Value of the handcuff (1 Viewer)

[ClayDavisShee]

Much has been discussed regarding the scrap heap of RB's once you get past the 1st 4 rounds. How much weight do you put into obtaining a handcuff to your RB1/RB2 studs? Assuming that you land 2 stud RB's in the 1st 4 rounds, which school of thought to you subscribe to:

A) Take the next best RB on the board in the mid rounds ( ie. Ingram/K Smith/R Williams)

or

B) Grab a proven handcuff early (Tate/Pead/Turbin etc)

Obviously some backup situations are muddled (Philly/Oak come to mind), but presented with a decision where you need a RB to you lock up the handcuff to secure yourself a starter for the year between your top RB and his backup or do you just load up on best available players?

 

[meyerj31]

If I can grab a guy in the 12th+ I'll take him as a handcuff if and only if the running offense is super potent. Otherwise I'm not a believer.

I would much, much rather be spending my middle round picks on potential home-runs that I could trade away for better pieces if I don't need them.

1) The mid-round guy is effectively a "handcuff" to all of your RB positions. The main problem for handcuffs is that they're never useful unless your player gets hurt - and only that player. They're also not useful if your player is still playing but struggling. If I take three mid/late round RBs and one pans out I can start them in place of anyone, or flex them along with whatever guy I would have handcuffed.

2) Bye weeks - Handcuffs are useless flex or fill-ins during bye-weeks.

3) Trade value - If all my starting RBs are rock stars, great! Then I can trade anyone I picked late in the draft that pans out for other pieces, or just have that much more proven depth. Handcuffs are not proven depth. I sincerely doubt Goodson or Taiwan Jones would come in and immediatley put up RB2 numbers.

 

[doeseatplace]

My preference is (A), and one of the reasons is the description you use in (B). Neither Pead nor Turbin are "proven" anything; They both have good skills and have generated fantasy buzz, but I don't know if they can pass protect, they've never played a 16 game season, etc. So I'm not going to burn a mid-round on guys who may not be able to deliver the mail and watch Daryl Richardson or Kregg Lumpkin get the every down carries when the starer goes down. I'll take my chances on a guy who is actually in the mix to be a starter or at least a heavy contributor

Much has been discussed regarding the scrap heap of RB's once you get past the 1st 4 rounds. How much weight do you put into obtaining a handcuff to your RB1/RB2 studs? Assuming that you land 2 stud RB's in the 1st 4 rounds, which school of thought to you subscribe to:A) Take the next best RB on the board in the mid rounds ( ie. Ingram/K Smith/R Williams)orB) Grab a proven handcuff early (Tate/Pead/Turbin etc)Obviously some backup situations are muddled (Philly/Oak come to mind), but presented with a decision where you need a RB to you lock up the handcuff to secure yourself a starter for the year between your top RB and his backup or do you just load up on best available players?

 

[GroveDiesel]

There are only a few situations I think taking a handcuff is useful:

1) CJ Spiller: Spiller could be a bye week fill in anyway and if F-Jax got hurt, Spiller would get similar numbers as Jackson

2) Rashad Jennings. This one is the most crucial IMO. He's still pretty cheap and yet there's an outside chance he'll be the starter for a chunk of the season. Could put up top 10 numbers too.

3) Gerhart. I think this one is pretty self explanatory.

4) Ben Tate. Similar reasoning with Spiller. And Tate even had some nice games even when Foster played.

After that, the only way I'd draft a handcuff is if I can get them super late and I think they could be a stud if my starter got hurt.

Not a ton of those guys IMO. I like Turbin and David Wilson. I wouldn't mind a flyer on Dwyer either.

 

[Modog814]

I'd much rather draft a guy to my team that doesn't need an injury to contribute. Handcuffs only make sense when the player is right around your next BPA. I can see reaching a bit b/c he's a handcuff (you have x and y rated above z, but z is the handcuff to your RB1), but in general, there's not guarantee that your RB1 is going to get hurt, that your handcuff will even still be the handcuff when RB1 gets hurt, and even if he is, that he'll produce well given the opportunity.