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FanDuel advice: What to do when an entire position is bad
There aren’t any good running back options this week. So, work elsewhere. Settle for what you get.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
We have a group email thread for the position rankers every week. It’s nominally for us to share the rankings spreadsheet that we use and pointing out if any names have been left out, but every once in a while, one of us (read: smartass me) tosses in some editorial comment.
This week, that comment was short: “GOOD LUCK ranking running backs. Gaaaaaahhh.”
It was all I needed to say. I had done most of my rankings by the time the email thread started, and running back this week is as bad a situation as I can remember. Todd Gurley faces the Seahawks. Devonta Freeman faces the Panthers. Adrian Peterson isn't healthy. Charcandrick West has Spencer Ware to steal touches. Chris Ivory has Bilal Powell to steal touches. Will Joey Iosefa continue to somehow be relevant? Will Lamar Miller get touches commensurate to his actual touch-by-touch production? Will Christine Michael finally be a real live football player?
I wrote recently about how, when there is only one or two or three palatable choices at a position, you prioritize that, make sure you grab the good part of the available resources. I likened it to a board game, where you can earn from rolling a two, six or 12, and you prioritize the six. But if the resources are all twos, 12’s, whatever, the best bet is just to focus elsewhere and fall into what you fall into.
Running back this week is garbage. It’s just garbage. So, when I was making my FanDuel lineup for the weekend, I just ignored running back altogether. I wasn’t going to be that much happier getting an expensive running back than I was a cheap one, so I filled out the rest of my lineup, left myself some money, and filled in with the running backs that were left. It’s the best strategy for Week 16 I can think of:
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