Why pass-catching RBs are vital for success... unless your name is Derrick Henry

Yahoo Sports’ Andy Behrens and Scott Pianowski discuss the importance of versatile RBs in today’s NFL, fantasy football.

Video Transcript

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: We talked earlier about quarterbacks and how, unless you're unbelievable in the pocket, we really need you to run a little bit. That's the case at running back, OK? Unless you're Derrick Henry where you own the backfield and you get a huge market share at the goal line so we can live with 19 catches you're going to get, we don't want running back who don't catch the ball because we worry about them getting game scripted out. The game flow can go awry, and then all of a sudden you have a nine-carry game. Again, Henry's an outlier to that. Doesn't apply to him.

But at running back, you really got to ask yourself, can this guy score double-digit touchdowns? Is he a goal-line factor? And is he still going to be in the game plan if we fall behind? Can you catch the ball? Can I get those cheap points? I know you're a big PPR guy, Andy Behrens. Is he going to be a factor in half-point PPR and full-point PPR? That's the thing.

Like, we wanted the mobile quarterbacks. I think we need the versatile, I can play in all packages-- doesn't mean you won't share time with other guys. Obviously Hines has played a lot this year. We saw Wilkins earlier in the year. I mean, there are so few bell cows in the league. But you really need to find as many running backs as you can who can at least tell yourself story they could catch, like, 40 to 55 passes.

ANDY BEHRENS: It's the thing that's going to push Nick Chubb into maybe the second round, late first round, right? Like he's-- as a pure talent-- I don't know. If this were 1978, he would be-- he would be unstoppable. He would be the perfect running back.

If you're not going to catch the ball 40 times, as you say, you have to be Derrick Henry. You have to be damn near 2,000 yards to put yourself into the top six in terms of the first-round draft position, and Chubb probably isn't there.

He's brilliant. Like, he's going to win a rushing title at some point. I'm fairly confident. But you certainly can't draft him-- like in my mind, I'm definitely taking Taylor ahead of him because I know that there's a receiving workload awaiting Taylor.