Welcome to the Week 13 Fantasy Football Running Back Handcuff Report! It doesn’t happen often enough, but a RB handcuff who started the season as the third option on his team’s RB depth chart, is now his team’s primary RB. 

We could see the return of Bucky Irving to game action this week but based on Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles’ comments Irving’s snaps will likely be limited in Week 13.  Bowles has further suggested that he may go with a hot hand approach when it comes to his RB usage against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13.

Speaking of the Cardinals, they’ve ruled out Trey Benson for Week 13. Their backfield continues to be a mess with Zonovan Knight limited in practice this week due to a knee injury and Emari Demercado dealing with an ankle injury that forced him to miss practice time this week. Michael Carter could end up being the best fantasy option in a favorable matchup against the Buccaneers this week.

Cleveland Browns RB Quinshon Judkins was in and out of the team’s medical tent in the fourth quarter of Week 12. If he is a surprise inactive in Week 13, his handcuff, Dylan Sampson, would play the majority of snaps among the Browns’ RBs this week.

Here are few other NFL fantasy football backfields to keep tabs on in Week 13. 

 

 

 

Fantasy Football NFL Week 13 Running Back Handcuff Report

New Orleans Saints

With Alvin Kamara suffering an MCL injury that could potentially end his 2025 season, Devin Neal has catapulted to the top of the Saints’ RB depth chart. Neal has only carried the ball 17 times in this, his rookie season, and is averaging just 3.6 YPC. However, he did catch five of his seven targets in Week 12 and if he’s having trouble running the ball in a given week, his pass catching ability can help him have a higher floor when it comes to his fantasy production moving forward. Neal rushed for over 1000 yards in his last three college seasons and averaged 5.7 YPC in his college career. He obviously has talent and if he played behind a better offensive line, I’d have higher hopes for his ability to be top fantasy football RB moving forward. Taysom Hill is a jack of all trades and actually had more carries (10) than Neal (7) in Week 12. Unfortunately, Hill and Audric Estime, Neal’s expected RB handcuff, could steal carries away from him and limit Neal’s overall fantasy production. Neal is also dealing with an ankle injury leading up to Week 13’s kickoff and that could obviously affect his ability to carry a full load this week. 

Pittsburgh Steelers

Usually, a RB handcuff won’t have much immediate fantasy value if the lead back ahead of them on their team’s depth chart is healthy. That hasn’t been the case for Kenneth Gainwell recently. Gainwell has been Jaylen Warren’s RB handcuff of late, but Gainwell has been fantasy relevant over the past two weeks. Gainwell has averaged playing just under 57% of the Steelers’ offensive snaps over the past two weeks. In comparison Warren has played just over 39% of the team’s offensive snaps. Warren has been dealing with an ankle injury and that could account for some of the snaps played disparity. Game script could also be one of the reasons that Gainwell played more snaps than Warren. I don’t think Warren is in any immediate danger of losing his role as the Steelers’ lead back but I believe Gainwell will continue to have some fantasy value moving forward. With four teams on a bye in Week 14, if you’re looking for a one-week fill-in at RB, Gainwell might be worth an add of your league’ waiver wire.

 

 

 

Chicago Bears

With Kyle Monangai riding high on a three game TD scoring streak, it’s looking like he has at least temporarily switched places with D’Andre Swift on the Bears’ RB depth chart. Swift only played 44.6 % of the Bears’ offensive snaps compared to 53.8% for Monangai in Week 13. Swift only rushed for 1.9 YPC last week and the Bears may have simply given Monangai more playing time because he was the hot hand. In any case, Monangai does appear to have fantasy value moving forward. For now, we’ll consider Swift to be Monangai’s RB handcuff but with the Bears playing on Black Friday against the Eagles, we’ll know if that presumption is right or wrong pretty quickly. 

Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks kept their word and did make Kenneth Walker a bigger part of their offense in Week 12. Walker III played 62.5% of the Seahawks’ offensive snaps compared to 31.3% for his RB handcuff, Zach Charbonnet. Unfortunately for those using Walker III in their starting lineups, his increased usage didn’t prevent Charbonnet from vulturing a TD away from the Seahawks’ primary RB. We obviously can’t expect that to happen every week and Charbonnet should be strictly considered a RB handcuff with big time fantasy potential upside if Walker III is unavailable. Walker III is clearly the Seahawks’ primary RB.

New England Patriots

TreVeyon Henderson looks like he’s going to hold on to his role as the Patriots’ primary back for the near future. Rhamondre Stevenson was back in action in Week 12 after missing time due to a toe injury, but the Patriots’ former lead back took a back seat to Henderson and now appears to be his RB handcuff. Henderson has a very good matchup against the New York Giants in Week 13.

 

Â