Fantasy Football Guide, Part 6: The Platoon and Why You Shouldn't Draft One

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

A platoon is, simply, a situation where two running backs from the same team have fantasy relevance.

After discussing why you should handcuff elite RBs, that is owning the backup of an elite RB to ensure production doesn’t slide, should he get injured you may be wondering if it is it a good idea to get both members of a RB platoon? 

Well, I can answer simply: No.

No, it’s not a good idea in a ten team, two RB league to try and double up on both members of a platoon, unless the second member ends up falling deep into the draft. 

There are numerous reasons why…but of course, there are some situations in which it’s not necessarily a bad idea to double dip into a platoon.

The first, most quantifiable reason to avoid getting both members of a platoon is that very rarely do both members of the platoon end up in the top twenty RBs in the league. 

The 2006 season was the first year platoons became standard, and had two duos make the cut (being Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush and Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew).

Meanwhile, 2007 had Jacksonville’s short-and-tall duo, but subtracted Deuce and Reggie and replaced them with Vikings Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor.

Then, 2008 saw only Tennesseans Chris Johnson and Lendale White both hit that Top 20 mark.  Because of this, face value, odds are that taking both RBs from a platoon will result in you drafting somebody who falls outside the top twenty. 

Yeah, there’s a chance you can hit it big, but you also must consider that there are only so many yards and touchdowns to go around on a game-by-game basis.

Sure, a team will end up putting up 250 yards and five TDs against the Raiders…but your typical game will simply not have the points to make playing both members of a platoon a statistically advantageous move. 

Lastly, the kneejerk, painfully obvious reason (which is still worth mentioning) is that you’re going to have two of your RBs on bye the same week, guaranteed.

This is not good, as one of the major reasons to draft for serious depth at RB is preparing to substitute in a player in a bye week situation.

And for the love of God, don’t ever burn a week because you don’t want to, or can’t, deal with byes.

All that said, there are two big situations where ending up with a platoon is acceptable.  If you’re in a big league, such as twelve teams with three RBs or more, you are basically in a take-what-you-can-get position.

There simply aren’t enough RBs to go around.  It’s still something to avoid…but avoiding it is not easy, when there are so many picks between your selections. 

The other situation is when there’s an injury or high-upside situation.  For example, in 2006, Lions RB Kevin Jones was entering the season without either of his legs working.  Tatum Bell had just been acquired through trade after a 1,000 yard season where he averaged 4.4 yards per carry while Kevin Jones had just established himself as a premiere pass-catching RB with a sixty one-catch season.

Both RBs showed talent, and could be had at a bargain.  The strategy there was to snag both, in an attempt to ensure control of the Lions’ backfield, which was producing numbers serviceable enough to produce one strong fantasy running back.

In the end, the situation ended with Tatum riding the pine for most of the season while Kevin Jones ended up becoming a start-worthy player after his injuries subsided. 

This is really the big distinction between this situation and taking, say, both Deangelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart in 2009.  Grabbing Bell and Jones was a move to hedge bets en route to one serviceable RB.  Grabbing Williams and Stewart was an attempt to get two start-worthy RBs. 

So there you have it.  Don’t draft platoons unless there’s an awkward backfield situation you can take advantage of for a low price.

Even if a team has a highly talented RB tandem, you will always be capping production by getting both.  Check around to find these bargains.