Many leagues haven't even drafted yet, but it's never too early to start strategizing about the fantasy playoffs. Sometimes teams are fortunate enough to have a solid regular season but then peter out in the fantasy post-season. Similar to the regular season, having strong RB production is an integral part to any playoff run, but most people are not fully aware at just how much things change in NFL backfields by the end of the season.

About this time of year, fantasy owners scamper to scoop up running backs early in fantasy drafts. While rostering a lot of running backs makes a lot of sense, owners have to pay a draft day premium based on current market conditions based on a snapshot of team depth charts heading into the season. However, many times you have to overpay due to the limited number of starting running backs that play in the NFL.

I revisited what's happened with running backs over the past few years, and the numbers are a bit staggering. To set some baseline ground rules, I made the assumption that the fantasy playoffs would occur in Weeks 14-16. With the fantasy playoffs being a win or go home proposition, I grouped the three weeks almost as one because you need to win in all of them if you want to win your league title. In the NFL, someone lined up at running back in the backfield to play that game, and if your guy wasn't that guy, you could be out of the playoffs.

Over the past three seasons, adding up the total number of teams (32) times the number of seasons (3) would mean that there were 96 running backs that were tabbed as "starters" on opening day and were expected to be the primary ball carrier for their team. There may be a few instances where there wasn't a 100% defined starter, but I used the player that started the year with the majority share of the workload. Here's how things looked at the end of the season. Colored fields were primary running backs that were different than the Week 1 primary running back.

Looking at how things played out by the END of the season, here's what happened:

• 48 of those 96 teams had a different RB as the primary ball carrier in at least one of those three playoff weeks.
• Over that three-year span, there were 59 running backs that were the primary ball carrier in one of those weeks but were not the primary ball carrier in Week 1.
• There were 43 running backs that were the primary ball carrier in Week 16 but not the go-to guy in Week 1. That's 45% of the time where the guy in the fantasy Super Bowl was not the guy that started the year as the No. 1 running back.

To clarify, the primary running back in Week 1 (or in some cases the projected starter) may not have been the starter in the fantasy post-season for any variety of reasons including injury, trade, suspension, poor performance, rest for the playoffs, coach's decision, or any other sundry reasons. The fact of the matter is that they were not the main guy in those weeks for whatever reason, and the bottom line was that they weren't playing or had taken on a reduced role.

While I had a feeling that there was a lot of running back turnover by the end of the season, I was surprised to see that the numbers were so demonstrative. The question becomes - what to do about it? How is the best way to prepare for what clearly is a very common phenomenon? Thinking out loud, here are some options.

Draft A Lot of RBs Early

While the stud running back theory has been a staple of fantasy football and the cornerstone to many a championship, how many early picks should be invested in RBs, especially in leagues where you can only start one or two of them? Some owners load up on running backs in the early rounds hoping to corner the market on NFL starting backs and mostly ignore that position the rest of the draft.

Having been in hundreds of drafts over the years, I was always amazed at just how running back hungry many leagues are. I can see wanting RB depth on your roster, but I've seen guys take 5 running backs out of the gate when the most you could ever start was two of them. Again, running back depth is an essential key to winning, but why take so many running backs early on?

On first blush, I'm not sure that this is the way to go, as all the RB picks will come at a premium (say four of the first five picks on RBs). Given that many of the RBs that will end up as starters in the fantasy playoffs typically are backups and buried on the depth chart, loading up on early round picks may be the backs that are the ones that are sitting and not playing. Not a terrible option, but one that will weaken your starters at other positions.

Avoid Drafting RB That Are Injury Risks

This sounds easy enough, but the cold hard truth is that every player is an injury risk and one play away from going on injured reserve for the season. Obviously some players appear to be less risky than others (compare Shaun Alexander's attendance record to someone like DeShaun Foster). There may be something to this one, but it's still unlikely that you could fill your roster with players that are sure bets to play 16 games. Curtis Martin looked like the Rock of Gibraltar most of his career, and even he missed much of the season last year. The list of ultra healthy backs is pretty short anyway, and there aren't many backs that can suit up and go full bore every week.

Use a Shotgun Blast Pattern and Draft a Ton of RBs

In terms of Draft Day management, this probably is the most viable strategy. I have played in leagues where owners selectively picked running backs throughout the draft and had hardly any depth at other positions (specifically WR). This WR minimalist strategy has been proven effective, but you need to grab some decent and healthy receivers that should be clear weekly fantasy starters. This would eliminate the possibility of playing weekly matchups for WRs, as there won't be the depth to swap them in and out of the lineup from week to week. The benefit, of course, is that there should always be enough RBs to start no matter what injuries plague your stud RBs. The negative is that you are noticeably weaker at every other position and anyone that gets hurt or underperforms could pose serious depth problems.

Load Up on Backup Running Backs Late in the Draft

If your league allows for deep rosters, this is another strategy that I would recommend as a Draft Day solution. Realistically, do you really need 4 QBs, 3 TEs, or 9 WRs? I would rather have extra RB lying around doing nothing than having a stable of mediocre WRs cluttering my roster. Most leagues only allow three or four starting wide receivers each week, and the rest are essentially overkill.

Handcuff Your Stud RB

Also known as the risk management theory. Basically, draft the backup to your stud running backs should anything ever happen to them. The plan would be to draft say three studs early and then "handcuff" them with their backups later in the draft as "insurance." Some people swear by this theory, but there are some potential areas for concern. The most common issue is that someone else will draft the handcuff before you are willing to take him. My concern is that in leagues with limited roster space, you are tying up precious roster spots on players that have very little chance to see live action barring an injury. The other potential problem is identifying who the handcuff running back will be. In terms of looking down the road, some teams catch the injury bug and players further down the depth chart end up as the primary back. As an example, the running back situations in GB, NYJ, HOU, SF, PIT, CLE, TEN, DEN, etc. this year are so up in the air that you could easily end up with the wrong guy. My opinion on handcuffing is that it's worth it for uber studs but not worth it for teams with poor RB production. The logic being that if the starter was not worth much fantasy wise, it's a good bet that the replacement back will not do leaps and bounds better.

Watch the Waiver Wire Like a Hawk

This one should be a no-brainer in any league anyway, but it is especially important for RB over all other positions. In most leagues, there will be starting NFL players at the other skill positions on the waiver wire, but in decent sized leagues you won't find a starting NFL running back lying around very often (if ever). Most people will scan the waiver wire when a starting NFL back goes down hoping to find his backup and snatch him. Many times, waiting to that point will be futile as someone else would have already rostered him. I strongly suggest that savvy fantasy owners frequent football sites to see who might be the next guy on depth charts for each team. Sometimes someone will move up to the No. 2 position that isn't rostered in your league and may be worth a free agent pickup. Also beware that some teams have different emergency plans, meaning that in an in-game injury situation they might use their No. 2 back but if their featured back was out for several games they might use their No. 3 instead.

Binge & Purge on Waiver Wire Deadline Day

Technically it would be Purge & Binge, but that sounds funny. This is probably the plan that can yield the most success and one that I have utilized to a certain degree of success. Most leagues have a designated line in the sand that prohibits roster moves beyond that point (often at or near the start of the fantasy playoffs). By that time, you should have a pretty good idea as to who on your roster has panned out and who was a bust. Similarly, you should also be in tune with who is healthy and who's not. What I typically do prior to entering the playoffs is adjust the make up of my team as contingencies for the playoffs. Most of the time, there is no need to have extra players at all the positions, so I might trim the fat to two QBs, four or five receivers, my best defense, and a starting and backup TE and PK. For me, this might mean jettisoning two or three players, and I typically will go out and add running backs just in case.

Case in point. In 2002, I was waltzing my way into the playoffs with an 11-2 record. I was hitting on all cylinders riding Priest Holmes, Warrick Dunn, and had a ton of wide receivers (Randy Moss, Chad Johnson, Laveranues Coles, Keenan McCardell, Antonio Bryant, etc.). With more WR than I could ever play, I dropped a couple of them for running back depth (at the time they were worthy of starting on other teams in my league). But no one else could claim them, as it was the final chance to make roster moves (so I wasn't going to make other teams better).

In their place, I picked up little known rookies Marcel Shipp and William Green. As fate would have it, BOTH Holmes and Dunn got hurt and were out to start the fantasy playoffs. Having no faith in Derrick Blaylock (who was on my squad) and not owning T.J. Duckett, I elected to start both Shipp and Green for the playoffs. My opponent was psyched that after dominating the league the entire season I was ripe for the picking. But Shipp went for 158 yards and 3 TDs, Green added 144 yards and a score and I went on to win the league.

A couple of years later I accomplished the same thing, adding Nick Goings and Reuben Droughns and they carried me to another championship. I heard about it for weeks when I "stole" the league title and didn't really deserve it with the dregs that I was starting. But I'd rather win ugly than lose handsome. Meanwhile, the owners that had invested in the likes of Quentin Griffin, Stephen Davis, and DeShaun Foster were not only forced to watch me streak to the title, but I used the guys that they DIDN'T pick up to beat them.

While these are isolated examples, it does show that you can never be too prepared. I can't count the number of times I've heard about teams that claimed they got shafted when their stud RB got hurt or was rested near the end of the season and that in itself cost them their league title-as if their team was immune to injury. True sharks will have contingency plans that will help minimize the impact of someone being out of the lineup and will still have options even under less than optimal conditions.

As in everything else in fantasy football, there are no absolutes, but given recent history it's good to have a sense at the amount of players that get a chance to play late in the season and with that knowledge each owner can have the option of being better prepared. It can make the difference in winning or losing.