Most fantasy football “experts” will tell you that you should draft handcuff running backs. They will not only tell you to draft your handcuffs, but to also draft other manager’s handcuffs to “hold them over their head”. It is true that you can get a league winner if you draft the right handcuff, but there are several reasons why this isn’t a great idea.
They can clog up your bench
How many bench spots does your league have? Not counting dynasty, which is a completely different beast, most fantasy leagues have between four and seven bench spots. If you are on the lower end of that scale, rostering even two handcuffs will take away a significant part of your bench and leave you with little flexibility. If you are on the higher end, three handcuffs will clutter your bench. You are basically trading roster flexibility, bye week fill ins and the ability to stash players on your bench for a few handcuffs.
Handcuffs depend on an injury happening
The only value a true handcuff has is if an injury happens. A player that has stand alone value is not a handcuff. For example, David Montgomery isn’t Jahmyr Gibbs’s handcuff, he has value even when Gibbs is healthy, he just has huge contingent value if Gibbs misses time. Will Shipley is Saquon Barkley’s handcuff, as he has little to no value when Barkley is healthy. The only way a handcuff like Shipley is valuable is if Barkley gets injured, but you can’t bet that an injury will happen. Even in Barkley’s situation, where he was the touch leader last year, you can’t assume an injury.
Handcuffs have to avoid an injury themselves
Last year Christian McCaffrey got injured and his handcuff Jordan Mason looked like a league winner, that was until Mason himself got injured. Through seven games last year, Mason was on a pace to have over 1800 total yards and seven TDs, then he got injured. He certainly gave an early season boost to the manager that got him, but he did nothing for them in the second half of the season. Jordan Mason was even is a situation where handcuffing made sense, as Christian McCaffrey dealt with an injury throughout training camp.
The handcuff isn’t guaranteed to get all of the work
Most people assume that if a bell cow back goes down, all the work will go to the backup, but it is just as likely that the situation will turn into a timeshare if the main starter goes down. Early in my fantasy career, I decided to grab Dalvin Cook’s handcuff, because he always got injured late in the year, and it would give me an addition stud player on my roster. The problem is that when he did get injured, all the work didn’t go to his handcuff, Alexander Mattison, the backfield split into a timeshare with Mike Boone getting touches as well. There is no guarantee that the sure fire handcuff will not end up in a time share. I also held handcuffs in the past that led me to drop players that were more valuable later on. I remember early in 2020 I dropped a poorly performing rookie WR rather than a handcuff, that rookie WR ended up being Justin Jefferson and the handcuff played behind a running back that didn’t get injured.
There are opportunity costs in your draft
In 2023, rather than picking a late handcuff, I decided to draft a young WR on a team that was pretty bad the previous year and they looked like they would be bad again that year. This young WR was Nico Collins in his breakout year. I watched him play a few games the year before and he looked impressive even with really bad QB play, so I took a flier on him. Another young WR I was able to pick up because I didn’t have handcuffs clogging my bench was Puka Nacua in his rookie year. I don’t think any combination of handcuffs would have given me the value of those two players.
Handcuffs are backups for a reason
Most of the time, a handcuff is at best a low level starter in the NFL. There are some instances where there is a really good running back languishing on the bench, but they are quite rare. There aren’t too many Tyler Allgeier’s or Jordan Mason’s out there. You are more likely to get a guy like Alexander Mattison or Jerome Ford at best, who are adequate starters, but they won’t win you a championship. If you handcuff your own back, even if an injury happens, you’re not getting a good return for the injured player. If Chase Brown goes down, his handcuff isn’t going to return the value you need to make up for that injury.
It's not always clear who the handcuff is
Look at the Houston Texans this year. Do we know who the handcuff truly is? Which back are you taking? I think we could see either Nick Chubb, Dameon Pierce or Woody Marks end up being the most valuable back while Mixon is out. We also don’t know if or when Mixon will return this year. A situation where the starter has dealt with an injury or multiple injuries through training camp and preseason is one of the spots where I would grab a handcuff, but even here, we simply don’t know who is the best player to get. My gut says Nick Chubb, but he isn’t the player he used to be.
What am I doing in respect to handcuffs
There are only two situations where I will pick a handcuff. The first is if the starter has dealt with injury issues throughout training camp and the preseason. Basically, the Joe Mixon situation, but I still want a clearcut handcuff. This type of player works best if you go zero RB or hero RB in your draft. The second situation is handcuffing the previous year’s touch leader. There is such a history of touch leaders missing a significant number of games the next year, that it is a good bet taking them. If you don’t draft this player, keep an eye out to see if other manager’s drop him. Otherwise, I am avoiding handcuffs in my draft.
EDIT: A handcuff is a RB that only has a path to fantasy relevancy if the starter goes down. This would be someone like Will Shipley in Philadelphia. He isn't taking the starting job from Saquon Barkley. A guy like Bucky Irving, that took the starting job from Rachaad White was not a handcuff, he is in fact the type of player you should draft instead of a handcuff. Irving won the job from White, which was a second path beyond the injury path to become fantasy relevant.
