There used to be several rules of thumb for fantasy football - an unwritten rulebook if you will. "Always draft RB-RB" was one truism for years, but the advent of Running Back By Committee (RBBC) changed all of that. The addition of PPR boosted WRs, and now with contests like the FFPC and the Footballguys' Players Championship boosting tight end PPR to 1.5 points per catch and everything changes. Gone are the days where you can just set your draft for two running backs to open up your fantasy draft. Teams can and do win by going WR/WR or WR/TE out of the box.

So what should fantasy players do with all of these new rules? Should they abandon all prior rules of thumb and start drafting differently? Not necessarily.

By looking at some interesting data from prior seasons we can help to learn a little more about both ourselves as fantasy football fans and also about the game itself. While no information gives a complete picture, by reviewing and understanding a little more about our favorite pastime then we can make better decisions with new information. Whether you choose to adhere to the new advice or if you would rather ignore that data is up to you - but either way an informed fantasy player is a better fantasy player.

With that in mind - I now challenge you to think differently about running backs.

While looking over some running back by committee (RBBC) data I found some interesting information. I thought I saw an interesting trend since the "Dawn of the RBBC" for league-wide running back production, and with the help of Doug Drinen I was able to pull together numbers that illustrated my point.

First let's discuss when the RBBC phenomenon really took hold. I place the date of the validation of the RBBC approach as Super Bowl XLI - February 4th, 2007. Both teams in Super Bowl XLI employed RBBC all year long as Chicago paired up Thomas Jones with Cedric Benson while the Indianapolis Colts teamed Dominic Rhodes with rookie Joseph Addai. Both teams used each of their backs for 160+ touches throughout the season with solid success. The NFL is a copycat league, so when two teams with similar systems for a backfield both make it to the biggest game of them all, well - you know the rest of that story. Running back by committee became the norm for many teams for the next several years and is still in full use by most franchises today.

Let's look at Table 1 which summarizes most of the good information about the running backs since 2002:

Table 1: RB Total Yardage - 50% of Total NFL RB Yards

The table is a little hard to follow, so pay close attention here. Each column represents the total amount of yards by running backs for that given year - from 50% to 90% of the total production. Each number reading down the columns represents how many running backs it took that season to achieve that amount of production. For example, in 2002 it took the combined totals of the Top 22 running backs in the league to account for at least 50% of the total running back yardage (rushing and receiving) across the league, but it took 48 more backs (a total of 70) to rack up at least 90% of the production.

What is most important is the contrast in the middle. Most seasons it takes 22-27 running backs to produce half of the league's totals and it takes about 75 give or take a half dozen backs to account for at least 90% of the total yardage. The difference lies in between these two extremes. Notice that it now takes 43-44 backs in the past three years to reach 70% but twice in the previous five seasons that number was under 40 rushers to reach the same levels.

While I understand that anything can (and often does) happen in a given season, so what I did was to group the pre- and post-RBBC eras together to compare the differences between the two approaches. I define the pre-RBBC era as 2002-2006, or the seasons that led up to Super Bowl XLI. The past three years comprise the second era (2007-2009) for RBBC. Table 2 summarizes the averages of both eras and also compares each:

Table 2: RB Total Yardage Changes - 50% to 90% of Total NFL RB Yards

The percent changes between the two eras now stands out a bit more. As a result of employing RBBC, teams spread the wealth to two backs rather than just one and the net result is that the NFL total yards is more distributed to RB40 to RB50 on the list. That makes sense as now those secondary backs on teams are utilized more and as a result more productive. They contribute more to the overall league totals and take a little of the wealth away from the primary running backs - which also shows up in Table 2 as the 50% numbers increased 16%. Feature backs are contributing less and less while second backs on NFL teams are used more often.

Translating this to fantasy football means the following - third and fourth string running backs from a fantasy perspective (RB25-RB48) are getting more work and putting up better stats. It also means that fewer top tier backs are putting up big chunks of the workload. Fantasy RB1s and RB2s used to account for about 50% of the NFL production, but now RB3s are getting more involved. This affects all fantasy drafts as RB3 and RB4 are even more important not just as backups or flex spots but also as regular contributors in the right matchups. It also means that draft plans must change - feature backs are a dying breed but the good news is that prior backups are worth more. Waiting to take RB2, RB3 and RB4 is not a bad idea any longer now that they get more touches and contribute more. Shying away from the "RB-RB" open to fantasy drafts is now much more acceptable in both PPR and non-PPR formats thanks to this overall increase in RB depth.

Today is 2010, not 2001. The NFL has changed over the years, particularly on offense. Teams used to rely heavily on the ground game that starred a feature back and threw the ball out of an established run attack. All of that has gone away with the advent of Running Back by Committee (RBBC) which now has two semi-starters in most NFL backfields. The passing game got a boost from that approach as teams threw more to establish the pass and open up the run, but rule changes that protected the quarterback and reduced contact in the secondary by the defense really opened up passing offenses. The game has changed, and so has fantasy football as a result. Things change, so change with them and challenge yourself to think differently.

As always, questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.