Who Should I Start? Audric Estimé or Brashard Smith

Saturday, May 2, 5:37 AM

New Orleans Saints running back Audric Estime was called into action late in the 2025 season, and he handled himself admirably, churning out top-13 fantasy finishes in Weeks 17 and 18, but after a busy Saints offseason, he's been pushed well down the depth chart toward fantasy irrelevancy. New Orleans signed Travis Etienne Jr. to a four-year, $48 million deal, and with rumors of a potential Alvin Kamara trade growing quieter in recent weeks, the Saints' running back depth chart currently consists of Etienne, Kamara, Devin Neal, Kendre Miller, Ty Chandler, and Estime. While it's unlikely New Orleans carries more than four backs into the regular season, even if Estime does make the team, the traffic in front of him will make it nearly impossible to find any repeatable success. With only 508 career rushing yards and three touchdowns across his first two seasons with Denver and New Orleans, the 2024 fifth-round pick out of Notre Dame has fallen to RB106 in RotoBaller's dynasty rankings and is an easy drop candidate for managers looking to free up roster space around their leagues' rookie drafts.