Fantasy Football Guide Part 5: The Handcuff

Reprinted from www.SCFantasyFootball.com.  Make sure to check out the whole guide!

Not only should you draft quality RBs as quickly as you can, you need viable alternatives in the case of injury, tough matchup, and other crazy developments that would marginalize your opportunity for points.  Because the RB position is so important and because running backs are the most likely players in fantasy football to suffer an injury, even after you’ve filled up those starter spots, you need a plan B.  C and D wouldn’t hurt, either.

Your team isn’t likely to be made up of the top five fantasy RBs, so you’re going to need to figure out where to get competent replacements.  There are several places you can look for extra talent at the RB position, but looking to the same place twice isn’t necessarily a bad idea for hedging your fantasy bets.    Sometimes the best guy to have on your bench is just that.  A guy on a bench, better-known as the “handcuff.” 

What is a handcuff you ask?  It’s the real-life backup RB who is likely to fill in should the workhorse ahead of him on the depth chart get injured.  Reserving a spot on your bench for the backup to your number one RB is never a bad idea, making a few assumptions. 

Because the high-tier RBs (who you hopefully have at least one of) are, most likely, getting loads of touches and the majority of rushing touchdowns, should that guy get a high ankle sprain or the dreaded ACL tear, your handcuff will step in and, presumably, get the majority of those vacated carries.  Keep in mind, in order for somebody to truly be a “handcuff” the guy ahead of them on the depth chart should be dominating the touches on his team. 

The 2008 Giants backfield, made up of Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward (NYG, RB), would not technically be a handcuff, as both RBs got regular carries (219 carries for Jacobs, 182 for Ward) and had fantasy value throughout the season. 

An example of a true handcuff was in 2008 with then-Eagle Correll Buckhalter.  Forty-six of his 76 rushing attempts in 2008 came between Weeks Three and Six, when his teammate, Brian Westbrook, was injured (huge surprise, right?).  Typically, you can get these guys at the very end of your draft, outside of some hot commodities that show serious flashes of talent (as Michael Turner did when he was backing up Ladainian Tomlinson).  You don’t want to handcuff EVERYONE on your team.  This is a move reserved for those who have the top-tier RBs of the season.

Something to avoid is grabbing both members of a platoon…more on that later, though.