Fantasy Football ADP Duel: Would You Rather Draft Derrick Henry or Marlon Mack

Derrick Henry and Marlon Mack were two of fantasy football's pleasant surprises last season, each rewarding their fantasy owners with a top-15 running back in 2018. They're ranked right next to one another, according to FantasyPros ADP rankings, with Henry at RB17 and Mack at RB18, but which tailback is the right player to draft for this upcoming season?

With similar situations in their respective backfields, both Henry and Mack should produce RB2 outputs in 2019 and are coming off draft boards around pick 30.

Henry had a respectable season in 2018, rushing for 1,059 yards and 12 touchdowns on 215 carries. While not statistically eye-popping, the 25-year-old actually had the second-best season of any running back in the league last year, according to Pro Football Focus, finishing 2018 with a 87.0 overall grade.

Derrick Henry had quite the season pic.twitter.com/Vi5EtsGOEs
— PFF (@PFF) February 16, 2019

Henry could be in for a similar, if not better, season in 2019, but his stock takes a hit due to his limited usage in obvious passing situations and on third down. Dion Lewis takes over in the Titans' backfield in those scenarios and that's where Mack has an advantage over Henry in fantasy.

Mack rushed for 907 yards and nine touchdowns in 2018 even though he missed four games, giving him a ton of upside this coming season. He's seemingly a much more efficient runner and should also be more involved in the Colts' passing game than Henry will be for Tennessee.

Marlon Mack's 9 red-zone touchdowns came on just 36 attempts inside the opponent's 20-yard line pic.twitter.com/KIr6bNqAHv
— PFF Fantasy Football (@PFF_Fantasy) May 15, 2019

Neither back is expected to be a top-10 fantasy football running back in 2019, but Mack and Henry are both poised for quality seasons. If you're playing in PPR formats, Mack's overall in-game usage arguably makes him the back that's worth drafting first, but Henry's big-game ability could single-handedly win some weeks for his fantasy owners' teams.

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Mike Esposito is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Mike Esposito also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username espo6891. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.