The RB position is essentially worthless (1 Viewer)

[shadyridr]

Bell gets hurt, DWill puts up better numbers.

Charles gets hurt, West puts up rb1 numbers until het gets hurt then Ware does

Forte gets hurt, Langford stud rb1

Ingram gets hurt, a guy on the street for four years becomes and instant rb1

Lynch hurt, Rawls is a stud until hes hurt

Forsett hurt, aside from one game where hes benched, Allen is much better

Surprise star Lewis tears acl, his replacement white essentially does the same exact thing scoring a td nearly every week

David johnson becomes a star when the starter and backuo both get hurt

What did we learn? The rb position is useless, just draft as many as you can and go to the ww every chance you get. Never say a guy will suck just cuz hes a backup because opportunity pretty much means everything. Also, stop whining about injuries to your rbs as you can basically replace and sometimes even surpass their number with their backup.

 

[BobbyLayne]

or get with the times and switch to start 1 RB

we start 3 WR 1 RB 1 W/R Flex 1 TE

next year we may switch to start 2 WR 1 RB 1 W/R 1 W/R/TE 1 TE

the league does not value RBs why should FF?

 

[Jed]

Going to do my best to hold out on RB till round 6 at minimum next year.

 

[shadyridr]

or get with the times and switch to start 1 RB

we start 3 WR 1 RB 1 W/R Flex 1 TE

next year we may switch to start 2 WR 1 RB 1 W/R 1 W/R/TE 1 TE

the league does not value RBs why should FF?

i agree with this just dont know if theres enough support in most leagues for it.

 

[shadyridr]

Going to do my best to hold out on RB till round 6 at minimum next year.

the problem is until the injuries happen you might struggle. I think its important to get one then get a bunch of 3rd down backs to fill in until the injuries happen. And your backups should all be high potential handcuffs.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

I had Hightower and DeAngelo today, I wouldn't say it is worthless.

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

The position itself is more valuable than ever with the complete lack of 15-20+ touch RBs.

I only take from that is to handcuff. I've never understood why people don't, but to each their own.

 

[lod01]

Bell gets hurt, DWill puts up better numbers.

Charles gets hurt, West puts up rb1 numbers until het gets hurt then Ware does

Forte gets hurt, Langford stud rb1

Ingram gets hurt, a guy on the street for four years becomes and instant rb1

Lynch hurt, Rawls is a stud until hes hurt

Forsett hurt, aside from one game where hes benched, Allen is much better

Surprise star Lewis tears acl, his replacement white essentially does the same exact thing scoring a td nearly every week

David johnson becomes a star when the starter and backuo both get hurt

What did we learn? The rb position is useless, just draft as many as you can and go to the ww every chance you get. Never say a guy will suck just cuz hes a backup because opportunity pretty much means everything. Also, stop whining about injuries to your rbs as you can basically replace and sometimes even surpass their number with their backup.

Handcuff. It's pretty much a must move anymore.

 

[lod01]

In dynasty we have 4 RBs, 2 starters each week. There is no other position where you can be 4 strong at the start of the season and go to zero strong by the end of the season.

 

[shadyridr]

For those people saying handcuff, the only guy i listed who was a handcuff to start the season was dwill

 

[Denver724]

Thought about this recently. I love to roster a ton of WR and just a handful of stub RB's. But the era of the stud RB's are over. Almost to the point where I may roster a few sure-thing, stud WR's and as many RB's as possible to cover these injuries. RB injuries killed me this year. Even in a 1 RB start league I had Bell, McCoy and Rawls go down (with Khiry also on IR). Started Morris this week in the champ game and I may go down.

 

[Milkman]

or get with the times and switch to start 1 RB

we start 3 WR 1 RB 1 W/R Flex 1 TE

next year we may switch to start 2 WR 1 RB 1 W/R 1 W/R/TE 1 TE

the league does not value RBs why should FF?

It's next to impossible to get these kind of line up changes voted through in a dynasty league without stating over completely.

 

[Jimbo Slice]

I have 7 rbs on my roster and 3 wr. Championship game my Gore Johnson out scored his Powell Michael like 50-18. That's important. Yes that's a sad set of championship game rbs and I got lucky but that's the nfl now. Because they all suck they are MORE valuable.

 

[Arodin]

For those people saying handcuff, the only guy i listed who was a handcuff to start the season was dwill

And he wasn't even a standard handcuff since you would have drafted him expecting several games of starter production through the Bell suspension.

 

[Pipes]

I had Hightower and DeAngelo today, I wouldn't say it is worthless.

Thread title should be drafting a RB is essentially worthless but I agree with the op's overall premiss.

 

[shadyridr]

For those people saying handcuff, the only guy i listed who was a handcuff to start the season was dwill

And he wasn't even a standard handcuff since you would have drafted him expecting several games of starter production through the Bell suspension.

good point

 

[shadyridr]

I had Hightower and DeAngelo today, I wouldn't say it is worthless.

Thread title should be drafting a RB is essentially worthless but I agree with the op's overall premiss.

yeah that was the idea behind the thread

 

[PIK95]

I drafted all handcuffs in my sixteen team league. Gio, Duke, Starks, Oliver, and Ajayi. It worked well in my ppr.

 

[cliffhuxtible]

I don't agree with the idea that lineups should feature fewer backs just because they tend to get hurt and are largely fungible. But I definitely agree that depth at the position is huge and that investing in RB's has never been riskier. The draft / auction strategy just needs to change. There are very few difference-makers worth a premium at the position.

 

[Thunderlips]

Try to get a top notch RB1 as soon as you can in your draft. Then, just pepper the later rounds with rookies and 3rd Down RBs that are in a timeshare. The way that the league has devalued the position means that those 3rd,4th,5th rounds rookies coming into the league are going to get to play at some point in the year.

Having a legit RB1 gives you a bit of insulation if injuries and ineffectiveness don't wipe out the pre-season starters.....but I do think the days of the "savvy" owner drafing 3 RBs in the first 5 rounds are gone.

 

[Ghost Rider]

Could not agree more with this thread .

Try to get a top notch RB1 as soon as you can in your draft.

Like Charles? Or Bell? Or Forte? Or DeMarco? Or Lynch? Or Lacy? Or CJ Anderson?

 

[Thunderlips]

Could not agree more with this thread .

Try to get a top notch RB1 as soon as you can in your draft.

Like Charles? Or Bell? Or Forte? Or DeMarco? Or Lynch? Or Lacy? Or CJ Anderson?

What can you say?....some years you'll eat the bear....other years the bear will eat you....I don't advocate waiting until the 7th to throw #### against the wall to see if it sticks IF there's a top notch guy there.

I didn't think DeMarco and Anderson were top notch RB1s. Injuries are tough to predict...but Bell, Charles and Lynch (all top notch RB1s in my book) all had hyped backups. There was no reason their owners shouldn't have had their backups. Lacy was huge disapointment and almost burned me....if I didn't heed my own advice and get Rawls/Dion Lewis/James White/Karlos Williams and DeAngelo Williams.

 

[Ghost Rider]

Could not agree more with this thread .

Try to get a top notch RB1 as soon as you can in your draft.

Like Charles? Or Bell? Or Forte? Or DeMarco? Or Lynch? Or Lacy? Or CJ Anderson?

What can you say?....some years you'll eat the bear....other years the bear will eat you....I don't advocate waiting until the 7th to throw #### against the wall to see if it sticks IF there's a top notch guy there.

I didn't think DeMarco and Anderson were top notch RB1s. Injuries are tough to predict...but Bell, Charles and Lynch (all top notch RB1s in my book) all had hyped backups. There was no reason their owners shouldn't have had their backups. Lacy was huge disapointment and almost burned me....if I didn't heed my own advice and get Rawls/Dion Lewis/James White/Karlos Williams and DeAngelo Williams.

I get what you are saying, but nowadays 1st and 2nd round WRs in FF are far less likely to bust than 1st and 2nd round RBs; it's been that way for several years now. I'd rather load up with two stud WRs and take my chances with RB later than doing it the other way.

 

[SteelerMurf]

I won a superbowl with DMC and Forte as my starters. I lost Charles and didn't have a handcuff. Lost Yeldon and didn't have a handcuff (not that this hurt me at all). I didn't own Forte's handcuff either. The only handcuff I owned was DMC's who I never needed. I survived most of the year with Woodhead as a starter when others got hurt. I got DMC in a trade giving up Hilton.

Moral of the story. I could have Drafted my top 3 RBs Charles, Forte, Yeldon and just stopped there and picked up their handcuffs late in the draft and done fabulous. I will do that next year. Draft 3 starters and just their handcuffs There is no use messing around otherwise until waivers come.

I won the superbowl because of Eifert, Marshall, Russel Wilson, Cooks. Its a passing league yo!

RBs were a mere supporting role if that.

 

[squistion]

The number of RB injuries we had this year was unprecedented. This is either the start of a trend or an outlier - and the most likely explanation is an outlier. I will draft as usual next year and probably get top RBs at a discount - unless, of course, this was the start of a trend.

 

[Milkman]

Could not agree more with this thread .

Try to get a top notch RB1 as soon as you can in your draft.

Like Charles? Or Bell? Or Forte? Or DeMarco? Or Lynch? Or Lacy? Or CJ Anderson?

What can you say?....some years you'll eat the bear....other years the bear will eat you....I don't advocate waiting until the 7th to throw #### against the wall to see if it sticks IF there's a top notch guy there.

I didn't think DeMarco and Anderson were top notch RB1s. Injuries are tough to predict...but Bell, Charles and Lynch (all top notch RB1s in my book) all had hyped backups. There was no reason their owners shouldn't have had their backups. Lacy was huge disapointment and almost burned me....if I didn't heed my own advice and get Rawls/Dion Lewis/James White/Karlos Williams and DeAngelo Williams.

I get what you are saying, but nowadays 1st and 2nd round WRs in FF are far less likely to bust than 1st and 2nd round RBs; it's been that way for several years now. I'd rather load up with two stud WRs and take my chances with RB later than doing it the other way.

I've been doing this for the last 3 years in redrafts where I picked late in the 1st round and it's worked out great. The only thing I think I'll change is now I'll do it no matter where I'm picking in the 1st round.

 

[utche96]

Have long felt that drafting RB early is a recipe for failure. Too many injuries and in today's league the RB position is the most fungible position on the field.

 

[Insein]

Could not agree more with this thread .

Try to get a top notch RB1 as soon as you can in your draft.

Like Charles? Or Bell? Or Forte? Or DeMarco? Or Lynch? Or Lacy? Or CJ Anderson?

What can you say?....some years you'll eat the bear....other years the bear will eat you....I don't advocate waiting until the 7th to throw #### against the wall to see if it sticks IF there's a top notch guy there.

I didn't think DeMarco and Anderson were top notch RB1s. Injuries are tough to predict...but Bell, Charles and Lynch (all top notch RB1s in my book) all had hyped backups. There was no reason their owners shouldn't have had their backups. Lacy was huge disapointment and almost burned me....if I didn't heed my own advice and get Rawls/Dion Lewis/James White/Karlos Williams and DeAngelo Williams.

Charles backup coming into the draft season was still knile. Would've hated to waste a draft pick on him.

 

[FUBAR]

Could not agree more with this thread .

Try to get a top notch RB1 as soon as you can in your draft.

Like Charles? Or Bell? Or Forte? Or DeMarco? Or Lynch? Or Lacy? Or CJ Anderson?

What can you say?....some years you'll eat the bear....other years the bear will eat you....I don't advocate waiting until the 7th to throw #### against the wall to see if it sticks IF there's a top notch guy there.

I didn't think DeMarco and Anderson were top notch RB1s. Injuries are tough to predict...but Bell, Charles and Lynch (all top notch RB1s in my book) all had hyped backups. There was no reason their owners shouldn't have had their backups. Lacy was huge disapointment and almost burned me....if I didn't heed my own advice and get Rawls/Dion Lewis/James White/Karlos Williams and DeAngelo Williams.

Charles backup coming into the draft season was still knile. Would've hated to waste a draft pick on him.

Yep. Thought I was smart drafting k Davis late in a few leagues.

Play the waiver wire for backs and take chances with late picks.

I would say take a stud te and qb early to save room for flier backs but aside from Gronk and Olsen, the ends haven't really panned out and everyone's favorite qb sucked and got hurt.

 

[nastynate]

I started drafting RBs, in mid-August draft, in 6. Blount, Martin, Foster and woodhead. Didn't win the league, but I had one of the better RB groups. Even having Martin and Woodhead with waiver fodder had me better off than most.

RB before round 3/4 is nuts

 

[Adam Harstad]

The number of RB injuries we had this year was unprecedented. This is either the start of a trend or an outlier - and the most likely explanation is an outlier. I will draft as usual next year and probably get top RBs at a discount - unless, of course, this was the start of a trend.

A hundred times this. If we concluded after every season that this was the new normal, we would have argued that WR-WR-WR was the only path to victory in 1996, that QB was completely useless in 2006, and that QB was the key to success in 2012. We would have waited forever on TEs in 2011, jumped all over them early in 2012, then waited forever at the position again in 2013, which would have been pretty much wrong on all counts. We would have loaded up all of our teams with rookie running backs in 2009, rookie quarterbacks in 2013, and rookie wide receivers in 2015 and then wondered why we missed the playoffs.

Every year is unique, with a unique feel, unique challenges, and unique keys. 2015 was the year every running back fell apart at once. I'm betting that 2016 won't be, too.

 

[The Dude]

I disagree with the topic title - RB's are hugely important - but I agree with the poinnt you made in the OP that you might want to draft them a little later.

 

[imjackdupp]

2014 top 25 rb's by adp in redraft lgs missed a total of 71 games combined. 2013 the top 25 rb's missed a total of 56 games combined. I haven't done the math on this year but i would have to say its a bit higher. The trend is def moving upward and I'm sure less practice and conditioning has something to do with it. That and the fact that less teams are relying on a single rb makes them more likely to hold a player out of a game.Hopefully this trend wont continue but on the brighter side the top 10 numbers were 22 and 23 over the same time frame.

Wr numbers over the same time frame:

2014 Top 25 - 35 / top 10 - 10

2013 top 25 - 48 / top 10 - 26

 

[Breesisdaman]

I had Hightower and DeAngelo today, I wouldn't say it is worthless.

Certainly not, I was the glad recipient of points from DeAngelo and Peterson today. I will say this obvious statement; Injuries alter seasons. Thanks to Bell for stepping aside and giving DeAngelo the work. Best waiver grab of the season for me. I grabbed him when I had a healthy and productive Muscle Hamster and Shady on my squad, RB's are so important you better get as much depth there as possible.

 

[Ladsud]

Mamas dont let your babies grow up to be running backs.

 

[BobbyLayne]

Mamas dont let your babies grow up to be running backs.

18 y.o. Charles Woodson ran for 2K and scored 230 points. Everybody recruited him as a RB except Lloyd Carr. He looked at the average length of an NFL RB career and decided he'd be a Michigan man.

 

[BobbyLayne]

Who would you consider for the first round next year?

• Le'veon Bell (I'll pass but since everyone thinks knee injuries are like hangnails he'll be top 5)
• Devonta Freeman
• Todd Gurley
• David Johnson
• ADP (will be 31)

Any other RBs?

Compare your level of confidence in RBs with how you feel about this group:

• Rob Gronkowski
• Odell Beckham Jr.
• Antonio Brown
• Bryant (again, not where I'll have him, but this is consensus rankings)
• DeAndre Hopkins
• Julio Jones
• Allen Robinson

 

[hotboyz]

In my draft i went Wr-Wr-Wr-Wr I didn't draft a Rb til the end of the 5th Rd we start 1rb 1wr 3 flex Rb/wr I just think the Rb position is to volatile to trust I mean besides AP and Gurley are there any other feature backs in the league? Look at the qb position. You could have not even drafted a Qb and put together a good performance from waiver wire Qb's.

I think in this day in era you are better off drafting 7-10 Wr maybe 2-3 Rb. I know it sounds crazy but you can package Wr's later once u figure out the right Rb to target

 

[dirtyjay]

You will not see me draft a RB int he first ever again.

 

[MattFancy]

or get with the times and switch to start 1 RB

we start 3 WR 1 RB 1 W/R Flex 1 TE

next year we may switch to start 2 WR 1 RB 1 W/R 1 W/R/TE 1 TE

the league does not value RBs why should FF?

In one of my leagues, we switched to needing to only start 1 of each position, then we have 3 WE/RB/TE flex spots. Just more flexibility with how to build your team. The main reason for doing it was since more and more teams are going to RBBC, it's not always easy to be able to start 2 RBs every week and feel good about it.

 

[Bracie Smathers]

or get with the times and switch to start 1 RB

we start 3 WR 1 RB 1 W/R Flex 1 TE

next year we may switch to start 2 WR 1 RB 1 W/R 1 W/R/TE 1 TE

the league does not value RBs why should FF?

In one of my leagues, we switched to needing to only start 1 of each position, then we have 3 WE/RB/TE flex spots. Just more flexibility with how to build your team. The main reason for doing it was since more and more teams are going to RBBC, it's not always easy to be able to start 2 RBs every week and feel good about it.

Our dynasty set up is:

- 1 QB

- 1 RB

- 2 WR

- 1 Offensive Flex can be > TE/WR/RB

RBs can easily produce MORE and more consistent points than WRs/TEs so the key in our league is to find 2 top RBs, i've dominated and the reason is I target always having the top RBs, not just at the beginning of the season because their are a ton of injuries and projections tend to be wrong so I developed a strategy to try to always have two of the top RBs.

- You have to scout in the off-season. Check out as many RBs as you can. Look at the guys who are already sitting on NFL rosters and the situations on those teams. Basically have a solid list of guys you like and whittle it down to guys you think can turn into TOP BACKS that you like and look for opportunities to grab those backs if they ever become available either on the wire or in trade.

- Get rid of the junk RBs on your roster. Guys who are 'ok' but will never be a top RB. Bundle them together and trade them to teams you know need RBs and are threats to pick up one of the guys you have targeted or if they have a guy you like languishing on their bench and you have 'ok' guys producing 'ok' numbers then try to get your guy.

- Judicious use of the waiver wire. RBs get injured. Guys who were considered top guys at the start of the season will disappoint so at the start of the year don't blow your WW spot. Let others burn their wire position grabbing RBs early in the season while you sit and wait for a guy to emerge later in the season, i.e. CJ Anderson/Thomas Rawls/etc.

Scouting.

Get rid of junk.

Waiver wire.

 

[Da Gildz]

I had Hightower and DeAngelo today, I wouldn't say it is worthless.

Thread title should be drafting a RB is essentially worthless but I agree with the op's overall premiss.

yeah that was the idea behind the thread

Agree 100%. But now everyone and their mother will be thinking this as well after this year. Which will end up forcing me to take these backs early since theyll present a ton of value. Then realize in week 9 that even then it's probably still a mistake.

 

[Da Gildz]

^in PPR

 

[habsfan]

I disagree with the topic title - RB's are hugely important - but I agree with the poinnt you made in the OP that you might want to draft them a little later.

Yeah this has little to do with the value of the position. It's entirely injury related. More "consensus" stud WRs performed as such because they stayed healthy and kept their back-ups off the field.

Let's not pretend we didn't have any Locketts, Landrys, Robinsons and Baldwins to go along with this RB washout.

 

[SanDawg]

Lost to a roster that had Gillislee and Powell yesterday.....of course we had these guys in our TOP40 pre season....RB has become the most frustrating position to draft and try and figure out.

 

[Denver724]

Lost to a roster that had Gillislee and Powell yesterday.....of course we had these guys in our TOP40 pre season....RB has become the most frustrating position to draft and try and figure out.

Losing to Gillislee would be hard to me to stomach. Talk about a dart throw. A wish and a prayer. An "expect the worst and hope for the best" scenario.

 

[MattFancy]

For those people saying handcuff, the only guy i listed who was a handcuff to start the season was dwill

Yup.

These were most of the consensus handcuffs to start the year:

Ingram/Spiller/Robinson

Randle/McFadden

Murray/Mathews

Charles/Davis

Forsett/Taliaferro

Lynch/Jackson

Bell/Williams

Blount/Lewis

Lacy/Starks

Crowell/Johnson

Johnson/Ellington

A good bunch of those didn't end up holding true as the season went on, or as the handcuffs themselves got hurt.

 

[Arodin]

For those people saying handcuff, the only guy i listed who was a handcuff to start the season was dwill

Yup.

These were most of the consensus handcuffs to start the year:

Ingram/Spiller/Robinson

Randle/McFadden

Murray/Mathews

Charles/Davis

Forsett/Taliaferro

Lynch/Jackson

Bell/Williams

Blount/Lewis

Lacy/Starks

Crowell/Johnson

Johnson/Ellington

A good bunch of those didn't end up holding true as the season went on, or as the handcuffs themselves got hurt.

While it doesn't change the overall point, the shark pool was sharper on a lot of these than the "general consensus" you reference.

We knew DJohnson and Allen would push for backup roles and even potential starting time. We knew to be wary of KDavis. And Rawls was being touted here early in the preseason as a likely Lynch replacement should he go down.

So it was possible to grab a better aet of handcuffs than that with good intel, but still an unprecedented number of teams having to go to their 2nd, 3rd and 4th options.

 

[MAC_32]

Frustrating? Yes. Worthless? Absolutely not.

 

[SanDawg]

Lost to a roster that had Gillislee and Powell yesterday.....of course we had these guys in our TOP40 pre season....RB has become the most frustrating position to draft and try and figure out.

Losing to Gillislee would be hard to me to stomach. Talk about a dart throw. A wish and a prayer. An "expect the worst and hope for the best" scenario.

Let me just add....50yds or greater and its a double TD. So that was a 17 point play....