Every fantasy football season we hear about these new draft strategies that are touted to be the best way to win yourself a fantasy football championship.  Over the past few seasons the one strategy that never made any sense to me was the “Zero Running Back” in which you punt the running back position in favor of receivers and quarterbacks because of the injury issues that plagued the position and, if you draft a running back in the early rounds and lose them for the season, your team is essentially sunk.  I reject this strategy and instead suggest that, rather than worrying about injuries, you should just go ahead and draft as many starting running backs as you can.  Build up that depth and you should be good to go.

Don’t Fear the Injury

Listen, injuries are a part of the game.  While I will concede that running backs are maybe more susceptible to injury given how often they touch the football and the contact they take, you also cannot predict when an injury will occur.  Now sure, there are players who are tagged as “injury-prone,” but for the most part, those players tend to suffer soft-tissue injuries like pulled muscles and not broken bones or torn ACL’s.  For me, I am drafting the best running back on the board for the majority of the first few rounds.  I am a strong believer in the “Wait on a QB” strategy and you can read about that in the Waiting on Quarterback’s article here in the Fantasy Alarm Draft Guide.  There are plenty of wide receivers in the league who you can draft later in drafts as well.  Don’t fade the highest scoring players in your fantasy league because you are worried about them suffering an injury.

Take All the Running Backs

Like I said, I am a believer in the “waiting on a QB” strategy but I am also OK with not taking a wide receiver as well.  Most standard leagues allow for you to start two running backs and a flex.  With that, I often draft a running back with my first three picks at the very least.  Often, I will draft four or five running backs to start my draft.  Trust me, when the other owners are stuck using gadget-players as one of their starting running backs or flex spot, you will thank me.  Drafting multiple starting running backs will also give you the edge when it comes to mid-season trading.  The primary reason behind the “zero running back strategy” was injuries.  If one does occur to a running back in your league, that owner will likely be looking for a trade partner and guess who has plenty of running back depth? Yeah, you. Now you can use that depth to improve your roster where it’s needed.

Own the Trade Market

At some point in the season somebody in your league is going to be looking to upgrade their roster.  The players with the most value will, more than likely, be running backs.  If you have stock-piled starting, quality backs on your roster, you now hold all the cards.  If you could use an upgrade at wide receiver or maybe even quarterback, well, now you have the assets to go out and make a move without having to sacrifice too much. Having excess RB depth is to your advantage.

Drafting the Handcuff Does Not Equal Drafting Depth

It is often a strategy to draft the back-up running back to the top running back on your squad.  For example, you went ahead and drafted Todd Gurley this season with your first-round pick then later in the draft you go and draft Malcolm Brown to protect against a Gurley injury.  While it’s fine to do this you also need to understand that unless Gurley gets hurt Brown is a complete waste of a roster spot and trade asset.  Not to mention, Brown is not nearly as talented as Gurley, so even if he was to move into the starting role there will still be a huge dip in production.  Instead of drafting the handcuff in the late rounds of your draft, go and draft a starting running back from another team who has greater value than a starting Malcolm Brown .

Mock It Up

I can’t stress enough the importance of mock drafts as you head into the 2018 fantasy football season.  Doing a mock draft lets you get a feel for how to build your roster.  It let’s you test out different strategies from different positions in the draft.  So, go ahead, enter a mock draft and take running backs early and often because I think you will like how your roster turns out.