Both are going off draft boards exceptionally close to each other, about a round apart, with the UDK consensus rankings putting Jones as RB28 and Fournette as RB37. In Tampa Bay, the number one RB on the depth chart is Leonard Fournette, with Ronald Jones being the backup. Two examples of this situation are Tampa Bay and Cleveland. Often you could be starting that player in a flex position every week or using them as a fill-in on a bye week. In these situations, the backup is not considered a backup – they are an RB2 with strong RB1 potential if the stars align. There is a myriad of backfields that have two strong RBs. We already know that not all backfields are run by a true three-down back. It can pay huge dividends to protect your early-round investments.īelow are the backups for the top-ranked 15 RBs going into the 2021 season.īut remember, not all backups are the same. I believe in insuring these top RBs, at least McCaffrey, Cook, and Henry – it is like buying insurance on that fancy car you may never need it, but if you do, you are incredibly thankful you purchased it. McCaffrey managers who could not pick up Davis were furious, realizing they had a wasted first pick. When that happened, an undrafted Mike Davis was thrust into the starting role and finished as RB 15. If we learned one thing about RBs and the high draft capital you must spend to get them, it can all come crashing down in a moment.įor example, Christian McCaffrey went down to an ankle injury in game two of the regular season last year. Even with the decline, there are still some incredible backs in the league – for 2021, the main ones being Derrick Henry, Dalvin Cook, Christian McCaffrey, and Najee Harris (if we believe Mike Tomlin). There were 19 times a top-five finishing RB finished with over 20 touches a game in that span of years. Compare that with a different five-year sample size, the 2005 – 2009 seasons. In the last five years, out of the top five finishing RBs, there were only six times that an RB averaged over 20 touches a game. The percentage of dominant 3-down RBs has been on a steady decline. Not a week goes by when we do not hear a coach say, “running back by committee,” or even worse in my eyes, “we will just play the hot hand.” Coaches understood how hard it was to keep a stud RB healthy when they would carry the football on average of 20-30 times a game or have around 70% of the total touches. That starter would be physically putting his body through so much week in and week out that the chance of injury was so high. You knew it was wise to have the backup RB on your squad if you had drafted the stud workhorse RB because it was simply a question of wear and tear. Looking at all these season-ending injuries, how important are “backup RBs” in fantasy football? Protect Those RBsīack in the day when three-dwon RBs were common on NFL teams, it used to be a much more frequently used strategy to draft their backup in fantasy. And this weekend, we lost another RB before the season began, losing Baltimore Raven J.K. Were the Rams going with Darrell Henderson? Or should we be running to the waiver wire to pick up vets like Gurley or Gore that could potentially sign with Los Angeles? More recently, Travis Etienne went down, and a rookie season was gone in the blink of an eye. The fantasy community held their collective breath as we waited to hear what Sean McVay said about the situation. Midway through the pre-season, it was Cam Akers. Once we get over the human factor of this injury – which cannot be emphasized enough here, these are PEOPLE – we often hold our breath and think, “oh boy, I hope (insert name here) is on the waiver wire, because that guy is out for the season.” Who did not run to pick up Alexander Mattison at some point last year when Dalvin Cook was slow to get up, or Tony Pollard after it was reported that Zeke had a tweak? We see the most horrific injuries on our television screens – like Joe Burrow ripping his knee apart to Dak Prescott bending his leg backward, and we gasp in shock.
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