The Weekly Bender: Déjà vu All Over Again

Mon Nov 10 6:38pm ET
By HOWARD BENDER
Fantasy Writer

If the performances you just witnessed during NFL Week 10 don’t have you believing this is the second coming of the Year of the Running Back, then you’re either not paying enough attention or you’re still bitter about that Zero-RB strategy failing you miserably. Jonathan Taylor just posted his fifth three-touchdown game of the season, De’Von Achane scored his ninth touchdown in 10 games and Jahmyr Gibbs just posted his second 100-yard effort in his last three games and has five touchdowns in that span. Kyren Williams and Breece Hall posted huge efforts, TreVeyon Henderson enjoyed his breakout game with 147 yards and two scores and as of writing this, we still haven’t seen what Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley are bringing to the party. There’s nothing better than old-school fantasy football and watching elite-level running backs single-handedly demolish your opponents.

For those new to fantasy football, you probably don’t remember the days when one running back could win you your weekly match-up. LaDanian Tomlinson, Sean Alexander, Terrell Davis, Jamaal Anderson and Jerome Bettis – these were just a handful of names of guys who helped me win a variety of fantasy championships. To say that these were exciting times would be an understatement.

But then the crybabies showed up. How can we possibly compete? If I don’t have a top-five pick in my draft, I won’t be able to win. On and on they sobbed until one of those idiots conjured up the third-round reversal and insisted on full-point PPR scoring. That was their solution to countering those of us who were smart enough to draft our running backs early. Change the rules and then maybe we can compete? What kind of trash is that? But that’s what happened and for the last 15 years, we’ve had to listen to the nonsense of Zero-RB and why the top wide receivers were going to win you a championship.

And where are they now? Probably crying in a corner somewhere, lamenting over Ja’Marr Chase losing Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson’s mediocre season and why they probably should have taken Christian McCaffrey over Malik Nabers. Boo frickin’ hoo.

Of course, these knuckleheads are now our biggest competition on the waiver wire because, suddenly, they now see the light and any running back who even sniffs a touch out of their backfield is causing them to open up their FAAB wallets even wider. It’s borderline crazy, the cost of adding any running back off the waiver wire, but this is the current fantasy economy in which we live.

So, what exactly is going on with running backs on the waiver wire? To put it bluntly, it’s pretty gross out there. You’ve got people stealing each other’s handcuffs, there’s all sorts of hoarding of some of the oddest names in the game and with no debilitating injuries of which to speak, we have to be sneaky with our adds.

First and foremost, if you are in a shallow league – 8-10 teams – you need to look for some of the biggest names emerging. Henderson from the Patriots is one of them and before some of you roll your eyes and tell us he’s not available in any leagues you’re in, understand that there are all types of leagues out there of all shapes and sizes. And with the way the Patriots had been using Henderson, few people had the patience to keep him on their bench. Maybe Rhamondre Stevenson still lurks, but after back-to-back volume-filled deployments, the handwriting is on the wall. It’s took a little while, but with Week 11 approaching, knowing you have another starting running back on your roster is huge.

The next place to look is in Houston with Woody Marks. Again, every league is different and just because someone in your league (maybe even you) is hoarding guys with hope in their heart, doesn’t mean that’s the case across the board. In fact, Marks is unrostered in 40 percent of leagues across ESPN and Yahoo. That’s a pretty sizeable group. And yes, we’re over here on RTSports, but that doesn’t mean someone reading this doesn’t have a work league or some other family league on a different platform.

Marks has seemingly supplanted veteran Nick Chubb as the lead in the Houston backfield. His usage increase over Chubb has been a pattern over the last four games and while his 80-percent snap-share in Week 10 may have been because he is the third-down pass-catcher and the Texans were playing from behind throughout the game, his explosiveness and ability to also run between the tackles may have just sealed the deal.

Marks posted a 4.5 yards per carry average against a fairly strong Jaguars run defense and his versatility allows the Texans to be more creative with their play-calling. Chubb is a plodder. If he is on the field, the defense knows he’s running straight ahead. With Marks’ strength and speed, the Texans can go inside, outside or just throw the football, depending on what they read from the defense. We’ve been anxiously awaiting a changing of the guard in Houston and this might have been it.

Now, for those of you who play in deeper leagues or have waiver wires that looked like they’ve been picked cleaner than a Thanksgiving turkey at my house, you should check on the availability of Cardinals running back Emari Demercado. Rostered in fewer than 20 percent of leagues across Yahoo and ESPN, Demercado looks to be a huge fantasy asset in PPR leagues and if you watched Sunday’s game and his 100-plus yards from scrimmage performance, you saw first-hand exactly why.

Early in the season, following James Conner’s injury, Demercado emerged as the Cardinals third-down pass-catcher who also spent time on the field during the two-minute drill. He held that role when Trey Benson was the lead back and could have been even more vital to the team had it not been for that Chad Powers moment of dropping the football at the goal-line before breaking the plane for what should have been a 72-yard touchdown. He spent time in Jonathan Gannon’s doghouse and then suffered an ankle injury, which held him out longer, but clearly, after watching Bam Knight and Michael Carter struggle to do anything more than run between the tackles on early downs, Demercado was freed from the doghouse and back on the field.

Arizona quarterback Jacoby Brissett loves to check it down to Demercado and we’ve also seen OC Drew Petzing fire up a number of designed screens. We saw four carries for 64 yards against an impressive Seattle run defense, as well as three catches for 40 yards. He looked explosive and with an increased workload, he could be a huge boost to any fantasy roster over the remaining regular season.

Running backs, baby! They’re your bread and butter in fantasy football. Not just this year, but definitely years to come. If you missed the boat after last year’s Year of the Running Back, you’d have to be stone-cold out of your mind to miss it after this season. Let’s get after it!

Bender out!

The Weekly Bender: Déjà vu All Over Again

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