by Zack Cimini
notjustagame23@gmail.com

There are few golden rules to attacking a fantasy football season but one of them is always, always, hand cuff your high draft pick running backs with their fill in. Yet, for some reason fantasy owners ignored that this year and decided to bank on better options for depth. That philosophy is fine and dandy to have other viable options at receiver, defense, tight end, wherever it may be. Now though we’re three weeks in and have already seen some star backs land on the sidelines for durations unknown and some that are out for weeks.

Now you’re stuck with horrible options to go with at running back when you could have had that safety net right there to plug in your starting lineup. It’s like playing blackjack and knowing the dealer is going to get it sooner or later, and when you know he/she has it you still don’t buy insurance. You better hope that you’re waiver wire position bailed you out to have a shot at Glen Coffee or LeSean McCoy this week. We’re going to take a look at a few other handcuff musts out there that fantasy owners can be proactive about.

Reason: Production

In Danger: Larry Johnson, In: Jamaal Charles
We’re trying to diagnose what’s wrong with Larry Johnson, and we think we’ve figured it out. He has Shaun Alexander/Eddie Georgeitus. He isn’t hitting the holes properly and seems like he has lost everything he had just three years ago. It truly is a young backs league and Jamaal Charles is that guy. It’s only a matter of time before Charles takes over this job. He nearly combined for 100 total yards this past week against Philadelphia with about half the touches of Johnson. Johnson has faced three solid front seven defenses and has had to deal with a quarterback not doing anything to help him out. Johnson’s production levels though have been backpedaling for years now, so that’s why we believe his slow start is not an aberration.

In Danger: Steve Slaton, In: Chris Brown
Was more of himself this past week against the Jaguars, but it seems as if Houston is going to keep a balanced time share going with Slaton and Brown. This past week Slaton had twelve carries and Brown 8, and the previous week was just as balanced. As a young back with last seasons great year in the back of his mind, you have to wonder if the pressure will or has got to him already. If so, fumbles could start to happen and that’s where the already close time share may be become dead even. Don’t forget Chris Brown is already their goal line back and was a feature back for the Tennessee Titans for many years.

In Danger: Tim Hightower, In: Beanie Wells
The Cardinals game plan against the Colts has been one of the hot topics of discussion this week. The Dolphins showed how to keep the ball out of the Manning’s hands and also exposed a horrid Colts run defense. So what did the Cardinals do? After a Tim Hightower fumble inside the Colts ten, they abandoned the running game the entire game. It resulted in Kurt Warner being on his back all game and the Colts locking down the Cardinals receivers by playing nickel defense over 50 plays in the game. With Whisenhunt calling the plays he has to be smarter than that. The Cardinals don’t know what they have in a running game because they never stick with it. Unless they want Kurt Warner out for the year which will happen if they don’t start running it more, than they’ll have to figure out which back they want to feature. Hightower never impressed us last year and has been more of a threat as a pass catching back than a runner this year. Wells on the other hand has had a high per carry average and is only owned 59 percent in Yahoo leagues. If the Cardinals are going to turn around their season it starts with Wells.

In Danger: Mike Tuner, In: Jerious Norwood
This situation is more of protection for Turner. When a back that had a season like Turner did a year ago, and now can’t average near 4 yards a carry in a game, something is wrong. Turner is feeling the ill affects of carrying the ball an enormous amount of times last season. If it weren’t for his two touchdowns were sure talks of what’s going on with Turner would have started already. We warned people about Turner being overvalued, and we don’t expect anything to change this season in terms of that. What we do expect to happen is for the Falcons to do a better job in protecting Turner. They have to divide his carries up better by getting more carries to Jason Snelling and Jerious Norwood. Norwood should be ready to play after this weeks bye, and is currently only owned in 19% of Yahoo leagues. If Turner doesn’t get protected he will assuredly end up nicked up with some type of injury. Either way Norwood should be on your fantasy radar spectrum. We expect after the bye week for Norwood to average seven to ten carries a game.

Reason: Injury Insurance

Current Starter: Pierre Thomas, Backup: Mike Bell
Bell’s currently out with a knee sprain and thus fantasy owners have tossed him back to the waiver wire. This team is no longer granting main carries to Reggie Bush. He’ll get his five to seven a game but the experiment they once had with him being a feature back Is done and over with. The carries will go to Thomas and Bell. For some reason the injury bug hits the Saints running backs constantly (Deuce McAllister), and it wouldn’t be shocking to see Bell land feature carries again at some point this season. Bell started off the year as one of the top backs in the league for the first two games and would be a solid option again if the opportunity presented itself. Bush and Thomas are already filling roster spots so grab Bell well you can as he is only 39% owned In Yahoo leagues.