It’s often recommended to not get handcuffs. The reasoning is that it limits your ceiling. You waste roster spots on potential breakouts and the best you get in return is a lesser version of one of your starters. I generally agree with that logic for most of the season. However, I would also say to get handcuffs before the playoffs.

What Are Handcuffs

If you already know what handcuffs are, you can skip this section. Handcuffs are players who you think can step in and have strong production in case the starter ahead of them misses time. Sometimes, this could also mean a two-back committee turning into a one-back one. I’ll state examples later.

Reasoning

Don’t you want a ceiling? Well, by the time the fantasy playoffs hit, there are unlikely to be any more breakouts besides ones that are caused by injuries. Most teams have middling bench players who are unlikely to start, so it makes more sense to drop those for handcuffs to insure your starters.

Potential Handcuffs to Target:

Here are the names of some widely available handcuffs along with their Yahoo roster percentage.

Dalvin Cook (20%), Tyjae Spears (46%), Kenneth Gainwell (32%), Rico Dowdle (10%), Antonio Gibson (55%), Tyler Allgeier (51%), Miles Sanders (45%).

To be honest, the handcuffs aren’t as strong this year as they were in previous years but these could still be nice insurance pickups.

You may have noticed I only mentioned running backs. Part of this is because RBs get hurt the most. But handcuffing also mostly applies to them. It can sometimes happen for other positions too. For example, Brandin Cooks and Noah Gray could get huge bumps if CeeDee Lamb or Travis Kelce missed time.

Wrap-Up

This is a general principle that admittedly isn’t as strong this year with a weak 2023 handcuff group. But usually, you should get handcuffs before the playoffs.

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