Who Should I Start? Raheem Mostert or Tahj Brooks

Sunday, September 7, 12:00 PM

Las Vegas Raiders running back Raheem Mostert is inactive for Week 1 of the 2025 regular season on Sunday against the New England Patriots. Mostert is healthy heading into the regular-season opener, so this is a bad sign for his potential involvement in the Raiders' backfield this year in his first year with the team. The Raiders drafted rookie Ashton Jeanty in the first round in April, and he's fully expected to lead Vegas' backfield in his first year in the NFL. The oft-injured Mostert has now been bumped down the depth chart and will open the year as the RB4 behind Jeanty, Zamir White and Dylan Laube. The 33-year-old veteran can be dumped if you were rostering him as a handcuff for Jeanty in redraft leagues. Mostert led the league with 18 rushing touchdowns in 2023 in Miami but played in 13 games last year and fell to just two TDs.

Saturday, September 13, 3:20 PM

Cincinnati Bengals running back Tahj Brooks didn't log an offensive snap in the Week 1 win over the Browns. Most assumed the rookie would have at least a small role in the offense. However, that didn't happen in the AFC North clash with Cleveland, with Samaje Perine getting 13 snaps and Chase Brown leading the way with 39. Without question, Brown was expected to get most of the work out of the backfield for the Bengals this season. That likely won't change unless he goes down with an injury. Brooks should get some snaps moving forward, but he has a long way to go before earning a spot in redraft lineups, including for the Week 2 meeting with the Jacksonville Jaguars. On the other hand, he's at least worth stashing on dynasty rosters.