Committee Backfields: How Much Work Is Not Enough?

Thunder and lightning. Smash and dash. The bruiser and the satellite back.

Modern NFL backfields feature tandems. Basically gone are the days of my youth when one running back would shoulder 400-plus touches in a season and no one batted an eye. We like these backfields. Oftentimes, they produce multiple backs with fantasy viability, but not all do.

It’s all about whether a player gets enough volume. So exactly how much does a player need to be involved in a committee to matter? What amount of work can a backfield leader “surrender” to their counterpart and still make a dent in fantasy football?

I’m glad you (hypothetically) asked.

Together, let’s explore what a decade’s worth of stats and nifty charts tell us about successful fantasy committee backfields:

What Is a Committee Backfield?

It doesn’t feel like much of a stretch to assume that anyone reading this knows how football works and what the subject matter here is. Peeling back the onion to explain the basics of the entire sport isn’t in the best interest of anyone involved.

But for those who genuinely need it, a committee backfield is a strategy employed by NFL teams to prevent a single player from becoming overexhausted. Beyond preserving player health, this approach also enables teams to be tactical in specific game situations and have players assume various roles.

Some backs do the heavy lifting and run the ball through the tackles more often. In contrast, their counterparts may be physically smaller players with a penchant for catching the ball and utilizing their speed in open space. Factors like what down it is, or the play call being a pass or run, generally determine which back is on the field.

It gets a little more complicated than that in practice, especially as the game has evolved, but that’s more or less what you need to know to keep going. Make sense? Cool — onto the real meat and potatoes.