Does Raheem Mostert deserve more fantasy respect?

Yahoo Fantasy's Matt Harmon and Dalton Del Don dive into the 49ers running back's late season surge and his outlook for 2020. Subscribe to the Yahoo Fantasy Football Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: Who's to say how this is really gonna shake out? But one thing we do know for sure, supposed RB one Raheem Mostert is in, wait for it, the best shape of his life. He's bulking up so he can handle 200-plus carries this season. Dalton, how do you view this backfield right now?

DALTON DEL DON: All right, so I'm the weirdo, the high man on Mostert probably in all the fantasy pros. I have him as like my 16th back in half PPR. And I get the cons here and why that sounds crazy. He's 28 years old. He's never started an NFL game in his career. Only has like 350 carries since high school.

But I will counter it with you with this. First of all, after the top 10 backs, they all have question marks. Secondly, he finished number one in rushing DVOA last year. Tevin Coleman finished third from last.

Final eight games, Mostert had 792 yards, 12 touchdowns. He was sick during that Vikings game. That was only doing it with 120 rushes too. So I get that volume is a concern, but he gets the red zone carries.

He played wide receiver in college. And I mean he's graded highly as a receiver. Literally, his position was wide receiver, so I don't see why he can't get more targets. Breida freed up 150 touches.

I love McKinnon. I'm rooting for him, but I mean he had two knee surgeries. And if your worry is Jerick McKinnon? I mean, every roster has three running backs in the entire NFL. I can name three running backs on every single roster, but most of them aren't recovering from back-to-back knee surgeries.

But anyway, to me it's weird that a back with his skills, crazy fast, in a Shanahan system that just added Trent Williams, coming off a Super Bowl in that division with those defenses isn't regarded higher.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, it makes sense. I think there's so many possible outcomes where we could look back at this year and be like, man, I mean, how were we not all just totally locked and loaded on Raheem Mostert as a top 15 back? Because the peripherals, like you said, make a ton of sense. I mean, he was number one. He was really damn good last year, and I think you pointed that out with DVOA, everything like that.

And also, this is the type of team where you want your running back attached to. Number one, you know they're gonna throw the ball to the running back. Number two, you know they're gonna run successfully. And number three, it's a good overall offense. And even if the defense regresses a little bit-- because defensive statistics regress every single year-- they're not gonna become like the 20th best defense.

They're gonna be in game scripts where they run the ball a lot, and this a proven running system. Do you think it's just like the general narrative of Shanahan systems constantly turning through backs and everything that maybe is keeping his price down?

DALTON DEL DON: It's possible. And I get that Tevin Coleman could get out there and start. And it's annoying. And you'd want the volume and without the passes. I totally understand.

But again, the final eight games, he scored 12 touchdowns. So even if that regresses-- and I do like Jimmy G. to throw the ball more. But love the offense. I expect a lot of points to be scored fast-paced.

I mean, Arizona, Seattle, the Rams defense is going the wrong way. I just really expect a lot of high scores. And, man, Mostert is just-- again, one was the best graded running back in DVOA and Coleman was nearly the worst. Peyton Barber's numbers were hilariously bad. But if you don't count him, he's nearly the worst.

And I get it, Shanahan likes Coleman, and we can't make these decisions for the coaches. But if Mostert really is working like crazy in the offseason and he's up to 200 pounds-- his BMI was like zero coming out of college if you look at his player profile page. But that was a long time ago, and he's up now.

So we'll see. Maybe he'll break down and they don't throw him the ball. But a feature back with those skills in that offense, I mean, the upside is huge. I mean, it's first round fantasy value there, and his ADP is mid, late 20s among running backs?

MATT HARMON: Yeah.

DALTON DEL DON: I don't really get it.