Running Back Handcuff Strategy for 2023 Fantasy Football

Running back handcuffing is an essential strategy in fantasy football drafts given the nature of the position. Simply put, top running backs touch the ball a lot and take a pounding. As such, they’re more prone to injury than the other skill positions. Like opening an insurance policy, handcuffing is a way we can protect our top investments.

If we’re going to invest early-round picks at the position, then we want to make sure we have protection by rostering the backup who is most likely to take over the biggest role in the event of an injury. Of course, there are a few things to consider before we get into the handcuffs for 2023 fantasy football drafts.

Perhaps the most important thing to note is that handcuffing is a commitment for the entire season. If you’re going to draft a handcuff only to turn around and cut that handcuff in Week 4 because you needed a drop, it really isn’t worth handcuffing in the first place. Injuries can happen at any point during the NFL season, so you need to hold that player until the end of the season. The first rule of handcuffing is simple: Commit to the ‘cuff.

The other key idea to take on board is that not every running back can or should be handcuffed. Of course, we’re going to want to handcuff our top running backs if we can. But if the running back is outside of the RB1s, he likely isn’t your top back. In handcuffing multiple backs, you really limit what you can do with your bench. 

Instead, we only want to handcuff the running backs on the board. These are players who will go in the first or second rounds. Some years that could potentially spill into the third round. That’s hefty draft capital, so you really want to insure your investment. After you draft this player, I suggest moving his handcuff up two rounds on your board to ensure that you get him. 

Let’s look at the top running backs and their most likely handcuff right now. Note that these are not handcuff rankings. As I said above, we want to handcuff the back we drafted. Sure, Elijah Mitchell is one of the top-ranked players in this group, but we really don’t need to worry about him if we don’t draft Christian McCaffrey.

Anchor RB Handcuffs

Christian McCaffrey – Elijah Mitchell
Austin Ekeler – Joshua Kelley
Bijan Robinson – Tyler Allgeier
Nick Chubb – Jerome Ford
Saquon Barkley – Matt Breida
Derrick Henry – Tyjae Spears 

The top six backs on the board are solidified in their roles and are fine options to anchor your rosters. Most of these handcuff situations are clear (Mitchell, Kelley, Allgeier and Ford). However, it’s wise to keep an eye on how things play out in the Giants and Titans backfields.

In addition to this group, we have a few more backfields with looming questions as we enter the heart of fantasy draft season. Should those questions be resolved, the backfield will slide up into Anchor RB territory.

Question Mark Anchor RB Handcuffs

Tony Pollard – Rico Dowdle
Rhamondre Stevenson – Kevin Harris
Jonathan Taylor – Zack Moss
Josh Jacobs – Zamir White

We have two completely different situations with this group. Pollard and Stevenson make the list due to the looming possibility that their respective teams sign an additional running back. While it’s unlikely a signing moves either player out of the feature role, it could impact their volume. If not back is signed by the middle of the preseason, we can move them up into the Anchor tier. As for Taylor and Jacobs, we have contract issues at play. Taylor has been rumored to be holding in while Jacobs hasn’t signed his franchise tag. We’ll need these situations to be resolved before we can move them up into the Anchor tier.

Those are the top handcuffs on the board, but we also have several backfields that aren’t the most optimal to handcuff. This can be for a variety of reasons. In some instances, we’re creating a potential negative correlation on our rosters. In others we have dead zone backs who aren’t likely to be the top options on our teams. Let’s dive into each of these backfields.

Suboptimal Cuffs

Najee Harris – Jaylen Warren
Joe Mixon – Chris Evans/Chase Brown
Breece Hall – Zonovan Knight
Travis Etienne – Tank Bigsby
Kenneth Walker – Zach Charbonnet
Alexander Mattison – Kene Nwangwu/Ty Chandler/DeWayne McBride
Cam Akers – Zach Evans
Miles Sanders – Chuba Hubbard
Rachaad White – Chase Edmonds
James Conner – Keaontay Ingram

As you can see, not all these handcuff situations are resolved. However, this isn’t the best group to handcuff since we won’t be spending high draft capital on the lead backs. We also have several backfields that really don’t have a true handcuff situation and instead are either timeshares or full-blown committees. 

Backfield Committees

Green Bay Packers

At this point, we’ve come to expect at 55:45 split between Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon. While either one of these guys would be an RB1 if injury struck the other, the full-blown timeshare caps both of their fantasy value and makes it challenging to roster both.

Detroit Lions

Rookie Jahmyr Gibbs is the talk of the town, but we can’t forget David Montgomery. Last season, Jamaal Williams led the NFL with 33 goal-line carries. Lions head coach Dan Campbell suggested that he wants one lead early down back and another back to “dissect” the defense. He pointed to Gibbs as the dissect back, leaving Montgomery to be the obvious early down back. This committee could end up frustrating many fantasy managers.

New Orleans Saints

We have a lot of moving pieces here. For starters, Alvin Kamara will serve a three-game suspension to start the season. While he’s out, Jamaal Williams figures to carry the load with rookie Kendre Miller working in. However, Williams and Miller will likely continue to be used even after Kamara returns.

Baltimore Ravens

J.K. Dobbins is rumored to be holding in as of this writing, but assuming he’s with the team, we know what to expect here. The Ravens have been reluctant to give any one back a bell cow workload in recent seasons. That means Dobbins, Gus Edwards and perhaps even some of Justice Hill or Melvin Gordon.

Houston Texans

Dameon Pierce was on of last season’s breakout success stories. However, the Texans running back room got a little more crowded with the addition of Devin Singletary. To be clear, Houston figures to be run-heavy under new offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, and Pierce remains the lead back. However, Singletary will get his share of the workload this season.

Denver Broncos

The good news is that Javonte Williams seems to be on track for the season opener following his recovery from a torn ACL last season. The bad news is that new head coach Sean Payton has consistently talked up free agent signee Samaje Perine this past offseason.

Buffalo Bills

Yes, James Cook is the talk of the town right now, but he figures to share the load with Damien Harris this season. There’s the possibility that we could also see veteran Latavius Murray in the mix.

Kansas City Chiefs

The fantasy masses were right about Isiah Pacheco, as he assumed lead early-down duties down the stretch last season and never looked back. He’s returning from injury but should be good for the opener. However, Kansas City will be using Jerick McKinnon as the primary pass catching back and Clyde Edwards-Helaire figures to see some work as well.

Philadelphia Eagles

Perhaps one of the biggest mysteries entering this season, the Eagles will use some combination of Rashaad Penny, D’Andre Swift, Kenneth Gainwell and Boston Scott this season. Penny figures to be the early-down option with Swift as the primary pass catcher. However, word out of Philly has suggested Gainwell will also be involved in the passing game.

Washington Commanders

With Eric Bieniemy in place as the new offensive coordinator, look for the Commanders backfield to resemble what the Chiefs do. That means Brian Robinson as the lead early-down back with Antonio Gibson handling passing down duties and Chris Rodriguez mixing in.

Miami Dolphins

We have a full-blown committee in Miami with Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson and rookie De’Von Achane set to all see touches. The Dolphins figure to be especially tough to predict with how the touches get distributed between Mostert and Wilson.

Chicago Bears

Like the Dolphins, we also could see a tricky committee in Chicago. Khalil Herbert remains in-house, but the Bears also signed D’Onta Foreman and drafted Roschon Johnson. This will be a very difficult backfield to gauge until we see it get going in the regular season.