2020 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: David Montgomery, Raheem Mostert among RBs with good early schedules
Defenses are a bit of a mystery still, but this analysis may help you find an edge for early wins.

In May, I graded every team's defenses and took an educated guess on which ones would be great, which ones would be solid and which ones would stink. Then I placed them into the NFL schedule to come with a singular ranking for how easy or hard each team's schedule was against the run and the pass.
I revisited those grades recently, making mostly cosmetic changes to almost 10 teams. The biggest change came with the Jets, who traded Jamal Adams and lost C.J. Mosley when he opted out on the season.
Those changes are reflected below solely in measuring the first four games of every team this fall. The whole idea is to give you an edge as to which running backs have a favorable or unfavorable schedule to begin the year.
Here it is:
| TM | RUN | TM | RUN |
| ARI | 20 | ATL | 22 |
| BAL | 12 | BUF | 8 |
| CAR | 13 | CHI | 1 |
| CIN | 5 | CLE | 26 |
| DAL | 6 | DEN | 27 |
| DET | 23 | GB | 9 |
| HOU | 31 | IND | 14 |
| JAC | 16 | KC | 28 |
| LAC | 11 | LAR | 15 |
| LV | 19 | MIA | 10 |
| MIN | 25 | NE | 2 |
| NO | 7 | NYG | 32 |
| NYJ | 30 | PHI | 29 |
| PIT | 18 | SEA | 3 |
| SF | 4 | TB | 21 |
| TEN | 24 | WAS | 17 |
Bears might roar: David Montgomery and Tarik Cohen have been gifted with a really favorable slate. If one or both get off to a good start, you may choose to sell high on them before a tough matchup in Week 4 against the Colts.
Patriots marching: Road games at Seattle and Kansas City figure to be high-scoring affairs without either defense slamming on the run. If Sony Michel is healthy, he could help get you off to a good start. If not him, maybe Damien Harris.
Here's Carson! Looking for reasons to buy into Chris Carson? His schedule is one of them -- two easy road games and a couple of potentially run-favorable matchups at home. No one else in Seattle is as suited as he is to play all three downs.
Mostert the must-start? Oh, goodie. A running team has a great opening schedule. That should especially benefit Mostert, who was the most explosive 49ers rusher last year and could use the first month of the year to springboard into a larger role.
Hello, Buffalo: The Bills also have a pretty favorable schedule to begin the season, weighted especially by the first two games against the Jets and Dolphins. That's a big plus for Devin Singletary and Zack Moss.
Say no to Saquon?! Alright, look, I know no one's going to pass on Saquon Barkley because of his schedule, but you at least should know that the matchups against the Steelers, Bears, 49ers and Rams (note the lack of NFC East games) are definitely not going to be easy. The schedule swayed me to take Ezekiel Elliott over Barkley in a bunch of drafts.
Houston we have a big problem: David Johnson already looked like the world's largest snail toward the end of last season. Now he must contend with the Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers and Vikings in the first four weeks of the season. Would you believe that the matchup against the Vikings is the easiest of the four?
Le'Veon Hell: The Jets' run defense is projected to be the worst in the league. That's bad for Le'Veon Bell, who can only dominate them in practice. What will happen when the Jets play from behind against the Bills, 49ers, Colts and Broncos defenses? Not a ton of high-value touches for Bell, that's for sure.
Some shade at Sanders: Miles Sanders and the Eagles have a challenging first four games. Washington's defense figures to be improved, and the Bengals have nowhere to go but up after getting trashed last year. The games against the Rams and 49ers won't be easy.
A strike against Clyde: Maybe Clyde Edwards-Helaire shouldn't be asked to do so much so soon. The Chiefs open against the Texans, Chargers and Ravens before facing the Patriots. It's a tough first three games.
Other running backs who benefit from an easy schedule to start the year: Aaron Jones, Marlon Mack/Jonathan Taylor, Jordan Howard/Matt Breida.
Other running backs who could struggle with a tough schedule to start the year: Melvin Gordon/Phillip Lindsay, Kenyan Drake (the first two weeks), Leonard Fournette (the first two weeks).
So what Fantasy football sleepers should you snatch in your draft? And which WR1 candidate can you wait on until late? Visit SportsLine now to get cheat sheets from the model that was all over Derrick Henry's huge season, and find out.
















