Five Most Talented Backup RBs for Your 2016 Fantasy Team

Normally, this is the time of year we all write about running back handcuffs.

In fantasy football, when you spend a valuable pick on a stud RB, you fret about injury. When, for example, a Jamaal Charles tears an ACL and is out for the season, his backup inherits a valuable role: lots of carries, some catches, and some TDs. If the Charles fantasy owner doesn't already own the backup on his or her roster, that player becomes difficult to acquire, as everyone in every league will seek him out. Thus we handcuff: we draft the backup in the later rounds after we select his starter, providing an insurance policy.

But times have changed in the NFL. There are fewer and fewer actual "starting" running backs, and more backfield platoons than ever before. Looking over the league's depth charts today, there aren't many backfield situations that aren't platoons. T.J. Yeldon and Chris Ivory in Jacksonville. Doug Martin and Charles Sims in Tampa. Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard in Cincinnati. Melvin Gordon and Danny Woodhead in San Diego. The list goes on. In this context, "handcuffing" is an outdated notion. In most cases, you won't be able to afford to draft both members of a platoon. Do you really want to spend a fourth-round pick on Hill and a seventh-rounder on Bernard? A fifth-rounder on Gordon and an eight-rounder on Woodhead? The point of handcuffing was always supposed to be: spend your first-rounder on Player X and your 11th-rounder on his 'cuff.

So instead of flopping around trying to convince you to spend a quarter of your top eight picks on players who'll cannibalize each other, today I thought I'd step back and take advantage of the fact that I watch tape on everyone, and give you an overview of some pure backup runners who I think are the most talented in the league, and who could do something big if an opportunity comes. You can think of them as "handcuffs," or you can simply think of them as "good players who'll need the depth chart to break right to illustrate that goodness." Regardless, I think they're draftable in the very late rounds of most leagues.

Andre Ellington, Arizona Cardinals. It's hard to remember that, on average, Ellington was drafted 53rd overall last year, the 25th RB off the board. He hurt a knee in September and by the time he returned, Chris Johnson had become ensconced as Arizona's starter. Then, when CJ?K broke his leg, Ellington was already out with a bad toe, and it was David Johnson who became a fantasy star in December. Now both Johnson & Johnson figure to be ahead of Ellington on the depth chart, but funny things happen in the NFL. Ellington is a Gio Bernard type with awesome lateral quickness and good long speed, and he's only entering his age-27 season. David Johnson probably leads this backfield if everybody stays healthy, but everybody won't stay healthy. We'll hear from Ellington again.

Jerick McKinnon, Minnesota Vikings. In McKinnon's rookie year, Adrian Peterson was suspended 15 games because of his child abuse scandal, and McKinnon was thrust into a big role with the Vikes. He was pretty good! He's the same size as Ellington, which may be a bit too small for him to ever be trusted as a team's pure No. 1 back, and the reason he's not AP's pure handcuff this year is that should the 31-year-old Peterson suffer injury, McKinnon would almost certainly share time with lumbering Matt Asiata. But McKinnon is still worth owning in a lot of leagues: he's a good receiver, he's got awesome jitterbugging moves, and he's a pretty nasty guy to tackle despite his lack of elite size. Teams used to build around RBs like Charlie Garner and Dalton Hilliard; now they use them as platoon backs. McKinnon really is that good, though.

Alfred Morris, Dallas Cowboys. I know. You don't like Alf. He let you down last year in D.C., and you've decided the only time he was any good was when RGIII was distracting defenses with the read-option. I don't buy it. I think like Liam Neeson, Morris has a very particular set of skills. He's poorly cast as a pure power runner. When the Shanahans were in charge in Washington, they ran more zone concepts and that's where Morris shines: running parallel to the line, waiting for that sliver of daylight to make his cut and begin punishing defenders at the second level with his 224 pounds. When Jay Gruden's system got away from the stuff Morris runs best, he looked worse. The Cowboys signed Morris this winter but then drafted Ezekiel Elliott fourth overall; now Elliott is the presumptive lead back in what might or might not turn out to be a rotation. Morris's depth-chart problem is that Darren McFadden is also hanging around, as is sixth-round rookie Darius Jackson. So even if Elliott gets hurt, it's unclear if anyone would ascend to the lead job. But that Dallas O-line does everything well, including the types of runs at which Morris excels. I think we'll see good things from him again.

Khiry Robinson, New York Jets. Like Morris, Robinson belongs to a different phylum of RB than Ellington and McKinnon. At six feet and 220 pounds, Robinson is a battering ram, but he's also explosive and has OK lateral moves for a bigger back. I liked him throughout his time in New Orleans, but he could never catch a break injury-wise, including last year when he broke his leg and then watched plodding Tim Hightower benefit from Mark Ingram's own season-ending injury. Robinson's game is a lot like another former Saints runner, Chris Ivory, and I hope his transition to the Jets goes just as well. At first, though, Matt Forte is starter and there's no clear handcuff between Robinson and receiving-back Bilal Powell; should the aging Forte get hurt in '16, Powell and Robinson might cancel each other out. But I'd rather own Robinson.

Charcandrick West, Kansas City Chiefs. Even if we assume Jamaal Charles begins this season healthy, there's no guarantee he ends it that way. He'll be 30 in December and time waits for no RB. Were J-Mail to go down again, West and Spencer Ware would certainly split the lead job, and there have been faint indications that Ware will have a role even with a healthy Charles, potentially as a short-TD batterer. But you know what? I still think West is a better player. He's the one who does a Charles impersonation. He's not the laterally quick guy J.C. is—because nobody is the laterally quick guy J.C. is—but West does have ridiculous home-run speed, he catches it well, and looks dangerous with the ball in his hand. Ware is a heavy-footed former fullback who made a couple highlight-reel long runs in '15 but who takes a long time to reach top speed, à la Jeremy Hill.

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