The only thing less exciting than drafting a running back to handcuff the top tailback on your fantasy football team is drafting a third-string running back who is not handcuffing anybody.

My last two articles revolved around the handcuff running backs that fantasy owners should eye down during their draft days.  This article deals with the handcuffs that fantasy owners should steer clear from, or at least tread carefully with when thinking about drafting them.

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Not All Handcuffs Are Created Equal

Here are three handcuff running backs that fantasy owners should be avoiding in their fantasy football drafts:

 
Charcandrick West, Kansas City Chiefs

West was a wunderkind for fantasy owners down the stretch last season.  After Jamaal Charles suffered his season-ending injury, West filled in and was a mini-Charles of sorts, piling up 553 rushing yards, 199 receiving yards and five touchdowns over a nine-game span to round out the season.  He showed similar quickness and skills like Charles has and proved he is a capable backup who can handle the starting duties when called upon.

The problem is that Kansas City is more loaded with talented running backs than Chick-fil-A is with chicken sandwiches.  Besides Charles and West, the Chiefs have Spencer Ware waiting in the wings, and his skill set is totally different than West’s.  While West is a change-of-pace back, Ware takes handoffs and runs into the line like he is a brick with legs.  Ware averaged an impressive 5.6 yards per carry and scored six touchdowns last year on only 72 carries.

Charles’ handcuff will not be 100 percent certain until training camp ends, but Ware’s ominous presence does not bode well for West.  Fantasy owners might be more apt to take Ware instead of West if they draft or keep Charles and want his understudy.  Feel free to draft West if you are in a fantasy football first name league, though!

Chris Johnson, Arizona Cardinals

Not only is Johnson Arizona’s second-best running back, he is the team’s second-best Johnson in the backfield.  When Johnson broke his leg during the regular season last year, David Johnson stepped in and stepped up, racking up 443 rushing yards, 216 receiving yards and five total touchdowns over the final five weeks of the regular season.

David Johnson sure looks like he has earned the starting job coming on the heels of how he finished off 2015.  Unless an injury or a horrendous camp changes things, Chris Johnson should be David’s handcuff.  But Andre Ellington, who knows a thing or two about being Arizona’s top tailback, could knock Chris down the depth chart even further depending on how things shake out.

Chris is not the greyhound-like speedster who used to break 40-yard runs without a sweat.  While he had a nice comeback season in 2015 before his injury, he is no longer in his prime and no longer capable of carrying a running attack on his back.  He should enter the 2016 campaign as David Johnson’s handcuff barring any unforeseen issue, but do not be shocked if that is not how he ends it as Father Time keeps taking the life out of Johnson’s legs.

C.J. Spiller, New Orleans Saints

Remember just four years ago when Spiller was viewed as a fantasy lottery ticket?  The guy was breaking big plays on screen passes, end runs and even kickoff returns.  He averaged six yards per run and 10.7 yards per reception while he blessed fantasy owners with 1,703 combined yards during that magical 2012 season.

Spiller has not come anywhere near those numbers since, though, and while the marriage between Spiller and the Saints looked great on paper, it has turned out thus far to be as disastrous as Tommy Lee and Pam Anderson’s.  Spiller has not seemed to grasp Sean Payton’s innovative offense and has not shown the same explosion he had during his first couple years with the Buffalo Bills.

It looks like 100-year-old Tim Hightower is the favorite to be Mark Ingram’s prime backup heading into the season.  The odds are probably better that Spiller does not make the Saints final roster than they are for Spiller being the No. 2 back and having fantasy relevance again.  Unless Spiller has an above-average camp and/or Hightower hightails it to retirement, Spiller is a risky handcuff to draft in the late rounds.

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