Fantasy owners dislike RB committees

Wednesday, October 24, 2007
By Michael Salfino
The Grand Rapids Press

Much to the chagrin of fantasy football owners nationwide, another dreaded NFL timeshare at running back has emerged in Indianapolis.

Kenton Keith parlayed his big Week 5 in relief of the injured Joseph Addai into about half the carries (15 to Addai's 16) Monday night, a ratio that presumably will stick going forward.

There was much talk in August of the pervasiveness of these running back committees. Looking around the NFL, however, timeshares don't appear to be any more common than in other recent seasons.

Only the Falcons, Panthers, Cowboys, Jaguars, Patriots, Vikings and now Colts appear to currently have true timeshares (fewer than 70 percent of carries) irrespective of injuries.

Are these arrangements effective? Looking at rushing yards per carry, the teams above rank 19th, 8th, 5th, 4th, 15th, 1st and 12th, respectively. That seems to be a good argument for committees.

Some NFL executives maintain that committees are in a running back's best interest given that they generally have no more than 1,500 or so carries in them. Only about 50 backs in history have surpassed that mark.

Whether spreading out the carries would reduce injuries is highly speculative. Miami's Ronnie Brown had the biggest rushing/receiving workload in the NFL and is now out for the season with a torn ACL. But he sustained that injury trying to make a tackle on an interception return.

Running back careers most often end with a more chronic loss of effectiveness. Earl Campbell, Franco Harris, Emmitt Smith, Eddie George and many others wore down due to age and mileage.

Eventually, the circus leaves town for all these running backs. This year, more than 30, such as Shaun Alexander (2,104 carries) and Warrick Dunn (2,351), are in their final death throes.

While Dunn gets the bulk of carries (95) compared to backup Jerious Norwood (47), it's Norwood who runs much more effectively, at 5.8 yards per carry compared to 3.1 for Dunn. Norwood clearly should be Atlanta's primary running back.

Other backups who outperform starters include the Panthers' DeAngelo Williams over DeShaun Foster (5.5 to 4.2 with Foster also leading the league in fumbles). The Titans' Chris Brown trumps LenDale White (5.3 to 3.3 and look out for rookie Chris Henry). And no human can keep up with Minnesota's Adrian Peterson (6.2 per carry to 4.4 for starter Chester Taylor, who has 40 carries to Peterson's 44 in the games when both are healthy).