Almost midway through the NFL season and more than halfway through the fantasy season, injuries are piling up, making it harder to put together a winning team.
One way to compensate for injuries is to handcuff your Running Back. This means picking up the backup of your starting Running Back. An example of this is C.J. Anderson getting hurt this week and Don having Devontae Booker on his bench.
Don has done this for years, but I learned about this in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Fantasy Football Experience. This was one of many great tips we were given from the panel of experts.
The big question would be: how early do you want to draft your backup during your main draft. You don’t want to draft too early and tie up a roster spot with that pick, but if you wait too long someone else might snatch that player out from under you.
This time, Don got lucky because Devontae Booker was drafted earlier than he wanted to pick him, but was dropped because he wasn’t being used as much. Don picked him up three weeks ago, which was a great move since C.J. Anderson got hurt this past weekend. Now he can easily slide Booker into Anderson’s starting position.
Now is a great time to look at your lineup and the waiver wire. Some of the experts even recommend picking up as many backups as possible to look ahead for the playoffs. If your bench includes a player who is not performing or not getting a lot of playing time, we think you should handcuff at least one of your Running Backs. This is one of the tricks that separate the fantasy pros from the beginners!