Gretch, Colm Kelly, and I drafted in the first live FFPC Main Event of the 2020 season. Draft season is on in a big way this weekend.

In just a couple of drafts, I’m witnessing key risers based on news coming out of training camp. The moves are real and we can track the size in FFPC Redraft Dashboard. Should you still have these RBs as part of your draft plan? We’ll look at why you need to prioritize these pivotal backs and where you need to strike to get them before they’re gone.

3 Key Backs to Target in Drafts This Weekend

Phillip Lindsay

Melvin Gordon has struggled to stay healthy enough throughout his career to keep the door closed on backs like Danny Woodhead and Austin Ekeler. He’s coming off a season where his performance lagged, perhaps a result of conditioning issues from the holdout. Now he’s dinged up again. From the RotoViz News feed:

Denver Broncos running back Melvin Gordon III (rib) suffered a rib injury in practice on Thursday. It’s unknown how serious the injury is, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on early in training camp, especially since Gordon admitted recently that he’s had trouble getting adjusted to the altitude in Denver during practices.

This is expected to be a short-term injury for Gordon, but it reinforces how quickly things can change in Denver. Head coach Vic Fangio has recently insinuated that this might be a touch-split worthy of co-starters, and Lindsay has been working out fanatically to handle such a role and improve his pass-catching. In my look at Discount Options for Austin Ekeler Fans, Lindsay was one of the bonus backs who doesn’t qualify yet but could get there.

Lindsay is another former UDFA and another smaller back who shows up with Breida on all of the in-game speed lists, not to mention the yards per carry leaderboard. Unlike Breida, he was a big-time receiver in college. He caught 111 passes, numbers that were highlighted by a 53-catch junior campaign. Lindsay has been dinged for his pass-blocking at the pro level, but was rightly incensed by the move to Gordon. As has been the case with Ronald Jones, the former Broncos starter has been viciously attacking his pass-game training in the offseason.

There was no comparison between Lindsay and Gordon last year as runners, and the Denver starter impressed despite facing eight men in the box more than his new teammate.

Struggles as a receiver at the NFL level have been the big weakness of Lindsay’s game, and if his offseason program helps him take the next step in Year 3, he could wrangle more of the touches in this backfield than even his enthusiasts project. Any Gordon absence in-season would throw the doors open. Set up to destroy ADP, Lindsay also lands on the Most Undervalued Players in Redraft.