Fantasy Football Week 1 Running Back Waiver Wire Pickups: With An Emergency Replacement For Christian McCaffrey

Add these running backs off your waiver wire before the start of the fantasy football season.

San Francisco 49ers running back Kaelon Black (26) runs with the ball during the first quarter against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Week 1 of the NFL and fantasy football kicks off tomorrow, and your rosters are pretty much set. However, there could still be some valuable assets sitting on the waiver wire. We are going to take a look at the running backs you should consider picking up off the waiver wire prior to the start of Week 1.

Week 1 Waiver Wire Running Backs

Kaelon Black, San Francisco 49ers

With Christian McCaffrey failing to practice on Monday due to "tightness", and the 49ers playing on Thursday Night Football in Melbourne, Australia, we'd strongly advise you to play it safe and scoop up his handcuff.

We view black as the direct handcuff to CMC, although some would argue it could be Jordan James. Nevertheless, Black is the guy that we would be targeting in this situation.

Even if McCaffrey is listed as a full participant in practice today and is a full-go for Thursday, McCaffrey might be the most important running back in the league to handcuff. He's a 30-year-old running back with an extensive injury history, coming off the largest workload of his life and currently on the injury report. Make sure you go get Black.

Jonah Coleman, Denver Broncos

Coleman is a running back who we have pegged as a league-winner this season. JK Dobbins will start the season as the Broncos' starter, but we do expect Coleman to have a consistently increasing role in the rushing attack.

Injuries aside, we expect Coleman to break out at some point; nevertheless, Dobbins staying fully healthy all season seems unlikely. He has missed time in 100% of his six NFL seasons and has missed more games than he has actually played in. Dobbins has played in 47 games while missing 57. All the pinky promises in the world won't make us believe he's going to play all 17 games.

Some fantasy owners may be asking, what about RJ Harvey? Harvey will have a role in this offense as a pass-catcher, but he simply isn't a good every-down back. Coleman profiles as a potential bell-cow back and should be viewed as the true handcuff to Dobbins.

Tyler Allgeier, Arizona Cardinals

There was always a real chance that Allgeier could have a significant role in the Cardinals' offense, and he has always been an excellent goal-line back. If he can take that role from Bijan Robinson, he can take it from Jeremiyah Love.

However, with Love suffering a high-ankle sprain in the team's first preseason game, Allgeier is almost guaranteed to have a significant role in Week 1. He could be a sneaky good flex option in Week 1. At the very least he should be stashed on your roster just in case we learn Love is going to be ruled out or limited in Week 1.

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