RB Committees Not to Avoid in 2021

Antonio Losada addresses some teams expected to run fantasy football running back committee schemes that can be safe draft targets for the upcoming 2021 season.

Nobody likes a running back committee. Until you have to do so just out of pure logic. If we're offered the chance of drafting a bell-cow a la Christian McCaffrey in 2019, we're always going to pull the trigger no matter what the outcome ends up being. Just the fact that the man will carry the ball and be targeted more than 25 times per game and surpass the 400-opportunity mark over the year is more than enough for us to drool over the potential results.

Does that mean one-man backfields are the be-all and end-all of fantasy football running backs? No, sir. Not every committee is bad for fantasy purposes, and there are always cases in which rushers (or rather, head coaches) seem to find a proper balance that benefits those involved in the equation.

With that in mind, here are some potential teams expected to run fantasy football running back committee schemes that I'd have no problem seeking and drafting for the upcoming 2021 season.

Editor's Note: Steer clear of costly draft mistakes with RotoBaller’s expert Fantasy Football Bust analysis. We break down overvalued players, potential letdowns, and risky ADPs to avoid, so you can build a smarter, safer roster.

High-Scoring, Balanced-Production RBBC

In order to try and find the best committees for the 2021 season, I have followed a rather simple approach. I have downloaded the PFF projections for the upcoming year, I have calculated a "role" for rushers based on expected opportunities, and then I have looked into the highest-scoring, most-balanced backfields out there. Turns out--in everything but a surprising outcome--that Cleveland's rushing combo of Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb tops the leaderboard.

Cleveland Browns

The image above shows the top-19 backfields when it comes to the combined projections of the RB1 and RB2 players of those teams in the PPR format of fantasy leagues. Cleveland is topped only by Green Bay's pair of rushers, although as can be seen, the Packers have a clear bell-cow in Aaron Jones (67% of the backfield PPR points) compared to the Browns' two-headed monster.

Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt project to reach a combined 407.9 FP over the full 17-game season if they are healthy all year long. The former is projected to an RB12 finish while the latter has an RB28 finish attached to his name at the time of this writing. Hunt has, in fact, the highest-projected finish among non-RB1 rushers entering 2021.

While some RB2s are gadget players, or running backs focused on a single side of the game (either rushing the rock or catching it on pass plays), both Hunt and Chubb can do it all and are surefire RBs to have on your roster without worrying at all about their roles. Hunt should get a little bit more opportunities through the air, but it's not that Chubb is a zero at that, either.

The two of them should get to 600+ rushing yards and 200+ receiving yards, obviously with upside for much more. Just as an example, Chubb projects to 1,200+ rushing yards and nine rushing scores all by himself, marks that rank second and joint-fifth in PFF numbers. Don't hesitate to draft any of these two RBs without concerns about their playing time and field sharing as they both should excel while on the gridiron.

Las Vegas Raiders

The Raiders made quite a surprising move this offseason when they decided to sign now-former Arizona Cardinal Kenyan Drake to build a supercharged backfield along with third-year man Josh Jacobs. Jacobs, if you remember, was already a top-21 RB in his rookie campaign and doubled up on that performance with an RB1 finish (eighth-best rusher in PPR leagues) last year.

Drake, playing his first full season for the Cards, completed his third year in a row finishing as a top-17 RB in 2020, following his last full season in Miami and the one he split with the Fins and the Cardinals in 2019. At the time of this writing, Drake seems to have signed an RB2-role deal with the Raiders, though that might have changed when all is said and done in December.

Jacobs is projected for a top-20 finish next season (203+ PPR) but Drake (154+) is close enough with a top-29 projection falling just 50 fantasy points short of Jacobs' numbers. Both players boast projections of at least 500+ rushing yards to go with 4+ rushing touchdowns, 30+ receptions, 220+ receiving yards, and a receiving touchdown each.

With a 57/43 percent split in terms of fantasy production, both Jacobs and Drake are very close at that and things can flip the very minute Jacobs flops a bit throughout the 2021 season. Las Vegas has the sixth-highest combined (RB1+RB2) backfield projection with 358.1 PPR over 17 games, and both of the two prime rushers in tow should be valuable players to roster. Drake carries the highest projected ROI as he's got twice Jacobs' ADP (RB40 to RB20) while they're only separated by nine players in the season-end projections (RB29 to RB20).

Denver Broncos

Perhaps not the sexiest or most expected pick, but definitely one to consider entering the hot weeks of the 2021 draft season. Denver got rid of Phillip Lindsay this offseason, and in order to make up for that loss, they opted to spend a first-round (!) pick in a rusher, Javonte Williams, in order to pair him with "veteran" Melvin Gordon.

While Melvin Gordon is far from the player he was just three years ago (23.0 FPPG in 2018 for a top-eight finish, his third such consecutive rank), he can still ball. Gordon completed a near-1,000 rushing-yard season in 2020, scored nine touchdowns while at it, and added the 10th with one of his 32 receptions over the year.

PFF is even higher on Javonte Williams than it is on Gordon. The site has Williams projected to a more than healthy 172.6 PPR points in his freshman season compared to Gordon's 141.2 projection. Truth be told, there is not that much distance between the two RBs, which is why they project to RB27 and RB32 finishes next season. The ADPs are relatively close, too, and that paired with their current projections coincidentally yields a similar ROI for both of them, making them equally valuable at their current ADPs of RB25/73rd overall (Williams) and RB29/94th overall (Gordon).

Neither of these guys projects to become a league-winning running back, but if you're loyal to the Zero-RB strategy, then both of them should be sound post-sixth-round picks to consider once you have loaded your squad at the rest of the positions. The two RBs project to finish 2021 with at least 620+ rushing yards, five scores, 175+ receiving yards, 28+ receptions, and one receiving touchdown each.

More Fantasy Football Analysis