In the eleven years I’ve been playing fantasy football now, the landscape has changed. There was a day when having Marshall Faulk could all but guarantee you a championship (I know, I have one…). And just a few years back having LaDanian would sure up your RB spot for sure. But as the league changes your fantasy team changes as well. Running backs are built to take a load of a whole game anymore. 20+ carries a game is rare. It’s also a domino effect. If you match up against a team that has two efficient backs they always have fresh legs out there, and that causes you to look into the same type of system. Now almost all teams have gone to 2 runners. This trend makes picking up a consistent back hard for your fantasy team. If you have a guy that averages 3 or 4 yards a carry, but would get the ball 20 times, you are looking at 60-80 yds a game. Throw in a touchdown and you had a decent day. Now that same back only gets 12-15 carries it dramatically drops his overall production, even if he averages the same amount. This makes it hard to keep your running back numbers consistent. All this brings me to my point of this post…
Will we see fantasy leagues moving to “Team RB’s”? There wouldn’t be a shortage of teams to fill out your 10 team league. You would need 3 team RB’s to fill out your roster for bye week purposes. Instead of starting Marion Barber, you could start “Cowboys RB’s” and get there overall production for the backs. It still shouldn’t be a problem to include their receiving yards. This could really improve the consistency at the position. It’s much like IDP leagues VS. team defense leagues. Picking out a IDP is pretty hard, and a lot of the time luck of the draw.
Saying this, I still don’t know if I’m for it. Maybe it takes a little skill or strategy out of fantasy football, but if nothing else it’s some food for thought.
