Fantasy Football Running Back Handcuff Report: All Saints Day

As we head into Week 1 of the 2021 season, running back continues to be one of the toughest positions to manage in fantasy football. It’s a volatile position with players constantly getting injured, benched, or cut on a regular basis. Even as this article is being written the Saints cut backup RB Latavius Murray, and the Ravens signed Le’Veon Bell to their practice squad. By the time you read this Murray may have already found a new team to play for.

Another thing that makes the RB position difficult to manage is that bell cow running backs have become increasingly hard. Fewer teams primarily use one RB. Instead, several teams have moved to a running back by committee (RBBC) approach that takes advantage of an individual players strengths and matches them to specific game situations. However, if you’ve made a sizeable draft day investment in a bell cow back, rostering or at least familiarizing yourself with his handcuff can sometimes be very rewarding. If you’re looking for proof, just ask the fantasy football managers who rostered both Panthers RB’s (Christian McCaffrey and Mike Davis) last season. 

Some backup RB’s not only have a direct path to a starting job but are also capable of contributing their own standalone fantasy production. Browns RB Kareem Hunt is one such example. He’s Nick Chubb’s handcuff, but last season he averaged 13.7 points per game in PPR formats. Cowboys RB Tony Pollard, who is Ezekiel Elliott’s handcuff, averaged a more modest 7.5 FPPG in the same format, but he scored at least 10.2 points in four games last season, including a huge 31.2-point performance in Week 15 against the 49ers.

Other handcuffs who either have standalone fantasy value or are widely regarded as potential high-quality handcuffs are Vikings RB Alexander Mattison, Seahawks RB Rashaad Penny, and Giants RB Devontae Booker.

With the violent, high contact nature of the position, RB’s all too often break down and suffer injuries. That inadvertently provides opportunities for under the radar backup RB’s with an eventual direct path to a starting job. 

For instance, with the Saints cutting Murray, RB Tony Jones Jr. becomes Alvin Kamara’s backup. Kylin Hill isn’t about to leapfrog Packers RB’s Aaron Jones or A.J. Dillon, but he’s a dynamic pass catching back with good speed who can carve out a role for himself. Damien Williams is considered a solid handcuff to Bears RB David Montgomery, but Khalil Herbert has a career 6.1 college career YPC average and has impressed head coach Matt Nagy this preseason. The Bengals are intrigued with rookie Chris Evans’ ability to catch passes, (something he wasn’t asked to do much in college). Perhaps he’ll help replace some of the 40+ catches that Giovani Bernard took with him to Tampa Bay.

Lastly, keep in mind that 2021 will be the NFL’s first 17-game regular season. It’s going to be a long season so don’t expect your fantasy RB to play all 17 games. If he does consider yourself lucky, but if there’s any season in which you’ll need to have an in-depth knowledge of as many fantasy RB’s as possible, it’s this one. 

When it comes to some teams, anticipating how they’ll use their backfield is easy. We know that Dalvin Cook is going to get most of the carries for the Vikings and if he gets hurt, Alexander Mattison will take over. 

On the other hand, there are some teams (Patriots, Broncos, Bucs…) whose depth charts and future RB usage aren’t as obvious. When it comes to those teams, we’re all going to need to watch Week 1’s games and read Week 1’s box scores in order to figure out how to manage our fantasy lineups for the upcoming weeks. 

We’ve researched preseason stats, individual player skill sets, coaching tendencies and more in order to create a handcuff grid which reflects our vision of what each NFL team’s backfield will look like and how they’ll be utilized in Week 1.

We still have questions with regard to how some teams will manage their backfields to start the season and hope that most of them will be answered by the time Monday Night Football is over. Use the RB Handcuff Grid that accompanies this article, and even more importantly, trust your own research and follow your own instincts when setting up your lineups this week. Let’s all win our Week 1 matchups and at the same time, get a better understanding of how to manage our own fantasy backfields based on Week 1’s results.