Fantasy football 2022: Best running back handcuffs to target in drafts

There are widespread developments that you just don’t all the time comply with. The Madman is notoriously averse to the soul-selling transition to PPR that has occurred throughout the breadth of the fantasy group. We don’t ever initially start a draft using the Zero-RB Concept. And we don’t care so much for handcuffs.

However, we do have a bit extra sympathy for that concept than we do the others.

Generally, we like to select at the least 4 startable RBs in each draft — guys we are able to use in any given week. Solely the fifth or sixth RBs on our roster develop into wild-card choices, and sometimes any handcuff-useful selections are passed by then.

Nonetheless, there are some RBs who simply beg for a handcuff. And generally, we agree. However it takes a uncommon confluence of occasions: It's a must to draft a must-cuff RB, that cuff have to be moderately inexpensive, and there can’t be any potential every-week choices obtainable when it comes time to select that cuff.

And people are simply the standards for our RB place. We additionally aren’t going to go up high quality guys at different spots in the event that they slip into our cuff goal’s vary.

For the sake of argument, let’s faux all these components have been checked off, the planets are aligned. Listed here are some pairs we might take into account cuffing, and why it seemingly would or wouldn’t occur in a Madman draft (for 12-team PPR codecs):

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Prime fantasy soccer handcuffs

1. Dalvin Cook dinner/Alexander Mattison

The perfect handcuff conditions are on your finest RBs. Many instances, nonetheless, if the dropoff in anticipated manufacturing by the backup or the decline of the offense typically is so steep, or there is no such thing as a clear-cut No. 2, a handcuff turns into irrelevant. Therefore, we don’t like cuffing for Jonathan Taylor or Christian McCaffrey. Cook dinner is a distinct story.

Minnesota Vikings running back Alexander Mattison (25) and Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook (33) walk to the field
You'll be able to go forward and draft Alexander Mattison when you’re going to go together with Dalvin Cook dinner.
Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs

He performs in an excellent Vikings offense. His backup is obvious. His backup has carried out up to now when wanted. And the first RB on this case has some mileage. Plus, you possibly can wait till the tenth spherical to focus on Mattison. That’s the form of handcuff discount we like.

2. David Montgomery/Khalil Herbert

We’re not huge followers of this Bears offense, and we’re not in a rush to draft Montgomery. But when issues fall a sure method, he isn’t somebody we’re avoiding both, so he might find yourself on our roster. If he does, we've got a laser concentrate on Herbert. He averaged 13.5 in PPR over a four-game Montgomery absence final season. Even higher information, Herbert is often obtainable into the thirteenth spherical.

3. Ezekiel Elliott/Tony Pollard

Zeke not too long ago has had the look of an RB on his final legs, and his third-round ADP displays that — we might slightly have Montgomery just a few picks later with a less expensive cuff. Pollard has been the extra explosive Cowboys runner for the previous 12 months or two. The youthful again has shined when given alternatives, and a few of these come even when Elliott is wholesome. Goal Pollard within the seventh.

4. Cam Akers/Darrell Henderson Jr.

Now we have extra confidence in Akers this season than it seems most do. He got here on sturdy, actually sturdy, for the Rams throughout the playoffs, regardless of lacking just about the whole common season with an Achilles harm. He additionally handled separate rib and ankles points in his 2020 rookie 12 months. And proper now, he isn’t working towards, due to what's being known as a “mushy tissue” challenge. So there are justifiable well being considerations. However none of those illnesses appear interrelated. But when he can’t go, Henderson is the man. Right here’s the factor: Henderson can also be coping with a soft-tissue challenge. At Akers’ present middle-third-round worth, we’re wonderful with the danger, particularly when you think about you should purchase Henderson insurance coverage within the tenth. The possibilities present illnesses linger for each? Too low for us to fret about.

6. Travis Etienne/James Robinson

Robinson, like Akers final season, is coming off an Achilles harm. Akers’ restoration time was superb; he was injured in Week 1 and made it again for the playoffs. So there's a probability Robinson, injured in December, could make his personal heroic return for the Jaguars. And that will be nice. For everybody besides fantasy managers. If each Robinson and Etienne are wholesome, it undercuts the potential manufacturing of each — since we are able to envision a break up workload. So we’re rooting for some abundance of warning right here, to get Etienne off to an excellent begin so he can solidify his maintain on the job, at which level Robinson turns into a perfect handcuff. Is that self-serving and kind of a dirty mind-set? Completely. However it’s not as if we’re wishing precise hurt on anybody, simply, at worst, an excessive amount of warning. If we get our want, Etienne at across the spherical 3-4 flip and Robinson within the tenth make a pleasant pairing. If Robinson proves harder than our evil needs, then, nicely, to be continued …

 Travis Etienne Jr. #1 of the Jacksonville Jaguars runs
Travis Etienne is mired in an advanced fantasy state of affairs within the Jaguars backfield.
Getty Photographs

Right here, we enter a brand new class of cuff stuff. These are potential tandems which might be simply too costly to seize each, and/or we count on sufficient manufacturing out of the backup in regular circumstances that we simply bypass the primary man and take the No. 2 as a fourth or fifth RB on our roster. We name this strategy:

Simply draft the second man

1. Aaron Jones/A.J. Dillon

Certain, we just like the Packers’ Jones. However we additionally fear about any RB who was out-rushed the earlier season by his backup. His ADP has slipped in latest weeks from the late-first/early second spherical to later within the second spherical, making him a bit extra engaging. However we might simply skip him and take Dillon in Spherical 5 or 6. That’s how Simply Draft the Second Man works.

2. Nick Chubb/Kareem Hunt

Chubb is usually drafted in shut proximity to Jones. We like Chubb higher as a participant, however that's offset, after which some, by working for the Browns in a worse offense. Hunt goes a few rounds later than Dillon, regardless of extra of a profession observe report for achievement. We’ll simply wait on Hunt. However apologies to Chubb. We nonetheless suppose you’re nice.

Betting on the NFL?

3. Breece Corridor/Michael Carter

Corridor actually looks like essentially the most potent RB of this duo, and reviews out of Jets camp recommend the identical. On the identical time, it's not as if Carter has performed his method out of a job. He had a wonderful rookie season final 12 months, and carried out OK on the fantasy entrance regardless of being in a horrible offense. We count on enhancements on that entrance this season. What we don’t count on is for Carter to vanish. Because of this, we predict Corridor may be a tad overpriced within the middle-fourth — proper behind Montgomery, who we might a lot slightly have — and even forward of Josh Jacobs, which we don’t perceive. You'll be able to usually get Carter within the tenth. At that value, as your RB5, so long as his taking part in time doesn’t disappear, he's virtually assured to exceed draft worth.

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