Shawn Siegele examines the encouraging numbers for Ezekiel Elliott, the frightening trend for Alvin Kamara, and the next wave of Zero RB stars-in-the-making.
This was a big week for the preseason Zero RB Candidates List, as options like James Conner, Kenneth Gainwell, and Alex Collins all found the end zone. Conner still looks like a shadow of his 2018 self, but Gainwell and Collins are putting real pressure on the starters. Other preseason candidates like A.J. Dillon, Trey Sermon, and Darrell Henderson all flashed big-time upside in mediocre scoring days, and we’ll dive into the Advanced Stats Explorer to illustrate some of the exciting peripherals.
Of course, the biggest name continues to be a back who wasn’t on the list. Cordarrelle Patterson is just the latest example of why the foundation-back rhetoric is often overrated. My co-host on RotoViz Overtime, Colm Kelly, has Patterson everywhere. Not surprisingly, it was a very good week for him.
