Fantasy Football Must-Have Handcuff Running Backs: Blake Corum Holds Valuable Role Behind Kyren Williams
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You can feel on top of the world when you land one of the elite running backs in fantasy football. But what happens if your premier running back suffers an injury during the season and misses time?
Rostering the ‘handcuff’ of your premier running back is a sound strategy to ensure you have a stranglehold on a certain backfield. A handcuff is a running back who is the clear backup in a team’s offense and someone who would see an expanded role if the starter were to be sidelined.
To avoid any confusion, we’ll be discussing handcuffs that aren’t part of ambiguous backfields entering the 2026 NFL season.
All stats used in this article are from Sumer Sports unless stated otherwise.
Blake Corum, Los Angeles Rams
There’s certainly a chance Blake Corum earned himself a larger role in the Los Angeles Rams’ offense in 2026 after his output in 2025. Although Corum logged just a 29% offensive snap rate last season, he tallied the most EPA/rush (0.11), highest rushing success rate (51.0%), and second-highest explosive rate (11.7%) among RBs with 100-plus rush attempts.
Despite Corum’s efficiency as a runner, Sean McVay loves Kyren Williams, which has led to Williams finishing no worse than RB11 in half-PPR formats in each of the last three seasons. While Corum has compiled 15 receptions in his first two years in the NFL, nothing suggests he wouldn’t be able to step into Williams’ receiving role if an injury occurred.
Along with having standalone value if he sees an uptick in usage given his effectiveness in 2025, Corum would immediately become a fill-in RB1 if Williams were to miss time for the Rams.
Tank Bigsby, Philadelphia Eagles
After finishing as the RB1 in fantasy points per game in 2024 in his debut season with the Philadelphia Eagles, Saquon Barkley fell to RB14 in 2025. Various factors led to Barkley’s decline in production and efficiency, but he’s poised to handle a massive workload again in 2026 under new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion.
At the same time, Tank Bigsby appears to be in line for a different role than the one he saw in 2025 with the Eagles. Bigsby made the most of his touches last season, earning the most EPA/rush (0.12), seventh-highest rushing success rate (47.6%), and highest explosive rate (15.9%) among RBs with 50-plus carries.
Considering that Barkley has handled at least 317 touches in three of his last four seasons, it’s worth rostering Bigsby in fantasy football this season.
Ray Davis, Buffalo Bills
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James Cook concluded the 2025 campaign as the RB6 in half-PPR fantasy points per game, and he did so on a career-high 342 touches. That being said, Cook still saw just a 56% offensive snap rate last season, which opens the door for Ray Davis to handle a decent-sized role in 2026.
Having Josh Allen under center undoubtedly lowers the ceiling for the RBs on the Buffalo Bills due to his red-zone rushing role, but their pass-catching roles make some of the difference. Just a season ago, the Bills’ RBs garnered a solid 18.0% of Buffalo’s 479 targets.
Besides Ty Johnson dealing with an injury throughout training camp and the preseason, Davis registered the second-highest explosive rate (13.8%) among RBs with 50-plus attempts in 2025.
Tyler Allgeier, Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals used the No. 3 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on Jeremiyah Love, giving them a franchise RB to build around moving forward. While you could argue the Cardinals had much more dire needs, the idea of having Love be a focal point of the offense was clear before he sustained an ankle injury in the preseason.
Even before Love suffered a high-ankle sprain and put his status for Week 1 up in the air, Tyler Allgeier was likely headed toward a solid role in the offense after signing with the Cardinals in free agency. As a clear backup over the last three seasons for the Atlanta Falcons, Allgeier cleared 500 rushing yards in each of those, and he notched a career-best 8 rushing touchdowns in 2025.
On top of Allgeier potentially being the Week 1 starter for the Cardinals, he could handle more touches if Arizona eases Love back into action or if the rookie back misses time this year.
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Skyler Carlin is an experienced sports writer and editor with nearly a decade of experience covering the NFL, NBA, MLB, college football, college basketball, and soccer for FanDuel Research and USA Today. Outside of writing, he enjoys cooking, watching movies, and playing video games.
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