RB2 By Committee: PPR

Photo: USA Today Sports

Over the past few years, there have been two very popular articles written by our very own Chase Stuart that look at an interesting approach to building a fantasy team with late value picks. Based upon the theory of using both Strength of Schedule ("SOS") and taking two players as a combination to build one very good player, he has discussed both Team Defense by Committee ("TDBC") and Quarterback by Committee ("QBBC") as a general fantasy league strategy. In general I think that this is a wise move because very early on in fantasy drafts there are a ton of RB and WR prospects to go after to build a great team. While there are a few studs at QB and also a few choice defenses, I do not see a huge need in leagues to pursue either too hard in the beginning stages of a fantasy draft.

So with this in mind, I started to think about what else can be done with the committee approach. Tight end? Perhaps. Wide receiver? A possibility, but it might be better to look at third WR options than any other option. What about running back? Hmmm, that's really intriguing. What if you could grab two running backs later in the draft that could combine to perform on a RB2 - or even RB1 - level, based solely on their current projections and their schedule? Now we're talking. This really got my attention, so I went after this one first. Let's take a look at how I went about this and then we can digest and discuss the results.

THE GROUND(GAME) RULES

So how to begin? Defenses and quarterbacks are relatively easy to "committee" together. There's usually only one QB and certainly only one team defense per NFL club, so the approach is pretty simple as far as picking out which players / teams to try and pair up. When it comes to running backs, the line is not quite so easy to draw, but I needed some basis to pick which players it made sense to try and combine for a decent committee. I decided that I would use the following criteria to decide which players to start with for evaluating:

CRITERIA #1 - RB25 AND BEYOND

This seems pretty simple. If we want to have a duo that puts up RB2 numbers, that means we want RB24 or better production - else we would just draft RB24 (Trent Richardson) or higher and forget the whole idea. So here is the list of players with which I started, based on their Average Draft Position (ADP):

Table 1: Running Backs RB25-RB50 Based on PPR ADP

Great, now we have 26 guys to pair up and see how they do. That makes 325 potential committees, so there had better be a decent one (or several, we hope) out of all of those couplets. Now, before I go over the method of how to pair them up and the results, we need one more rule:

CRITERIA #2 - NO MORE THAN ONE RB FROM ROUND 5 AND ONE FROM ROUND 6

This could get tricky here, but understand the overall goal. The point of RB2BC is to "free up" the first 4 rounds of your fantasy draft to pursue 3 receivers (especially in PPR leagues) after grabbing a stud RB in Round 1. This also gives you the flexibility of grabbing two receivers and a stud QB or TE, depending on your personal preference, or even to get RB2 and have the "RB2BC" be your RB3. Flexibility is the name of the game here. We all want value in our drafts, and having the ability to grab two RBs in Rounds 5 and 6 to act as our RB2BC gives us that ability.

Here is the good news - all the running backs on the list above except for Joique Bell (ADP of 57) has an ADP that is Round 6 or higher (later). It might even be possible to push this into a Round 6 and Round 7 RB pair.  We will have to keep that goal in mind when we look at the results because it would not make sense to expect to get two Round 6 running backs in one of these combinations based on their ADP.

So what do we do now to figure out some RB pairs?

CRITERIA #3 - USE FOOTBALLGUYS' RB STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

This sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Just take the RB Strength of Schedule to figure out when certain players are more likely to score well. What I did is similar to what the Projections Dominator and Draft Dominator do for you - take the projected fantasy points and slice them up over 16 weeks based on the strength of schedule. I call this result the "distributed fantasy points" for each back.

After I had all 26 running backs with distributed fantasy points on a weekly basis, I just compared all of the possible RB pairs to find the best duos for RB2BC. So here we are - time for some results.

Table 2: PPR Running Back #2 Committee Pairs

As we can see from Table 2, we have some very good pairs to select from for RB2BC. In fact, I think that this is the best year ever to attempt RB2BC.  There are two running backs outside of the Top 24 that are projected to outpace several Top 24 RBs in fantasy scoring in 2014 - Joique Bell and Lamar Miller.  I could almost stop right there, but I need to be thorough as the ADPs tend to get very fluid as preseason wears on, and we need to make certain we have the very best pairings in case our draft plans go awry.  So digging in, there are 31 pairs that are worth more than or equal to Joique Bell by his lonesome, and another 28 that are projected to outpace Lamar Miller's fantasy numbers (skipping Pair #32, which is just Bell by himself).  Let's also take a look at how often some of these guys show up on the table:

Table 3: PPR Running Back #2 Committee Pair Appearances by Player

As we can see from Table 3, two RBs show up on this list with a lot of regularity – Joique Bell and Lamar Miller.  In fact, as I mentioned earlier, two of these backs are worth more on their own than Ryan Mathews (RB20) himself.  That tells that this tier of RB24-26 is pretty up in the air as far as who will do the best.  All the more reason to get a favorable pair when it comes to strength of schedule.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now that we have 58 possible pairs that are better than Joique Bell, what exactly does that mean? Should Bell be the basis of our comparison? Of course not. Remember our goal - find a pair of running backs that can combine for RB2 (or better) fantasy production. To figure that out we need a better metric, so here are the projections for RB1 through RB24, using PPR:

Table 4: Projected PPR Fantasy Points for RBs 1-24

Based on Table 4, we see some things that catch the eye.  First, the projections and the ADP do not line up well at all.  There is a total jumble from RB12-18, with RB14 (Zac Stacy) and RB15 (Alfred Morris) projected to finish well below where their ADP suggests.  Both Reggie Bush and Shane Vereen look to be value picks, as does RB22, Rashad Jennings.  Next, it jumps out that only 15 running backs are projected to score over 190 points.  Now, to be fair, these running backs in Table 4 have a giant “zero” on their bye week, while our RB2BC duos never have a week off.  To compensate for that, we should add in 5-10 points for a bye week lineup fill-in that someone who owned of these players would use.  Even with an extra 5-8 points, however, only 21 running backs would be over 185 projected points (Chris Johnson, Bishop Sankey and Trent Richardson all fall short of 185 even if you throw another 10 points on their projections for a bye week filler).  Looking at our possible pairs, we have six pairs that meet or beat 210 fantasy points, which would put those duos comparable to projected RB12, Reggie Bush (205.5 + 5 points with a bye week replacement).  To go a little further, we have a total of 27 RB2BC pairs that exceed 200 points, which compares to both RB18 Shane Vereen (194.9) and also RB13 Andre Ellington (193), even with a bye week replacement player.  This tells us that choosing the correct pair can give us the result we wanted - RB2 production on the cheap.

Now, to look for the best bargains available, let's take one more final look at these pairs, focusing on those that project to be comparable to RB13 (Andre Ellington, 193 points + 7 for a bye-week fill-in, or 200 points):

Table 5: Top 29 PPR RB2BC Options for 2014

In prior years,  I would have said that we should focus on the best of the bargain bin - pairs of running backs that include no more than one RB with ADP of RB27, and possibly both backs with ADP of 30 or higher. This year, with the value you can steal with getting Joique Bell in Round 5, I say to throw that plan out (or make it "Plan B") and just go get Joique Bell in Round 5.  No matter who you pair him with in Round 7 - Lamar Miller, Pierre Thomas, Ray Rice or Frank Gore - you should have 214+ points and have a RB2BC that projects to be at or near a lower end RB1.  Taking Bell in Round 5 and then snapping up Miller in Round 6 is the safest way to play it as Miller should last until the last pick of Round 6 in most drafts, although his ADP could begin to rise if Knowshon Moreno continues to show nothing in the preseason.  For all of these reasons, I am recommending that the RB2BC this year is Joique Bell and Lamar Miller.   Take Bell in Round 5 and Miller and Round 6 and be happy that you stole a virtual lower-tier RB1 by waiting on the position.

To go one step further this year, let's say you are taking a risk and you want to wait on Bell, possibly until the end of Round 5 or the start of Round 6.  Risky, but if you do it, you need a backup plan.  That is where you can use Table 5 and find the best pair with Lamar Miller.  Take Miller as your backup in Round 6 (doesn't matter if this feels early, you are trying to make up for missing Bell) and then take someone like Pierre Thomas or Darren Sproles.    

Here is a final summary of the combined schedules for Joique Bell and Lamar Miller, and when the committee approach suggests starting each one:

Table 6: Suggested PPR RB2BC Schedule Plan

The committee approach is not a perfect one, but having this knowledge prior to your fantasy draft can prove to be invaluable if you decide to adopt this approach.  If all the players on your starter list are gone, goiong with a committee can save your team and help you deal with the loss of bigger names.  The method is also a big help in "Best Ball" leagues, where lineup decisions are not necessary every week.  That's exactly where a committee can do the best, as either player can count for you each week.

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

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