These running back tandems can save you from fantasy football byemageddon — and beyond

The days of the true bell cow running back have sadly come to an end.

Though we still get to enjoy players like Bijan Robinson, Jonathan Taylor and Josh Jacobs, many head coaches continue to lean toward the latest trend of load management and situational use. 

The Lions set the tone with the pairing of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, and lately we’ve watched coaches in Seattle and Carolina, two teams we expected to feature primary backs, turn to more of a tandem approach.

It changes how we address the position for fantasy football purposes, but it also helps open up more options on your waiver wire.

During draft season back in August, many tabbed Chiefs running back Brashard Smith as a potential sleeper. Isiah Pacheco hasn’t developed the way Andy Reid had hoped, and Kareem Hunt has clearly lost a step. They headed into the season working in tandem but still struggled to produce a rushing attack typical of a Reid offense. That lack of efficiency has opened the door for Smith.

Playing no more than an average of 10 percent of the snaps each week, Smith has been sitting on the back burner, but an early injury to Hunt on Sunday presented Reid with an opportunity to feature the 22-year-old rookie out of SMU. 

Smith played a 35 percent snap share Sunday, and saw 14 carries and five targets. He accrued 81 yards from scrimmage and was efficient enough that even when Hunt was able to come back into the game, Smith continued to get the work.

This trend should continue, as Smith definitely has more burst than Hunt and moving forward can be a solid bye-week fill-in for your team.

You can also look at Titans running back Tyjae Spears, who remains available in 70 percent of leagues across ESPN and Yahoo.

Though head coach Brian Callahan has been replaced by Mike McCoy, Callahan’s vision of a tandem backfield with Spears and Tony Pollard remains alive and well now that Spears is fully healthy. 

Against a stout Patriots run defense, Spears saw a near 50/50 split in carries and had 4.4 yards per carry, which was better than what Pollard was doing.

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He also caught three passes on four targets, so his role is continuing to evolve as well.

The Titans don’t have a great offensive line, but McCoy is, at some point, going to need to rely even more on his running backs given the struggles of rookie quarterback Cam Ward.

The schedule ahead looks daunting for this team, and we are expecting them to play from behind on a regular basis, but if Spears is going to be in an even split with Pollard, then he is going to have value in PPR scoring formats thanks to his work in the passing game.

Of course, we all want to feature bell cow running backs on our fantasy teams, but between them being a dying breed and a Week 8 byemageddon headed our way — six teams will be idle — you’re going to need all the help you can get.

The recommendation is to obviously find a trade to acquire a bell cow, but if you can’t, some of these tandems can still help you edge out your weekly opponent.

Howard Bender is the head of content at fantasy football news and advice.