The Pros and Cons of Handcuffing Running Backs in Fantasy Football
by Jerbeek of RotoPicks.com
When most people discuss handcuffs and fantasy in the same sentence they probably are thinking of something other than football but I digress! I would like to look at the pros and cons of drafting a handcuff for your stud running back. First of all let's define handcuffing... This is the practice of taking the backup player at the position where you have the starter. For fantasy football this is usually only for the running back position (Although big season (16 team) long leagues do often times take the backup QB since there are no starters in their free agent pool).
The Pros of Handicapping Fantasy Running Backs
1. If you have a stud running back and he gets hurt, you have someone to fill in while he is injured.
2. You may feel less stressed when seeing your stud RB piling up the carries.
3. You can protect your valuable asset (high draft pick) with a lower, less valuable late round pick.
4. If you handcuff 2 part-time players and one gets hurt you could have a stud RB without paying for one.
The Cons to Handcuffing Fantasy Running Backs
1. You may need to overdraft (draft higher than the players value) to ensure that you will get the backup you need.
2. You may not be able to correctly identify the backup.
3. If the stud RB gets hurt, the team may decide to use a running back by committee and split the workload out between several players.
4. The backup may not be able to handle the workload or may just not be very good.
5. Less roster flexibility during bye weeks.
6. The stud RB may never get hurt so you have wasted a draft pick and a roster spot.
7. You may pass up on a player with high upside in order to draft your handcuff, thus limiting the upside of the overall roster.
As you can see, opinions vary on this topic but let's look at a real life example from 2012. Before the season started we had Adrian Peterson coming off of offseason ACL surgery. This looked like a sure case of taking a handcuff back because most experts expected the Vikings to slowly ease AP back in to the lineup. The experts were suggesting that Toby Gerhart would be a good backup. The average draft position for Adrian Peterson was roughly around the 20th pick. In order to get Toby Gerhart, you needed to use another pick to get him around the 120th selection of the draft. As it turned out, Peterson had a fantastic year from week 1 and the pick on Gerhart was a wasted pick. Other players that could have been drafted instead of Gerhart were Alfred Morris or LeGarrette Blount, both which were taken with an ADP (average draft position) below Gerhart in most leagues.
Summary
In my opinion it is better to use the pick for a high upside running back, receiver or quarterback then to try to handcuff a stud player. When you take the handcuff player you are basically just trying to insure yourself and I do not think that is the prudent way to win at fantasy football. Homeowners insurance and health insurance? Get it! Fantasy football insurance? Skip it!
If your goal is to be respectable and not embarrass yourself with a performance then go ahead and handcuff, but if you want to win, swing for the fences and hope to hit a few home runs with the high upside guys in the late rounds! Best of luck to you!
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