A Running Back to Target in Each Round of Your Fantasy Football Draft

Chris Ivory, New York Jets

ADP: 78 (7.05)

I believe it was Sigmund Bloom that once said Chris Ivory is what you would get If Marshawn Lynch was mortal. And anyone who's watched Ivory play knows that if anyone deserves the "Mini-Beastmode" moniker, it would probably be Ivory.

Similar to Lynch in both stature and playing style -- both stand at 5' 11", and Ivory's listed weight of 222 pounds actually makes him seven pounds heavier than Lynch -- Ivory has been known to use his large frame to bulldoze opposing defenders, and his 33 broken tackles rank as the eight-highest figure in the NFL.

To further demonstrate Ivory's skills in running the football, consider that his career mark of 0.02 Rushing NEP per rush would have placed him 11th last season, right in between DeMarco Murray and Matt Forte. Not bad company.

But beyond his contributions to the ground game, head coach Todd Bowles iterated his confidence in Ivory as an everydown stud saying "he's as advertised," and that "he can easily [be an every-down back]." While there's a good chance Ivory shares the passing down work with third-down back Bilal Powell, as I wrote about in a previous article, Ivory's 0.24 Reception NEP per target in 2014 actually slightly edges out Powell's 0.20 mark over the past two seasons.

And if Ivory can maintain his hold of the lead back job -- which shouldn't be too hard given his main competition for touches are Stevan Ridley, who may start the year on the PUP list and Zac Stacy, a St. Louis Rams castoff -- he should be in store for a very productive season both on the ground and in the air. But even if he does find himself in a timeshare with one of these backs, last year in a similar role Ivory still finished as a low-end RB2 in PPR scoring formats.

This low floor with tremendous upside makes Ivory not only severely undervalued in fantasy drafts this year at his current ADP, but also could make him one of those rare instances where a back ranked beyond the top 30 by ADP climbs his way into RB1 territory.