Miles Sanders has a promise for you. He's not into Fantasy Football, but he's open to learning more about the game. And he wants to make you happy.
He wants to deliver plenty of Fantasy production in 2020. Sanders joined us on CBS Sports HQ in January prior to Super Bowl LIV, and he said this will be a big season for him in his sophomore campaign.
"You should draft me because I'm one of the running backs that you guys want," Sanders said. "I can catch the ball, run the ball and block. Whatever you need. I'm going to try and get those points for you."
As a Fantasy manager, you should love reading that. Sanders is a No. 1 Fantasy running back this year in any format. You might not agree with that statement, which is OK. You're entitled to be wrong.
He's a breakout candidate this season, and he should be considered a first-round pick in all leagues. I've seen him selected as early as No. 7 overall, which might be too soon, but he has the potential to be a top-five running back.
His Average Draft Position in mid-July in PPR is No. 13 overall as the No. 10 running back. That's a fair spot for him. I would draft him as high as No. 10 overall.
The reason to be excited about Sanders is what he showed us at the end of his rookie season. After taking over as the featured running back for the Eagles in Week 11 when Jordan Howard hurt his shoulder, Sanders was a star.
From Weeks 12-16 -- he only played a half in Week 17 because of an injured ankle -- Sanders averaged 20.4 PPR points per game. He had four total touchdowns over that span, three games with at least 100 total yards and 23 catches on 27 targets.
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It was an impressive stretch for an impressive player. Sanders is hoping to build on that performance this year.
"I see myself just getting better and building off the year that I just had," Sanders said. "I'm trying to be more elite and more explosive, and just raise my game to another level."
Maybe the best part of what Sanders did to close 2019 was his workload. From Weeks 11-16, Sanders averaged 19.8 touches per game and played more than 57 percent of the snaps in every outing.
If you project his workload over that stretch for 16 games then he would have been at 317.3 touches for the season, including 250.7 carries. It would easily be the most work ever for a running back in the Doug Pederson era.
The biggest argument against drafting Sanders as a No. 1 Fantasy option is Pederson's track record with running backs. Since taking over as Philadelphia's coach in 2016, no running back has 200 carries in a season.
The leaders each year were Ryan Matthews in 2016 (155 carries and 168 total touches), LeGarrette Blount in 2017 (173 carries and 181 total touches), Josh Adams in 2018 (120 carries and 127 total touches) and Sanders in 2019 (179 carries and 229 total touches). Already, Sanders has been the best running back for Pederson in terms of workload -- and likely talent.
Also, the six games that Sanders played at least 50 percent of the snaps last year matched the best mark ever for a running back under Pederson. Darren Sproles had six games with at least 50 percent of the snaps in 2016.
Pederson's history of not committing to one running back is hard to ignore, but it also shows that he never had a player of Sanders' caliber for a full season.
Pederson inherited Matthews in 2016, and the Eagles traded for Jay Ajayi from Miami in their Super Bowl season in 2017 as an upgrade over Blount. After Ajayi suffered a torn ACL in 2018, Pederson was using multiple running backs (Adams, Wendell Smallwood, Corey Clement and Sproles) just to get by.
With Sanders, he now has someone who can excel on the ground and through the air. Boston Scott will get touches as the No. 2 running back in Philadelphia, and potentially Clement as well as the No. 3 option, but Pederson is committed to Sanders as his starter.
"Miles is our No. 1," Pederson said in a radio interview on Philadelphia's 94WIP in June. "He's the guy we drafted last year, and he had a tremendous rookie season. He's ready to carry the load."
Now, Pederson also added that he wants to "have a second or a third guy there to help" Sanders, which is where Scott and Clement come in. But as long as the Eagles don't sign another veteran like free agent Devonta Freeman or make a surprise trade, we should see Sanders make history as the first running back for Pederson with 200-plus carries.
Sanders was one of the topics of conversation when the Fantasy Football Today podcast crew went deep with the running backs earlier this week. Follow all our podcasts and subscribe here,
To his credit, Sanders said he's OK sharing the ball and was happy when Scott played well in 2019. Scott scored at least 12 PPR points in three of his final four outings last year, including 35 PPR points in Week 17 at the Giants in the game Sanders was hurt. Scott is a good handcuff for Sanders and is worth drafting with a late-round pick in all leagues.
"I love when other people are balling and eating, just like me," Sanders said. "I was super excited when Boston Scott got a chance to ball out, too. I love it."
After Sanders said that on CBS Sports HQ, we pressed him about wanting to do all the "eating" himself in terms of touches.
He laughed and said, "I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind at all."
It's nice to be a good teammate, but Fantasy managers also want Sanders to be a little selfish.
He closed last season on a high note. Now he's eager to prove that his ending to 2019 is just the beginning of his greatness.
"I'm very confident in myself and very confident in all the hard work I've been putting in my whole life," Sanders said. "This (past) season showed that. I still feel like I have a lot of good football left to play."
We're excited to watch him deliver as a No. 1 Fantasy running back in 2020.
