Fantasy Football Week 3 Running Back Preview: Streaming running backs may be better than trading for them

In the first two weeks of the NFL season an already thin running back position has been decimated. We’ve lost Nick Chubb and J.K. Dobbins for the season, and we’re currently without Saquon Barkley, Austin Ekeler, and Aaron Jones. And we still haven’t seen Jonathan Taylor take a snap. 

In light of this, it’s tempting to do what the Minnesota Vikings did when they traded for Cam Akers. If you can do it without giving up a starter like they did, I’m fine with it. But I wouldn’t let the sudden scarcity of starters goad you into giving up an elite wide receiver, quarterback, or tight end just to try to make yourself whole at running back. That’s partially because there just aren’t that many desirable running backs. It’s also because it’s increasingly risky investing in the most injury-prone position in football.

• Week 3 previews: WR | QB | TE

The better option may just be to stream running backs off the waiver wire. It’s too late now to add Jerome Ford, but there will be another Ford in a couple of weeks when someone else gets hurt. And there are still top-40 backs widely available on the waiver wire. Hold on to those elite producers at other positions and scrape by until you stumble upon consistent running back production. The way things are going, I’m not sure many teams are going to have two reliable starting running backs this season. 

Check the waiver wire section below for potential starters this week, and I added a couple of extra stashes for those of you who want to beat the waiver wire.

Now let’s get to the rest of the Week 3 RB Preview:

Week 3 RB Preview

The following players are not being projected to play Week 2 at this time. Here’s what it means:

My full set of Week 3 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don’t live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 3. Projected stats for all starting running backs are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.